It’s Wednesday, January 8th – and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 – Weatherwise, South Florida is waking up with cooler temperatures - but the warmer weather and windy conditions look to be arriving by as early as this afternoon. Keep your NBC 6 app handy for push alerts on any severe weather as well as First Alert Doppler 6000.
No. 2 - In a city on Puerto Rico's southern coast, families spent Tuesday night at shelters instead of their homes after a strong earthquake struck the island before dawn.
The residents of Ponce, which is located near the epicenter of the magnitude 6.4 earthquake, told NBC 6’s Sheli Muniz that they had homes that were either too dangerous to stay in because of damage or were located in a tsunami zone.
No. 3 - Iran struck back at the United States for killing its most powerful military commander, firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi military bases that house American troops in what the Iranian supreme leader said was a “slap” against America's military presence in the region.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian passenger jet carrying 176 people crashed on Wednesday, just minutes after taking off from the Iranian capital's main airport, turning farmland on the outskirts of Tehran into fields of flaming debris and killing all on board.
No. 4 - Fort Lauderdale city commissioners passed a $65 million plan Tuesday to replace piping throughout the city after millions of gallons sewage spilled onto the streets from several sewer main breaks.
Local
In a commission meeting, Fort Lauderdale City Manager Chris Lagerbloom explained to officials how six sewer main breaks caused 126 million gallons of sewage to spew into neighborhood canals last December.
No. 5 - Two major South Florida department stores will be closing their doors for good in 2020 after decades in business.
Macy's announced Tuesday that they would be closing the store in Pompano Beach at the Pompano Citi Centre after 50 years of operation. Meanwhile, it was announced Monday that the Bloomingdale's at The Falls in Miami-Dade will be closing after 35 years. Bloomingdale's confirmed in a statement that the store would close on Saturday, Jan. 11.
No. 6 - A Florida senator is trying to make the day after Halloween a school holiday in the state of Florida, meaning that kids would be free to stay at home after a long night of trick-or-treating.
Senator Annette Taddeo, a Democrat from South Florida representing the 40th district, has proposed a bill amending the duties of school boards in the state. The proposed change would take effect on July 1. Halloween in 2020 falls on a Saturday, however, so the first time the bill would take effect if passed would be in 2021.
