Forecasters say strong storms -- with the potential for a few isolated tornadoes -- are possible across a large part of Alabama in the days before Christmas.
The National Weather Service said the severe weather is expected from Tuesday afternoon through early Wednesday morning.
Forecasters say they expect the storms to arrive in western Alabama from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, and then move into eastern Alabama Tuesday evening into early Wednesday.
The primary threats will be damaging straight-line winds and heavy rains, and the possibility of isolated tornadoes.
Heart-failure patients recently discharged from UAB Hospital will be able to receive even more care. The U-A-B School of Nursing has received a one-point-five million dollar grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Doctor Maria Shirey is the Assistant Dean for Clinical and Global Partnerships at UAB. She says the goal is to make things easier for the patients…
“The ideal is to keep patients home and comfortable and functional as compared to them being involved in a revolving door type of syndrome, coming back into the emergency department.”
Shirey says the grant will be spread out over three years. The clinic is currently accepting referrals of patients who meet their clinic criteria which includes heart patients who are uninsured.
A lot of Santa’s helpers this week are wearing brown. United Parcel Service says it’s hired close to a thousand seasonal workers in Alabama to help with the holiday rush. They’ll be busy today with an estimated thirty four million UPS packages scheduled for delivery today. The company expects today to be the busiest delivery day of 2014. UPS spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg says there are other high volume days, but today is the biggest…
“We really plan for all of the ten days before Christmas to be really busy times. We have busy times around Valentines Day and in May around graduation period.”
UPS is also preparing for the first week after Christmas. That’s for all the return shipments from customers not happy with what they received. Federal Express and The U.S. Postal Service saw their peak days last Monday.