Giants' Malik Nabers, Cowboys' Micah Parsons injured in Thursday night game

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Giants' Malik Nabers, Cowboys' Micah Parsons injured in Thursday night game

2024-09-27 13:32 Last Updated At：13:40

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Two of the NFL's young stars were injured Thursday night when Giants receiver Malik Nabers sustained a concussion and Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons an ankle injury.

“It was a banger today,” Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs said after Dallas' 20-15 victory. "A lot of guys got banged up. It shows the fight and the resilience we have.”

Nabers, the No. 6 overall pick in the draft, was hurt with 3:30 to play when he fell hard near the New York bench while attempting to tiptoe the sideline and catch a fourth-down pass from Daniel Jones. He appeared to have to ball momentarily but lost it with Trevon Diggs draped all over him.

“It looked like he did from my view on it,” Jones said when asked if he felt Nabers initially made the catch. “I mean, he played a heck of a game again and he showed up for us big time, so we’ll keep trusting him with it.”

Giants trainers and doctors ran up to Nabers as he lay on the field, and he was ruled out for the rest of the game with a concussion. Nabers had 12 catches for 115 yards, his second straight game of 10-plus catches for at least 100 yards.

Giants coach Brian Daboll had not seen Nabers before his press conference after the game so he could not update his status.

Parsons was carted off the field in the fourth quarter. He had returned after hurting the ankle earlier in the game. He had two tackles, including one for a loss to help Dallas end a two-game slide, but he did not have a sack for the third straight game.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has not talked to the trainers after the game and was unable to say anything about the severity of his injury.

Parsons hobbled around the locker room after the game.

“We won’t know more until tomorrow,” said Parsons, who said he was going to have an X-ray on Friday. “ We have no idea.”

Parsons said he was hurt when someone fell on him as he was planting his leg. He was just happy getting a win.

“I’m glad we’re finally back in the win column but we still got a lot of work to do,” he said. “We can be a lot better. I’m not going to stop until we’re damn near perfect.”

Parsons is a two-time All-Pro and has had at least 13 sacks in each of his first three seasons. He has one sack through four games this year.

“He’s a hell of a player, a big time playmaker,” said quarterback Dak Prescott, who threw two touchdowns in posting his 13th straight win over the Giants (1-3). “He made a huge run stop right there on one of those last possessions. Honestly, I’m just hoping it’s not anything serious.”

Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence left in the second half with a foot injury. He had a sack to increase his career total to 61 1/2.

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Helene makes landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 hurricane

2024-09-27 13:26 Last Updated At：13:30

CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Helene made landfall in northwestern Florida as a Category 4 storm as forecasters warned that the enormous system could create a “nightmare” storm surge and bring dangerous winds and rain across much of the southeastern U.S. There were at least three storm-related deaths.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Helene roared ashore around 11:10 p.m. Thursday near the mouth of the Aucilla River in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast. It had maximum sustained winds estimated at 140 mph (225 kph). That location was only about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of where Hurricane Idalia came ashore last year at nearly the same ferocity and caused widespread damage.

Helene prompted hurricane and flash flood warnings extending far beyond the coast up into northern Georgia and western North Carolina. More than 1.2 million homes and businesses were without power in Florida, more than 190,000 in Georgia and more than 30,000 in the Carolinas, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. The governors of those states and Alabama and Virginia all declared emergencies.

One person was killed in Florida when a sign fell on their car and two people were reported killed in a possible tornado in south Georgia as the storm approached.

“When Floridians wake up tomorrow morning, we’re going to be waking up to a state where very likely there’s been additional loss of life and certainly there’s going to be loss of property," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Thursday night.

Helene was moving rapidly inland after making landfall, with the center of the storm set to race from southern to northern Georgia through early Friday morning. The risk of tornadoes also would continue overnight and into the morning across north and central Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and southern North Carolina, forecasters said. Later Friday, there would be the risk of tornadoes in Virginia.

“Helene continues to produce catastrophic winds that are now pushing into southern Georgia,” the hurricane center said in an update at 1 a.m. Friday. “Persons should not leave their shelters and remain in place through the passage of these life-threatening conditions.”

Even before landfall, the storm's wrath was felt widely, with sustained tropical storm-force winds and hurricane-force gusts along Florida's west coast. Water lapped over a road in Siesta Key near Sarasota and covered some intersections in St. Pete Beach. Lumber and other debris from a fire in Cedar Key a week ago crashed ashore in the rising water.

Beyond Florida, up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain had fallen in the North Carolina mountains, with up to 14 inches (36 centimeters) more possible before the deluge ends, setting the stage for flooding that forecasters warned could be worse than anything seen in the past century.

Heavy rains began falling and winds were picking up earlier Thursday in Valdosta, Georgia, near the Florida state line. The weather service said more than a dozen Georgia counties could see hurricane-force winds exceeding 110 mph (177 kph).

In south Georgia, two people were killed when a possible tornado struck a mobile home on Thursday night, Wheeler County Sheriff Randy Rigdon told WMAZ-TV. Wheeler County is about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Macon.

The storm made landfall in the sparsely-populated Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet.

“Please write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified,” the sheriff's office in mostly rural Taylor County warned those who chose not to evacuate in a Facebook post, the dire advice similar to what other officials have dolled out during past hurricanes.

Still, Philip Tooke, a commercial fisherman who took over the business his father founded near the region’s Apalachee Bay, planned to ride out this storm like he did during Hurricane Michael and the others — on his boat. “If I lose that, I don’t have anything,” Tooke said. Michael, a Category 5 storm, all but destroyed one town, fractured thousands of homes and businesses and caused some $25 billion in damage when it struck the Florida Panhandle in 2018.

Many, though, were heeding the mandatory evacuation orders that stretched from the Panhandle south along the Gulf Coast in low-lying areas around Tallahassee, Gainesville, Cedar Key, Lake City, Tampa and Sarasota.

Among them were Cindy Waymon and her husband, who went to a shelter in Tallahassee after securing their home and packing medications, snacks and drinks. They wanted to stay safe given the magnitude of the storm, she said.

“This is the first time we’ve actually come to a shelter, because of the complexities of the storm and the uncertainties,” she said.

Federal authorities staged search-and-rescue teams as the weather service forecast storm surges of up to 20 feet (6 meters) and warned they could be particularly “catastrophic and unsurvivable” in Apalachee Bay.

“Please, please, please take any evacuation orders seriously!” the office said, describing the surge scenario as “a nightmare.”

This stretch of Florida known as the Forgotten Coast has been largely spared by the widespread condo development and commercialization that dominates so many of Florida’s beach communities. The region is loved for its natural wonders — the vast stretches of salt marshes, tidal pools and barrier islands.

“You live down here, you run the risk of losing everything to a bad storm,” said Anthony Godwin, who lives about a half-mile (800 meters) from the water in the coastal town of Panacea, as he stopped for gas before heading west toward his sister’s house in Pensacola.

School districts and multiple universities canceled classes. Airports in Tampa, Tallahassee and Clearwater were closed Thursday, while cancellations were widespread elsewhere in Florida and beyond.

While Helene will likely weaken as it moves inland, damaging winds and heavy rain were expected to extend to the southern Appalachian Mountains, where landslides were possible, forecasters said. Tennessee was among the states expected to get drenched.

Helene had swamped parts of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, flooding streets and toppling trees as it passed offshore and brushed the resort city of Cancun. In western Cuba, Helene knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and businesses as it brushed past the island.

Areas 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the Georgia-Florida line expected hurricane conditions. The state opened its parks to evacuees and their pets, including horses. Overnight curfews were imposed in many cities and counties in south Georgia.

“This is one of the biggest storms we’ve ever had,” said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

For Atlanta, Helene could be the worst strike on a major Southern inland city in 35 years, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd.

Helene is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.

Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri. Associated Press journalists Seth Borenstein in New York; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Russ Bynum in Valdosta, Georgia; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Andrea Rodríguez in Havana; Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.