A cruise ship carrying 206 passengers and crew has run aground on a remote stretch of Greenland and could potentially be stuck for days waiting for the nearest ship to arrive to help.

The Ocean Explorer got into trouble on Monday in Alpefjord, a dramatic and rugged stretch of Northeast Greenland National Park, and has not been able to free itself, according to a statement from Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command (JAC).

“This means that the tide – which came during the day, local time – did not give the desired help to sail on,” a JAC statement said. There were no reported injuries or risk of damage to the environment as a result of the grounding.

Following the incident, the closest inspection vessel, the Knud Rasmussen, was disptached to assist, according to the statement, but faced a journey of 1,200 nautical miles (around 2,222 kilometers) to reach the cruise ship,

The earliest the vessel is expected to reach the Ocean Explorer is Friday morning local time, depending on weather.

“As soon as we realized that the Ocean Explorer could not get free on its own, we sent a ship towards the wreck,” Arctic Commander Brian Jensen said.

“As soon as possible, we will also fly over the site to get fresh images to help us assess the situation on site,” he continued.

The Arctic Command say they are in contact with relevant ships in the area that could help.

Jensen said the Ocean Explorer could still re-float on a high tide, but failing that, the Knud Rasmussen would assist.

“No matter what, the most important thing for us is that everyone is safe,” he said.

According to the statement, the Government of Greenland, the Danish Maritime Authority and the Danish Accident Investigation Board have been informed of the incident.

There are cities, there are capitals and then there is Cairo.

Chaotic, enchanting and magnificent, the Egyptian capital is awe inspiring and home to a raw energy that’s all its own. A city of a thousand minarets, it has more history, more myths and more oomph than just about anywhere else on the planet.

The challenge is working out the best place to start to try and get under its skin and gain a proper sense of why it’s so very special in the first place.

‘A beautiful mess’

The delights of the sprawling Khan el-Khalili market, which sits at the very heart of Cairo, make it the ideal place to begin any journey through the Egyptian capital.

Here, wide-eyed visitors can haggle for trinkets and get themselves fortified for the day ahead with delicious rice pudding, topped with nuts, fruit and cream. While taking a flaneur’s approach is tempting, it’s even better to allow a local to show you around and give you the inside line.

Photographer Karim El Hayawan is the ideal companion, providing a different perspective and, crucially, helping make the most of ubiquitous camera phones, turning average shots into Instagram-worthy winners.

“It’s beautifully intense. It’s vivid. It’s ever-changing,” says El Hayawan of Cairo. “It’s a beautiful mess. It’s a fabric that keeps weaving itself into this organic… endless tapestry of everyone and everything. It’s inclusive and exclusive at the same time.”

El Hayawan works at the same pace as Cairo itself – rapidly and without pause, reeling off shots while always finding the right picture. It’s a valuable lesson for anyone who comes here – you need to move like lightning in order to get a proper glimpse of how life works on Cairo’s streets.

A world-class museum

Away from the bustle of central Cairo is something equally, quintessentially Egyptian. Shimmering on the Giza Plateau, against the backdrop of the Pyramids, the Great Egyptian Museum (GEM) is readying itself to open – finally – at the end of 2023, some 21 years after its foundation stone was laid.

The largest museum in the world, it will house the entire Tutankhamun collection, as well as thousands of artefacts and items that have never been on public display. Some may joke that it’s taken longer to build than the Pyramids themselves, but the wait will undoubtedly be worth it.

Dr. Al-Tayeb Abbas, the GEM’s archaeological affairs manager, explains that it has been a long and arduous process. But it’s worth it. A towering statue of King Ramses II stands in the main atrium, with a nearby window designed to shine light on his face on the day of his birth and coronation. It is nothing short of spectacular.

“We have more than 66,000 artefacts which will be on display for the first time in a single space,” says Abbas. These include the complete collection of items from Tutankhamun’s tomb, including jewelry.

Of course, this magical museum owes its existence to Egypt’s incredible ancient past. And while exploring its seemingly endless rooms is a pleasure, nothing beats getting up close to the real thing. The Pyramids.

It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen them. Whether up close or from afar, their size, their history, their mere presence on this earth is a marvel. Perhaps what makes it all the more special is the fact that despite years of archaeological work, we still don’t know how many chambers and tunnels are hidden beneath them.

This is what makes them so fascinating. That, and the unanswerable question: just how did they do it?

Hidden for eternity

The same is true of the epic Valley of the Kings and the city of Luxor, around 400 miles south of Giza.

The magnificence of this place puts it on a par with the Pyramids, especially when considering the treasures that have been discovered here in recent centuries. Many of them, including those of Tutankhamun, will now be housed in the GEM. What’s more, there remain many more to be discovered.

For journalist and author Dr. Betsy Hiel, the Valley of the Kings retains a sense of excitement. Walking around the site, she’s a great source of knowledge, keen to share details that untrained eyes might not pick up on.

“They went from pyramid building to [burial chambers being] hidden away,” she says. “They wanted to be hidden away so that they could live in eternity and not be found.”

While the wishes of some of the pharaohs were thwarted by the boom in archaeology in the 19th and 20th centuries, some remain hidden from view.

Aside from Tutankhamun, one of the finest discoveries in the valley was the tomb of Seti I. The second pharaoh of Egypt’s 19th dynasty, his tomb was found in 1817, some 3,200 years after he was buried.

“He was part of a new military dynasty that was created. And his tomb is the deepest, about 400 feet long,” says Dr. Hiel, who adds that there remain long tunnels where some believe there is still undiscovered treasure.

The complexity of Seti I’s burial chamber is breathtaking. Hiel explains that the coffin would have been set forth on a journey into the underworld with the “Amduat,” an ancient text telling the story of the gods and monsters that reside in the afterlife, written within the tomb as a reference point. It speaks to the sheer advancement of a people who lived and ruled thousands of years ago.

The temple that came back to life

The ancient sites continue as you sail south along the Nile, eschewing the faster pace of Cairo and the modern world for something more sedate. A boat trip is the ideal way to contemplate what a true marvel this part of the world really is.

Close to Aswan, around 140 miles south of Luxor, lies Philae, an ancient temple with an equally amazing modern history.

“Philae used to be on a different island, then it was relocated to protect it from inundation,” says egyptologist Dr. Monica Hanna, who has dedicated her life to archaeology and the preservation of Egypt’s ancient sites.

Speaking on a boat heading across the lake created by the Lower Aswan Dam in the early 20th century, Hanna explains how, in 1960, UNESCO and the Egyptian government began a project to save Philae. It had been inundated following the dam’s completion, leaving the site flooded for most of the year, with precious ancient artefacts in the process of being lost or ruined forever.

In a painstaking operation, they moved the entire complex to a different island: Agilkia.

“[The project] lasted for more than 10 years,” says Hanna. “And archaeologists, architects, Egyptian workmen worked very hard on cutting the puzzle and then putting back the puzzle together.

“They had fantastic discoveries when they dismantled the temple because they found that older blocks from the Sais period were recycled and used in the Greek and the Roman period. So we also found more archaeological data when we dismantled the temple.”

What makes Philae equally fascinating is the fact that it is not a place for the dead, but rather for the day to day life of Egyptians.

“[This] is the realm of the living. People came to the temple of Isis to venerate the goddess. This was the burial place of the God Osiris. And the temple was not just a religious place,” says Hanna, pointing out how people would have lived and worked here too.

Today, Philae is testament to the care and attention of the world’s leading experts in Egyptian history. It stands as it has done for thousands of years – just in a different location.

The story of Philae’s archaeological rebirth is part of the wider story of Egypt, a place that remains a classic for travelers. The gems of the past shine brightly, whether inside the halls of the sparkling new GEM, the Pyramids and here at Philae.

Yet there’s something utterly alluring too about Cairo’s buzz and thrum, unique as it is to this wonderful country. It is and always will be a place for visitors to immerse themselves.

Rescuers are searching through rubble and trying to reach isolated communities after a devastating earthquake struck Morocco, killing thousands and leaving more injured or unaccounted for.

The quake is the strongest to hit the nation’s center in more than a century, and its epicenter was not far from popular tourist and economic hub Marrakech.

At least 2,862 people have been killed in the disaster and 2,562 have been injured, state media said on Monday.

Here’s what we know so far.

When and where did the quake hit?

The earthquake struck at around 11.11 p.m. local time (6.11 p.m ET) on Friday. Its epicenter was located in the High Atlas mountain range, about 72 kilometers (44.7 miles) southwest of Marrakech, a city of about 840,000 people.

Its impact was felt far and wide, reaching as far north as Casablanca.

But it most severely damaged towns and villages near the base of the Atlas Mountains, while also ripping through the center and suburbs of Marrakech.

How strong was the quake?

The quake had a magnitude of 6.8, meaning it is classed as “strong.” It also struck at a relatively shallow depth, making it more destructive.

Morocco has suffered earthquakes in the past, but few in its history have been so powerful. This quake is Morocco’s deadliest since 1960, when an earthquake killed more than 12,000 people.

Earthquakes of this size in the region are uncommon, according to the US Geological Survey, but not unexpected. It noted that nine quakes with a magnitude of 5 or higher have hit the area since 1900, but none of them have had a magnitude higher than 6.

Where is the worst damage?

Nearly 1,500 people have died in the province of Al Haouz, where the quake was most devastating. The region, like many other badly affected locations, lies south of Morocco at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, and includes remote villages and settlements that have been difficult for rescuers to reach.

Eyewitnesses in the foothills of the mountains said some towns are completely destroyed, with almost all the homes in an area of the village of Asni damaged.

More than 400 meanwhile perished in the southwestern Moroccan city of Taroudant.

And more than 300,000 people have been affected in Marrakech and surrounding areas, according to the WHO. Historic sites have been damaged there; a small mosque at the heart of the Marrakech Medina in the city’s historical quarter almost entire collapsed.

The Marrakech Medina, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was hit by the quake. The Medina district dates back centuries and is enclosed by walls built of red sandstone. Many of the old buildings inside the Medina have been damaged and some have collapsed entirely.

Outside the city, images showed the 12th century Tinmal Mosque in the High Atlas mountains had been badly damaged.

What’s happening on the ground?

Emergency workers were deployed to affected regions, despite some roads being damaged or blocked by debris. Some remote villages on the foothills of the mountain have been hard to access.

Mohammed, 50, from the town of Ouirgane, lost four family members in the quake. “I managed to get out safely with my two children but lost the rest. My house is gone.” he said.

Rescue operations are still ongoing. “We are out in the streets with authorities as they try to pull the dead from the rubble. Many many people were transported to hospital in front of me. We are hoping for miracles from the rubble” he said.

Morocco’s government said it had activated all available resources to tackle the quake and urged people to “avoid panic.”

King Mohammed VI of Morocco ordered that a relief commission be set up to distribute aid to survivors, including orphans and people who lost their homes in the disaster.

He also declared three days of national mourning and ordered mosques nationwide to hold funeral prayers, known as “Janazah” prayers, at noon on Sunday for those killed.

What’s the international reaction been?

Many world leaders have expressed their commiserations, as well as offered support to Morocco.

France has activated emergency aid from local government funds to help with humanitarian operations in quake-affected regions, and will give 5 million euros ($5.3M) to non-governmental organizations operating in Morocco to aid rescure efforts, the government said Monday.

A Spanish search and rescue team, made up of 56 soldiers and four dogs, landed in Marrakech to help in the quake’s aftermath, according to Spain’s defense ministry.

Turkey, which was hit by a devastating earthquake that killed tens of thousands earlier this year, said it was ready to send 265 personnel and 1,000 tents to Morocco to support aid efforts.

Britain said it has deployed 60 search and rescue specialists, including four search dogs, rescue equipment and a medical assessment team to Morocco.

Algeria, which severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 and closed its airspace to all planes registered in Morocco, said it would reopen its airspace for humanitarian aid and medical flights going to and from the Arab nation.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross Society of China said Monday it will send $200,000 in emergency humanitarian cash assistance to the Moroccan Red Crescent to support rescue and relief work.

The United Nations and US President Joe Biden have also said they are ready to provide assistance, and the World Bank has said it has offered the country its “full support.”

Two-time grand slam champion Simona Halep has been given a four-year ban for anti-doping rule violations, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Tuesday.

Halep, who has previously denied wrongdoing, responded to the announcement by saying she will appeal and has “never knowingly or intentionally used any prohibited substance.”

She added: “I am continuing to train and do everything in my power to clear my name of these false allegations and return to the court.”

The former world No. 1, who won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, was charged with two separate breaches of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme.

The first, the ITIA said, related to Halep testing positive for banned substance roxadustat – which is listed on the 2022 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List – at the US Open last year.

According to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), roxadustat is a class of drug called HIF-stabilizing agents and can increase an athlete’s red blood cell count and increase endurance performance.

The second charge was for irregularities in Halep’s Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which is designed to monitor an athlete’s selected biological variables over time.

“The tribunal accepted Halep’s argument that they had taken a contaminated supplement, but determined the volume the player ingested could not have resulted in the concentration of roxadustat found in the positive sample,” the ITIA said in a press release.

“The ABP charge was also upheld, with the tribunal stating that they had no reason to doubt the unanimous ‘strong opinion’ reached by each of the three independent Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) experts that ‘likely doping’ was the explanation for the irregularities in Halep’s profile.”

The ITIA said that the 31-year-old’s suspension is backdated and will run from October 7, 2022, until October 6, 2026, and it says the case is subject to appeal.

Halep, whose last appearance was at last year’s US Open, has been suspended since October 2022.

“Today, a tribunal under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme announced a tentative decision in my case,” she said in a statement. “The last year has been the hardest match of my life, and unfortunately my fight continues.”

Halep added that she had adjusted her nutritional supplements ahead of the hard-court season in 2022. She said that none of the listed ingredients included any prohibited substances, but accepted that one of them was contaminated with roxadustat.

“I was tested almost weekly after my initial positive test through early 2023, all of which came back negative.”

Halep added she was “eternally grateful” for the support from her friends, family and fans and that she will “appeal this decision to The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and pursue all legal remedies against the supplement company in question.”

He added: “I’m shocked because I’ve been with her through the whole process. And the decision is completely, for me, impossible to understand … I was at the hearing with her throughout and I sat there and I listened to everything for two days.

“Listening to what I listened to and to the evidence and everything, I don’t understand how it is possible to condemn her at all.

“Of course, she’s going to go to the CAS … I hope that those people will see it fairly and that she will be released.”

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, making his debut with the New York Jets, was carted off the field after suffering a left Achilles injury on just his fourth play in the team’s Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills and will miss the rest of the 2023 season.

Jets head coach Robert Saleh told reporters on a media call Tuesday: “He’s out for the year. He needs surgery.”

Saleh said he didn’t have information on the four-time Most Valuable Player’s surgery schedule and recovery process. At 39, Rodgers is the second oldest player in the league, and this was to be his 19th season.

Saleh told reporters, “We know it’s torn. That’s been confirmed.”

The injury occurred during the team’s first drive in the first quarter when Rodgers was sacked by Bills edge rusher Leonard Floyd.

Rodgers hobbled up for a few moments before going back down to the ground. He was attended to by the Jets’ medical staff before being helped off the field at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

After being looked at in the blue medical tent on the sidelines, the 39-year-old was taken to the locker room on a cart, and he missed the rest of the game.

Backup quarterback Zach Wilson entered the game for the injured Rodgers. Saleh said Tuesday Wilson is the No. 1 quarterback for the rest of the year.

Rodgers was the key acquisition in the offseason for the Jets, who haven’t made the playoffs since the 2010 season. Some NFL commentators thought Rodgers could deliver a chance at a postseason spot and perhaps a title.

The Jets edged the Bills, who are considered a Super Bowl contender – with a late touchdown Monday night and Wire thinks the New York team could still win a lot of games.

Before being traded in the offseason, Rodgers had spent the first 18 seasons of his NFL career with the Green Bay Packers, where he led the team to a 31-25 victory in Super Bowl XLV in 2011.

Rodgers won MVP awards in 2011, 2014, 2020 and 2021 while setting numerous records for his accuracy and deadliness over the years.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, making his debut with the New York Jets, was carted off the field after suffering a left Achilles injury on just his fourth play in the team’s Monday Night Football game against the Buffalo Bills and will miss the rest of the 2023 NFL season.

Jets head coach Robert Saleh told reporters on a media call Tuesday: “He’s out for the year. He needs surgery.”

Saleh said he didn’t have information on the four-time Most Valuable Player’s surgery schedule and recovery process. At 39, Rodgers is the second oldest player in the league, and this was to be his 19th season.

Saleh told reporters, “We know it’s torn. That’s been confirmed.”

The Jets indirectly referenced the bleak outlook of the injury on social media, posting on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Not the way any of us wanted it to go, but we know the commitment you’ve made to this team will continue to impact us moving forward. Get well soon, Aaron Rodgers.”

The injury occurred when Rodgers was sacked by Bills edge rusher Leonard Floyd.

The 39-year-old hobbled up for a few moments before going back down to the ground. He was attended to by Jets medical staff before being helped off the field at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

After being looked at in the blue medical tent on the sidelines, the 39-year-old was taken to the locker room on a cart, and he missed the rest of the game.

Saleh said he spoke to Rodgers on Tuesday.

“As you guys can imagine, he’s … down, you know,” the coach said, adding he didn’t talk with the quarterback about his future. “I’ll let him answer those questions.”

Rodgers’ back-up, Zach Wilson, came in to fill the quarterback void and led the team to a 22-16 overtime victory over the Bills after undrafted rookie wide receiver Xavier Gipson returned a punt 65 yards for a walk-off touchdown.

Rodgers’ most meaningful action of the evening turned out to be running out onto the field before the game holding the US flag in a tribute to the September 11 terrorist attacks, with the game being held 22 years after the incidents which saw 2,977 people killed in New York City, Washington, DC and outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The reaction to Rodgers’ injury on social media was filled with emotion, with many Jets fans mourning the loss of the player they thought might be a final piece in a Super Bowl-winning team. ESPN host and Jets fan Mike Greenberg said on Tuesday that the emotional rollercoaster of the last six months makes this such a painful moment.

“I want more than anyone to be furious today, but the reality is, sometimes things just happen. There really isn’t anybody to be mad at,” Greenberg said on ‘Get Up.’ “Football is inherently a violent and dangerous game, injuries are going to take place 100% of the time and you just have to hope that yours is not the team, if you are a fan, whose season is destroyed by an injury.

“Half the contenders in the league at a minimum would have their contention taken away if their quarterback went down. Half the teams in the league could not overcome an injury like this. The Jets built absolutely everything in their team, in their season, the entire organization shaped around Aaron Rodgers and he deserved it.

“From the moment they got him, he has been invested beyond anyone’s wildest dreams … The idea that his season would be over in four plays never entered my mind.”

“We all wanted to see Aaron Rodgers out there, one of the greatest players to ever play the game,” Wire said Tuesday morning. “Four-time league MVP and this was supposed to be the moment where he comes and brings the Jets back to their glory, which happened about 55 years ago when Broadway Joe (Namath) … that was their only Super Bowl title.”

The Jets edged the Bills, who are considered a Super Bowl contender – with a late touchdown Monday night and Wire thinks the New York team could still win a lot of games.

Before being traded in the offseason, Rodgers had spent the first 18 seasons of his NFL career with the Green Bay Packers, where he led the team to a 31-25 victory in Super Bowl XLV in 2011.

Rodgers won MVP awards in 2011, 2014, 2020 and 2021, while setting numerous records for his accuracy and deadliness over the years.

Fake grass controversy

Saleh downplayed speculation about the role the new field turf at MetLife Stadium played in Rodgers’ serious injury.

“If it was a noncontact injury, I think that’d be something to discuss obviously, but that was kind of a forcible – I think that was trauma-induced,” Saleh said at the news conference. “I do know the players prefer grass and there’s a lot invested in those young men.”

Green Bay Packers offensive lineman and Rodgers’ former teammate, David Bakhtiari, called out the NFL on the artificial turf in the league after Rodgers’ injury.

“Congrats @nfl. How many more players have to get hurt on ARTIFICIAL TURF??! You care more about soccer players than us. You plan to remove all artificial turf for the World Cup coming up. So clearly it’s feasible,” Bakhtiari’s post, which drew thousands of replies, said on social media site X on Monday. “I’m sick of this..Do better!”

Data from from the past eight years shows there is no difference in the rate of Achilles injuries on natural grass and synthetic surfaces, Jeff Miller, NFL executive vice president of communications, public affairs and policy, and health and safety, said during a virtual news conference Tuesday.

“Because an injury happens on a surface doesn’t mean that it’s actually caused by that surface and in this case, we haven’t seen a data difference for Achilles injuries,” Miller said. “There’s a lot more work to do. We don’t want those injuries in the game. We want to prevent those that we can, especially major injuries like those.”

When asked what message it sends to league players that a few stadiums change their surfaces from artificial to grass for soccer and revert back to the synthetic field for football, Miller said, “If there was one, that’s fine. We do spend a lot of time thinking about surfaces and their injury rates and how those relate to how our game is played in the particular use cases for football.”

Miller said certain natural grass surfaces have a lower injury rate than synthetic surfaces and some synthetic surfaces that have a lower injury rate than natural grass. The league will study what role different surfaces might or might not play in injuries, he said.

The Atlantic hurricane season typically reaches its peak this week, but record-warm ocean temperatures are fueling a hyperactive season that experts say shows no signs of slowing.

The average hurricane season starts June 1 and runs through November 30, but its statistical peak is on September 10. So far this year, hurricane activity has been above average in every respect, according to Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University.

Record-warm water fuels an active season

Some fast facts on 2023 hurricanes so far:

Before it started, forecasters predicted an average season, but warned of more uncertainty than usual because of a climatic battle between a burgeoning El Niño and warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures. El Niños tend to produce more wind shear – upper-level winds that can rip storms apart – but warm water can fuel their growth.

Then, as the season started, ocean warmth skyrocketed to record levels and forecasters warned of explosive tropical development and a more active season, something that has come to fruition.

“We saw how hot the Atlantic was and said, ‘Alright, we gotta go for it,’” said Klotzbach, whose research group creates seasonal hurricane forecasts.

“Thankfully, we have a strong El Niño,” Klotzbach said, because if there was no El Niño, the season would “probably be tracking 200% of normal instead of 130% of normal.”

But Klotzbach said this El Niño, which by all measures is considered strong, isn’t affecting the western Atlantic like it normally would.

The extreme ocean heat and low wind shear are having some major effects on the season, Klotzbach said. More storms are able to form than would otherwise be possible in a typical El Niño year. Even the storms that have been weakened by moderate shear – like hurricanes Franklin and Lee – were able to stay alive and restrengthen once they found more favorable conditions.

“If we leave a storm out there long enough, eventually it’s going to find somewhere where the shear isn’t that strong” and it can strengthen, Klotzbach said.

More frequent rapid intensification and more major hurricanes are also byproducts of this season’s ripe conditions. Idalia, Franklin and Lee all rapidly intensified in water running well above normal.

“Warm water is not the only thing you need, but it does kind of load the dice toward these high-end rapid intensification events,” Klotzbach said. “You look at the water Lee was tracking over, it should have been at 28 degrees Celsius instead they’re 30 (degrees Celsius) – it’s like rocket fuel.”

The season isn’t over yet – 90% of hurricane season activity happens from mid-August until mid-October – and Klotzbach said the next two weeks still look like they could produce more storms.

Beyond that point, it’s anyone’s guess, Klotzbach said, but an Atlantic tinderbox has already proven full of surprises this season.

“At the end of the day we’ve learned even in a strong El Niño, if you get the Atlantic warm enough it can hold its own,” Klotzbach said.

Massachusetts cities devastated by floodwater could face new perils as more rain is on the way and officials wonder whether a “very sensitive” dam will hold up.

The state has seen “catastrophic flooding” since Monday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday from North Attleborough.

About a dozen homes in the town were completely under water Tuesday, said Chris Coleman, North Attleborough’s fire and emergency management chief.

And about 200 homes were damaged in and around North Attleborough after a storm Monday quickly dumped about 5 inches of rain on ground already saturated from a weekend storm, officials said.

“It was really scary, the amount of water that fell in just a short amount of time and the incredible devastation that it caused,” the governor said.

No civilian injuries have been reported from the North Attleborough flooding, but a firefighter was injured overnight and was in stable condition, Coleman said Tuesday.

She also said the massive flooding that hit various regions of Massachusetts “severely impacted” two dams, damaged railroad tracks and forced a number of seniors to be evacuated by boats in the middle of the night.

“One of those dams has been shored up already and the other will be shored up by the end of the day,” said Healey, who toured the damage on Tuesday.

Leominster was another city in Massachusetts to face a torrential downpour this week. The city got pummeled by roughly 11 inches of rain in just six to seven hours, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said Tuesday.

Some basements in Leominster “probably have feet of water inside of them,” Mazzarella said.

“We have several homes where the water washed out … you can see the foundation of the home.”

While no serious injuries have been reported, the mayor said, “We had to evacuate people last night … with hovercrafts and boats to get people out to safety.”

Leominster was quickly inundated not just by torrential downpours, but also from water gushing downhill.

“Leominster is about 26 square miles. We have 12 hills, and obviously from those hills comes the water,” the mayor said. “And with 11 inches of rain, it just adds to the … water (going) downhill.”

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has urged some residents to evacuate due to “a potential issue at the Barrett Park Pond Dam,” MEMA said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“This particular dam is one that we’re actually about to replace,” Mazzarella said. “It is very sensitive. It’s water saturated. And we’re worried about that downstream. So, we’ve put out a code red and notified everyone along that stream bank, along that river base … to evacuate.”

And it’s not clear when children in Leominster will be able to go back to school.

“Our schools are closed” Tuesday, the mayor said. “We have a couple of schools that experienced severe damage and flooding. And the other schools are open for shelters.”

The deluge has also washed away roads and created a large sinkhole, Mazzarella said.

“That was the road … it’s gone,” the mayor said in a Facebook video showing the massive sinkhole.

MEMA staff have been on-scene in #Leominster since last night supporting the local flood response & coordinating requests for assistance, including 3,000 sandbags, additional shelter staff, traffic sign boards & shelter equipment to support residents with disabilities. #ThisIsEM pic.twitter.com/uQbmYQhlUQ

— MEMA (@MassEMA) September 12, 2023

Videos posted on social media showed vehicles submerged by dark floodwater covering a highway. Other footage shows emergency vehicles trying to navigate a street overtaken by rapidly moving water as rain keeps falling. Another video shows water filling a gaping sinkhole in the middle of a street lined with houses.

The torrent was so intense that a packed, 8-foot by 8-foot dumpster traveled down a local river and ended up in the middle of a riverwalk trail, Mazzarella said. Officials have no idea where the dumpster came from.

While the rain has largely subsided in Leominster, “it’s going to take a while for the rivers to reach their peak,” Mazzarella said Tuesday morning.

While the area gets a reprieve from heavy rain Tuesday, but another round of storms could move through Wednesday.

Most of the Northeast – including central Massachusetts – faces a slight risk of excessive rainfall late Wednesday and early Thursday, according to the Weather Prediction Center.

And more rain could thrash Massachusetts and eastern New England this weekend, depending on the track of Hurricane Lee.

The governor said local and state agencies are working to address damages in zones impacted by the storms and that her office is preparing an emergency declaration that will be issued later Tuesday.

Hurricane Lee grew even larger on Tuesday and triggered a tropical storm watch for Bermuda as the cyclone’s potential impacts begin to come into focus for the island and beyond.

Lee, a Category 3 hurricane Tuesday afternoon, was centered about 535 miles south of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm has been growing in size since the weekend and hurricane-force winds now extend 125 miles from Lee’s center, according to the 5 p.m. ET hurricane center update. Tropical storm-force winds extended 240 miles from its core late Tuesday, having grown 55 miles in 12 hours.

Lee is expected to remain quite strong through Tuesday night, but will lose some intensity Wednesday into Thursday as it moves over slightly cooler waters churned up by Hurricane Franklin earlier this month.

But while Lee loses some strength this week, the hurricane will simultaneously continue to grow in size and begin to move faster.

A larger storm could impact a more widespread area, even if its winds no longer reach monster hurricane levels. A larger Hurricane Lee, then, is more likely to affect the Eastern Seaboard – even if not through a direct landfall.

Tropical storm-force winds could extend over 300 miles from Lee’s center later this week, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said in a Monday storm briefing.

This means potentially-damaging wind gusts could still impact portions of the northeastern US at the end of the week, even if the Lee’s center stays a couple hundred miles off the coast, out over the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical storm-force wind gusts could arrive for portions of Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts Friday night when Lee’s center is expected to be about 250 miles to the southeast.

The exact timing and extent of Lee’s winds and rainfall in the US and Canada could still fluctuate with lingering uncertainty over its track. But the hurricane’s track may come into better focus once it turns to the north Wednesday.

Regardless of its final track, the storm will send big waves to a growing area of the East Coast throughout the week as it tracks northward. This will cause coastal erosion, dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents at beaches.

Dangerous surf was already happening along the southeastern US coast from Florida through the Carolinas and on many of the far eastern Caribbean islands as well as the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and Bermuda.

A high risk of rip currents was in effect through at least Wednesday night for coastal areas from Florida northward to Massachusetts. Rip currents have already killed 71 people in the US this year, preliminary National Weather Service data shows. Three people in New Jersey died in rip currents kicked up in the wake of Hurricane Franklin last week.

Lee to sideswipe Bermuda before approaching US, Canada

Lee is expected to take a turn to the north on Wednesday and pick up its pace. The hurricane is set to make its closest approach to Bermuda Thursday into Friday and unleash strong winds and rain as well as dangerous surf and rip currents.

Late Tuesday morning, the Bermuda Weather Service Issued a tropical storm watch for the island, meaning tropical storm conditions are possible there in the next 48 hours.

Tropical storm-force wind gusts are likely to whip across Bermuda from Thursday morning into Friday as Lee passes to the west. Rain could also fall heavily at times during this period and may cause localized flash flooding.

Seas around the island will become hazardous with large waves as Lee approaches.

It’s one thing standing in line to watch the blockbuster film “Oppenheimer.” It’s another thing entirely queueing up in a remote desert to experience the location of the film’s most pivotal scene.

But if you’re a fan of atomic history and can swing central New Mexico this October, your pilgrimage through the Jornada del Muerto (Dead Man’s Journey) will be so worth the effort.

Saturday, October 21, presents a rare opportunity to visit not just one but two scientifically significant and movie-famous destinations on the same day – each occupying opposite ends of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Trinity Site is the national historic landmark that’s home to mankind’s first nuclear blast on July 16, 1945, where plutonium gamma rays lit up the night sky. It hosts only two open house events each year.

And while you’re in the area, an extraordinary bonus is a second, free-of-charge open house aimed specifically at Trinity Site adventurers who are willing to drive another 100 miles to take in a second mind-bending experience.

It’s the Very Large Array Radio Observatory (VLA), which was dramatized in the 1997 alien-life movie “Contact.” The VLA telescope can spread wider than New York City, able to capture the whispers of distant radio waves as they undulate across our cosmos.

Rare access to Trinity Site

Trinity Site opens only two Saturdays a year. Once in April, and lucky for “Oppenheimer” enthusiasts, again in October.

The exact dates are announced in advance each year by the US Army.

The site is a secure military installation within the forbidding White Sands Missile Range, where live weapons are regularly tested. The terrain is high desert plateau, dotted with creosote brush and not much else.

In our everyday crush of crowds, traffic and strip malls, the Land of Enchantment’s sheer miles of open landscape and soul-nourishing cobalt vistas inspire. Buzz Aldrin’s impression of the moon’s surface parallels Trinity Site, a “magnificent desolation.”

When J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb,” led his Manhattan Project team to Trinity, it wasn’t just for the isolation. He had history with New Mexico, attending summer boys’ camps during his youth. Because of the popularity of the movie “Oppenheimer,” a surge of visitors is expected on October 21.

The open house event, hosted by the US Army, is free but limited to the first 5,000 guests, on a first-come, first-served basis.

How to get there

From Albuquerque International Sunport airport, your best bet is a rental car for the two-hour drive south. It’s easy to get disoriented while navigating, so stick to the Army’s directions, as GPS instructions can be wonky. Take screen photos of the route mapped on your phone – as you may lose cell service – and have an actual roadmap as backup.

Aim to arrive at Trinity’s Stallion Gate before 8 a.m., when the gate opens. There will already be a line. Be early, and you’ll still have plenty of time for the day’s second adventure. Army officials will check your ID at the gate, and from there it’s a 17-mile (27-kilometer) drive to a parking lot located a quarter-mile walk from the reason you came – Ground Zero.

Trinity Site’s atmosphere during an open house is reminiscent of a small-town carnival from a bygone era. Vendors selling souvenir trinkets. Kids in strollers. Dogs wagging tails. Porta Potties. That’s until you notice the pop-up tent displaying Geiger counters. And another with radioactive Trinitite, the mysterious green-glass rock that rained down from the bomb’s blast.

Ominous fence signs remind guests that it’s against the law to remove any pieces of Trinitite they spy on the ground because ingested fragments retain enough radioactivity to be dangerous.

The famed 1918 McDonald adobe ranch house, where the bomb’s critical plutonium core was assembled in the master bedroom, survived the shock wave two miles away mostly intact. Buses shuttle visitors back and forth free of charge from the Trinity parking lot to the McDonald house.

Venture in farther to stand next to a life-size replica of Fat Man, the nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945.

Visitors can pose for photos inside Jumbo, the 216-ton steel cylinder scientists contemplated detonating the bomb – nicknamed the Gadget – within to contain its plutonium core if the full detonation failed.

Experiencing Ground Zero

The moment arrives to approach Ground Zero, marked simply by a black stone obelisk that’s 12 feet (3.66 meters) high.

Step back in time to the pre-dawn of July 16, 1945. Glance north, west and south where Oppenheimer’s team hunkered down in three bunkers, five miles away. You stand where the course of humanity shifted. Where the boundaries of physics and possibility stretched.

Picture the 100-foot-high steel tower that stood where the obelisk stands now. A few feet away only nubs of the tower remain, the bulk annihilated in the blast.

See in your mind the mattresses hauled in and stacked high to cushion the fall should the chains snap as they winched the heavy Gadget high into the air. And young scientists rotated throughout the night babysitting the bomb as crackles of lightning threatened to strike.

Oppenheimer wrote the poem “Crossing” two decades before Trinity. His words contained the prophetic passage, “…in the dry hills down by the river, half withered, we had the hot winds against us.” He could not have imagined the heat to come.

Now close your eyes.

Ignore what you do see to imagine the history you cannot see.

The storms over the mountains. New Mexico Gov. John Dempsey is at home asleep, oblivious to when the blast will occur. Finally, the mists of rain clear. The countdown to fission begins. There’s a sense of dread, however remote, that Earth’s atmosphere might ignite in a cataclysmic chain reaction.

And finally, the detonation.

Man’s first nuclear genie shatters its bottle, unleashing the ferocity of the atom, with an explosion 10,000 times hotter than our sun. Thirty-seven minutes later, the wounded sky brightens again, to the dawn of man’s first atomic sunrise.

Reflect on the glaring omission that while the area surrounding Trinity was remote, it was not unpopulated.

Civilians termed “downwinders,” subjected to radioactive fallout fluttering down from the sky, were assured that the flash and fury some saw and heard was an ammunition explosion at nearby Alamogordo Air Base. After atomic bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki the following month, they realized the stark truth.

Jim Eckles, an Army historian who oversaw decades of Trinity open house events, shared the site’s significance: “The ‘Oppenheimer’ movie resurrected concerns we’ve lost sight of. That thousands of nuclear warhead missiles are still out there, able to launch. We need clever intelligent people to deal with the sequence that began at Trinity.”

Journeying on to the fringes of the galaxy

After experiencing Trinity’s solemn inner journey, it’s time to regroup and explore outward — to the hope-filled fringes of the galaxy.

The world’s most impressive radio telescope – the Very Large Array – is also free of charge to October 21 guests.  

Take Highway 380 back to Interstate 25 and the route to the VLA, 50 miles west of Socorro, is well-marked.

Along the way, you can stop for lunch at the same watering hole frequented by Oppenheimer’s crew, the Owl Bar & Café in San Antonio. New Mexico recently designated the sweet scent of roasted green chiles as an official state aroma, and you can savor the taste smothered on their famous Owl burgers.

Driving west past Socorro, the elevation rises. The VLA sits 7,000 feet high on the Plains of San Agustin, ringed by a fortress of mountains to block the radio interference of civilization, as astronomers search deep into the sky.

“People find the first glimpse of antennas on the sweeping desert plain awe inspiring,” said Patricia Henning, director of the VLA.

Each of the 27 colossal dishes measure 82 feet (25 meters) across and are motorized to swivel and tilt. Railroad-track mounted, they can spread out over miles in their iconic “Y” shape. According to Henning, the wider the array stretches its arms, the bigger its eye grows to zoom in.

Most people are familiar with traditional light-collecting telescopes. But the VLA collects radio waves that occur naturally from objects in space, billions of times fainter than broadcast radio waves, and then electronically transforms them into images.

It’s the most widely used radio telescope in the world, mapping the cosmos from our solar system and Milky Way galaxy to distant gas clouds and plasma ejections from supermassive black holes.

“The array studies the universe, so our main driver is not looking for intelligent life,” explained Henning. “SETI – the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – piggybacks astronomy conducted at the VLA and then combs through copies of data looking for techno signatures.”

What’s a techno-signature? Intelligence.

As SETI scientists download the music of the universe, analyzing radio waves for signs of a composer behind the notes, you can’t help but wonder: If extraterrestrial life saw Earth’s nuclear glow, what techno-signature assessment would they make of us?

If you can’t make the October 21 open houses, don’t despair.

The VLA welcomes visitors most days, excluding major holidays. Admission is $6 for adults. And on April 6, 2024, Trinity Site again opens for a single day. Millions of colorful New Mexico wildflowers will bloom fleetingly, a contrast to Trinity’s mushroom cloud that bloomed only once but whose impact may eternally define 20th-century mankind.