One dead, homes swept away after Hurricane Lala lashes Hawaii
One dead, homes swept away after Hurricane Lala lashes Hawaii. The KRAK 11 News hour: The World Desk, Criminal Intent, Happy Animals, Sports. Real stories from named sources, read by Chip Marlowe and Deb Sarkissian.
Aired 2026-08-16 22:00 UTC · 5 segments · 12 min · complete transcript below
Rundown
KRAK 11 NEWS
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian. Welcome to KRAK 11 News at the top of the hour.
This hour: THE WORLD DESK brings you the largest Ukrainian strike of twenty twenty-six. Russia says at least seven are dead. CRIMINAL INTENT follows with a Wexler County fraud suspect.
HAPPY ANIMALS has Captain, a three-legged dog who waited fourteen months to find a home. And in SPORTS, we remember Tommy John, the pitcher who gave his name to the surgery that changed baseball.
Captain can only run in circles now.
He's a very happy dog, Deb.
THE WORLD DESK is next. Stay with us.
What is that smell.
It's called Executive.
It's called what.
Executive. It's what they wear in boardrooms.
It smells like a hookers hotel.
Exactly.
Chip, you smell like a divorced dad at a Marriott.
Or a Married Dad on a business trip to Vegas.
THE WORLD DESK
Welcome back to KRAK 11 News. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian. Tonight we continue our coverage of international developments, including a major storm system that has devastated parts of the Hawaiian islands.
We should note that Hawaii, while geographically distant from the continental United States, remains strategically central to Pacific operations.
It's also a state.
Hurricane Lala made landfall early this morning, bringing catastrophic winds and flooding to the Big Island. One person is confirmed dead, and a search-and-rescue operation is currently underway.
Multiple homes were swept away from their foundations by storm surge. Emergency crews are working to locate residents who may have been trapped when the flooding began.
The National Weather Service is tracking Lala's continued path across the island chain, with particular concern for low-lying coastal areas that remain vulnerable to storm surge.
The Governor's office has deployed the National Guard to assist with evacuations and debris clearance. The storm is expected to weaken as it moves northwest, away from populated areas.
We turn now to Virginia, where authorities have made an arrest in connection with a shooting near a university campus. The suspect, a teenager, was found hiding in a closet following an hours-long search.
Five people were injured in the attack, which occurred outside a residence hall. Police have confirmed the suspect was not a student at the university and did not have authorization to be on campus.
All five victims have been transported to area hospitals. Conditions have not been released, but university officials say none of the injuries are believed to be life-threatening at this time.
The suspect is in custody and will face multiple charges. A motive has not been determined, and the investigation remains active.
Campus security protocols are under review following the incident. The university has not yet announced whether classes will resume tomorrow.
President Trump has announced the United States will significantly scale back joint military exercises with South Korea. The decision follows South Korea's recent refusal to provide military support for operations in Iran.
These exercises have been a cornerstone of the strategic partnership between Washington and Seoul since the armistice in nineteen fifty-three, which formally ended hostilities on the Korean peninsula.
The armistice ended the Korean War. The peninsula remains divided.
Which is why the exercises matter, Deb. The reduction in joint drills is expected to affect thousands of military personnel from both nations who have participated in annual training operations.
Officials in Seoul have not yet commented publicly on the decision. The White House says the change reflects a reassessment of regional security priorities.
North Korea has historically viewed these exercises as provocative, though analysts note that Pyongyang's nuclear program has continued to advance regardless of exercise frequency.
We will continue to monitor developments from the region.
Now, before we go to break, I want to acknowledge the quality of international coverage we have been providing over the past several months. Multiple time zones, complex geopolitical developments—
We're at time.
We have thirty-five seconds.
We have a tease.
Still ahead on KRAK 11 News, a Wexler County man is facing charges after attempting what police are calling the most ambitious theft in department history. The item in question weighs four tons.
And detectives say he nearly got away with it. That's CRIMINAL INTENT, in a few minutes.
Should I open With a joke? Or inspirational Story?
For what?
The big Speech I am giving at the Rotary Club.
People like good jokes.
Okay. So. Inspirational Story it is.
Chip...
I will tell the story of when I risked my life to save a fellow citizen in need, How I never even knew who this person was before I helped, but if it were not for me, Linda would not be living the live she is today, because of my actions she is alive.
Stop.
what do you mean?
I know Linda, You gave her twenty dollars to cover her lunch, that is hardly saving her life..
CRIMINAL INTENT
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian.
Gordo, is camera two still listing left or have we addressed that in the three weeks since I first raised it.
We're framed, Chip.
A Ridgeline man is under arrest tonight after attempting to steal something investigators say should have been physically impossible to move.
Jeffrey Callendar, forty-one, faces felony theft charges after police say he tried to remove a twelve-foot bronze statue from the Wexler County Courthouse lawn using only a hand truck.
The statue weighs eighteen hundred pounds. Deputies say Callendar had moved it approximately nine inches when the hand truck collapsed.
He was found sitting next to it. Told officers he was resting.
Nine inches is movement, Deb. That's a person of interest who nearly succeeded.
A Fairmont woman has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling two hundred sixty thousand dollars from her former employer over a three-year period.
Prosecutors say Claire Westfield created false invoices and redirected payments to personal accounts. Restitution has been ordered.
And in what police are calling the most documented crime in Wexler County history, a man is facing charges after allegedly live-streaming his own burglary to fourteen viewers.
Kyle Dempsey, twenty-three, allegedly broke into a Fairmont electronics store Sunday night while broadcasting the entire incident on a platform he believed was private. Police say it was not private.
Three of the fourteen viewers called nine-one-one. Officers arrived while the suspect was still explaining to his audience how to defeat an alarm system he had not actually defeated.
The alarm was audible on the stream. Prosecutors allege Dempsey told viewers it was, quote, probably nothing.
A federal jury has convicted a Ridgeline man on charges of wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property after prosecutors say he sold the same vintage motorcycle to eleven different buyers in seven states.
Martin Spence, fifty-seven, accepted deposits totaling ninety-four thousand dollars for a nineteen sixty-seven Triumph Bonneville he did not own. The motorcycle belonged to his brother, who was unaware of the sales.
Investigators say Spence was caught when two buyers arrived at the same address on the same day to pick up the same motorcycle.
His brother still has the motorcycle.
Sentencing is scheduled for January.
Coming up, a Fairmont elementary school has a new classroom assistant who does not speak, cannot read, and is universally beloved.
Happy Animals is next.
You're watching KRAK 11 News.
You need to go home.
I'm fine.
You are coughing all over the place.
I am fine, Just read the news and mind your own business.
Calm down... I was only trying to help.
I'm Sorry
No Problem.
Sixty seconds.
Gordo, get me a mask.
I'm not contagious.
I am doing the NEWS as if it were 2020, Masks on
HAPPY ANIMALS
Coming up now on KRAK 11 News, the good news desk.
Deb, before we start. The plaque is still behind the fire extinguisher.
It's been behind the fire extinguisher for three weeks.
I would like it moved to a position where it is visible to the camera and to viewers at home who may be evaluating the overall presentation.
A marine sanctuary in Carmel has released a harbor seal pup back into the ocean after four months of rehabilitation.
The pup, named Anchor, was found stranded in February weighing just eighteen pounds. He was released Tuesday weighing sixty-three pounds.
Sanctuary staff say Anchor learned to catch live fish in their rehabilitation pool and showed no interest in humans by the time of release.
That's exactly what you want.
It is.
A Fairmont woman has opened her home to senior cats who are considered unadoptable due to age or medical conditions.
Patricia Mendez has been providing end-of-life care for cats since twenty-twenty-one. She currently has nine cats in her care, ranging in age from fourteen to nineteen.
Mendez says the cats have their own room with heated beds, and she administers medications twice daily. She told the Ledger, quote, they deserve to be comfortable.
They do.
A therapy dog program at Wexler County Elementary has expanded to include three additional schools this fall.
The program pairs trained therapy dogs with students during reading time and has been credited with improving both reading scores and classroom attendance.
That's worth doing.
It is.
Still ahead on KRAK 11, sports. We have got a story from the desk that involves a record nobody wanted and a team that got it anyway. That's next.
I take seventeen vitamins now.
Why.
Optimal performance.
For what.
Broadcast. Stamina. Clarity.
You're reading a teleprompter.
At a very high level.
Your piss is neon. I know because the urinal in the mens room is a fucking mess.
That's how you know it's working.
SPORTS
Sports.
The Fairmont Central win Friday extends what is now the longest active rivalry streak in Wexler County high school football. Twelve straight over Wexler East. Twelve.
Thirteen if you count the forfeit in twenty-nineteen.
Nobody counts the forfeit.
The league counted the forfeit.
Baseball. Tommy John died this week at eighty-three. The pitcher who gave his name to the surgery that has now saved more than a third of all major league careers.
He was thirty-one when he tore the ligament in his pitching elbow in nineteen seventy-four. At the time, that injury ended careers. John pitched fourteen more seasons after the experimental reconstruction and won a hundred sixty-four additional games.
More pitchers have had the surgery named for him than played against him.
That is legacy.
Cricket. The Manchester Super Giants won the men's Hundred final Sunday, defeating the Trent Rockets in a match that came down to the final ten deliveries.
The Rockets were attempting to become the first franchise to win both the men's and women's trophies in the same year. They fell short by eighteen runs.
I watched the entire match this morning. It is a format that rewards endurance and precision under sustained pressure, which is something this desk delivers every single night.
It's a hundred balls, Chip. The whole thing takes two and a half hours.
Endurance is relative.
The Patriot Games begin Monday in Philadelphia. Two Wexler County athletes are competing as part of the celebration of America's two hundred fiftieth anniversary.
Claire Hobbs from Fairmont South qualified in the eight hundred meters. Miguel Salazar from Ridgeline qualified in javelin. Two teenagers from each state were selected. Competition runs through Saturday.
A national stage. Two hundred fifty years of this country and fifty states send their best.
They'll remember if they medal.
They'll remember they were there, Deb. Not everyone gets selected.
Coming up at the top of the hour on KRAK 11 News: new details on the Wexler County flooding, live weather, and an update on the Ledger's coverage of this station.
The article has not run yet.
The article will run.
When it runs, we will address it with the professionalism this desk has maintained for ten years.
Nine years and four months.
That is KRAK 11 Sports. I'm Chip Marlowe.
I'm Deb Sarkissian. The news continues at the top of the hour.
Did the endurance line land.
You compared yourself to a cricket match.
I compared the desk to a format that rewards sustained excellence under deadline pressure.
It's a hundred fucking balls, Chip. Children play it at recess.
Those children are learning discipline.
Sixty seconds.
Gordo. Did the national stage line read as prepared.
It read as a man who's thought about national stages.
For ten years.
Nine years and four months.
Reporting behind this episode
- Russia says at least seven killed in largest Ukrainian attack of 2026
- Tommy John, namesake for a pioneering elbow surgery that saved his career, dies at 83
- Russia says at least seven killed in largest Ukrainian attack of 2026
- Thousands displaced by deadly Indonesia earthquake as rescue efforts continue
- Two dead and hundreds evacuated after twin fires break out on Greek island
- Trump says US will scale back military drills with South Korea
- Teen suspect in Virginia campus shooting found hiding in closet
- One dead, homes swept away after Hurricane Lala lashes Hawaii
- Tommy John, namesake for a pioneering elbow surgery that saved his career, dies at 83
- Super Giants survive late wobble to win men's Hundred
- US commander says mental health a 'priority' on USS Lincoln
- Multiple people dead as flooding continues in Indiana
- Lala is again a tropical storm, sending drenching rain and winds across Hawaii
- What to know about Trump's Patriot Games for high school athletes