Virginia boy swept away as heavy rains and flooding hit several states

WESTERNPORT, Md. (AP) — Officials found the body of a 12-year-old boy who was swept away by rushing water on a Virginia roadway during a storm system that also forced a dozen students to stay overnight at a Maryland high school due to heavy rains that led to flooding in several states.

A 911 caller reported Tuesday night that the boy was walking outside when he was swept away by water that overtook the roadway from a nearby creek, Albemarle County Fire Rescue said in a social media post.

What is believed to be the body of Jordan Sims was found by crews searching for him about 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, the county agency stated. He will be taken a medical examiner’s office in Richmond for positive identification.

“This is a heartbreaking outcome, and our hearts are with the Sims’ family and loved ones,” Albemarle County Fire Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston said in a statement. “We are incredibly grateful to our local and regional partners who supported this search effort with urgency, professionalism, and care.”

In far western Maryland’s Allegany County, officials said about 150 students and 50 adults were evacuated Tuesday afternoon from Westernport Elementary School as floodwaters breached the second floor. Crews used rescue boats to transport the children to higher ground.

The small rural community of Westernport saw its downtown completely inundated for the first time in decades. Rapidly rising waters caught residents by surprise when a rainy day suddenly turned into an emergency situation.

“We went from just kind of puddles on the street to the whole town underwater in at most an hour,” said Chris Lafferty, deputy chief of Tri-Towns EMS in Westernport. “It turned basically all of downtown into a river.”

With a population under 2,000 people, Westernport is located in the far corner of western Maryland. Its modest downtown took shape in a valley where Georges Creek flows into the North Branch Potomac River.

People were also forced to relocate at two other county schools on Tuesday. Allegany County Public Schools said 12 students stayed overnight at Mountain Ridge High School before being picked up Wednesday morning. County schools were closed Wednesday.

Emergency officials said no one had been reported missing or injured, but residents were urged to stay home anyway because several secondary roads had been washed out.

The Potomac River remained within its banks, with only minor flooding reported and conditions generally improving, officials said. Crews were assessing damage after water receded in the Georges Creek area.

By Wednesday afternoon, the sun was shining and many residents had already spent hours scraping, shoveling and hauling massive quantities of mud. Crews used heavy equipment to clear mud from the streets and carted it away by dump truck.

They started cleaning out the town’s library and a fire station, where receding floodwaters left behind a thick layer of sludge. From backhoes to mops, people grabbed whatever they could find and pitched in.

“Everybody’s coming together just trying to clean up,” Lafferty said.

Much of Allegany County received about 3 to 5 inches (8 to 13 centimeters) of rain Tuesday. Rainfall records were broken in some spots of the region, said Anna Stuck, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Baltimore/Washington International Airport broke a rainfall record for the day, as did the city of Martinsburg, West Virginia.

More rain was on the way Wednesday, and while not as much was expected as on Tuesday, people should tune in for warnings, watches and advisories, Stuck said.

“Because of the rain yesterday, it won’t take much,” she said. “It will take less precipitation for it to flood because the ground is so saturated.”

Maryland’s Department of Emergency Management activated its emergency operations center to coordinate the state’s response. Roads in both Allegany and Garrett counties were closed because of flooding, according to state officials. Allegany County officials reported that floodwaters have caused washouts and gas line leaks.

“We remain in close contact with local officials and continue to coordinate resources as the rain continues to fall,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a press release. “I urge all Marylanders to remain vigilant, heed warnings from local officials, and prioritize safety during this time.”

In West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey declared a state of emergency Tuesday night in Mineral County, near Maryland, because of heavy rains and flash flooding, allowing the state to send resources.

Associated Press reporters Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, and Lea Skene in Baltimore contributed.

Clean up continues on Main Street after flooding on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Westernport, Md. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Furniture is placed outside the Westernport Library as clean up continues after flooding on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Westernport, Md. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Work crews are trying to drain water as clean up continues after flooding on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Westernport, Md. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Clean up continues inside the fire station after flooding on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Westernport, Md. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Children help clean up the fire station after flooding on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Westernport, Md. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The inside of the Westernport Library is damaged as clean up continues after flooding on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Westernport, Md. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

From left, Ashley Rishel from the Allegany County 911 and Lesley Moran help clean up Main Street after flooding on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Westernport, Md. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.

Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.

“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."

Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.

November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.

The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.

Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.

Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.

And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.

Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.

With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.

“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”

He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.

He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.

December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.

Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.

Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.

Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.

Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.

Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.

FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)