Report emanating from Foya, Lofa County indicates that a stinging honey bees attack Tuesday, 20 November 2012 left one person dead and five others critically wounded. Lofa County is situated in the northernmost portion of Liberia, with six political districts, Voinjama serving as the Capital City. The county’s land area measures 9,982 square kilometers (3,854 sq mi), and it is one of 15 counties that comprise the first-level of administrative division in country. According to the report, a swarm of honey bees Tuesday waged a stinging war on residents of Foya Town, killing an unidentified person and leaving five others wounded and hospitalized. The report reveals that the critically wounded persons are said to currently be receiving medical treatment at the Foya-Borma Hospital in the county. The report avers that the honey bee’s attack, which is the first of its kind in that part of the country, witnessed the flying insects overtaking every quarter of Foya Town in very huge numbers. The honey bees’ attack, the report maintains, terrified residents of the town and threw them in a state of confusion, with many persons running helter-skelter.
Biohazard name:
Bees Attack (Fatal)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
The death toll from a strong earthquake that struck central Indonesia at the weekend has risen to six, an official said Tuesday, after rescuers reached villages that had been cut off by a landslide.
“Six people have died, including a nine-year-old boy, and 43 are injured. More than 400 homes are now damaged,” National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AFP.
“There is still an area that we haven’t accessed, so we’ll send two helicopters there to distribute aid and assess the damage there. It’s possible the death toll could rise, but we’re hoping for the best.”
The 6.3-magnitude struck the island of Sulawesi Saturday evening at a depth of around 20 kilometres (12 miles), the US Geological Survey said, close to villages in the districts of Parigi Moutong and Sigi.
Landslides had blocked access to 14 villages in surrounding districts, and 300 soldiers and heavy equipment, including bulldozers, had been deployed to remove the debris, Sutopo said.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
A series of minor earthquakes was picked up by sensor by the geothermal area Krýsuvík on Reykjanes peninsula in Southwest Iceland on Saturday. The strongest of the earthquakes had a magnitude of 2.1 but most of them were below one.
Krýsuvík. Photo by ESA.
The series started shortly before 4 pm and lasted for three hours. The epicenter of the earthquakes was below the southern end of Kleifarvatn Lake, ruv.is reports.
Geophysicist Kristín Waagfjörð at the Icelandic Meteorological Office said earthquake swarms like these are very common in the Krýsuvík area.
In 2010 and 2011 there was constant uplift at Krýsuvík of a total of eight centimeters. At the end of last year, the land started sinking again.
Earth scientists are monitoring the uplift closely. It might either be related to pressure from geothermal heat or magma which could lead to volcanic activity.
Vulcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson writes about the conditions at Krýsuvík in the latest issue of the print edition of Iceland Review, and the risk of lava flows reaching the capital.
Planet Earth is riddled with unmonitored volcanoes. Many could erupt with scant notice to the world, causing anything from minor inconveniences to famines or catastrophic death and destruction. Yet when they blow up, these little-known volcanoes don’t usually make headlines for two reasons: 1) The people affected by the eruptions are poor, few in number and tend to be ignored by the world at large, and 2) the remote locations of the volcanoes and lack of monitoring equipoment make details of eruptions scarce.
One very unusual example of such a volcano is Ol Doinyo Lengai of Tanzania. The name means “Mountain of God.” After spending the previous four decades in relative rest, the mountain erupted violently in late 2007 and continued erupting through early 2008 with the coldest lava on Earth. Still, it’s lava and it made life pretty difficult when the ash and rocks rained down on nearby Masai villages like Naiyobi, seen in this image. The villages were evacuated for a while. When people returned they found their water fouled and many grazing lands unusable — a hard blow for people who depend on their cattle for their living.
In Jan. 2009, U.S. Geological Survey scientists David Sherrod, Thomas Casadevall and Gari Mayberry answered a call from the government of Tanzania for technical assistance in assessing the danger of Ol Doinyo Lengai. The following are some of their images and reflections from the expedition.
Cleveland Volcano experienced yet another explosion on Friday morning – its twentieth since Christmas.
Cleveland is one of the Aleutian Islands’ most active volcanoes. It’s been on watch for the better part of the past two years, and in June it blew ash 35,000 feet high.
Today’s explosion was small by comparison and didn’t produce a visible ash cloud, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Since there isn’t any real-time monitoring equipment on Cleveland, the explosion was detected using infrasound and seismic equipment on nearby volcanoes.
Cleveland lies on uninhabited Chuginadak Island, about 115 miles away from Unalaska and 900 miles from Anchorage. While there isn’t a population center near the volcano, it does lie below a major international flight path and could cause major air traffic problems in the event of a serious eruption.
Authorities on Tuesday declared a state of emergency around a town in Bosnia’s northeast and a tourist area was evacuated in the country’s south as a heat wave fuelled wildfires across the Balkans and left people suffering heat exhaustion. Bratunac Mayor Nedeljko Mladjenovic declared the emergency as he said wildfires from several directions were threatening his town. Around 50 residents are helping firefighters and forest rangers fight a blaze creeping towards the suburb of Slapasnica, and the town’s civil protection agency has asked for help from the army and residents. In the country’s south, firefighters are battling four blazes around the town of Konjic and townsfolk and tourists have begun evacuating houses near Boracko Lake as the extreme heat and strong winds have hindered the extinguishing of approaching blazes. Many tourists staying at the lake are Bosnians who live in Germany, returning home for the holidays. Zorica Muskovic arrived last week from Munich. “This is really not pleasant at all, I am scared. I want to leave as soon as possible,” she said.Aida Gakic from the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, who earlier evacuated two of her children from the resort, said she and her husband were unsure of the local fire brigade’s capabilities, so decided to stay put and protect their property. “We are terrified of the fire and rocks falling down from the mountain. I evacuated my children, and I only stayed behind to defend my weekend house, ‘ she said. Many of the fires swept through fields still dotted with mines from the Bosnian War, which took place in the region between 1992 and 1995. The resort is situated on a former frontline. Tourists said that they could hear loud explosions from the forest as the mines were set off by the blaze Such fires have been burning in several areas of Bosnia for weeks and the fight to extinguish them has been complicated by the country’s hilly terrain, strong winds, little rainfall and a 40-Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) heat wave which is forcing people to seek medical assistance. In the Bosnian capital, Dr. Tigran Elezovic of Sarajevo’s emergency service said Tuesday that since the start of the summer, around 600 people have sought daily help for heat-related health problems. “We are constantly instructing people to limit their outdoor activity in the period between 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and to finish whatever they need to do outdoors before 10 in the morning,” he said.
The mercury hit an all-time high of 40.4 degrees Celsius (104.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Czech village of Dobrichovice, south-west of the capital Prague, the CHMI state meteorological service said Monday.
Temperatures soared to a searing 40 degrees Celsius in several other towns across the country, according to the Czech CTK news agency.
Monday’s national high tops the previous record of 40.2 degrees Celsius set on July 27, 1983, in the Prague-Uhrineves suburb.
Hot air masses from Morocco and Spain are responsible for the ongoing heatwave searing the Czech Republic, meteorologists said, also predicting it would last several days.
Local authorities have issued heat stroke warnings for the elderly and the ill.
56,000 hectares of land ravaged in Croatia fires Zagreb (AFP) Aug 20, 2012 – Some 56,000 hectares (138,379 acres) of land were ravaged in fires in Croatia since January, 55 percent more than during the same period last year, the national rescue services (DUZS) said Monday.The number of blazes has risen to more than 7,800, an increase of 25 percent compared with January-August 2011, the Hina news agency reported, citing the DUZS statement.Most of the fires were registered along the coast where almost 24,000 hectares were burnt, while more than 32,000 hectares of land were ravaged in continental Croatia, it added.Croatia has been hit by dozens of fires that have burned several thousand hectares along the scenic coastline since July.On Monday, about 140 firefighters battled a blaze in the coastal area around Sibenik, where some 500 hectares were in flames.
An Italian firefighter died and another was injured on Monday when they were overcome by fumes from one of dozens of wildfires raging in the country as a heatwave reaches its peak, officials said.
The man was killed in the Campania region near Naples, which has been the worst hit by forest fires this season with regional officials saying around 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of land have been scorched there this month.
The fire service reported there were a total of 155 forest fires across Italy on Sunday including in the central Tuscany and Lazio regions.
The civil protection agency said planes and helicopters had to be called out to 30 separate incidents times on Monday to help battle the blazes.
Tropical Storm Tembin (天枰) has been upgraded to a typhoon and is likely to turn northwest toward Taiwan today, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
TAIPEI — Tropical Storm Tembin (天枰) has been upgraded to a typhoon and is likely to turn northwest toward Taiwan today, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
If the typhoon turns as forecast, its eye may make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast Thursday, according to the weather bureau.
As of 8 a.m., the eye of Tembin was located 620 kilometers southeast of Eluanbi, off the southernmost tip of Taiwan, moving at a speed of 8 km per hour in a northerly direction.
Tembin, the 14th storm of the Pacific typhoon season, is packing winds of 119 kph, with gusts of up to 155 kph, and has a radius of 150 km, the bureau said.
The typhoon is likely to move toward Taiwan on a northwesterly track Tuesday and take a more westerly turn Wednesday, the bureau said.
A sea warning for Tembin is likely to be issued Tuesday morning and areas around Taiwan should be prepared for strong winds and heavy rain Wednesday to Friday, the bureau warned.
Meanwhile, a tropical depression that formed near Guam on Sunday was still located 2,300 km from Taiwan as of 8 a.m. Monday and it may strengthen into a tropical storm over the next two days, the bureau said.
Tropical Storm Bolaven Forms, May Move Toward Taiwan
A tropical depression near Guam has been upgraded into Tropical Storm Bolaven (布拉萬) and may move toward Taiwan on a west-northwesterly track over the next few days, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
Bolaven formed a day after Typhoon Tembin developed at sea east of Luzon near the northern Philippines.
As of 2 p.m. Monday, Bolaven, the 15th storm of the Pacific typhoon season, was centered 2,200 kilometers southeast of Taiwan near Guam, according to the bureau’s latest statistics.
It is moving at a speed of 9 km per hour, packing winds of 65 kph, with gusts of up to 90 kph and a radius of 100 km.
The bureau said it remains to be seen what kind of influence the storm will have on Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Typhoon Tembin continues its northerly path toward the sea east of Taiwan. It is forecast to turn northwest toward Taiwan on Tuesday.
As of 2 p.m. Monday, the eye of Tembin was located 590 km southeast of Eluanbi on Taiwan’s southern tip, moving in a northerly direction at a speed of 11 kph.
It was packing winds of 144 kph, with gusts reaching 180 kph, said the bureau.
As the storm and typhoon are located 1,700 km apart from each other, there are currently no signs that they will interact with each other, it said.
Also on Monday, the Taipei City Department of Health called on the public to prepare for the typhoon by stocking up on food and water supplies to last for three days.
Bolaven is the Laotian word for plateau or mesa, while Tembin is Japanese for the constellation Libra
Hurricane Gordon weakens on approach to Azores Miami (AFP) Aug 19, 2012 – Hurricane Gordon weakened to a category one storm on Sunday but was expected to retain hurricane-strength winds as it passed over or near the Azores islands, US forecasters said.The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Gordon, the Atlantic season’s third hurricane, was some 220 miles (360 kilometers) southwest of the archipelago at 1800 GMT and was expected to strike sometime Monday.Gordon was packing maximum winds of 90 miles (150 kilometers) per hour, making it a category one storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.A hurricane warning was in effect for the eastern Azores.”Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the NHC said.The weather center predicted hurricane-like conditions Sunday night and into Monday, with heavy rains and dangerous waves along the coast.
Strong wind and rain in northern Vietnam unleashed by Typhoon Kai-Tak have killed at least 17 people, damaged thousands of houses and submerged valuable crops, authorities said Monday.
The typhoon, which made landfall late Friday, brought winds of about 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour, according to the national committee on flood and storm control.
Many of the dead are believed to have been killed in landslides or while attempting to cross rivers swollen by heavy rain.
In the capital Hanoi, about 200 trees were uprooted and a huge sinkhole appeared in the middle of a major road.
According to an official update, more than 12,000 houses were damaged and 30,500 hectares (75,000 acres) of cropland were flooded nationwide.
The storm was downgraded to a tropical depression on Saturday.
Before slamming into Vietnam, the typhoon killed four people in the Philippines and two in China, where the authorities relocated 530,000 people, according to state media there.
Typhoon brings flashfloods, landslides to Philippines Manila (AFP) Aug 20, 2012 – Typhoon Tembin brought heavy rains to the northern Phillipines on Monday, triggering landslides and flashfloods just weeks after a series of deadly storms and monsoon rains, the government said.
The storm, which was upgraded from a tropical storm, was moving slowly northwards off the northern tip of the main Philippine island of Luzon while battering the mountainous region with powerful downpours.
The heavy rain caused landslides that damaged eight major highways, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Tembin, packing maximum winds of 130 kilometres (681 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 160 kph, was expected to remain off the northern tip of Luzon for more than a day, the council added.
Local communities were warned to monitor the levels of rivers and streams in their area and prepare for evacuations in case they begin to rise.
Storms and flooding from torrential rains have left at least 170 people dead this month.
An average of 20 tropical storms or typhoons hit the Philippines each year.
Some of the families had to spend much time cleaning up the mess caused by the flood which also damaged household appliances. Several of the families which chose to celebrate Aidilfitri in villages elsewhere could not be reached to be informed of the natural disaster. A villager, Kartini alias Hawa Kamarudin, 59, said the flood damaged electrical equipment such as the refrigerator and washing machine as well as cupboards and carpets. Abd Rahman Mustapa, 55, said he was informed of the flood by a neighbour at 4.30 pm while he was on the way to Kuala Lumpur. “I returned home 30 minutes later, but could not do anything as the floodwaters had entered the house and damaged much of the furniture,” he said. Adnan Rahmat, 42, said he was able to save his electrical appliances as he was at home when the flood struck. Meanwhile, Klang municipal councillor Lee Sack Chuan, when contacted, said he had gathered information on the flood and would raise the matter with the district office for aid to be given to the victims.
21.08.2012
Flash Flood
Malaysia
State of Selangor, [Kampung Sungai Pinang Bandar in ]
Some of the families had to spend much time cleaning up the mess caused by the flood which also damaged household appliances. Several of the families which chose to celebrate Aidilfitri in villages elsewhere could not be reached to be informed of the natural disaster. A villager, Kartini alias Hawa Kamarudin, 59, said the flood damaged electrical equipment such as the refrigerator and washing machine as well as cupboards and carpets. Abd Rahman Mustapa, 55, said he was informed of the flood by a neighbour at 4.30 pm while he was on the way to Kuala Lumpur. “I returned home 30 minutes later, but could not do anything as the floodwaters had entered the house and damaged much of the furniture,” he said. Adnan Rahmat, 42, said he was able to save his electrical appliances as he was at home when the flood struck. Meanwhile, Klang municipal councillor Lee Sack Chuan, when contacted, said he had gathered information on the flood and would raise the matter with the district office for aid to be given to the victims.
21.08.2012
Flash Flood
China
MultiProvinces, [Provinces of Guizhou, Chongqing Municipality and Hunan ]
Heavy rains and storms are forecast to hit southern regions of China on Tuesday, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said. The national weather observatory said heavy rains will hit areas in Chongqing Municipality and Guizhou province in the southwest of the country. Hunan province, in particular, will suffer storms that are likely to bring up to 160 millimeters of rain, according to the NMC. The center said the cold front moving south is expected to alleviate the baking temperatures that have hit the southern regions in previous days. However, it warned that measures should be taken to guard against flooding and landslides, which are likely to be caused by the weather. The NMC also forecasts that storms will hit most parts of Taiwan on Thursday.
Two flash flood warnings have been issued for Potter and Randall counties. In Amarillo emergency personnel are responding to many stranded motorists and are redirecting traffic along I-40 and I-27. In residential streets, we’re receiving many reports of fallen trees that have hit houses and cars, and some major flooding. Police and city officials are encouraging people to stay home and not travel. Wes Reeves with Xcel Energy says that an estimated 8,500 people are without power in Amarillo and Channing.
Two more people are dead, amid of a total of 40 infections, in an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease in Quebec City, public health officials said Monday.
A microscopic image from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control shows a large grouping of Legionella pneumophila bacteria, the pathogen behind legionnaires’ disease. (Janice Haney Carr/Associated Press)That’s more than twice the number of cases that had previously been disclosed, and surpasses the last outbreak in the city, in 1995, when 12 people fell ill and one died.
Officials didn’t name or provide details about the two new fatalities, which bring the death toll to three. The first to die was an 88-year-old Quebec City woman.
Dr. François Desbiens, the director of public health for the Quebec City region, said authorities have begun inspecting downtown buildings that use a cooling tower as part of their ventilation.
Public-health officials had already sent 2,700 letters to building owners in the downtown core asking them to clean their cooling systems, but the emergence of new cases — a dozen since Friday afternoon — is prompting the inspections.
“We’re still seeing cases despite the fact that we’ve asked building owners to take steps,” Desbiens said. “So we’ve decided to go further and investigate every tower again, and for those that haven’t had maintenance, to identify them, to inspect them to take a water sample. And to order a disinfection.”
Bacteria spread in mist
Legionnaires, also known as legion fever, is a flu-like pneumonia that affects people with lung problems or weak immune systems. It is caused by bacteria that thrive in warm temperatures and can breed in the stagnant water of cooling towers, before spreading in the mist released by those systems.
It’s not contagious and presents no risk to people in good health. The disease got its name in the 1970s after an outbreak of pneumonia among people attending a convention of the American Legion.
Earlier this month, Desbiens guessed there were about 200 cooling towers in the area where people became sick that could be the source of the infection, but officials said Monday they’ve narrowed their area of concern down to 22 cooling towers in a core area that will be inspected by the end of the week, and 19 more in a different area that will be inspected after.
Tests on the water in those towers will take two to three days to get results confirming an infection with legionella bacteria.
There are normally two to three isolated cases of legionnaires’ disease a year in the Quebec City region.
Ugandaâs Ministry of Health has sent medical experts to the neighboring country of Congo to help contain an outbreak of the ebola virus. Last month Uganda was hit with its own outbreak, and the countryâs officials are eager to stem the spread of another one. Officials note that the Congo virus strain is unrelated to the strain recently detected in Uganada. âWe are just coming out of battling Ebola. We have to take all measures, including the possibility of sending a team there to help them stop it and ensuring that it does not spill over here,â Dr. Asuman Lukwago, the Ministryâs permanent secretary, told Ugandaâs New Vision yesterday. âWe usually co-operate with our neighbours as well as the international organisations when such outbreaks happen,â he added. Nine people have already died in Congo from health complications related to ebola, spurning several international organizations into action including the WHO, Doctors without Borders and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Efforts typically center on identifying the cause and sequestering those individuals associated therewith. Currently, doctors are focused on an area roughly 30 miles from the Ugandan border. Ebola is transmitted by close contact and body fluids such as saliva, vomit, faeces, sweat, semen and blood. The onset of illness is abrupt and is characterized by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, and weakness, followed by diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. There is no cure for the disease.
Specialists with the Permanent Contingency Commission (COPECO) are now in Trojes area, in the eastern Honduran department of El Paraíso, to investigate the alleged crash of a meteorite. According to the inhabitants of that region near the border with Nicaragua, a fireball crossed the sky on Saturday night and then they heard a loud explosion. A COPECO statement clarified that no specialized agency reported a meteorite passing by the Central American region, nor has reported the loss of an aircraft. Copeco and the astronomical observatory of the National Autonomous University of Honduras said their experts in the field are investigating what happened in that region and will report as soon as possible, while they called on people not to generate speculation to avoid uncertainty.
State park officials have posted signs at a central Ohio beach to warn visitors about toxic blue-green algae in the water. The Columbus Dispatch reports officials at Buckeye Lake State Park posted the health warnings at Brooks Beach after recent water samples showed a type of toxin in the algae was at a concentration exceeding a state health standard. The posts specifically target the elderly and the very young, as well as people with weakened immune systems. Health signs warning about toxic blue-green algae also were posted at four beaches in Grand Lake St. Marys in western Ohio in May.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green Algae bloom (cyanobacteria)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Thousands of dead fish have been found in the River Weaver in Cheshire. The Environment Agency was notified of “fish in distress” near Winsford by anglers on Saturday. Tests showed low oxygen levels in the water, so environmental officers have been pumping oxygen into the river. Tom Thornett from the Environment Agency, which is investigating the matter, said: “Potential causes could be naturally occurring algae that is known to starve water of oxygen.” Mr Thornett added: “Oxygen levels have been restored significantly and we are in the process of carrying out ongoing tests to identify what caused the oxygen levels in the water to drop. “Hydrogen peroxide is used to increase oxygen levels in the water and, in this case, may have created a build-up of foam because of reaction with small traces of detergent found in the water. “Although this might look unpleasant, it does not pose a risk to health or the environment.” Six species of fish including bream, roach, silverfish, carp, tench and perch have been affected. Steve Beech, of Winsford And District Angling Association, said: “The impact long term will be many years, tens of thousands of fish we cannot replace overnight. “We’ve lost generations of breeding stock.”
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (fishes)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Beaches across Galicia and Asturias on Spain’s northern Atlantic coast were affected as hundreds of thousands of the gelatinous creatures were washed towards shore. At least a hundred Portuguese man o’war have been spotted floating close to the shore across the region as well as enormous blooms of Pelagia Noctiluca – mauve stinger jellyfish – that more usually plague the beaches of the Mediterranean. The man o’war – not strictly a jellyfish but a floating colony of microscopic hydrozoans – has tentacles that can reach 30 yards long and are barbed with a sting that typically cause painful welts lasting up to three days. In some cases the sting can cause an allergic reaction and in rare cases, heart failure. Even when washed up on the sand the stings still contain venom. Authorities are also worried about the unprecedented number of mauve stingers, bright purple invertebrates that emit a yellowish glow at night which are swarming along the northwestern coast this summer.
Biohazard name:
Portuguese man O War Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A woman and her 4-year-old granddaughter went to the hospital after being stung by bees on Tuesday morning, according to a spokesman for the Glendale Fire Department. It happened at about 9 a.m. at the grandmother’s home in a neighborhood near 59th and Northern avenues. According to firefighters, the little girl used her grandmother’s emergency notification necklace to notify authorities after her grandmother was attacked outside her home by a swarm of bees. “Her four year old granddaughter was with her inside the home and recognized that her grandma was in trouble and activated grandma’s Life Alert, and was able to talk to dispatchers and tell them that she was in need of help,” said Michael Young with the Glendale Fire Department. The little girl also ended up getting stung as did the family dog, Chico, a Chihuahua. All are expected to be okay. Firefighters wearing protective gear used foam to kill the swarming bees. The adult bee attack victim was transported to the hospital by paramedics. The little girl’s mother took the child to the hospital. As firefighters searched for a bee hive they discovered that a beekeeper lives in the home behind the home where the victims were attacked. They reported seeing four hives in that backyard. The resident of that home first refused to let the firefighters in the backyard to access the hives, but later allowed them in. “He did let us know that it is his family business and that he was a bee keeper,” said Young. A search of records show there is not a business registered to the homeowner at that address. Glendale Police are now looking into the legality of the home owner’s bee operation in that yard. A spokesman says it’s possible the man could be cited under city code as a public nuisance or illegal use of residential land.
Biohazard name:
Bees attack
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Fifty-three people in the town of Sansafat in Egypt’s Menoufiya governorate were hospitalised on Tuesday after drinking poisoned drinking water. Angry citizens confronted Health Minister Mohamed Mustafa at the Manouf hospital, where the victims are undergoing treatment. The health minister and Ashraf Hilal, the governor of Menoufiya, were then held hostage by the victims’ families in the hospital for 45 minutes before being released by the police. The minister was also given a bottle of polluted water by one angry resident to show him what had caused the sickness. In response, Mustafa called for the closure all unlicensed water stations in the affected governorate. A primary analysis of the water found it had not been purified with chlorine, according to Amr Qandil, head of the preventive medicine at the health ministry.
Four infants between nine and 14 months have died within 24 hours after they were administered measles and DPT vaccines at a village in Doti district. The parents of the deceased said their children showed signs of pallor and vomited profusely a few hours after receiving the vaccinations, but district health officials said it was too early to conclude that the deaths were linked to the vaccines. Senior Public Health Officer at District Health Office Mahendra Dhowj Adhikari informed that the four infants were administered vaccines at the Deuledanda vaccination centre by health personnel from Kadamandau Sub-health post on Sunday. The deceased have been identified as Hira Damai’s 14-month-old son Milan, Suntali Nepali’s one-year-old daughter Sujata, Indari Chiral’s nine-month-old daughter Gauri and Pashupati BK’s 10-month-old daughter Manju. While Manju, Milan and Sujata were administered measles vaccine, Gauri was vaccinated against DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus). Suntali, mother of one of the deceased, complained that her daughter’s body and face had started swelling a few hours after receiving the injection. “She vomited continuously and turned pale.” “It has not been established whether the vaccines had anything to do with the deaths,” said Ramswartha Yadav, supervisor of the health camp in Sanagaun, where the children were vaccinated. “If there were indeed a connection between the deaths and the vaccines, then other children would have also shown similar symptoms, why only four?” Dr Sandip Shrestha of District Health Office said the there might have been some negligence on the part of the health workers while preparing the vaccine. “We have started an investigation into the incident,” he added. Health workers said the vaccines were to be administered within six hours after they were taken out of storage. The health office stated that the campaign was being conducted in the whole district, but complaints were not reported from other places. Maternal health worker Amrita Bogati, who had administered the vaccines, could not be reached.
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Tests have revealed that magma is bubbling higher than usual in Mount Tongariro, which means further eruptions are more likely.
A series of samples have been tested since the volcano’s Te Mari crater erupted on Monday night, but the latest results give the greatest insight.
“We’re now convinced that the likelihood of this just being a one-off has decreased,” GNS vulcanologist Nico Fournier said.
“But it doesn’t mean it’s just about to blow and go pear-shape.”
The results detected sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide in the steam plume, which indicated that magma was closer to the surface than it usually was, Fournier said.
It was unclear how high the magma was – it could be anything from meters to kilometers, Fournier said.
If a magmatic eruption did occur then it wouldn’t necessarily be significant, he said. It could result in a lava flow or it could lead to a series of explosions.
“It doesn’t mean it could be a massive eruption, it could be passive,” Fournier said.
It was also likely that Monday night’s eruption could be followed by a series of steam eruptions, or no activity at all, Fournier said.
Civil Defense, along with a number of other organizations including the Department of Conservation, would continue to monitor the volcano’s activity.
There was no new advice or warnings that stemmed from the latest development, a Civil Defence spokesman said.
There was about 2100 tonnes of sulfur dioxide being emitted from the volcano per day.
That was above average and the highest sulfur dioxide emission rate for any New Zealand volcano, however it wasn’t unexpected considering the amount of steam and gas which was being emitted, a GNS spokesperson said.
Further visual observations were being undertaken today.
Scientists would also be obtaining gas and water samples from the nearby Ketetahi hot springs and some of the rocks which were ejected from the crater and which damaged the Ketetahi hut.
The volcano was still ejecting steam and gas this morning while tremors continued to shake the earth below it, Fournier said.
Meanwhile, a 4.7 magnitude earthquake in the Bay of Plenty this morning has had no impact on White Island, which erupted on Tuesday night.
White Island tended to have volcanic episodes which lasted a few months to a few years, so this could just be the start of more to come, Rosenberg said.
Wellington, Aug. 10 (Xinhua-ANI): A floating mass of the volcanic rock, pumice, reportedly covering 25,000 square km, has been found floating in the South Pacific, indicating a third volcano is active near New Zealand.
The New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) said Friday the floating pumice, measuring 250 nautical miles long and 30 nautical miles wide, was first spotted by a New Zealand air force Orion on a maritime patrol from Samoa to New Zealand.
The Orion relayed the information to New Zealand navy vessel HMNZS Canterbury, which spotted the pumice late Thursday about 85 nautical miles west southwest of Raoul Island, one of the Kermadec Islands that lie 750 to 1,000 km northeast of New Zealand.
Lieutenant Tim Oscar, a Royal Australian Navy officer on exchange with the Royal New Zealand Navy, described the pumice as “the weirdest thing I’ve seen in 18 years at sea.”
“The lookout reported a shadow on the ocean ahead of us so I ordered the ship’s spotlight to be trained on the area,” Oscar said in the NZDF statement.
“As far ahead as I could observe was a raft of pumice moving up and down with the swell,” he said.
“The rock looked to be sitting 2 feet (60 cm) above the surface of the waves, and lit up a brilliant white color in the spotlight. It looked exactly like the edge of an ice shelf.”
Oscar said he had been briefed by a volcanologist from New Zealand’s Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science (GNS Science) the previous day when the ship encountered another area of pumice from an undersea volcano.
“I knew the pumice was lightweight and posed no danger to the ship. Nonetheless it was quite daunting to be moving toward it at 14 knots. It took about three to four minutes to travel through the raft of pumice and as predicted there was no damage,” he said.
“As we moved through the raft of pumice we used the spotlights to try and find the edge – but it extended as far as we could see. “
HMNZS Canterbury was en route to Raoul Island with a party of GNS scientists aboard at the time.
The Commanding Officer, Commander Sean Stewart, changed course to intercept the pumice and retrieve samples, which would be analyzed to determine which volcano they came from, said the statement.
According to GNS Science, the underwater volcano, Monowai, had been active along the Kermadec Arc and the pumice could be a result of that activity, said the NZDF statement.
The find comes after eruptions from Mount Tongariro, in New Zealand’s central North Island, late Monday and White Island, a marine volcano about 50 km off the east of the North Island, two days later.
The GNS scientists aboard the Canterbury believed the volcanic activity of Tongariro, White Island and along the Kermadec arc was unrelated, said the NZDF statement. (Xinhua-ANI)
Tongariro volcano has remained calm. GNS scientists measured elevated levels of SO2 and other volcanic gasses, which suggests that magma is accumulating beneath the volcano.
It is possible, that the Aug 6 eruption was only a precursor to a pending magmatic eruption, which could even be large, if the size of initial phreatic activity is in proportion to the proper magmatic eruption.
Weak ash emissions continue at White Island, producing a weak plume rising a few 100 m.
Other updates from the rest of the world include the usual candidates who have not shown much new or surprising activity:
Popocatépetl in Mexico: During the past 24 hours, 17 weak explosions occurred, and a constant steam and gas plume is rising. Glow is visible at night.
Fuego volcano: The lava flow towards Barranca Taniluya is active and reaches 200 meters length, producing small avalanches. 3 explosions were counted by the observatory yesterday and reached heights around 400 m.
Santiaguito / Santa Maria (Guatemala) produced a hot lahar yesterday at 21:50 h local time which drained large amounts of volcanic material and blocks. It lasted 15 minutes during which the windows of the observatory were vibrating.
Tungurahua volcano: The volcano has moderately strong seismic activity with phases of tremor frequently visible, related to fluid movements. No reports of recent explosions. Direct observations have been difficult due to bad weather.
El Hierro volcano: slightly increased number of quakes during the past days, including a shallow (3 km) M2.4 event on 8 Aug in the central part of the island.
A slightly increased tremor is visible at Stromboli in the Eolian island today suggesting that activity is higher today.
At nearby Etna, tremor continues to be low and glow at night is currently not visible from Bocca Nuova, suggesting that explosions, if any, are weak.
In Iceland, Askja volcano has been showing increased signs of unrest including higher than background levels of tremor, as Diana Barnes remarked on VolcanoCafe.
A comment on rumors about elevated tremor on Santorini volcano was posted as well. It is interesting to note that “tremor” usually starts in the morning and ends at night.
Finally, Sakurajima volcano in Japan produced 2 moderate to weak explosions so far today. VAAC Tokyo alerts of ash plumes rising 2.4 and 2.1 km, respectively.
10.08.2012
Non-categorized event
Other
Pacific Ocean – West, [About 620 miles northeast of Auckland]
A mass of small volcanic rocks nearly the size of Belgium has been discovered floating off the coast of New Zealand. The stretch of golf-ball-size pumice rocks was first spotted this week by a New Zealand air force plane about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northeast of Auckland. The rocks stretch for about 26,000 square kilometers (10,000 square miles). A navy ship took scientists to the rocks Thursday night. Naval Lt. Tim Oscar says the rocks appeared a brilliant white under a spotlight, like a giant ice shelf. He says it’s the “weirdest thing” he’s seen in 18 years at sea. Scientists say the rocks likely spewed up in an eruption by an underwater volcano. They don’t believe the eruption is connected to the onshore ash eruption this week of another volcano, Mount Tongariro. Officials say the small rocks pose no danger to shipping. The Defence Force says the mass of rocks stretches 250 nautical miles by 30 nautical miles.
Approaching a string of days with highs in the 90s, meteorologists and forecasters would probably quote official records and use specific examples of sizzlingly high temperatures to describe this sweltering summer. But for city residents such as 19-year-old Cadence Noble, one word will do: “Hot,” Noble said. “It’s been hot.” The metro area had seen 53 days this year with the high temperature at or above 90 degrees. With a high of 98 on Thursday — which tied the all-time high for the date — that streak reached 54, forecasters said. The record for days in the 90s is 61, which was set in 2000. With temperatures for the next couple of days projected in the mid- to upper 90s, forecasters said there’s a good chance the previous record will be broken. In addition to the heat, forecasters for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said the recent heavy haze, caused by wildfire smoke from Montana and the Pacific Northwest settling over metro Denver, has negatively affected air quality. The air-quality index for Denver was listed as “moderate” Thursday afternoon, meaning that unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion. “At these concentration levels, it’s more of an annoyance with the low visibility it creates, but it hasn’t risen to the point where it causes health effects,” said Emmett Malone, an air-quality meteorologist for the state. “As thick as this haze is, we’ll be close to or under it until tomorrow,” Malone added. Noble, who works at a restaurant on the 16th Street Mall, said she has been trying to beat the summer heat by taking advantage of air conditioning and frequenting local water parks. And while the heat does get to her, Noble said, she grew up in the East, where summers aren’t only hot but humid.
Boats were blown on shore at Little Manly Beach, a roof was ripped off and planes at Sydney airport were delayed as Sydney was hit by strong winds today. The winds reached as high as 106km/h on Sydney Harbour, the strongest gusts in at least six years. And they reached 111km/h at the highly exposed station of Wattamolla in the Royal National Park. All Sydney ferry services between Manly and Circular Quay had been suspended because of large swells, the Transport Management Centre said. A Sydney airport representative said gusts of up to 75km/h were “causing delays of up to 60 minutes at the domestic terminal”. International flights were not affected. A State Emergency Service (SES) representative said there were reports that a roof had been blown off St Paul’s Catholic school at Manly. And a fallen tree had crushed an unoccupied car in Ingleburn.
There had not been any reports of injuries. Sydney and Wollongong, in the Illawarra region of NSW, were the worst hit. The electricity network Ausgrid electricity said winds had left Sydney homes and businesses without power. Ausgrid representative Kylie Yates said emergency crews were scrambling to restore power. “As soon as we restore power in one area we seem to lose power in another,” she told Macquarie Radio. Branches falling on powerlines were the main problem. She said 7000 homes had lost power. Cronulla, Narrabeen, Mona Vale, North Curl Curl, Belrose, Riverwood and Asquith had been affected by power losses, she said. The winds are drawing a bitterly cold air mass over the state and cold winds are making the city feel close to freezing. Sydney’s temperature fell below 8 degrees this morning, but the relentless winds have made it feel closer to 3 degrees. “Wind chill will have the tendency to drag the temperature down,” Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Dmitriy Danchuk said this morning. “For Sydney for today we’re expecting temperatures within the 13 to 16 degrees range, but in the middle of the day I wouldn’t be surprised if it feels like temperatures slightly above zero.” The New South Wales ski resorts have had widespread falls of 20-40 centimetres of snow during the past 48 hours, with Perisher gaining more than 50 centimetres.
Showers and thunderstorms are tearing through the Carolinas Thursday. Heavy rain and strong winds are responsible for knocking down several trees. According to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, a tree fell on Interstate 85 northbound in Greenville County at the 54 mile marker. All lanes were blocked and traffic backed up for several miles. Numerous trees fell along the Pelham Road corridor, including one that fell on a man home in the Brookfield sub-division. Another tree crashed through a small fence at Christ The King Lutheran Church. Several trees knocked down powerlines along Rolling Green Circle in Greenville County. 7 On Your Side has received several other reports of trees and flooding blocking roadways. Firefighters say a home in Tryon caught fire after being struck by lightning. Thousands are without power according to Duke Energy.
A Forest Service campground has been closed, and residents of two homes were warned about increased danger as a forest fire grew in southern Lake County near the Nevada border. The word went out late Wednesday to evacuate the Dog Lake Campground, where there are an estimated 20 campsites. Residents of two privately owned residences within the Fremont-Winema National Forest were warned of potential dangers. The structure in greatest jeopardy was a fire lookout tower, which had gotten a protective wrapping, Forest Service spokeswoman Lisa Swinney said Thursday. The Barry Point fire area had grown to about 3 square miles. The daily fire report said it had a high potential to spread. At midday, Swinney said, there was no accurate containment estimate. Lightning that started over the weekend set off dozens of fires in Oregon, some of which grew to significant size or complexity. As with the Barry Point fire, just north of Nevada, many were along the state’s borders. Southwest of Medford, along the Oregon-California border, the Forest Service said crews were struggling to get a hold on a complex of small fires centered on the Red Buttes Wilderness area. It said the fire was spreading in “extremely steep and heavily forested terrain,” on about half a square mile of terrain _ about 340 acres. Video shot from the air showed standing dead trees, or “snags,” from the last big fire in the area, in 1987. The Forest Service said more firefighters were being pressed into service. To the east, a large fire from Nevada crept north into Harney County. The fire area totaled nearly 200 square miles, and its potential for growth was rated as extreme. Along the Idaho border in the far eastern part of the state, firefighters said they had established containment lines around an 8-square-mile fire south of Vale. In Central Oregon, a 2-square-mile fire near Sisters that briefly threatened a subdivision earlier in the week was expected to be contained Thursday. A disintegrating tire on a tanker headed for the Lakeview-area fire caused concern Wednesday at the Medford airport. The DC-7 tanker took off with a load of retardant. Workers noticed pieces of the tire on the runway, and a pilot on another tanker saw the tire was damaged but still inflated. After dropping its load of retardant, the tanker returned to Medford and landed safely, as firefighters kept watch.
(Reuters) – The death toll attributed to the storm Ernesto rose to six on Friday although it continued to weaken as it passed through Mexico’s eastern Veracruz state.
Three members of one family were killed on Thursday night when a tree fell on their pick-up truck about 60 miles southwest of Veracruz city, according to a state civil protection official. A fourth family member, a six-year-old child, was also injured in the accident.
Ernesto is blamed for causing torrential rains and flooding in nearby rivers.
According to local officials, three other people died earlier on Thursday — one in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, after falling while working on home repairs; and two more who drowned in next-door Tabasco state.
Three major oil-exporting ports in the Gulf of Mexico were re-opened on Friday morning as the storm no longer posed a risk to ships leaving installations in Coatzacoalcos, Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas, which ship most of Mexico’s crude oil exports.
Flooding could damage agriculture in southern Veracruz, a major corn producing area, according to Federico Assaleih, president of the state’s agriculture council.
“We have received reports that some (corn) plantations were flooded yesterday,” said Assaleih, but he added that the extent of crop damage would not be known for several days.
Ernesto, which the U.S. National Hurricane Center said dissipated on Friday morning, made landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan coast late on Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane.
(Reporting By Liz Diaz; Additional reporting and writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Tropical Storm Ernesto crossed the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, sending wind gusts and showers across the state of Veracruz, home to some of Mexico’s busiest ports and oil installations. The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, made landfall in the early afternoon close to the port city of Coatzacoalcos. Ernesto was heading west over southern Mexico at a speed of about 10 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 5 p.m. EDT advisory. Mexico’s government downgraded a hurricane warning for the coast of Veracruz to a tropical storm warning. The hurricane center said it expects further weakening as Ernesto moves over mountainous terrain in the next day or two. However, torrential rain and flooding was expected in Veracruz and authorities reported three deaths. Officials from state-run oil company Pemex said there were no reports of disruptions to facilities in the region, which include the Minatitlan refinery, producing 185,000 barrels of crude per day. The eye of the storm passed the oilfields of Cantarell and Ku Maloob Zaap, which account for just over half of Mexico’s oil production of about 2.5 million bpd.
Coatzacoalcos is home to one of Mexico’s key oil exporting ports, which has been closed since Wednesday along with Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas. Almost all of Mexico’s crude oil exports, which totaled 1.425 million bpd in June, are shipped to refineries on the Gulf Coast of the United States from the three ports. Authorities in Veracruz said they were preparing emergency shelters, if needed, in the flood-prone and densely populated state. The small Mina-Coatza airport, between Minatitlan and Coatzacoalcos, was closed on Thursday and waves of 13-20 feet were reported along the coast. Ernesto is forecast to plow through Veracruz state and into central Mexico on Friday as a tropical depression. The storm previously made landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan coast late on Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, before being downgraded to a tropical storm on Wednesday. Two people drowned and about 100 houses were damaged as the storm swept through the swampy state of Tabasco toward the Gulf of Mexico, according to local officials. One person died in Coatzacoalcos after falling while working on home repairs, an official from the local Red Cross unit said. The storm spared major tourist areas on the peninsula from a direct hit and landed in sparsely populated low-lying jungle, near the port town of Mahahual, 40 miles north of Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo state. Ernesto passed well south of the major tourist resort of Cancun, which saw only heavy rains. About 2,500 people were evacuated from Chetumal up the coast to Tulum in an area known for its scuba diving and ecotourism attractions. Rainfall of 3 to 6 inches, and possibly 15 inches in some areas, was expected in the states of Tabasco, Veracruz, Puebla and northern Oaxaca through Friday, the center said.
A rare summer storm blasted the Arctic this week, beginning off the coast of Alaska, and moving over much of the Arctic Sea for several days before dissipating.
Although the storm itself was uncommon — NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., estimates that there have only been about eight similarly strong August storms in the last 34 years — the real news behind the meteorological event is the stunning Aug. 6 photo taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The cyclone is spinning toward the North Pole, with Greenland visible in the bottom-left of the image. Scientists are left speculating what the impact of such a storm could be.
From NASA:
Arctic storms such as this one can have a large impact on the sea ice, causing it to melt rapidly through many mechanisms, such as tearing off large swaths of ice and pushing them to warmer sites, churning the ice and making it slushier, or lifting warmer waters from the depths of the Arctic Ocean.
“It seems that this storm has detached a large chunk of ice from the main sea ice pack. This could lead to a more serious decay of the summertime ice cover than would have been the case otherwise, even perhaps leading to a new Arctic sea ice minimum,” said Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist with NASA Goddard. “Decades ago, a storm of the same magnitude would have been less likely to have as large an impact on the sea ice, because at that time the ice cover was thicker and more expansive.”
More information on the abnormal Arctic weather this summer can be found here, courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Summer storms hammered the Tri-State area and created flash floods for some. Cars were washed away and drivers rescued in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. It could be an even worse situation on Friday with more rain on the way. Tow truck drivers were still trying to rescue a stranded SUV as the water was slowly receding around it. According to officials it had been submerged and it wasn’t the only vehicle buried in the high water. “We winced one car out from the other side, it was a Mini Cooper, and winced that to the other side of Route 9, the water was over the roof,” a tow truck driver said. Law enforcement used boats to search for vehicles they might have missed in the high water, and this was after several rescues. What happened in the area was a classic flash flood. At around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, heavy driving rains caused storm drains to fill and in a matter of minutes the ramp connection 440 North to Route 9 South was flooded. “Reports were that there were cars trapped in the water with people trapped in the car. We arrived on scene, we had three cars submerged, we had one lady up to her knees, she was on the roof of the car, the water was up to her knees,” a firefighter said. They rescued her and there was a Good Samaritan who rescued two other motorists from their cars. What is left now is the damage to the cars from the flooding, and the detours that were caused into the evening.
Yesterday AVN received a tip from a reliable source with knowledge of adult video production in Europe who said that there is currently an outbreak of syphilis in Budapest. AVN was able to corroborate the tip with Sandy’s Models and Brill Babes, 2 of the biggest modeling agencies in the Hungarian capital. The infection is widespread enough that all production has been put on hold in Budapest until 21 Aug 2012. “There is some serious situation here in Budapest,” Cameron of Sandy’s Models told AVN. “Yesterday – 7 Aug 2012 – the Labor [department] sent a warning e-mail that they found that [the number of people infected with syphilis has] dramatically increased.” AVN Hall of Famer Rocco Siffredi, who’s based in Budapest, told AVN Tuesday that “today the number of people infected is 21 and the outbreak is not over!” Both Cameron and Eszter of Brill Babes put the number of syphilis infections at 18 (14 females and 4 males), with 8 female performers receiving positive results on Monday [6 Aug 2012] alone. “All the models go to double syphilis check from yesterday – 7 Aug 2012, and the whole business stops till – 21 Aug 2012,” Eszter of Brill Babes told AVN. “After the 21st everyone should retest again, and only the totally clear people are able to work in the future. Maybe the break will take longer; we’ll see.” It’s not known at this point where the infection originated, but Siffredi pointed out that many foreign performers come to Budapest to shoot, and that he suspects the infection came from somewhere else. “The big problem is that not only local performers are involved but also Czechs and Russians where we believe that this all think start [sic],” he said. AVN will be following this story as it develops.
Biohazard name:
Syphilis
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
The first case of deadly Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever has been confirmed from a private hospital in Karachi, whose lab analysis confirmed that the patient was suffering from the viral disease, officials said on Thursday. The Sindh Dengue Surveillance Cell officials confirmed that the patient, whose name was not disclosed, was admitted to a private hospital in Karachi with symptoms of Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever. His test from another private hospital confirmed that he was suffering from the disease. Sources in the provincial health department said the patient’s name was Jumma Khan, whose age was between 40 and 45 years and he belongs to Karachi. He was being treated at a local private hospital after testing positive for the Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic fever. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), CCHF is a severe disease in humans, with a high mortality rate. Fortunately, human illness occurs rarely, although animal infection may be more common. The WHO says the disease has been prevalent in Pakistan, especially in the Balochistan province, since 2000 and over last two years, caused the deaths of several people.
Biohazard name:
Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF)
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
At least 10 people admitted to the Sukraraj Tropical and Disease Control Hospital in Nepali capital Kathmandu have tested positive for cholera. The hospital laboratory said Vibrio Cholera belonging to 01 Ogawa stereotype was detected in all the patients. Doctors at hospital attributed the spread of cholera and diarrhea infection in Kathmandu to contaminated water, according to Saturday’s Republica daily. “Most of the patients who came to the hospital said that they had drunk water supplied by Kathmandu Upatyaka Kahanepani Limited without boiling or treatment,” Tulsha Adhikari, a nursing staff said. She said whole families had been infected and some were brought to the hospital by their neighbors as all family members were sick.
Biohazard name:
Cholera
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
It might look like a scene from a horror film but this is the breathtaking natural phenomenon which has met tourists at a popular French beauty spot.
The stunning scenes in Camargue, southern France, may look very dramatic but are actually thought to be caused by the high levels of salt within the water.
The bizarre sight was captured by photographer, Sam Dobson, from Moscow in Russia.
The natural phenomenon, which has seen salt levels turn water red, has had a breathtakingly beautiful – and eerie - effect on wildlife
It’s a stretch of road where not much has changed, at least in Willard Hebbe’s lifetime. “A few bicyclists out here,” said Hebbe. “They like to come out here and ride, but it’s just a country road out here.” It’s a road Hebbe knows well, which is why what he drove by Thursday stood out. “I saw a truck in the driveway, kind of strange and unusual,” said Hebbe. Strange because, the fence usually hiding it from view was ripped right out of the ground. “After awhile we had two or three fire trucks and an ambulance and a tow truck,” Hebbe added. That’s when Hebbe’s daughter Kristin started taking pictures, capturing much more than a wrecked truck. The driver’s off road ride finally ended when the truck slammed into the corner of a nearby house ending one accident and starting another. “Evidently there was a swarm of bees in the house and the bees attacked the guy getting out of the truck,” explained Hebbe. The swarm stung not only the driver, but several others, including the homeowner who tried to pull him to safety. The attack makes five in the past week for Travis County. They started last Friday with two attacks near Koenig and Lamar. Another swarm struck north Austin off Croslin Street. The worst was Wednesday in Plugerville, when bees stung a man more than 300 times. Thursday’s swarm wasn’t even the biggest. A bee wrangler said the hive was just a few years old. “I don’t know what’s up with all these bees,” smiled Hebbe. “I don’t think these are related to those bees, but don’t really know for sure.” What Hebbe does know, he’ll be keeping an eye out for all things that buzz. Travis County EMS says the driver of that truck was taken to Seton Williamson Hospital. The man is expected to make a full recovery.
Biohazard name:
Bees attack
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A deadly disease that hasn’t been seen in Colorado for 31-years has been found in the northeast part of state. The Colorado Department of Agriculture is currently investigating an anthrax case in Logan County; one deceased cow is confirmed to have been infected with the disease, approximately 50 dead cattle are suspected to have been exposed. One location has tested positive and adjacent ranchers are being notified. No cattle left the location prior to the quarantine. No cattle entered the food chain. “The risk is minimal outside the affected ranch. We believe, at this point, that anthrax is confined to that specific premises,” said State Veterinarian, Dr. Keith Roehr. “Colorado has not had an anthrax case in 31 years but anthrax outbreaks are not uncommon in the Western United States. We are dedicated to providing the necessary response to ensure that the investigation works quickly to limit the spread of this disease.” The premises has been quarantined and people, cattle, and equipment that may have come into contact with anthrax are being monitored during this investigation. “Our focus is on the potential for human exposure,” said Dr. Tony Cappello, district public health administrator for the Northeast Colorado Health Department.
“We are currently conducting our own public health investigation and contacting individuals that have been involved with the livestock. Anthrax is not spread from person to person and exposure is limited only to those who had contact with the affected cattle or the immediate area.” Anthrax can develop naturally in soil; the spores can become active in association with periods of marked climatic or ecologic change such as heavy rainfall, flooding or drought which can then expose the anthrax spores to grazing livestock. Outbreaks of anthrax are commonly associated with neutral or alkaline soils. In these areas the spores apparently revert to the vegetative form and multiply to infectious levels so that cattle, horses, mules, sheep and goats may readily become infected when grazing such areas. Anthrax is a serious disease because it can cause the rapid loss of a large number of animals in a very short time. Often, animals are found dead with no illness detected. Appropriate carcass disposal is being used to prevent further soil contamination. Producers should consult their veterinarians and vaccinate their livestock, if deemed appropriate. Humans or animals can become infected by coming in contact with infected animals, soil or water. Anthrax infection can be treated with antibiotics, especially if caught in the early stages.
Biohazard name:
Anthrax (cow)
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
Fire officials said a Wednesday morning earthquake was to blame for explosion at an Ontario home that injured a man in his 70s.
The 11:40 a.m. blast blew the windows out of the two-story home and adjacent garage, located in the 400 block of West Carlton Street, and sparked a small fire inside, according to the Ontario Fire Department. A garage door also was blown off, landing in a neighboring yard.
Firefighters doused the blaze within about 10 minutes as paramedics treated the injured man on scene, officials said. He was later taken to an area hospital for an evaluation.
A fire inspector later determined that an earthquake Wednesday morning caused some items in the garage to fall, opening a gas valve in the process, officials said. The garage filled with natural gas and, ignited by the water heater, ultimately exploded.
The incident caused an estimated $200,000 in damage.
A series of more than 30 small-to-moderate earthquakes have rattled Southern California since Tuesday night, beginning with a magnitude 4.5 quake reported near Yorba Linda. Another 4.5 quake rumbled the area about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday; the smaller temblors were reported in between.
No significant damage was reported during the quakes themselves.
While earthquakes today were often less destructive because of improved building codes, more people were affected because cities were larger. File image. AFP
IT’S only a matter of time before a huge earthquake strikes a major city and results in a death toll “unprecedented in human history”.
Well-known Scottish scientist Iain Stewart delivered that grim prediction yesterday in Brisbane during an address to a global geology conference.
Professor Stewart, a geologist and academic who has gained fame for multiple BBC television series on the planet, said the risk of disaster has grown because a growing number of mega-cities are built on or near major earthquake faults.
Large settlements since antiquity have been based on these fault lines because they also help provide water and are usually located near flat plains ideally suited for growing crops.
This “fatal attraction” to dangerous areas was “actually a good thing”, because historically the trade-off was worth it since earthquakes were rare and most cities were not that large, he said.
While earthquakes today were often less destructive because of improved building codes, more people were affected because cities were larger, Prof Stewart told delegates at the 34th International Geological Congress.
Despite the danger of such hazards, people were still drawn to earthquake-prone California and the US gulf states, which were routinely hit by hurricanes.
Although it might seem that the number of natural disasters around the world is increasing, there are simply more people living in harm’s way, and that fact creates the illusion. “We create the template that brings these disasters,” Prof Stewart said.
Similarly, people want to live only 20m from the beach, even in regions liable to be struck by tsunamis. Even after properties have been destroyed, many owners vow to rebuild.
Further research was needed to understand why people continued to have such a high threshold for living in danger zones and why they often chose to ignore the science that could save their lives, he said.
Location of the larrger recent earthquakes under Sotarà
The summit of Sotarà volcano on an INGEOMINAS photo from Oct 2011
Current seismic signal (SOSO station) late on 8 aug
The recent increase in seismic activity under Sotarà volcano promted INGEOMINAS to raise the alert level from yellow (unrest) to orange (eruption warning) yesterday afternoon.
The increase had been detected on June 24, 2012 and since that date, 6891 earthquakes have been recorded, i.e. an average of 150 quakes per day. Most of them (5177) are of very small magnitude, but the remaining 1714 quakes were of significant energy (local magnitudes 0.1-2.2) and concentrated in an area between 0.1 and 5 km northeast of the volcanic summit at depths between 2 and 6 km.
None of these events were felt by inhabitants of the communities surrounding the volcano Sotará.
The deformation network shows a possible inflation process towards the northeast sector of the volcano, which correlates with the epicentral zone of seismicity reported and suggest that magma is rising there, and might (or might not) lead to an eruption in a near to medium future.
During the month of July geochemical surveys showed no significant changes in temperatures of hot springs in the area.
INGEOMINAS stresses that this activity does not pose any immediate danger to the communities aroud the volcano. However, it should be said as well that this could change quickly.
Flashes of lightning have been reported coming from White Island as the volcano continues to erupt since Sunday.
White Island, which lies 48 kilometers off the Bay of Plenty coast, was raised to a Volcanic Alert Level 2 after a surveillance camera captured a small eruption from its crater last week.
Whakatane Police said they received a number of calls reporting lightning of different colours since just after 7pm.
GNS visited the island, which is New Zealand’s most active cone volcano, this morning and confirmed it was still erupting with a 300 metre plume of ash spewing from the crater.
GNS scientist Michael Rosenberg said volcanic lightning is quite common and is a result of ash generating static electricity.
There were also reports this afternoon of ash falling on Papamoa, which is on the coast near Tauranga.
“It is extremely fine, but it’s visible on cars,” said Carol Congalton.
GNS scientist Brad Scott said “A relatively new vent seems to have formed at the back of the crater lake and it’s a very open vent and volcanic ash has been emitted from that.”
The Aviation Colour Code remains at orange, meaning the volcano is “exhibiting heightened unrest”.
The volcano’s first ash eruption since 2001 poses the highest level of risk for visitors to the island, GNS said, but it is not a threat to the mainland.
GNS advises visitors to take a high level of caution, with possible health risks including ash and acid gas exposure, respiratory issues, and skin and eye sensitivity to acid gases.
Scientists said the eruption could last a few days or weeks, or like the last one, which erupted for 25 years.
The recent increase in seismic activity under Sotarà volcano promted INGEOMINAS to raise the alert level from yellow (unrest) to orange (eruption warning) yesterday afternoon. The increase had been detected on June 24, 2012 and since that date, 6891 earthquakes have been recorded, i.e. an average of 150 quakes per day. Most of them (5177) are of very small magnitude, but the remaining 1714 quakes were of significant energy (local magnitudes 0.1-2.2) and concentrated in an area between 0.1 and 5 km northeast of the volcanic summit at depths between 2 and 6 km. None of these events were felt by inhabitants of the communities surrounding the volcano Sotará. The deformation network shows a possible inflation process towards the northeast sector of the volcano, which correlates with the epicentral zone of seismicity reported and suggest that magma is rising there, and might (or might not) lead to an eruption in a near to medium future. During the month of July geochemical surveys showed no significant changes in temperatures of hot springs in the area. INGEOMINAS stresses that this activity does not pose any immediate danger to the communities aroud the volcano. However, it should be said as well that this could change quickly.
Several record-high temperatures for the day were set Wednesday as Southern California continued to sizzle in a summer heat wave that could become even hotter in the coming days. Woodland Hills peaked at 107 degrees, breaking by 1 degree a record that was set in 1982, the National Weather Service said. Records were also set in Riverside County. Ramona hit 101 degrees. That broke a record of 99 set in 1998, forecasters said. Th desert community of Thermal hit 115 degrees, which beat a record of 114 recorded in 2004. Triple-digit temperatures were also recorded in places such as Palmdale, which topped out at 107 degrees, and Elsinore, where the high was 111 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. Downtown Los Angeles at USC was 89 degrees. Forecasters said Thursday and Friday could be the hottest days. The heat could couple with monsoonal moisture, sparking thunderstorms in mountain and valley areas.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Forecasters say there’s no relief in sight and Southern California’s heat wave is expected to continue through this week, with temperatures peaking Thursday and Friday.
The National Weather Service says Woodland Hills topped its 1982 record of 106 on Wednesday, when the mercury reached 107.
On Monday, the San Fernando Valley hotspot tied its record temperature of 108 degrees that was set in 1997.
Southern California Edison is ramping up the number of crews available to respond to possible power outages as sweltering temperatures send electricity use climbing.
The company is urging conservation and saying that high electricity use _ particularly from air conditioners _ is straining distribution equipment, but no power outages have been reported.
Showers and thunderstorms are tearing through the Carolinas Thursday. Heavy rain and strong winds are responsible for knocking down several trees. According to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, a tree fell on Interstate 85 northbound in Greenville County at the 54 mile marker. All lanes were blocked and traffic backed up for several miles. Numerous trees fell along the Pelham Road corridor, including one that fell on a man home in the Brookfield sub-division. Another tree crashed through a small fence at Christ The King Lutheran Church. Several trees knocked down powerlines along Rolling Green Circle in Greenville County. 7 On Your Side has received several other reports of trees and flooding blocking roadways. Firefighters say a home in Tryon caught fire after being struck by lightning. Thousands are without power according to Duke Energy.
A man slides down a hill after a rare snowfall in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. Temperatures dropped to below freezing Tuesday morning as snow flurries blew through South Africa’s commercial hub Johannesburg, dusting the city in white as residents poured into the streets to watch the snowflakes fall. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
JOHANNESBURG — People slowly came outside despite the cold wind Tuesday across South Africa, pointed their mobile phone cameras to the sky and opened their mouths to taste a rare snowfall that fell on much of the country.
The snow began Tuesday morning, part of an extreme cold snap now biting into a nation still in its winter months. By mid-afternoon, officials recorded snowfall across most of South Africa. However, forecasters acknowledged snow remains so unusual that they typically aren’t prepared to provide details about snowfall in the nation.
The snow closed some roads and at least one high-altitude pass. The snowfall also closed several border posts in the country.
As the snow fell, workers at offices in Johannesburg rushed outside. Some twirled and danced as the flakes fell. One man rushed to the top of a snow-covered hill and slid down, using a cardboard box as an improvised toboggan. Despite the cold and the snow, beggars who line traffic lights in the city continued to ask passing motorists for cash.
The snow grew heavier in the afternoon in Johannesburg, covering rooftops and slicking roads. Snowflakes are a rare commodity in Johannesburg, even during winter. South African Weather Service records show it has snowed in Johannesburg on only 22 other days in the last 103 years. The last snow fell there in June 2007.
In Pretoria, the country’s capital, flurries filled the sky during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was the first snowfall there since 1968, the weather service said.
A Forest Service campground has been closed, and residents of two homes were warned about increased danger as a forest fire grew in southern Lake County near the Nevada border. The word went out late Wednesday to evacuate the Dog Lake Campground, where there are an estimated 20 campsites. Residents of two privately owned residences within the Fremont-Winema National Forest were warned of potential dangers. The structure in greatest jeopardy was a fire lookout tower, which had gotten a protective wrapping, Forest Service spokeswoman Lisa Swinney said Thursday. The Barry Point fire area had grown to about 3 square miles. The daily fire report said it had a high potential to spread. At midday, Swinney said, there was no accurate containment estimate. Lightning that started over the weekend set off dozens of fires in Oregon, some of which grew to significant size or complexity. As with the Barry Point fire, just north of Nevada, many were along the state’s borders. Southwest of Medford, along the Oregon-California border, the Forest Service said crews were struggling to get a hold on a complex of small fires centered on the Red Buttes Wilderness area. It said the fire was spreading in “extremely steep and heavily forested terrain,” on about half a square mile of terrain _ about 340 acres. Video shot from the air showed standing dead trees, or “snags,” from the last big fire in the area, in 1987. The Forest Service said more firefighters were being pressed into service. To the east, a large fire from Nevada crept north into Harney County. The fire area totaled nearly 200 square miles, and its potential for growth was rated as extreme. Along the Idaho border in the far eastern part of the state, firefighters said they had established containment lines around an 8-square-mile fire south of Vale. In Central Oregon, a 2-square-mile fire near Sisters that briefly threatened a subdivision earlier in the week was expected to be contained Thursday. A disintegrating tire on a tanker headed for the Lakeview-area fire caused concern Wednesday at the Medford airport. The DC-7 tanker took off with a load of retardant. Workers noticed pieces of the tire on the runway, and a pilot on another tanker saw the tire was damaged but still inflated. After dropping its load of retardant, the tanker returned to Medford and landed safely, as firefighters kept watch.
Three hotels in Kardamena resort on the Greek island of Kos in the Aegean Sea have been evacuated due to a wildfire. The visitors were evacuated after smoke from the nearby fires reached the hotels and started bothering the holidaymakers. The tourists waited for some time on the beach, while the Greek firefighters were battling the flames with the help of two firefighting aircraft. Strong fires were registered in several districts in Greece. In Arcadia on the island of Peloponnesus the fire spread on an area of a few kilometers. In addition, forest fires were registered close to Corinth, west of Athens, and in Athos, in the north of the country. Firefighters from several districts are battling the fire close to Corinth. The flames are raging near the national motorway. In Athos the fire broke out not far away from the Hilandar Monastery.
Tropical Storm Ernesto crossed the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, sending wind gusts and showers across the state of Veracruz, home to some of Mexico’s busiest ports and oil installations. The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, made landfall in the early afternoon close to the port city of Coatzacoalcos. Ernesto was heading west over southern Mexico at a speed of about 10 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its 5 p.m. EDT advisory. Mexico’s government downgraded a hurricane warning for the coast of Veracruz to a tropical storm warning. The hurricane center said it expects further weakening as Ernesto moves over mountainous terrain in the next day or two. However, torrential rain and flooding was expected in Veracruz and authorities reported three deaths. Officials from state-run oil company Pemex said there were no reports of disruptions to facilities in the region, which include the Minatitlan refinery, producing 185,000 barrels of crude per day. The eye of the storm passed the oilfields of Cantarell and Ku Maloob Zaap, which account for just over half of Mexico’s oil production of about 2.5 million bpd.Coatzacoalcos is home to one of Mexico’s key oil exporting ports, which has been closed since Wednesday along with Cayo Arcas and Dos Bocas. Almost all of Mexico’s crude oil exports, which totaled 1.425 million bpd in June, are shipped to refineries on the Gulf Coast of the United States from the three ports. Authorities in Veracruz said they were preparing emergency shelters, if needed, in the flood-prone and densely populated state. The small Mina-Coatza airport, between Minatitlan and Coatzacoalcos, was closed on Thursday and waves of 13-20 feet were reported along the coast. Ernesto is forecast to plow through Veracruz state and into central Mexico on Friday as a tropical depression. The storm previously made landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan coast late on Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, before being downgraded to a tropical storm on Wednesday. Two people drowned and about 100 houses were damaged as the storm swept through the swampy state of Tabasco toward the Gulf of Mexico, according to local officials. One person died in Coatzacoalcos after falling while working on home repairs, an official from the local Red Cross unit said. The storm spared major tourist areas on the peninsula from a direct hit and landed in sparsely populated low-lying jungle, near the port town of Mahahual, 40 miles north of Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo state. Ernesto passed well south of the major tourist resort of Cancun, which saw only heavy rains. About 2,500 people were evacuated from Chetumal up the coast to Tulum in an area known for its scuba diving and ecotourism attractions. Rainfall of 3 to 6 inches, and possibly 15 inches in some areas, was expected in the states of Tabasco, Veracruz, Puebla and northern Oaxaca through Friday, the center said.
A gym provides temporary accommodation for dozens of people in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday as Typhoon Haikui bears down. [Photo: China Daily/ Zhang Di]
Typhoon Haikui left 4 people dead and forced more than 2.14 million people to be relocated by 4 p.m. Thursday in east China’s Shanghai municipality and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, according to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
In Shanghai, the typhoon has left 2 dead and affected 361,000 people, the ministry said, adding that 50 houses were destroyed and 700 others damaged.
In Jiangsu province, Haikui left one person dead and affected 662,000 people, and it destroyed 600 houses and damaged 2,400 others.
The typhoon also affected more than 7 million people in Zhejiang province, with 1.55 million people relocated, and it left one person dead and forced 163,000 others to be evacuated in Anhui province, the ministry said.
Officials and experts have been sent to rainstorm-battered Anhui province in east China to aid in local relief efforts, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Thursday.
Haikui is the third typhoon to wallop China’s eastern coast in a week, after storms Saola and Damrey hit the region over the weekend.
Ten cities and municipalities in Metro Manila and six provinces in Luzon have been placed under a state of calamity due to massive flooding caused by four days of non-stop monsoon rains. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said that areas in Metro Manila that have been placed under a state of calamity were Marikina, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela, Muntinlupa, San Juan, Pasig, Pasay, Caloocan and Pateros. In Central Luzon, the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga, Zambales and Bulacan as well as Laguna and Palawan provinces in Southern Luzon have also been placed under a state of calamity. Quezon City, which has the most number of families affected by floods, has yet to make a calamity declaration. There are a total of 72,468 people affected by flooding in the city and majority of them or a total of 72,264 are staying in 57 evacuation centers. Quezon City and Marikina City have been hit by greater volume of torrential rains since Sunday night. A massive evacuation has been ordered in Marikina City due to the overflowing of the Marikina River. A total of 246,808 people have been affected in 17 areas in Metro Manila. The other regions affected by the monsoon rains were Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa and Western Visayas. The NDRRMC said that a total of 454,093 families or nearly two million people in Metro Manila and the five other regions are affected by floods caused by the monsoon rains. It has also confirmed 19 fatalities, nine of which died in a landslide in Quezon City and eight died from drowning. Flooding in Quezon City and other areas in Luzon were expected to continue due to the overflowing of major dams including La Mesa, Angat and San Roque. The water reserve in Ipo, Ambuklao and Binga dams are near spilling levels.
The first case of deadly Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever has been confirmed from a private hospital in Karachi, whose lab analysis confirmed that the patient was suffering from the viral disease, officials said on Thursday. The Sindh Dengue Surveillance Cell officials confirmed that the patient, whose name was not disclosed, was admitted to a private hospital in Karachi with symptoms of Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever. His test from another private hospital confirmed that he was suffering from the disease. Sources in the provincial health department said the patient’s name was Jumma Khan, whose age was between 40 and 45 years and he belongs to Karachi. He was being treated at a local private hospital after testing positive for the Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic fever. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), CCHF is a severe disease in humans, with a high mortality rate. Fortunately, human illness occurs rarely, although animal infection may be more common. The WHO says the disease has been prevalent in Pakistan, especially in the Balochistan province, since 2000 and over last two years, caused the deaths of several people.
Biohazard name:
Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF)
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
It’s a stretch of road where not much has changed, at least in Willard Hebbe’s lifetime. “A few bicyclists out here,” said Hebbe. “They like to come out here and ride, but it’s just a country road out here.” It’s a road Hebbe knows well, which is why what he drove by Thursday stood out. “I saw a truck in the driveway, kind of strange and unusual,” said Hebbe. Strange because, the fence usually hiding it from view was ripped right out of the ground. “After awhile we had two or three fire trucks and an ambulance and a tow truck,” Hebbe added. That’s when Hebbe’s daughter Kristin started taking pictures, capturing much more than a wrecked truck. The driver’s off road ride finally ended when the truck slammed into the corner of a nearby house ending one accident and starting another. “Evidently there was a swarm of bees in the house and the bees attacked the guy getting out of the truck,” explained Hebbe. The swarm stung not only the driver, but several others, including the homeowner who tried to pull him to safety. The attack makes five in the past week for Travis County. They started last Friday with two attacks near Koenig and Lamar. Another swarm struck north Austin off Croslin Street. The worst was Wednesday in Plugerville, when bees stung a man more than 300 times. Thursday’s swarm wasn’t even the biggest. A bee wrangler said the hive was just a few years old. “I don’t know what’s up with all these bees,” smiled Hebbe. “I don’t think these are related to those bees, but don’t really know for sure.” What Hebbe does know, he’ll be keeping an eye out for all things that buzz. Travis County EMS says the driver of that truck was taken to Seton Williamson Hospital. The man is expected to make a full recovery.
Biohazard name:
Bees attack
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A deadly disease that hasn’t been seen in Colorado for 31-years has been found in the northeast part of state. The Colorado Department of Agriculture is currently investigating an anthrax case in Logan County; one deceased cow is confirmed to have been infected with the disease, approximately 50 dead cattle are suspected to have been exposed. One location has tested positive and adjacent ranchers are being notified. No cattle left the location prior to the quarantine. No cattle entered the food chain. “The risk is minimal outside the affected ranch. We believe, at this point, that anthrax is confined to that specific premises,” said State Veterinarian, Dr. Keith Roehr. “Colorado has not had an anthrax case in 31 years but anthrax outbreaks are not uncommon in the Western United States. We are dedicated to providing the necessary response to ensure that the investigation works quickly to limit the spread of this disease.” The premises has been quarantined and people, cattle, and equipment that may have come into contact with anthrax are being monitored during this investigation. “Our focus is on the potential for human exposure,” said Dr. Tony Cappello, district public health administrator for the Northeast Colorado Health Department.”We are currently conducting our own public health investigation and contacting individuals that have been involved with the livestock. Anthrax is not spread from person to person and exposure is limited only to those who had contact with the affected cattle or the immediate area.” Anthrax can develop naturally in soil; the spores can become active in association with periods of marked climatic or ecologic change such as heavy rainfall, flooding or drought which can then expose the anthrax spores to grazing livestock. Outbreaks of anthrax are commonly associated with neutral or alkaline soils. In these areas the spores apparently revert to the vegetative form and multiply to infectious levels so that cattle, horses, mules, sheep and goats may readily become infected when grazing such areas. Anthrax is a serious disease because it can cause the rapid loss of a large number of animals in a very short time. Often, animals are found dead with no illness detected. Appropriate carcass disposal is being used to prevent further soil contamination. Producers should consult their veterinarians and vaccinate their livestock, if deemed appropriate. Humans or animals can become infected by coming in contact with infected animals, soil or water. Anthrax infection can be treated with antibiotics, especially if caught in the early stages.
Biohazard name:
Anthrax (cow)
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
A Chinese cargo vessel crashed into a docking facility in the Incheon harbor on Wednesday, causing an oil spill, the South Korean Coast Guard said. About 600 liters of bunker C fuel oil have spilled into waters off Incheon on the west coast when the 40,000-ton ship struck the docking facility at about 9:20 p.m. and a big hole was torn in the right side, they said on Thursday. The spill has been contained around the port area and no casualties have been reported, they added. “The spill is expected to not spread as the harbor is situated in an inner area that is less affected by tidal currents,” an official said. The Coast Guard said it has deployed nine ships and helicopters, and set up a floating fence to keep oil from dispersing. Meanwhile, the officials will question the Chinese sailors to determine the exact cause of the accident.
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Tsunami Information Bulletin in Off W Coast Of Northern Sumatra, Indian Ocean
000
WEIO23 PHEB 250034
TIBIOX
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0034Z 25 JUL 2012
THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN.
... TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN ...
THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY.
THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 0028Z 25 JUL 2012
COORDINATES - 2.5 NORTH 95.8 EAST
LOCATION - OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
MAGNITUDE - 6.6
EVALUATION
A DESTRUCTIVE WIDESPREAD TSUNAMI THREAT DOES NOT EXIST BASED ON
HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI DATA.
HOWEVER - THERE IS A VERY SMALL POSSIBILITY OF A LOCAL TSUNAMI
THAT COULD AFFECT COASTS LOCATED USUALLY NO MORE THAN A HUNDRED
KILOMETERS FROM THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER. AUTHORITIES IN THE
REGION NEAR THE EPICENTER SHOULD BE MADE AWARE OF THIS
POSSIBILITY.
THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI
WARNING CENTER FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
BECOMES AVAILABLE.
THE JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY MAY ISSUE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR THIS EVENT. IN THE CASE OF CONFLICTING INFORMATION...THE
MORE CONSERVATIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE USED FOR SAFETY.
(Reuters) – A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 struck off northern Sumatra in Indonesia on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but authorities said there was little chance of a tsunami.
The quake was felt by residents on the island of Simeulue off Sumatra’s northwest coast but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
“The quake has no tsunami potential,” said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. “Some people ran away from their houses. We don’t have any house damage.”
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat of a widespread, destructive tsunami after the quake, about 330 km (205 miles) southeast of Indonesia’s Banda Aceh. It said there was a “very small possibility” of a local tsunami. (Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Michael Perry)
Tongariro volcano is showing signs of a possible awakening. On 13 July 2012, an increase in small (<M2.5) earthquakes was detected. The quakes were clustered at depths of 2-7 km under the area between Emerald crater and Te Mari crater. More than 20 earthquakes were recorded until 20 July, when the seismic activity peaked and prompted GeoNet to raise the alert level from 0 to 1. Compared to a background average of 2 quakes per year, the swarm is significant and could indicate magma movements. Seismic activity dropped on 21 July with only 1 quake since then, but preliminary measurements show an increase in volcanic gas emission. NZ Scientist started to increase their monitoring at the volcano.
By Spyros KouvoussisThe new seismic-detecting mechanism that observes the activity of the volcano in Santorini, Caldera, was finally placed at the bottom of the sea. The scientific community now says it will be ready to warn authorities in case there is any alarming activity. The new mechanism is the cutting edge of technology of its kind.
The procedure to place the mechanism at the bottom of the sea took ten days and the team of scientists of the project hailed from Greece, France and Spain. The mechanism is placed in the north part of Caldera, where the deepest spot is 389m. The mechanism was set up with the use of two special ships owned by the Greek Center of Sea Research. The mechanism is equipped with instruments that can assess the structure of the bottom of the sea and measure its temperature. That way scientists can have a better look at the volcano’s activity.
Dimitris Sakellariou, the head of the program, said that the first signs show that the volcano has very limited activity. He also pointed out that although the program should have started a long time ago, there is a high risk that due to the economic crisis its survival will be an issue.
The number of people taken to hospitals by ambulance due to heatstroke in the week through Sunday more than doubled from the preceding week to 5,467, preliminary data showed Tuesday. The figure, up from 2,622 in the week to July 15, hit the highest for a single week this summer, according to the data released by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. Deaths caused by heatstroke increased to 13 from five in the preceding week. Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture had the most victims, with ambulances called for 388 people each. They were followed by 382 in Aichi Prefecture and 372 in Osaka Prefecture. People aged 65 or older accounted for 45.9 percent of the total. Since the agency started this year’s survey on May 28, 11,116 people were taken to hospitals as of Sunday. Twenty-three people have died. The rise in heatstroke cases reflects the smothering heat wave, with temperatures of 35 degrees or higher observed in many places for the four days from July 16, agency officials said. In Tatebayashi, Gunma Prefecture, the mercury shot up to 37.6 on July 16 and to 39.2 the following day, according to the Meteorological Agency.
Weather authorities issued heat wave advisories nationwide on Tuesday in response to a heat wave that has been gripping South Korea, with the capital city experiencing its second straight “tropical night” this week. The so-called tropical night phenomenon is defined by nighttime lows staying above 25 C, with nighttime being from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. It often happens when monsoon season ends, which falls in July in general for the country. Overnight lows across the nation soared well above the threshold on Monday, with the eastern coastal city of Gangneung recording the highest temperature at 28.7 C followed by the southern city of Pohang at 27.1 C. The temperature overnight in Seoul also reached 25.8 C to mark its second consecutive tropical night, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration. The scorching heat led the weather authorities to issue the country’s first heat wave warnings in the southeastern city of Daegu and its surrounding areas in North Gyeongsang Province, set to take effect from 11 a.m. The daytime highs in the region are forecast to soar above 35 C, according to the KMA. The agency also extended the heat wave advisories from the southern regions to the central part of the country including Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi areas starting at 11 a.m., with the daytime high in Seoul being expected to climb to 32 C. Heat wave advisories are issued when the mercury goes over 33 C for at least two days, and heat wave warnings are issued when it soars up to 35 C for at least two consecutive days. The heat wave on the Korean Peninsula is forecast to be unabated until at least the end of July due to the influence of a hot and humid North Pacific high temperature system, the weather agency said.
The City of Beloit endured trees blocking roads, fires and thousands of people without power after a series of storms rocked their city on Tuesday morning. “We had a lot of trees down, wires down. We had about 7,000 people without power,” Beloit Fire Chief Brad Liggett told Newsradio 620 WTMJ’s Jon Byman. “We at one time had about 35 calls for response for wires down and trees on fire, trees across the roadway, patients that require oxygen who were without power.” Roads were closed, especially in residential neighborhoods on the west side. Chief Liggett explained that he was hoping for roads closed by fallen trees to be re-opened within 24 hours after crews saw the trunks up to remove them. “It’s a pretty severe storm. The last time I remember a storm like this was in August of 2003,” said Liggett. Alliant Energy said about 12,000 customers had lost power due to the storms in that area.
About 50 residents have been evacuated due to a brush fire in central Ontario’s cottage country. Muskoka Lakes Mayor Alice Murphy says four township fire stations have responded to the blaze on Huckleberry Rock in Milford Bay. The Ministry of Natural Resources is assisting with a water bomber. Murphy says there’s no information yet on the cause of the brush fire, and motorists are being turned away from entering Milford Bay. Murphy says those with no need to travel Highway 118 west in the Milford Bay area should stay away. The response is being co-ordinated by the Muskoka Lakes fire department, the provincial police and the natural resources ministry.
24.07.2012
Forest / Wild Fire
Canada
Province of Manitoba, [Red Sucker Lake First Nation, Wasagamack First Nation, St. Theresa Point First Nation and Garden Hill First Nation]
More than 800 people from four northern Manitoba First Nations have been flown to Winnipeg and Brandon due to forest fires near their home communities. Officials said people deemed the most vulnerable, such as those with asthma and other breathing conditions, were flown out first, while others may follow if the fire situation gets worse. “We didn’t have anybody who was acutely distressed from smoke inhalation but we did have folks with runny eyes, coughing, sore throats, which is a normal effect from being involved with the forest fires,” said Janice Lowe from the Brandon Regional Health Authority. The Manitoba Association of Native Firefighters is looking after the evacuations and asked both Brandon and Winnipeg to host the evacuees, due to the large number. “This is the largest evacuation that we’ve handled in recent times,” said Brian Kayes from the City of Brandon. On Monday, the province said 77 forest fires are burning in Manitoba. As of July 20, more than 360 firefighters were battling the blazes, with 12 water bombers and 31 helicopters being used. Fires are currently burning in northeastern and western, central and eastern parts of Manitoba, said officials. The largest numbers of fires are currently burning in the northeastern part of Manitoba. Officials from the Manitoba Association of Native Firefighters said people had to leave Red Sucker Lake First Nation, Wasagamack First Nation, St. Theresa Point First Nation and Garden Hill First Nation. They said it’s tough to determine how long people could be out of their homes, due to the unpredictable nature of forest fires. They said, however, people should be prepared to be out of their homes for approximately three to seven days. Community members said homes are not currently at risk of burning. Some evacuees, however, said leaving was still difficult. “Some people don’t want to go because they don’t want to leave their homes,” said Eric Wood from Garden Hill Public Health.
25.07.2012
Forest / Wild Fire
Croatia
Primorsko-Goranska Region, [Near to Selce and Moscenicka Draga]
A firefighter has died and 1,500 tourists have been evacuated after forest fires fanned by strong winds broke out on Croatia’s Adriatic coast. “The situation is very difficult … we are doing everything possible to protect people’s lives and property,” Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said, as the fires continued to blaze out of control on Monday in the increasingly popular tourist area. “Everything is ready for (further) evacuations,” said the minister, who visited the coastal resort of Selce, close to the northern port of Rijeka, where some 150 firefighters were battling the blaze. A firefighter died while battling another blaze that broke out near Moscenicka Draga on the Istria peninsula, fire service official Slavko Gaus said. That fire was brought under control later in the day. The inferno broke out in the morning in the hinterland of Rijeka, some 180km southwest of Zagreb, and spread towards Selce. Strong winds of more than 100km an hour made tackling the fires very difficult as water-bombing planes could not be used, the authorities said. In Selce some 1,500 tourists from two campsites, mostly Slovenians and Austrians, were evacuated while a number of other tourists left a nearby hotel, officials said. Part of the Adriatic coastal highway was closed, police said. The resort was cut off from electricity and phone lines were down, Nova television reported, showing footage of people in Selce covering their faces with scarves to protect themselves from the thick smoke and ashes. The roofs of several houses also caught fire.
Wildfires have forced the evacuation of dozens of villagers from their homes in Madeira on Thursday, with the Portuguese authorities sending teams from the mainland to help overwhelmed local firefighters. Portugal had suffered from a severe drought this year before being hit by temperatures of up to 40C this week, which has triggered forest blazes on the mainland too. More than 300 firefighters were struggling on Thursday to put out wildfires near Tavira, a popular holiday destination in the Algarve region near the Spanish border. Authorities in Madeira have used planes and helicopters to combat the flames, including an aircraft sent by Spain’s civil defence. Portugal sent a military transport plane with 83 firefighters to Madeira, where the flames briefly threatened the outskirts of Funchal, the archipelago’s capital, on Wednesday night. The Portuguese interior minister, Miguel Macedo, is also in Madeira to co-ordinate the efforts. While Funchal was mostly out of danger on Thursday, television footage from the archipelago’s smaller island of Porto Santo showed houses catching fire and firefighters telling residents of Camacha to abandon the area. “The changing wind is strongly compromising the effort to put out the flames, and we only have five firemen there and one truck,” the local fire brigade chief, Afonso Nobrega, told the Lusa news agency. SIC television showed a local man shouting for help to get three women out of a building whose door was on fire. Enveloped in heavy smoke, local residents sprayed water on the outside of their homes while others fled. There have been no reports of deaths of serious injuries. This year’s drought, coupled with scorching weather, poses a threat that fires will escalate during the hottest period in late July and August.
Authorities issued evacuation orders for villages in southwestern Greece on Wednesday where wildfires, aided by strong winds and soaring temperatures, have ravaged large areas. The blaze, burning mostly pine forest, sent smoke over the city of Patras, a port with some 220,000 inhabitants, where regional authorities have declared an emergency. Nine planes and one helicopter were involved in the firefighting effort at Argyra, some 15 kilometres (9 miles) east of Patras. Apostolos Katsifaras, regional governor for western Greece, said evacuation orders had been issued for villages in the rugged fire stricken area — likely to involve several hundred residents. “The conditions are very tough. We are using everything we have against the fire,” Katsifaras said. The state of emergency allows authorities to use additional resources, including Greece’s military.
25.07.2012
Drought
USA
State of Washington, [Counties of Adams, Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Franklin, Garfield, Grant, Jefferson, Kitsap, Kittitas, Klickitat, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Walla Walla and Yakim]
Gov. Chris Gregoire on Monday proclaimed a state of emergency for 16 Washington counties hit by a series of recent storms. Most of the counties are in the eastern half of the state. One death in northeast Washington’s Ferry County is considered storm-related, the governor said. A series of storms that started July 13 have caused power outages, fuel shortages and road closures that threaten some at-risk populations, Gregoire said. High winds, severe thunderstorms and extreme rainfall have damaged homes, businesses and public buildings. The proclamation directs state agencies to “do everything reasonably possible” to help affected communities recover. After a fierce thunder and rain storm last Friday, Ferry County and the Colville Tribes asked for state assistance. The small community of Keller on the Colville Reservation was pummeled by the storm, with downed trees blocking roads, crushing power lines and damaging houses. KHQ-TV reports the Keller Community Center has been functioning as the town’s hub.
“Everyone comes here. This is the place to be,” said volunteer Corrie Johnson. The community center has been offering meals and shelter to those who need it. Winds in northeast Washington hit 66 mph during Friday’s storm, National Weather Service meteorologist John Livingston told the Spokesman-Review. Forest Service officials in the Republic Ranger District said the storm winds toppled numerous trees, blocking trails and roads. “It was horrendous, chaotic,” Christine Bonney, the Republic Police Department’s administrative assistant, told the newspaper. “There were fields of trees lying flat, like the wind ironed them down.” In the Okanogan County community of Omak in north-central Washington, crews were still cleaning up Monday after rain from Friday’s storm flooded about five blocks of downtown streets. At one point, water was knee-deep in the downtown area, the Wenatchee World reported. Several highways in the county were closed temporarily due to downed trees and rain-caused mudslides, Sheriff Frank Rogers said. Grant County also saw pounding hail and isolated flooding.
Counties included in the proclamation include: Adams, Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Franklin, Garfield, Grant, Jefferson, Kitsap, Kittitas, Klickitat, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Walla Walla and Yakima.
Fifty people were injured and trees ripped from the ground as Typhoon Vicente lashed Hong Kong, packing winds in excess of 140 kilometres per hour. Authorities raised the typhoon warning to the most severe level of 10 for the first time since 1999 just after midnight, as Typhoon Vicente roared to within 100km of Hong Kong but it was eventually downgraded to eight. “In the past few hours, Vicente intensified rapidly into a severe typhoon and moved in a more northerly direction, edging closer to Hong Kong,” the Hong Kong Observatory said in a statement following the 10 warning. More than 200 trees fell and pieces of buildings were seen crashing into downtown streets as commuters made their way home from work on Monday evening. Ferry, bus and train services were suspended or ran at reduced capacity, the port was closed and 15 passenger flights to the regional aviation hub were cancelled. More than 210 flights were delayed. The Hong Kong stock exchange delayed the opening of trading on Tuesday until authorities gave the all-clear that it was safe to go to work.
School classes and hospital outpatient clinics were suspended until further notice. Flooding was reported in two areas. Fifteen people were hospitalised out of 50 who sought medical treatment, officials said. Almost 250 people sought refuge in storm shelters. Local media reported that more than 100 commuters stayed in the Tai Wai underground train station overnight, unable to get home after services were suspended. The 10 warning was downgraded to eight early on Tuesday morning as the storm passed to the west and weakened over the southern Chinese coast, but authorities warned residents to remain vigilant. “Although Vicente is moving gradually away from Hong Kong and started to weaken, gale force winds are still prevailing over parts of the territory with occasional storm force winds offshore and on high ground and frequent heavy squally showers,” the Observatory said. “Members of the public are advised not to relax their precautions.”
Tropical cyclone warning raised to its highest level, grounding flights and disrupting businesses across financial hub.
Storm surges and sea wave warnings have been heightened, with winds of up to 100 kph expected [AFP]
A severe typhoon has hit Hong Kong, disrupting business across the financial hub, with offices and the stock market to remain closed for at least part of the morning after the city raised its highest typhoon warning overnight.
Typhoon Vicente battered Hong Kong with gale-force winds and torrential rain, grounding flights and shutting port operations on Tuesday.
Authorities raised the No. 10 tropical cyclone signal for several hours overnight, making this one of the strongest
typhoons to hit the city in the past decade.
Al Jazeera’s Stephanie Scawen, reporting from Hong Kong, said “heavy rain is coming through” the financial hub, and is expected to last “probably for a few days”.
Highest warning level
Financial markets, schools, businesses and non-essential government services close when a No. 8 signal or above is
hoisted, posing a disruption to business in the capitalist hub and former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
By 8am local time (00:00 GMT), the typhoon was veering away from the city and weakening, although the No. 8 signal is expected to remain in force until at least 10am (02:00 GMT), the Hong Kong Observatory said, which would force a closure of the stock market for the morning.
Hong Kong Observatory raised the No. 10 signal early on Tuesday as typhoon Vicente swept closer to Hong Kong [Reuters]
The market will be closed for the day if the No. 8 signal remains in place until noon (04:00 GMT), after it dropped three per cent on Monday.
Separately, China’s National Meteorological Centre issued an orange alert for Typhoon Vicente, the second highest warning level in China’s four-tier typhoon warning system, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Strengthening gale-force winds overturned trees, churned up huge waves in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour and sent debris
flying, injuring some 30 people as Vicente hit the city and the western reaches of China’s Guangdong province.
Fifteen flights were cancelled and more than 200 delayed late on Monday, aviation authorities said, although Hong Kong’s
main carrier Cathay Pacific said it planned to resume some flights.
The Hong Kong Observatory raised the No. 10 signal early on Tuesday as typhoon Vicente swept much closer to Hong Kong than initially thought, making this the first time the highest typhoon signal had been raised since 1999.
More than 30,000 Chinese fishing boats were alerted to return to harbour, with 10,560 fishermen taking shelter ashore
in Guangdong, Chinese state media reported. Storm surges and sea wave warnings were heightened, with winds of up to 100 kph expected.
National Weather Service meteorologist Charlotte Dewey said the storm was moving northwest and was first spotted between Eloy and Tucson.
The haboob covered cities in the metropolitan Phoenix area such as Scottsdale, Gilbert, Mesa, Apache Junction, Santan Valley, Chandler, Casa Grande and downtown Phoenix.
There were no official estimates of its size, but Dewey says spotters estimated it was around 2,000 feet tall. She says there were also reports of 35 mph wind gusts in the area, and a report of a 50 mph gust at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
Above are photos of the event from The Associated Press and our iWitness Weather contributors.
More than 40 workers at a nuclear power station in northern India have been exposed to tritium radiation in two separate leaks in the past five weeks. The first accident occurred on June 23 when 38 people were exposed during maintenance work on a coolant channel at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station in Rawatbhata, senior plant manager Vinod Kumar said. Two of them received radiation doses equivalent to the annual permissible limit, he said, but all those involved have returned to work. In a second incident last Thursday, another four maintenance workers at the plant were exposed to tritium radiation while they were repairing a faulty seal on a pipe. India is on a nuclear power drive, with a host of plants based on Russian, Japanese, American and French technology under consideration or construction.
The country’s growing economy is currently heavily dependent on coal, getting less than 3% of its energy from its existing atomic plants, and the government hopes to raise the figure to 25% by 2050. But environmental watchdogs have expressed concerns about safety in India, where small-scale industrial accidents due to negligence or poor maintenance are commonplace and regulatory bodies are often under-staffed and under-funded. The director of the Rajasthan power station, C.P. Jamb, confirmed the second accident to AFP but said the radiation was within permissible limits and posed no health threat. “The workers were exposed to radiation from 10 to 25 per cent of the annual limit,” Jamb said. “Such minor leakages keep on happening but they cause no harm.” C.D. Rajput, director of the unit where the leak happened, also said the radiation exposure “was well under the limits and all the workers are working normally”. No explanation was immediately available as to why the first incident at the plant took a month to emerge.
The security situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) province of North Kivu has been deteriorating for months because of armed conflict between various renegade soldier groups. The fighting has resulted in the displacement of approximately 250,000 people from the area fleeing the violence in search of safety. Health concerns have also risen in violence-ridden areas of the eastern DRC. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) Global Alert and Response (GAR) issued Monday, the DRC has reported a sharp increase in the number of cholera cases in the armed conflict area of North Kivu. For the three weeks spanning June 11 to July 1, 368 new cases of cholera were reported. Because of the lack of security in the area, there is a concern those stricken with cholera will have difficulty in accessing the health-care facilities and could increase the number of severe and fatal cases. The WHO also reports the fear of the cholera spilling over the borders into neighboring countries Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and its partners blame the outbreak on a lack of potable drinking water.
Patients are being treated with infusions and antibiotics as appropriate, at treatment centres. Interventions to control the epidemic that are being carried out include education and communication; management of cases; increased surveillance; hygiene and sanitation; and provision of safe drinking water.WHO is working to support national authorities in response to the cholera outbreak and the broader humanitarian emergency resulting from conflict and population displacement. Cholera is an acute bacterial intestinal disease characterized by sudden onset, profuse watery stools (given the appearance as rice water stools because of flecks of mucus in water) due to a very potent enterotoxin. The enterotoxin leads to an extreme loss of fluid and electrolytes in the production of diarrhea. It has been noted that an untreated patient can lose his bodyweight in fluids in hours resulting in shock and death. It is caused by the bacterium, Vibrio cholerae. Serogroups O1 and O139 are the types associated with the epidemiological characteristics of cholera (outbreaks). The bacteria are acquired through ingestion of contaminated water or food through a number of mechanisms. Water is usually contaminated by the feces of infected individuals.
Drinking water can be contaminated at the source, during transport or during storage at home.Food can be contaminated by soiled hands, during preparation or while eating. Beverages and ice prepared with contaminated water and fruits and vegetables washed with this water are other examples. Some outbreaks are linked to raw or undercooked seafood. The incubation for cholera can be from a few hours to 5 days. As long as the stools are positive, the person is infective. Some patients may become carriers of the organism which can last for months. Cholera is diagnosed by growing the bacteria in culture. Treatment consists of replacement of fluids lost, intravenous replacement in severe cases. Doxycycline or tetracycline antibiotic therapy can shorten the course of severe disease. According to Wikipedia, North Kivu is a province bordering Lake Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Its capital is Goma. North Kivu borders the provinces of Orientale to the north and northwest, Maniema to the southwest, and South Kivu to the south. To the east, it borders the countries of Uganda and Rwanda.
Biohazard name:
Cholera Outbreak
Biohazard level:
2/4 Medium
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that cause only mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting, such as hepatitis A, B, and C, influenza A, Lyme disease, salmonella, mumps, measles, scrapie, dengue fever, and HIV. “Routine diagnostic work with clinical specimens can be done safely at Biosafety Level 2, using Biosafety Level 2 practices and procedures. Research work (including co-cultivation, virus replication studies, or manipulations involving concentrated virus) can be done in a BSL-2 (P2) facility, using BSL-3 practices and procedures. Virus production activities, including virus concentrations, require a BSL-3 (P3) facility and use of BSL-3 practices and procedures”, see Recommended Biosafety Levels for Infectious Agents.
MessageToEagle.com – TW Hydrae is a star between 5-10 million years old, and only 176 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation of Hydrae (the Water Snake), is in the final stage of formation.
It’s surrounded by a disc of dust and gas that may condense to form a complete set of planets. TW Hydrae has passed out of its infancy but is not yet mature.
Astronomers are trying to understand the processes at work in stars at this stage in their lives because, for example, during this period planets might be developing from disks around the stars.
The nature of the star’s corona, the very hot (over a million degrees centigrade) extended gaseous outer atmosphere, is one such process. TW Hydrae provides a valuable example for two reasons:
It is relatively close by and therefore bright, and it is rotating with its pole pointed nearly directly towards Earth, enabling scientists to view the star’s polar region nearly face on.
Like other young stars of its size and age, TW Hydrae emits strong X-rays and lines of ionized hydrogen. These are thought to result from shocks generated as material flows onto the stellar surface, and from magnetically heated gas in the corona.
Like other young stars of its size and age, TW Hydrae emits strong X-rays and astronomers investigate why, and how might they effect the star’s proto-planetary disk?
TW Hydrae
The star system TW Hydrae, shown here in an artist’s conception, possesses a protoplanetary disk holding vast numbers of pebble-sized rocky chunks. Those pebbles eventually should grow to become full-sized planets. Credit: Bill Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)
Several mechanisms have been proposed, including coronal magnetic field activity similar to that on the sun, accretion onto the stellar surface that might also contribute to winds and flares, and shocks from jets that develop.
Each mechanism has associated with it hot gas with characteristic temperatures and densities.
A schematic diagram of the surface of TW Hydrae, illustrating where strong X-ray emission might arise. Accreting material can produce winds and shocks at the stellar photosphere; some parameters are specified. Credit: N. Brickhouse, et al, 2010
Recently, SAO astronomers Andrea Dupree, Nancy Brickhouse, Steve Cranmer, Juan Luna, and Evan Schneider, along with colleagues, also observed TW Hya with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, with complementary and simultaneous measurements from a suite of other telescopes.
They continuously monitored the star over about seventeen days, during which time they observed both periodic and flaring events on the star.
Click on image to enlargeAn artist’s conception of an icy, planet-forming disk around the young star TW Hydrae. Astronomers have used the Herschel Space Observatory to detect copious amounts of water ice in this source. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Their results show that the star has both a hot solar-like corona and an accretion shock at relatively high densities and small volumes.
Interestingly, the shocked gas heats a larger volume of the stellar atmosphere up to 2 million degrees, much hotter than the 10,000 degree hot spots previously known from optical and ultraviolet spectra.
The new results are able to explain many of the earlier puzzles associated with X-ray emission, help to identify how winds can be produced in these stars, and suggest that the magnetic processes at work in this star are by no means unique but may be ubiquitous in other young stars of similar mass.
The scientists, in a astronomical first, were able to track an accretion flare spectroscopically, providing direct information on how the excitation of the gas evolves during these events.
The team successfully modeled the emission as arising in a sequence: A shock develops from accreting material and then flows down into a turbulent region, heating the star’s photosphere. This ultimately leads to coronal heating and the development of stellar winds.
A Great White shark attacked an adult female sea lion near East Beach in Santa Barbara Tuesday morning. The Harbor Patrol and officials with the Marine Mammal Center responded to the scene and confirmed the shark attack. Peter Howorth, Director of the Marine Mammal Center, tells KEY News they are hoping the animal comes back to land so they can catch it and treat the injury. Howorth says he saw the tooth marks pattern and the diameter is from a Great White. The wound appears infected which means the attack did not occur today and may or may have not happened at East Beach. He says the wound is a few days old. The Parks Department’s policy is to post signs for 72 hours at eight locations along city beaches advising of the attack. Swimmers are told to enter the ocean at their own risk at this time. If more shark sightings occur the signs will be posted for a longer period of time.
Biohazard name:
Great White Shark spotted
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Angry bees swarmed two people in Indio, Calif. this morning, sending them to the hospital with almost 200 stings in all. Dr. Wesley Burks, who chairs the University of North Carolina’s pediatrics department and has a 30-year career that involves working with skin allergies, said an attack like that is rare. If fact, he’s never seen one firsthand. “Generally, you see somebody stung once or maybe five to ten times, but not 80 or 100,” Burks said. “I’ve talked to people that have seen them…but it’s less than a handful.” A gardener in Indio, whose name was not released, was trimming a palm tree just before 7 a.m. local time, when he apparently irritated the bees and prompted them to swarm around him, said Matt Kotz, a Riverside County firefighter, in an interview with ABCNews.com. The homeowner, an elderly woman, came out to help, but the bees attacked her as well. When Kotz and the other firefighters arrived, the bees were still attacking the victims on the ground, Kotz said. He said he watched as another crew sprayed the bees with water to fight them off.
The bees stung the woman more than 100 times, and they stung the homeowner more than 80 times, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. Burks said a large number of stings like this can often lead to anaphylactic shock – even if the patient is not allergic to bee stings. Each sting releases proteins into the victim’s body, causing swelling and eventually resulting in a histamine reaction – as if the body were reacting to an allergy. Sometimes, that swelling can even affect the victim’s ability to breath, Burks said. Burks said bee stings generally affect people the same way, regardless of age, but conditions like hypertension and diabetes can make it harder to respond and recover. No firefighters were injured because they wore gloves and bee hoods in addition to their helmets, Kotz said. Although firefighters are trained to kill bees with the same foam they use to put out fire, Kotz said the bees were left alone after the attack. “We didn’t want to kill the swarm,” Kotz said. “Obviously bees do good to the environment…and they weren’t actively stinging.” He said the bees were on private property and posed no risk once the attack ended. The fire department left it up to the homeowner to decide whether to remove them.
Biohazard name:
Bees attack
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Beachgoers looking for a day of sun and sand were shocked when they found scores of dead fish scattered over a Florida shore. Two-miles of Ormond Beach were covered with thousands of whiting, spot and sea trout carcases, shrivelling up in the heat. Officials believe the fish were the result of by-catch, extraneous marine life caught unintentionally by commercial fishing boats which is usually discarded. The thousands of fish began to wash ashore around 2 p.m. on Sunday, according to News13. ‘It was packed and we were swimming and swimming,’ said resident Monique Marella. Then the fish came and you sure couldn’t be the water. Everyone just left.’ Determined visitors walked for miles in either direction to escape the dead creatures, but they filled the water and the beach on either end. A Volusia County Beach Patrol captain said that several shrimp boats had been spotted near the shore and they were the likely culprits of the casualties. Lt Tammy Maris said that the incident was not unusual and that no public services would be deployed to clean up the mess. Sunbathers struggled to understand the biblical scene. ‘There’s just so many of them,’ Kevin Soravilla, visiting from New Jersey, said to the News-Journal. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’ Lt Maris said that the tide or the hunger of local seagulls would clear up the beach eventually. But not everyone was bothered by the seafood and the smell. ‘I’m here faithfully every day. This is my relaxation,’ Janet Menzel said. ‘They don’t bother me. I can share the beach.’
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (fishes)
Biohazard level:
1/4 Low
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection. Usually, contaminated materials are left in open (but separately indicated) waste receptacles. Decontamination procedures for this level are similar in most respects to modern precautions against everyday viruses (i.e.: washing one’s hands with anti-bacterial soap, washing all exposed surfaces of the lab with disinfectants, etc). In a lab environment, all materials used for cell and/or bacteria cultures are decontaminated via autoclave.
EMS crews are at the scene of a possible shark bite in Ocean Isle Beach. Dispatch officials said a 911 call came in around 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday for a shark attack in the 100 block of West First Street. Ocean Isle Beach Police Department officials said first responders are at the scene, but information is not available yet. Few details are known at this time.
Biohazard name:
Shark attack (Non-Fatal)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A food poisoning outbreak from turkey served at the Denver Rescue Mission has sent more than 50 people to the hospital for treatment. Officials said the sickness hit people who ate a turkey dinner consisting of meat that had been donated at the shelter. The Denver Rescue Mission said its taking the matter very seriously. Denver Fire Department spokesman Lt. Phil Champagne told CBS Denver that one of the main concerns is patients who have not sought help. “It certainly is a case-by-case approach with the patients, depending on their particular health, but it could really have dire consequences for patients who aren’t very healthy and who could succumb very quickly by something like this that dehydrates them very quickly,” he said. “We’re concerned that a lot of these people hide — they hide in plain sight, but they are out there in Denver,” said Champagne. “If anyone knows someone (who is sick) don’t hesitate to call 911 and we’ll call and we’ll go out there and take care of these patients.” Crews are searching downtown Denver looking for people who may have been sickened and treating some on the spot who refuse to be transported to the hospital or have less severe cases of food poisoning. Officals say up to 350 people were eating at the shelter.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
Biohazard level:
1/4 Low
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses including Bacillus subtilis, canine hepatitis, Escherichia coli, varicella (chicken pox), as well as some cell cultures and non-infectious bacteria. At this level precautions against the biohazardous materials in question are minimal, most likely involving gloves and some sort of facial protection. Usually, contaminated materials are left in open (but separately indicated) waste receptacles. Decontamination procedures for this level are similar in most respects to modern precautions against everyday viruses (i.e.: washing one’s hands with anti-bacterial soap, washing all exposed surfaces of the lab with disinfectants, etc). In a lab environment, all materials used for cell and/or bacteria cultures are decontaminated via autoclave.
Residents on Lake Memphremagog (Mem-fre-MAY-gog) are asked to be on the lookout for toxic blue-green algae. The algae was spotted on the Canadian side of the lake earlier this month. Algae blooms can irritate the skin and make people sick if ingested. They also can be lethal to pets. The Memphremagog Conservation Inc. says an algae bloom was spotted on the western edge of the lake. The organization says those who saw it said it was spread across a wide area on the lake and into depths of the water. The Caledonian Record ( ) reports that the bloom likely occurred because of hot weather and rain that pushed high levels of runoff containing phorsphorus into the lake’s tributaries.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green Algae bloom (cyanobacteria)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
24.07.2012
Biological Hazard
USA
State of Kansas, [Chisholm Creek Park Lake North in Sedgwick County]
The KDHE has issued a toxic algae warning for Chisholm Creek Park Lake North in Sedgwick County. The lake is located off of N. Woodlawn near the K-96 bypass. It’s one of 13 warnings and advisories issued in Kansas. An advisory discourages contact, but a warning means the public should have no contact with the water. It is unsafe to touch. “It will bloom and go through a rapid period of growth. One of the byproducts of this algae- as it dies and goes through it’s life cycle, it releases toxins into the water,” says KDHE Director Tom Langer. Blue green algae can cause allergic-type reactions such as intestinal problems, respiratory problems, or skin irritations.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green Algae bloom (cyanobacteria)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Firefighters have evacuated some homes in Laconia, N.H., after responding to a situation at an electronics company involving hazardous materials. Firefighters were called to ABC Fabricators after 5 a.m. Tuesday. It was not immediately clear what the problem was. A man who identified himself as the manager said there was a minor chemical spill involving nitric acid, but that it was being treated and cleaned. He said it was under control.
The company makes circuit boards.
Storms rushed through the Chicago area Tuesday morning, leaving at least 183,000 Commonwealth Edison customers without power. Strong to severe thunderstorms moved from the northwest after 6 a.m., bringing heavy rain and damaging winds in excess of 60 mph across a good portion of the metro area. One woman who lives in Chinatown said her house shook in the forceful wind, and on the 2500 block of South Hillock on Chicago’s Southwest Side, a tree toppled onto a home. The Chicago Fire Department confirmed no injuries were reported from the fallen tree. Tree damage and flooding were reported across the area. The 4900 block of North Lawndale Avenue in Chicago was reportedly blocked by fallen trees and branches covered cars. A severe storm warning was in effect until 6:30 a.m. as storm moved through Lake, DuPage, DeKalb, Kane and Kendall counties. A severe thunderstorm watch expired in the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana at 9 a.m. The National Weather Service reported it tracked a line of thunderstorms capable of winds in excess of 70 mph just before 6 a.m. extending from Kildeer to St. Charles. Cloudy skies will replace showers through the afternoon with high temperatures in the mid- to upper-80s. But this isn’t the last of the rain aimed at the area. NBC Chicago meteorologist Andy Avalos is tracking a slight risk for isolated, possible strong to severe thunderstorms for the rest of the day. Mild but muggy conditions return Tuesday night along with another chance of scattered, possibly severe storms Wednesday morning. After clouds break early, near-record heat moves back in as afternoon highs could range from 95 to 100 degrees with heat index readings jumping to 100-108. Yet another chance of storms threatens throughout Thursday, a welcomed sight for Illinois famers and gardeners alike. High temperatures become more comfortable in the mid-80s as a cold front begins to move through.
MessageToEagle.com – There are a number of amazing alien landscapes on Earth and here is one of them!
These stunning images of the Arctic Circle reveal an entire landscape that is transformed into an otherworldly planet.
It looks like a scene taken straight from a science fiction movie.
What are these bizarre white tendrils emerging from the ground?
These images were taken by photographer and an environmental engineering student from Monza, Italy, Niccolo Bonfadini who spent nine days camping alone in the frozen world, which is around 77 square kilometres.The tendrils you see, are frost-covered trees which are located close to the Arctic Circle, where temperatures can drop as low as -40C.
In the dramatic sub-zero conditions, the snow and frost become so thick that everything is covered in a thick blanket.
“I was blown away by the otherworldly landscape, everything was white as far as the eye could see. Everything was frozen.
This is not an alien planet. This is the Arctic Circle! Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
It was incredible to see how ice would form on top of every free surface. Even my snow shoes and fuel bottles would be covered in ice if I left them outside my tent during the night, said Mr Bonfadini.
Mr Bonfadini sustained himself on powdered freeze-dried food during his trek and slept in his tent.
Trees are covered under the snow. Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
He said: “I loved what I was doing. I love to go deep into nature alone, to feel the majesty and beauty of Nature. It is absolutely what makes me happiest.
What made the trip harder than average was the fact that I was completely alone, I only met three people during my nine days.
But I prefer it like that, I don’t like crowds.”
Bizarre tendrils emerge from the ground… Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
Many people who have seen these images have difficult to understand the shapes are actually trees covered with snow.
Mr Bonfadini said: “Some thought they were volcanic eruptions and clouds. To me they seemed to be alive like frozen people.
Every tree was different from the others, they had weird forms, some had snow covered branches that looked like arms.
With such a surreal landscape, it is easy to see how many tales and legends about trolls and other creatures could have been born.”
Snow and frost become so thick the entire landscape is transformed into an otherworldly planet. Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
He added: “Both the landscape and the sky were white, there were no shades during the day. It was like being in a completely white room and it was even difficult for the eyes to focus.
Sometimes I couldn’t even notice when the path was starting to go downhill because everything looked flat.”
Despite his young age, Mr Bonfadini has photographed wildlife all over the world.
Here the temperatures can drop as low as -40C. Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
He said: ‘My favourite subjects are the northern countries. I feel a sense of wonder while surrounded by desolate frozen landscapes.
I feel small and vulnerable among the power of Nature. During those moments I really feel alive. Photography motivates me to get out into Nature more often, experiencing conditions and places that I wouldn’t probably have witnessed otherwise.”
MessageToEagle.com – Two eyes can be enough to sometimes give you the feeling you are being watched, but how would you feel if 60 eyes starred at you?
An entirely new kind of species has been discovered in grassland near Cambridge, UK.
The unique animal has 60 eyes, all crammed into a body just 12mm long. It is one of the most unusual animals ever discovered.
This little creature is a worm found by Brian Eversham, chief executive of the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
New record for the UK. A flatworm with as many as 60 eyes. Photo credit Brian Eversham.
Brian Eversham said, “I was taking wildlife pictures one Sunday morning and turned over a log to reveal this rather cute flatworm.It is likely to be a close relative of a species found in Northern Ireland called Kontikia andersoni.
Britain is one of the best countries for documenting wildlife so it’s quite unusual to find a species here which has not been seen before.”
Leading biology expert Dr Hugh Jones believes the flatworm is of antipodean descent but may carry out DNA testing to determine its exact ancestry.
Dr Jones has only seen one specimen of the species in the Netherlands in April this year before Mr Eversham’s discovery. It is thought the flatworm could have originated from New Zealand or Australia.
Photo credit Brian Eversham.
Brian Eversham said “New Zealand seems to be the centre of diversity for land flatworms worldwide, and its climate is very similar to Britain.
Whereas there are millions of undescribed species in the tropics and other poorly-known parts of the world, Britain is the best-documented place on the planet.
It’s quite unusual to find a species here which has not been seen before.”
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
Volcanic activity prompts officials to partially restrict access in the national park.
Authorities declared a green (preventive) alert on Rincón de la Vieja volcano in May. Courtesy of National Seismological Network
Following an increase in its volcanic activity, visits to the crater of Rincón de la Vieja Volcano, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, are prohibited until further notice.
Volcanologist Raúl Mora, from the National Seismological Network, explained that the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano, “while not the most active in the country, is a volcano in full activity, which prompted authorities to take preventive measures.”
Mora said restricted access to the crater does not affect public access to the national park of the same name, one of northwestern Costa Rica’s main attractions.
Rincón de la Vieja and Turrialba are the country’s only two volcanoes with restricted access for tourists.
ST LOUIS MO
BISMARCK ND
TULSA OK
NORTH PLATTE NE
SPRINGFIELD MO
LITTLE ROCK AR
TOPEKA KS
SIOUX FALLS SD
HASTINGS NE
WICHITA KS
MEMPHIS TN
LINCOLN IL
WILMINGTON OH
LOUISVILLE KY
INDIANAPOLIS IN
PADUCAH KY
RAPID CITY SD
ABERDEEN SD
KANSAS CITY/PLEASANT HILL MO
Temperatures in Des Moines reached triple digits Tuesday for the fifth time this summer, extending a month-long heat wave that will likely continue for at least another week. Des Moines peaked at 100 degrees. While temperatures will fall slightly toward the end of the week, according to the National Weather Service, highs will remain in the 90s and lows won’t drop below the low 70s. Large parts of eastern and southern Iowa, including Polk County, are under a heat advisory. Wednesday’s high should reach 98 degrees and Thursday may top out at 96. Friday likely will be the coolest day this week with a high of 92, meteorologists said. There is a small chance of thunderstorms Wednesday night and rain could continue overnight, but no other precipitation is expected this week. “Tomorrow evening and overnight is the best shot at any rain,” National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Skow said. “And that’s less than a 30 percent chance.” The rest of the state may see some rain but, “as far as a good soaking, we’re not seeing it,” Skow said. The number of counties under a burn ban grew to 32 on Tuesday and firefighters, farmers and officials continued to voice concern about the dry conditions.
Spanish authorities evacuated a town of 1,800 residents on the Canary Islands on Tuesday, after three days of firefighting efforts failed to prevent a raging wildfire from reaching it.
Residents were evacuating from the town of Vilaflor, south of the Teide national park that spans the centre of the Spanish island of Tenerife, as flames reached parts of the town.
Emergency services “are evacuating residents from Vilaflor due to the advance of the fire from the east,” the regional government said in a statement Tuesday evening.
It said the 1,800 people of the village were leaving by road. Authorities provided buses for some 200 people who did not have their own vehicles.
Authorities had prepared a shelter for the evacuees in the nearby town of Granadilla, the statement added.
Authorities earlier said the fire had crept a few metres into the Teide park, a major tourist attraction on the archipelago off northwest Africa, as firefighters battled to keep the flames away from populated areas.
Some 800 firefighters were battling the blaze, which broke out Sunday and has spread with strong winds and high temperatures, regional authorities said.
More than 90 people were evacuated from other parts of the island on Monday, of whom 60 remained away from their homes before the latest evacuations.
The fire had affected an area of about 3,000 hectares, of which half had been burnt, a spokeswoman for the regional emergency services said.
Firefighters said they were using five helicopters and three water-bombing planes that arrived Tuesday from mainland Spain, but authorities later said the thick smoke at Vilaflor was hampering efforts.
Another four helicopters and 300 firefighters were working to put out a blaze on one of the neighbouring islands, La Palma, that has engulfed around 500 hectares and forced more than 150 evacuations.
The spokeswoman said this fire had been “stabilised” on Tuesday afternoon after 160 people were evacuated.
Spain has been hit particularly hard by forest fires this year after experiencing its driest winter in 70 years.
The worst fire ravaged 50,000 hectares in the eastern Spanish region of Valencia in July.
Authorities issued evacuation orders for villages in southwestern Greece on Wednesday where wildfires, aided by strong winds and soaring temperatures, have ravaged large areas. The blaze, burning mostly pine forest, sent smoke over the city of Patras, a port with some 220,000 inhabitants, where regional authorities have declared an emergency. Nine planes and one helicopter were involved in the firefighting effort at Argyra, some 15 kilometres (9 miles) east of Patras. Apostolos Katsifaras, regional governor for western Greece, said evacuation orders had been issued for villages in the rugged fire stricken area — likely to involve several hundred residents. “The conditions are very tough. We are using everything we have against the fire,” Katsifaras said. The state of emergency allows authorities to use additional resources, including Greece’s military.
Today
Forest / Wild Fire
Portugal
Municipality of Vila Franca de Xira, [Povoa de Santa Iria]
In Portugal, five major fires were reported. The three largest of them, which were raging in the north and in Povoa de Santa Iria near Lisbon, were largely under control, authorities said.
Strong thunderstorms moved slowly across the Tennessee Valley and produced torrential rain and strong gusty winds. Rainfall totals exceeded three inches in some areas before 5 p.m. Flash Flood Warnings were issued for some counties in North Alabama. Some of the stronger storms produced significant lightning. In Athens, thousands of customers were without power and crews worked in the storms to restore it. Roads flooded in Limestone County and drivers were urged to stay off of them. Athens Bible School suffered roof damage during the storm, and firefighters were at a home on Pepper Road where the roof caught fire, possibly because of lightning.
About 3,000 people in a city of southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu were forced to evacuate their homes again on Thursday due to threats of landslide and flood caused by heavy rain. According to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, the residents in Aso City where landslides hit houses last week were ordered to evacuate their houses on Thursday morning as heavy rain continued to fall on the area covered with volcanic ash soil which is very fragile. In Aso City and its surrounding region of Kumamoto Prefecture, at least 23 people were found dead and two went missing after landslides hit houses last week in more than 60 places. Heavy rain caused by Tropical Storm Khanun poured in several areas of northern Kyushu which saw hourly rainfall between 40 and 50 mm in the morning hours. The Japan Meteorological agency warned as the tropical storm moves north, heavy rainfall may trigger further floods and landslides in Kyushu till Friday.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it is closely monitoring events at the Limerick Generating Station after a manual scram around 8:15 a.m. shut down the reactor at the nuclear power plant. According to NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan, an electrical fault was reported in a transformer in a turbine building that spurred the scram and that the transformer is not a main transformer. The event was listed as an “unusual event” around 8:39 a.m., the lowest of the event ratings, Sheehan said. No one was injured in the incident and no outside help was requested, Sheehan said. Sheehan said the transformers have been known to fail from time to time and that the reactor was safely shut down. Sheehan said there are no complications at the power plant at this time and there is no danger to the public from the incident.
An outbreak of the deadly cholera disease in Bundibugyo district has killed four people leaving over 150 others hospitalized. The epidemic spread to the district from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The four persons died before being taken to hospitals for medication according to Isaac Bisunga – the district disease surveillance officer. Bisunga says the epidemic broke out last month but only to realize it was cholera last week. The most affected areas include Bundibugyo town council, Nyahuka town council, Kasithu sub-county, Bukukwanga sub-county, Kisuba sub-county and Bubandi sub-county. Isolation centers have been established at Bundibugyo hospital and Nyahuka health center IV according to the disease surveillance officer.
Biohazard name:
Cholera
Biohazard level:
3/4 Hight
Biohazard desc.:
Bacteria and viruses that can cause severe to fatal disease in humans, but for which vaccines or other treatments exist, such as anthrax, West Nile virus, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, SARS virus, variola virus (smallpox), tuberculosis, typhus, Rift Valley fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Among parasites Plasmodium falciparum, which causes Malaria, and Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes trypanosomiasis, also come under this level.
An exceptional bright light phenomenon was observed in many parts of Ostobothnia, western Finland, just after 5pm on Tuesday. According to the Ursa astronomical association, this was a meteorite which had passed through the Earth’s upper atmosphere before hitting the ground. According to Esko Lyytinen of Ursa, the object definitely made it to the ground. He speculated it could be as heavy as dozens of kilograms. The object’s final explosion occurred probably between the towns of Kalajoki and Ylivieska. Several observations of the object were made by Ursa at locations across Ostrobothnia. The subsonic blast was heard over a wide area. Amateur astronomers are now eager to find the heavenly body which lies somewhere in the area of Ylivieska and Kalajoki. Meteorites are a rare occurrence whereas meteors, objects that fail to reach the Earth’s surface, are more common. For example, during the course of the year, the Earth passes through dust clouds which give rise to a phenomenon known as a “meteor shower.” During such an event, streaks of light caused by small rocky particles are visible at regular intervals in the night sky.
Dozens of pet birds smuggled from southern China into Taiwan tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus and were destroyed, Taiwanese authorities said Tuesday. The smuggler bought the 38 birds in the Chinese city of Guangzhou and was caught at the Taoyuan international airport in northern Taiwan when he returned via Macau earlier this month, said the Centers for Disease Control. The birds later tested positive for the H5N1 virus and were killed, it said, adding that nine people who had contact with the birds had not shown any flu symptoms during a ten-day screening. Taiwan has no recorded cases of the deadly H5N1 strain, although in 2005 health authorities said eight pet birds smuggled from China tested positive for the strain and destroyed. The island has reported several outbreaks of the H5N2 bird flu, a less virulent strain of the virus, in recent years. China is considered one of the nations most at risk of bird flu epidemics because it has the world’s biggest poultry population and many chickens in rural areas are kept close to humans.
Biohazard name:
H5N1 – Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
Biohazard level:
4/4 Hazardous
Biohazard desc.:
Viruses and bacteria that cause severe to fatal disease in humans, and for which vaccines or other treatments are not available, such as Bolivian and Argentine hemorrhagic fevers, H5N1(bird flu), Dengue hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus, Ebola virus, hantaviruses, Lassa fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and other hemorrhagic or unidentified diseases. When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a Hazmat suit and a self-contained oxygen supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a Level Four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, autonomous detection system, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a Biosafety Level 4 (P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.
A large swarm of bees stung an employee of a tree removal business multiple times as he and three others began cutting down a large cottonwood near downtown Las Cruces. The 52-year-old man was stung possibly hundreds of times and was found, unconscious, by Las Cruces firefighters who arrived shortly before noon today at The Alameda House at 526 S. Alameda Boulevard. Firefighters used foam and water to scatter the bees that were covering the man who was found lying on a driveway. The man was treated at the scene and then rushed to Mountain View Regional Medical Center where he is in serious but stable condition. Two other employees of the tree-removal business were also stung by bees. One of the men, age 30, was transported to Memorial Medical Center but has since been released. A third victim was treated at the scene. Fire and police officials learned that employees with a tree removal business, Las Cruces Heights, were beginning to cut limbs off an old cottonwood on the southwest corner of The Alameda House property. The 52-year-old man was scaling the tree and was suspended by a belay line when the bees started swarming. His coworkers lowered the man to the ground and called for help. Entomologists from the city and county are assessing how best to eradicate the bee colony that is believed to be living inside the large cottonwood. Police and firefighters strongly suggest that residents avoid foot traffic in the area of Alameda Boulevard and Miranda Street, between Lohman Avenue and El Molino Boulevard. Residents of that area also are encouraged to bring pets indoors until at least sunset when the bees are expected to return to their hive.
Biohazard name:
Bees attack
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Strong thunderstorms barreled across New Hampshire on Tuesday evening, knocking out power to more than 24,000 homes and businesses, including nearly 1,000 in Manchester. Manchester fire crews responded to “a bunch of trees around the city” that came down, especially in the Hackett Hill area, said District Fire Chief James Michael. “Some hit wires; some didn’t.” Hooksett firefighters responded to 15 Fieldstone Drive for a reported lightning strike. “It hit a tree out in the back yard and traveled into the house,” Deputy Fire Chief deputy Mike Hoisington said. An electrical outlet got scorched, and the homeowners were checking to see if any appliances were damaged, he said. Not everyone got the heavy storms. Bedford police reported wind but no rain. Londonderry police also had no rain outside their station. In Rochester, a live power line fell on the Spaulding Turnpike, closing a section of turnpike. Northbound traffic went through the toll booth and then was U-turned back through the tolls in the opposite direction safely because a different section of the southbound turnpike was shuttered, according to Rochester fire Lt. Eric Lenzi.
The turnpike was closed for just over an hour. “We were just trying to empty the highway from a dangerous situation,” a state police dispatcher said. She doesn’t believe people were charged to go through the toll again. Otherwise, the dispatcher said, “they’d be calling here screaming at me.” James Brown, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, said winds topped 60 mph in some places, including Alton. “We’re looking mostly for wind damage,” he said. “We’ve all kinds of trees down” Blame the storms on a clash of air masses. “We’ve got a very warm, humid air mass in place and a colder air mass coming down from Canada,” Brown said. “The two are clashing and creating these thunderstorms.” By late last night, utilities had cut the number of outages in half to more than 11,000. Farmington, Hopkinton and Rochester each had more than 1,000 customers without power. PSNH spokesman Matthew Chagnon said the outages were spread over a wide section of the state. “From what I understand, there’s a lot of wires down,” he said. “There’s some poles down in some cases and those can take longer because it requires different crews to come in and set the poles.”
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
The relatively strong tremor that threw into panic people in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia and nearby Pernik is an aftershock of the 5.8-magnitude quake at the end of May, according to experts.
“What we experienced on Saturday is an aftershock of the earthquake of May 22 this year and has the same epicenter,” Professor Nikolay Miloshev, director of the National Institute of Geography, Geophysics and Geodesy, Sofia, explained.
In his words it is not unusual that today’s earthquake is related to the May tremor because it was very strong and even then seismologists predicted aftershocks may continue for months.
Saturday’s earthquake was estimated as 4.5 on the Richter scale by the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre and as 4.2 on the Richter scale by the Geophysical Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS).
The jolt struck at 3.52 p.m. and was felt in Pernik, Sofia, Samokov, Montana and Plovdiv.
The quake occurred at a depth of 10 km and was epicentered 7 km southeast of Pernik and 19 kilometers west of Sofia, very near to the epicenter of the 5.8-magnitude jolt which hit the region in the small hours of May 22.
Sheldon, Iowa — The dry conditions continue. But the past year has been a roller coaster into and out of drought.
We started 2011 wet, but by the end of the year, it was quite dry, and we were concerned about spring planting. We were in what the US Drought monitor calls “severe drought”. But by the time it was time to plant, we were pretty close to where we should be in the moisture profile, and the forecast was for improvement. Now it looks like the pendulum may be swinging back the other way.
The latest information from the US Drought Monitor indicates that our area is in moderate drought. The forecast isn’t any better news. The US Seasonal drought outlook for northwest Iowa is that development of greater drought is likely.
Much of the Corn Belt continues to experience increasing dryness and drought, with departure from normal precip over the past 30 days on the order of 3 to 5 inches below normal across central and eastern Iowa and much of Illinois and Indiana.
So the good news (if you can look at it that way) is that we’re not alone, it’s dry everywhere. In fact, over a thousand counties in 26 states are being named natural-disaster areas, the biggest such declaration ever by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It covers a third of farmers nationwide, and makes them eligible for low-interest loans.
The data cutoff for Drought Monitor maps is Tuesday at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The maps, which are based on analysis of the data, are released each Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
Firefighters aided by aircraft immediately attacked the first lightning-caused fire in Yellowstone National Park this season, but a park spokesman said Friday there’s been no talk of suppressing every blaze. “Our bottom line has always been if we believe that there is a threat to people and property, our goal is to protect people and property,” spokesman Al Nash said. “But not every fire in Yellowstone poses a threat.” The fire was reported Thursday near the park’s northern border in northwest Wyoming. Initially reported at 5 acres, the fire grew to 29 acres by Friday afternoon.
Torrential rains have killed more than 20 people in China and destroyed about one million homes, local media reported on Saturday.
Heavy rains have been battering a number of Chinese provinces for several weeks, triggering mudslides and flooding.
Eleven people were killed in the southern province of Guangdong and ten in the central province of Hubei, where more than 2 million people were affected by the disaster.
The damage caused by the rain has exceeded $156 million.
* Monsoon covers entire country four days ahead of usual date
* Deficit from June 1-July 11 narrows to 22 percent (Adds details, quotes, background)
By Ratnajyoti Dutta
NEW DELHI, July 12 (Reuters) – India’s monsoon rains were above average in the past week for the first time in the current season, the weather office said, as the downpours resumed after a worrying fortnight-long pause over the central part of the country.
The annual rains are crucial for farm output and economic growth as about 55 percent of the South Asian nation’s arable land is rain-fed. The farm sector accounts for about 15 percent of a nearly $2-trillion economy, Asia’s third-biggest.
Rains were 1 percent above average for the week ended July 11, a sharp improvement from 49 percent below average in the previous week – allaying fears of a drought, which would hit output of food crops in the major consumer and producer.
Rapid progress of monsoon rains over the grain bowl of northwest India helped cover the entire country four days ahead of the usual date of July 15 although weather officials have cautioned it could remain weak until next week.
“The monsoon scenario is not as bad as has been painted,” Food Minister K.V. Thomas told Reuters.
Farm Minister Sharad Pawar had already said on Wednesday the rains had improved, speeding the sowing of major summer crops such as rice and cotton.
Rains had been 30 percent below average from June 1 to July 4 and now that deficit has narrowed to 22 percent below average.
Weather officials said the monsoon rains would be above average over the hilly regions of the north and northeast over the next three days, helping to fill reservoirs, but would decrease over northern states such as Punjab and Haryana in the grain bowl of India early next week.
CROP SCENE
The revival of rains over central India increased the pace of soybean planting, which is now almost 80 percent complete in Madhya Pradesh, the main producing state for the oilseed, an industry official said.
“Rains are needed even in the next week to complete the sowing operations,” said Rajesh Agrawal, spokesman for the Soybean Processors’ Association of India said.
Soybean is the main oilseed crop for India, the world’s biggest importer of cooking oils and also a major supplier of soymeal to nations such as Iran, South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand.
By July 6, soybean had been planted in 1.9 million hectares, more than the normal area, according to preliminary farm ministry data. A further update will be issued on Friday.
Thomas said the planting scenario for rice and cane was also “good.” India also has huge stockpiles of rice after three years of bumper harvests. By July 1, government rice stocks were 30.7 million tonnes, much higher than the 9.8 million tonnes targeted for the quarter to end-September.
But concerns remain for cereals in some rain-fed areas of the western state of Maharashtra and southern Karnataka. Cereals had been planted on 2.19 million hectares by July 6 compared with normal acreage of 5.66 million hectares.
Severe flooding in Japan has forced the evacuation of some 400,000 people today. The country’s meteorological agency today warned that more landslides and flooding is expected to hit the deluged island of Kyushu, where severe weather has killed up to 20 people in the last several days. Rain pounded the southern island today, with over four inches of water coming down per hour, according to the weather unit, said SAPA news agency. At least nine people have gone missing. Weather officials said that over 30 inches of rain hit the southern city of Aso in the last three days. Hundreds of thousands of people on the island and the surrounding southern provinces have been advised to leave the region or go to storm shelters. The nation has deployed self-defense units to the area to assist with recovery efforts.
Rock and debris from a landslide lie along five miles of what had been an ice-white glacier inside Glacier Bay National Park.
By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
A massive landslide sent tons of rock and debris tumbling more than five miles down a glacier in Alaska, the National Park Service reported in an event that could be yet another sign of a warming world.
Located in a remote area of Glacier Bay National Park, the slide was so big it registered on earthquake monitors as a magnitude 3.4 event.
“It’s certainly the largest that we’re aware of” inside the park, Glacier Bay ecologist Lewis Sharman told msnbc.com.
Larger landslides have happened over geologic time, Marten Geertsema, a natural hazards researcher for the Forest Service in nearby British Columbia, told msnbc.com, but it definitely was “one of the longest runout landslides on a glacier in Alaska and Canada in recent times.”
Moreover, the force was enormous, Geertsema said. No one was present, but had anyone been there they probably “would be blown over by the air blast,” he told the Associated Press.
Officials ruled out an earthquake as the trigger that caused part of the nearly 12,000-foot Lituya Mountain to give way, smothering the ice-white Johns Hopkins Glacier with dark rock and debris over an area a half-mile wide and 5.5 miles long.
Drake Olson / FlyDrake.com via AP
The landslide is viewed from above the Johns Hopkins Glacier.
One possibility is that thawing permafrost, which is ground that stays frozen for two more our years, caused the slide.
“We are seeing an increase in rock slides in mountain areas throughout the world because of permafrost degradation,” said Geertsema.
“I don’t know whether permafrost degradation played a role here, but we can be almost certain that permafrost exists on Lituya Mountain,” said Geertsema, who reviewed aerial photos of the mountain and slide area. ”Certainly this type of event could happen from permafrost degradation.”
Many areas of mountain permafrost have been thawing in recent decades as temperatures warm, and some experts are becoming convinced that thawing is a factor in the frequency of rock slides, Geertsema said, pointing to data by Swiss scientists studying the Alps.
Marten Geertsema and Drake Olson
The section of rock and ice that slid off Lituya Mountain is seen here. Marten Geertsema estimates it was 200 meters, or about 600 feet, wide.
“It plays an important role,” Geertsema said of climate change. “I think we have been underestimating the role it might play.”
Sharman, the park ecologist, echoed that sentiment, saying he’s heard from experts that “they would not be surprised” to see more such landslides inside the national park if temperatures continue to warm.
“Certainly we are seeing an increase in large landslides over the past decades,” Geertsema said, citing his 2006 study that found between 1973 and 2003 the average in northern British Columbia increased from 1.3 large landslides per year to 2.3.
Moreover, he said, most of the slides in northern British Columbia are happening in the warmest years.
Landslides like this one can also be triggered by other factors, Geertsema added, such as a combination of large snowpack and a cold spring that results in a delayed and then rapid melt.
The slide itself was miles from areas used by park visitors, most of whom see Glacier Bay by cruise ship.
“You can’t see it from a boat or the bay. You’ve got to be up flying. And it’s not on a typical flying route,” park service spokesman John Quinley told Reuters. “It would have been pretty horrific if you’d been camped on the glacier.”
And it won’t reach the bay for a long time.
The frozen ground that covers the top of the world has been thawing rapidly over the last three decades. But there is cause for concern beyond the far north, because the carbon released from thawing permafrost could raise global temeratures even higher. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports for “Changing Planet,” produced by NBC Learn in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
“The landslide is approximately 12-14 miles up the glacier,” the park said on its Facebook page, and the glacier itself moves material towards the bay only about 10-15 feet a day. “So this debris may not reach the face of the glacier for many years,” it added.
Officials are currently trying to estimate the volume of material that fell in the slide.
In 1958, a nearby landslide, this one above Lituya Bay and triggered by a 7.7 earthquake, created a wave hundreds of feet high that washed 1,720 feet up a narrow inlet. Two people on a fishing boat vanished and three others on land were killed.
One fishing vessel was able to ride out the wave, Geertsema noted.
“They looked below them and they could see the tops of the Sitka spruce trees way below,” he said. “The other boat disappeared.”
Last month’s slide covered more land area than the 1958 incident, but even so it probably won’t go down as the biggest one by volume in North America.
“We do not know the volume of the recent landslide on the Johns Hopkins Glacier yet, but it is unlikely to break the volume record,” Rex Baum, a U.S. Geological Survey expert, told msnbc.com.
What is the record? That, said Baum, would be the 2.8 cubic kilometer rock slide avalanche from the May 18, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state.
The search for four people assumed caught in Thursday’s landslide in southeastern B.C. resumed Friday afternoon and was to continue until dark, and then resume at first light Saturday morning, officials say.
More landslides earlier Friday had delayed the ground search for a father, his two adult daughters and a German woman believed to be trapped by a landslide that roared down a mountainside in southeastern B.C.
RCMP said there had been further slides in the area, and because of that searchers had to wait for geotechnicians to assess the safety of the terrain before they went in.
Bill Macpherson, spokesman for the Central Kootenay Regional District, said engineers gave the go-ahead, although there was no certainty the danger had passed.
“In spite of ongoing debris movement and continued slope instability, the search of the landslide at Johnsons Landing has resumed this afternoon at approximately14:15 hours [PT],” Macpherson said in a statement Friday afternoon.
About 40 rescue workers are now in Johnsons Landing, with 13 on top of the debris pile at any one time, trying to burrow in strategically to locate possible survivors, Vancouver Fire Department spokesman Les Sziklai told CBC News on Friday night. The department has a number of personnel assisting at the landslide scene, Sziklai said.
The earlier search delay had frustrated family members and local residents.
“It’s taken them a long time to get in there. In the old days we would’ve just gone in by ourselves, and it may have been dangerous, but this place is full of independent people,” said resident Susan Grimble.
The girls’ mother, Lynn Migdal, who is in Florida, told CBC News that Diana Webber, 22, and Rachel Webber, 17, and her ex-husband, Valentine Webber, were about to sit down for breakfast moments before the slide hit.
Now she believes they are trapped under the debris that destroyed the home.
“There is three people buried deep down in my house right now and there is not one rescue person on the property. Something fast has to be done,” Lynn Migdal said just after 7 a.m. PT.
Three homes were damaged by the landslide on Thursday. (Bob Keating/CBC)
Aerial reconnaissance of the site was conducted by 10 a.m., but ground crews were not allowed in to search the site because of stability concerns, according to Macpherson.
“My family has been buried under the ground since 11 o’clock yesterday. I know that the conditions were not good enough. They had to evacuate, but I was promised that by 4:30 yesterday afternoon, as soon as there was light, that there would be dogs and people digging,” said Migdal.
Diana Webber, 22, is believed to have been in a home hit by the landslide.(Facebook)
“All we need is some shovels to dig out my 17-year-old daughter, my 22-year-old daughter and my ex-husband.”
The other missing person is believed to be Petra Frehse, a German woman who has been a part-time resident of the area for several years.
RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said multiple helicopters, two search-dog teams, underwater recovery divers, a landslide expert and a geotechnician were dispatched to the scene in the tiny community of Johnsons Landing to help in the search and recovery effort.
The efforts were called off Thursday evening because the area was deemed too volatile to search in the dark.
Rachel Webber, 17, is also believed to have been in the house struck by the landslide.(Facebook)
“I think everybody is realistic that the odds of survivability for the individuals that were in the direct path [of the landslide] …are not that great,” said Moskaluk.
“So realistically, we are looking at possibly a recovery operation. But again, we never lose hope.”
Four members of Vancouver’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue team arrived to help with the search on Thursday night, and more arrived on Friday morning.
By Ethan A. Huff,
(NaturalNews) Dozens of young children in Cambodia have died in recent months of what health authorities are claiming is some kind of mystery disease. But based on the nature of the afflicted children’s symptoms prior to their deaths, it seems a likely possibility that they may have been victims of vaccine injuries, and that the disease explanation is the media’s attempt to cover up the truth. According to Dr. Nima Asgari, a public health specialist at the United Nations (UN) body in Cambodia, as many as 60 children have died in Cambodia since April, all after experiencing similar symptoms. Prior to their deaths, many of the children had reportedly been suffering high fever, severe chest disease symptoms, and/or signs of neurological damage, symptoms which are all strangely associated with vaccine injury.
The so-called “disease,” which authorities insisted from the beginning they could not identify, has actually afflicted 61 children thus far, only one of which obviously survived. But all the children who were admitted to hospitals in both Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s largest and capital city, and a popular tourist area known as Siem Reap, were seven years of age or younger at their times of death.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is worried about the fact that the “condition” leads to a very high mortality rate in such a short period of time. But at the same time, the international body claims the disease is not contagious, as neither hospital staff nor nearby patients that have come into contact with the now-deceased children have developed similar symptoms.
Mysterious deaths wreak of deliberate experimentation on humans via vaccines
Since the mystery condition does not appear to be contagious in any way, and only seems to occur in young children of vaccine age, it is not that far of a stretch to hypothesize that vaccines may have something to do with these mysterious deaths. It would not be the first time, after all, that vaccine experimentation has led to the unusually rapid spread of “disease” in just a few weeks or months.
The AIDS epidemic, for instance, appears to have been triggered by a vaccine campaign for smallpox in Africa back in the late 1970s. (http://www.infowars.com) According to some reports, the 13-year campaign launched by WHO to vaccinate Africans living in Central Africa was directly responsible for inducing HIV and AIDS, which quickly spread around the world. (http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net)
Interestingly, Cambodia has recently launched its own vaccination campaigns, including one for measles that began back in 2011. (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-02/10/c_13725980.htm) But neither health authorities nor the mainstream media have even entertained the thought that vaccines might the cause of the mystery deaths.
Some official reports are now blaming the deaths of Enterovirus Type 71 (EV71), also known as “hand, foot and mouth disease.” (http://news.blogs.cnn.com) But this explanation does not make any sense, as EV71 is highly contagious, while the “mystery condition” does not appear to be contagious.
Why are people panicking as their courtyards fill with “mysterious blood redrain“?
Did Nostradamus and others predict “rain like blood”?
Has this happened before?
What causes the red color in the mysterious rain?
Is it caused by an unidentified life form?
Could dust from a meteor affect an area more than a decade later?
Is all this just coincidence?
On Thursday, July 5, 2012, around 6:50 p.m. local time, a mysterious red rain shower fell for about 15 minutes in Kannur, Kerala, India. Locales within a one kilometer area in the Indian state of Kerala experienced this phenomenon, as it filled courtyards with blood red rain and stained people’s clothes pink.
Wildlife experts are concerned and investigating after 512 Magellanic penguins washed up dead across 65 miles of the Brazilian coast, reports the Merco Press. Further worrying veterinarians is that the birds were all apparently in good health, well fed, and free from oil stains. Magellanic penguins are migratory, moving from southern Argentina to Sao Paolo at this time of year. It’s not a great time for penguins in general, with the population of a major colony in Antarctica plummeting 36% since 1991.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (Magellanic penguins)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A section of the Des Moines River with a history of hot weather related fish kills was home to one of the longest in the state’s history with nearly 58,000 dead fish in more than 42 stream miles with a value exceeding $10.1 million.
Dead fish were found in the Des Moines River from the dam in Eldon to the Farmington Bridge on Iowa Highway 2.
This section of the Des Moines River has had sizable fish kills over the years, including 2006 and in 2008, during summer flows of 300 to 500 CFS and high water temperature.
The DNR also investigated fish kills in the Iowa River between the Hawkeye Wildlife Area and the Iowa Highway 965 bridge in Johnson County and in the main lake at Lake Odessa in Louisa County.
The section of the Iowa River has periodically experienced hot weather fish kills in the past.
Paul Sleeper, fisheries biologist at Lake Macbride, said water from the shallow Hawkeye Wildlife area with low oxygen levels and temperatures in the 90s flowed under the Iowa Highway 965 and I-380 bridges where most of the dead fish were found. Sleeper said they counted 95 walleyes at the upper end of the Coralville Reservoir, along with six channel catfish and a few common carp on Monday.
“It looks like they had been dead for several days,” Sleeper said.
At Lake Odessa, 96 percent of the 19,000 fish killed were gizzard shad that are susceptible to changes in water temperature. Chad Dolan, fisheries biologist at the DNR’s Lake Darling office, said they suspect the kill happened Saturday night after the high air temperatures. The water temperature was in the low to mid 90s.
A section of the Des Moines River with a history of hot weather related fish kills was home to one of the longest in the state’s history with nearly 58,000 dead fish in more than 42 stream miles with a value exceeding $10.1 million.
Dead fish were found in the Des Moines River from the dam in Eldon to the Farmington Bridge on Hwy. 2.
The majority of fish killed, 37,159, were shovelnose sturgeon, with a value $116.20 per pound, according to American Fisheries Society guidelines for monetary value in fish kills. The sturgeon averaged more than two pounds each with a value of $9,865,241.85.
The investigation began around 10:30 a.m., July 7, when Lacey-Keosauqua State Park manager Justin Pedretti reported seeing “lots” of dead fish in the river to Mark Flammang, fisheries biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Flammang and fisheries aide Wes Alexander were joined by Jon Ryk and Paul Brant from the DNR’s Washington field office on the river at Eldon and for the next 11 hours they collected water samples, conducted fish counts, and took water temperature readings working their way downstream to Farmington.
“We didn’t find low levels of dissolved oxygen or high levels of ammonia which is usually indicative of some sort of spill so it comes down to water temperature,” said Flammang. “You just don’t see rivers at 97 degrees and it was 97 degrees at every site that we sampled. I’ve never seen water at that temperature in Iowa.”
The effects of high water temperature on fish were likely compounded by stream flows that had fallen from 5,000 cubic feet per second before July 4, to 1,200 CFS on July 7.
In addition to shovelnose sturgeon, Flammang found more than 12,000 channel catfish, nearly 1,900 walleye, more than 1,100 flathead catfish, 1,500 freshwater drum, 750 carpsuckers, 370 white bass, 45 shorthead redhorse and 25 goldeye.
“It looks like a lot of fish, but I don’t expect this fish kill to have a noticeable impact on the fish population in this stretch of the river. The shovelnose sturgeon is something we’re concerned about, but the river has shown time and time again that it can recover,” Flammang said.
This section of the Des Moines River has had sizable fish kills over the years, including 2006 and in 2008, during summer flows of 300 to 500 CFS and high water temperature.
The DNR also investigated fish kills in the Iowa River between the Hawkeye Wildlife Area and the Hwy. 965 Bridge in Johnson County, and in the main lake at Lake Odessa in Louisa County.
The section of the Iowa River has periodically experienced hot weather fish kills in the past.
Paul Sleeper, fisheries biologist at Lake Macbride, said water from the shallow Hawkeye Wildlife area with low oxygen levels and temperatures in the 90s flowed under the Hwy. 965 and I-380 bridges were most of the dead fish were found. Sleeper said they counted 95 walleyes at the upper end of the Coralville Reservoir, along with six channel catfish and a few common carp on Monday.
“It looks like they had been dead for several days,” Sleeper said.
At Lake Odessa, 96 percent of the 19,000 fish killed were gizzard shad that are susceptible to changes in water temperature. Chad Dolan, fisheries biologist at the DNR’s Lake Darling office, said they suspect the kill happened Saturday night after the high air temperatures. The water temperature was in the low to mid 90s.
Other species killed were bluegills, crappies, freshwater drum, northern pike, largemouth bass, yellow bass, common carp, channel catfish, goldfish and brown bullhead. Dolan said live fish were seen in the areas of the fish kill and anglers were catching fish during the Sunday
While elevated water temperature is likely the cause of these fish kills, the DNR will be submitting water samples for analysis to see if other factors were responsible. If the public sees dead or stressed fish, they are encouraged to contact the DNR at 515-281-8694.
A friend of the surfer who was killed in a shark attack north of Lancelin this morning is believed to have witnessed the attack. Police have revealed the victim is a 24-year-old Perth man but have not yet released his name. He is the fifth person to die from a shark attack in Western Australia since September last year. Water Police and the Department of Fisheries are now searching for the man’s body. The attack happened about 4 km south of Wedge Island about 9am. Tony Cappelluti from the Fisheries Department said the victim was with a friend when attacked by what was believed to be a great white shark. “The two people were in the water surfing or waiting for a wave when the victim was attacked by a shark,” he said. It is believed that the two men were about 40 or 50 metres off the beach at the time of attack. Mr Cappelluti said two other surfers, one on a jet ski and the other being towed came over to help when they saw a commotion in the water. He said the man’s friend and the others surfers were not in a position to help and went back to shore and contacted the police. “No body has been recovered but from eyewitness accounts we presume he has been killed.” A man who said he had been the person on the jet ski nearby told ABC that he tried to retrieve the man who had been attacked from the water. “I was towing my mate on the back of the jet ski and in front of us I just saw a guy get attacked by a shark and I just took my mate straight to the shore and went straight out and there was just blood everywhere and a massive, massive white shark circling the body,” he said. “I reached to grab the body and the shark came at me on the jet ski and tried to knock me off and I did another loop and when I came to get back to the body the shark took it.”
Mr Cappelluti said the attack had taken place near a very remote section of the beach and he was not sure if anyone was on the beach at the time. He said the victim’s friend was believed to be “very distressed.” Shire of Dandaragan president Shane Love said the thoughts of the community were with the victim’s family and friends. “I think anytime this sort of thing happens it’s a shock to coastal communities who love to go in the water and enjoy it, it’s very sad,” he said. Mr Love said while there were not many people who lived in the shacks at Wedge Island, which is about 160km north of Perth, the wider community of people who visited regularly was much larger. Police from Jurien Bay are attending the incident and the beach where the incident took place is currently closed. Lancelin local, Michael Balcombe who has been fishing in the area for about 45 years said he often saw big sharks in the area including tiger sharks and bronze whalers. “You always see sharks if you’re fishing around here,” he said. Mr Balcombe said considering the attack took place 4 km south of Wedge Island, it may have been at a popular surfing area called Didi Bay. Today’s attack is the second fatal shark attack in Western Australia this year.
Biohazard name:
Shark attack (Fatal)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A swarm of bees attacked several people Friday evening, sending five to the hospital for treatment. The bee attack took place about 6:30 p.m. Friday on the 4100 block of North 10th Street, where a construction crew was repairing the roof of a strip mall, said McAllen Fire Capt. Rene Del Bosque. Customers were ordered to stay inside the various buildings, including Hop Tung Vietnamese Chinese Restaurant and the Lucky 13 tattoo parlor. Employees at other stores looked out from their windows as firefighters worked to remove the bees, but were also stung in the process. Those not inside businesses were kept away by McAllen police and firefighters. Those who had been stung were moved across the street to North Cross Shopping Center, where first responders treated those who had been stung. About 7:45 p.m., firefighters wearing bee suits removed the beehive and cleared the area. “At first I saw some of the guys swatting in the air and didn’t know what was going on but then as they got close I saw the bees,” said Andy Wynn, one of the roofers who dropped to the ground and covered himself in insulation material in an effort to stay safe from the bees. “I was concerned that some of the guys might jump off the roof to get away from the bees … it was about 5 or 10 at a time but they came at you and tried to get in your ears or your nose.” Wynn said he’d never been attacked by bees in his eight years as a roofer.
Biohazard name:
Bees attack
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
A fire at a National Grid substation in Liverpool on Friday morning sparked outages in several local communities. / Bill Ali
SALINA — Thousands of National Grid customers were in the dark during a major power outage on Friday. The outage had the greatest affect on customers in Syracuse and Salina, and was sparked by a fire at a National Grid substation in Liverpool. The substation caught fire around 12:30am on Friday.
A National Grid spokesperson says the fire is believed to be specifically caused by bushlings, which allow energey to pass between pieces of equipment and are a vital component of substations.
National Grid has asked thousands of customers to conserve power while they are re-routing those serviced by the substation to other grids. To minimize strain on grids, customers are asked to unplug unnecessary electronics and turn up the temperatures on air conditioners to 70-72 degrees.
Those asked to conserve seem willing to comply, despite the 90 degree temperatures. “It’s hot, yeah, but there’s other ways we can keep cool,” said Salina National Grid customer Daniel Zaborskiy. “Like instead of using A/C, we can use a fan, for instance.”
Some affected by the outages are upset with National Grid. “They should provide a service and we should have confidence and know that they’re going to deliver that service to us, like they want their money on time at all times,” said Syracuse customer Taj Bey.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes 'FAIR USE' of any such copyrighted material.]
As levels continue to drop along a long stretch of the Mississippi River in the coming weeks, the risk of grounding incidents will increase. (Photos.com image)
The ongoing drought has river levels along the Mississippi River plunging to very low levels this summer and could stall barge traffic in some areas into the autumn if rainfall does not come soon.
It was just last year when levels along the Mississippi River and many of its tributaries were close to record high levels. What a difference a year makes.
Falling river levels are not uncommon during the summer months in the central and eastern United States. However, the building drought over much of the middle of the nation currently has the mighty Mississippi running well below normal and levels in many areas are likely to fall through much of the summer, unless widespread rain comes.
River levels along stretches of the Mississippi were already beginning to cause minor problems below the Ohio River junction.
Very low water levels expose shoals, potentially putting river traffic at risk for getting stuck in the mud.
Sandbars have been exposed at Vicksburg, Miss.
Officials in some areas are considering one-way traffic along portions of Old Man River.
According to National Weather Service (NWS) Hydrologists river levels along parts of the Mississippi River are 30 to 50 feet lower this year, compared to around the same time last year.
While significant rain is forecast to fall by AccuWeather.com over portions of the Ohio and Tennessee river tributaries and in part of the Mississippi Delta in the coming weeks, a lack of rain will continue over the Arkansas, Missouri and Upper Mississippi rivers for much of the summer.
Barge traffic from near Cairo, Ill. to St. Louis could potentially be impacted, if river levels get much lower due to the lack of rain in areas north and west of the intersection of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
According to NWS Hydrologist Steve Buan, at the North Central River Forecast Office, “River levels over the Upper Mississippi River are not ‘yet’ extraordinarily low.”
Buan commented that heavy rain in recent weeks from around Minneapolis to southwest of Duluth was keeping the river levels from reaching extremely low levels to this point, but that could change if days of steady rain do not come soon or thunderstorms make daily visits to the upper part of the basin.
As of July 13, the river level at St. Louis is 5.3 feet and falling and is projected by NWS Hydrologists to dip to under 2.0 feet around July 20.
According to St. Louis Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs Chief Mike Peterson, “At the low water reference point of minus 3.5 feet, a safety zone is established in the navigation channel and some restrictions by the United States Coast Guard may be put in place.”
The river bottom of the Mississippi is dynamic, always changing so that barge companies and pilots will police themselves until mandatory restrictions are in place.
“Officials will continue to patrol the river and may undertake dredging operations as necessary,” Peterson said.
The Mississippi River drains more than 40 percent of the United States and has the Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio rivers as some of its major tributaries, all of which are experiencing abnormally low levels.
Compare the Mississippi River basin to the amount of real estate experiencing abnormally dry and drought conditions this summer.
River levels along the Mississippi as of July 13, 2012 include: 12.2 feet at Thebes, Ill.; 5.3 ft. at St. Louis, Mo.; 5.2 ft. at Vicksburg, Miss. and -4.8 ft. at Memphis, Tenn.
As a point of reference, on July 13, 1988, the river level at St. Louis was -1.0 ft.
Simply put, a negative river gauge reading can occur as the river bottom condition changes from natural causes or dredging.
Exceptionally heavy rains have killed at least 19 people and flooded hundreds of houses on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, the local authorities said Friday. The intense rainfall in certain areas of the prefectures of Kumamoto and Oita has attained levels “never experienced before,” the Japan Meteorological Agency said. In one part of Kumamoto, the equivalent of one month’s rain fell in the space of just eight hours early Thursday, according to the meteorological agency. Besides the 19 people who died — some of them in landslides and houses that collapsed — eight people are missing, according to information posted on the websites of the local prefecture offices and fire services. The violent rain has damaged 75 houses and flooded more than 500 in the two prefectures, the local authorities said. Evacuation orders were temporarily issued for tens of thousands of households as the Shirakawa River, which runs through Kumamoto City, began spilling over its banks. Helicopters plucked some residents from the roofs of their homes. Most of the evacuation orders had been lifted by Friday morning. Kyushu is the third largest island of Japan, located southwest of the main island, Honshu.
13.07.2012
Landslide
USA
State of Alaska, [Lituya Mountain in the Fairweather Range ]
Even by Alaska standards, the rock slide in Glacier Bay National Park was a huge event. It was a monumental geophysical event that was almost overlooked until a pilot happened to fly over where the cliff collapsed and snapped some photographs nearly a month later. When the cliff collapsed in the national park in southeast Alaska on June 11, it sent rock and ice coursing down a valley and over a lovely white glacier in what perhaps was the largest landslide recorded in North America. The rumbling was enough so that it showed up as a 3.4-magnitude earthquake in Alaska. The seismic event also was recorded in Canada. The massive landslide occurred in a remote valley beneath the 11,750-foot Lituya Mountain in the Fairweather Range about six miles from the border with British Columbia. “I don’t know of any that are bigger,” Marten Geertsema, a research geomorphologist for the provincial Forest Service in British Columbia, said Thursday, when comparing the landslide to others in North America.If someone had been standing in front of the slide, the air blast alone would have flattened that person, said Geertsema, who studies natural hazards resulting from geophysical processes on the earth’s surface. “I think they would be blown over by the air blast,” he said. Despite the extraordinary size of the landslide, which was estimated at a half-mile wide and 5 1/2 miles long, it went virtually unnoticed until air taxi pilot Drake Olson flew over it on July 2. The landslide, which rolled over the glacier, is not very noticeable to the thousands of cruise ship passengers that visit Glacier Bay National Park near Juneau each summer. That is because it is about 12 to 15 miles up the glacier from the bay. While this one was huge by North American standards, bigger ones have occurred, including a September 2002 landslide in Russia that extended for 20 miles, Geertsema said. Lituya Mountain has been the scene of extraordinary geophysical events before. In 1958, a landslide on the other side of the mountain produced a wave estimated at 1,700 feet.
One fishing vessel was able to ride out the wave. “They looked below them and they could see the tops of the Sitka spruce trees way below them. The other boat disappeared,” Geertsema said. Another boat with two people aboard disappeared. One of Olson’s photos of the June landslide shows a huge dent in the side of an ice-covered peak. Another shows a river of rock and ice that flowed out of a valley. The landslide triggered numerous avalanches. Glacier Bay National Park Superintendent Susan Boudreau said visitors to the 3.2-million acre park won’t notice anything different in the landscape this summer, but the rock and ice likened to a river of black syrup moving toward the bay is on the move. How fast it is moving is still the question, she said. “It is going to come down but we don’t know the speed of that,” Boudreau said. There are several factors that contribute to the likelihood of mountains collapsing, Geertsema said. Sometimes it is caused by a general weakening of the rock. Other times it could be due to a very large snowpack that melts quickly. Scientists also are looking at the role of climate change. “We are seeing an increase in rock slides in mountain areas throughout the world because of permafrost degradation,” Geertsema said. Permafrost is ground that stays perpetually frozen. Geertsema said Swiss scientists are becoming increasingly convinced that climate change is playing a role in the frequency of rock slides after looking at data from instruments measuring temperature and the widening and narrowing of gaps in the rocks in the Alps. “It plays an important role,” Geertsema said, of climate change. “I think we have been underestimating the role it might play.” Park ecologist Lewis Sharman said the landslide is a reminder of why Glacier Bay National Park is special. “These types of events to me are welcome reminders that this place is one of the coolest on earth,” he said.
13.07.2012
Landslide
Canada
Province of British Columbia, [Johnson s Landing, Gar Creek region]
Industrial crews were trucking to the scene of a destructive landslide in southeastern British Columbia Thursday night to help search for four possible victims who may have been buried in a slide that rolled over three homes. A frantic search for the missing residents by emergency crews began shortly after 11 a.m. in the tiny community of Johnson’s Landing, 70 kilometres northeast of Nelson. Emergency officials said the three homes caught in the slide were “severely impacted” as the muck and debris gave way in a deluge from Gar Creek above the homes.The slide cut a large scar down the hillside, scattering trees like toothpicks and sending a torrent of mud into the nearby Kootenay Lake. It’s not yet known whether the people were in the homes swept up by the slide. “RCMP and search and rescue emergency responders on the site are trying to determine whether they were out of the community or in their homes. We don’t know that information,” said Bill Macpherson, a public information officer with Central Kootenay Regional District. “It is a very remote area, there is no cell service and we’re waiting to get back more definitive word,” he said of the unfolding situation.Seven workers were dispatched from nearby Castlegar to erect two towers of emergency lighting and two portable toilets so that rescuers can work as long as necessary. “From everything I can put together, it sounds like a fairly big slide – more than a piece of the roadway washing out,” said Kevin Chernoff, general manager of Trowelex Rentals and Sales. “It sounds like a piece of the mountain came down.” The crews are setting up in an area 20 kilometres away from ground zero. “The site is very congested and still very unstable,” Mr. Chernoff said. Multiple helicopters, two search-dog teams, under water recover divers, a landslide expert and a geotechnician have also been dispatched to the scene to help in the search and recovery effort. Mr. Macpherson couldn’t explain why the earth gave way. “It’s been sunny and warm, so (the slide was) somewhat unexpected,” he said. “I don’t have any cause or reason for why the landslide occurred.” The slide occurred at the end of the road on the north arm of Kootenay Lake. Last month, the lake reached its highest peak in 40 years due to heavy rainfall and accumulation of run-off. But Mr. Macpherson said at this point he doesn’t believe there’s any connection. An emergency operations centre is being set up in the city of Nelson.
Cuban health officials recently announced that the number of confirmed cholera cases in the nation has risen from 85 to 110. Residents in Granma province, the area hit hardest by the outbreak, have been advised to avoid traveling in order to stem the outbreak. A dissident journalist in Santiago de Cuba, the island nation’s second largest city, recently reported that hospital workers informed him of eight cholera deaths in the city’s hospitals. Havana has only confirmed three cholera-related deaths and claims the outbreak has only spread outside of Granma province in isolated cases. On Monday, Granma-based epidemiologist Ana Maria Batista reported on provisional television that there were 85 cases of the waterborne illness. Within 24 hours, she upped the number to 110. She added that the number of reported cases of diarrhea and vomiting, the symptoms of cholera, rose by 308 to 4,415, but that those hospitalized with such symptoms fell from 112 to 81. Batista also repeated the government’s claim that the outbreak was fully under control. Independent journalist Walter Clavel said that doctors in Santiago said authorities were insistent on not attributing any deaths to cholera and had advised them to put anything else on victims’ death certificates.
The temperature at which cows start producing less milk varies across the country depending on other factors like humidity and overnight temperature swings.
“Cows are happy in parts of Northern California and not in Florida” is a good way to sum up the findings of new research from the University of Washington, said Yoram Bauman, best known as the “stand-up economist.” Bauman and colleagues found that the decline in milk production due to climate change will vary across the U.S., since there are significant differences in humidity and how much the temperature swings between night and day across the country.
For instance, the humidity and hot nights make the Southeast the most unfriendly place in the country for dairy cows.
Their study combined high-resolution climate data and county-level dairy industry data with a method for figuring out how weather affects milk production. The result is a more detailed report than previous studies and includes a county-by-county assessment – that will be available to farmers – of the impact climate change will have on Holstein milk production in the U.S. through 2080.
Bauman, who contributed to the research while teaching for the UW’s Program on the Environment and is now a fellow at the Sightline Institute, will present the findings during this week’s Conference on Climate Change, held on the UW campus.
Scientists and the dairy industry have long known about and studied the impact of heat stress on cows’ milk production.
“Using U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics, if you look at milk production in the Southeast versus the Northwest, it’s very different,” said Guillaume Mauger, a postdoctoral researcher in the UW’s Climate Impacts Group and co-author of the paper. “It’s reasonable to assume that some of that is due to the inhospitable environment for cows in the Southeast.”
Previous research into how climate affects cow milk production in the U.S. was either limited in geographic scope or was too simplistic, ignoring the impact of humidity, for instance.
But by using detailed climate data covering night and day across the entire country, the researchers made some interesting discoveries. For instance, in Tillamook, Ore., where the climate is humid and the nighttime temperature doesn’t change much, milk production begins to drop at a much lower temperature than in the dry Arizona climate.
Tillamook cows become less productive starting at around 15 C, or 59 F, while those in Maricopa, Ariz., start making less milk at around 25 C, or 77 F. In humid Okeechobee, Fla., cows become less productive at about the same temperature but losses increase at a much faster rate than in Arizona.
Fortunately for cows in Tillamook, however, the temperature there doesn’t stray upward often and so actual milk losses are negligible, the researchers said. In Maricopa, the mean daily losses in summer, when the temperature soars, reach nearly 50 percent.
The authors also found that dairy farmers are already clustering in the most comfortable areas for cows, such as the cool coastal counties of Washington state.
But the outlook isn’t good for areas across the southern U.S. where cows are already less productive in the heat of the summer.
“Perhaps most significantly, those regions that are currently experiencing the greatest losses are also the most susceptible: they are projected to be impacted the most by climate change,” the researchers wrote in the paper.
Still, there’s a notable silver lining in the report. While the researchers project that dairy production averaged across the U.S. will be about 6 percent lower in the 2080s than at the start of the century, other factors are likely to actually boost milk production even more.
“Management practices and breeding are on track to double milk production in Holsteins in the next 30 or 50 years,” Mauger said. “So while a 6 percent drop is not negligible, it’s small compared to other positive influences.”
The research could be valuable to farmers looking to evaluate the cost and effectiveness of methods for keeping cows cool. “You can pick up dairy cows and truck them elsewhere,” said Bauman, who noted that ranchers looking to expand could make decisions based on climate.
The researchers plan to make the data freely available so that farmers can look up their counties and find how the climate may affect their cows.
The researchers hope next to look at the impact climate has on other barnyard animals, such as pigs, and other effects, such as mortality rate, that rising temperature might have on cows.
Other co-authors are Eric Salathe, an assistant professor at UW Bothell and member of the UW’s Climate Impacts Group, and Tamilee Nennich of Purdue University.
A microscopic image from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control shows a large grouping of Legionella pneumophila bacteria, the pathogen behind legionnaires’ disease. (Janice Haney Carr/Associated Press)That’s more than twice the number of cases that had previously been disclosed, and surpasses the last outbreak in the city, in 1995, when 12 people fell ill and one died.
Watches Ramp Up Again 22nd-25th
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MessageToEagle.com – TW Hydrae is a star between 5-10 million years old, and only 176 light-years away, in the direction of the constellation of Hydrae (the Water Snake), is in the final stage of formation.
A schematic diagram of the surface of TW Hydrae, illustrating where strong X-ray emission might arise. Accreting material can produce winds and shocks at the stellar photosphere; some parameters are specified. Credit: N. Brickhouse, et al, 2010
MessageToEagle.com – There are a number of amazing alien landscapes on Earth and here is one of them!
Trees are covered under the snow. Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
Bizarre tendrils emerge from the ground… Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
Snow and frost become so thick the entire landscape is transformed into an otherworldly planet. Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
Here the temperatures can drop as low as -40C. Image credit: Niccolo Bonfadini / Solent News
MessageToEagle.com – Two eyes can be enough to sometimes give you the feeling you are being watched, but how would you feel if 60 eyes starred at you?
New record for the UK. A flatworm with as many as 60 eyes. Photo credit Brian Eversham. 
FlyDrake.com via Glacier Bay National Park
Drake Olson / FlyDrake.com via AP
Marten Geertsema and Drake Olson
B.C. landslide rescue3:25
Diana Webber, 22, is believed to have been in a home hit by the landslide. (Facebook)
Rachel Webber, 17, is also believed to have been in the house struck by the landslide. (Facebook)
The annual migration takes some penguins as far north as Rio de Janeiro
As levels continue to drop along a long stretch of the Mississippi River in the coming weeks, the risk of grounding incidents will increase. (Photos.com image)
