A man has been bitten by a shark while swimming off a beach on the NSW north coast. The man, aged in his 30s, was taking an afternoon dip at South West Rocks, yesterday, when he was attacked. Nearby swimmers were able to help the man to shore, where he was treated by paramedics for a bite to his arm. He was rushed to Kempsey Hospital for further treatment. Lifeguards said it was believed the shark was a Grey Nurse. The beach was closed for the afternoon, and remains closed this morning.
Biohazard name:
Shark attack (non-fatal)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Jellyfish are stalking Fraser Coast beaches in plague-like proportions and surf lifesavers are warning swimmers to be careful. Catostylus jellyfish, also known as blue blubber jellyfish, have been turning up in “abnormally high” numbers, according to Craig Holden, Surf Life Saving Queensland’s regional manager for the Wide Bay Capricornia. But while the species was not deadly, Mr Holden said swimmers, particularly parents with young children, still had to be vigilant. “The sting can cause a minor irritation and people certainly need to be aware that they are there,” he said. “People tend to see the size of them and panic, but it is nothing for people to be alarmed about.” Mr Holden said some people would not even feel the sting of a blubber jellyfish, but others might receive some minor pain. He urged anyone who was stung to see their local surf lifesavers, who are trained to treat jellyfish stings. Alternatively, warm water or ice could help ease the pain. Blue blubber jellyfish, which grow to about 35cm in diameter, have peppered the sand of Hervey Bay’s beaches for weeks and large numbers have also been spotted up at Bundaberg. But local lifeguards have only treated a handful of beachgoers for stings so far this season, Mr Holden said. Box jellyfish and irukandji were the deadly varieties, but Mr Holden said they were uncommon in Fraser Coast waters and were more likely to be found in north Queensland.
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion (Catostylus jellyfish)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
….
Today
Biological Hazard
Australia
State of Northern Territory, [South of Port Bradshaw]
A boy is presumed dead in a second deadly crocodile attack in three weeks in northern Australia. Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported the boy, believed to be 9-years-old, was swimming with other children south of Port Bradshaw, when a large crocodile grabbed him and swam away on Saturday. Police say the boy’s family tried to spear the animal but the crocodile dragged the child out into deeper water. Police and rangers searched the water until midnight Saturday night but did not see any signs of the boy. Sergeant Brennan said the crocodile believed to be responsible was about 13 feet long and was known to the families living in the area. He says the crocodile was one that people used to feed, which is strongly discouraged because of resulting attacks like this.
Brennan said there were up to eight saltwater crocodiles living in the area and the suspected killer was sighted and shot at several times by search parties in the search for the boy. This is the second child to die in a crocodile attack in northern Australia in three weeks. On Nov. 16, a 7-year-old girl was snatched by a large crocodile, while swimming with her family in Arnhem Land. That crocodile was found and fatally shot the next day and the girl’s remains were found inside it. Crocodile attacks on people are common in places where large crocodiles are native and human populations live like northern Australia. Crocodiles are cold blooded and have a body temperature similar to the surrounding air, land or water. Since they lack a reptilian thermostat, they seek a habitat with warm water and air temperature all year round. The Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland’s nature conservation authority, were attempting to meet the challenge of protecting crocodiles and preventing their extinction, while trying to ensure that people can safely co-exist with these animals.
Biohazard name:
Animal attack (fatal, salt water crocodile)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Some called it an “earthquake cluster,” others a “swarm.” Seismologists used the term “earthquake sequence.”
Whatever the name, a series of more than 30 small to moderate temblors jolted Southern California on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, rattling nerves but causing no significant damage.
The cluster of earthquakes that struck near Yorba Linda was centered near the Whittier fault, but preliminary data suggested that fault was not responsible for the temblor, said Doug Given, a geophysicist with theU.S. Geological Survey.
“There are lots and lots of little faults all over that area,” Given said of the northern Orange County region where the quakes were centered. “It’s a known active area.”
The shaking began with a magnitude 4.5 earthquake near Yorba Linda about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, bookended by another 4.5 quake about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, but with many smaller ones in between.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Kate Hutton of theU.S. Geological Surveysaid that of all the quakes, only three were probably felt by residents. The two 4.5 temblors were felt across a wide swath of Southern California, with people reporting shaking as far away as Thousand Oaks, the Santa Clarita Valley, the Westside and northern San Diego County, according to the USGS’s “Did You Feel It?” website.
“This is all part of the same earthquake sequence; they’re all in the same area,” Hutton told reporters.
“It shook us pretty good. We’ve felt earthquakes before, so it came as no surprise,” said Chris Nordyke, director of marketing at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda. “It shook open the door, but nothing fell off the shelves.”
Given said the excitement offers a lesson for the region. “We live in earthquake country. Earthquakes are normal here, and people should be prepared,” he said.
YORBA LINDA, CALIF. — The earthquakes keep coming for Southern California was shaken Wednesday by the second moderate but widely felt earthquake in less than 11 hours, but no harm was reported. Officials said the recent outbreak of California earthquakes in 2012 is not out of the ordinary.
Or at least, the recent flurry of California earthquakes is nothing for residents to get unusually rattled about.
“There is nothing in this sequence, at this point, that tells us we need to be particularly worried,” said Elizabeth Cochran, a geophycist at the U.S. Geological Survey, according to the Lake Forest Patch in California.
Cochran said more aftershocks should be expected.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-4.5 quake occurred at 9:33 a.m. and was centered two miles northeast of the Orange County city of Yorba Linda, about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
A magnitude-4.5 quake centered in the same area struck late Tuesday night. Both temblors were followed by numerous aftershocks that were mostly too small to be felt.
Quakes of such magnitude are unlikely to cause damage in cities built to modern standards but can rattle nerves.
The Orange County Fire Authority did not receive any 911 calls about the latest quake, said Capt. Marc Stone.
“It was a decent sized shake and it’s a reminder for everyone to have a plan for the Big One,” said Stone. “How would you and your family survive for 72 hours with no water, no food and no amenities? Think about it. It’s a reminder to go home and say, ‘What if?’ and make that plan.”
Seismologist Kate Hutton of the California Institute of Technology characterized the quakes as a swarm.
The location is near the Whittier Fault, but the quakes could be occurring on an unmapped fault, she said.
“This is likely normal California earthquake activity,” Hutton said.
The staff of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda was still talking about Tuesday night’s quake when Wednesday’s struck, said Jonathan Movroydis, director of communications.
“It did shake us pretty well,” Movroydis said, but the jolt was so short no one ducked under their desks.
Meanwhile, newly acquired Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Shane Victorino tweeted: “Why is the hotel shaking????? … Welcome to LA!”
(Reuters) – Overcrowded hospitals in northwest Iran struggled to cope with thousands of earthquake victims on Sunday as rescuers raced to reach remote villages after two powerful quakes killed nearly 300 people.
Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the street after Saturday’s quakes for fear of more aftershocks, 60 of which had already struck. A lack of tents and other supplies left them exposed to the night chill, one witness told Reuters.
“I saw some people whose entire home was destroyed, and all their livestock killed,” Tahir Sadati, a local photographer, said by telephone. “People need help, they need warm clothes, more tents, blankets and bread.”
The worst damage and most casualties appeared to have been in rural villages around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, near the major city of Tabriz, Iranian media reported.
Tabriz resident Ahmad, 41, told Reuters his cousin living in a village near Ahar was killed and his body found.
“Nobody knows what happened to his wife and two daughters,” aged 4 and 7, Ahmad said. “We fear that if rescuers don’t get to them soon, they will lose their lives too if they’re still alive.”
But Iranian officials said rescue operations had ended by Sunday afternoon and that all those trapped beneath the rubble had been freed, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported.
Many villages are hard to reach by road, hindering rescue efforts. Hospitals in Tabriz, Ardabil and other cities nearby took in many of the injured, residents and Iranian media said, and there were long queues of survivors waiting to be treated.
“I wanted to go there last night to help but heard there was bad traffic and that it wasn’t safe enough,” Ahmad said. “People in those villages need help.”
Abbas Falahi, member of parliament for Ahar and Harees, said people in some villages were still “in dire need of food and drinking water”, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
“Despite the promises of officials, little first aide has been distributed in the region and most people are left without tents. If the situation continues, the toll will rise,” he said.
Aidin, a Tabriz resident, said he went to give blood at a local hospital on Saturday and saw staff struggling to cope with the influx of patients. Most patients had been taken there by their families, he said, indicating a shortage of ambulances.
Ahar’s 120-bed hospital was full, said Arash, a college student in the town. There were traffic jams on the narrow road to Tabriz as victims tried to reach hospitals, he said by telephone.
VILLAGES DESTROYED
“People are scared and won’t go back into their houses because they fear the buildings aren’t safe.”
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday’s first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 60 km (37 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz, a trading hub far from Iran’s oil-producing areas and known nuclear facilities.
The second, measuring 6.3, struck 11 minutes later near Varzaghan, 49 km (30 miles) northeast of Tabriz.
More than 1,000 villages in the area were affected by the earthquakes, Ahmad Reza Shaji’i, a Red Crescent official, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). Some 130 villages suffered more than 70 percent damage, and 20 villages were completely destroyed, he said.
“We saw some villages that were truly destroyed,” said Sadati, the photographer who was documenting the quake aftermath. “One good thing was that the earthquake happened during the day, so many people were not in their homes. If it had happened at night the casualties would have been far worse.”
Close to 300 people were believed to be dead, said Reza Sadighi, Ahar’s local governor, Fars news agency said. National emergency head Gholam Reza Masoumi said 5,000 people are believed to be injured, according to ISNA.
Nearly 100 ambulances and 1,100 Red Crescent workers were deployed, Shaji’i said, along with 44,000 food packages and 5,600 tents for shelter. The relief agency had enough supplies and most residents in the area had access to clean water but Shaji’i asked residents to donate cash to the relief effort.
Tehran officials sent condolences to the victims and declared two days of mourning in the province, ISNA reported.
About 36,000 people in the quake-hit area have been given emergency shelter, Masoumi was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan-Nejad warned that if relief efforts did not speed up, the death toll would swiftly rise.
“Relief groups have still not reached many villages, because in normal conditions some of these villages are several hours away,” he told ISNA. “Currently the roads are closed and the only way to reach these villages is by air.”
COLLAPSED BUILDINGS
Photographs posted on Iranian news websites showed numerous bodies, including children, lying on the floor of a white-tiled morgue in Ahar and medical staff treating the injured in the open air as dusk fell on Saturday. Other images showed rescue workers digging people out of rubble – some alive, many dead.
Twenty-eight year old Narges in Tehran said she saw dozens of people in a hospital waiting to donate blood for the victims.
Iran is crisscrossed by major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 that reduced the historic southeastern city of Bam to dust and killed about 31,000 people.
Saturday’s quakes struck in East Azerbaijan province, a mountainous region that neighbors Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north. Buildings in Tabriz, the provincial capital, are substantially built and ISNA reported nobody in the city had been killed or hurt.
Homes and business premises in Iranian villages, however, are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake.
Water, electricity, and phone lines in the area of Varzaghan are all down, further hindering rescue efforts, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported.
Tabriz residents left their homes and crowded the streets following the two quakes, those in the city said. “Everyone was scared last night,” a resident said by telephone. “They set up tents and were sleeping in the streets and in parks.”
(Additional reporting by Marcus George and Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Andrew Torchia and Marcus George; Editing by Jon Hemming)
14.08.2012
Earthquake
Iran
Province of East Azarbaijan, [About 21 miles west of Ahar]
With thousands injured as the death toll from Iran’s dual earthquakes nears 300, hospitals are reeling from the increased traffic. There are long lines outside as doctors work feverishly to cope with the injuries. “From last night until this afternoon when I left Shohada-ye Tabriz hospital, doctors were constantly performing operations,” said one physician. “Ordinary people were working alongside rescuers. They were bringing food and water to the hospital.” Meanwhile, thousands of refugees are staying in camps and parks as they weather the some 60 aftershocks that have hit thus far, Reuters reports.
Some 20 villages were completely destroyed, and 130 saw more than 70% damage, according to the Red Crescent. Officials say search and rescue operations are over; now they’re “working to provide shelter and food to the survivors.” But stories conflict as to how effective efforts have been. The Red Crescent says it has enough supplies, and an emergency official says 36,000 people have received emergency shelter. But “despite the promises of officials, little first aid has been distributed in the region and most people are left without tents,” said an MP.
Overcrowded hospitals in northwestern Iran struggled to cope with thousands of earthquake victims on Sunday and rescuers raced to reach remote villages after two powerful quakes killed nearly 300 people and injured 5,000. Thousands huddled in makeshift camps or slept in the street after Saturday’s quakes in fear of more aftershocks, 60 of which had already struck. A lack of tents and other supplies left them exposed to the night chill, one witness told Reuters. “I saw some people whose entire home was destroyed, and all their livestock killed,” Tahir Sadati, a local photographer, said by telephone. “People need help, they need warm clothes, more tents, blankets and bread.” The worst damage and most casualties appeared to have been in rural villages around the towns of Ahar, Varzaghan and Harees, near the major city of Tabriz, Iranian media reported. The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday’s first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 37 miles northeast of the city of Tabriz, a trading hub far from Iran’s oil-producing areas and known nuclear facilities.Tabriz resident Ahmad, 41, told Reuters his cousin living in a village near Ahar was killed and that his body had already been found.
“Nobody knows what happened to his wife and two daughters,” aged 4 and 7, Ahmad said. “We fear that if rescuers don’t get to them soon, they will lose their lives too if they’re still alive.” Iranian officials said rescue operations had ended by Sunday afternoon and that all those trapped beneath the rubble had been freed, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported. But the head of Iran’s Relief and Emergency Organization said that rescue operations were continuing, according to the New York Times.Many villages are hard to reach by road, hindering rescue efforts. Hospitals in Tabriz, Ardabil and other cities nearby took in many of the injured, residents and Iranian media said, and there were long queues of survivors waiting to be treated. “I wanted to go there last night to help but heard there was bad traffic and that it wasn’t safe enough,” Ahmad said. “People in those villages need help.” Aidin, a Tabriz resident, said he went to give blood at a local hospital on Saturday and saw staff struggling to cope with the influx of patients. Most patients had been taken there by their families, he said, indicating a shortage of ambulances. Ahar’s 120-bed hospital was full, said Arash, a college student and resident of the town. There were traffic jams on the narrow road between Ahar and Tabriz as victims tried to reach hospitals, he said by telephone.
“People are scared and won’t go back into their houses because they fear the buildings aren’t safe.” The second, measuring 6.3, struck 11 minutes later near Varzaghan, 30 miles northeast of Tabriz. More than 1,000 villages in the area were affected by the earthquakes, Ahmad Reza Shaji’i, a Red Crescent official, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). About 130 villages suffered more than 70 percent damage, and 20 villages were completely destroyed, he said. “We saw some villages that were truly destroyed,” said Sadati, the photographer who was documenting the quake aftermath. “One good thing was that the earthquake happened during the day, so many people were not in their homes. If it had happened at night the casualties would have been far worse.” Close to 300 people were believed to be dead, said Reza Sadighi, Ahar’s local governor, Fars news agency said. National emergency head Gholam Reza Masoumi said 5,000 people are believed to be injured, according to ISNA.“Most of the dead are women and children, as the earthquake happened during the day, when many men were out working,” said Marjan Lagaei, an Iranian reporter who traveled to the area, told the New York Times.Nearly 100 ambulances and 1,100 Red Crescent workers were deployed, Shaji’i said, along with 44,000 food packages and 5,600 tents for shelter. The relief agency had enough supplies and most residents in the area had access to clean water but Shaji’i asked residents to donate cash to the relief effort. Officials in Tehran extended condolences to the victims and declared two days of mourning to be held in the province, ISNA reported. About 16,000 people in the quake-hit area have been given emergency shelter, Red Crescent official Mahmoud Mozafar told Mehr news agency. Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan-Nejad warned that if relief efforts did not speed up, the death toll would swiftly rise. “Relief groups have still not reached many villages, because in normal conditions some of these villages are several hours away,” he told ISNA. “Currently the roads are closed and the only way to reach these villages is by air.”
Photographs posted on Iranian news websites showed numerous bodies, including children, lying on the floor of a white-tiled morgue in Ahar and medical staff treating the injured in the open air as dusk fell on Saturday. Other images showed rescue workers digging people out of rubble – some alive, many dead. Iran is crisscrossed by major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 that reduced the historic southeastern city of Bam to dust and killed about 31,000 people. Saturday’s quakes struck in East Azerbaijan province, a mountainous region that neighbors Azerbaijan and Armenia to the north. Buildings in Tabriz, the provincial capital, are substantially built and ISNA reported nobody in the city had been killed or hurt. Homes and business premises in Iranian villages, however, are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake. Water, electricity, and phone lines in the area of Varzaghan are all down, further hindering rescue efforts, Iran’s English-language Press TV reported. Tabriz residents left their homes and crowded the streets following the two quakes, those in the city said. “Everyone was scared last night,” a resident said by telephone. “They set up tents and were sleeping in the streets and in parks.” Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday expressing his sympathy and offering assistance, the Kremlin’s press service said. Pope Benedict XVI asked Christians to pray for the victims of the quakes.
An earthquake of the magnitude 2.7 hit just north of Goðabunga in Mýrdalsjökull glacier, which covers the volcano Katla in South Iceland, around 8:30 am yesterday morning. It was part of a swarm of minor earthquakes. The second-largest had a magnitude of 1.8. The Katla area has been rather quiet in the past weeks. There was more activity in the area in the spring when two small glacier outbursts flooded the river Leirá in Kötlukriki and Emstrur, to the west of Mýrdalsjökull, ruv.is reports. The seismic activity then subsided and GPS monitors showed decreasing tension in the lithosphere. Yesterday’s quakes were not connected with any volcanic activity and there has not been any increased flow in glacial rivers originating in Mýrdalsjökull. However, glacial water in the vicinity has smelled of sulfur, according to geophysicist Benedikt Ófeigsson at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, such as in the river Jökulsá at Sólheimasandur and Leirá in Kötlukriki. Katla has been monitored closely by scientists since a major glacial outburst, possibly caused by a minor volcanic eruption underneath Mýrdalsjökull, tore a hole in the Ring Road in South Iceland in July 2011.
…………………………..
Pacific quake swarm woke up underwater volcano
A screenshot of the Pumice island that the volcano is believed to have birthed. Image by: RoyalW1979 / YouTube
A swarm of more than 150 earthquakes over two days last month caused a previously dormant volcano to erupt 1 100 metres beneath the Pacific Ocean, a scientist says.
The eruption of the Havre Volcano, about halfway between New Zealand and Tonga, is believed to have caused a 7 500 square kilometre floating island of pumice that was encountered by a New Zealand navy ship last week.
Cornel de Ronde, principal scientist of the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, told Radio New Zealand the source of the pumice had been identified in cooperation with French researchers in Tahiti who monitor earthquakes in the south-west Pacific.
“When they looked at their physical records they saw that on July 17th and 18th, there were some 157 earthquakes of magnitudes between 3.0 and 4.8,” he said.
De Ronde said they occurred near the time of the first sighting of the pumice “raft” and when the institute looked at its database it found the Havre volcano which it had previously surveyed.
It was a caldera volcano, like White Island, 50 kilometres off the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, which erupted last week, but the Havre was not thought to have erupted before, he said.
De Ronde said the pumice island was so light that it had floated several hundred kilometres from the volcano when it was encountered by the HMNZS Canterbury, which took samples last week.
Scientists were also analysing samples of rock ejected from Mount Tongariro, on New Zealand’s North Island, to try to find out why it erupted a week ago for the first time in 115 years.
A mass of small volcanic rocks nearly the size of Belgium has been discovered floating off the coast.
The stretch of golf-ball-size pumice rocks was first spotted this week by a New Zealand air force plane about 1,000 kilometres northwest of Auckland.
The rocks stretch for about 26,000 square kilometres.
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.
“The rock looked to be sitting two feet above the surface of the waves, and lit up a brilliant white colour in the spotlight. It looked exactly like the edge of an ice shelf,” he said.
Lt. Oscar said he had been briefed by GNS Volcanologist Helen Bostock the previous day when the ship first encountered an area of pumice from an undersea volcano.
“I knew the pumice was lightweight and posed no danger to the ship. None the less it was quite daunting to be moving toward it at 14 knots. It took about 3 – 4 minutes to travel through the raft of pumice and as predicted there was no damage. 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.”
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.
SOURCE: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10826068
TUPI, SOUTH COTABATO — The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has allayed fears of volcanic activity in Mt. Matutum as claimed by residents.
Phivolcs chief Renato U. Solidum, Jr. said in a letter sent to Mayor Reynaldo S. Tamayo on Friday that the observations of smoke and fire coming out of the crater were non-volcanic in nature.
“Ocular inspections at the crater area and seismic records showed that there were no volcanic activities, specifically an imminent eruption, in Mt. Matutum,” Mr. Solidum said.
Rolly T. Visaya, Tupi information officer, told BusinessWorld that weeks prior to the Phivolcs letter, residents of Barangays Acmonan and Kablon in Tupi, and Maligo in Polomolok observed certain developments such as the descent of wild animals from the mountains as well as burnt vegetation.
The locals also claimed to have felt the ground shaking and heard unusual rumblings from the volcano, he added.
To confirm the observations, both Tupi and Polomolok towns sent their rescue teams to Mt. Matutum to get firsthand information through photographs and videos.
From the information acquired, Mr. Tamayo, who also chairs the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of Tupi, then requested for Phivolcs’s investigation.
The absence of micro-earthquake activity in the seismic record of the agency’s volcano-seismic observatory at Mindanao State University in General Santos City meant that the phenomenon is not volcanic in origin, Mr. Solidum said.
On the reported sighting of wild animals descending to the lowlands, he said it could be due to scarcity of food or disturbances of their habitat, be it man-made, lighting and other phenomena.
Before Phivolcs’s response, there have been reports of several families from the adjoining town of Malungon in Sarangani province who have evacuated from their houses for safety, Mr. Visaya said.
Mt. Matutum stands 2,286 meters, the 14th highest peak in the Philippines, and has a base that covers the towns of Tupi and Polomolok in South Cotabato and Malungon in Sarangani. The popular trekking destination’s last recorded eruption was in 1911, Mr. Visaya said citing Phivolcs records.
Mr. Solidum explained that a new volcanic vent as dormant volcano reactivates will not dissipate overnight, but will become more vigorous over time.
He explained “that should the volcano end its dormancy and enter a period of magmatic activity, unmistakable signs of unrest will be manifested, such as small ash and gas explosions that can intensify through time, ground deformation, vegetation kill, unabated crater glow at the summit and increasingly perceptible earthquakes.”
Mr. Visaya said Phivolcs national office personnel are in town to further study the volcanic conditions. — Louie O. Pacardo
A fast-moving brush fire in Northern California is threatening 500 homes and has prompted officials to evacuate an entire town. Fueled by broiling, dry conditions, the Wye fire off Highway 20 has burned 3,000 acres near the Lake County town of Spring Valley, which was evacuated. “It is burning on both sides of Highway 20 and it’s burning in an easterly direction toward the community of Spring Valley,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Julie Hutchinson told the Lake County News. According to Cal Fire, a second fire is also burning in Lake County. The Walker fire has burned 2,000 acres. Firefighters were traveling from across the state to help battle both fires.
A new wildfire burning east of Cle Elum in central Washington is growing quickly and reportedly threatening some homes. A Washington Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman says the Taylor Bridge fire had burned across more than a square mile – or about 800 acres- by mid-afternoon Monday. Fire crews from nearby communities are being called to the scene. The Daily Record of Ellensburg reports that the state Transportation Department is closing a two-mile section of U.S. Highway 97 because of the fire. The newspaper says a stable has moved all of its horses.
Hot, dry winds Monday afternoon prompted major growth in a week-old lightning-sparked forest fire on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, estimated to have burned 70 to 100 acres of valuable timber. The newly named Waterfall fire, burning about three miles northeast of the Mt. Jefferson summit, is “one we’ve been watching” since a lightning strike from Aug. 5 thunderstorms ignited it, said fire spokesman Clay Penhollow. “We had a crew on, fighting the west side of it today, but it took off on the east” side as winds picked up, Penhollow said, adding that no structures or roads were threatened. Instead, he said, it was burning some “valuable timber,” putting up a plume visible for many miles. An air tanker dropped retardant on the fire Monday morning until it was diverted to another fire in Washington state, Penhollow said. There were two helicopters dropping water on the flames later in the day, with one 20-person firefighting crew on the lines, another on its way and three more ordered up, he added. The fire was moving east down the headwaters of Shitike Creek, but was still more than 20 miles west of Warm Springs, Penhollow.
More than 5,000 people have been evacuated from La Gomera, one of the smallest Canary Islands, as forest fires that began nine days ago continue to burn out of control. Nearly 2,000 acres of the Garajonay national park have been destroyed. The evacuees represent a quarter of the population and some 11% of the island’s landmass is in flames. A dry winter and high August temperatures have led to this being one of the worst in many years for forest fires in Spain. On the Spanish mainland, tens of thousands of acres of woodland have been lost in Valencia, Galicia and Catalunya. Two people died fighting fires in Alicante. Humberto Gutiérrez, head of emergency services in the Canaries, says there is no hope of dousing the flames in the short term. “Meteorological conditions are not on our side,” he said. Paulino Rivero, the Canary Islands’ president, said he hoped falling temperatures and rising humidity might slow the spread of the fires.
A mudslide near Pahaska Tepee closed down the East Entrance to Yellowstone Park on Sunday morning. Early morning thunderstorms led to heavy rain and the slide covered both lanes of the North Fork Highway. Chris Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Riverton, said about a half inch of rain fell in under 30 minutes. The same amount of rain in an urban area would cause street flooding, where water would rise above the sidewalks, Jones said. “A half inch in an urban area can cause problems,” he said. The slide caused the east gate to close 6:30-10 a.m. Sunday, Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said. A truck ended up stuck in the slide. It was traveling in the rain and was on top of the slide, said Jim Berry, maintenance foreman for the Wyoming Department of Transportation in Cody. Berry said traffic began moving again at 9:30 a.m. and the two lanes were open by 12:30 p.m. Jones said the area around the east gate, which has steep sides and sometimes low vegetation, has been known to have slides in the past.
A reactor at the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn., has shut down because of something that its 1960s designers never anticipated: the water in Long Island Sound was too warm to cool it. Under the reactor’s safety rules, the cooling water can be no higher than 75 degrees. On Sunday afternoon, the water’s temperature soared to 76.7 degrees, prompting the operator, Dominion Power, to order the shutdown of the 880-megawatt reactor. “Temperatures this summer are the warmest we’ve had since operations began here at Millstone,’’ said a spokesman for Dominion, Ken Holt. The plant’s first reactor, now retired, began operation in 1970. The plant’s third reactor was still running on Monday, but engineers were watching temperature trends carefully out of concern that it, too, might have to shut down. A spokeswoman for the regional grid control center, ISO-New England, said the shutdown had not impaired the functioning of the grid because generation has been more than sufficient. But in periods when industrial demand for electricity has been stronger, a reactor shutdown has sometimes forced grid operators to scramble.
The water from the sound is piped into the plant to absorb heat from pumps and other pieces of equipment. As the sound’s temperature inched upward this summer, Dominion Power received permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to measure it at three locations instead of one and to calculate the average in the hope that it would be lower. That did not help on Sunday. And higher water temperatures could lie ahead. The sound’s temperature usually does not peak until late August. Eventually, engineers could change the Millford reactor’s intake pipe so it draws water from further below the surface, where temperatures are lower, Mr. Holt said. They could also sharpen their pencils and try to determine whether the plant can operate safely with cooling water above 75 degrees, but neither is a short-term project. Cloud cover and the mixing of some cooler rainfall might also bring down temperatures, Mr. Holt suggested. While some reactors in inland locations have had to reduce their power output or shut down because of warm cooling water in the past, it is unusual for coastal plants, nuclear industry officials say. “We are evaluating our options for the future,’’ Mr. Holt said. “We don’t know, is this year an anomaly or is it the continuation of a longer trend?’ Power plants in the Midwest have also experienced problems as temperatures soared in recent weeks. In some cases, reactors shut down because the cooling water was too warm; in others, the ongoing drought had shrunken the body of water from which the cooling water is drawn, and the plant’s intake pipes were above the surface. Last month the twin-unit Braidwood nuclear plant in Illinois needed special permission to keep operating because its cooling water pond reached 102 degrees as a result of low rainfall and high air temperatures. When Braidwood opened 26 years ago, it was designed to run at temperatures up to 98 degrees.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Department of Health is once again providing free potassium iodide tablets to help residents of the commonwealth prepare for public health emergencies involving nuclear facilities.
People who live, work or attend school within a 10-mile radius of the state’s five nuclear power plants can get the tablets, which can help protect the thyroid gland against harmful radioactive iodine.
The tablets will be distributed Aug. 9 at 14 locations statewide, or can be obtained at state, county or municipal health agencies
Four 65-milligram tablets will be provided to each adult. Smaller doses will be given to children based on their age.
The department says people should only take potassium iodide tablets when directed to do so by health officials or the governor.
Two months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in March 2011, a team of Japanese researchers collected 144 adult pale grass blue (Zizeeria maha) butterflies from 10 locations in Japan, including the Fukushima area.
When the accident occurred, the adult butterflies would have been overwintering as larvae.
Unexpected results
By comparing mutations found on the butterflies collected from the different sites, the team found that areas with greater amounts of radiation in the environment were home to butterflies with much smaller wings and irregularly developed eyes.
“It has been believed that insects are very resistant to radiation,” said lead researcher Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa.
“In that sense, our results were unexpected,” he told BBC News.
The Japanese researchers have been studying the species for more than a decade
Prof Otaki’s team then bred these butterflies within labs 1,750km (1,090 miles) away from the accident, where artificial radiation could hardly be detected.
It was by breeding these butterflies that they began noticing a suite of abnormalities that hadn’t been seen in the previous generation – that collected from Fukushima – such as malformed antennae, which the insects use to explore their environment and seek out mates.
Six months later, they again collected adults from the 10 sites and found that butterflies from the Fukushima area showed a mutation rate more than double that of those found sooner after the accident.
The team concluded that this higher rate of mutation came from eating contaminated food, but also from mutations of the parents’ genetic material that was passed on to the next generation, even though these mutations were not evident in the previous generations’ adult butterflies.
The team of researchers have been studying that particular species butterfly for more than 10 years.
They were considering using the species as an “environmental indicator” before the Fukushima accident, as previous work had shown it is very sensitive to environmental changes.
“We had reported the real-time field evolution of colour patterns of this butterfly in response to global warming before, and [because] this butterfly is found in artificial environments – such as gardens and public parks – this butterfly can monitor human environments,” Prof Otaki said.
But the findings from their new research show that the radionuclides released from the accident were still affecting the development of the animals, even after the residual radiation in the environment had decayed.
“This study is important and overwhelming in its implications for both the human and biological communities living in Fukushima,” explained University of South Carolina biologist Tim Mousseau, who studies the impacts of radiation on animals and plants in Chernobyl and Fukushima, but was not involved in this research.
“These observations of mutations and morphological abnormalities can only be explained as having resulted from exposure to radioactive contaminants,” Dr Mousseau told BBC News.
The findings from the Japanese team are consistent with previous studies that have indicated birds and butterflies are important tools to investigate the long-term impacts of radioactive contaminants in the environment.
A suspected food poisoning case on a southern Chinese island led to the hospitalization of 120 tourists on Sunday, including six foreigners, local authorities reported on Monday. The vacationers were sent for medical treatment after their breakfast in the Howard Johnson Hotel in Sanya City in Hainan Province, said Zhou Baocang, deputy director of the Sanya Health Bureau. Twenty-eight people left hospital after treatment, while the other 92 remain in the People’s Hospital of Sanya and No.425 Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army. “No deaths have been reported. The patients are recovering well,” said Chen Weijie, deputy director of the Sanya City Food and Drug Administration. Four of the six foreigners are from Russia and two from Japan, and all of them are in stable condition, Zhou said. Initial investigation showed that the illnesses were caused by food harboring bacteria, and more evidence needs to be collected, Zhou said. Service at the hotel’s restaurant has been suspended. “The fried rice at breakfast might be to blame. The biggest discomfort was suffered by my friend, who had stomach ache and wanted to vomit. Another friend has been suffering from fever,” said a tourist named Li Ximing from south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Hainan provincial government officials have urged local authorities to guarantee the safety of the tourists. Experts have been sent by the provincial government to the scene. An emergency response team has been set up by the hotel and 80 employees have been dispatched to hospital to help take care of the patients, said Wang Li, a spokeswoman for the hotel. The hotel will compensate the patients based on investigation, Wang added.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
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.
NBC-10 reports, tens of millions of Jellyfish have invaded Barnegat Bay. The jellyfish have been spotted in Barnegat Bay, Manahawkin in Stafford, Waretown, and the bay side of Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island. According to Professor Paul Bologna, Montclair State’s Director of Aquatic and Coastal Sciences, the reason for the proliferation of jellyfish could be the use of plastic on the surfaces of docks. He explains sea nettle larvae settle on those surfaces and change into polyps, which bud off to create more of themselves. Another theory from a Rutgers University report: the bay’s ecological decline has spread southward since the 1990s. The declining ecological conditions have become a perfect place for jellyfish to prosper. Whatever the reason, unless they’re looking for a shock to their system, swimmers and surfers should be on the lookout for the jellyfish.
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
It’s hot and getting hotter, and one more Lane County lake has sprouted a toxic algae bloom. State officials today said that based on scum they have observed, Dexter Lake has toxic blue-green algae, and they issued an advisory that people stay out of the water and avoid touching it or inhaling water droplets. Testing is taking place to determine whether the blue-green algae is of the type that produces cyanotoxins harmful to people and animals, the state said. Dexter Lake, about 20 miles southeast of Eugene on Highway 58, is the third Lane County body of water to merit a blue-green algae alert this summer, and only the fourth in the state. State officials on July 27 issued an alert for Walterville Pond off Highway 126 east of Springfield that is still in effect, followed by a July 31 alert on Dorena Lake southeast of Cottage Grove that is still in effect. Earlier in the summer, the state also issued an alert for a lake in Jackson County that lasted only five days. By comparison, at this time last year, the state had issued algae alerts at seven lakes. Last summer, alerts were issued for Cougar, Dorena, Dexter and Fall Creek lakes in Lane County. Health officials say exposure to the toxins can produce numbness, dizziness and breathing or heart problems, plus skin irritation, nausea and cramps. Dexter Lake is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Oregon State Parks Department.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green (cyanobacteria) Algae bloom
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
The city of Long Beach issued an alert to residents regarding an outbreak of flea-borne typhus, a disease transmitted to humans via fleas. Murine typhus, also known as flea-borne typhus, is spread from fleas living on rodents, possums, raccoons and cats. The disease is transmitted by bites from infected fleas. The disease is not spread from person to person. Symptoms include high fever, body aches, severe headaches and a rash. People may become sick enough to be hospitalized, but the disease is rarely fatal. Public health officials will continue to monitor and test for evidence of flea-borne typhus in areas throughout Long Beach. Area veterinarians will receive a letter requesting they educate pet owners on the importance of flea control in preventing flea-borne typhus. Long Beach has also issued letters to area health care providers providing guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of this disease.
Biohazard name:
Typhus (flea-borne)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Last week dead fish were found mysteriously washing up along the shores of Pago bay. Today PNC went to Pago Bay to investigate the possible cause of this unusual phenomenon. On Thursday of last week a student at the University of Guam’s marine lab noticed a lot of dead fish along the short in Pago bay. He took pictures of the fish and forwarded them to UOG marine lab professor Dr. Jason Biggs. “Well one of the things that set up a red flag for me is that this is the first time that it’s ever been noticed for Pago bay to have a fish kill like this,” said Dr. Biggs. Department of agriculture fisheries biologist Brent Tibbats also examined the photos. He says they appear to be shallow water fish that live in the reef flats and sea grass. Based on the photos, which show that many of the fish died with open mouths, Tibbats believes that natural causes are the most likely culprit. “We do get reports of fish kills almost every year at around this time of year, July and August, when there are very low tides during the hottest part of the day during the middle of the day what happens is fish get trapped in shallow water pools and they overheat and with a lack of oxygen they suffocate actually in the water and then when the next high tide comes in the fish get deposited on shore and people see this,” explained Tibbats.
However, as Dr. Biggs has pointed out this is the first time that they’ve seen this at Pago bay. “Over the past we’ve noticed areas where it happens commonly actually are Tumon bay is one and down along the southeast coast kind of from Ipan beach park down to first beach those areas something about them seems to be where fish kills repeatedly during these low tides during the middle of the day,” said Tibbats. Nevertheless Dr. Biggs is concerned that something else maybe the cause of this strange event. “Another thing that we’d like to point out is because it hasn’t happened at Pago bay before that maybe the sedimentation could have the same effect because if you have a big load of water bringing down a lot of dirt with it that dirt could mix with the salt water as well and particulate matter is known to clog the gills of the fish and make it so that water can’t pass and they can’t breathe,” explained Dr. Biggs. The marine lab professor says that choking from sedimentation would also result in dead fish with mouths open as seen in the photos. Pago bay has been known to have a lot of sedimentation after heavy rains. “You can see it every time it rains really hard there’s a plume that goes all the way out and then extends for miles out into the ocean,” said Dr. Biggs.
Tibbats says there is no way to tell for sure what killed these fish because he received the email over the weekend and by then the fish were gone. Tibbats says there are other potential causes for example fresh water can flood the reef flats killing saltwater fish. There is also the possibility that toxins from the land are washed into the water. Tibbats says that if anyone notices dead fish washing up on the shores anywhere on guam to try and collect some of the fish and then contact the Department of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatics and Wildlife Resources so they can study the dead fish and get a better determination of their actual cause of death. Senator Sam Mabini is concerned with the dead fish found at Pago bay and she has sent a letter to the Guam Environmental Protection Agency requesting their immediate attention to Pago bay’s current condition.
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.
Symptoms:
Status:
confirmed
13.08.2012
Biological Hazard
USA
State of Pennsylvania, [Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area]
A local Boy Scout leader is recovering this week after wrestling with a rabid beaver in the Delaware River. Health officials describe the attack as rare, but say human encounters with wild animals are more common in the summer months. On Aug. 2, Normand Brousseau, 51, of Pine Plains, an assistant scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop 32 out of Elizaville, Columbia County, was swimming in the Delaware River. Brousseau, another leader and four Scouts were on a field trip at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Pennsylvania. Brousseau, who was in the water hanging onto a noodle float, noticed a dark shape nearby. “It came through my legs and attached itself to my chest,” he said. “I thought it was a giant carp fish.” It wasn’t. He was being attacked by a rabid beaver. Once he was bitten, he grabbed the animal and threw it away from his body. “Then it came at me again,” he said. The beaver bit him in the leg and then again in his buttocks, arm, hand and waist. At that point, Brousseau said, “the adrenaline kicked in.” “I grabbed it in its mouth,” he said. “I had it around its bottom jaw as tightly as I could because I knew it was going to either bite me or bite the boys. I called the Scouts to come give me a hand.” One of the Scouts was 16-year-old Nick Hedges of Elizaville. “I grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him to the shore,” Hedges said.
The Scout was careful to keep an eye on the beaver, which, he said, was in Brousseau’s grasp about five feet away. Brousseau tossed the animal up onto the shore. The beaver was stunned for a second or two, Hedges said, but “then it started attacking the noodle.” With their counselor hurt and bleeding on shore, the teens took matters into their own hands. “We started throwing rocks at it,” he said. “We could see it was still dangerous.” The Scouts threw stones at the beaver until it was dead. A couple passing by in a canoe took Brousseau to the other side of the river and another passerby called 911. Dutchess County health officials said an attack from a rabid beaver is unusual, explaining that more often people in Dutchess report suspected cases of rabid cats, dogs and bats. “This is the time of year people will encounter more bats because they’re active now — they’re coming into contact with them more often,” said Stephen Capowski, director of environmental health services for the Dutchess County Health Department. Capowski cautioned people to steer clear of animals exhibiting unusual behavior: nocturnal animals such as bats, skunks and raccoons out during the daytime; dogs and cats indiscriminately attacking other dogs and cats, or people, and any animal behaving aggressively. Capowski said human cases of rabies are rare in Dutchess.
Park rangers brought Brousseau to the Pocono Medical Center in East Stroudsburg, Pa., where he was treated for his injuries. He’s now on the mend and the parents of Scouts in his troop are feeling grateful. “It was very brave of him,” said Susan Treacy of Stanfordville, whose 15-year-old son, Zach Pruner, was also in the river during the attack. “Who’d be crazy enough to hang onto a rabid beaver?” The day after the attack, Brousseau received a call from a doctor confirming the beaver had been rabid. Since then, he’s received more than 20 rabies shots. “I’m pretty sore,” he said, still appearing bruised with small cuts along his hands and arms Friday. Brousseau brushed off the notion of acting heroically that day. “It’s my job to protect the boys,” he said. “Part of what I do is to make sure they’re always protected.” Brousseau said he has gained a new-found respect for nature. “When you go out into nature, you always need to veer on the side of caution,” he said. “Don’t assume a wild animal is not sick. You have to be on your toes at all times.”
Biohazard name:
Rabies (beaver)
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.
Thousands of dead fish are washing ashore along the Texas coast from the Colorado River to Galveston Island and Parks and Wildlife biologists suspect low oxygen levels off shore may be to blame. What tides are bringing in on Jamaica Beach is making people pause. “I hope it’s nothing major,” said Mark Gannon, who took his family to the beach Sunday. “I hope the water is safe.” Thousands of dead shad litter the sand. “Any idea what it is?” asked Gannon’s wife Alexia. Her children tried to explain the problem. “At night time, the waves pull up really far so the fish can’t handle that, so they get up on the shore,” said Abby Gannon. Authorities said the answer is not so simple. Biologists with the Parks and Wildlife Department began testing ph, saline and oxygen levels in water samples taken along the coast. “When something’s affecting one [fish] then usually a lot of them are being affected at the same time because it’s such a big group [swimming in schools] together,” said Steven Mitchell of Texas Parks and Wildlife. He suspects low oxygen in the water is a problem. However, he won’t know for sure until biologists are able to test water up to 10 miles off shore. That could take several days. Meanwhile, there is no threat to people on the beach, authorities said. Still, people like the Gannons said their plan to spend the children’s final week of summer vacation on the beach could change a bit. “I imagine as it gets warmer the smell [of the dead shad] will get stronger and we will likely want to go home,” Alexia Gannon said.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (fishes)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
GALVESTON (August 13, 2012)–Hundreds of thousands of dead fish have washed up on the beach in Galveston, where crews went to work Monday to remove the dead fish.
Peter Davis of the Galveston Island Beach Patrol said Sunday the small shad fish likely were killed by low oxygen levels in the Gulf of Mexico.
Davis estimated hundreds of thousands of fish have died.
Galveston County health officials said the water is fine for beachgoers.
Biologist Steven Mitchell with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said calm conditions and summer heat may have contributed to the fish kill.
He said there’s a possibility of a dead zone in the water off Galveston.
Testing is expected this week.
Today
HAZMAT
USA
State of Colorado, Colorado Springs [Centennial Boulevard, Thin Metal Parts]
Around 100 employees have been evacuated from a handful of businesses on Centennial Boulevard because of a reported chlorine gas leak. The Colorado Springs Fire Department reports the leak occurred inside the Thin Metal Parts building off of Centennial and List north of Garden of the Gods. One person was being evaluated by medical personnel at the scene. There are no other reports of injuries.
[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 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.
Ten people were killed and 38 others went missing as incessant rains battered Uttarakhand today triggering landslides, cloud bursts and flash floods which flattened homes and stranded hundreds of pilgrims with the Chardham Yatra coming to a grinding halt. The Garhwal region bore the brunt of the natural calamity. The state government has sounded a high alert after the MET department’s warned of very heavy rains and sought the help of the army to mitigate the sufferings of the people. Nineteen labourers of the state-run UJVN Ltd’s Assi Ganga hydel project went missing following a cloud burst in the upper hills of Uttarkashi district. Similarly, 19 other people also went missing from Gangori, Dunda, Uttarkashi town and Barkot areas in the district. “We have launched a manhunt to trace the missing people,” said R Rajesh Kumar District Magistrate Uttarkashi. Elsewhere in the state, 10 people were killed in different incidents following heavy rains during the past 24 hours, said sources in the Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre (DMMC) here.
In the disaster-prone Uttarkashi district, flash floods hit several low-lying areas creating havoc there. At least three jawans of the fire brigade department and two others were killed at Gangori area even as Chardham yatra to Gangotri and Yamunotri remained suspended for the second day today. In Gangori area of Uttarkashi, Bhagirathi is flowing above the danger level with people being evacuated to safer areas. Nearly 30 homes were washed away in the floods with the Gangori bridge also collapsing. “We have now reports that three jawans of the fire brigade and two others were killed in Gangori,” said state disaster management minister Yashpal Arya. Two more people were killed in Dunda area of Uttarkashi district. While two children were killed in a house collapse at Kararnprayag area of Chamoli district early today, another child was washed away in flash floods at Pokhri area of the district where landslides continue to hit blocking highways leading to Badrinath.
Hundreds of Badrinath pilgrims were stranded at various places at Patalganga, Lambagar and Birahi due to fresh landslips. The yatra for Kedarnath shrine was also suspended, the sources said. The government has launched relief and rescue operations but heavy rains were hampering them, top officials said. Food packets are being sent to the affected people. Nearly 250 families have already been taken to safer areas in different areas of Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts. Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna was monitoring the situation and has asked the concerned authorities to launch rescue and relief operation in the disaster-hit areas. He also asked concerned officers to reopen roads leading to pilgrim shrines so that the stranded pilgrims can go home. Bahuguna also asked the special Chardham cell set up at the secretariat to send him a daily report regarding the situation in the Garhwal region. The CM said his government would provide food and other essential items to the stranded pilgrims. Landslides are common in fragile hills of Garhwal region.
Serious sandstorm hit the entire country Friday with the wind speed measuring about 90km/hr and visibility falling below 500m. According to Director of Weather Forecast Mohammed Karam, the weather is the outcome of winds blowing from the East and high altitude concentration on the North Arabian Peninsula that closes the atmospheric pressure lines. Karam anticipates the weather will be stable by Saturday. He also said the northwesterly wind will continue in moderate speed measuring 40 km/hr and later transform to moderate light northeasterly winds measuring 25-40km/hr until the end of the week, and then the weather will become stable. He urged elderly people and those suffering from allergies and breathing difficulty to be extra cautious and wear masks while reducing their outings to avoid complications. Meanwhile, the Director of Operations at Kuwait International Airport Essam Al-Zamen disclosed that aviation events are continuing as expected, indicating the bad weather has no effect on activities there. He reiterated that landing and departure of planes take place as scheduled, even though the visibility is about 400m.
Firefighters in Russia’s Siberia had extinguished 45 forest fires covering 522 hectares of forest in the past 24 hours, but 131 wildfires were still burning on the area of almost 15,000 hectares, the regional forestry department said Friday. A total of 29 wildfires covering an area of more than 5,000 hectares were localized, and 14,948 hectares of forest continued to burn in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tomsk Region, Tuva, Khakassia and Irkutsk Region. Some 3,000 people, 412 units of fire-fighting equipment and 24 aircrafts have been mobilized to fight the blazes, which are believed to be caused by hot and dry weather in the region where the temperature reaches 35 degrees. Reports said the wildfires posed no threat to populated areas or industry.
A wildfire whipped by gusty, southerly winds swept through rural woodlands north and south of Oklahoma City on Friday, burning several homes as firefighters struggled to contain it in 113-degree heat. Oklahoma’s emergency management officials said 25 structures had burned east of Noble, including a handful of homes, and several homes near Luther, north of Oklahoma City, were threatened. Hundreds of residents were told to leave their homes as flames spread through treetops. The state Highway Patrol closed part of the main highway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa because of the Luther-area fire, which may have been deliberately set. Local deputies were looking into reports about passengers in a pickup truck who were seen throwing out newspapers that had been set on fire. “I loaded the kids up, grabbed my dogs, and it didn’t even look like I had time to load the livestock, so I just got out of there,” said Bo Ireland, who lives a few miles from where the Noble-area fire started. “It looked to me that, if the wind shifted even a little bit, I would be in the path of that fire. It was just too close.” There were no immediate reports of injuries or livestock losses. Dayle Bishop stood in a convenience store parking lot about 2 miles away from his house, saying he was pessimistic about his home’s chances. “I know it’s gone,” said Bishop, who works nights as a nurse. “Didn’t even have time to get anything out.” But he noted “it’s just stuff,” and said he may not have made it out of his home had a woman not knocked on his door and woken him up.
Charles Wright was with his daughter, Christina, along with their cat, at a makeshift evacuation center doubling as a staging area for fire engines, ambulances and other emergency equipment. He said law enforcement ordered them to leave their home in Norman. “Praying for miracles. Praying for the best, that’s all we can do,” said Wright, who managed to pack some clothes, jewelry and legal papers before fleeing. Ruth Hood splashed water onto two Chihuahua puppies that she grabbed along with several other animals and her children, and left as flames burned in her neighbor’s yard. She said she couldn’t be sure her home would survive. “No guarantee,” Hood said. With the ongoing drought, high temperatures and gusty winds, it took little for fires to begin and spread — and there was little crews could do to fight them. “It’s difficult for the firefighters to get into the area because it’s heavily wooded on either side of the smaller roads. When the winds are blowing 25 mph it just blows the embers and fireballs across the roads as if they weren’t even there,” said Jerry Lojka with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. At mid-afternoon Friday, the temperature at nearby Norman was 113. Winds were from the south and southwest at 14 mph, gusting to 24 mph. “I can tell you the temperatures and the wind are not helping the situation at all. Some homes have been lost in the fire unfortunately, but we don’t know how many,” said Meghan McCormick, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland County Sheriff’s office.
Russell Moore, 53, who lives in the Noble area, said he was outside in his yard when a sheriff’s deputy drove down the road and told people to leave. He and his son went to a shelter set up at Noble City Hall, but planned to go to his daughter’s home in Norman. “About all we saw was smoke and a little bit of ash raining down from the sky,” Moore said. “Everybody was piling into their vehicles and leaving as we were.” Lojka said an Oklahoma National Guard helicopter has been dispatched to a fast-moving blaze in Luther, northeast of Oklahoma City. He also said helicopters were helping ground crews with a fire near Mannford and Drumright in Creek County. Helicopters from the National Guard and the Bureau of Indian Affairs were fighting a fire in Creek County. The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office said it was investigating reports that someone in a black pickup truck near Luther was tossing out newspapers that had been set on fire. The blaze and smoke led the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to shut down part of the Turner Turnpike, which carries Interstate 44 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Traffic was rerouted onto old U.S. Route 66, the famed two-lane highway that crisscrosses Oklahoma. The state was monitoring 11 fires in all Friday afternoon. Gov. Mary Fallin announced a statewide burn ban as the fire danger heightened. She previously had announced a state of emergency for all 77 counties due to the extreme drought.
As a wildfire’s flames raced to the edge of Lame Deer’s town limits, police drove the streets with loudspeakers blaring orders for residents of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation community to grab their most important belongings and get out. Buses were waiting to carry people from danger area, which on Thursday night suddenly meant the entire town of 2,000. Desi Small-Rodriguez, a volunteer with the tribe’s disaster and emergency services department, recalled the chaotic scene as the Chalky Fire threatened to burn down the seat of the southeastern Montana reservation. “A lot of people were walking with their belongings, getting on buses, trying to find rides, getting out as told,” Small-Rodriguez said Friday. About 250 people stayed at a Red Cross shelter 25 miles away at the St. Labre Mission. Others took shelter with friends and relatives on other parts of the reservation. Those with no place to go camped out on lawns in nearby communities, or they just refused to leave. The fire had already burned two homes earlier in the day, then wind from a cold front whipped up the flames and drove the fire straight toward town. Things looked grim to Carol Raymond, Rosebud County’s head of disaster and emergency services, who had driven from Forsyth to see firsthand what was happening. “I figured the whole town of Lame Deer would go up in flames,” Raymond said. Firefighters worked overnight trying to keep the flames back. At one point early Friday, the fire jumped Highway 212, but firefighters contained it with a back burn of the surrounding area, and the wildfire skirted around town without destroying any buildings or causing any injuries, Small-Rodriguez said. On Friday, the smoke was choking the town, but rain was assisting firefighters. A red-flag warning was to be in effect until evening, and firefighters prepared for gusty winds and possible thunderstorms. The mandatory evacuation remained in effect.
The state is sending firefighters and managers to help battle a 1,000-acre wildfire in the southeast corner of Washington. Other firefighters also are trying to contain a 10,000-acre wildfire in central Washington. The new fire broke out Thursday afternoon five miles south of Asotin and is burning grass, brush and wheat. The state Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray has been activated to coordinate state assistance. Overnight winds forced firefighters to retreat at the central Washington fire as it grew to 10,000 acres – more than 15 square miles. Spokesman Dan Garner at the incident management center at Brewster High School says no structures are threatened. The fire broke out Wednesday near Pateros and Brewster. It’s burning grass, brush, scattered timber and some wheat land.
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – Wildfires burned out of control on Friday in Oklahoma, destroying homes and shutting down highways in a state that has suffered 18 straight days of 100-plus degree temperatures and persistent drought.Emergency officials counted 11 different wildfires around the state, with at least 65 homes destroyed in parched areas north and south of Oklahoma City and south of Tulsa.
Oklahoma joins several states that have been plagued by wildfires this summer, including Colorado, Arkansas and Nebraska. Fires are being fed by a widespread drought.
Nearly two-thirds of the contiguous United States was under some level of drought as of July 31, according to the Drought Monitor, a weekly report compiled by U.S. climate experts.
Interstate 44, historic Route 66 and state highways were closed, but no deaths were reported in the Oklahoma fires.
Low humidity, strong southerly winds and drought conditions enabled the wildfires to spread quickly across treetops, said Michelann Ooten, deputy director of the state’s Office of Emergency Management.
“It’s just a very difficult situation we’re facing that’s all weather related,” Ooten said.
Governor Mary Fallin, who earlier in the day invoked a statewide ban on outdoor burning after declaring a state of emergency for the state’s 77 counties, told Reuters fire conditions may be worse on Saturday.
“The fire danger might be even higher,” she said.
Oklahoma has contacted neighboring states for help, but they are contending with their own wildfire threats and no out-of-state help is on its way, she said.
“There’s fires in Arkansas. There’s fires in Kansas and Texas. Everybody else is on high heat alert,” she said.
The heat in Oklahoma City, the state capital, has reached historic levels.
On Friday, Oklahoma City tied its all-time record for the highest temperature ever recorded when the thermometer reached 113 Fahrenheit (45 Celsius), a mark last recorded in the Dust Bowl days in 1936, according to the National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma.
Volunteer fire departments have made a public plea for Gatorade donations to keep their crews hydrated in the scalding conditions.
(Reporting by Steve Olafson; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Lisa Shumaker)
After a lull in the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Florence formed on Saturday, joining Ernesto as both moved west on paths that could eventually take them to the U.S. coast.
It was still in the deep Atlantic, but on a path towards the Caribbean.
Ernesto was packing sustained winds of 50 mph and should pass south of Jamaica on Sunday, the center stated. “Ernesto is forecast to become a hurricane … in a day or two,” it added.
After Jamaica, which issued a tropical storm warning, Ernesto will likely head toward Grand Cayman, arriving Monday, and then Cancun/Cozumel in Mexico on Wednesday, weather.com reported.
Weather.com added it was “unclear whether Ernesto poses a threat to the U.S. late next week.”
On Friday, the storm swept over the tiny island of St. Lucia.
Businesses and government offices were ordered closed until noon on St. Lucia as Ernesto passed over the island, churning up 12-foot waves a few miles off its north shore.
It moved so quickly that St. Lucia got less than an inch of rain and there were no reports of damage or injuries.
August and September are usually the most active months of the Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.
Prior to Ernesto forming on Thursday, the last Atlantic tropical storm was Debby more than a month ago. It drenched Florida and eight deaths were tied to the storm.
U.S. government forecasters in May predicted a “normal” 2012 season, saying 9-15 named storms could be expected. Between 4-8 of those were predicted to become hurricanes.
Continuous heavy rainfall, cloud burst, and landslides have killed 10 in various parts of Sub-Himalayan region of Uttarakhand. At least 53 persons have been reported missing so far in flash floods and swallon rivers.
The pilgrims of the Chardham were stranded in the midway at various places and government has implemented temporary closure on the annual Char Dham pilgrimage until the situation becomes under control, official said on Saturday.
Due to heavy rains, the rivers have swollen and land sliding have increasing causing havoc among the localities and pilgrims. The pilgrims were stranded on way to Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath – the four points of pilgrimage.
According to official report, three fire fighters were killed in Gangotri due to heavy rains. A bridge was also washed away here and over 40 houses submerged in the overflowing Bhagirathi river.
Garhwal was the worst hit area, report said.
Two deaths were reported from Chamoli after two children died in a roof collpase. A child was swept away in Pokhri.
Uttarkashi has also been hit by flash floods.
Officials said following warnings of “more and severe rains” in the next two days, the Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre is on high alert and Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna was monitoring the situation.
Water level of Bhagirathi and Ganga rivers is also on the rise. The Uttarakhand government has issued red alert in areas along the river Ganga.
As many as 22 people were on Friday trapped in flash floods in Jammu region, prompting the authorities to sound an alert in the region. “A flash flood alert has been sounded in Jammu. Due to heavy overnight rains, various rivers in Jammu region are flooded…22 people and large number of cattle are trapped in the flash floods in Ujh and Tawi rivers,” an official said. Of the 22 people, 15 are trapped in Ujh river at Khadwal area in Kathua district and two each in Mayachak, Nagri, Sujanal (Satwari) and Muthi areas, he said. A rescue operation has been launched for those trapped in the flash floods, triggered by intermittent overnight rains in Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur districts, the official said. The water level in Chenab, Tawi, Ujh and Basantar rivers are nearing the danger mark, officials said, adding that people living in low-lying areas have been alerted and warned of flash floods. They have also been asked to keep away from banks of the flooded rivers.
Public Service Company of New Mexico said nearly 3,000 customers on Santa Fe’s south side were without electric power for more than two hours Friday evening after lightning struck the local power grid. Spokesman Frederick Bermudez said he couldn’t pinpoint where the lightning hit but said it knocked out power from 5:35 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. to 2,916 homes, businesses and institutions in an area bounded by St. Michael’s Drive on the north, Old Galisteo Road on the south, Old Pecos Trail on the east and Entrada de Santiago on the west. Much of Santa Fe was pounded by heavy rain with lightning and sudden high winds late Friday afternoon, suddenly swelling the Santa Fe River and other areas with swift flows of storm water. A driver on St. Michael’s Drive reported seeing thin funnel cloud on the horizon at about 5:45 p.m. “It was probably a dust devil, but we’ve been seeing that a lot this year,” said Brian Guyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. “We’ve had some strong winds in Santa Fe today.” Guyer said the peak wind speed recorded at Santa Fe on Friday was 41 mph. Between two-tenths and four-tenths of an inch of rain fell — not a lot by most standards but what Guyer said was the heaviest rain the city has seen so far this summer. “You had a ton of lightning, some around the Plaza and a lot of lighting strikes up in the foothills,” he said. “It’s still dry, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we might see some fires by tomorrow.”
Hundreds of people residing near Beas river have been evacuated to safe places after flash flood caused by torrential rain over Dhundi peaks at south portal of Rohtang tunnel flooded the Seri rivulet, a tributary to Beas river, on Friday at 8pm. People living close to river between Palchan and Kullu are being evacuated and traffic on national highway has been stopped. Till last report received from Palchan (near Dhundi) at 10.30pm, level of the river was rising continuously and police were evacuating the people from Bahang village, 6km from Manali. According to police, there is no report of any casualty. Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Bahang village, said people are trying to save the household accessories amid chaotic atmosphere and conditions have become even worse after power failure. “Everything was normal till late evening but the situation changed suddenly after 8pm when river water, mixed with sludge, started engulfing its banks. People are risking their lives to remove the household stuffs,” he said. An engineer working with a hydel project near Palchan said over phone that roaring sound of river is shaking the foundation of the houses. “Nobody is going to sleep tonight. Villagers have gathered at many places and are guarding the river banks with floodlights,” he said. According to villagers it is a cloudburst which might have caused devastation at its source on mountains. Kullu deputy commissioner Amitabh Awasthi said , police are patrolling the river banks and have directed people to move to safe places. “We have closed the traffic on national highway. We shall keep an eye on the situation throughout the night,” he said.
FLOODS which hit parts of North Korea in the past few weeks have killed 169 people and left 400 missing, the state news agency announced on Saturday, sharply updating earlier casualty figures.
The floods and torrential rain between late June and the end of July also made 212,200 people homeless and washed away or inundated 65,280 hectares of cropland, the agency said.
United Nations agencies have visited the worst-hit areas to assess aid needs and the World Food Program (WFP) is sending an initial shipment of emergency food aid.
North Korea suffered a famine in the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands and still struggles to feed its people even in normal times.
It had been estimated by UN agencies, even before the current deluge, that three million people would need food aid this year.
More than 8600 houses were destroyed and another 43,770 swamped, and more than 1400 schools, hospitals and factories collapsed, the news agency said.
Official media had previously reported 119 deaths, with 84,000 people made homeless and 45,370ha of farmland damaged.
The WFP said its initial assistance would provide victims with an initial ration of 400 grams of maize a day for 14 days, after the UN assessment mission found considerable damage to maize, soybean and rice fields.
The mission has said immediate food aid is needed for residents of the worst-hit counties such as Anju and Songchon in South Pyongan province and Chonnae in Kangwon province.
It also stressed that tens of thousands of families urgently need clean drinking water to prevent disease.
Wells had been contaminated by overflowing latrines, creating a high risk of a diarrhoea outbreak, while floods had damaged water sources and pumping stations.
Citing North Korean government figures, the UN mission said about 50,000 families would need purification tablets or other help to secure clean water.
The UN children’s fund UNICEF has ordered 10 million tablets along with other materials. Drugs and IV fluids were also badly needed.
The assessment mission said on Thursday a hospital in Chonnae county had already seen a fourfold rise in diarrhoea cases.
“In general, unless … needs are addressed, rapid increase in diarrhoea, skin infection and respiratory infections could occur,” it said in a report.
Outdated and inefficient agricultural practices, along with a shortage of fertiliser and diversion of food to the military, have contributed to the annual food shortages.
Mountainous North Korea is also short of arable land. Widespread deforestation, partly to clear land for crops, has made the impoverished nation increasingly prone to serious flooding which ends up washing away the harvest.
In February, the US reached a deal to offer North Korea 240,000 tonnes of food in return for a freeze on nuclear and missile tests.
But the plan was scrapped after Pyongyang’s failed rocket launch in April, seen by the US and its allies as an attempted ballistic missile test.
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.
Five children in South Waziristan have died from measles during the past week, an official said. “Non-availability of measles vaccines has become a big problem and if the desired vaccines were not made available, the situation could slip out of hand,” Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan, agency surgeon, told Central Asia Online August 3. Measles has affected about 400 children, of whom about 100 were hospitalised, he said. He warned of an outbreak throughout the agency if medics failed to immunise children immediately. Letters regarding the unavailability of measles vaccine have gone to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) directorate of health, he said, expressing hope the vaccine would become available in a few days. The Taliban have refused to allow polio vaccination in areas of South Waziristan they control, endangering more than 157,000 children below age 5, he said. The directorate has received the agency surgeon’s letter and is sending vaccines to South Waziristan, FATA Health Director Dr. Fawad Khan said. “We have also started vaccination in Mohmand, Bajaur and Khyber agencies, where measles had killed several children besides sending hundreds to hospitals,” he said.
Biohazard name:
Measles (fatal)
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.
MessageToEagle.com – Two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space have changed faster than at any other time in the last seven years, according to new data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.
For the last seven years, Voyager 1 has been exploring the outer layer of the bubble of charged particles the sun blows around itself.
In one day, on July 28, data from Voyager 1′s cosmic ray instrument showed the level of high-energy cosmic rays originating from outside our solar system jumped by five percent.
During the last half of that same day, the level of lower-energy particles originating from inside our solar system dropped by half.
However, in three days, the levels had recovered to near their previous levels.
A third key sign is the direction of the magnetic field, and scientists are eagerly analyzing the data to see whether that has, indeed, changed direction.
Scientists expect that all three of these signs will have changed when Voyager 1 has crossed into interstellar space.
A preliminary analysis of the latest magnetic field data is expected to be available in the next month.
“These are thrilling times for the Voyager team as we try to understand the quickening pace of changes as Voyager 1 approaches the edge of interstellar space,” said Edward Stone, the Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
“We are certainly in a new region at the edge of the solar system where things are changing rapidly. But we are not yet able to say that Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space.”
Click on image to enlargeVoyagers in the HeliosheathThis artist’s concept shows NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath, the outer shell of the bubble of charged particles around our sun. After more than 33 years of travel, the two Voyager spacecraft will soon reach interstellar space, which is the space between stars.
Our sun gives off a stream of charged particles that form a bubble around our solar system known as the heliosphere. The solar wind travels at supersonic speeds until it crosses a shockwave called the termination shock. That part of our solar system is shown in dark blue. Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock in December 2004 and Voyager 2 did so in August 2007.
Beyond the termination shock is the heliosheath, shown in gray, where the solar wind dramatically slows down and heats up. Outside those two areas is territory dominated by the interstellar wind, which is blowing from the left in this image. As the interstellar wind approaches the heliosphere, a bow shock forms, indicated by the bright arc.
The Voyagers were built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Click on image to enlargeBubbles and Cosmic Rays at the Edge of the Solar SystemThe latest data from the Voyager spacecraft indicate the edge of our solar system is much different from what was previously imagined. This resulted in a new computer model that shows the edge of our solar system is not smooth, but filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles.
The heliospheric boundaries are very important in shielding the inner solar system from the galactic cosmic ray flux. The heliopause, the last region that separates us from the rest of the galaxy, acts more like a membrane that is permeable to galactic cosmic rays than a shield that deflects those energetic particles.
The galactic cosmic rays slowly wander into the heliosphere and can get trapped in the sea of magnetic bubbles. Eventually they access the solar magnetic field lines that connect back to the sun, and can move quickly towards the sun and Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
The levels of high-energy cosmic ray particles have been increasing for years, but more slowly than they are now.
The last jump — of five percent — took one week in May. The levels of lower-energy particles from inside our solar system have been slowly decreasing for the last two years. Scientists expect that the lower-energy particles will drop close to zero when Voyager 1 finally crosses into interstellar space.
“The increase and the decrease are sharper than we’ve seen before, but that’s also what we said about the May data,” Stone said.
“The data are changing in ways that we didn’t expect, but Voyager has always surprised us with new discoveries.”
Voyager 1, which launched on Sept. 5, 1977, is 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun.
Voyager 2, which launched on Aug. 20, 1977, is close behind, at 9.3 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun.
“Our two veteran Voyager spacecraft are hale and healthy as they near the 35th anniversary of their launch,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena.
“We know they will cross into interstellar space. It’s just a question of when.” MessageToEagle.com
TEN secondary school teachers at the weekend died of food poisoning, and several others hospitalised in Katsina. Investigations by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) showed that the incident occurred at a workshop organised by the state Ministry of Education for some 650 teachers at Government Day Secondary School (GDSS), Kofar Yan’daka, Katsina. It was gathered that soon after taking their lunch, supplied by a popular corporate caterer on the fateful day, some of the teachers were vomiting and afflicted by diarrhoea, as a result of which they were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Katsina and the Police Clinic for medication. Ten of the affected teachers were said to have died as a result of the infection. When contacted, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Alhaji Khalil Musa, said: “I cannot comment on the issue now, because it is yet to be reported to the state government. I don’t want to pre-empt the government on the issue.” The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Abubakar Ibrahim, who confirmed the incident, said that only one teacher died, while 19 others were hospitalised. He said that 12 of the affected teachers had already been discharged from the hospitals, while seven others were still on admission at the Federal Medical Centre and Katsina Police Clinic. He said the police had already collected sample of the food supplied by the caterer for clinical analysis. All the victims are receiving treatment at various medical centres, while officials declined to comment on the number of casualties that were brought to the centres.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Food Poisoning
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.
Agro-pastoralists farmers in Loima District in Turkana County have suffered huge losses on their farms from massive locust invasion in the region. The farmers at Kang’ilita Irrigation Schemes in Loima district have decried the invasion as a major setback to their economic sustainability despite their recent devoted engagements into farming. They said raised fear of low crop yields in the coming harvesting season as a result of the unprecedented invasion. Ms Pauline Nakali, a farmer, said that her farm has been extensively damaged by the locust pest and could hardly think of ways to regain the loss. “We are experiencing big loss of crops to locust invasion and that we expect low yield this season since our farms have been destroyed by the pest,” Ms Nakali said. She appealed to the government and donor partners to intervene and salvage the situation before it goes out of hand. But the Rift Valley Director of Agriculture Leonard Nyambuya told farmers that the Ministry of Agriculture and the development partner Food Agriculture Organizations (FAO) would send experts to tackle the pest. Mr Nyambuya said the ministry and the donor partner will provide insecticide to fight the pest. He said experts from the directorate of crop and pest in the ministry will supply appropriate chemicals and insecticides to get rid of the pests. “We are immediately sending the experts to assess the damage caused by the pest before we swing to action to eradicate it,” Nyambuya said. The director who addressed farmers’ field schools in Kangilita irrigation scheme directed the Field extension officers to assess the damage caused by the pest. The FAO officials Dr Paul Omanga said his organisation would assist the farmers to fight the prevailing pest problems in the area so that farmers achieve good yields.
Biohazard name:
Locust Invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Large numbers of jellyfish have been swarming near nine thermal power plants on Ise Bay. Chubu Electric Power Co. estimates that there are close to 24,000 tons of the sea creatures swimming around the area, twice the usual level and the second-most recorded in the past decade. Measures are being taken to ensure the jellyfish don’t clog the power plants’ water intakes and disrupt their operations. Chubu Electric launched a research project in 1999 to predict the number of jellyfish in Ise Bay. They discovered that most jellyfish larvae transform into polyps in three major areas: near the port of Nagoya; along the coast of the Chita Peninsula from Tokoname to Morozaki, Minamichita, in Aichi Prefecture; and along the coast of the Shima Peninsula from Matsusaka to Toba in Mie Prefecture. Every winter, the research group collects samples of polyps and compares them with past results to predict how many larvae will develop into adult jellyfish in the following year. Last winter’s findings indicated the number this year would be 1.5 to 1.8 times higher than usual. “We don’t know the reason why the number is so high this year, but we need to monitor the situation closely,” said Minoru Hamada, 46, an assistant project manager in Chubu Electric’s technology development department.
If jellyfish block the water intake, a power plant can’t draw enough water from the sea to cool the steam used to turn the turbine, and the plant has to reduce its electricity output. Each plant has adopted various measures, including putting up nets, to stop the jellyfish from swimming too close, but this is only effective when dealing with small numbers. It is not enough to prevent large amounts of jellyfish from swimming in all at once. The number of jellyfish near the thermal power plants usually peaks in July, August and September. However, this year they started gathering around the plants in May, resulting in reduced electricity output at three of the plants for a total of nine days. They were the Hekinan plant in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, the Shin-Nagoya plant in Nagoya and the Kawagoe plant in Kawagoe, Mie Prefecture. It’s a pressing problem for Chubu Electric because it has become increasingly dependent on thermal energy since its Hamaoka nuclear plant has been shut down over quake and tsunami fears. “The effect of the jellyfish isn’t fully known yet, but it can have a serious impact on electricity output if they keep increasing, especially during this season when there is high electricity demand,” a Chubu Electric official said. “We need to monitor the jellyfish further and take actions swiftly if necessary.”
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
[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.]
KUWAIT CITY, Aug 2: An earthquake of 4.2 magnitude on the Richter scale that struck Kuwait 40 km NW of Salmiya at around 7.30 am Thursday was felt by residents in Salmiya.
Though no casualties were reported, some residents complained the quake mildly upset some of their household arrangements. There were a few broken cutlery. Some residents living near the Salmiya garden said they felt the tremor in two short spells in a span of a few seconds.
Most of the residents were asleep and came to know about it from neighbors who experienced the tremor. Melissa, a resident, said she first noticed tea rippling in the cup in her hand before she realized that the whole house was shaking a bit. “It was a little scary.”
Mujib said it was his first experience of a tremor and initially thought that he was feeling woozy. “It occurred as I was getting up after bending down to pick something up from the floor. I thought I was losing balance as it happens sometimes when you suddenly change positions.”
Thambi felt the quake on the street when he was returning after a short walk. “This is my second experience of earthquake, both were in Kuwait. This one was very mild. Last time, I felt the quake like a strong vibration lasting more than 30 seconds.”
Thambi faltered in his step when the quake occurred, but that was just for a second or two. “Soon after that, I saw a dog running wildly to and fro, barking intensely.”
Khalil Rasul was woken up by a book that fell on his head. But he went back to sleep only to learn about the quake from blogs later.
An online journal had earlier quoted earthquake expert and Assist. Manager of Kuwait University for Scientific Affairs Dr. Ferial Bu Rabee as saying that Kuwait may be vulnerable to a powerful earthquake that can reach up to 8 degrees on Richter scale.
The expert said that such an earthquake can strike southern part of Iran and thus impact bordering GCC countries. She further added that an 8.1 tremor on Richter scale hit the same area of southern Iran back in 1945 and caused huge tsunami waves that reached Karachi and Bombay which are approx. 1,100 kms away from Iran.
She warned that Bushehr nuclear reactor in Iran may be vulnerable if an earthquake strikes, such seen recently in Japan. She advised GCC countries to give up their ambitions concerning the construction of nuclear power stations, arguing that “they are time bombs that will destroy the region when the anticipated earthquake strikes.”
Some researchers suggest that there may be a link between large earthquakes world-wide. Other point out that there is no connection and the earthquakes do not trigger each other. The cluster could just as well be the result of random chance, scientist say.
The past decade has been plagued with what seems to be a cluster of large earthquakes, with massive quakes striking Sumatra, Chile, Haiti and Japan since 2004.
Each of the devastating quakes in the 2000s drew huge media coverage and required extensive rebuilding and economic restoration.
The intense interest in the earthquakes has led some to wonder if we are living in the middle of an “age of great quakes,” similar to a global cluster of quakes in the 1960s.It’s important to know whether these clusters occur because big earthquakes trigger others across the world, Parsons and Geist of the US Geological Survey say, in order to predict whether more severely destructive quakes might be on the way. To determine if the quake clusters in the 1960s and 2000s could be attributed to random chance, the researchers looked at the timing between the world’s largest earthquakes–magnitude 8.3 and above–at one-year intervals during the past 100 years.
They compared simulated lists of large quakes and the list of real quakes during this time with the between-quake intervals expected from a random process.
The intervals between the real-life large quakes are similar to what would be expected from a random process, they found. In other words, the global hazard of large earthquakes is constant in time. Except in the case of local aftershocks, the probability of a new large quake occurring isn’t related to past global quakes.
Aerial photo of the San Andreas Fault in the Carrizo Plain, northwest of Los Angeles Image credit: Leohotens
This could be disappointing news for researchers who thought global communication between quakes might offer a way to predict the most severe seismic activity. But there also may be some good news after a decade of destruction.
If global great earthquakes are occurring at random, the authors say, then a specific number of quakes that cluster together within a short time is unlikely to be repeated in a similar way over a 100-year span.
In addition, if quakes were communicating at global distances, after a big quake, the entire planet would essentially be an aftershock zone. MessageToEagle.com based on information provided by Seismological Society of America
(Reuters) – Across the bay of Naples from Pompeii, where thousands were incinerated by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, lies a hidden “super volcano” that could kill millions in a catastrophe many times worse, scientists say.
The boiling mud and sulphurous steam holes of the area west of Naples known as the Campi Flegrei or Phlegraean Fields, from the Greek word for burning, are a major tourist attraction.
But the zone of intense seismic activity, which the ancients thought was the entrance to hell, also could pose a danger of global proportions with millions of people literally living on top of a potential future volcanic eruption.
“These areas can give rise to the only eruptions that can have global catastrophic effects comparable to major meteorite impacts,” said Giuseppe De Natale, head of a project to drill deep under the earth to monitor the molten “caldera”.
One such meteorite impact is thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when debris thrown into the atmosphere from the huge explosion plunged the earth into darkness.
Scientists plan to drill 3.5 km (2.2 miles) below the surface to monitor the huge chamber of molten rock near Pompeii and give early warning of any eruption from a 13-km-wide collapsed volcanic caldera.
The Campi Flegrei are similar to the Yellowstone caldera in the U.S. state of Wyoming but of more concern because they are in an area populated by around 3 million people in the Naples hinterland.
“Fortunately, it is extremely rare for these areas to erupt at their full capacity, as it is extremely rare for large meteorites to hit the earth,” De Natale told Reuters.
“But some of these areas, in particular the Campi Flegrei, are densely populated and therefore even small eruptions, which are the most probable, fortunately, can pose risks for the population,” said De Natale, from the Vesuvius observatory at Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology.
“That is why the Campi Flegrei absolutely must be studied and monitored. I wouldn’t say like others, but much more than the others exactly because of the danger given that millions of people live in the volcano.”
However, the project, funded by the multi-national International Continental Scientific Drilling Programme, has run into major opposition from some local scientists who say the drilling itself could cause a dangerous eruption or earthquake.
EXPLOSION?
Benedetto De Vivo, a geochemist at Naples University, has said the drilling could cause an explosion.
The Naples city council blocked the project in 2010 but it resumed on the site of an abandoned steel mill at Bagnoli, west of Naples, late last month after the recently elected new mayor, Luigi De Magistris, gave the go-ahead.
De Natale scoffed at the objections, saying that the drilling was perfectly safe and that similar probes had been sent down by mining projects looking for sources of thermal energy in the 1980s and earlier.
“There were dozens of drillings in the past, with much less secure instruments for industrial motives and nobody said anything,” he said.
He added that those raising objections were not experts on drilling and that their suggestions of potential earthquakes or escapes of magma or liquid molten rock, had been exaggerated by the local press.
“Some of the things they suggested are laughable,” he said, adding that the project’s priority will be scientific knowledge and safety of the local population rather than industrial exploitation as in the past.
“We believe the security of millions of people deserves the most powerful methods of inquiry without thinking too much about the economic aspect,” he said.
He added that drilling is the only way to discover the geological history of the area because successive eruptions buried previous evidence. The probe has already found volcanic rock from a major eruption 15,000 years ago.
De Natale’s team has begun drilling a pilot hole at the Bagnoli site, where a long jetty built to load steel is used by joggers and courting couples enjoying the spectacular Neapolitan sunsets.
The pilot hole is aimed not only at studying the stratification of the area but to establish a deep geological observatory with new instruments which De Natale says are many times more sensitive than those in the past.
“This will increase by a thousand or 10,000 times our ability to detect small episodes that are precursors of future eruptions,” he said.
MOVEMENT OF EARTH’S SURFACE
The project also aims to study the cause of a phenomenon known as bradyseism which is a gradual raising and lowering of the earth’s surface because of deep volcanic activity. This is episodic but in the latest phase the ground has risen by 3.5 m (yards) in 15 years, the most since medieval times.
This movement forced the evacuation of 30,000 people temporarily from Pozzuoli in the 1980s and a fishing harbor in the old part of the town was completely abandoned.
Once work is complete on the pilot hole, scientists plan to drill much deeper, to around 3.5 km where temperatures are at around 500 degrees C (930 F). But De Natale said this could take another 18 months and the area for the second phase has not yet been decided.
His team has developed new fiber optic sensors able to withstand the extreme heat that would have destroyed earlier electronic equipment.
“We will be able to identify the smallest signs of a future eruption…this is an enormous mitigation of the volcanic risk,” he said.
De Natale says there will be no risk of an escape of magma because the molten chamber is at 7-km depth or lower and sensors will give ample warning of temperatures that reach 1,000 degrees C at the molten core.
“We will stop everything if we detect temperatures at 500 degrees…we can close the top of the drilling hole hermetically in a fraction of a second,” he said.
Local people are divided on whether the drilling could be dangerous.
“There is a risk that the drilling can lead to a shift of the earth’s surface and if that happened, rather than helping to predict future problems, they will be creating them,” Pozzuoli student Marco Laporta said.
Many are more sanguine. “Back in the 1980s they said we would all be blown up and we weren’t,” pensioner Luigi Bruni said.
(Writing by Barry Moody; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Firefighters in Russia’s Siberia had extinguished 45 forest fires covering 522 hectares of forest in the past 24 hours, but 131 wildfires were still burning on the area of almost 15,000 hectares, the regional forestry department said Friday. A total of 29 wildfires covering an area of more than 5,000 hectares were localized, and 14,948 hectares of forest continued to burn in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tomsk Region, Tuva, Khakassia and Irkutsk Region. Some 3,000 people, 412 units of fire-fighting equipment and 24 aircrafts have been mobilized to fight the blazes, which are believed to be caused by hot and dry weather in the region where the temperature reaches 35 degrees. Reports said the wildfires posed no threat to populated areas or industry.
A wildfire whipped by gusty, southerly winds swept through rural woodlands north and south of Oklahoma City on Friday, burning several homes as firefighters struggled to contain it in 113-degree heat. Oklahoma’s emergency management officials said 25 structures had burned east of Noble, including a handful of homes, and several homes near Luther, north of Oklahoma City, were threatened. Hundreds of residents were told to leave their homes as flames spread through treetops. The state Highway Patrol closed part of the main highway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa because of the Luther-area fire, which may have been deliberately set. Local deputies were looking into reports about passengers in a pickup truck who were seen throwing out newspapers that had been set on fire. “I loaded the kids up, grabbed my dogs, and it didn’t even look like I had time to load the livestock, so I just got out of there,” said Bo Ireland, who lives a few miles from where the Noble-area fire started. “It looked to me that, if the wind shifted even a little bit, I would be in the path of that fire. It was just too close.” There were no immediate reports of injuries or livestock losses. Dayle Bishop stood in a convenience store parking lot about 2 miles away from his house, saying he was pessimistic about his home’s chances. “I know it’s gone,” said Bishop, who works nights as a nurse. “Didn’t even have time to get anything out.” But he noted “it’s just stuff,” and said he may not have made it out of his home had a woman not knocked on his door and woken him up.Charles Wright was with his daughter, Christina, along with their cat, at a makeshift evacuation center doubling as a staging area for fire engines, ambulances and other emergency equipment. He said law enforcement ordered them to leave their home in Norman. “Praying for miracles. Praying for the best, that’s all we can do,” said Wright, who managed to pack some clothes, jewelry and legal papers before fleeing. Ruth Hood splashed water onto two Chihuahua puppies that she grabbed along with several other animals and her children, and left as flames burned in her neighbor’s yard. She said she couldn’t be sure her home would survive. “No guarantee,” Hood said. With the ongoing drought, high temperatures and gusty winds, it took little for fires to begin and spread — and there was little crews could do to fight them. “It’s difficult for the firefighters to get into the area because it’s heavily wooded on either side of the smaller roads. When the winds are blowing 25 mph it just blows the embers and fireballs across the roads as if they weren’t even there,” said Jerry Lojka with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. At mid-afternoon Friday, the temperature at nearby Norman was 113. Winds were from the south and southwest at 14 mph, gusting to 24 mph. “I can tell you the temperatures and the wind are not helping the situation at all. Some homes have been lost in the fire unfortunately, but we don’t know how many,” said Meghan McCormick, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland County Sheriff’s office.Russell Moore, 53, who lives in the Noble area, said he was outside in his yard when a sheriff’s deputy drove down the road and told people to leave. He and his son went to a shelter set up at Noble City Hall, but planned to go to his daughter’s home in Norman. “About all we saw was smoke and a little bit of ash raining down from the sky,” Moore said. “Everybody was piling into their vehicles and leaving as we were.” Lojka said an Oklahoma National Guard helicopter has been dispatched to a fast-moving blaze in Luther, northeast of Oklahoma City. He also said helicopters were helping ground crews with a fire near Mannford and Drumright in Creek County. Helicopters from the National Guard and the Bureau of Indian Affairs were fighting a fire in Creek County. The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office said it was investigating reports that someone in a black pickup truck near Luther was tossing out newspapers that had been set on fire. The blaze and smoke led the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to shut down part of the Turner Turnpike, which carries Interstate 44 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Traffic was rerouted onto old U.S. Route 66, the famed two-lane highway that crisscrosses Oklahoma. The state was monitoring 11 fires in all Friday afternoon. Gov. Mary Fallin announced a statewide burn ban as the fire danger heightened. She previously had announced a state of emergency for all 77 counties due to the extreme drought.
As a wildfire’s flames raced to the edge of Lame Deer’s town limits, police drove the streets with loudspeakers blaring orders for residents of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation community to grab their most important belongings and get out. Buses were waiting to carry people from danger area, which on Thursday night suddenly meant the entire town of 2,000. Desi Small-Rodriguez, a volunteer with the tribe’s disaster and emergency services department, recalled the chaotic scene as the Chalky Fire threatened to burn down the seat of the southeastern Montana reservation. “A lot of people were walking with their belongings, getting on buses, trying to find rides, getting out as told,” Small-Rodriguez said Friday. About 250 people stayed at a Red Cross shelter 25 miles away at the St. Labre Mission. Others took shelter with friends and relatives on other parts of the reservation. Those with no place to go camped out on lawns in nearby communities, or they just refused to leave. The fire had already burned two homes earlier in the day, then wind from a cold front whipped up the flames and drove the fire straight toward town. Things looked grim to Carol Raymond, Rosebud County’s head of disaster and emergency services, who had driven from Forsyth to see firsthand what was happening. “I figured the whole town of Lame Deer would go up in flames,” Raymond said. Firefighters worked overnight trying to keep the flames back. At one point early Friday, the fire jumped Highway 212, but firefighters contained it with a back burn of the surrounding area, and the wildfire skirted around town without destroying any buildings or causing any injuries, Small-Rodriguez said. On Friday, the smoke was choking the town, but rain was assisting firefighters. A red-flag warning was to be in effect until evening, and firefighters prepared for gusty winds and possible thunderstorms. The mandatory evacuation remained in effect.
The state is sending firefighters and managers to help battle a 1,000-acre wildfire in the southeast corner of Washington. Other firefighters also are trying to contain a 10,000-acre wildfire in central Washington. The new fire broke out Thursday afternoon five miles south of Asotin and is burning grass, brush and wheat. The state Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray has been activated to coordinate state assistance. Overnight winds forced firefighters to retreat at the central Washington fire as it grew to 10,000 acres – more than 15 square miles. Spokesman Dan Garner at the incident management center at Brewster High School says no structures are threatened. The fire broke out Wednesday near Pateros and Brewster. It’s burning grass, brush, scattered timber and some wheat land.
Two measures announced today by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack are meant to bring relief to farmers and ranchers nationwide as drought conditions have now caused more than half of all counties to be declared disaster areas.
After adding 218 counties in 12 states to the list of designated disaster areas, Vilsack announced two new ways that farmers and ranchers could seek relief. The first is a 3.8 million-acre expansion of emergency haying and grazing areas on conservation land. The second is a 30-day grace period that crop insurance companies have agreed to to extend to farmers on their premiums.
“The assistance announced today will help U.S. livestock producers dealing with climbing feed prices, critical shortages of hay and deteriorating pasturelands. Responding to my request, crop insurance companies indicated that producers can forgo interest penalties to help our nation’s farm families struggling with cash flow challenges. The Obama Administration intends to continue helping those who farm or ranch and live and work in rural America through this period of hardship,” Vilsack said in a statement.
About 66 percent of the nation’s hay acreage and 73 percent of the nation’s cattle acreage is experiencing drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The 3.8 million acres of conservation land made available for emergency haying and grazing must be used in accordance with rules that will minimize any impact to these areas, the USDA said. The agency said it will conduct follow-up monitoring and evaluation.
The counties designated today are in the following states: Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming.
Public Service Company of New Mexico said nearly 3,000 customers on Santa Fe’s south side were without electric power for more than two hours Friday evening after lightning struck the local power grid. Spokesman Frederick Bermudez said he couldn’t pinpoint where the lightning hit but said it knocked out power from 5:35 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. to 2,916 homes, businesses and institutions in an area bounded by St. Michael’s Drive on the north, Old Galisteo Road on the south, Old Pecos Trail on the east and Entrada de Santiago on the west. Much of Santa Fe was pounded by heavy rain with lightning and sudden high winds late Friday afternoon, suddenly swelling the Santa Fe River and other areas with swift flows of storm water. A driver on St. Michael’s Drive reported seeing thin funnel cloud on the horizon at about 5:45 p.m. “It was probably a dust devil, but we’ve been seeing that a lot this year,” said Brian Guyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. “We’ve had some strong winds in Santa Fe today.” Guyer said the peak wind speed recorded at Santa Fe on Friday was 41 mph. Between two-tenths and four-tenths of an inch of rain fell — not a lot by most standards but what Guyer said was the heaviest rain the city has seen so far this summer. “You had a ton of lightning, some around the Plaza and a lot of lighting strikes up in the foothills,” he said. “It’s still dry, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we might see some fires by tomorrow.”
Hundreds of people residing near Beas river have been evacuated to safe places after flash flood caused by torrential rain over Dhundi peaks at south portal of Rohtang tunnel flooded the Seri rivulet, a tributary to Beas river, on Friday at 8pm. People living close to river between Palchan and Kullu are being evacuated and traffic on national highway has been stopped. Till last report received from Palchan (near Dhundi) at 10.30pm, level of the river was rising continuously and police were evacuating the people from Bahang village, 6km from Manali. According to police, there is no report of any casualty. Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Bahang village, said people are trying to save the household accessories amid chaotic atmosphere and conditions have become even worse after power failure. “Everything was normal till late evening but the situation changed suddenly after 8pm when river water, mixed with sludge, started engulfing its banks. People are risking their lives to remove the household stuffs,” he said. An engineer working with a hydel project near Palchan said over phone that roaring sound of river is shaking the foundation of the houses. “Nobody is going to sleep tonight. Villagers have gathered at many places and are guarding the river banks with floodlights,” he said. According to villagers it is a cloudburst which might have caused devastation at its source on mountains. Kullu deputy commissioner Amitabh Awasthi said , police are patrolling the river banks and have directed people to move to safe places. “We have closed the traffic on national highway. We shall keep an eye on the situation throughout the night,” he said.
Doctors were slow to respond to an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda because symptoms weren’t always typical, but a World Health Organization official said Friday that authorities are halting the spread of the deadly disease. Joaquim Saweka, the WHO representative in Uganda, told reporters in the capital Kampala that everyone known to have had contact with Ebola victims has been isolated. Ugandan health officials have created an “Ebola contact list” with names of people who had even the slightest contact with those who contracted Ebola. The list now bears 176 names. “The structure put in place is more than adequate,” Saweka said. “We are isolating the suspected or confirmed cases.” Ebola was confirmed in Uganda on July 28, several days after villagers were dying in a remote corner of western Uganda. Ugandan officials were slow to investigate possible Ebola because the victims did not show the usual symptoms, such as coughing blood. At least 16 Ugandans have died of the disease. Delays in confirming Ebola allowed the disease to spread to more villages deep in the western district of Kibaale, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said.”The doctors in Kibaale say the symptoms were a bit atypical of Ebola,” Museveni said in a national address Monday. “They were not clearly like Ebola symptoms. Because of that delay, the sickness spread to another village.” Saweka said that organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are helping Ugandan officials to control the spread of Ebola. This is the fourth outbreak of Ebola in Uganda since 2000, when the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatized in northern Uganda. Ebola is highly infectious and kills quickly. The disease was first reported in 1976 in Congo and is named for the river where it was recognized, according to the CDC. The aid group Doctors Without Borders said in a statement on Wednesday that the first victim of the Ebola outbreak was a 3-month-old girl and that of the 65 people who attended her funeral, 15 later contracted the deadly disease. Funerals in Uganda are typically elaborate affairs that draw huge crowds. Health officials have now taken on the task of safely burying the bodies of Ebola victims, Saweka said.
KAMPALA, Uganda — Six more patients suspected to have Ebola have been admitted to the hospital days after investigators confirmed an outbreak of the highly infectious disease in a remote corner of western Uganda, a health official said on Monday.
Stephen Byaruhanga, health secretary of the affected Kibaale district, said possible cases of Ebola, at first concentrated in a single village, are now being reported in more villages.
“It’s no longer just one village. There are many villages affected,” Byaruhanga said.
In a national address, Uganda’s president advised against unnecessary contact among people, saying suspected cases of Ebola should be reported immediately to health officials.
Officials from Uganda’s Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization announced on Saturday that the deadly Ebola virus killed 14 Ugandans this month, ending weeks of speculation about the cause of a strange illness that had some people fleeing their homes in the absence of reliable answers.
If the six new cases are confirmed as Ebola, it would bring to 26 the number of Ugandans infected with Ebola.
This is the fourth occurrence of Ebola in Uganda since 2000, when the disease killed 224 people and left hundreds more traumatized in northern Uganda. At least 42 people were killed in another outbreak in 2007, and there was a lone Ebola case in 2011.
Investigators took nearly a month to confirm Ebola’s presence in Uganda this year. In Kibaale, a district with 600,000 residents, some villagers started abandoning their homes to escape what they thought was an illness caused by bad luck. One family lost nine members, and a clinical officer and her 4-month-old baby died from Ebola, Byaruhanga said.
The confirmation of Ebola’s presence in the area has spread anxiety among sick villagers, who are refusing to go to the hospital for fear they don’t have Ebola and will contract it there. All suspected Ebola patients have been isolated at one hospital where patients admitted with other illnesses fled after Ebola was announced. Only the hospital’s maternity ward still has patients, officials said, highlighting the deadly reputation of Ebola.
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.
Five children in South Waziristan have died from measles during the past week, an official said. “Non-availability of measles vaccines has become a big problem and if the desired vaccines were not made available, the situation could slip out of hand,” Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan, agency surgeon, told Central Asia Online August 3. Measles has affected about 400 children, of whom about 100 were hospitalised, he said. He warned of an outbreak throughout the agency if medics failed to immunise children immediately. Letters regarding the unavailability of measles vaccine have gone to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) directorate of health, he said, expressing hope the vaccine would become available in a few days. The Taliban have refused to allow polio vaccination in areas of South Waziristan they control, endangering more than 157,000 children below age 5, he said. The directorate has received the agency surgeon’s letter and is sending vaccines to South Waziristan, FATA Health Director Dr. Fawad Khan said. “We have also started vaccination in Mohmand, Bajaur and Khyber agencies, where measles had killed several children besides sending hundreds to hospitals,” he said.
Biohazard name:
Measles (fatal)
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.
Aug. 3, 2012 — With 16 new human cases in the last three weeks — 12 in the last week alone — an outbreak of a variant strain of swine flu is giving CDC officials the jitters.
What worries officials is that the new flu, officially called variant type A H3N2 or H3N2v, carries the M gene from the human H1N1 pandemic flu bug. This gene makes it easier for flu bugs to infect humans and spread among them.
The first human case was detected in July 2011. Since then there have been 29 reported cases, although more cases likely have gone unreported.
“Since the fall of 2011 there has been a big increase in these types of infections,” Joseph Bresee, MD, of the CDC’s Influenza Division, said at a news conference held to announce the new cases. “All 29 cases have had H3N2v with the M gene of pandemic H1N1. This may confer increased transmissibility to and among humans.”
Last year, three people caught the bug from another person. As far as the CDC can tell, that hasn’t happened this year. And there’s been no sustained spread of the new swine flu bug among people.
All the cases so far had contact with pigs. Most cases have been children who came into contact with infected pigs at state fairs. Ten of this week’s new cases were in Ohio. One was in Indiana and another was in Hawaii.
According to Lisa Ferguson of the USDA, the virus has been detected in pigs in 11 states.
Flu is common among pigs, and every year a few people catch a swine flu bug. But this new swine flu looks different.
“We have detected cases of this virus with increasing frequency,” Bresee said. “We expect further cases of human infection, either with contact with swine or from limited human-to-human spread. We expect some of the cases will be severe.”
H3N2v Swine Flu Symptoms
Fortunately, the new flu hasn’t been more serious than seasonal flu. The symptoms are the same: fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, and headaches. Everyone infected so far this year got better without having to be hospitalized. Last year there were three hospitalizations, all in people with underlying conditions known to increase risk of severe flu. There have been no deaths.
Current flu drugs should be just as effective against the new swine flu as against seasonal flu. However, current flu vaccines do not protect against the new swine flu. A vaccine has been produced, and Bresee says it soon will be tested in clinical trials.
Is this the beginning of a new flu pandemic? Maybe. Maybe not. Flu is among the most unpredictable of viruses. H3N2v could become a pandemic virus this year, in 20 years, or never.
A fatal influenza outbreak at two Hunter disability centers is continuing to spread, with more people contracting the illness.
Already three deaths have been reported at Newcastle’s Stockton Center and the Kanangra Center at Morisset over the past week.
Another five people were diagnosed with a respiratory illness yesterday and tests are expected to confirm they have succumbed to H3N2 strain which would make a total of 56 cases at the two centers.
Both centers remain in lockdown with strict infection controls now in place for the 450 residents.
Hunter New England Health is urging people with flu like symptoms not to visit hospitals or aged care facilities.
The Health network says a daily assessment is being made of the residents.
For the first time astronomers have detected the last gasps of a star being torn apart by a previously dormant giant black hole.
The signals, which came from a galaxy 3.9 billion light years away, were x-rays generated by matter heated to millions of degrees and torn apart as material from the star crosses the black hole’s event horizon.
Known as quasi-periodic oscillations, they are a characteristic feature of stellar black holes, which have about 10 times the mass of the Sun.
Dr Rubens Reis from the University of Michigan is the lead author of the paper published today in the journal Science.
Dr Reis says the findings confirm the constancy of black hole physics.
“This is telling us that the same physical phenomenon we observe in stellar mass black holes is also happening in black holes a million times the mass of the Sun, and in black holes that were previously asleep,” he said.
Dr Reis and colleagues first detected the event with NASA’s Swift Gamma Ray Burst Telescope last year, but did not pick up the oscillations at that time.
The blips in the signals were detected in follow-up observations using the joint Japanese-NASA Suzaku and the European Space Agency ZMM-Newton orbiting X-ray observatories.
“You can think of it as hearing the star scream as it gets devoured,” said University of Michigan astronomy professor Jon Miller, who co-authored the paper.
The oscillating signal repeats at a characteristic frequency, which would sound like an ultra-low D sharp.
On the edge
The oscillations were occurring once every 200 seconds, meaning the stellar material was orbiting less than 9.3 million kilometres from the centre of the black hole.
“Our discovery opens the possibility of studying orbits close to black holes that are very distant,” Professor Miller said.
Professor Joss Bland-Hawthorne from the University of Sydney says it is the closest we have ever seen material to the event horizon of a distant super-massive black hole.
“If this material was any closer, it would pass beyond the event horizon and you presumably wouldn’t see it,” Professor Bland-Hawthorne said.
“This is where the effects of general relativity become extreme.”
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that variations in the long-term reversal rate of the Earth’s magnetic field may be caused by changes in heat flow from the Earth’s core into the base of the overlying mantle.
The Earth is made up of a solid inner core, surrounded by a liquid outer core, in turn covered by a thicker or more viscous mantle, and ultimately by the solid crust beneath our feet.
The magnetic field is generated by the motions of the liquid iron alloy in the outer core, approximately 3,000 km beneath the Earth’s crust. These motions occur because the core is losing heat to the overlying solid mantle that extends up to the crust on which we live.
The mantle itself is also in motion but at much slower speeds of millimetres per year as opposed to millimetres per second in the core. This mantle motion is responsible for the drifting of the continents at the surface as well as earthquakes, volcanoes, and changes in the climate over millions of years.
At intervals of hundreds of thousands of years, the North and South magnetic poles reverse and scientists can tell from rock formations precisely at what periods in the past this took place. The most recent reversal happened 780,000 years ago.
Magnetic field variations happen on timescales of months to millions of years. Much of the magnetic field’s variation is thought to be sporadic but new research, led by Liverpool scientists, has found that over long timescales, this variability may be related to the changing pattern of heat loss across the core-mantle boundary occurring over millions of years.
The team performed a detailed synthesis based on latest findings from a number of different areas including the ancient geomagnetic field and its record in rocks, motions in the mantle caused by motions of the continents and the process responsible for generating the magnetic field in the core.
Dr Andrew Biggin, from the University’s School of Environmental Sciences, said: “The magnetic field has undergone big changes in its behaviour that might be due to the mantle’s controlling influence on the core.
In particular, we focused on the time interval between around 200 and 80 million years ago – when dinosaurs were still around – when the magnetic field initially started reversing its polarity very frequently. During this period the polarity was reversing up to 10 times every million years; however 50 million years later, it stopped reversing altogether for nearly 40 million years.
“When these changes in the magnetic field were taking place, the whole of the Earth’s crust and mantle, including all of the continents, were undergoing a big rotation with respect to the geographic and time-averaged geomagnetic poles – the points defining the Earth’s axis of rotation.
“We suspect that this process, called True Polar Wander and caused by the changing density distribution in the mantle, will have changed the pattern of heat flowing out of the core in such a manner as to cause the magnetic field to first become less stable, with lots of reversals, and then become much more stable – and stop reversing.”
The team believes this may not be the only explanation and conjecture that this big drop in the frequency of reversals may also be related to a similar decrease in the number of ‘large igneous provinces’ (LIPs) or concentrated outpourings of magma from the Earth’s core, 50 million years later.
The last LIP happened around 16 million years ago and produced the Columbia Plateau in the North West US. LIPs are thought to be produced by hot plumes of material rising from thermal instabilities near the bottom boundary of the mantle.
The team believes the 50 million year time lag between the magnetic field changing and the occurrence of the LIPs could represent the time it takes for the plumes to travel 2,890 km through the mantle.
If this link were correct it would mean that the rather unstable magnetic field observed in the last 50 million years predicts that a considerable number of LIPs will erupt over the next 50 million years. This in turn could have major implications for the surface conditions – for climate and for life itself.
The research, published in Nature Geoscience, is a collaboration between the University of Liverpool, GFZ Potsdam, IPGP Paris, the University of Oslo and Utrecht University. Future research at Liverpool, is planned and already underway to develop a new tool for understanding the Earth’s system.
Large numbers of jellyfish have been swarming near nine thermal power plants on Ise Bay. Chubu Electric Power Co. estimates that there are close to 24,000 tons of the sea creatures swimming around the area, twice the usual level and the second-most recorded in the past decade. Measures are being taken to ensure the jellyfish don’t clog the power plants’ water intakes and disrupt their operations. Chubu Electric launched a research project in 1999 to predict the number of jellyfish in Ise Bay. They discovered that most jellyfish larvae transform into polyps in three major areas: near the port of Nagoya; along the coast of the Chita Peninsula from Tokoname to Morozaki, Minamichita, in Aichi Prefecture; and along the coast of the Shima Peninsula from Matsusaka to Toba in Mie Prefecture. Every winter, the research group collects samples of polyps and compares them with past results to predict how many larvae will develop into adult jellyfish in the following year. Last winter’s findings indicated the number this year would be 1.5 to 1.8 times higher than usual. “We don’t know the reason why the number is so high this year, but we need to monitor the situation closely,” said Minoru Hamada, 46, an assistant project manager in Chubu Electric’s technology development department.If jellyfish block the water intake, a power plant can’t draw enough water from the sea to cool the steam used to turn the turbine, and the plant has to reduce its electricity output. Each plant has adopted various measures, including putting up nets, to stop the jellyfish from swimming too close, but this is only effective when dealing with small numbers. It is not enough to prevent large amounts of jellyfish from swimming in all at once. The number of jellyfish near the thermal power plants usually peaks in July, August and September. However, this year they started gathering around the plants in May, resulting in reduced electricity output at three of the plants for a total of nine days. They were the Hekinan plant in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture, the Shin-Nagoya plant in Nagoya and the Kawagoe plant in Kawagoe, Mie Prefecture. It’s a pressing problem for Chubu Electric because it has become increasingly dependent on thermal energy since its Hamaoka nuclear plant has been shut down over quake and tsunami fears. “The effect of the jellyfish isn’t fully known yet, but it can have a serious impact on electricity output if they keep increasing, especially during this season when there is high electricity demand,” a Chubu Electric official said. “We need to monitor the jellyfish further and take actions swiftly if necessary.”
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
They say the new virus could help shed light on how Hendra and related Nipah viruses cause disease and death in animals and humans. Hendra is able to infect horses and, in seven known cases, people have caught the infection from horses. Four of them died as a result.
The new virus is named Cedar after the Queensland location where it was discovered.
Initial studies by scientists with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have discovered one surprising key difference – the Cedar virus does not cause illness in several animal species normally susceptible to Hendra and Nipah.
However, they say it is still too early to rule out the possibility that Cedar virus may cause illness and death in horses or other animals.
The new discovery had significant potential implications for protecting animals and humans from the Hendra and Nipah viruses. This tantalising difference may help scientists understand how to better manage and control its deadly cousins.
The findings have been announced today in the journal, PLoS Pathogens, published by the Public Library of Science.
Gary Crameri, a research scientist with the bat virus team at CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, Victoria, said the new discovery had significant potential implications for protecting animals and humans from the Hendra and Nipah viruses.
“The significance of discovering a new henipavirus that doesn’t cause disease is that it may help us narrow down what it is about the genetic makeup of viruses like Hendra and Nipah that does cause disease and death,” Crameri said.
“The more that we can learn about bat-borne viruses, the better chance we have of developing anti-virals and vaccines to help protect human health, Australia’s livestock industry and our export trade from the threat of current and emerging animal diseases.
“Over 70 per cent of people and animals infected with Hendra and Nipah viruses die. This ranks henipaviruses amongst the deadliest viruses in existence, yet little is known about just how such viruses actually cause disease or death.”
The discovery was a result of a close partnership with Biosecurity Queensland which played an important role by collecting and screening samples from bat colonies across Queensland.
Dr Hume Field, of Biosecurity Queensland, said field work with bats was an essential part of research into identifying new viruses.
“Bats are being implicated as the natural host of a growing number of viruses in Australia and overseas, yet they appear to tolerate infection themselves, making bat research increasingly important.”
Bats have been identified as playing a role in the spread of viruses including Ebola, Marburg, SARS and Melaka, yet they are an essential part of a diverse ecosystem through their role as pollinators, seed dispersers and insect regulators.
The discovery is part of ongoing research by CSIRO to target diseases that threaten animals, people and the environment and is part of CSIRO’s wider biosecurity effort. It follows CSIRO’s development towards a horse vaccine against Hendra virus.
[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.]
Hundreds of fish have gone belly-up in the Swan River and others are slowly dying as the latest toxic algal bloom to hit the river takes it toll. The Swan River Trust is responding to sightings of the dead and sluggish fish near the Ascot Waters marina. Elevated levels of the microalgae Karlodinium veneficum, which is potentially toxic to fish, have been detected in the area over the past few weeks. A similar outbreak in June killed more than 2,500 fish in a 13km stretch of the river from Bassendean to West Swan. Principal scientist with the trust Kerry Trayler said the free-floating microalgae were known to affect the capacity of fish to extract oxygen from the water. She said while the algae was not toxic to humans precautions should be taken in relation to the dead or dying fish. “The Department of Health advises that people should not swim in, or fish in, water with dead and decomposing fish. They should also keep pets and other animals away from the fish because they may contain high levels of bacteria,” she said. “Sluggish and dead fish should also not be collected and used for bait or consumption because of the risk of high levels of bacteria.”
Biohazard name:
Karlodinium veneficum (HAB)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
Today
Biological Hazard
USA
State of Kansas, Overland Park [South Lake Park, 7601 W. 86th St]
Kansas health officials have strengthened their alert about toxic blue-green algae in the pond at South Lake Park, 7601 W. 86th St. City officials said an earlier “advisory” has been upgraded to a “warning,” so people and pets should not drink the water. Any fish caught there should be rinsed with clean water, and only the filet portion should be eaten. Pets should not eat dried algae, and people and animals should be rinsed with clean water if they come in contact with lake water.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green (cyanobacteria) Algae bloom
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Health authorities are warning residents and visitors to Kitsap Lake in West Bremerton that high levels of a toxic blue-green algae have been discovered in the water. If ingested in sufficient quantities, a toxin produced by the algae can make people sick and potentially kill pets, fish, waterfowl and livestock, said Jim Zimny, water quality specialist with the Kitsap Public Health District. Water samples taken Tuesday from Kitsap Lake showed levels of the toxic compound to be 6.7 micrograms per liter. Warnings are posted when the level exceeds 6.0. Signs have gone up at public access areas and on roads around the lake, Zimny said. Weekly tests will be conducted until the algae blooms subside. People are advised to avoid drinking the water or swimming in the lake, especially in areas where the algae have concentrated. Avoid eating any fish caught during the bloom. Pets should be kept back from the water. Zimny asks people to call the health district if they see large numbers of dead fish, unexplained illness in a dog or cat or if someone entering the water suffers a physical reaction, such as a rash or illness.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green (cyanobacteria) Algae bloom
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
Today
Biological Hazard
Malaysia
State of Preak, loc:Kampung Sg Dua [Sungai Bentong River]
Residents in Kampung Sg Dua near here are worried after finding dozens of fish in Sungai Bentong dead. Village chief Wong Fan Chong said they believed it was due to pollution and hazardous waste from an industrial estate nearby. “We are not alleging that the factories are dumping their waste into the river but surely, there is a reason why the fish are dead,” he said. He urged the authorities to conduct an investigation into the matter, adding that if test results showed it was due to waste pollution, guilty parties must be punished. Wong said there were previously cases of fish dying in the river but of late, the number had increased. “For the time being, I have told all villagers to stop fishing or swimming in Sungai Bentong which flows into Sungai Dua near our village. “We are not sure whether the fishes are safe to eat,” he added. State Health, Environment and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Hoh Khai Mun said he had instructed officers from the Environment Department to investigate the issue. “We will reveal the findings of the probe in due course,” he said, adding that the state government would not compromise on the safety of the people.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (fishes)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Dozens of beaches in Malaga province have played host to swarms or ‘blooms’ of jellyfish this summer, closing several beaches in Marbella and Estepona and administering more than 1,000 stings within a three-day period. Many bathers have been on the wrong end of the gelatinous varmint, whose sting causes a painful rash that can last for up to three days. According to Spain’s tourist office, the marine stingers are the venomous purple striped jellyfish. Their stings, although almost never fatal, have been known to cause severe allergic reactions. Here, the Olive Press looks at the different types of stingers in the Mediterranean, why they are becoming such a problem for bathers on the Costa del Sol and what can be done to protect yourself from eye-watering stings. Purple-striped jellyfish- aka mauve stingers: These increasingly common creatures have wreaked havoc on the Costa del Sol, causing the closure of a number of beaches. They are usually small but pack a powerful punch. Portuguese man o’ war – aka blue bottle: Although not technically jellyfish, these critters can deliver an agonising sting causing vomiting and fainting in some cases. They are usually found floating at the surface of the water with long, thin tendrils extending 10 metres. Fried egg jellyfish: A small but beautiful jellyfish which gets its name from its fried-egg shaped body. Its sting has little effect on humans. Moon jellyfish: One of the most common jellyfish in the world, these translucent creatures are often sold commercially as pets. The sting is harmless to humans. Compass jellyfish: With brown spots and a saucer-shaped bell, this jellyfish can often be found drifting on the sea surface. It can deliver a nasty sting.
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Blackleg normally kills livestock within 12 to 48 hours and is caused by the spore foaming, rod shaped and gas producing bacteria Clostridium chauvoei, which can live in soil for many years. The bacteria gains entrance to the animal through small punctures in the mucous membrane of the digestive tract. Animals begin showing signs of lameness, rapid breathing, loss of appetite and high fever. Shingairai Gudyanga said the spread of the disease has been fuelled by lack of adequate grazing caused by poor rainfall. This caused cattle to eat the roots of plants, a haven for the bacteria. “Most farmers in this area are reluctant to bring their livestock for vaccination and they do not report disease outbreaks,” she added. Blackleg is almost entirely preventable by vaccination. The department’s efforts to control disease are hampered because people eat the animals before tests can be done. “We fail to take smear samples because by the time we find out about deaths, only the bones of the dead animal are left, with the rest of the meat either sold or dried for consumption,” she said. “Our office is almost sure that two of the cattle died due to anthrax because when we examined the carcases, there was blood in the openings of the cattle, the mouth, ears and nose and they decayed faster than the others,” she said. “The community did not consume one of the cattle that I am referring to because it was in a terrible state, but ate the other one before it had rotted.” The District Head for Veterinary Services for Buhera South, Mr Mavhima, could not confirm nor deny the anthrax outbreak and said he would visit Mutiusinazita this week -end. “If it is anthrax, we will look into it and act on it swiftly,” he said.
Biohazard name:
Anthrax
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.
They may seem like furry little friends, those little squirrels, as they skitter through the forests, but researches have discovered otherwise. A bacterium known to cause ‘Q-Fever’ in humans has been detected in a high percentage rodents in Algonquin Park. A team of Laurentian University biology researchers, led by Canada Research Chair Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde have found evidence of the spread of the zoonotic bacterium Coxiella bernetii in wildlife in the park and say their findings suggest that some visitors to the park could be at risk of infection. According to a Laurentian University press release the bacterium was “detected in six out of seven species of wild rodents tested within the boundaries of Algonquin Park, including red squirrels, flying squirrels and deer mice. It was also found in flying squirrels in the Peterborough area, indicating that the bacteria may be widespread among these animal populations in Ontario.” The bacterium is a cause of Query fever, also known as Q-Fever, in humans.According to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) website, “Human Q fever is primarily an occupational disease of farmers, abattoir workers, veterinarians, and laboratory workers.” The disease is a flu-like illness that often remains undiagnosed. In a minority of cases it can cause a clinical atypical pneumonia or hepatitis. If the disease becomes chronic, endocarditis and chronic hepatitis can develop. Chronic Q fever can be fatal, and is more likely to develop in immuno-compromised individuals and pregnant women. The OMAFRA website states, “In Ontario, Q-fever has occasionally been diagnosed as a cause of abortion in sheep and goats. Reported human cases have been associated with exposure to abortions in sheep and goats, and drinking unpasteurised goat’s milk.” “It can be transmitted reasonably easily among wildlife,” he said. “The suggestion is that people can get it from, like the Hantavirus, inhaling feces. Let’s say you have a cottage or a camp and sweep the corners. Any fecal material will dry and aerosolize, it goes up in the air and you inhale some of it.” In 2007, an outbreak in the Netherlands resulted in the infection of more than 2,000 people.Thousands of goats were culled. “There is a lot of interest in Europe now on how this pathogen is transmitted in the natural environment,” said Schulte-Hostedde. He says there is a hypothesis that ticks may be a cause of the spread of this pathogen. Schulte-Hostedde says he has spoken intensively to an Algonquin Park biologist who has indicted there have been no reports of people becoming ill with Q-Fever. “In terms of mortality I don’t think it’s going to kill anybody. There are no huge numbers of people reporting being ill,” he said. “We put the press release out not to alarm people but so that the public health authorities know that this bug is out there.” He says this might be quite large spread, and there are different strains of the infection, some that may be more dangerous than others. “We don’t know anything about the strain that we found versus what might be found on farms,” he said. He says after discussions with Public Health Ontario and the Public Health Agency of Canada, they are aware that it is out there and it is reportable at some levels. “They are aware that it happens on farms but there is no real work that is being done on Coxiella bernetii in the natural environment,” he said. “My point with the whole thing… it is just providing an awareness that there is a microbrobe that can make you sick so you should take some precautions.”
Schulte-Hostedde says he is in the process of returning to his initial studies and a zoonotics expert at the University of Guelph is hoping to attain OMAFRA funding to study this bacterium in a natural environment because there are still many questions to be answered, including whether this is being transferred from farm to the natural environment or vice versa; and whether the strains are the same. “It has an interesting history because it has been the subject of weaponization research in the United States,” he said. “That’s part of the sexy thing about this thing. It actually can infect people relatively easily, which is part of the history of human relationships with this bacteria.” He says in order to get the real story beyond the initial findings and the hundreds of animals tested, there is much more work to be done.
Biohazard name:
Q Fever (squirrels)
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.
In recent years, scientists, first responders and utilities have been preparing for “The Big One,” that inevitable quake that will rock Southern California to its core. It’s coming. For sure. They just don’t know when.
But the U.S. Geological Survey and Caltech have been on the ball, working from a likely scenario, a simulated “Shakeout” (see video after the jump) that would have a 7.8 quake hitting greater L.A. It would be deadly, destructive and put us in the dark for days, if not weeks.
Unfortunately, a 7.8 might now be too low of an estimate for The Big One:
Simulations for the magnitude 7.8 “ShakeOut” earthquake on the southern San Andreas fault, developed by the Southern California Earthquake Center ShakeOut Simulation workgroup. Simulation by Rob Graves, URS/SCEC. Visualization by Geoff Ely, USC/SCEC.
Scientists said the Indonesian rocker was larger than they ever thought such a quake “could be,” according to Caltech. It was a “intraplate strike-slip quake,” similar to what would happen at San Andreas, where much of California, from Baja to San Francisco, is moving north as the rest of America moves south.
In Sumatra, scientists found that this was not only the biggest strike-slip fault temblor ever, but that it set of a series of right-angle ruptures that amplified the shaking, like a block of ice cracking up in the heat.
And yes, it could happen here. The research, published last week in the journal Science Express, argues:
The new details provide fresh insights into the possibility of ruptures involving multiple faults occurring elsewhere–something that could be important for earthquake-hazard assessment along California’s San Andreas fault, which itself is made up of many different segments and is intersected by a number of other faults at right angles.
Lingsen Meng, lead author of the Caltech research:
If other earthquake ruptures are able to go this deep or to connect as many fault segments as this earthquake did, they might also be very large and cause significant damage.
The USGS, of course, is begging Southern Californians to prepare for our “mega-earthquake,” as academics called the Indonesian shaker. You know, flashlights, batteries, radios, water, nonperishable food. All that good stuff.
A volcano in Sakurajima in southern Japan has erupted, spewing volcanic ash onto Kagoshima City. The eruption at one of Japan’s most active volcanoes caused ash to cover roads. Residents of Kagoshima donned face masks to protect themselves while sweeping away the ash. The volcano has erupted over 600 times this year and is expected to continue its intermittent eruptions. Currently, the volcano warning there is at level three out of a possible five levels. A level five would mean that the residents living near the crater would have to be evacuated, while level three warns people not to approach the volcano.
ST LOUIS MO
TULSA OK
PEACHTREE CITY GA
MOUNT HOLLY NJ
CHARLESTON SC
GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
WILMINGTON NC
NEWPORT/MOREHEAD CITY NC
JACKSONVILLE FL
WAKEFIELD VA
BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
RALEIGH NC
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.
WASHINGTON — From highways in Texas to nuclear power plants in Illinois, the concrete, steel and sophisticated engineering that undergird the nation’s infrastructure are being taxed to worrisome degrees by heat, drought and vicious storms.
On a single day this month here, a US Airways regional jet became stuck in asphalt that had softened in 100-degree temperatures, and a subway train derailed after the heat stretched the track so far that it kinked — inserting a sharp angle into a stretch that was supposed to be straight. In East Texas, heat and drought have had a startling effect on the clay-rich soils under highways, which “just shrink like crazy,” leading to “horrendous cracking,” said Tom Scullion, senior research engineer with the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. In Northeastern and Midwestern states, he said, unusually high heat is causing highway sections to expand beyond their design limits, press against each other and “pop up,” creating jarring and even hazardous speed bumps.
Excessive warmth and dryness are threatening other parts of the grid as well. In the Chicago area, a twin-unit nuclear plant had to get special permission to keep operating this month because the pond it uses for cooling water rose to 102 degrees; its license to operate allows it to go only to 100. According to the Midwest Independent System Operator, the grid operator for the region, a different power plant had had to shut because the body of water from which it draws its cooling water had dropped so low that the intake pipe became high and dry; another had to cut back generation because cooling water was too warm.
The frequency of extreme weather is up over the past few years, and people who deal with infrastructure expect that to continue. Leading climate models suggest that weather-sensitive parts of the infrastructure will be seeing many more extreme episodes, along with shifts in weather patterns and rising maximum (and minimum) temperatures.
“We’ve got the ‘storm of the century’ every year now,” said Bill Gausman, a senior vice president and a 38-year veteran at the Potomac Electric Power Company, which took eight days to recover from the June 29 “derecho” storm that raced from the Midwest to the Eastern Seaboard and knocked out power for 4.3 million people in 10 states and the District of Columbia.
In general, nobody in charge of anything made of steel and concrete can plan based on past trends, said Vicki Arroyo, who heads the Georgetown Climate Center at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, a clearinghouse on climate-change adaptation strategies.
Highways, Mr. Scullion noted, are designed for the local climate, taking into account things like temperature and rainfall. “When you get outside of those things, man, all bets are off.” As weather patterns shift, he said, “we could have some very dramatic failures of highway systems.”
Adaptation efforts are taking place nationwide. Some are as huge as the multibillion-dollar effort to increase the height of levees and flood walls in New Orleans because of projections of rising sea levels and stronger storms to come; others as mundane as resizing drainage culverts in Vermont, where Hurricane Irene damaged about 2,000 culverts. “They just got blown out,” said Sue Minter, the Irene recovery officer for the state.
In Washington, the subway system, which opened in 1976, has revised its operating procedures. Authorities will now watch the rail temperature and order trains to slow down if it gets too hot. When railroads install tracks in cold weather, they heat the metal to a “neutral” temperature so it reaches a moderate length, and will withstand the shrinkage and growth typical for that climate. But if the heat historically seen in the South becomes normal farther north, the rails will be too long for that weather, and will have an increased tendency to kink. So railroad officials say they will begin to undertake much more frequent inspection.
Some utilities are re-examining long-held views on the economics of protecting against the weather. Pepco, the utility serving the area around Washington, has repeatedly studied the idea of burying more power lines, and the company and its regulators have always decided that the cost outweighed the benefit. But the company has had five storms in the last two and a half years for which recovery took at least five days, and after the derecho last month, the consensus has changed. Both the District of Columbia and Montgomery County, Md., have held hearings to discuss the option — though in the District alone, the cost would be $1.1 billion to $5.8 billion, depending on how many of the power lines were put underground.
Even without storms, heat waves are changing the pattern of electricity use, raising peak demand higher than ever. That implies the need for new investment in generating stations, transmission lines and local distribution lines that will be used at full capacity for only a few hundred hours a year. “We build the system for the 10 percent of the time we need it,” said Mark Gabriel, a senior vice president of Black & Veatch, an engineering firm. And that 10 percent is “getting more extreme.”
Even as the effects of weather extremes become more evident, precisely how to react is still largely an open question, said David Behar, the climate program director for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. “We’re living in an era of assessment, not yet in an area of adaptation,” he said.
He says that violent storms and forest fires can be expected to affect water quality and water use: runoff from major storms and falling ash could temporarily shut down reservoirs. Deciding how to address such issues is the work of groups like the Water Utility Climate Alliance, of which he is a member. “In some ways, the science is still catching up with the need of water managers for high-quality projection,” he said.
Some needs are already known. San Francisco will spend as much as $40 million to modify discharge pipes for treated wastewater to prevent bay water from flowing back into the system.
Even when state and local officials know what they want to do, they say they do not always get the cooperation they would like from the federal government. Many agencies have officially expressed a commitment to plan for climate change, but sometimes the results on the ground can be frustrating, said Ms. Minter of Vermont. For instance, she said, Vermont officials want to replace the old culverts with bigger ones. “We think it’s an opportunity to build back in a more robust way,” she said. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency wants to reuse the old culverts that washed out, or replace them with similar ones, she said.
Ms. Arroyo of Georgetown said the federal government must do more. “They are not acknowledging that the future will look different from the past,” she said, “and so we keep putting people and infrastructure in harm’s way.”
Matthew L. Wald reported from Washington, and John Schwartz from New York.
Residents were asked to evacuate from a rural area in southern Montana Thursday as a 5-square-mile wildfire approached the edge of a spread-out subdivision. County workers and firefighters were going door to door asking people to leave along a five-mile stretch of Shane Creek Road south of Columbus, officials said. The voluntary evacuation covered roughly 10 houses in Stillwater County, according to a hotline set up by the county. Shane Creek resident Shane Fouhy said he was packing some belongings, setting out sprinklers to water down his house and yard and heading into Columbus to stay with relatives. “I’ve been out all morning watering and the wind is kind of whirling,” he said. “It’s burning in all directions.” Paula Short with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation said the Skibstad Fire was burning in grass and timber and had approached within two miles of houses along Shane Creek Road. Residents of more than 100 houses were put on notice that they, too, might have to go. Firefighters were trying to hold the fire along a nearby ridge top to keep it from reaching the houses, Short said. But they were braced for the blaze to spread amid hot, dry conditions and winds of 5 to 10 miles per hour. Columbus High School was set up as a shelter for evacuees. Some structures were confirmed burned; how many and whether any were houses remained unclear. The fire started Wednesday evening in a secondary building on Skibstad Road and quickly spread across the surrounding landscape. It was pushed to the south by the wind, eventually reaching into areas of Carbon County. A heavy air tanker and several smaller aircraft were providing support to at least 60 firefighters with more personnel en route, Short said.
More federal firefighters were being deployed to bone-dry Nebraska, where a huge wildfire is threatening more structures and two smaller fires are still out of control. The handful of people living in Sparks, a gateway to canoeing and tubing on the Niobrara River, were on alert for possible evacuation. A 14-mile stretch of the valley already has been evacuated. While a cold front is expected to provide some relief, highs Wednesday will still be in the mid-90s. The front may also bring some rain, but major storms aren’t likely to develop near the fire. Plus, storms could also bring lightning and spark new fires. Hot, windy weather on Monday helped the main Fairfield Creek Fire expand to 58,000 acres, or nearly 92 square miles. Two other smaller fires about 20 miles east of the main fire had burned more than six square miles. And Tuesday’s high temperature again topped Officials estimate the fires, which have already destroyed at least 10 homes, are about 25 percent contained. Some 200 federal firefighters were being sent to join the more than 300 crews already on the front lines. Four helicopters are also fighting the fires, and three firefighters have been injured. Much of the fire-swept land near the river is rugged, forested and populated with cabins, so only 17 residences had been evacuated as of Tuesday morning.
A much expected downpour bypassed Beijing Wednesday but battered the neighboring city of Tianjin, flooding many downtown streets and vehicles. As of 11 a.m. Thursday, the maximum precipitation had exceeded 300 millimeters, Tianjin’s meteorological center said in a press release. It said the city proper received an average rainfall of 147 mm, while the outer Xiqing district, one of the worst-battered areas, received 309.8 mm. The local fire prevention bureau sent 190 fire engines and 1,140 rescuers to help rescue flood stranded vehicles and pedestrians. The rain had largely stopped by midday, but the center issued another orange alarm at 11:10 a.m., warning residents of a further rainstorm. The downpour has paralyzed traffic in downtown Tianjin, drowning many roads. Dozens of vehicles were stranded on Baidi road in Nankai district after their engines died in the flood. Many pedestrians complained they had to trek in knee-deep water. In some sections of Xianyang Street, flood water was waist deep. On the badly flooded Friendship Road in Hexi district, five workers kept watch next to sewage wells whose manholes had been removed for faster drainage.The rain disrupted air traffic at Tianjin’s airport, where 20 flights were canceled and 34 delayed.8 The first flight, an incoming flight from Shanghai, landed in Tianjin after the rain subsided at 11:32 a.m., and the first departing flight took off at 12:08 p.m., according to the airport’s official website. Railway transportation, however, was largely unaffected, including the express rail link to Beijing, the city’s railway authorities confirmed. Vegetable prices were up at the city’s major wholesale markets Thursday. “Each kilo is at least 0.4 yuan — about 30 percent — more expensive than yesterday,” said Cui Hongqing, a wholesaler at Hongqi Market. Cui predicted further price hikes Friday as the rain devastated crops and increased transportation costs. China’s capital Beijing was on guard against heavy rain Wednesday, fearing a repeat of Saturday’s mayhem. Saturday’s downpour, which the local weather bureau described as the “heaviest in 61 years,” killed at least 37 people — some were drowned in private cars. Many office workers were allowed to go home early Wednesday for safety considerations, and city authorities bombarded mobile phone subscribers with text message warnings of an imminent downpour. The much expected rain, however, did not fall in Beijing. The capital was still overcast Thursday, as the central weather bureau has forecast rain in seven northern China provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, over the coming three days.
……………….
Summer Storms to Create New Ozone Holes as Earth Warms?
More storms may trigger ozone depletion in populated areas far from the Poles.
A thunderstorm rumbles through Kansas (file picture).
Summer storms may create new holes in our protective ozone layer as Earth heats up—bringing increased solar ultraviolet radiation to densely populated areas, a new study says.
What’s more, if more sunlight reaches Earth, skin cancer could become the new marquee risk of global warming.
In a recent series of research flights over the United States, Harvard University atmospheric chemist James Anderson and colleagues found that summer storms often loft water vapor into the stratosphere.
“It was an unequivocal observation,” he said. “We had a number of flights, and this was an abiding feature” of the storms.
Under the right conditions, this water vapor could trigger chemical reactions that deplete the ozone layer, which prevents harmful ultraviolet rays from reaching Earth’s surface, the study says.
Even small reductions in the ozone layer can make people more susceptible to skin cancer and eye damage, experts say.
The finding concerned Anderson, whose research in the 1980s and ’90s played a pivotal role in establishing the Montreal Protocol. The international treaty phased out the production of ozone-depleting chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were found in a variety of products, including hairsprays and refrigerators.
CFCs produce a form of chlorine that degrades ozone particles in the stratosphere, most signifcantly over the Arctic and Antarctic.
Subsequent studies in the Arctic and in the laboratory revealed that both temperature and water vapor concentrations are crucial in a chemical reaction that makes chlorine attack ozone.
Now, the new observations over the United States suggest summer storms create the same combination of temperature and water vapor conditions at mid-latitudes. (Interactive Map: Global Warming Effects.)
“We essentially have the chemistry that’s present in the Arctic that is clearly very potent for destroying ozone,” Anderson said.
The findings, published today in the journal Science, calculate ozone loss at a rate between 4 and 6 percent per day in water vapor-rich areas of the stratosphere. The effect could persist for several weeks after a storm, he added.
What worries Anderson most is where and when this phenomenon appears to occur.
“It is not ozone loss in Antarctica and the Arctic under winter conditions. It is an attack on the ozone layer in the summer over populated regions of the Northern Hemisphere,” he said.
Simone Tilmes, an atmospheric chemist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, views the new findings with caution.
Research does indicate that more water vapor in the stratosphere will lead to greater ozone loss under the right conditions, said Tilmes, who was not involved with the current research.
But the study found no direct evidence of a simultaneous observation of water vapor and the presence of destructive chlorine, she said.
“This raises attention,” she said, emphasizing that more research is needed to determine if such ozone depletion will occur.
Study leader Anderson and colleagues acknowledged that they haven’t yet measured the ozone-destroying chlorine in the North American stratosphere.
However, he noted that, though chlorofluorocarbons are no longer released into the atmosphere, the compounds already there can persist for decades.
If there’s a silver lining to the research, it’s that the results could have a tangible impact on people’s behavior, Anderson said.
Unlike with the “out of sight, out of mind” nature of melting glaciers and carbon dioxide and methane emissions, he said, “most people know that skin cancer is highly prevalent and increasing its frequency.”
If the new findings are confirmed, people may see a direct link between climate change and their health.
That, he said, “might spur them to “step up and take responsibility for what is actually occurring.”
A possible tornado touched down in Elmira, N.Y., late Thursday, damaging buildings, toppling trees and bringing down power lines. The authorities said some people were trapped in their cars when the storm struck around 4 p.m. There were no reports of serious injuries. Emergency officials in Chemung County said there was “significant damage” in Elmira. The National Weather Service said that there were unconfirmed reports that a tornado had touched down. Severe weather moved across Ohio and Pennsylvania on Thursday afternoon, and into New York and New England, bringing heavy rain and in some cases, strong winds and hail. In the New York metropolitan area, weather officials said that the storm moved in shortly after 7 p.m. The hardest hit areas were northwest of the city in Westchester County and in parts of Connecticut, where there were multiple reports of downed trees and power lines. The highest measured wind gusts in the area were 60 miles per hour, near the Tappan Zee Bridge, officials said. Around 8 p.m., wind gusts of up to 54 miles per hour were reported at Kennedy International Airport, weather officials said. Hundreds of flights were delayed because of the storm. Amtrak also reported delays. Late Thursday, tens of thousands of people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were without power.
Today
Landslide
Vietnam
MultiProvinces, [Provinces of Tuyen Quang and Ha Giang]
Disaster officials and state media in Vietnam say landslides and flash floods triggered by Typhoon Vicente have killed seven people, including three in a single family, and left three others missing. Official Lai Thanh Huyen of Tuyen Quang province in northern Vietnam said Friday that landslides following heavy rains buried a 28-year-old woman, her five-year-old daughter and four-month-old son early Thursday while they were sleeping in their home. The Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that landslides killed four people in the neighboring province of Ha Giang. It says flash floods have left three other people missing elsewhere in the region. Vicente injured dozens and grounded planes in Hong Kong earlier in the week.
Minister of Local Government and Community Development Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh yesterday confirmed that there is a cholera outbreak in Bintulu. Speaking to reporters after a briefing by officers from the state Health Department at his office here yesterday, he said the department detected the outbreak on July 14 after a case was confirmed positive with Vibrio Cholerae. “Since July 14, the state Health Department declared there is an outbreak detected in Bintulu. Since then, the state Health Department initiated its investigation to trace all the suspected symptomatic cases. Anyone coming down with diarrhoea and vomiting will be investigated to check whether it is cholera or not,” he added. Based on investigation by the department, the outbreak was believed to have started when three groups of regatta participants from Rumah Gawan, Kampung Jepak and Kampung Hilir in Sebauh, Bintulu used water from Kemena River to wash plates, fish and their hands. “The bacteria from the river had contaminated the food and the hands of the people during the regatta and then continuously spread from person to person and contaminated food and drinks. Now the state Health Department is also suspecting that it is spread from Ramadan Bazaar due to contaminated food and drinks,” he added. He noted that as of yesterday, the department had received 140 cases – 33 positive for cholera, 55 negative and 52 cases still pending result. The youngest patient was one year 11 months old while the oldest was 84 years old. The department also detected nine cases with Vibrio Cholerae but without any symptom. As of yesterday, 177 people had been screened for signs and symptoms of acute gastroenteritis and were given doxycycline, an antibiotic.On the outbreak, Wong said it was still spreading in Bintulu with 11 localities declared positive for cholera; Rumah Panjang Gawan at Sungai Sebauh, Kampung Jepak, Kampung Sebauh Hilir in Sebauh, Rumah Usah in Sungai Segan, Setinggan Mozako, Kampung Assyikirin, Kampung Sinong in Jalan Masjid, Setinggan Hock Peng Tanjung Kidurong, Batu 10, Jalan Bintulu/Miri, Kampung Baru and Kirana Palm Oil/Brightwood Quarters, Kemena Industrial Estate. “The state Health Department will continue to take all samples from Sungai Kemena and its tributaries as well as food sampling from Ramadan Bazaar and houses. Besides that, the state Health Department will intensify diarrhoea and vomiting surveillance in all health facilities in Bintulu and issue cholera alert to all government, private health facilities in the state whereby when there is increase in number of admission, the state Health Department will investigate whether it is cholera or not,” he said. Wong said attention would also be given to all food handlers in the Ramadan Bazaar in Bintulu to ensure that they meet the department’s health standards, which also requires them to go for cholera screening. “Once they are cleared from the disease, they will be issued health cards and they must bring the health cards with them when they operate the stalls. If they refuse to go for screening, they will be asked to close down their stalls,” he added. For the convenience of the public, a screening centre is opened at the old Bintulu health clinic from 8am to 10pm every day. The department is also using Bintulu Hospital for isolation of severe cases while mild cases and asymptomatic cases would be treated at the national service camp in Samalaju in Bintulu. Wong appealed to the public to give their fullest cooperation to the department to ensure that the outbreak could be contained.
Biohazard name:
Vibrio 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.
Sixteen people are reported dead in Uganda from a mystery illness. The Uganda publication UG Pulse reports that a strange illness, cause unknown, is spreading in the Kibaale district in western Uganda. The District Health Officer, Dr. Dan Kyamanwa, stated that 11 of the deaths were from the same family in the Nyamarunda Sub County. A twelfth death was a health officer. There are also reports of the illness appearing in the clinical officer who treated the family from Nyamarunda and a driver who transported the deceased. Kyamanwa says that symptoms of the illness include high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and systems failure. Death occurs within four to seven days.The Ugandan government is reportedly sending a team of experts to investigate the outbreak.
Biohazard name:
Unidentified fatal disease
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.
Lifeguard services provided by the department of tourism were called upon to carry out a multiple rescue operation on Thursday at Benaulim after a fishing boat with 12 crew members ventured out to the sea and capsized. The incident report stated that lifeguards were continuously observing the boat that had left at 7.20am when they saw it suddenly capsize when it was hit by a huge wave about 200m from the shore. Nine crew members were secured by the lifeguards on jet-ski boats and brought to shore while three managed to swim to safety. No injuries were reported. But as two victims Santan Fernandes and Menino Fernandes had shallow breathing, they were shifted to Hospicio hospital, Margao.
Hundreds of fish have gone belly-up in the Swan River and others are slowly dying as the latest toxic algal bloom to hit the river takes it toll. The Swan River Trust is responding to sightings of the dead and sluggish fish near the Ascot Waters marina. Elevated levels of the microalgae Karlodinium veneficum, which is potentially toxic to fish, have been detected in the area over the past few weeks. A similar outbreak in June killed more than 2,500 fish in a 13km stretch of the river from Bassendean to West Swan. Principal scientist with the trust Kerry Trayler said the free-floating microalgae were known to affect the capacity of fish to extract oxygen from the water. She said while the algae was not toxic to humans precautions should be taken in relation to the dead or dying fish. “The Department of Health advises that people should not swim in, or fish in, water with dead and decomposing fish. They should also keep pets and other animals away from the fish because they may contain high levels of bacteria,” she said. “Sluggish and dead fish should also not be collected and used for bait or consumption because of the risk of high levels of bacteria.”
Biohazard name:
Karlodinium veneficum (HAB)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
Today
Biological Hazard
USA
State of Kansas, Overland Park [South Lake Park, 7601 W. 86th St]
Kansas health officials have strengthened their alert about toxic blue-green algae in the pond at South Lake Park, 7601 W. 86th St. City officials said an earlier “advisory” has been upgraded to a “warning,” so people and pets should not drink the water. Any fish caught there should be rinsed with clean water, and only the filet portion should be eaten. Pets should not eat dried algae, and people and animals should be rinsed with clean water if they come in contact with lake water.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green (cyanobacteria) Algae bloom
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Health authorities are warning residents and visitors to Kitsap Lake in West Bremerton that high levels of a toxic blue-green algae have been discovered in the water. If ingested in sufficient quantities, a toxin produced by the algae can make people sick and potentially kill pets, fish, waterfowl and livestock, said Jim Zimny, water quality specialist with the Kitsap Public Health District. Water samples taken Tuesday from Kitsap Lake showed levels of the toxic compound to be 6.7 micrograms per liter. Warnings are posted when the level exceeds 6.0. Signs have gone up at public access areas and on roads around the lake, Zimny said. Weekly tests will be conducted until the algae blooms subside. People are advised to avoid drinking the water or swimming in the lake, especially in areas where the algae have concentrated. Avoid eating any fish caught during the bloom. Pets should be kept back from the water. Zimny asks people to call the health district if they see large numbers of dead fish, unexplained illness in a dog or cat or if someone entering the water suffers a physical reaction, such as a rash or illness.
Biohazard name:
Blue-Green (cyanobacteria) Algae bloom
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Symptoms:
Status:
Today
Biological Hazard
Malaysia
State of Preak, loc:Kampung Sg Dua [Sungai Bentong River]
Residents in Kampung Sg Dua near here are worried after finding dozens of fish in Sungai Bentong dead. Village chief Wong Fan Chong said they believed it was due to pollution and hazardous waste from an industrial estate nearby. “We are not alleging that the factories are dumping their waste into the river but surely, there is a reason why the fish are dead,” he said. He urged the authorities to conduct an investigation into the matter, adding that if test results showed it was due to waste pollution, guilty parties must be punished. Wong said there were previously cases of fish dying in the river but of late, the number had increased. “For the time being, I have told all villagers to stop fishing or swimming in Sungai Bentong which flows into Sungai Dua near our village. “We are not sure whether the fishes are safe to eat,” he added. State Health, Environment and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Hoh Khai Mun said he had instructed officers from the Environment Department to investigate the issue. “We will reveal the findings of the probe in due course,” he said, adding that the state government would not compromise on the safety of the people.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (fishes)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Dozens of beaches in Malaga province have played host to swarms or ‘blooms’ of jellyfish this summer, closing several beaches in Marbella and Estepona and administering more than 1,000 stings within a three-day period. Many bathers have been on the wrong end of the gelatinous varmint, whose sting causes a painful rash that can last for up to three days. According to Spain’s tourist office, the marine stingers are the venomous purple striped jellyfish. Their stings, although almost never fatal, have been known to cause severe allergic reactions. Here, the Olive Press looks at the different types of stingers in the Mediterranean, why they are becoming such a problem for bathers on the Costa del Sol and what can be done to protect yourself from eye-watering stings. Purple-striped jellyfish- aka mauve stingers: These increasingly common creatures have wreaked havoc on the Costa del Sol, causing the closure of a number of beaches. They are usually small but pack a powerful punch. Portuguese man o’ war – aka blue bottle: Although not technically jellyfish, these critters can deliver an agonising sting causing vomiting and fainting in some cases. They are usually found floating at the surface of the water with long, thin tendrils extending 10 metres. Fried egg jellyfish: A small but beautiful jellyfish which gets its name from its fried-egg shaped body. Its sting has little effect on humans. Moon jellyfish: One of the most common jellyfish in the world, these translucent creatures are often sold commercially as pets. The sting is harmless to humans. Compass jellyfish: With brown spots and a saucer-shaped bell, this jellyfish can often be found drifting on the sea surface. It can deliver a nasty sting.
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Blackleg normally kills livestock within 12 to 48 hours and is caused by the spore foaming, rod shaped and gas producing bacteria Clostridium chauvoei, which can live in soil for many years. The bacteria gains entrance to the animal through small punctures in the mucous membrane of the digestive tract. Animals begin showing signs of lameness, rapid breathing, loss of appetite and high fever. Shingairai Gudyanga said the spread of the disease has been fuelled by lack of adequate grazing caused by poor rainfall. This caused cattle to eat the roots of plants, a haven for the bacteria. “Most farmers in this area are reluctant to bring their livestock for vaccination and they do not report disease outbreaks,” she added. Blackleg is almost entirely preventable by vaccination. The department’s efforts to control disease are hampered because people eat the animals before tests can be done. “We fail to take smear samples because by the time we find out about deaths, only the bones of the dead animal are left, with the rest of the meat either sold or dried for consumption,” she said. “Our office is almost sure that two of the cattle died due to anthrax because when we examined the carcases, there was blood in the openings of the cattle, the mouth, ears and nose and they decayed faster than the others,” she said. “The community did not consume one of the cattle that I am referring to because it was in a terrible state, but ate the other one before it had rotted.” The District Head for Veterinary Services for Buhera South, Mr Mavhima, could not confirm nor deny the anthrax outbreak and said he would visit Mutiusinazita this week -end. “If it is anthrax, we will look into it and act on it swiftly,” he said.
Biohazard name:
Anthrax
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.
They may seem like furry little friends, those little squirrels, as they skitter through the forests, but researches have discovered otherwise. A bacterium known to cause ‘Q-Fever’ in humans has been detected in a high percentage rodents in Algonquin Park. A team of Laurentian University biology researchers, led by Canada Research Chair Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde have found evidence of the spread of the zoonotic bacterium Coxiella bernetii in wildlife in the park and say their findings suggest that some visitors to the park could be at risk of infection. According to a Laurentian University press release the bacterium was “detected in six out of seven species of wild rodents tested within the boundaries of Algonquin Park, including red squirrels, flying squirrels and deer mice. It was also found in flying squirrels in the Peterborough area, indicating that the bacteria may be widespread among these animal populations in Ontario.” The bacterium is a cause of Query fever, also known as Q-Fever, in humans.According to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) website, “Human Q fever is primarily an occupational disease of farmers, abattoir workers, veterinarians, and laboratory workers.” The disease is a flu-like illness that often remains undiagnosed. In a minority of cases it can cause a clinical atypical pneumonia or hepatitis. If the disease becomes chronic, endocarditis and chronic hepatitis can develop. Chronic Q fever can be fatal, and is more likely to develop in immuno-compromised individuals and pregnant women. The OMAFRA website states, “In Ontario, Q-fever has occasionally been diagnosed as a cause of abortion in sheep and goats. Reported human cases have been associated with exposure to abortions in sheep and goats, and drinking unpasteurised goat’s milk.” “It can be transmitted reasonably easily among wildlife,” he said. “The suggestion is that people can get it from, like the Hantavirus, inhaling feces. Let’s say you have a cottage or a camp and sweep the corners. Any fecal material will dry and aerosolize, it goes up in the air and you inhale some of it.” In 2007, an outbreak in the Netherlands resulted in the infection of more than 2,000 people.Thousands of goats were culled. “There is a lot of interest in Europe now on how this pathogen is transmitted in the natural environment,” said Schulte-Hostedde. He says there is a hypothesis that ticks may be a cause of the spread of this pathogen. Schulte-Hostedde says he has spoken intensively to an Algonquin Park biologist who has indicted there have been no reports of people becoming ill with Q-Fever. “In terms of mortality I don’t think it’s going to kill anybody. There are no huge numbers of people reporting being ill,” he said. “We put the press release out not to alarm people but so that the public health authorities know that this bug is out there.” He says this might be quite large spread, and there are different strains of the infection, some that may be more dangerous than others. “We don’t know anything about the strain that we found versus what might be found on farms,” he said. He says after discussions with Public Health Ontario and the Public Health Agency of Canada, they are aware that it is out there and it is reportable at some levels. “They are aware that it happens on farms but there is no real work that is being done on Coxiella bernetii in the natural environment,” he said. “My point with the whole thing… it is just providing an awareness that there is a microbrobe that can make you sick so you should take some precautions.”
Schulte-Hostedde says he is in the process of returning to his initial studies and a zoonotics expert at the University of Guelph is hoping to attain OMAFRA funding to study this bacterium in a natural environment because there are still many questions to be answered, including whether this is being transferred from farm to the natural environment or vice versa; and whether the strains are the same. “It has an interesting history because it has been the subject of weaponization research in the United States,” he said. “That’s part of the sexy thing about this thing. It actually can infect people relatively easily, which is part of the history of human relationships with this bacteria.” He says in order to get the real story beyond the initial findings and the hundreds of animals tested, there is much more work to be done.
Biohazard name:
Q Fever (squirrels)
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.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is meeting with utility officials and state regulators as a wave of severe storms cross the state. The National Weather Service gave Cuomo a pre-emptive warning about the possibility that severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Cuomo says he will meet Thursday with the leadership of Con Edison, the New York Power Authority, and the state Public Service Commission to make sure the New York City area is prepared. About 10,000 utility customers in western New York and Sullivan County northwest of New York City have lost power as New Yorkers are being warned of the possibility of severe weather. The power losses Thursday morning came as thunderstorms move eastward across the state. Most of the outages are in the Rochester area and in Cattaraugus County, south of Buffalo.
[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.]
Bambang Muryanto and Arya Dipa, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta/Bandung | Archipelago | Tue,
Mount Merapi, located in Yogyakarta, emitted high-pressure gas on Sunday afternoon that caused its crater wall to collapse and volcanic ash to fall on its western slope, as smoke billowed up to 1 kilometer into the sky.
As the gas discharge was not followed by other dangerous volcanic activity, the phenomenon was regarded as a small-scale volcanic eruption and the volcano’s alert status remained normal.
“Mount Merapi’s status remains normal because there was no dangerous volcanic activity,” said Volcanic Technology Development and Research Center (BPPTK) head Subandriyo on Monday.
According to Subandriyo, the incident was due to the accumulation of gas produced by the volcano’s magma. As the gas’ exit fumarole was too narrow, the volcano eventually released all the buildup of very high pressure gas by erupting, which caused the crater wall to collapse and this emitted a massive rumble.
“The incident can be called a small-scale ‘volcanic eruption’,” said Subandriyo.
In Bandung, West Java, Geological Disaster Mitigation and Volcanology Center head Surono said the collapse of the crater wall of Mount Merapi on Sunday was a natural process. The collapse was not due to an increase in volcanic activity of the most active volcano in Indonesia.
The lava dome collapsed because rocks and eruption material from the 2010 eruption were still not completely set and stable. “The force of gravity or the weight of the rocks has caused the crater wall to collapse,” Surono said in a text message on Monday.
The lava dome collapsed on Sunday at 6:02 p.m. local time. According to Surono, officers at the Babadan observation post, located more than 5 kilometers from the mountain park, heard a rumbling sound which was a result of the collapse.
They also observed smoke billowing at a height of 1,000 meters above the peak, slanting westward. Surono added that a slight ash cloud occurred, followed by the smell of sulfur. “Based on a report, a rain of ash took place in Jurang Jero and Srumbung. The smoke was not emitted from an eruption, but rather by the collapsed crater dome,” Surono said.
Surono urged residents living around the volcano to remain calm and not panic due to unclear rumors. “Information on volcanic activity can be obtained from the Yogyakarta BPPTK,” added Surono.
Subandriyo said the amount of gas pressure was unclear, as his office was unable to conduct the measurements. The crater emitted thick smoke mixed with gas and ash and rose up to 1 kilometer. Its shape resembled a pyroclastic flow.
According to Subandriyo, the phenomenon was the first after it erupted in 2010. “The volcanic magma is currently rich with gas. This did not occur before the 2010 eruption,” he said. He added that in the past month, the crater dome of the 2,800-meter tall volcano often collapsed because the structure of the dome was not yet stable and due to the drought.
He also called on residents living along the slope of the mountain to remain calm because the status remained remains normal. However, he has advised trekkers not to approach the peak as it was quite dangerous. “Climbers should only hike up to Pasar Bubrah,” said Subandriyo. Pasar Bubrah is located around 400 meters from the peak.
Yoto, a resident in Jengglik hamlet, Ngablak district, Magelang, Central Java, who was at the western slope of Mount Merapi, said he heard a loud rumble coming from the peak of the mountain on Sunday afternoon. “I heard the rumble at around 6 p.m.” he said.
According to him, the gas emission led to ash rain which lightly covered Purwosari hamlet, Ngablak village.
Jamin, head of Kali Tengah Kidul hamlet, Cangkringan, Sleman, Yogyakarta, located around 4 kilometers from the peak, said he also heard the rumble on Sunday afternoon.
However, the incident did not cause residents to evacuate due to the ash rain. “I heard the rumble, but residents remained calm. We are used to hearing these rumbles,” said Jamin.
Mount Merapi, located in Yogyakarta, emitted high-pressure gas on Sunday afternoon that caused its crater wall to collapse and volcanic ash to fall on its western slope, as smoke billowed up to 1 kilometer into the sky. As the gas discharge was not followed by other dangerous volcanic activity, the phenomenon was regarded as a small-scale volcanic eruption and the volcano’s alert status remained normal. “Mount Merapi’s status remains normal because there was no dangerous volcanic activity,” said Volcanic Technology Development and Research Center (BPPTK) head Subandriyo on Monday. According to Subandriyo, the incident was due to the accumulation of gas produced by the volcano’s magma. As the gas’ exit fumarole was too narrow, the volcano eventually released all the buildup of very high pressure gas by erupting, which caused the crater wall to collapse and this emitted a massive rumble. “The incident can be called a small-scale ‘volcanic eruption’,” said Subandriyo. In Bandung, West Java, Geological Disaster Mitigation and Volcanology Center head Surono said the collapse of the crater wall of Mount Merapi on Sunday was a natural process. The collapse was not due to an increase in volcanic activity of the most active volcano in Indonesia.
The lava dome collapsed because rocks and eruption material from the 2010 eruption were still not completely set and stable. “The force of gravity or the weight of the rocks has caused the crater wall to collapse,” Surono said in a text message on Monday. The lava dome collapsed on Sunday at 6:02 p.m. local time. According to Surono, officers at the Babadan observation post, located more than 5 kilometers from the mountain park, heard a rumbling sound which was a result of the collapse. They also observed smoke billowing at a height of 1,000 meters above the peak, slanting westward. Surono added that a slight ash cloud occurred, followed by the smell of sulfur. “Based on a report, a rain of ash took place in Jurang Jero and Srumbung. The smoke was not emitted from an eruption, but rather by the collapsed crater dome,” Surono said. Surono urged residents living around the volcano to remain calm and not panic due to unclear rumors. “Information on volcanic activity can be obtained from the Yogyakarta BPPTK,” added Surono. Subandriyo said the amount of gas pressure was unclear, as his office was unable to conduct the measurements. The crater emitted thick smoke mixed with gas and ash and rose up to 1 kilometer. Its shape resembled a pyroclastic flow. According to Subandriyo, the phenomenon was the first after it erupted in 2010. “The volcanic magma is currently rich with gas. This did not occur before the 2010 eruption,” he said. He added that in the past month, the crater dome of the 2,800-meter tall volcano often collapsed because the structure of the dome was not yet stable and due to the drought.
He also called on residents living along the slope of the mountain to remain calm because the status remained remains normal. However, he has advised trekkers not to approach the peak as it was quite dangerous. “Climbers should only hike up to Pasar Bubrah,” said Subandriyo. Pasar Bubrah is located around 400 meters from the peak. Yoto, a resident in Jengglik hamlet, Ngablak district, Magelang, Central Java, who was at the western slope of Mount Merapi, said he heard a loud rumble coming from the peak of the mountain on Sunday afternoon. “I heard the rumble at around 6 p.m.” he said. According to him, the gas emission led to ash rain which lightly covered Purwosari hamlet, Ngablak village. Jamin, head of Kali Tengah Kidul hamlet, Cangkringan, Sleman, Yogyakarta, located around 4 kilometers from the peak, said he also heard the rumble on Sunday afternoon. However, the incident did not cause residents to evacuate due to the ash rain. “I heard the rumble, but residents remained calm. We are used to hearing these rumbles,” said Jamin.
LOUISVILLE KY
WILMINGTON OH
CHARLESTON WV
MOUNT HOLLY NJ
STATE COLLEGE PA
LINCOLN IL
PADUCAH KY
KANSAS CITY/PLEASANT HILL MO
BLACKSBURG VA
WAKEFIELD VA
OMAHA/VALLEY NE
QUAD CITIES IA IL
HASTINGS NE
SIOUX FALLS SD
DES MOINES IA
CHICAGO IL
BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
INDIANAPOLIS IN
NEW YORK NY
ST LOUIS MO
TOPEKA KS
SPRINGFIELD MO
Greece’s hottest day this year is forcing authorities to shut down the Athens Acropolis six hours before schedule in the interests of visitor health, the site’s guards said on Monday.
The country’s top monument was to shut down at 1100 GMT instead of its normal 1700 GMT closing time, a guard told AFP.
The ancient citadel is perched on a rocky plateau rising amid a sea of concrete in the Greek capital of over four million, offering precious little shade to thousands of tourists who visit it daily.
Temperatures in Athens were set to exceed 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) at the close of this year’s hottest week that earlier forced authorities to make air-conditioned halls available to the public.
The environment ministry said air pollution was also above warning levels in various parts of the capital as it warned people with respiratory problems and heart trouble to stay indoors.
Looking for relief from the heat over much of the Lower 48 states? Head to coastal Alaska where they are experiencing the coldest first half of July on record!
Through the first 14 days of July, the average temperature in Anchorage was 53.1 degrees factoring in daily highs and lows, which makes it the coldest first half of the month on record according to the National Weather Service in Anchorage.
Should this temperature trend continue, it could threaten the record for the coldest July ever, which occurred in 1920 and had an average temperature of 54.4 degrees.
Typically this stretch of time is the warmest of the year. Instead, temperatures in the city of Anchorage are running 5.3 degrees below average.
Somedays have even turned out colder than cities on the Arctic Coast such as Barrow. On July 12th, the high temperature topped out at 54 degrees in Anchorage, while temperatures soared to 62 in Barrow (a whooping 15 degrees above average.)
Not only has it been cool, but residents of the Alaska city haven’t seen much sunlight due to overcast skies and a persistent flow off the ocean. Rainfall through the first 14 days is running slightly above normal at 120 percent. But the clouds and cool temperatures have been the bigger story.
The reason for the cool weather along the coast has been due to jet stream position. Normally it will fluctuate northward sending storms into western Alaska and allowing ridging to build over the southern and central part of the state at times.
Well this summer it’s been consistently farther south sending storm after storm into the Gulf of Alaska, keeping a cool southeast flow of air aimed on the southern coast.
While heavy rain isn’t common with this kind of a storm track, the flow will keep clouds and cool temperatures in the offing as long as it persists.
Anchorage hasn’t been the only southern city feeling the chill. Homer, Alaska is running 5 degrees below normal for the month thus far while Palmer is running 3.8 degrees below average.
Residents of Anchorage and the southern coast shouldn’t expect any big warm ups anytime soon as this pattern of storms moving into the Gulf of Alaska looks to persist at least through next weekend.
Since early June, the Midwest and parts of the northern and central Plains have faced a devastating drought. The lack of substantial rainfall has had severe effects on corn production and has resulted in desertlike conditions for some areas. Paired with the recent heat wave, the situation has become a disaster for corn growers and has significantly driven down yields in the United States for 2012.
Some parts of the nation are better off than others when compared to a week ago, in terms of dryness and drought. However, some areas, including part of the corn belt, have gotten worse.
Waves of downpours have greatly eased the drought in portions of northern Florida and southern Georgia in recent weeks, while dry conditions have gotten worse in parts of the corn belt.
Even though the recent heat wave has ended, weeks of drought and days of 100-degree temperatures have already taken a toll on this year’s corn crop in a large part of the Midwestern United States.
Spotty downpours will grace northern and eastern areas of the corn belt into August, but not enough rain will fall on a large part of the corn belt, leading to a disaster.
A 640-acre wildfire on California’s Central Coast has forced evacuations of about 50 homes in rural San Luis Obispo County. State fire spokeswoman Tina Rose says the fire covering about one square mile was burning Monday in grass, brush and oak woodlands, forcing the evacuation of homes on Parkhill Road near Highway 58 about five miles east of the town of Santa Margarita, where an elementary school has been opened as a shelter. The evacuation order will remain in effect overnight. More than 200 firefighters are battling the blaze with help from six aircraft. It was 20 percent contained. Firefighters are being challenged by the fire’s location in very rough terrain. Wind gusts up to 21 mph are being reported in the area and temperatures were in the mid-70s.
A surfer struggles to keep upright on a large, rough wave off the Southern California shore at El Segundo Beach in El Segundo, Calif., Friday, Dec. 15. 2006. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
While Fabio should weaken as it heads northward in the eastern Pacific, Southern California will feel some impacts.
Fabio will encounter cooler Pacific water and stronger wind shear, causing the system to weaken into a remnant area of low pressure by Wednesday.
However, rough surf, increased clouds and spotty showers are in store for Southern California Wednesday night and Thursday as the remnants of Fabio move into Southern California or the northern part of Baja California.
Large swells up to 4-6 feet will be stirred by the remnants of Fabio.
Showers will be more likely in Southern California on Wednesday night, especially in the higher elevations. Flash flooding could be a concern in the Southern California mountains if any heavier downpours develop.
Clouds will increase with some spotty showers farther north across central California on Thursday.
17.07.2012
Tornado
Poland
Greater Poland Voivodeship, [Region of Pomerania (Tuchola Forest area)]
A freak wave of tornadoes ripped through northern Poland on Sunday, wrecking houses and swathes of forest and leaving one person dead and another 10 injured. Tornadoes are not unknown in the European Union’s largest eastern country but the scope and power of Sunday’s twisters was unusual and comes in a summer already marked by flash floods, hailstorms and gales. Some 1,200 rescuers were working to remove fallen trees, unblock roads and restore utilities in the hardest hit Baltic region of Pomerania. Trees were uprooted, buildings damaged and power lines downed, while some 550 hectares of woodlands in the Tuchola Forest area were flattened. “I saw a black column coming our way,” an injured inhabitant of the Wycinki village, whose farm was destroyed by the tornado told state television. “It carried everything away with it … birds, debris, sucked up water from the lake.” A caravan with a family of three inside was seen flying through the air in the village of Stara Rzeka and breaking into pieces upon landing, but its occupants suffered no serious injuries. “The sole fatality was a 60-year-old man in the Pomeranian village of Wycinki who was crushed to death by his collapsing summer cottage,” fire brigade spokesman Pawel Fratczak told Reuters by telephone. The tornadoes were the latest outburst of violent weather that has battered Poland since the start of the month with hailstorms, gales, cloudbursts and flash floods. Meteorologists categorising the twister as a class two tornado with wind velocity of up to 200 km/h.
Flooding and landslides caused by record torrential rain on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu have killed six people and left 20 missing. Rescue workers had been unable to reach some of the areas where people were believed to be buried under landslides, television reports said on Thursday. Authorities in the prefectural capital of Kumamoto ordered about 48,000 residents to flee the city. Blackouts hit about 10,000 households in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, the Kyushu Electric Power Company reported. Railway services and motor traffic were suspended, Kyodo said, while some bullet train services were temporarily halted in the island’s north and centre. The Japan Meteorological Agency said rainfall in some parts of the island had reached levels that have “never been experienced”. It said hourly rainfall in the morning topped 120mm in Aso and reached 120mm in Ubuyama. The agency warned of more heavy rain and landslides in northern parts of Kyushu before the downpours move north to the main island of Honshu later on Thursday.
17.07.2012
Flash Flood
India
State of North Bengal, [Area of Teesta, Jaldhaka and Torsa river basins]
Flash floods hit North Bengal with three main rivers – Teesta, Jaldhaka and Torsha – flowing over the danger levels at several places and displacing nearly 2,000 people from their homes. State Irrigation Minister Manas Bhunia on Monday visited North Bengal to take stock of the situation. “Heavy rainfall in parts of North Bengal pose a serious threat to river embankments. The rivers with its origin in Bhutan have not been maintained properly in the past resulting in a rise in their river bed. The work to repair breached embankments has started,” Bhunia said. He will visit Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday where uninterrupted rainfall has played havoc. Bhunia said he has informed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about the situation over the phone. “Cooked food and tarpaulins have been distributed among those displaced,” he added. In the last three days, Jalpaiguri district has received 40mm, 102 mm and 81 mm rainfall, respectively, said disaster management department. During the same period, Darjeeling recorded 248 mm rainfall. Cooch Behar, too, has recorded heavy downpour in the last three days. The areas severely affected by rainfall include Nagrakata, Domohani, Fulbari, Hasimara. The administration is suspecting landslides.
Flood-battered Japan warily eyes typhoon
Fears it could heap further misery
AFP
Ukiha: Flood-battered southwestern Japan on Tuesday braced for a typhoon amid fears it could heap further misery on an area where at least 32 are dead or missing after record rainfall.
Typhoon Khanun was lashing the Amami island chain south of Kyushu where four days of torrential rain have sparked landslides and flooding, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Khanun – “jack fruit” in Thai – packing winds of up to 126 kilometres (78 miles) per hour, was moving west-northwest at 30 kilometres per hour and was expected to graze the west of Kyushu island through Wednesday afternoon, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Tuesday brought a lull in the rainfall for most of the region as the weather agency said there was up to 9.2 centimetres (3.6 inches) of rain in the 24 hours to 4.20pm (0720 GMT) in the north of Kyushu.
In hard-hit Minamiaso in Kumamoto prefecture, more than 670 people remained unable to return to their homes on Tuesday afternoon because of landslide fears.
“We started reconstruction work on damaged roads yesterday, but workers have been forced to step aside repeatedly by occasional rains,” said local official Hideki Kuraoka.
“Even a small amount of rain could trigger mudslides and more downpours are expected this afternoon. We remain on high alert,” he said.
Kuraoka said even though forecasters did not expect a direct hit from the typhoon, it was still a worry.
“We cannot know what damage will be caused by the typhoon,” he said. “We are being extremely vigilant about it.”
Most of the 400,000 people who were ordered or advised to leave their homes were allowed to return after authorities began lifting evacuation orders on Sunday.
Roads in Aso city remained flooded and inaccessible.
Troops who were called in to help over the weekend on Tuesday continued their search for three people officially recorded as missing.
They recovered a man’s body from a ditch in Aso on Tuesday, raising the total death toll from landslides and floods across the affected area to 29.
“The body belongs to a man, 55, who was one of the missing people,” said a Kumamoto official.
Aso, which sits at the foot of a volcano, has seen more than 80 centimetres of rain over the last few days, triggering huge mudslides that swamped whole communities and killed at least 21 people in the city alone.
An AFP photographer who visited the city said some people who had been evacuated from their homes were seeking shelter in municipal buildings.
In scenes reminiscent of last year’s devastating tsunami, families sat on mats on wooden floors, or gathered around televisions to watch the latest forecasts.
Other parts of Japan were dealing with soaring temperatures as the first really hot days of the sometimes punishing Japanese summer took hold.
The weather agency said temperatures of 39.2 degrees Celsius (102.6 Fahrenheit) were recorded in Tatebayashi, north of Tokyo, and 37.5 degrees Celsius in Hachioji, a city in western Tokyo.
On Monday, a man in his 80s died in central Niigata prefecture apparently from heat stroke, while nearly 700 people were taken to hospital due to heat exhaustion, local media said.
With the vast bulk of Japan’s nuclear power stations offline in the aftermath of the tsunami-sparked Fukushima disaster, the country is being urged to cut down on electricity usage and the excessive use of air conditioners is being discouraged.
Dorset landslide: Two bodies found in car hit by tunnel entrance collapse near Dorchester
The numbers on Cuba’s cholera outbreak continued to grow over the weekend, with officials reporting 12 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 170, and eight new suspected cases in the southeastern province of Granma. Cuba’s Public Health Ministry, in a statement published in the official news media on Saturday morning, declared that the outbreak was “decreasing” with 158 confirmed cases and three deaths confirmed. But the numbers provided by lead Granma province epidemiologist Ana Maria Batista during her appearance Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings on provincial television showed increases in all the categories. “The numbers show it is growing,” said Santiago Marquez, a physician in the Granma city of Manzanillo who has watched Batista’s nightly reports for more than a week and provided the details to independent journalists in Cuba and El Nuevo Herald. Batista reported 158 confirmed cholera cases in the province on Friday, 163 on Saturday – though her town-by-town breakdown added up to 164 — and six additional cases on Sunday for a total of 170, Marquez said.
She noted on Sunday that eight new cases of suspected cholera had been reported, and that 27 people were hospitalized on Saturday alone with diarrhea and vomiting, the key symptoms of the disease, according to the physician. More general cases of diarrhea and vomiting, which spike every summer with the rains and heat, rose from 5,680 in her Saturday report to 6,002 in her Sunday appearance, Marquez reported. About 97 percent of those already have recovered, she added. The number of Granma’s 13 municipalities where cholera has been reported rose from seven to nine, Batista noted. Appearing with Batista on provincial television Sunday, Deputy Director of Provincial Transportation José Mendoza González again advised residents to put off unnecessary travel in order to avoid spreading the disease. Cuban officials have repeatedly assured since early July that the cholera outbreak was under control and that the rising number of confirmed cases was because laboratories need a week or more to confirm a diagnosis of cholera. Dissidents and independent journalists have alleged that the cholera death toll stands at five to 15 but that the government has confirmed only three to avoid scaring tourists, one of the country’s main sources of hard currency. They have also reported cholera cases in Havana, Santiago de Cuba and other parts of the island.
The Health Ministry announcement published Saturday confirmed a few cases had been reported outside of Granma, but noted that all were people who had been in the province. It was not clear if the 158 cases it reported referred to all the island, or Granma province alone. Batista has made it clear her numbers are for the province only. The ministry announcement was only the national government’s second comment on the epidemic since July 3, when it confirmed three deaths and 53 cases caused by the bacteria Vibrio Cholerae but did not use the word cholera. Saturday’s statement did use the word.
This satellite image from Monday shows an iceberg, top center, breaking off from the Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland.
OurAmazingPlanet
A massive iceberg larger than Manhattan has broken away from the floating end of a Greenland glacier this week, an event scientists predicted last autumn.
The giant ice island is 46 square miles, and separated from the terminus of the Petermann Glacier, one of Greenland’s largest.
The Petermann Glacier last birthed — or “calved” — a massive iceberg two years ago, in August 2010. The iceberg that broke off and floated away was nearly four times the size of Manhattan, and one of the largest ever recorded in Greenland.
Although the new iceberg isn’t as colossal as its 2010 predecessor, its birth has moved the front end of the massive glacier farther inland than it has been in 150 years, Andreas Muenchow, an associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware, said in a statement.
Jason Box, a scientist with Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar Research Center, has also been monitoring the Petermann Glacier and in September 2011 he told OurAmazingPlanet that a growing crack likely would sever the glacier once warmer weather took hold during the summer months.
“We can see the crack widening in the past year through satellite pictures, so it seems imminent,” Box said at the time.
Muenchow said that the newest ice island broke away on Monday morning (July 16).
Although iceberg birth is a natural, cyclical process, when the process speeds up, there are consequences.
The floating ends of glaciers, known as ice shelves, act as doorstops. When these ice shelves suddenly splinter and weaken or even collapse entirely, as has been observed in Antarctica, the glaciers that feed them speed up, dumping more ice into the ocean and raising global sea levels.
“The Greenland ice sheet as a whole is shrinking, melting and reducing in size as the result of globally changing air and ocean temperatures and associated changes in circulation patterns in both the ocean and atmosphere,” Muenchow said.
NASA has released still images of a red sprite which Expedition 31 Astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured April 30, 2012:
“‘Red sprites are short-lived, red flashes that occur about 80 kilometers (50 miles) up in the atmosphere. With long, vertical tendrils like a jellyfish, these electrical discharges can extend 20 to 30 kilometers up into the atmosphere and are connected to thunderstorms and lightning.”
These images of a red sprite were captured with a digital camera by Expedition 31 astronauts on the International Space Station as they traveled southeast from central Myanmar (Burma) to just north of Malaysia. The still images are part of a time-lapse movie collected from 13:41 to 13:47 Universal Time on April 30, 2012. View the footage here.
The sprite occurs about 6 seconds into the video, above a bright, wide lightning flash in the upper right quadrant.
Red sprites are difficult to observe because they last for just a few milliseconds and occur above thunderstorms-meaning they are usually blocked from view on the ground by the very clouds that produce them. They send pulses of electrical energy up toward the edge of space-the electrically charged layer known as the ionosphere-instead of down to Earth’s surface. They are rich with radio noise, and can sometimes occur in bunches.
For decades, pilots reported seeing ephemeral flashes above storms, but it was not until the 1990s that scientists were able to verify the existence of these electrical discharges. A sprite was first photographed by accident from an airplane in 1989, and observers on the space shuttle captured several more images with low-light cameras in 1990 and in subsequent missions. Viewers on the ground can occasionally photograph sprites by looking out on a thunderstorm in the distance, often looking out from high mountainsides over storms in lower plains.”
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.
Symptoms:
Status:
confirmed
17.07.2012
Biological Hazard
USA
State of California, [Leucadia and Encinitas, Encinitas beaches]
San Diego County area lifeguards reported a surge in the number of beachgoers stung by jellyfish on Sunday. One-hundred thirty people were stung at six beaches in Leucadia and Encinitas, Encinitas lifeguards said, while state lifeguards reported that 30 people were stung at Torrey Pines State Beach. Jellyfish follow plankton, their main source of food, as they move closer to shore during the summer, said Fernando Nosratpour of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. As they get closer to beaches, strong currents from along the coast push the fragile jellyfish to shore and break them up into little pieces. The most common types of jellyfish found around San Diego are the moon and the purple-striped jellyfish, Nosratpour said. The moon jellyfish is about 10 inches long and has short tentacles, while the purple-striped jellyfish is about 12 inches long and has long, thick tentacles, he said. Even after breaking up and dying, the purple-striped jellyfish’s tentacles can sting people, Nosratpour said. The moon jellyfish’s sting cells do not work after the jellyfish dies. Jellyfish generally do not attack people. People usually get stung when they rub up against them in the water or touch them once they’ve washed up on the beach. A small rash will appear where the sting occurred. Lifeguards recommend that people keep on eye out for jellyfish pieces in the water and sand. Sting rashes can be treated with diluted vinegar and usually disappear in an hour, although some people may have stronger reactions. Fresh water and sand can aggravate the rash. No one was hospitalized.
Biohazard name:
Jellyfish invasion
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Eight firefighters along with two others were transported to the hospital for evaluation after a hazardous material fire south of Canyon Monday evening. According to the Canyon Fire Department, firefighters arrived to the fire at about 7 p.m., Monday and discovered there was a hazardous material involved. The Amarillo Hazmat Team, Amarillo/Potter/Randall EOC and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality all responded to help ensure the hazardous materials stayed inside the fire scene. Fire officials said the 10 people were transported to the hospital only as a precaution. There was no risk to the general public and the scene has now been neutralized. All 10 people taken to the hospital are fine, officials said.
Four people have been taken to hospital after being exposed to a chemical leak at the Port of Brisbane. The four wharf workers were treated by ambulance paramedics at the Patrick Container Terminal on Port Drive for headaches and nausea after being overcome by chemical fumes about 6am. They were taken to hospital for precautionary reasons only. A 150-metre exclusion zone has been established around 10 containers understood to have been unloaded from a Chinese vessel. It is understood six containers have been tested and cleared, but firefighters are assessing four more containers. ‘‘Firefighters in breathing apparatus are also conducting atmospheric testing in the area,’’ a Department of Community Safety spokeswoman said. Business and traffic at the Port of Brisbane has been largely unaffected.
Search teams pulled the bodies of 10 people from the rubble of four buildings that collapsed yesterday in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria, as efforts to find other missing people continues, the official Middle East News Agency reported today citing a health official. Five casualties found so far by Civil Defense forces were hospitalized with injuries ranging from fractures to bruises and suffocation, Ahmed Al-Ansari, chairman of Egypt’s Ambulance, said according to the news service. An 11-story building collapsed yesterday afternoon, toppling three adjacent properties.
Sinister clouds hang low over Virginia as tens of thousands lose power in destructive thunderstorms
[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.
An X-ray view of the sun shows the giant sunspot AR1520, which released the X-class solar flare on Thursday. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)
A powerful solar flare was unleashed from a massive sunspot Thursday, blocking high-frequency radio communication in the Northern Hemisphere and producing the potential for auroras to rage across the northern United States.
The flare was rated as an X-class sun storm by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is the most powerful type of flare the sun can have.
A giant sunspot facing Earth, named Active Region 1520 by NASA officials, discharged the flare around 12:50 p.m. EDT. Joining the solar flare that burst on July 6 from another giant sunspot region – AR1515 – it’s the second major solar storm to impact Earth in less than a week.
“The sunspot hasn’t produced a lot of activity since it’s been around, so the potential was there for it,” said AccuWeather Astronomy Blogger Hunter Outten.
Outten said the NOAA predicted a 15 percent chance for an X-class flare to occur today, with an 80 percent chance for an M-flare to occur, which is one level lower on the solar storm strength scale.
By 5:30 p.m. EDT, communications around the northern pole regions were still nearly impossible, Outten said.
According to the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, geometric storm activity could occur from the coronal mass ejection on Saturday, July 14, around 9 a.m. EDT, and the effects will be minor to moderate. CME particles are made up of solar plasma that damage Earth’s electrical grid.
The last major geometric storm occurred this year on March 6, producing an R3-level radio blackout from the CME’s particles. These storms also have the potential to create surges in power lines and jumble GPS information.
“This is something that is called long-duration, which we haven’t had since early March,” Outten said. “We can expect a pretty high geomagnetic storm.”
However, the storms will also have a beautiful effect on the atmosphere.
According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Mark Paquette, “it may be the most impressive [aurora] showing in years.”
Paquette said to expect the northern lights to extend across the northern U.S. over the next few nights. The farther north you live, the better chance you have to see them, he said, so those in Washington, northern Plains, northern Great Lakes, upstate New York and northern New England should keep an eye out.
“At least 50 percent of the United States could have auroras in their backyards,” Outten said.
In a possible preview of the light show to come, bright auroras have been dancing over Earth’s south pole. Robert Schwarz took this picture on July 12th from the grounds of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station:
“Yesterday we had some of the best auroras I’ve seen,” says Schwarz.
Despite its high latitude, the South Pole is not always a good place to see the lights because it is often located in the “doughnut hole” of the aurora oval. July 12th was an exception: “Look carefully at the picture and you can see the actual Pole in the foreground” Schwarz points out.
NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of strong polar geeomagnetic storms on July 14th when a CME is expected to crash into Earth’s magnetic field. More South Pole auroras could be in the offing.
Red Cross representatives say they’ve been treating as many as 200 people a day for jellyfish stings on Spain’s Costa del Sol. The most common type of jellyfish found on the Costa del Sol, the Pelagia Noctiluca, are hard to see, as they’re less than 2 inches in diameter. Also sighted frequently are Rhizostoma Pulmo, which can be as much as about 3 feet in diameter and weigh more than 6 pounds. Thousands of people have been treated for jellyfish stings along the Costa del Sol. Some people have used nets to catch the jellyfish, Red Cross representative said. Officials in boats caught nearly 4 tons of jellyfish this week. Those stung by jellyfish should seek first aid on the beach, then go to a medical center, officials say. The officials say jellyfish stings should not be washed in fresh water. On Spain’s shores, jellyfish tend to wash up during periods of low rainfall and when there’s a sudden rise in temperature and a decline in the number of turtles, natural predators of jellyfish.
An anthrax outbreak has left at least nine cows dead and 50 people on antibiotics in eastern Germany, authorities said on Friday. Experts fear the cause was infected dead animals buried where the cows were grazing. Police pulled one of the dead cows out of the Elbe river on Thursday. It had apparently fallen into the water after becoming separated from its 50-strong herd, which was being quarantined. The corpse floated some distance from Saxony-Anhalt into the neighbouring state of Brandenburg, where it was finally dragged out of the river by a team clad in protective gear. “The current of the river is so strong, that the chances of a human getting ill from going in the water are slim,” a spokeswoman for the Stendal area – where the herd was from. Chances of the bacteria being passed to other herds were also slim, said state vet Klaus Reimer. Transmitting the deadly spores was only possible through close contact, and the whole herd has since been isolated.
While the exact cause of the outbreak remains unknown, Heinrich Neubaue, head of the institute for bacterial infection and zoonotic diseases at the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute, said that the most common reason was animals grazing in a field where animals with anthrax have been buried. Because anthrax spores can live for decades, there was a chance that they could make it up through the ground and into the air.Hoofed animals such as cows, sheep and goats are particularly susceptible to the bacteria, which can cause large sores, inflammation of the throat, nose and tongue, and often sudden death. An investigation will start on Monday to see whether dead animals are in fact buried where the affected herd grazed. In humans, the bacteria is most commonly contracted by those who work closely with animals. Some 50 people thought to have come into contact with the cows prior to the outbreak have now been put on preventative antibiotics. Approximately 2,000 people die of anthrax each year worldwide, according to World Health Organisation statistics. Symptoms in humans tend to be fever, swelling, discolouration of the spleen, but these can differ depending on whether a person has been infected through their skin, by breathing in spores, or ingesting them.Biohazard name:Anthrax (cow)Biohazard level:0/4 —Biohazard desc.:This does not included biological hazard category.Symptoms: Status:
13.07.2012
Biological Hazard
Philippines
Barangay Paraiso in Milagros, Masbate [Bicol Region]
Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Bicol director Dennis Del Socorro released a report that Red Tide toxin in contaminated shellfish has caused the death of a 5- years old child and caused 12 other residents of Sitio Bongcana, barangay Paraiso in Milagros, Masbate to be hospitalized from poisoning. In an effort to curb the transport of contaminated shellfish out of Milagros, BFAR reinstalled check points in main highways in Masbate province. Shellfish is a major fishery product in Milagros town. According to Del Socorro, since June 17 this year BFAR experts have conducted tests in sea waters of Milagros, revealing that Red tide toxin levels have increased by 282 uni-micro-grams in every 100 grams of shellfish meat that were tested. Although a more recent test confirmed that toxin levels decreased to 263 uni-micro-grams, still experts consider this fatal to humans who eat contaminated shellfish,. Meanwhile, BFAR has declared that neighboring waters of Mandaon, Masbate, Sorsogon Bay, and Juag Lagoon in Matnog Sorsogon are still free from Red tide.
Biohazard name:
Red Tide
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
Bees in the cavity of a fallen tree gained the upper hand against a City of Palo Alto tree-removal crew on Wednesday afternoon, stinging the entire crew of five. The Public Works Department employees responded when a large, silver maple with extensive root rot fell down onto Newell Road. When they arrived, they found that a beehive in the tree’s cavity had been damaged, said city Urban Forester Walter Passmore. And the bees were furious. “The entire crew got stung at least one time per person. Some were stung multiple times. They looked like they got in a fight. They all paid the price for working for the City of Palo Alto,” he said. Workers were trying to cut up the tree, which was blocking the road in front of 2020 Newell. The city called a bee service to try to capture the hive; bees will generally follow the queen into a box if the portion of the hive where she is located can be removed. But Passmore said because part of the hive was broken the bees would not calm down. The hive eventually had to be exterminated, he said. Crews finished cleaning up the tree Thursday, July 12. Another large silver maple of about the same age is growing under the same conditions and is just 40 feet to the north of the fallen tree. It will be evaluated to make sure it does not pose a hazard, Passmore said.
The study found that mutation rates were much higher among butterfly collected near Fukushima
The Japanese researchers have been studying the species for more than a decade
MessageToEagle.com – Two of three key signs of changes expected to occur at the boundary of interstellar space have changed faster than at any other time in the last seven years, according to new data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.
MessageToEagle.com – A while back scientists expressed that 
After adding 218 counties in 12 states to the list of designated disaster areas, Vilsack announced two new ways that farmers and ranchers could seek relief. The first is a 3.8 million-acre expansion of emergency haying and grazing areas on conservation land. The second is a 30-day grace period that crop insurance companies have agreed to to extend to farmers on their premiums.
Since early June, the Midwest and parts of the northern and central Plains have faced a devastating drought. The lack of substantial rainfall has had severe effects on corn production and has resulted in desertlike conditions for some areas. Paired with the recent heat wave, the situation has become a disaster for corn growers and has significantly driven down yields in the United States for 2012. 
A surfer struggles to keep upright on a large, rough wave off the Southern California shore at El Segundo Beach in El Segundo, Calif., Friday, Dec. 15. 2006. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Stunning: Shelf clouds looming over central Virginia have provided quite a shock for local residents
Threatening: These remarkable pictures make the cloud look like an enormous wave
Amazing: But the shelf clouds are not dangerous, even though they are a sign of a nearby thunderstorm
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)
An X-ray view of the sun shows the giant sunspot AR1520, which released the X-class solar flare on Thursday. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)
