Firefighter departments from several counties and the Tennessee Division of Forestry continue to battle a massive fire in Pigeon Forge overnight. Sevier County Fire Department confirmed that the fire damaged at least 35 cabins near Black Bear Ridge Resort and Trappers Ridge at this time. Pigeon Forge Fire Chief Tony Watson said his department used lots of resources fighting flames covering 200 to 300 acres. “It’s been rough. It’s been rough as I’ve ever seen it,” said Watson. Weather conditions failed to provide relief for crews struggling to contain the blaze. “You gotta understand, it jumped across a road, several roads, and now it’s racing up a hill,” explained Watson. “Luckily, the humidity, the temperatures dropped. We’re still not under control, but if it was earlier in the day, we’d still be in worse shape.”
Crews evacuated the area, and Watson said there are no injuries at this time. “Everybody that I know of has not been injured,” confirmed Watson. “This is by the luck of God and prayer that we’ve not been able to get that.” Officials said they believe a cabin fire at the Bear Ridge Resort ignited the massive fire at approximately 4:00 p.m. Authorities still don’t know what sparked the fire inside the cabin. Watson said the fire spread quickly, which made for dangerous conditions. “These houses are put close together up there. The first portion of this started out as a house fire. . . it led to several other next to it catching on fire,” Watson said. “Propane tanks have been exploding. It’s been a real dangerous.” Firefighters placed tankers on the scene carrying water to put out the flames. Officials used helicopters to extinguish the fire from a higher altitude as well.
“We’re a long way from home. We’re going to be going into multiple operations for the next couple of days,” said Watson. “We’re not even able to say this fire’s under control. We are not under control.” Tennessee Highway Patrol, Sevier County Sheriff’s Office and Pigeon Forge Fire Department are helping with evacuation efforts and keeping people out of the danger zone. Watson said people who live in Pigeon Forge, Waldens Creek, Wears Valley area, and Lost Branch area need to pay attention to the conditions. “What I’ve been telling people, ‘If you see the fire get close to your home call 911,” said Watson. “If you live in those areas right there, you need to be packing up some stuff and be ready to go, so if somebody knocks on your door, you’re ready to get out quickly.” Agencies from all over East Tennessee and churches organized relief efforts throughout Sunday. The American Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at the Pigeon Forge Community Center for people displaced by the fire. Red Cross volunteers also staffed an emergency relief vehicle to assist the area.
Posted on: 10:55 am, March 18, 2013, by George Brown
(Pigeon Forge, TN CNN) Tennessee authorities declared a state of emergency and sent in the National Guard on Monday in an effort to control a fast-moving wildfire near the resort town of Pigeon Forge.
The fire started about 5 p.m. Sunday and quickly spread, charring more than 30 cabins and turning propane tanks into shrapnel.
About 20 fire departments have been fighting the fire, authorities said.
“Propane tanks have been exploding,” Pigeon Forge Fire Chief Tony Watson said Sunday. “It’s been real dangerous.”
Now at 230 acres, the blaze started as a house fire, according to Watson.
“It looks like somebody just went through there and just dropped a bomb on the place,” Shannon McCostlin told affiliate WATE-TV. “I feel bad for them people.”
The area is home to rental cabins with some permanent residences.
National Guard helicopters were flying to the scene Monday morning and will drop water from a nearby lake onto the fire, said Perrin Anderson, a spokesman for Sevier County.
The help is badly needed, Watson said Sunday.
“You gotta understand, it jumped across a road, several roads, and now it’s racing up a hill,” he told CNN affiliate WBIR-TV.
The fire has been partially contained, said Dean Flener, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
About 150 people were evacuated Sunday and the American Red Cross opened a shelter at the Pigeon Forge Community Center.
Pigeon Forge, in eastern Tennessee, is best known for singer Dolly Parton’s theme park, Dollywood, which was not affected by the fire.
Positioned on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains, the area also is popular with outdoors enthusiasts and has a wide variety of other attractions, including music theaters, outlet malls, go-kart tracks and mini-golf courses.
…
More than 30 cabins torched by Tennessee wildfire
A wildfire, seen here from helicopter, destroyed more than 30 cabins in East Tennessee, March 17, 2013. / WVLT-TV/CBS
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. A wildfire burning in a resort area outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee has destroyed more than 30 large rental cabins.
The 145-acre fire was first reported around 5 p.m. EDT Sunday in Sevier County, said Ben Bryson, a fire resources coordinator with the Tennessee Division of Forestry. Smoke was reported to be visible from 25 miles away.
Bryson said early Monday that the fire was contained and not expected to spread.
Fires burn in two Southern states
Some of the cabins were occupied and about 150 to 200 people were evacuated, but no injuries were reported, Bryson said.
After dawn Monday, two Tennessee Air National Guard helicopters took off from nearby McGhee Tyson Airport. A state Forestry Division spokesman said the helicopters would be used to scoop up water from Douglas Lake and drop it on the fire.
Two dozen passengers were evacuated from a U.S. Airways airplane at the Nashville International Airport after a small electrical fire started. The incident on Saturday afternoon involved flight No. 3411 from Philadelphia. Airport communications manager Shannon Sumrall said that a defogging system on the plane’s windshield was manufacturing and is believed to have sparked the fire. The fire was quickly extinguished and no injuries were reported. U.S. Airways spokeswoman Michelle Mohr said the plane was operated by the airline’s partner, Republic Airlines.
Three Tennessee homecoming king nominees made a unanimous and touching decision that no matter who won, they would give the crown to a beloved student with a genetic condition.
Students Jesse Cooper, Drew Gibbs and Zeke Grissom were all nominated for homecoming king at Community High School’s basketball homecoming ceremony.
The teens got together and decided that the winner would turn over the honor to junior Scotty Maloney, who has Williams Syndrome, a neurological disorder that inhibits learning and speech.
“I’ve been blessed with so many things,” Cooper told ABC News’ Nashville affiliate WKRN-TV. “I just wanted Scotty to experience something great in his high school days.”
“He’s always happy, so he deserves some recognition for who he is,” Gibbs said.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports that early Tuesday morning local time, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit off of Japan’s eastern coast. Originating from a depth of 9.7 kilometers (6 miles), it was centered about 96 kilometers (60 miles) off the coast of Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, in the northeast region of the country that was struck by the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11th, 2011. There have been no reports of damages or signs of approaching tsunami.
In comparison from Tokyo, the 6.2 magnitude quake was about 550 kilometers (342 miles) from the capital city. Neither the Japan Meteorological Agency or the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued tsunami warnings or advisories on Tuesday as it wasn’t necessary. Geophysicist Gerard Fryer, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, says the quake was too small to generate any kind of tsunami, but the residents of northeastern Japan would surely have felt it.
The quake probably gave some frightful flashbacks to those of Japan’s Tohoku region who survived last year’s disaster. The tsunami disaster that took tens of thousands of lives and washed away entire coastal cities was caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake just over a year and a half ago, and led to the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years in Fukushima Prefecture.
MODIS hotspots at Heard Island during 17-24 Sep 2012 (Univ. of Hawai’i)
MODIS satellite data showed hotspots at Heard Island volcano on 21 and 24 September 2012. This suggests that there was or perhaps still is some new activity at the volcano.
No further hotspots appeared on satellite data since 24 Sep.
Blazing temperatures are set to hit the Los Angeles area Monday as numbers may climb to the triple digits in several areas of the city. Officials from the National Weather Service predict temperatures to peak around 100 degrees in downtown L.A., 104 degrees in the Hollywood Hills and a potentially record-breaking 110 degrees in inland and valley areas. The projected temperatures are expected to match heat records set in Southern California in 2008. The combination of intense heat, high winds, and low humidity levels has even prompted the National Weather Service to issue Red Flag warnings, indicating a high risk of wildfires in both the Santa Clarita Valley and the San Gabriel Mountains. “Fire danger is expected to peak on Monday,” NWS officials said, “when record-breaking triple digit heat and widespread single-digit humidities will combine with very dry fuels.” The Red Flag warnings are currently in effect until 6:00pm on Tuesday. People are advised to avoid strenuous activity in the heat, wear loose light clothing and drink plenty of non-alcoholic and non-caffeinated beverages.
JAPAN – Typhoon No. 17 moved out into the Pacific Ocean from southeast Hokkaido via the Sanriku region early Monday after making its way across the country and causing at least 1 death and dozens of injuries.
A 56-year-old man was found dead at a rice paddy in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture. The man was believed to have been swept away by a swollen river.
According to figures compiled by The Yomiuri Shimbun, 23 people in eastern Japan, including 12 in Kanagawa Prefecture, suffered minor or serious injuries due to the typhoon. Injuries, including falls caused by strong winds, were also reported in the Tokai and Kanto-Koshinetsu regions, where the typhoon hit from late Sunday to early Monday.
Airline disruptions continued Monday, affecting 8,000 passengers. Japan Airlines cancelled 54 flights, including those between Haneda and Chitose airports, while All Nippon Airways cancelled 16 flights, including those between Sendai and Itami airports.
Temperatures exceeding 30 C were recorded in many areas following the typhoon. The mercury rose as high as 30.7 C shortly after 10 a.m. in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, with temperatures reaching 30.5 C in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, and 30.3 C in Nerima Ward, Tokyo.
An official in Nepal says a landslide has swept several vehicles off a mountain highway. Four people are confirmed dead and nine others have been reported missing. Government administrator Purushottam Ghimire says the landslide Sunday night swept away five vehicles traveling on the Mechi highway near Kilbung village in eastern Nepal. He says eight people have been rescued, four bodies have been pulled out and people remain missing. Details were still sketchy Monday morning but rescue teams have reached the area.
South Korea shut down one of its nuclear reactors Tuesday following a malfunction in its control system but there was no risk of a radiation leak, plant operators said. The 1,000-megawatt Shingori 1 reactor near the southern city of Busan was shut down after a warning signal at 8:10 am (2310 GMT Monday), the state-run Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) said. “There was a malfunction in the reactor’s control rod, but the reactor is now stable with no danger of a radiation leak,” a KHNP spokesman said. It is the first time the reactor has been shut down since it began operations in February last year. South Korea operates 23 nuclear power plants which meet more than 35 percent of the country’s electricity needs. In July, another 1,000-megawatt reactor at Yeonggwang — some 260 kilometres (156 miles) south of Seoul — went into automatic shutdown after a malfunction.
University of Notre Dame entomologists are part of a team of researchers that recently discovered a potentially dangerous new malaria-transmitting mosquito. The as yet unnamed, and previously unreported, mosquito breeds in the western areas of Kenya and has an unknown DNA match to any of the existing malaria-transmitting species.
The Anopheles species of mosquitoes which transmits malaria in Africa is already widely studied by researchers. It prefers to rest indoors during the day and feed on humans during the night. Current malaria control programs, including spraying of insecticides and using insecticide-treated bed nets, are designed with these behaviors in mind.
Although the new species has never been implicated in the transmission of malaria, new discoveries in its biting habits pose a threat because it was found to be active outdoors and prefers to bite people earlier in the evening, soon after sunset, when people are not protected by current malaria control techniques.
Neil Lobo, a Notre Dame research associate professor and Brandy St. Laurent, a former Notre Dame doctoral student, joined forces on the team of researchers that made the discovery. y Frank Collins, Notre Dame’s George and Winifred Clark Professor of Biology, Collins was principal investigator of the Malaria Transmission Consortium effort funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The discovery was announced in a paper whose lead author was Jennifer Stevenson of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Changes in ocean and climate systems could lead to smaller fish, according to a new study led by fisheries scientists at the University of British Columbia.
The study, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, provides the first-ever global projection of the potential reduction in the maximum size of fish in a warmer and less-oxygenated ocean. The researchers used computer modeling to study more than 600 species of fish from oceans around the world and found that the maximum body weight they can reach could decline by 14-20 per cent between years 2000 and 2050, with the tropics being one of the most impacted regions. “We were surprised to see such a large decrease in fish size,” says the study’s lead author William Cheung, an assistant professor at the UBC Fisheries Centre. “Marine fish are generally known to respond to climate change through changing distribution and seasonality. But the unexpectedly big effect that climate change could have on body size suggests that we may be missing a big piece of the puzzle of understanding climate change effects in the ocean.” This is the first global-scale application of the idea that fish growth is limited by oxygen supply, which was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Daniel Pauly, principal investigator with UBC’s Sea Around Us Project and the study’s co-author. “It’s a constant challenge for fish to get enough oxygen from water to grow, and the situation gets worse as fish get bigger,” explains Pauly. “A warmer and less-oxygenated ocean, as predicted under climate change, would make it more difficult for bigger fish to get enough oxygen, which means they will stop growing sooner.” This study highlights the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and develop strategies to monitor and adapt to changes that we are already seeing, or we risk disruption of fisheries, food security and the way ocean ecosystems work.
Combine the tree-ring growth record with historical information, climate records, and computer-model projections of future climate trends, and you get a grim picture for the future of trees in the southwestern United States. That’s the word from a team of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Arizona, and other partner organizations.
If the Southwest is warmer and drier in the near future, widespread tree death is likely and would cause substantial changes in the distribution of forests and of species, the researchers report this week in the journal Nature Climate Change. Southwestern forests grow best when total winter precipitation is high combined with a summer and fall that aren’t too hot and dry. The team developed a Forest Drought-Stress Severity Index that combines the amount of winter precipitation, late summer and fall temperatures, and late summer and fall precipitation into one number. “The new ‘Forest Drought-Stress Index’ that Williams devised from seasonal precipitation and temperature-related variables matches the records of changing forest conditions in the Southwest remarkably well,” said co-author Thomas W. Swetnam, director of the UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. “Among all climate variables affecting trees and forests that have ever been studied, this new drought index has the strongest correlation with combined tree growth, tree death from drought and insects, and area burned by forest fires that I have ever seen.” A. Park Williams of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is the lead author of the paper, “Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality.” Six of the paper’s 15 authors are at the UA. A complete list of authors is at the bottom of this release. To figure out which climate variables affect forests, the researchers aligned some 13,000 tree core samples with known temperature and moisture data. The team also blended in events known from tree-ring, archaeological and other paleorecords, such as the late 1200s megadrought that drove the ancient Pueblo Indians out of longtime settlements such as those at Mesa Verde, Colo. By comparing the tree-ring record to climate data collected in the Southwest since the late 1800s, the scientists identified two climate variables that estimate annual southwestern tree-growth variability with exceptional accuracy: total winter precipitation and average summer-fall atmospheric evaporative demand, a measure of the overall dryness of the environment.
Williams said, “Atmospheric evaporative demand is primarily driven by temperature. When air is warmer, it can hold more water vapor, thus increasing the pace at which soil and plants dry out. The air literally sucks the moisture out of the soil and plants.” Finding that summer-fall atmospheric evaporative demand is just as important as winter precipitation has critical implications for the future of southwestern forests, he said.
This Douglas-fir sample from the Southwest has annual tree rings dating back to the year 1527. The narrowing of the rings that formed from the 1560s through the 1590s indicates that the tree grew little during the 16th century megadrought. Credit: Copyright Daniel Griffin. These trends, the researchers noted, are already occurring in the Southwest, where temperatures generally have been increasing for the past century and are expected to continue to do so because of accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. There still will be wet winters, but increased frequency of warmer summers will put more stress on trees and limit their growth after wet winters, the study reports. “We can use the past to learn about the future,” Williams said. “For example, satellite fire data from the past 30 years show that there has been a strong and exponential relationship between the regional tree-ring drought-stress record and the area of southwestern forests killed by wildfire each year. This suggests that if drought intensifies, we can expect forests not only to grow more slowly, but also to die more quickly.” The study points out that very large and severe wildfires, bark-beetle outbreaks and a doubling of the proportion of dead trees in response to early 21st-century warmth and drought conditions are evidence that a transition of southwestern forest landscapes toward more open and drought-tolerant ecosystems may already be underway. And while 2000s drought conditions have been severe, the regional tree-ring record indicates there have been substantially stronger megadrought events during the past 1,000 years. The strongest megadrought occurred during the second half of the 1200s and is believed to have played an important role in the abandonment of ancient Puebloan cultural centers throughout the Southwest. The most recent megadrought occurred in the late 1500s and appears to have been strong enough to kill many trees in the Southwest. “When we look at our tree-ring record, we see this huge dip in the 1580s when all the tree rings are really tiny,” Williams said. “Following the 1500s megadrought, tree rings get wider, and there was a major boom in new trees. Nearly all trees we see in the Southwest today were established after the late-1500s drought, even though the species we evaluated can easily live longer than 400 years. So that event is a benchmark for us today. If forest drought stress exceeds late 1500 levels, we expect that a lot of trees are going to be dying.” Will future forest drought-stress levels reach or exceed those of the megadroughts of the 1200s and 1500s? Using climate-model projections, the team projected that such megadrought-type forest drought-stress conditions will be exceeded regularly by the 2050s. If climate-model projections are correct, forest drought-stress levels during even the wettest and coolest years of the late 21st century will be more severe than the driest, warmest years of the previous megadroughts. The study forecasts that during the second half of this century, about 80 percent of years will exceed megadrought levels. The current drought, which began in 2000, is a natural case study about what to expect from projected climate scenarios. While average winter precipitation totals in the Southwest have not been exceptionally low, average summer-fall evaporative demand is the highest on record. And trees, Williams says, are paying the price. The team concluded forest drought stress during more than 30 percent of the past 13 years, including 2011 and 2012, matched or exceeded the megadrought-type levels of the 1200s and 1500s. The only other 13-year periods when megadrought-type conditions were reached with such frequencies in the past 1,000 years were during the megadroughts themselves. UA co-author Daniel Griffin said, “This research is distinctly different from work done in a similar vein in two ways: One, it puts these projections for the future in a concrete historical context, and two, it shows that the impacts on the forests will not be restricted to one species or one site at low elevation, but in fact will take place at forests across the landscape.” Griffin is a doctoral candidate in the UA School of Geography and Development. Co-author Craig D. Allen, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said, “Consistent with many other recent studies, these findings provide compelling additional evidence of emerging global risks of amplified drought-induced tree mortality and extensive forest die-off as the planet warms.” More information: The article, “Temperature as a potent driver of regional forest drought stress and tree mortality,” is written by A. Park Williams (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Craig D. Allen (U.S. Geological Survey), Alison K. Macalady (University of Arizona), Daniel Griffin (UA), Connie A. Woodhouse (UA), David M. Meko (UA), Thomas W. Swetnam (UA), Sara A. Rauscher (LANL), Richard Seager (Columbia Univ.), Henri D. Grissino-Mayer (Univ. of Tennessee), Jeffrey S. Dean (UA), Edward R. Cook (Columbia Univ.), Chandana Gangodagamage (LANL), Michael Cai (LANL) and Nate G. McDowell (LANL).
This photo shows researchers studying exposures of the Doushanto Formation. Located in China, the formation is most notable for its scientific contributions in the hunt for Precambrian life. Credit: M. Kennedy.
An international team of scientists, including geochemists from the University of California, Riverside, has uncovered new evidence linking extreme climate change, oxygen rise, and early animal evolution.
A dramatic rise in atmospheric oxygen levels has long been speculated as the trigger for early animal evolution. While the direct cause-and-effect relationships between animal and environmental evolution remain topics of intense debate, all this research has been hampered by the lack of direct evidence for an oxygen increase coincident with the appearance of the earliest animals – until now.
In the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature, the research team, led by scientists at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, offers the first evidence of a direct link between trends in early animal diversity and shifts in Earth system processes.
The fossil record shows a marked increase in animal and algae fossils roughly 635 million years ago. An analysis of organic-rich rocks from South China points to a sudden spike in oceanic oxygen levels at this time – in the wake of severe glaciation. The new evidence pre-dates previous estimates of a life-sustaining oxygenation event by more than 50 million years.
“This work provides the first real evidence for a long speculated change in oxygen levels in the aftermath of the most severe climatic event in Earth’s history – one of the so-called ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciations,” said Timothy Lyons, a professor of biogeochemistry at UC Riverside.
The research team analyzed concentrations of trace metals and sulfur isotopes, which are tracers of early oxygen levels, in mudstone collected from the Doushantuo Formation in South China. The team found spikes in concentrations of the trace metals, denoting higher oxygen levels in seawater on a global scale.
“We found levels of molybdenum and vanadium in the Doushantuo Formation mudstones that necessitate that the global ocean was well ventilated. This well-oxygenated ocean was the environmental backdrop for early animal diversification,” said Noah Planavsky, a former UCR graduate student in Lyons’s lab now at CalTech.
The high element concentrations found in the South China rocks are comparable to modern ocean sediments and point to a substantial oxygen increase in the ocean-atmosphere system around 635 million years ago.
According to the researchers, the oxygen rise is likely due to increased organic carbon burial, a result of more nutrient availability following the extreme cold climate of the ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciation when ice shrouded much of Earth’s surface.
Lyons and Planavsky argued in research published earlier in the journal Nature that a nutrient surplus associated with the extensive glaciations may have initiated intense carbon burial and oxygenation. Burial of organic carbon – from photosynthetic organisms – in ocean sediments would result in the release of vast amounts of oxygen into the ocean-atmosphere system.
“We are delighted that the new metal data from the South China shale seem to be confirming these hypothesized events,” Lyons said.
The joint research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the NASA Exobiology Program, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Besides Lyons and Planavsky, the research team includes Swapan K. Sahoo (first author of the research paper) and Ganqing Jiang (principal investigator of the study) of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Brian Kendall and Ariel D. Anbar of Arizona State University; Xinqiang Wang and Xiaoying Shi of the China University of Geosciences (Beijing); and UCR alumnus Clint Scott of United States Geological Survey.
A dozen people have been sickened and two have died after an outbreak of fungal meningitis tied to injections given at outpatient surgical centers in Tennessee and North Carolina, health officials said. At least 737 people who received lumbar epidural steroid injections between July 30 and Sept. 20 have been notified of the cluster of rare aspergillus meningitis infections, which attack the central nervous system, said Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Aspergillus is a mold present in the environment, and the meningitis is not related to the more common bacterial or viral types of meningitis. “The main thing is that it’s not transmissible person-to-person,” said Allen. Federal, state and local health officials are investigating the source of the outbreak. Eleven of the victims received injections at the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgery Center in Nashville. Another patient received an injection at an unidentified clinic in North Carolina. The Tennessee clinic was closed Sept. 20 and has been shuttered until further notice, officials said. The patients were older people, between the ages of 40 and 80, who were receiving the steroid injections as treatment for musculoskeletal disorders, said Woody McMillin, spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Health. Neither federal nor state health officials would identify the brand of epidural steroids given to the patients nor the manufacturer of the drugs. Asked whether the drugs themselves could have been contaminated, McMillin said that’s one possibility. “Right now, we’re not taking anything off the table,” he said. Erica Jefferson, a spokeswoman for the federal Food and Drug Administration, said that it’s too soon to speculate about that because the investigation is still “evolving.” Meningitis caused by aspergillus is very rare, according to the Journal of Microbiology. Symptoms often include a fever and headache that might be present for weeks before a diagnosis is made.
Biohazard name:
Meningitis (fungal)
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.
Symptoms:
Status:
confirmed
Today
HAZMAT
USA
State of Nebraska, Lincoln [Near to 56th and Highway 2]
Nuclear waste travels through Nebraska almost daily. On Saturday, a bit of scare here in Lincoln. Officials say the incident at 56th and Highway 2 could have been worse. The truck was carrying low-level waste, but thankfully it didn’t end up causing any harm. Emergency vehicles swarm a flatbed semi Saturday after it stopped too quickly, causing its load to shift, it happened near 56th and Highway 2. That load contained low-level nuclear waste. “The public should stay away from anything labeled radioactive material,” Environmental Health Specialist Ralph Martin said. Ralph Martin is an Environmental Health Specialist who works closely on these types of events. He says in this instance, the low-level waste never left its container, which was a very good thing. “Well, anytime you have radioactive material in a place it’s not meant to be, you would have concern. The levels of this material would be unlikely that anybody could be injured,” Martin said. So we asked the question, what exactly is low-level Nuclear waste? Here’s how the U.S. Nuclear regulatory commission defines it. Items that have been contaminated with radioactive material or that have been exposed to radiation. These items usually include shoe covers and clothing, rags, equipment and syringes. The radioactivity of the items ranges from levels found in nature, to sometimes, highly radioactive. Martin says items like these travel through Nebraska almost daily. But don’t be alarmed, he says, there are strict rules when it comes to transporting it. Low-level waste is usually stored and stabilized in solid containers. Once the radioactivity wears off, officials say it can then be taken to your typical landfill or trash site.
Scientists developed a computer model to identify four possible instances of true polar wander in the past. And, they say, true polar wander is happening now.
Scientists based in Germany and Norway today published new results about a geophysical theory known as true polar wander. That is a drifting of Earth’s solid exterior – an actual change in latitude for some land masses – relative to our planet’s rotation axis. These scientists used hotspots in Earth’s mantle as part of a computer model, which they say is accurate for the past 120 million years, to identify four possible instances of true polar wander in the past. And, they say, true polar wander is happening now. These scientists published their results in the Journal for Geophysical Research today (October 1, 2012).
The scientists – including Pavel V. Doubrovine and Trond H. Torsvik of the University of Oslo, and Bernhard Steinberger of the Helmholtz Center in Potsdam, Germany – established what they believe is a stable reference frame for tracking true polar wander. Based on this reference frame, they say that twice – from 90 to 40 million years ago – the solid Earth traveled back and forth by nearly 9 degrees with respect to our planet’s axis of rotation. What’s more, for the past 40 million years, the Earth’s solid outer layers have been slowly rotating at a rate of 0.2 degrees every million years, according to these scientists.
Diagram showing solid-body rotation of the Earth with respect to a stationary spin axis due to true polar wander. This diagram is greatly exaggerated. According to Doubrovine and his team, Earth’s solid outer layers have been slowly rotating at a rate of 0.2 degrees every million years. Diagram via Wikimedia Commons.
True polar wander is not:
A geomagnetic reversal, or reversal of Earth’s magnetic field, known to have happened before in Earth history.
Plate tectonics, which describes the large-scale motions of great land plates on Earth and is thought to be driven by the circulation of Earth’s mantle.
Precession of the Earth, whereby our world’s axis of rotation slowly moves, tracing out a circle among the stars, causing the identity of our North Star changes over time.
True polar wander is a geophysical theory, a way of thinking about Earth processes that might happen and that these scientists believe do happen. The theory suggests that if an object of sufficient weight on Earth – for example, a supersized volcano or other weighty land mass – formed far from Earth’s equator, the force of Earth’s rotation would gradually pull the object away from the axis around which Earth spins. A supersized volcano far from Earth’s equator would create an imbalance, in other words. As explained at Princeton.edu:
If the volcanoes, land and other masses that exist within the spinning Earth ever became sufficiently imbalanced, the planet would tilt and rotate itself until this extra weight was relocated to a point along the equator.
That’s the theory of true polar wander. It would cause a movement of Earth’s land masses, but for a different reason than the reason the continents drift in the theory of plate tectonics (formerly called “continental drift”). In the theory of plate tectonics, the continents drift because Earth’s the layer of Earth underlying our planet’s crust, called the mantle, is convective. That is, it circulates, slowly – like water about to boil. In true polar wander, on the other hand, a similar-seeming movement of land masses on Earth’s crust happens in order to correct an imbalance of weight with respect to Earth’s spin.
Scientists’ understanding of true polar wander overlaps with their understanding of plate tectonics in various ways. That’s understandable, since it’s all the same Earth.
Scientists delving into true polar wander want to know when, in which direction, and at what rate the Earth’s solid exterior might be rotating due to true polar wander. To sort it out, they say, you would need a stable frame of reference to which observations of relative motion might be compared. Doubrovine and his team say they found one: volcanic hotspots.
Hotspot forming an island chain. As land plates drift, a successive of volcanoes form over the hotspot. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
In geology, hotspots are volcanic regions fed by Earth’s underlying mantle. For example, the Hawaiian islands are believed to have formed over a hotspot in the mantle. The hotspot created a volcano, but then – as that land plate drifted over time, as described by the theory of plate tectonics – the volcano drifted, too, and was eventually cut off from the hotspot. Gradually, another volcano begins to form over the hotspot, right next to the first one. And then it moves on … and another one forms … and so on … and so on. Earth’s crust produces first one, then another volcano over the hotspot until a long chain of volcanoes forms, such as in Hawaii. Hotspots have long been used to understand the motion of tectonic plates.
Doubrovine and colleagues went a step further in order to understand true polar wander. Instead of treating the hot spots as static – frozen in place at one spot above Earth’s mantle – their computer model let the hotspots’ positions drift slowly. According to these scientists, this drifting is what produced a model of a stable reference frame, which in turn let them draw conclusions about true polar wander.
They say their model does a good job of matching observations of real hotspot tracks on Earth – the path drawn by each hotspot’s island chain – which gives them confidence their results about true polar wander are accurate.
The Hawaiian islands are believed to have formed over a hotspot – a particularly hot place in Earth’s underlying mantle. Scientists expanded on previous thinking about hotspots to suggest that Earth’s solid surface is drifting, minutely, with respect to our planet’s rotation axis.
Bottom line: German and Norwegian scientists have incorporated hotspots in Earth’s mantle into a computer model being used to study true polar wander. They say their work established a stable reference frame for this study that lets them conclude Earth is undergoing true polar wander today.
[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.]
TEHRAN (FNA)- An earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale jolted the town of Ahal in Fars province, Southern Iran, on Thursday.
The Seismological center of Fars province affiliated to the Geophysics Institute of Tehran University registered the quake at 06:27 hours local time (0157 GMT).
The epicenter of the quake was located in an area 53.8 degrees in longitude and 26.9 degrees in latitude.
There are yet no reports on the number of possible casualties or damage to properties by the quake.
Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth’s crust, and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of which have been devastating.
The worst in recent times hit Bam in southeastern Kerman province in December 2003, killing 31,000 people – about a quarter of its population – and destroying the city’s ancient mud-built citadel.
The deadliest quake in the country was in June 1990 and measured 7.7 on the Richter scale. About 37,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured in the northwestern provinces of Gilan and Zanjan. It devastated 27 towns and about 1,870 villages.
Last month, two quakes in Northwestern Iran also claimed the lives of 306 people and injured more than 4500 others.
An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale jolted Ahar in East Azerbaijan province at 16:00 hours local time (1130GMT) on August 11. The epicenter of the quake was located in an area 46.8 degrees in longitude and 38.4 degrees in latitude.
Almost an hour later another quake with magnitude 6 on the Richter scale jolted Varzaqan at 17:04 hours local time (1234GMT) in the same province. The epicenter of the quake was located in an area 46.7 degrees in longitude and 38.4 degrees in latitude.
National Earthquake Information Center
U.S. Geological Survey http://neic.usgs.gov/
Tectonic Summary
The September 5th 2012 M 7.6 earthquake beneath the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, occurred as the result of thrust faulting on or near the subduction zone interface between the Cocos and Caribbean plates. At the latitude of this earthquake, the Cocos plate moves north-northeast with respect to the Caribbean plate at a velocity of approximately 77 mm/yr, and subducts beneath Central America at the Middle America Trench.
Over the past 40 years, the region within 250 km of the September 5th earthquake has experienced approximately 30 earthquakes with M 6 or greater; two of these were larger than M 7, and neither caused documented fatalities. The first was a M 7.2 in August of 1978, 9 km to the north-northeast of the September 5th 2012 event; the second had a magnitude of M 7.3, and struck a region just over 50 km to the east-southeast in March 1990. The earthquake of October 5, 1950, M 7.8, occurred in the general area of the September 5th 2012 earthquake, although the hypocenter of the earlier earthquake is not known to high precision. The 1950 earthquake caused damage in northwestern Costa Rica and in the Valle Central of Costa Rica, but no reported casualties. The closest earthquake to cause fatalities in recent history was the M 6.5 April 1973 earthquake approximately 80 km to the northeast, which resulted in 26 fatalities and over 100 injuries.
Seismotectonics of the Caribbean Region and Vicinity
Extensive diversity and complexity of tectonic regimes characterizes the perimeter of the Caribbean plate, involving no fewer than four major plates (North America, South America, Nazca, and Cocos). Inclined zones of deep earthquakes (Wadati-Benioff zones), ocean trenches, and arcs of volcanoes clearly indicate subduction of oceanic lithosphere along the Central American and Atlantic Ocean margins of the Caribbean plate, while crustal seismicity in Guatemala, northern Venezuela, and the Cayman Ridge and Cayman Trench indicate transform fault and pull-apart basin tectonics.
Along the northern margin of the Caribbean plate, the North America plate moves westwards with respect to the Caribbean plate at a velocity of approximately 20 mm/yr. Motion is accommodated along several major transform faults that extend eastward from Isla de Roatan to Haiti, including the Swan Island Fault and the Oriente Fault. These faults represent the southern and northern boundaries of the Cayman Trench. Further east, from the Dominican Republic to the Island of Barbuda, relative motion between the North America plate and the Caribbean plate becomes increasingly complex and is partially accommodated by nearly arc-parallel subduction of the North America plate beneath the Caribbean plate. This results in the formation of the deep Puerto Rico Trench and a zone of intermediate focus earthquakes (70-300 km depth) within the subducted slab. Although the Puerto Rico subduction zone is thought to be capable of generating a megathrust earthquake, there have been no such events in the past century. The last probable interplate (thrust fault) event here occurred on May 2, 1787 and was widely felt throughout the island with documented destruction across the entire northern coast, including Arecibo and San Juan. Since 1900, the two largest earthquakes to occur in this region were the August 4, 1946 M8.0 Samana earthquake in northeastern Hispaniola and the July 29, 1943 M7.6 Mona Passage earthquake, both of which were shallow thrust fault earthquakes. A significant portion of the motion between the North America plate and the Caribbean plate in this region is accommodated by a series of left-lateral strike-slip faults that bisect the island of Hispaniola, notably the Septentrional Fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault in the south. Activity adjacent to the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault system is best documented by the devastating January 12, 2010 M7.0 Haiti strike-slip earthquake, its associated aftershocks and a comparable earthquake in 1770.
Moving east and south, the plate boundary curves around Puerto Rico and the northern Lesser Antilles where the plate motion vector of the Caribbean plate relative to the North and South America plates is less oblique, resulting in active island-arc tectonics. Here, the North and South America plates subduct towards the west beneath the Caribbean plate along the Lesser Antilles Trench at rates of approximately 20 mm/yr. As a result of this subduction, there exists both intermediate focus earthquakes within the subducted plates and a chain of active volcanoes along the island arc. Although the Lesser Antilles is considered one of the most seismically active regions in the Caribbean, few of these events have been greater than M7.0 over the past century. The island of Guadeloupe was the site of one of the largest megathrust earthquakes to occur in this region on February 8, 1843, with a suggested magnitude greater than 8.0. The largest recent intermediate-depth earthquake to occur along the Lesser Antilles arc was the November 29, 2007 M7.4 Martinique earthquake northwest of Fort-De-France.
The southern Caribbean plate boundary with the South America plate strikes east-west across Trinidad and western Venezuela at a relative rate of approximately 20 mm/yr. This boundary is characterized by major transform faults, including the Central Range Fault and the Bocon?-San Sebastian-El Pilar Faults, and shallow seismicity. Since 1900, the largest earthquakes to occur in this region were the October 29, 1900 M7.7 Caracas earthquake, and the July 29, 1967 M6.5 earthquake near this same region. Further to the west, a broad zone of compressive deformation trends southwestward across western Venezuela and central Columbia. The plate boundary is not well defined across northwestern South America, but deformation transitions from being dominated by Caribbean/South America convergence in the east to Nazca/South America convergence in the west. The transition zone between subduction on the eastern and western margins of the Caribbean plate is characterized by diffuse seismicity involving low- to intermediate-magnitude (M<6.0) earthquakes of shallow to intermediate depth.
The plate boundary offshore of Colombia is also characterized by convergence, where the Nazca plate subducts beneath South America towards the east at a rate of approximately 65 mm/yr. The January 31, 1906 M8.5 earthquake occurred on the shallowly dipping megathrust interface of this plate boundary segment. Along the western coast of Central America, the Cocos plate subducts towards the east beneath the Caribbean plate at the Middle America Trench. Convergence rates vary between 72-81 mm/yr, decreasing towards the north. This subduction results in relatively high rates of seismicity and a chain of numerous active volcanoes; intermediate-focus earthquakes occur within the subducted Cocos plate to depths of nearly 300 km. Since 1900, there have been many moderately sized intermediate-depth earthquakes in this region, including the September 7, 1915 M7.4 El Salvador and the October 5, 1950 M7.8 Costa Rica events.
The boundary between the Cocos and Nazca plates is characterized by a series of north-south trending transform faults and east-west trending spreading centers. The largest and most seismically active of these transform boundaries is the Panama Fracture Zone. The Panama Fracture Zone terminates in the south at the Galapagos rift zone and in the north at the Middle America trench, where it forms part of the Cocos-Nazca-Caribbean triple junction. Earthquakes along the Panama Fracture Zone are generally shallow, low- to intermediate in magnitude (M<7.2) and are characteristically right-lateral strike-slip faulting earthquakes. Since 1900, the largest earthquake to occur along the Panama Fracture Zone was the July 26, 1962 M7.2 earthquake.
References for the Panama Fracture Zone:
Molnar, P., and Sykes, L. R., 1969, Tectonics of the Caribbean and Middle America Regions from Focal Mechanisms and Seismicity: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 80, p. 1639-1684.
A preliminary review revealed some structural damage near the epicenter, but no reports of deaths or injuries, said Douglas Salgado, a geographer with Costa Rica’s National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention. He said a tsunami alert had been called off for Costa Rica. The review also uncovered a landslide on the main highway that connects the capital of San Jose to the Pacific coast city of Puntarenas, Salgado said. Hotels and other structures suffered cracks in walls and saw items knocked off shelves. “There’s chaos in San Jose because it was a strong earthquake of long duration,” Salgado said. “It was pretty strong and caused collective chaos.” Michelle Landwer, owner of the Belvedere Hotel in Samara, north of the epicenter, said she was having breakfast with about 10 people when the earthquake struck. “The whole building was moving, I couldn’t even walk,” Landwer said. “Here in my building there was no real damage. Everything was falling, like glasses and everything.” At the Hotel Punta Islita in the Guanacaste area, “everybody is crying a lot and the telephone lines are saturated,” said worker Diana Salas, speaking by telephone, but she said was no damage there. In the coastal town of Nosara, roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of the epicenter, trees shook violently and light posts swayed. Teachers chased primary school students outside as the quake hit. Roads cracked and power lines fell to the ground. A tsunami warning was in effect for Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a bulletin. It said it was unknown if a tsunami was generated, but the warning was based on the size of the earthquake.
Three people, two from heart attacks, when a major earthquake hit northwestern Costa Rica on Wednesday, authorities said. At least 20 people were injured and two others were missing, but the Red Cross said those numbers could rise as damage assessment teams reached more areas. Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, however, said there were no deaths caused by the earthquake, contradicting the Red Cross. The quake â initially rated at magnitude 7.9 but then revised by the the U.S. Geological Survey to 7.6 â struck at 10:42 a.m. ET at a depth of about 25 miles about 7 miles southeast of Nicoya. The town of 15,000 people is near the Pacific coast, about 90 miles from the capital, San Jose. Government buildings, including the National Assembly complex in San Jose, were under evacuation orders, the newspaper La Nacion reported. Thousands of youngsters were sent home from school as a precaution against aftershocks. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center canceled tsunami warnings for Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.A man died in Nicoya when a wall fell on him, said Vanessa Rosales, president of the National Emergency Commission. He wasn’t immediately identified. A second person, identified only as an elderly man named Smith, died of a heart attack in San Antonio in Desamparados province, authorities said. A woman from the Pacific coastal town of Carrillo also died from a heart attack during the quake, Eva Camargo, director of the hospital in Filadelfia, told the news service Terra. The woman was about 55 years old and had the surnames Rodriguez Machado. Camargo said the hospital was treating at least 20 people for quake-related injuries. Two other people suffered minor injuries at the Hotel Barceló Tambor Beach in Playa Tambor, said Alcides Gonzalez, mayor of the coastal town of Paquera. The nature of their injuries wasn’t immediately known, but Gonzalez told La Nacion that the resort hotel was damaged when a pipe collapsed. It couldn’t be immediately determined whether the victims were tourists or hotel employees. Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla Miranda met with the National Emergency Council and the International Committee of the Red Cross later in the morning. In a news conference monitored by NBC News, Chinchilla confirmed that several buildings had been damaged in the capital and called on residents of the western coast to remain calm.Power was out in Puntarenas, capital of the province of the same name, where Monsignor Sanabria Hospital was evacuated for a structural review amid visible signs of damage. A bridge over the Sucio River collapsed in the town of Sarapiqui, local media reported. Some roads were blocked by landslides, and the Red Cross said rescue teams were unable to reach some areas.
A powerful earthquake rocked Costa Rica on Wednesday, causing the deaths of at least two people, damaging buildings, and briefly triggering a tsunami warning. Unconfirmed media reports of people being treated for injuries. A spokesman for the local Red Cross said two people died during the earthquake, one from a heart attack. He was not immediately able to confirm media reports the other person had been crushed under a collapsing wall. The center had earlier warned of tsunamis for as far afield as Mexico and Peru. The quake’s epicenter was in western Costa Rica about 87 miles (140 km) from San Jose, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, and it was felt as far away as Nicaragua and Panama. The Guanacaste region around the epicenter is known for its beaches, surf and volcanoes.
…………………………………
LISS – Live Internet Seismic Server
GSN Stations
These data update automatically every 30 minutes. Last update: September 6, 2012 09:49:41 UTC
Seismograms may take several moments to load. Click on a plot to see larger image.
CU/ANWB, Willy Bob, Antigua and Barbuda
CU/BBGH, Gun Hill, Barbados
CU/BCIP, Isla Barro Colorado, Panama
CU/GRGR, Grenville, Grenada
CU/GTBY, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
CU/MTDJ, Mount Denham, Jamaica
CU/TGUH, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
IC/BJT, Baijiatuan, Beijing, China
IC/ENH, Enshi, China
IC/HIA, Hailar, Neimenggu Province, China
IC/LSA, Lhasa, China
IC/MDJ, Mudanjiang, China
IC/QIZ, Qiongzhong, Guangduong Province, China
IU/ADK, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA
IU/AFI, Afiamalu, Samoa
IU/ANMO, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
IU/ANTO, Ankara, Turkey
IU/BBSR, Bermuda
IU/CASY, Casey, Antarctica
IU/CCM, Cathedral Cave, Missouri, USA
IU/CHTO, Chiang Mai, Thailand
IU/COLA, College Outpost, Alaska, USA
IU/COR, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
IU/CTAO, Charters Towers, Australia
IU/DAV,Davao, Philippines
IU/DWPF,Disney Wilderness Preserve, Florida, USA
IU/FUNA,Funafuti, Tuvalu
IU/GNI, Garni, Armenia
IU/GRFO, Grafenberg, Germany
IU/GUMO, Guam, Mariana Islands
IU/HKT, Hockley, Texas, USA
IU/HNR, Honiara, Solomon Islands
IU/HRV, Adam Dziewonski Observatory (Oak Ridge), Massachusetts, USA
IU/INCN, Inchon, Republic of Korea
IU/JOHN, Johnston Island, Pacific Ocean
IU/KBS, Ny-Alesund, Spitzbergen, Norway
IU/KEV, Kevo, Finland
IU/KIEV, Kiev, Ukraine
IU/KIP, Kipapa, Hawaii, USA
IU/KMBO, Kilima Mbogo, Kenya
IU/KNTN, Kanton Island, Kiribati
IU/KONO, Kongsberg, Norway
IU/KOWA, Kowa, Mali
IU/LCO, Las Campanas Astronomical Observatory, Chile
IU/LSZ, Lusaka, Zambia
IU/LVC, Limon Verde, Chile
IU/MA2, Magadan, Russia
IU/MAJO, Matsushiro, Japan
IU/MAKZ,Makanchi, Kazakhstan
IU/MBWA, Marble Bar, Western Australia
IU/MIDW, Midway Island, Pacific Ocean, USA
IU/NWAO, Narrogin, Australia
IU/OTAV, Otavalo, Ecuador
IU/PAB, San Pablo, Spain
IU/PAYG Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands
IU/PET, Petropavlovsk, Russia
IU/PMG, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
IU/PMSA, Palmer Station, Antarctica
IU/POHA, Pohakaloa, Hawaii
IU/PTCN, Pitcairn Island, South Pacific
IU/PTGA, Pitinga, Brazil
IU/QSPA, South Pole, Antarctica
IU/RAO, Raoul, Kermadec Islands
IU/RAR, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
IU/RCBR, Riachuelo, Brazil
IU/RSSD, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA
IU/SAML, Samuel, Brazil
IU/SBA, Scott Base, Antarctica
IU/SDV, Santo Domingo, Venezuela
IU/SFJD, Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland
IU/SJG, San Juan, Puerto Rico
IU/SLBS, Sierra la Laguna Baja California Sur, Mexico
000
WEPA40 PHEB 051702
TSUPAC
TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 004
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1702Z 05 SEP 2012
THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...
WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.
... TSUNAMI WARNING CANCELLATION ...
THE TSUNAMI WARNING AND/OR WATCH ISSUED BY THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI
WARNING CENTER IS NOW CANCELLED FOR
COSTA RICA / PANAMA / NICARAGUA
THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY
NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE
DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND
ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE.
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS
ORIGIN TIME - 1442Z 05 SEP 2012
COORDINATES - 9.9 NORTH 85.5 WEST
DEPTH - 46 KM
LOCATION - OFF COAST OF COSTA RICA
MAGNITUDE - 7.6
MEASUREMENTS OR REPORTS OF TSUNAMI WAVE ACTIVITY
GAUGE LOCATION LAT LON
------------------- ----- ------
ACAJUTLA SV 13.6N 89.8W NO TSUNAMI WAS OBSERVED
LAT - LATITUDE (N-NORTH, S-SOUTH)
LON - LONGITUDE (E-EAST, W-WEST)
TIME - TIME OF THE MEASUREMENT (Z IS UTC IS GREENWICH TIME)
AMPL - TSUNAMI AMPLITUDE MEASURED RELATIVE TO NORMAL SEA LEVEL.
IT IS ...NOT... CREST-TO-TROUGH WAVE HEIGHT.
VALUES ARE GIVEN IN BOTH METERS(M) AND FEET(FT).
PER - PERIOD OF TIME IN MINUTES(MIN) FROM ONE WAVE TO THE NEXT.
EVALUATION
ALTHOUGH SEA LEVEL READINGS DO NOT INDICATE THAT A TSUNAMI WAS
GENERATED... THERE MAY HAVE BEEN DESTRUCTIVE WAVES ALONG COASTS
NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE EPICENTER.
FOR THOSE AREAS - WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS
AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT
OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME
THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN
CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. AS LOCAL
CONDITIONS CAN CAUSE A WIDE VARIATION IN TSUNAMI WAVE ACTION THE
ALL CLEAR DETERMINATION MUST BE MADE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES.
NO TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS FOR OTHER COASTAL AREAS IN THE PACIFIC
ALTHOUGH SOME OTHER AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE SMALL SEA LEVEL CHANGES.
THE TSUNAMI WARNING IS NOW CANCELLED FOR ALL AREAS COVERED BY
THIS CENTER.
THIS WILL BE THE FINAL BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.
THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTS
FOR ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...WASHINGTON...OREGON...CALIFORNIA.
Clouds of volcanic ash from Anak Krakatau, or child of Krakatau, have become so prominent in recent days that Indonesian authorities have issued a warning for local residents and tourists. âThe ash was carried by wind from the southeast to the south, reaching Bandarlampung,â Nurhuda, head of the observation and information section of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Lampung province told state news agency Antara. The major population center of Bandarlampung is the capital of the Lampung province and is the same distance from the volcano as the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. âWe also advise fishermen and tourists not to come within a radius of 3 kilometers of Anak Krakatau. The thick plumes of smoke sent off by Krakatau contain toxic material that is hazardous for your health,â said Andi Suhardi, head of the Anak Krakatau observation post in Hargo Pancuran village. Officials advised residents to wear masks when traveling outdoors to protect themselves against the ash. Short term effects of volcanic ash could include respiratory discomfort, including nose and throat irritation. Those with pre-existing respiratory conditions could be susceptible to more long term effects.In addition to having negative effects on the human population, volcanic ash has also been proven to be harmful to livestock. The ash has been observed causing cosmetic damage, such as abrasion of the teeth, as well as more dire impacts like fluorine poisoning from the heightened levels of hydrogen fluoride found in volcanic debris. Following the 1995 Mount Ruapehu eruptions in New Zealand, two thousand sheep died after being affected by fluorosis while grazing on land littered with the ash. The added weight of ash in the animalsâ wool also led to widespread fatigue affecting the flocks. Observations of Anak Krakatau could be hinting toward a major eruption as the volcanology office in Bandung has recorded almost 90 eruptions per day over the past week. In addition, Nurhuda added that the volcano has been observed spewing red hot lava up almost 1000 feet above its peak in recent days. A major eruption of the tiny island volcano would be the first one for Indonesia since the eruption of Mount Merapi. In October 2010, the Indonesian government sounded the alarm regarding Mount Merapi and warned villagers in threatened areas to move to safe areas. The evacuation orders affected at least 19,000 people, but by the time volcanic activity had subsided, over 350,000 people were displaced.The eruptions would eventually claim the lives of 353 people with a number of victims succumbing to severe burns and some bodies being found on the volcanoâs slopes. The mountain continued to erupt until November 2010 and on December 3rd the official alert status was reduced to level 3, from level 4, the highest possible level. After the eruptions at Mount Merapi subsided, officials declared them the worst the country had seen since the 1870s. In addition to death, damage and displacement, the volcanic activity also disrupted air travel, grounding flights from Indonesia and Australia for over a month.
The Fuego volcano in central Guatemala is continuing to erupt, shooting lava and columns of ash into the air, and causing concerns of a possible ash cloud that could halt flights in the area. The volcano overlooks the tourist city of Antigua and is one of central America’s most active volcanoes. Lava flows of around 1000m are being spewed out down the west and east sides of the volcano. No evacuations have been ordered, but aviation authorities have been alerted about a potential ash cloud, and air traffic is expected to be hindered.
A severe weather watch is in place for Canterbury today, after Christchurch was hit by freakish weather last night leaving conservatories damaged and lifting a roof off a house.
Emergency services in Christchurch were kept on their toes when lightning, thunder, rain and hail the size of golf balls hit the region shortly after 6pm. It finished just after 7pm.
MetService said that the weather watch covers the possibility of northwesterlies gusting to severe gale strength at times in inland parts of Canterbury, Otago and Southland from late Wednesday through Thursday.
The Fire Service received about 20 callouts during and after the storm last night, about damage to roofs and conservatories from the hail, but many were false alarms triggered by the weather.
“Two conservatories collapsed because of the hail, and we had to assist one family whose roof had begun to lift,” a Fire Service spokesman told NZ Newswire.
The spectacular show could be seen and heard over most of the city, with MetService reporting more than 200 lightning flashes during the storm.
Joy Hartley-Anderson commented on the ONE News Facebook page that the storm “was awesome”.
“Just something special for us from mother nature to mark the two year anniversary of shaking the crap out of us.. ,” she posted.
On September 4, 2010, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook the ground beneath Christchurch more strongly than it had for thousands of years.
Flo Brown posted that the weather display was “amazing” and a “very special light display”.
However, Tania Ake said it was “pretty bad at Redwood” and freaked her out.
The storm caused a power outage in the Southbridge, but electricity company Orion managed to restore power to all but four customers.
The last time Canterbury had a hail storm of this size, there were a huge number of insurance claims for hail damage on vehicles.
Meanwhile, MetService said strong westerlies should remain over central New Zealand this morning.
The forecaster said westerlies could become severe gale strength at times in central Hawkes Bay and northern Wairarapa this morning.
Today
Extreme Weather
USA
State of Kentucky, [Louisville and Jeffersonville]
A severe thunderstorm rumbled through the region Wednesday afternoon, knocking out power for more than 6,000 people in Jefferson County and causing temporary flooding of some Louisville streets. Lightning strikes from the storm caused two house fires in Jefferson County, said Jody Johnson Duncan, a spokeswoman for MetroSafe Communications. The fires, at 2201 Deveron Drive in Shively and 7007 Windham Parkway in Prospect, were reported between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. No injuries were reported from the fires. The storm also caused several blown electrical transformers and knocked down wires around the city, Johnson Duncan said. Two people had to be rescued from their vehicles after driving into high water at South 7th Street and Berry Boulevard. The Jefferson County Public Schools delayed releasing elementary students while the storm passed through, said Rick Caple, the transportation director. The weather service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the storm, which it said was capable of producing damaging winds of more than 60 mph. The Metropolitan Sewer District, which tracks rainfall closely at several monitors, said that the storm produced 1.25 inches of rain in about 30 minutes, with some areas getting up to a half inch in as little as five minutes. Water pressure from the storm blew the covers off about 10 manholes, but all MSD storm water and sewer facilities were operating after the storm, said MSD spokesman Steve Tedder. He said a few pumping stations used backup power. Several trees were reported down in Jeffersonville, the weather service said. A weather spotter also reported a large tree down on a railroad track in Anchorage and another person reported on Facebook that a small car was crushed at Woodbourne Avenue. More than 6,000 electric customers in Jefferson County were without service at 6 p.m., according to Louisville Gas & Electric. The outages were spread across the county, with the outages tracking the path of the storm. The weather service also issued a tornado warning for northeastern Shelby County that was in effect until 5:05 p.m. There were no immediate reports of tornadoes.
An overnight wind storm with gusts of over 100 miles an hour at high elevations knocked out power to at least half of Alaska’s largest city in the biggest outage in Anchorage’s center in decades, municipal and utility officials said on Wednesday. “It’s incredibly substantial. A huge proportion of Anchorage is affected,” said Dawn Brantley, emergency program manager for the Municipality of Anchorage. She said she did not know yet what percentage of the city overall had been affected but called the outage the biggest for downtown Anchorage in decades. Electricity was cut to at least half of Anchorage, including nearly all customers of the utility that serves the central part of the city, the officials said. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses remained without power by midday on Wednesday, Brantley said. Both of Anchorage’s electrical utilities, city-owned Municipal Light and Power and member-owned Chugach Electric Association, suffered outages. Power outages caused schools, local colleges and state offices to close on Wednesday. Access to Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson was limited to essential workers. But municipal offices were open, Brantley said. The storm knocked down large trees and caused some property damage, but no storm-related injuries were reported, she said.
(Francisco Seco/ Associated Press ) – A firefighter steps back while working to douse a fire in Alvaiazere, center Portugal, Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. A Portuguese official says authorities have asked other European countries to send help as the country’s firefighters struggle to contain forest blazes being fueled by high temperatures and strong winds. More than 1,700 firefighters, almost 500 vehicles and 13 aircraft fought blazes mostly in the north of the country.
By Associated Press, Published: September 4
LISBON, Portugal — Water-dumping aircraft from Spain and France on Tuesday joined Portugal’s battle to halt the spread of wildfires through thick woodland in the country’s north left tinder-dry by months of drought.Spain and France sent two aircraft each, Portugal’s Civil Protection Service said, a day after authorities appealed for help for fire crews struggling to contain blazes amid high temperatures and strong winds.
At mid-afternoon Tuesday, the Civil Protection Service said just over 1,000 firefighters were tackling 10 blazes in steep hills and dense forests in northern Portugal.More than 350 vehicles and 19 aircraft, including those from Spain and France, were on duty, it said on its website.Interior Minister Miguel Macedo met with national fire officials at their command center just outside Lisbon and said the temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), high winds and difficult terrain “have produced what firefighters call a perfect storm.”He said the difficult conditions were forecast to continue another 48 hours.Portugal is in the grip of one of its worst droughts in recent memory. At the end of July, 58 percent of Portugal was enduring extreme drought conditions and 26 percent was in severe drought, the two highest classifications, according to the Meteorological Institute.The lack of rain has left forests vulnerable. Between January and July, fires scorched some 67,000 hectares (165,550 acres) of forest and scrubland — triple the amount recorded in the same period last year, the National Forest Authority said in its latest report.The Civil Protection Service said firefighters extinguished two major forest blazes that had burned for more than 30 hours from Sunday and claimed the life of one person.In remote villages, locals used buckets and garden hoses to douse flames encroaching on their homes as black smoke billowed across blue skies.Despite the difficulties, Tuesday was quieter than the previous day when more than 7,300 firefighters and almost 2,000 vehicles attended 289 major forest blazes.The largest outbreak was in Ourem, near Leiria, where a blaze that started midday Sunday killed a 54-year-old farmer trying to protect his property. That fire was brought under control early Tuesday.
The 6 hurricanes so far in 2012 matches the average number in an entire season slightly less than half way through. NOAA’s updated hurricane forecast called for 5-8 hurricanes, 2 to 3 of which would be major (category 3 or higher). So far, there have been no major hurricanes.
While forecasting hurricane intensity is highly uncertain, Leslie has the potential to strengthen into a major hurricane. By Saturday, the National Hurricane Center predicts its peak winds will be 110 mph – which is right at the major hurricane threshold (category 3 storms have maximum winds of at least 111 mph).
We’ll have more on Leslie and the rest of the tropics tomorrow.
The extremely active 2012 Atlantic hurricane season continues. Leslie and Michael are swirling in the open sea, while a piece of Isaac’s remnants might regenerate into tropical storm Nadine.
Model forecasts for tropical storm Leslie steer it towards Bermuda Saturday into SundayBermuda, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland need to be on-guard for possible impacts from Leslie. The northern Gulf Coast should keep an eye on the ghost of Isaac.
Leslie
In the past six days, Leslie has been in a moderate-to-high shear environment, limiting its intensity, but not dismantling it. Now, models are in fairly good agreement that the shear should subside and the storm will finally become a hurricane.
While the track remains far off the U.S. East Coast, Leslie could impact Bermuda later this weekend, and likely as a rather strong hurricane.
The latest suite of model runs keeps a tight cluster centered on the tiny island. At 11 a.m. this morning, Leslie’s maximum sustained winds were 70 mph; it was centered about 470 miles south-southeast of Bermuda and drifting north at 2mph. In the longer term, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland need to be on the lookout.
Michael
Michael formed on Monday afternoon as a depression, but was quickly upgraded to the 13th named storm of the season on Tuesday morning.
It’s a very small system, with tropical storm force winds extending just 35 miles from the center (recall Isaac’s typically extended about 200 miles from the center). It is very far from any land, but the best reference point would be the Azores islands, 1155 miles to the northeast.
Michael is a 50 mph tropical storm and is not forecast to change much in the coming days… perhaps gradually strengthening as it meanders generally northward.
Isaac/Nadine
Finally, in an unusual fashion, the remnants of Isaac may be making a comeback… over the northern Gulf coast!
Tracing the low-level circulation (850mb vorticity – area of spin about 5,000 feet aloft) over the past week reveals a complex history of what was once Hurricane Isaac. After moving inland across Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri, the circulation was distorted and ripped apart by a trough.
I simplified the events that transpired in the crude diagram shown here (to the right). Sometime around Monday, it appears that a part of the circulation split off to the northeast and a part split off to the south. This was not a clean separation, and someone else might analyze the circulation tracks slightly differently. But the basic point is that there is a disturbance re-entering the northern Gulf of Mexico that has some of Isaac in its “genes”. However, should this disturbance become a tropical storm, it would get a new name – Nadine – because there is not enough of Isaac’s circulation in its pedigree. As the National Hurricane Center described on its Facebook page:
There have been quite a few inquiries about whether the name “Isaac” would be given to the area of disturbed weather currently located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, if it were to develop into a tropical cyclone. The short answer is no, it would get a new name.
As of this morning, the disturbance is certainly active and producing heavy rain (regional radar loop) across parts of LA, MS, AL, and FL, but the bulk of the thunderstorm activity is offshore. For the most part, model guidance suggests that it will continue to drift toward the Gulf, then get nudged back east toward northern Florida… making “landfall” this weekend. Even if it doesn’t get named or develop beyond what it is now, it should still be a big rain maker for the northeast Gulf coast over the next few days.
We’re also already on the 13th named storm as of September 4th, which isn’t a record, but it’s really close. The only years to beat that date are 2005 and 2011 when the 13th named storm formed on September 2nd. Since records began 160 years ago, only about 8% of years even reach the 13th named storm by the END of the season, let alone prior to the peak.
But, in terms of major hurricanes (Category 3+), this season is definitely lagging behind its peers. By this date in 2005, we already had three major hurricanes (Dennis, Emily, and Katrina), and by this date in 2011, we had one major hurricane (Katia). This year, we have had none.
* Brian McNoldy is a senior researcher at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
The aftermath of Hurricane Isaac has washed ashore tens of thousands of dead “swamp rats,” invasive species whose rotting corpses are now presenting a health hazard in Mississippi.
The drowned rodents, known as nutria, are a stark reminder of the effects of hurricanes on wildlife, which can range from mass death to – surprisingly enough – dolphin baby booms. In the case of the nutria, the drownings may be a blessing for the Gulf Coast, where the beaver-like creatures wreck havoc on native marsh vegetation.
The clean-up, though, is proving unpleasant.
“They’re actually starting to swell up and bust,” Hancock County Supervisor David Yarborough told local news station WLOX. “It smells really bad.”
Nutria aren’t the only animals to suffer after hurricanes. A study of alligators in southwest Louisiana after Hurricane Rita hit in 2005 found that the reptiles were physically stressed a month after the initial storm surge inundated their marshy habitat. Blood tests on the gators showed elevated stress hormones as well as other signs of ill health, the researchers reported in February 2010 in the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology.
Research on Florida manatees has suggested that docile “sea cows” die more frequently during years with extreme storms, perhaps due to immediate causes like getting swept out to sea, or perhaps due to post-hurricane environmental changes such as cooling in coastal waters, according to a 2006 paper published in the journal Estuaries and Coasts. That study tracked a handful of manatees through the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons and found that the animals tended to “ride out” the storms in place rather than attempt to avoid them.
Other studies have found changes in fish populations right after hurricanes, as well as changes in phytoplankton, the algal basis of the ocean food chain, though these changes are short-lived. Sometimes, though, hurricane effects echo over long time periods. A 2010 study on bottlenose dolphins found that two years after Hurricane Katrina, the number of baby dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico suddenly skyrocketed.
Some of the jump could be explained by dolphin mamas getting pregnant sooner than usual after losing their previous calves in the storm, the researchers reported in the journal Marine Mammal Science. But the storm had another effect: It destroyed a significant chunk of the Gulf of Mexico fishing fleet. Fewer fishermen meant more food for dolphins and their young, the researchers concluded.
Nutria death zone
Mississippi’s nutria population took a hit from Isaac. Sanitation workers have been cleaning up the carcasses with pitchforks and front-end loaders.
“Estimates are there will be over 20,000 carcasses, but that is unclear now,” Robbie Wilbur, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, told LiveScience. “Eventually, the totals will be numerated in tons when they’re all disposed.”
The carcasses are being sent to the Pecan Grove landfill in Harrison County, Miss., Wilbur added.
“It’s starting to get bad,” said Mark Williams of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Solid Waste Management branch. “It’s heated up over the last two or three days, and of course that really expedites the degradation process.”
Nutria are native to South America, but the rodents were brought to North America in the late 1800s and farmed for their fur. Escaped and released nutria established themselves in the marshes of the Gulf Coast, where they gnaw the roots of marsh plants, destroying the vegetal web that keeps the marshes from washing away.
Hurricane Isaac likely won’t set Mississippi’s nutria population back for long. Nutria can produce litters with as many as 13 babies, and they’re capable of reproducing twice a year starting at as early as four months of age. Baby nutria begin supplementing their mother’s milk with marsh vegetation within hours of birth.
Thousands of homes were without power across Perth this afternoon in the aftermath of a cold front that lashed the city today.
A Western Power spokeswoman said thousands of homes had without power at different times during the day, but the number was steadily decreasing.
Midland, Upper Swan and Pickering Brook were the worst affected areas.
Many home owners are tonight counting the cost of damage caused by the storm.
Nine News reports that a lightning strike caused a fire at a house in Bellevue caused more than $100,000 in damage, while wild winds brought down trees, including one in Forrestfield that crushed a car.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology warns that widespread damaging winds could tonight affect areas in a line south from Augusta to Lake Grace to Israelite Bay, including people in or near Bridgetown, Albany, Katanning and Esperance.
A deep low south of Bremer Bay will move eastwards during the evening, producing winds up to 100km/h which could result in damage to homes and property.
Dangerous gusts in excess of 125 km/h could cause significant damage or destruction to homes and property in localised areas.
Isolated thunderstorms and small hail is also possible.
The Bureau warned of dangerous surf conditions which could cause significant beach erosion.
Broad cold front sweeps over Western Australia
A cold front, which crossed the coast from Geraldton, 450km north of Perth, to Bremer Bay, 500km southeast, late yesterday brought widespread heavy rains and hail today.
There were numerous reports of small, but intense hailstorms across the metro area, including the city, Ellenbrook, Woodvale and Midland to the east.
One PerthNow commenter, from Midland, said a fierce hailstorm had left the ground white, as if it had snowed.
Today’s cold, wintry weather comes after yesterday’s strong cold front brought squally thunderstorms packing potential wind gusts up to 125km/h which swept across the South West and metropolitan area yesterday afternoon, hitting areas from Geraldton to Narrogin to Albany last night.
The State Emergency Service received 35 calls for help during and after the storm, mainly in the metro area for minor damage to homes and fallen trees on patios.
Heavy rain in South-West, Perth Hills
In the South West Forest Grove recorded 50mm, Cowaramup 47mm; Witchcliffe, just south of Margaret River, and Donnybrook had 43mm; Cape Naturaliste 33mm and Bunbury 27mm, with many centres receiving 20mm or more.
Further north, Dwellingup, 97km south of Perth, got 52mm; Bickley in the Perth Hills received a drenching with 67mm; Swanbourne 41mm and Jandakot 33mm. Perth city recorded 27mm and Perth Airport 31mm.
Most stations in the Hills received 40mm or more, with Pickering Brook 56mm; Karnet and Mundaring 46mm.
Strong winds buffeted most of the South West and the city with gusts recorded over 100km/h. Mandurah had a gust of 102km/h and Rottnest Island 96km/h.
Good rainfalls reached most of the Wheatbelt with farmers welcoming much-needed falls of 15mm to 30mm to boost yields on all grain crops.
In the Central West, Dandaragan had 24mm; Badgingarra 22mm, Northampton 18mm, Mingenew 17mm; and Morawa 11mm, with Geraldton Airport recording just over 8mm. But much of the region received 15mm or more.
In the Great Southern Wandering got 35mm, Williams 27mm, Katanning 25mm, Narrogin 24mm, Brookton 21mm and Lake Grace 10mm.
In the Central Wheatbelt, where farmers are desperate for rain, York got 26mm, Wongan Hills 17mm; Northam 16mm.
Sheep farmers warning
Sheep farmers in the Lower West, Great Southern, Southwest, South Coastal,Southeast Coastal, and the southern parts of the Central Wheat Belt and Central West districts are advised that wet and windy conditions are expected during Tuesday as a deep low pressure system moves to the south of the state. There is a serious risk of sheep or lamb losses.
A hailstorm has battered Johannesburg, with several road accidents being reported. Radio 702’s early morning show has been inundated with calls and SMSes from people reporting heavy hail and rain. Several said road conditions were very poor and urged motorists to drive with extreme caution. Presenter Ray White said he had heard of a fatal accident in Randfontein. A caller said she was stuck behind a three-car pile-up. One man, calling from Rosebank, said: “It’s white, white, white.” Another woman said that even though she was driving at 50km/h, her brakes were not working because of the slipperiness of the roads. On Twitter at 5.57am, the SA Weather Service posted this warning: “Severe thunderstorm over N. Joburg and Centurion with possible heavy falls that might lead to road flooding within the next 30min.”
Heavy rain and a high tide caused flooded streets in Fall River on Wednesday. Trucks, cars and ambulances tried to navigate streets that looked more like rivers. Flash floods forced people to abandon cars and even trapped some people inside Bruce Morrow’s sporting goods store. “We were inside and people all of a sudden the people inside said, ‘Hey the water is coming in the doors,’” said Morrow. Close to 40 people were trapped in the store during the torrential downpour and flash flooding. “He told us we could leave, but where were we going to go? Honestly, the water was all the way up. Where were you going to go? Swim across to a truck that’s submerged?” said Melonie O’Brien, who was trapped in the store. Some drivers plowed through flooded streets, leaving small wakes in their path. Roads were closed; cars were diverted or abandoned in the middle of the madness. “My car is here. Now I have to walk to work because I can’t get by anywhere,” said Shannon Sousa, who abandoned her car. “Just made it here, but all over it’s completely flooded. It’s ridiculous. It’s like the whole city is shut down right now.” The ramp to 24 at Exit 8A was waterlogged and closed to traffic. The only way people were getting around at the height of the storm was on foot and without shoes. Everything in the town was soaked. “This is the worst it’s ever been in the last 22 years since we’ve been here. Just two weeks ago it was almost this bad. This is the worst,” said John Norfolk, who is cleaning up after his store flooded. The Red Cross is on the scene trying to help some of the stores and businesses that have been drenched with the torrential rains.
Torrential rains and floods yesterday killed at least 15 people in Pakistan, officials said. Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the north and the southern port city of Karachi were among the worst-hit areas. Police officer Malik Shafiq said “13 people, including three women, were swept away” by a flooded stream in Machhera village, about 35kms from the Kahmir capital Muzaffarabad. “So far we recovered one body while efforts were underway to find others,” Shafiq said. Rescue work was underway, he added. He adding there were also reports of landslide in the area. “The water level is still very high and has hampered the rescue operation. It seems that there is no chance for any survival,” Ansar Yaqoob, a senior government official added. Two people died when the roof of their house collapsed due to rain in the Hafizabad district of Punjab province. Police said more people were still trapped under the debris. In Karachi, prolonged power cuts and gridlocks were reported after heavy rainfall as officials struggled to restore electricity to the financial hub with a population of more than 18mn. Chief meteorologist Arif Mehmood said his department had forecast heavier monsoon rains than the previous year.
A steam leak brought on by an involuntary chemical reaction at France’s oldest nuclear plant has led to two people being slightly burnt, officials say. The accident occurred at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in northeastern France within 1.5 kilometres of the border with Germany and about 40 kilometres from Switzerland. “It was not a fire,” the local prefecture said. “There was an outlet of oxygenated steam” produced after hydrogen peroxide reacted with water in a reservoir. About 50 firefighters have been deployed, an official from the service said. French power supplier EDF said “two people were slightly burnt through their gloves.”
Five people in the Auckland region have been diagnosed with potentially fatal meningococcal disease in the past week. Auckland Regional Public Health Service said no-one had died from it and no links between the cases had been established. Since January, 16 people in Auckland have contracted meningococcal disease – less than the 23 patients diagnosed with it during the same period in 2011. The last death from meningococcal disease reported in Auckland was in August last year. Meningococcal disease can be life threatening if it is not treated early. The health service is encouraging Aucklanders to remain alert for flu-like symptoms that become worse within two or three days. On Monday, a Wellington teenager died from suspected meningococcal disease. It is the first suspected meningococcal death in that region this year. Amanda Crook-Barker had the day off school after feeling “a little bit sick”. The 12-year-old vomited in the morning and developed a rash around 3pm. Ambulance staff were called after her symptoms worsened and she died in hospital at 5pm.
Biohazard name:
Neisseria meningitidis
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.
Meteoroids streaking through the atmospheres of planets such as Earth, Mars and Venus can change these worlds’ air, in ways that researchers are just now beginning to understand.
Most planetary atmospheres are made up of simple, low-mass elements and compounds such as carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen. But when a debris particle, or meteoroid, passes through, it can shed heavier, more exotic elements such as magnesium, silicon and iron.
Such elements can have a significant impact on the circulation and dynamics of winds in the atmosphere, researchers say.
“That opens up a whole new network of chemical pathways not usually there,” said Paul Withers of Boston University.
Contaminating the outer layers
Part of a planet’s upper atmosphere, the ionosphere contains plasma – a mixture of positively charged (ionized) atoms or molecules and the negatively charged electrons stripped from them. When simple elements such as oxygen move into this outer shell, they break apart easily, decaying in a matter of minutes.
But meteoroids streaking toward a planet’s surface carry heavier metals that can be removed in a variety of ways. A grain of dust, for instance, may rapidly burn up, shedding already-ionized magnesium as it falls. Or, neutral magnesium may be torn from the small rock, then receive a charge from sunlight or from stripping an electron from another particle. The newly charged elements can take as much as a full day to decay.
Meteoroids that blaze a trail through the atmosphere are called meteors, or shooting stars. Only those that make it to the ground are meteorites.
“When we add metal ions to the ionosphere as a result of this meteoroid input, we create plasma in regions where there wasn’t any plasma there to start out with,” Withers told SPACE.com.
In a recent article for Eos, the American Geophysical Union’s newspaper covering Earth and space sciences, Withers discusses important questions raised by the recent wealth of research on the upper atmosphere of Mars and Venus.
Shocking similarities, strange differences
Over the last decade, scientists have collected more and more information about the ionospheres of Mars and Venus. Though one might envision the composition and location of the two planets would create different interactions in the ionosphere, the two are actually very similar, scientists say.
“If you stand at the surface of the two planets, they are very different,” Withers said. “But up at about 100 kilometers (62 miles), conditions are surprisingly similar.”
The pressures, temperatures, and chemistry at high altitudes are comparable for the two planets. So too are many of the properties of the layers of charged particles shed by meteoroids.
“The plasma densities are quite similar on average on all three planets, which is not what you might expect on the first impression,” Withers said, referring to Earth, Mars and Venus.
Since the sun is the ultimate driving force for most ionization processes, it’s tempting to assume that Venus has more particles in a given area than Mars does because it orbits twice as closely to our star. Instead, the two planets have similar densities, which differ from Earth’s measurements by only a factor of ten.
At the same time, the layers affected by the meteoroids on Earth are very narrow, maybe only a mile or two wide, while Venus and Mars both have layers stretching six to eight miles.
According to Withers, the difference may come from the presence of Earth’s strong magnetic field, a feature lacking on the other two planets. But scientists aren’t certain how much of a role the field actually plays.
Finding the source
To study Earth’s ionosphere, scientists can launch rockets to take measurements in the region. But the process is more complicated for other planets.
As a spacecraft travels through the solar system, a targeted radio signal sent back to Earth can be aimed through the ionosphere of a nearby planet. Plasma in the ionosphere causes small but detectable changes in the signal that allow scientists to learn about the upper atmosphere.
This process – known as radio occultation – doesn’t require any fancy equipment, only the radio the craft already uses to communicate with scientists on Earth.
“It’s really one of the workhorse planetary science instruments,” Withers said.
Because it is so simple, the process has been applied to every planet ever visited by spacecraft.
Only in recent years has enough data come back on Venus and Mars to seriously examine their upper atmospheres. As of yet, no numerical simulations have been created to explain some of the differences, but Withers expressed hope that this would change in the near future. Such simulations could help answer some of the questions that the observations have raised.
Withers also hopes that, in time, a detailed understanding of the ionosphere could even help scientists engage in a kind of “atmospheric archeology” for Venus and Mars.
One day, scientists may be able to track the history of comets in the solar system by measuring how planetary atmospheres have been affected by the icy wanderers’ shed dust and gas. But conclusions drawn by this sort of sleuthing are probably a ways down the road, Withers said.
A new strain of avian flu virus that was found in China two months ago has appeared in Vietnam, health experts have confirmed. The new strain, 2.3.2.1 C, which has been detected through epidemic investigations, is highly toxic and therefore extremely deadly, Diep Kinh Tan, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said at a meeting on September 4 to review the epidemic situation. The 2.3.2.1 C strain has recently spread to Vietnam and is now present in affected areas in seven provinces and cities, namely Haiphong, Ha Tinh, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Bac Kan, Thanh Hoa and Quang Ngai, said Hoang Van Nam, head of the Department of Animal Health (DoAH). As the new strain is different from the A/H5N1 virus, the ministry is to conduct experiments and tests to confirm if the vaccines that are being used to combat A/H5N1 are also effective against the new strain.If the existing medication is ineffective, studies on new vaccines against the new strain should be conducted soon, Tan said, adding that he has asked the DoAH to isolate the virus for this purpose. The Central Veterinary Diagnosis Center is also monitoring and looking into the new strain to help find a specific medication against it. The avian flu has so far this year severely impacted the seven above-mentioned provinces and cities, with more than 181,000 ducks and chicken having died or been culled, the DoAH reported. Most of these provinces are involved in smuggling poultry from China that might have carried pathogens that were then spread to domestic poultry, the department said.
Biohazard name:
H5N1 (2.3.2.1 C) – Very highly pathogenic avian influenza virus – New strain
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
06.09.2012
Biological Hazard
Canada
Province of Ontario, [From Port Stanley in Elgin County to the village of Morpeth in Chatham-Kent]
Tens of thousands of rotting fish are lining a 40-kilometre stretch of shoreline along Lake Erie, reports the provincial environment ministry, which is investigating the cause. A spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Environment said Tuesday the kill was reported on the weekend. So far it appears the fish may have died from the affects of a naturally occurring lake inversion rather than a spill, but cautioned the investigation is continuing. The question now is which agency is responsible for cleaning up the rotting carcasses of thousands of yellow perch, carp, sheepshead, catfish, big head buffalo and suckers, which kept untold beachgoers from enjoying their Labour Day weekend. “It (the water) was quite putrid really … I had never experienced anything like this,” said Neville Knowles, of London, Ont. and cottager at Rondeau Provincial Park for more than 50 years. The dead fish stretch from west of the fishing village of Port Stanley in Elgin County to the village of Morpeth in Chatham-Kent or just east of Rondeau. “There was a significant number of fish, tens of thousands,” the environment ministry’s Kate Jordan told the Star. Jordan said the ministry officials took fish and water samples for analysis, “but all observations made at the site … did not show anything unusual and we did not see any evidence of … a spill to the lake or man-made pollution … so we are considering natural causes, including a lake inversion.” She explained that an inversion happens when the surface water cools down dramatically, sinks and displaces the bottom layer, which has lower oxygen content. As the bottom layer is displaced, it rises and robs fish of oxygen needed to survive. The phenomenon is also referred to as the lake “rolling over.” Even so, some residents are suspicious just the same that run-off from a large pig operation along the stretch may have caused the fish to die, said Knowles, who quickly added there is nothing to support that position.
Biohazard name:
Mass. Die-off (fishes)
Biohazard level:
0/4 —
Biohazard desc.:
This does not included biological hazard category.
The Coast Guard is investigating about 90 reports of oil and chemical releases associated with Hurricane Isaac, including a leak from a closed storage facility in Plaquemines Parish that killed several brown pelicans, officials said Tuesday. Separately, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries closed a stretch of coastline from Elmer’s Island to Belle Pass after a tar mat appeared in the Gulf of Mexico and tar balls washed ashore. The closure affects commercial and recreational fisheries from the shore to one mile offshore. The agency and Department of Environmental Quality will determine the source of the oil, but its location has stoked concerns that it is remnants of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil leak. The Coast Guard did not address Tuesday’s coastal closure, which happened hours after senior officers, including Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp, held a press conference at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans’s headquarters in Algiers. But Coast Guard officials said that in addition to causing new spills, hurricanes do stir up oil resting the seabed. “It often happens, particularly down here in the Gulf area,” Papp said. Oil samples have been sent to a Coast Guard laboratory in New London, Conn., for analysis, which is expected to take a week, Lt. Lily Zepeda said. The Coast Guard is responding to “several different reports of oil,” including at Myrtle Grove in Plaquemines Parish, said Rear Adm. Roy Nash, commander of the 8th Coast Guard District, whose headquarters is in New Orleans.A “defunct” terminal with storage tanks at Myrtle Grove leaked oil that has been contained, said Capt. Peter Gautier, commander of Coast Guard Sector New Orleans and captain of the port of New Orleans. But the oil contaminated seven or eight brown pelicans. “Several of those are dead,” he said. Other reports range from lose barrels to overturned rail cars and tanks that are not leaking, Gautier said. He also cited a chemical release in Braithwaite, the scene of some of Isaac’s most serious flooding that left two people dead and scores of others homeless when the storm surge topped a parish-owned levee. Incidents reported to the Coast Guard’s National Response Center last week include an oil storage barge carrying 1,646 barrels of crude oil that was missing from an oil production facility in Barataria Bay; a discharge from an offshore platform near South Pass; and a release from a platform near High Island because of an equipment malfunction after the platform was evacuated. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., also at the press conference, called Isaac’s hovering on the region for 60 hours “unprecedented.”"It could have been a lot worse, considering he infrastructure,” Landrieu said of the region’s petroleum industry. She also used Isaac to renew her call to provide hurricane protection to communities such as Venice in Lower Plaquemines, home to people who work in the offshore industry and maritime commerce. “This is a very strategic area for the United States of America,” Landrieu said. Papp, the senior most Coast Guard officer, said he traveled to the Gulf Coast “to thank my Coast Guard people” for their response to Isaac. He also said Coast Guard personnel stationed in the region were impacted by the storm like everyone else.
A cave-in at a construction site injured eight workers and trapped at least one other in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Wednesday, local authorities said. The collapse happened at 7:30 am in the underground structure of a planned market for home furnishings and building materials in Qiaokou district. A staff member of the market, who declined to give a name, said that the workers were pouring concrete over the roof of the building when the collapse happened. At least one worker remained trapped in the rubble and a search by three teams of firefighters continued, said an official surnamed Tong from the fire control department of Wuhan on Wednesday. The cave-in caused a clutter of steel bars and concrete that made the rescue work difficult, Tong said. Eight injured people pulled from the debris were sent to Wuhan No 10 Hospital for treatment. Six workers were slightly injured and two critically, a doctor at the hospital said. A resident surnamed Wang who lives near the construction site said that he heard a loud bang and felt a tremor when the site collapsed. The construction company for the project is Zhejiang Baoye Construction Group.
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More than 800 homes and businesses were damaged when a 5.6-magnitude earthquake rocked the southern Philippines early Tuesday, officials said.
Cracks snaked across walls and roofs collapsed when the quake struck the southern island of Mindanao before dawn, said Patrick Callanta, operations chief of the civil defence office in Cagayan de Oro city.
One person was injured by falling debris.
“Houses and commercial buildings suffered cracks on their walls or floors. Some roofs collapsed,” Callanta told AFP by telephone. “The quake struck while people slept.”
Disaster officials in the region said 544 houses, shops and other commercial buildings sustained damage in Valencia city, populated by 163,000 people.
The lone casualty was hit by falling debris in the adjacent town of Maramag, where 316 buildings were damaged, Callanta said.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake struck at 3:44am (1944 GMT Monday) and the epicentre was plotted near Maramag, a town of about 90,000 people.
The Philippines sits on the Pacific Rim of Fire — a belt around the Pacific Ocean dotted by active volcanoes and unstable ocean trenches.
A 7.6-magnitude quake hit the country’s east coast late Friday, triggering a tsunami alert that forced more than 130,000 to flee their homes and causing a landslide that killed one person in Cagayan de Oro.
A 5.9 quake also struck at sea off Mindanao on Monday, but caused no damage or casualties.
The area of Song Tranh 2 Hydropower Plant in Quang Nam Province, where a series of tremors occurred yesterday evening
Photo: Dan Tri
A series of tremors along with underground explosions that were heard from above and caused walls to crack occurred yesterday in the area of the Song Tranh 2 Hydropower Plant in Quang Nam Province’s Bac Tra My District.
Experts at the plant are analyzing data collected from earthquake observation stations in the area but have yet to announce how powerful the quake was on the Richter scale, said Tran Van Hai, head of the Management Board of Hydropower Project 3.
The incident happened from 7 to 9 pm Monday at the Bac Tra My Town and several communes nearby, causing thousands of locals to rush out of their houses in panic after they heard loud blasts and found the ground shaken, houses’ walls cracked and things inside the houses falling.
Ho Van Loi, chairman of the Tra Doc commune People’s Committee said his house’s floor was shaken five times during last night, with the most powerful seismic intensity occurring at 9 pm.
Such quakes have taken place continuously in the past five days in Bac Tra My, but the one last night has been the strongest since the hydropower plant began storing water in its reservoir, Dang Phong, chairman of the District People’s Committee, said.
“Residents are very worried about their safety. We will report the situation at the meeting scheduled on September 4 between district authorities and the Ministry of Construction to discuss measures to prevent leakage at the plant’s dam,” Phong said.
As previously reported, residents in the downstream area of the hydropower plant have been living in fear after cracks and water leakage were found in the dam of the plant whose reservoir could contain 730 million cubic meters of water and is among the largest in central Vietnam.
The V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency said that V.I. Alert subscribers who have noticed a recent increase in earthquake notifications from the service should not be alarmed.
Between 3 a.m. Monday and continuing throughout the day Wednesday, more than 50 very minor to moderate earthquakes were recorded near Latitude 19 degrees north, north of the Virgin Islands, according to a statement VITEMA issued Wednesday. Those tremors included a 5.2-, 4.6- and 4.7-magnitude earthquake between 3 and 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Victor Huerfano, director of the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, confirmed that the increase in earthquake activity is a swarm of tremors, a phenomenon that occurs four or five times a year in different parts of the Caribbean region, according to VITEMA. A swarm is defined as three or more earthquakes occurring within an hour, and the Puerto Rico Seismic Network has been recording these instances since Saturday.
“It is normal but we cannot say what it means,” Huerfano said. “It is more important that we make sure we are calm and prepared, and that emergency systems are in place in case a major earthquake happens.”
The Virgin Islands is located in a seismically active region, which has a potential for a major earthquakes to occur at any time, according to VITEMA’s statement.
VITEMA suggests these steps to take in case of an earthquake:
- If the ground begins to shake, the safest thing to do is drop, take cover under something sturdy and hold on until the shaking stops.
- If there is not something sturdy nearby, cover your face and head with your arms and crouch in an inside corner of the building.
- It is best to remain inside until the shaking stops, and then go outside if it is safe.
- If you are outdoors and near a building, streetlights or utility wires, move away as quickly as possible. Once in the open, stay there until the shaking stops.
The quakes are going strong down in the Virgin Islands. There have been a few 4′s and 5′s today.
Here is the Puerto Rico seismic network
They have all types of information on it, including the seismic history of the area on this page.
Last year about this time the Virgin Islands had a swarm of quakes and it got up to 81 in one week. The amount now, is obviously way above 81, at 397 so far in one week.
I have known about the threat of a huge tsunami due to knowing the history of the area. I lived almost half my life down in the Virgin Islands. That is part of my being very aware of what is happening down there, needless to say.
Three of the largest and deadliest earthquakes in recent history occurred where earthquake hazard maps didn’t predict massive quakes. A University of Missouri scientist and his colleagues recently studied the reasons for the maps’ failure to forecast these quakes. They also explored ways to improve the maps. Developing better hazard maps and alerting people to their limitations could potentially save lives and money in areas such as the New Madrid, Missouri fault zone.
“Forecasting earthquakes involves many uncertainties, so we should inform the public of these uncertainties,” said Mian Liu, of MU’s department of geological sciences.
“The public is accustomed to the uncertainties of weather forecasting, but foreseeing where and when earthquakes may strike is far more difficult. Too much reliance on earthquake hazard maps can have serious consequences. Two suggestions may improve this situation.
“First, we recommend a better communication of the uncertainties, which would allow citizens to make more informed decisions about how to best use their resources. Second, seismic hazard maps must be empirically tested to find out how reliable they are and thus improve them.”
Liu and his colleagues suggest testing maps against what is called a null hypothesis, the possibility that the likelihood of an earthquake in a given area – like Japan – is uniform. Testing would show which mapping approaches were better at forecasting earthquakes and subsequently improve the maps.
Liu and his colleagues at Northwestern University and the University of Tokyo detailed how hazard maps had failed in three major quakes that struck within a decade of each other. The researchers interpreted the shortcomings of hazard maps as the result of bad assumptions, bad data, bad physics and bad luck.
Wenchuan, China – In 2008, a quake struck China’s Sichuan Province and cost more than 69,000 lives. Locals blamed the government and contractors for not making buildings in the area earthquake-proof, according to Liu, who says that hazard maps bear some of the blame as well since the maps, based on bad assumptions, had designated the zone as an area of relatively low earthquake hazard.
Leogane, Haiti – The 2010 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and killed an estimated 316,000 people occurred along a fault that had not caused a major quake in hundreds of years. Using only the short history of earthquakes since seismometers were invented approximately one hundred years ago yielded hazard maps that were didn’t indicate the danger there.
Tohoku, Japan – Scientists previously thought the faults off the northeast coast of Japan weren’t capable of causing massive quakes and thus giant tsunamis like the one that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear reactor.
This bad understanding of particular faults’ capabilities led to a lack of adequate preparation. The area had been prepared for smaller quakes and the resulting tsunamis, but the Tohoku quake overwhelmed the defenses.
“If we limit our attention to the earthquake records in the past, we will be unprepared for the future,” Liu said.
“Hazard maps tend to underestimate the likelihood of quakes in areas where they haven’t occurred previously. In most places, including the central and eastern U.S., seismologists don’t have a long enough record of earthquake history to make predictions based on historical patterns.
“Although bad luck can mean that quakes occur in places with a genuinely low probability, what we see are too many ‘black swans,’ or too many exceptions to the presumed patterns.”
“We’re playing a complicated game against nature,” said the study’s first author, Seth Stein of Northwestern University.
“It’s a very high stakes game. We don’t really understand all the rules very well. As a result, our ability to assess earthquake hazards often isn’t very good, and the policies that we make to mitigate earthquake hazards sometimes aren’t well thought out. For example, the billions of dollars the Japanese spent on tsunami defenses were largely wasted.
“We need to very carefully try to formulate the best strategies we can, given the limits of our knowledge,” Stein said. “Understanding the uncertainties in earthquake hazard maps, testing them, and improving them is important if we want to do better than we’ve done so far.”
The study, “Why earthquake hazard maps often fail and what to do about it,” was published by the journal Tectonophysics. First author of the study was Seth Stein of Northwestern University. Robert Geller of the University of Tokyo was co-author. Mian Liu is William H. Byler Distinguished Chair in Geological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri.
Click here to watch a five 5-minute video summary presented at the 2012 UNAVCO science workshop “Bad assumptions or bad luck: Tohoku’s embarrassing lessons for earthquake hazard mapping”.
The activities of volcanoes in western part of Indonesia territory are escalating, with one of them, Mt. Anak Krakatau, located in Sunda strait spewing volcanic ash affecting area of downtown Bandar Lampung, local media reported on Tuesday. Bandar Lampung, the capital of Lampung province, is 75 km away from the volcano, further than the one in previous times that affected Cilegon in West Java and Kalianda in Lampung province, according to the media report. The whole area of Bandar Lampung was covered in volcanic ash. Despite a thin layer, the ash was evenly distributed across the city. The volcanic ash also reached parts of Pesawaran and Pringsewu regencies. The head of the Information and Observation division at Lampung Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), Nurhuda, said the volcanic ash was carried by winds from the southeast.
“High wind velocity has likely carried the ash from the southeast to reach as far as Bandar Lampung. We urge residents in the area to wear masks when they go outdoors, especially when they are riding motorcycles,” Nurhuda said on Monday. The Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency ( PVMBG) has yet to upgrade Mt. Anak Krakatau’s alert status to a higher level despite the increase in seismic and molten lava levels in the Sunda Strait, as of Sunday. Agency head Surono said that Mt. Anak Krakatau had been emitting molten lava and strombolian eruptions as of midday on Sunday. The lava spewed at a height of between 200 and 300 meters from its peak at midday on Monday. Head of the Anak Krakatau Observation Post in Rajabasa, South Lampung, Andi Suardi, said that Anak Krakatau’s magmatic activities were unpredictable. According to Andi, Mt. Anak Krakatau emits 10 toxic gases during its eruption process, such as carbon doixide, which is fatal for humans. “Anyone who inhales the gas may experience breathing difficulties and lose consciousness. It may even lead to death,” he was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.
Besides the Anaka Krakatau volcano, an apparent volcanic activity also occurs in Tangkuban Parahu volcano located in West Java. It made the authority close down the Mount Tangkuban Parahu nature tourism park. “We’re not allowing vendors and visitors to go up to the crater at present,” said West Java Disaster Mitigation Agency head Sigit Udjwalaprana in Bandung on Monday. Earlier, the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency raised the status of Mt. Tangkuban Parahu from normal- active, or level 1, to alert, or level 2, on Aug. 23.
A fire burning in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Mountains proved tough to contain as holiday campers were forced to evacuate the area over the Labor Day weekend. KNBC’s Robert Kovacik reports.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
A brush fire in the San Gabriel Mountains that prompted the evacuation of campers and picnickers in the hills above Glendora, Calif., continued to rage Tuesday and it could be several days before crews gain the upper hand.
“We have some challenges we face out there,” Tony Imbrenda, of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told NBCLosAngeles.com. “We expect that this is going to take several days to get some containment.”
Crews continued the aerial attack on the fire burning east of Los Angeles and about 10 miles south of Highway 2. The terrain was described as “very steep.”
Four people, including at least two firefighters, had been injured, suffering from heat-related ailments, Angeles National Forest Officer Angie Lavell told the Los Angeles Times, though none of the four required hospitalization.
The fire, which started Sunday and has burned 3,600 acres, was moving toward Rattlesnake Canyon Ridge. Fire officials said the goal was to stop the fire there.
Some 1,000 people, many of them enjoying the three-day holiday, were evacuated from several communities and from three campgrounds as the fire spread in the largely recreational area.
David Mcnew / Getty Images
The Williams Fire spreads as night falls in the Angeles National Forest on Monday north of Glendora, Calif.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies searched hillside trails for any hikers who were still walking in the hills. The evacuations started after 3 p.m. Sunday in the area off of San Gabriel Canyon Road in Azusa. Officials closed roads leading into the hills.
Highway 39 was closed early Monday.
The fire is named after Camp Williams, which, according its the website, is a “quiet haven tucked away in the spectacular San Gabriel Mountains.” It offers camping, swimming, fishing, hiking, biking, and panning for gold. The camp, located at the San Gabriel River East Fork has full-hook-up RV sites under giant oak trees.
The fire was burning uphill into heavy timber and steep, rugged terrain, fire officials said.
A gray plume of smoke could be seen by commuters for miles.
Nearly 800 firefighters, backed by 10 helicopters and four air tankers, were battling the blaze. Containment was at just 15 percent Tuesday morning.
Maritza Martinez got out of the area when she noticed smoke.
“When we came up, we noticed a whole bunch of smoke and we started to notice something is burning and little by little the smoke started to grow,” she said. “My little sister was like, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go!’”
The experience was a first for Catharine Vega, one of nearly 12,000 visitors who had expected to use the park during the holiday weekend.
“I’ve never seen a real fire except on TV,” she said. “We stopped to see, and we saw actual flames and it was scary because we didn’t know what to do.”
A fire in the Angeles National Forest north of Glendora has spread to 700 acres since it began about 2:15 p.m. along East Fork Road, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. The blaze was moving north toward the Sheep Mountain Wilderness Area, said John Wagner, an assistant public affairs officer with the forest service. An evacuation was underway at a mobile home park in the vicinity of the fire, Wagner said. He did not know how many residents had been evacuated. There were no reports of casualties or property damage. Wagner said seven air tankers from various agencies were battling the blaze. Fifteen engine companies from the Los Angeles County Fire Department were also fighting the fire, a spokesman said.
A wildfire burning in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Glendora since Sunday afternoon forced the evacuation of more than 12,000 people and has grown to more than 4,000 acres, authorities said Monday. Most of those evacuated were visitors or campers in the area for the the Labor Day weekend. The fire no longer has an active flame front, meaning it is not advancing as rapdily as it was Sunday afternoon, said Nathan Judy, fire information officer for the U.S. Forest Service Monday morning. “It is still picking up fuel in hot spots but it is not like it was yesterday,” he said. However, fire authorities are concerned about hot weather and more difficult conditions returning later on Monday. “We are expecting winds this afternoon. That is our concern,” Judy said. Highway 39 in the Angeles National Forest remained closed Monday, along with Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road, forcing thousands to alter their Labor Day holiday plans. A total of 400 firefighters will make a new push Monday morning to get a better handle on the out-of-control blaze, which is about 5 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. No stuctures are threatened.
Fire personnel are working in steep, rugged terrain to contain the blaze. Forces working the fire include six air tankers, eight water-dropping helicopters, 30 engines and 25 hand crews, the Forest Service reported Monday morning. On Sunday evening, fire officials said a shift in the fire’s direction lessened danger to homes and residents in the San Gabriel Valley foothills. With the shift from its original northeast direction to the north, officials said they had no immediate fears that the fire would threaten any foothill communities such as Azusa, San Dimas and Glendora. On Sunday, smoke could be seen for miles in the San Gabriel Valley, Inland Empire and High Desert, where people reported falling ash. Two firefighters suffered minor injures. There were no reports of damaged structures, officials said. The fire comes 11 years and a day after the Sept.1, 2001, Curve Fire, which burned in the same area, officials said. It burned more than 25,000 acres and more than 140 structures. Three weeks later, another wildfire broke out in the same area and scorched more than 35,000 acres before it merged with the still burning Curve Fire. Sunday’s blaze, which sheriff’s officials said possibly began as a car fire, began sending smoke into the sky shortly after 2:15 p.m. from East Fork Road in Azusa Canyon. However, authorities say the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The Camp Williams Resort and River Community rehabilitation center were evacuated as a precaution, said Kirk Smith of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, along with thousands of people who were spending their Sunday in the forest. An evacuation center was set up at Glendora High School, 1600 E. Foothill Blvd. On a holiday, an average of between 10,000 and 12,000 visitors flock to the Angeles National Forest to spend the day, Angeles National Forest recreation officer L’Tanga Watson said.
A wildfire in Southern California’s Angeles National Forest that curt short weekend holiday plans for hikers and campers grew to 4,000 acres on Monday. The fire, which broke out near a campground Sunday afternoon, was about 5 percent contained by Sunday morning, U.S. Forest Service officials said. The Williams fire promoted the evacuation of about 12,000 visitors who had flocked to campgrounds for the holiday weekend, The Associated Press reported. It sent a towering plume of smoke that could be seen from many parts of the Los Angeles basin. The forest is heavily used by Southern California residents because it is close to populated areas. Fire officials said that while the campgrounds were not in the line of the fire, they had to be emptied so that the only road in and out of the San Gabriel Canyon could be open just for fire trucks and emergency vehicles. Officials Monday morning had set up an evacuation center at nearby Glendora High School, the Los Angeles Times reported. About 500 personnel, aided by 6 air tankers and eight helicopters, were fighting the blaze, which was burning in steep terrain in the east fork of the San Gabriel Canyon. No injuries were reported and no structures were threatened, forest officials said.
Companies that fix foundations struggle to meet demand
Carol DeVaughan assumed her suburban St. Louis home was simply settling when cracks appeared in the walls. When she noticed huge gaps between her fireplace and ceiling, and that her family room was starting to tilt, she knew she had bigger problems. Like thousands of other Americans getting stuck with huge repair bills, DeVaughan learned that the intense drought baking much of the country’s lawns, fields and forests this summer has also been sucking the moisture from underground, causing shifting that can lead to cracked basements and foundations, as well as damage aboveground.
Repairs often cost tens of thousands of dollars and can even top $100,000, and they are rarely covered by insurance, as shocked homeowners have been discovering. Home repair businesses, especially those specializing in repairs to basements and foundations, can barely keep up with demand. Drought-related home damage is reported in 40 of the 48 contiguous states, and experts say damage to homes could exceed $1 billion.
A strong typhoon which hit North Korea last week killed 48 people and left more than 50 injured or missing, the country’s state news agency said on Monday.
Typhoon Bolaven pounded the Korean peninsula last Tuesday, leaving a trail of death and damage in the two Koreas.
In addition to the casualties, 21,180 people were left homeless by the storm, which destroyed or inundated 6,700 houses, toppled more than 16,730 trees and disabled 880 industrial and public buildings, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
Bolaven also damaged at least 50,000 hectares of farmland, ravaging crops in 45,320 hectares of paddy and non-paddy fields, it said.
It was not immediately possible to independently verify the death toll or damage estimates.
The impoverished North is still grappling with the after-effects of floods in June and July that killed 169 people and left 400 missing.
The country suffers chronic food shortages, with the situation exacerbated by floods, droughts and mismanagement. During a famine in the mid to late-1990s, hundreds of thousands died.
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.
The remnants of former Hurricane Isaac brought heavy rain and strong winds – and the risk of localized flash flooding — to the East Coast overnight and into Tuesday.
New York City can expect up to three inches of rain Tuesday and Wednesday, NBCNewYork.com reported. High humidity will make temperatures feel like the high 80s, it added.
Torrential downpours were forecast for the Northeast and South Atlantic states, while thunderstorms were possible across the Midwest.
The system follows a humid, damp and windy end to the Labor Day weekend in many parts, including Delaware, where strong thunderstorms and winds of up to 60 mph ripped through Kent County, Del., on Monday, damaging homes, according to NBCPhiladelphia.com.
The Weather Channel said the turbulent weather was caused by the merger of the remnant low pressure of Isaac with a frontal boundary across the Midwest.
“That low and that front are still with us, and will be poking into the Northeast by Wednesday,” wrote the Weather Channel’s Nick Wiltgen. “They’ll interact with rich tropical moisture to bring the threat of tropical downpours up and down the eastern seaboard Tuesday and Wednesday.”
“These will be the kind of downpours that can put down an inch of rain in less than an hour and reduce visibility to a few hundred feet,” he added, “so drivers and air travelers can expect occasional delays. Localized flash flooding is possible.”
Around 20 homes in Camden, Del., were damaged during Monday’s storm there.
Those who saw it coming ran into their homes and ducked for cover.
“When we went in, I shut the sliding doors and something hit the house so hard and we just dropped to the floor,” Jean Hanacek told NBCPhiladelphia.com. “My whole garage is gone and my two cars are in there.”
In the Midwest, rain brought about by Hurricane Isaac has quenched fields parched by months of drought. Whether the rains have helped remains to be seen. NBC’s Diana Alvear reports.
A device containing a radioactive element has been stolen from a construction site in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia, announced the press center of the Interior Ministry. Sofia District Police Directorate is searching for the perpetrators. The device – a gamma flaw detector – contains a radioactive element with activity of 10 Ci. The signal about the theft was received on Monday. The crime was committed at a construction site at about 3:00 p.m. local time on Monday. The device has an entirely metal cage, its color is silver, has lead protection and an in-built radioactive source, Г-shapes handle and sizes 25/10 cm; it weighs 5 kg. Experts warn that if it is opened, there is a risk of the people around being exposed to radiation.
“End of the day, factory whistle cries, Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes” – Bruce Springsteen, Factory1
“Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss.” – Fukushima official’s request to Yakuza2
“TEPCO’s involvement with anti-social forces and their inability to filter them out of the work-place is a national security issue … Nuclear energy shouldn’t be in the hands of the yakuza. They’re gamblers and an intelligent person doesn’t want them to have atomic dice to play with.” – Japanese Senator3
The technological issue of nuclear energy is intertwined with the exploitation of human labor in a hierarchy of interests, and how human labor is expended is an economic and moral issue. The Grand Scientific Project from the time of Francis Bacon up to the Manhattan Project of Oppenheimer and Fermi has been a dangerous gamble for humanity even though the advertised purpose is that progress is good.
The exploitation of labor at nuclear plants depends on the tools of social engineering, of government, mass media and schools. This is the hidden and shameful side of today’s materialist society and belies our complicity in a criminalized culture.
Inefficient and corrupt employment practices at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP) are prolonging the disaster. Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) outsources 90 percent of the work to subcontractors, mainly utilizing Japan’s criminal syndicates, “the Yakuza.” Japan is still a middle class society and most people will not volunteer for nuclear work. Japan risks running out of workers who have not exceeded their legal radiation limits.
Considered to be “Japan’s largest organized crime group” – who are on the radar of the US Treasury Dept. (another big crime group)4 – the Yakuza offer a service to society by sopping up its losers and giving them a dodgy occupation.
Journalist Jake Adelstein, an expert on the Yakuza, risked his life as a reporter on the crime beat in Japan. Not because of shoot outs or knife fights, but because he had to take up smoking cigarettes in order to fit in with police and yakuza! These short video interviews offer a useful introduction into how the Yakuza operate5,6. Tepco’s relationship with the Yakuza is a cesspool of corruption from the highest to the lowest levels in its organization. “A senior National Police Agency officer, speaking on grounds of anonymity said, ‘TEPCO has a history of doing business with the yakuza that is far deeper than just using their labor’ ” (Op. cit. “The Yakuza and the Nuclear Mafia”).
Adelstein notes that the Yakuza has 86,000 members in Japan, of the 22 major organizations the “Yamaguchi” has almost half of all members. The Yakuza are: “[c]riminal trade associations legally recognized by the Japanese government … They exist out in the open. The Japanese government regulates them and there are laws restricting their behavior but as criminal organizations themselves they are not banned. It is very difficult for the police to do an investigation that goes all the way up to the top. It’s problems within the Japanese law itself. There’s no plea bargaining, very limited wire tapping, no witness protection program … no undercover work allowed. The Japanese police are never able to destroy the Yakuza” (Op. cit. interviews).
“[T]he nuclear business-industrial-political and media complex in Japan known as the ‘nuclear mafia’ … [the nuclear industry] is a black hole of criminal malfeasance, incompetence, and corruption’ …. The government tacitly recognises their existence, and they are classified, designated and regulated. Yakuza make their money from extortion, blackmail, construction, real estate, collection services, financial market manipulation, protection rackets, fraud and a labyrinth of front companies including labour dispatch services and private detective agencies. They do the work that no one else will do or find the workers for jobs no one wants …. The Fukushima plant is located in the turf of the Sumiyoshi-kai, which is the second largest yakuza group in Japan with roughly 12,000 members” (Op. cit. “How the Yakuza went Nuclear”; “The Yakuza”).
Without the dregs of society to do the dirty work, modern society could not exist its present, most hypocritical form. Most people do not want to get dirt under their fingernails and prefer to apply nail polish or chat on their iPhones.
Working in nuclear power plants in Japan is not considered an honorable and elegant trade, like cabinet making or industrial design, but a brutal, labor intensive experience. While the Yakuza organization itself is an evil, the workers themselves can be considered heroes. The amount of excruciating heat, hard work, physical and mental stress and radiation they endure is inhuman. Even working at a normally functioning reactor is not easy or safe work but the FNPP is highly radioactive.
Fearless Reporter Tells All
Adelstein reviews an astounding new book, The Yakuza and the Nuclear Industry, by undercover Japanese reporter, Tomohiko Suzuki (Op. cit. “The Yakuza”). Suzuki truly risked his life, due to radiation exposure and possible threats, to bring us the details from the Nuclear Hell Zone. The book reveals scandalous information such as that mentally handicapped people are recruited to work in the nuke plants by the Yakuza. Suzuki compares the Yakuza with Tepco: “Yakuza may be a plague on society … but they don’t ruin the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and irradiate the planet out of sheer greed and incompetence.”
Having lived in Tokyo for many years, I concur. I am not a fan of Yakuza culture and can see in my daily experience that the Yakuza have a degrading effect on society. But as long as you don’t mess with them – they won’t mess with you. In this way, the streets of Tokyo remain fairly safe.
Suzuki points out that “Japan’s nuclear mafia … [is a] conglomeration of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, the shady nuclear industry, their lobbyists” with the Yakuza at the center. Is Suzuki implying that the Yakuza run the Nuclear Mafia? It is certainly true that Tepco could not fulfill a nuclear workforce without them. According to Adelstein:
“As the scale of the catastrophe at Fukushima became apparent, many workers fled the scene. To contain the nuclear meltdown, a handful of workers stayed behind, being exposed to large amounts of radiation: the so-called ‘Fukushima Fifty.’ Among this heroic group, according to Suzuki, were several members of the yakuza …. ‘Almost all nuclear power plants that are built in Japan are built taking the risk that the workers may well be exposed to large amounts of radiation …. That they will get sick, they will die early, or they will die on the job. And the people bringing the workers to the plants and also doing the construction are often yakuza’ (Op. cit. “How the Yakuza”).
The very workers who are attempting to shore up the situation at FNPP, many of whom are Yakuza, are being blamed by local people in Fukushima for the disaster. A recent survey reported that 30 percent of 1,495 workers at the site suffer from severe mental health issues. The survey does not even include the most exploited workers at the site7.
Nuclear Situation Deteriorating
Akio Matsumura is a renowned Japanese diplomat and “founder and Secretary General of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival.” He sounds like the right man for the job to tackle the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Unfortunately, his warnings are falling on deaf ears. In a recent column he reported that the “Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima, along with 700 members, want to help clean up” the FNPP. Most of the volunteers are in their older years so getting cancer is not as great of a threat, whereas younger workers could die prematurely. The group’s representative, Mr. Yamada, “doesn’t believe TEPCO has the technological capabilities to deal with the long term issues. TEPCO, he says, doesn’t believe this either. TEPCO’s plan, according to Yamada, is to contain the radiation in the next 40 years. He estimates they will need 50 years or perhaps much longer.”
Matsumura thinks more aggressive actions won’t be taken: “Regrettably I do not expect much of an outcome. After 17 months, the situation is worsening and unless Japan requests the independent assessment team and guarantees a huge budget to carry out the team’s technical advice, the US government will not step in” to help8.
US nuclear policy is equally dangerous, thus, a safe and speedy resolution to what appears to be an insurmountable problem is not on the horizon. Tony Boys worked as an interpreter for nuclear expert, Dr. Chris Busby, on his visit to Japan last year. Boys told me “They may be ‘rebuilding’ at the FNPP, but I don’t think that solves the fundamental problem. You know how the Japanese love to do something cosmetic to make things look good because they don’t know how to really do it properly, but have to do ‘something’ ? Well, I think that’s largely what is going on at the site.”
Radio host, Jeff Rense, whose website has studiously reported on the nuclear catastrophe and all of Japan’s botched policies, told me that “everything they do is horrendous.” For example, Japan’s decision to ship contaminated Fukushima soil all the way across the country is truly stupefying9.
Prime Minister Noda recently rejected protester’s requests to shut down the nuclear reactors. As the Metropolitan Coalition Against Nukes told Noda in a face to face meeting, “[w]e the people do not believe you” regarding his empty promises to phase out nukes in the future. The Nuclear Mafia are restarting reactors even though they are unnecessary for electricity production. An overwhelming majority of people want to abolish nuclear power10,11,12. Having contaminated the world with quadrillions of becquerels of radiation (petabecquerels), Tepco is under a pseudo nationalization process that funnels tax money into their pockets yet maintains their autonomy13.
Worker Shortage
A common practice among workers in nuclear plants is to hide their real exposure rate of radiation. Because there are legal limits of radiation exposure, workers will take off their dosimeters, or cover them with lead. In normal times in Japan workers could also migrate from one plant to the other without indicating previous work experience, and work “under the table.” How long it takes to get sick and or die from such a practice is anyone’s guess.
If the “living dead,” the people “no one will miss” and the dregs of society can’t be coerced into sacrificing themselves, how about top Tepco executives or pro nuclear professors from Tokyo University for a helping hand? Good idea! But first you will have to chase them down on the golf course. NHK reports that:”[M]any workers crucial to the effort are reaching the limit for radiation exposure …. University of Tokyo Professor Kazumitsu Nawata warns of the consequences of losing nuclear plant workers with necessary expertise. He says young workers must be trained due to the need for massive manpower to fully bring the Daiichi plant under control.”
Is Professor Nawata volunteering other’s children for this dirty job, or maybe his own children would prefer to work in the High Sievert Zone? Tokyo University bears a heavy responsibility for the current catastrophe for its role in legitimizing the Nuclear Mafia.
A notable percentage of workers are leaving once they have reached the legal radiation limits. Of the 3,000 daily workers, “[s]ome of the firms have adopted stricter exposure standards … so that they do not breach the limit and become unemployable”14.
A number of recent incidents have highlighted the scandal over worker safety, including:
Over 140 workers have been found to have used fake names when getting jobs doing reconstruction work and are presently unaccounted for (Op. cit., “The Yakuza”).
Workers have purposely left integral dosimeter off their person while at work. “Tepco is pushing the responsibility to their sub-contract companies but has no solution for the shortage of nuclear workers” which indicates “major staffing problems” at the plant15,16.
Some workers themselves think the only solution to shoring up the plant will be “human wave tactics” as were employed at Chernobyl (17). If that is the case, where will the necessary workforce come from? In order combat the dwindling labor force, Tepco and subcontractors are knowingly telling workers to fake their radiation data. The practice is “believed to be part of a widespread practice at the plant”.18,19,20
Former General Electric nuclear plant inspector, a whistle blower who previously exposed dangers at the Fukushima plant – that were ignored – Kei Sugaoka, admitted that he had heard of young workers in the Taiwan nuclear industry dying from cancer due to radiation. When he worked in Taiwan he says “[t]hey made us wear lead vests to falsify radiation exposure … All the lead did was cover our dosimeters”21.
Despite the need to quickly resolve the situation, workers are given weekends off, but are also being recruited for decontamination in the 20 km zone. Speculation is that restart of other reactors in Japan will worsen the worker shortage. Japan seems to be going in too many directions at once.22,23,24
The Nuclear Workforce
French sociologist, Paul Jobin, “began research on Japanese and Taiwanese nuclear plant workers in 2002, mainly at Fukushima Daiichi,” and he did follow up interviews after the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
Jobin notes that:
Subcontracting labor at nuclear plants in Japan began shortly after their creation, in the mid-1970s. “In France, this trend would develop after 1988, reaching a rate of 80% by 1992.”
“According to NISA’s data, in 2009, Japan’s nuclear industry recruited more than 80,000 contract workers against 10,000 regular employees.”
Part time employment is carried out in order to limit labor costs “whether in France or Japan, the nuclear industry nurtures a heavy culture of secrecy concerning the number of irradiated workers.”
Before the Fukushima disaster, “only 9 former workers received compensation for an occupational cancer linked to their intervention in nuclear plants.” This number is probably far lower than the real number of those who suffered from working at NPPs.
“[S]tatistics from TEPCO (dated November 30, 2011) reported 3,745 workers on the site in March (about 1700 TEPCO employees and 2,000 subcontractors), and 14,000 for the time from April to October. The overwhelming majority … were subcontractors.” But even these figures may not include many low level but highly irradiated workers.
Radiation exposure depends on one’s status in the hierarchy. Tepco executives and high or mid level engineers are spared exposure, while “there is systematic camouflage of the collective radiation of the most exposed front line workers.”
Since March 11, 2011, Jobin estimates “that around 30,000 workers have been exposed to significant levels of radiation, some for a few days, many for more than one month”.25,26 How many of these workers are desperate or “mentally handicapped” to begin with? No wonder they are being used by the Nuclear Mafia as disposable work-bots. Hiroaki Koide, nuclear reactor specialist at Kyoto University says “[t]he truth of the matter is that the subcontract workers don’t really know the dangers of radiation and they don’t know how to protect themselves.” For example, wearing protective masks are so uncomfortable that many workers remove them during their work shift.27 How many health issues have been caused as a direct result of the work? In one case, the worker had been exposed in less than a year to levels far beyond what is considered normal lifetime background radiation. He suffered a heart attack.28
Worker Rights Advocates Fight For Social Justice
Hifumi Okunuki is an expert in labor law and spends much of her time fighting for the rights of Fukushima’s forgotten heroes. She notes that “the working conditions at Fukushima No. 1 are an emergency within an emergency” and that “special laws should be promulgated to guarantee the safety and fair treatment of the workers.”
“Japan’s Labor Standards Office has thus far recognized only 10 cases of radiation sickness caused by working conditions due to the inherent difficulty in proving causation in individual cases …. Management faces quite serious, possibly criminal, liability if while understanding the risk radiation exposure poses, they endanger those working on-site through a complicated web of outsourcing. Article 87 of the Labor Standards Law holds firms that outsource responsible for workplace safety and sanitation for workers employed by their subcontractor …. Illnesses caused by radiation exposure from nuclear power plants are covered by Japan’s Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage.”
Unsurprisingly, the Japanese justice system which plays an integral role in siding with the Nuclear Mafia has “yet to see a major court case over radiation-related deaths”.29
A new report from the venerable non governmental organization, Citizens Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), in Tokyo, highlights the FNPP worker issue. One whistle blower reported that in years past:
“Worker accidents are usually covered up inside the nuclear plant. Even if workers suddenly fall ill, they are not allowed to call an ambulance. In my case, after having been left unattended for three hours, I was taken to hospital in a colleague’s car. I therefore suffered aftereffects later and became physically handicapped. Of all accidents occurring in the nuclear power station, 90% were concealed.”
However, thanks to growing international attention, some of the conditions at FNPP have slightly improved. “Currently, ambulances are allowed to come into the nuclear power station and there is a doctor onsite 24 hrs a day”.30
Tepco’s Blind Eye
According to CNIC (Ibid.), the system for employing nuclear workers relies on an economically pyramid shaped, “multi-layered structure” of contractors and subcontractors which makes profits for executives and employees. Investigations have revealed the “[p]resence of subcontractors affiliated with crime syndicates and their employees.” In the year 2000 it was known that “350 companies were involved” at the FNPP and that many of the Yakuza employees or subcontractors are presently involved in the clean up operations.* “Under the utility, there are plant makers, subsidiaries of TEPCO and the plant makers, large, medium- and small-sized construction and repair companies, independent master carpenters and plumbers.”
The Yakuza enforce a severe hierarchy “between the group leader and the members” which is akin to the military and effective for getting dangerous work accomplished.
“[I]n 2006, TEPCO reportedly attempted to drive the gangsters … out of the plant.” The Yakuza said: “Do it if you think you can.” Tepco blinked.
‘[P]olice arrested leading members of a gangster group affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate based in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture’ who were ‘charged with violation of the Temporary Staffing Services Law.’ A president of a local company who ‘was deeply involved in the staffing of the nuclear power station and was the president of the local chamber of commerce and industry, as well as a member of the Fukushima Prefecture Nuclear Power Plant Town Information Council’ was arrested on suspicion of ‘illegally possessing a gun.’
“Workers hired by the lowest-level subcontractors were paid only around 5,000 yen [$60] per day, and were not covered by social insurance or employment insurance …. the current average daily wage is said to be 8,000 yen, although TEPCO pays 60,000-70,000 yen per capita to the principal subcontractor.” Everyone in between ‘takes a cut from the worker’s wages.’
In other words, it’s an economic racket. Although an “effective” system, “[i]llegal acts, such as the forgery of health reports … and not allowing workers to subscribe to health insurance and employees’ pension plans, are rampant,” but are tolerated by Tepco. This draws into question how effective such workers can be given the intimidation of violence from Yakuza bosses and the poor working conditions. The “problem is still beyond TEPCO’s control because the subcontractor system is deeply multi-layered and complex, and because the yakuza are so deeply entrenched in the system.”
Destroying Democracy
The 1995 documentary film, Nuclear Ginza, is valuable for its historical perspective on nuclear workers in Japan.31 Corruption, payoffs and coverups were the norm, then and now. As one worker whose health was damaged said,
“The big companies treat workers like objects or tools to be thrown away when no longer needed. Japan is considered a rich advanced and democratic country but its just an illusion I think.”
A Buddhist monk, Mr. Nakajima, who had worked for years to help the plight of workers noted that “[u]nfortunately in Japan, the sad reality is that democracy has been destroyed in the areas where nuclear power exists.”
Streets of Fire
Adelstein and Suzuki (Op. cit.) supply additional information of a particularly lurid and grim nature:
Yakuza have a saying: “When a man has to survive doing something, it’s the nuclear industry; for a woman, it’s the sex industry.”
One mid-level executive in the organization even defends the role of his members in the Fukushima disaster. “The accident isn’t our fault,” he said. “It’s TEPCO’s fault. We’ve always been a necessary evil in the work process. In fact, if some of our men hadn’t stayed to fight the meltdown, the situation would have been much worse. TEPCO employees and the Nuclear Industry Safety Agency inspectors mostly fled; we stood our ground.”
“Organized crime groups from Kyushu are bringing workers as well. Many of the workers are homeless people, debtors to yakuza loan sharks, or former yakuza who have been expelled from their group.”
Tepco refuses “to name the companies they use for outsourcing labor, background security checks, and general security at the nuclear power plants.” Recall Tepco’s feigned ignorance about government investigator’s accusations against them for “collusion.” Such bland dismissals on the part of Tepco are curious in light of the voluminous evidence to the contrary. The Tepco president’s denials of any collusion is an obvious lie.32,33
“Suzuki discovered evidence of Tepco subcontractors paying yakuza front companies to obtain lucrative construction contracts; of money destined for construction work flying into yakuza accounts; and of politicians and media being paid to look the other way.”
“His fellow workers, found Suzuki, were a motley crew of homeless, chronically unemployed Japanese men, former yakuza, debtors who owed money to the yakuza, and the mentally handicapped.”
“Suzuki claims the regular employees at the plant were often given better radiation suits than the yakuza recruits. ‘Almost every day a worker would keel over with heat exhaustion and be carried out; they would invariably return to work the next day. Going to the bathroom was virtually impossible, so workers were simply told to ‘hold it.’ ‘ “
“According to Suzuki, the temperature monitors in the plant weren’t even working, and were ignored. Removing the mask during work was against the rules; no matter how thirsty workers became, they could not drink water.”
“The risk of radiation exposure was 100 per cent. The masks, if their filters were cleaned regularly, which they were not, could only remove 60 per cent of the radioactive particles in the air.”
“Suzuki found people who’d been threatened into working at Fukushima, but others who’d volunteered. Why? ‘Of course, if it was a matter of dying today or tomorrow they wouldn’t work there,’ he explains. ‘It’s because it could take 10 years or more for someone to possibly die of radiation excess. It’s like Russian roulette. If you owe enough money to the yakuza, working at a nuclear plant is a safer bet. Wouldn’t you rather take a chance at dying 10 years later than being stabbed to death now?’ “
Conclusion
Faced with an ongoing radioactive nightmare which is contaminating Japan’s food and water supply, what should be done? The Nuclear Mafia’s ethos is silken sewn into the socio-political Kabuki theater of a post modern Japanese society, which seems helpless to save itself. Maybe Ambassador Matsumura, with his international political connections of good will, and the Skilled Veterans for Fukushima would be good people to turn to for advice.
Thousands of dead nutria (rats)pile up on Mississippi beaches after Isaac
Michael Spooneybarger / Reuters
Nutria pile up along the shore on Aug. 31 after Hurricane Isaac went through Waveland, Miss.
By Miguel Llanos, NBC News
If there’s a silver lining for the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Isaac, it might just be this: the surge of water flushed out, and drowned, thousands of nutria — rodent-like aquatic mammals originally from South America that are eating away at marshlands acting as a barrier from storms.
Most of the dead nutria have washed up on beaches in Mississippi’s Hancock and Harrison counties.
“Estimates are there will be over 20,000 carcasses,” Robbie Wilbur, spokesman for the state’s department of environmental quality, told NBC News.
In the short term, that many rotting carcasses is a health hazard.
“It’s a terrible smell,” David Garcia, mayor of Waveland in Hancock county, told WLOX-TV. “As this heat continues, they’re just going to blow up and pop, making it even more of a health hazard.”
Crews over the weekend started removing the nutria, aka swamp rats, though it’s not an easy task.
A federal contractor with experience in hazardous waste has been brought in, but even a handful of its workers had quit Sunday morning, the Sun Herald reported.
“There’s people who can’t take the sight of something like this,” Yarborough said. “That’s the reason I wouldn’t even attempt this with county people. You really should be certified and trained in hazardous waste.”
County crews tried to deal with a similar situation after Hurricane Gustav in 2008 “and we had people getting sick; wound up buying everybody’s clothes,” he added.
Nutria were released in Louisiana and Mississippi back in the 1930s by fur trappers looking for new stock. Populations were kept in check as long as fur prices were good, but a collapse in the 1980s led to a collapse in trapping and a population now estimated at several million.
As a result, nutria are “one of the Gulf South’s most notorious invasive species, wreaking ecological havoc on native wetland vegetation and contributing to coastal erosion problems,” Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality said in its plan for dealing with invasives.
The erosion is done by nutria “digging into thin soils and eating roots of marsh vegetation,” the department states. “As the vegetation dies, the fine-grained, denuded soils become more vulnerable to erosion, eventually forming expanding holes in the marsh called ‘eat-outs’.”
The species is also a speedy breeder: nutria reach sexual maturity at just four months old, and females are able to breed within 48 hours of giving birth to a litter.
Back along the beaches, the thousands of nutria carcasses are being taken to a nearby landfill, while those in areas away from the public will be left there.
“We’re letting mother nature take care of those,” Chad Lafontaine, with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, told the Sun Herald.
One person was killed and seven others were injured when a slab of a staircase of an under-construction Metro railway station collapsed here Tuesday, officials said. The incident took place on Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro line in Andheri east late afternoon, officials said. The slab of a stairway being built for the Metro railway station came crashing down. “One person is dead, while seven others who are injured are stable,” Dr D. Bhuvan, AGM-operations and spokesperson for the Seven Hills hospital told IANS. The identity of the person who was killed in the accident is yet to be ascertained. “Fire brigade and police teams are undertaking rescue operations. We are awaiting more details,” an official from the city’s civic disaster control room told IANS. According to a witness, several people are feared to be trapped under the debris of the collapsed stairway.
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David Mcnew / Getty Images
Michael Spooneybarger / Reuters
