On a single Kentucky street, the tornado killed 7 children

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — The little red wagon was strewn upside down on a heap of rubble — a pile of boards and bricks, a mangled blue bicycle, a baby doll.

Behind it, there was little more than a hole in the ground where a house had stood. Across the street, the tidy homes on this cul-de-sac were reduced to mounds of lumber. Clothes hung from the branches of snapped trees. The walls of one house were gone, and the only thing left standing inside was a white Christmas tree.

When a tornado touched down in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in the middle of the night, its violence was centered on this friendly subdivision, where everyone waved at one another and giggling children spent afternoons tooling around on bicycles on the sidewalks. Fourteen people died in a few blocks, 11 of them on a single street, Moss Creek Avenue. Entire families were lost, among them seven children, two of them infants. Neighbors who survived are so stricken with grief they struggle to speak of it. All around them, amid the ruins, is evidence of the kids they used to watch climb off the school bus.

Melinda Allen-Ray has barely slept since early Saturday, when tornado alerts started screaming and she carried her grandchildren into the bathroom as winds whipped her house apart. After just minutes of destruction, there was silence. She went outside and heard her neighbors’ screams.

-Associated Press

Night of devastating tornadoes likely killed more than 100 in Kentucky

MAYFIELD, Kentucky - At least 100 people were feared dead in Kentucky after a swarm of tornadoes tore a 200-mile path through the U.S. Midwest and South, demolishing homes, levelling businesses and setting off a scramble to find survivors beneath the rubble, officials said Saturday.

The powerful twisters, which weather forecasters say are unusual in cooler months, destroyed a candle factory and the fire and police stations in a small town in Kentucky, ripped through a nursing home in neighboring Missouri, and killed at least six workers at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the collection of tornadoes was the most destructive in the state's history. He said about 40 workers had been rescued at the candle factory in the city of Mayfield, which had about 110 people inside when it was reduced to a pile of rubble. It would be a "miracle" to find anyone else alive under the debris, Beshear said.

"The devastation is unlike anything I have seen in my life and I have trouble putting it into words," Beshear said at a press conference. "It's very likely going to be over 100 people lost here in Kentucky."

Beshear said 189 National Guard personnel have been deployed to assist with the recovery. The rescue efforts will focus in large part on Mayfield, home to some 10,000 people in the southwestern corner of the state where it converges with Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas.

Video and photos posted on social media showed brick buildings in downtown Mayfield flattened, with parked cars nearly buried under debris. The steeple on the historic Graves County courthouse was toppled and the nearby First United Methodist Church partially collapsed.

Mayfield Fire Chief Jeremy Creason, whose own station was destroyed, said the candle factory was diminished to a "pile of bent metal and steel and machinery" and that responders had to at times "crawl over casualties to get to live victims."

Paige Tingle said she drove four hours to the site in the hope of finding her 52-year-old mother, Jill Monroe, who was working at the factory and was last heard from at 9:30 p.m.

"We don't know how to feel, we are just trying to find her," she said. "It's a disaster here."

The genesis of the tornado outbreak was a series of overnight thunderstorms, including a super cell storm that formed in northeast Arkansas. That storm moved from Arkansas and Missouri and into Tennessee and Kentucky.

Unusually high temperatures and humidity created the environment for such an extreme weather event at this time of year, said Victor Gensini, a professor in geographic and atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University.

"This is an historic, if not generational event," Gensini said.

Saying the disaster was likely one of the largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history, President Joe Biden on Saturday approved an emergency declaration for Kentucky.

He told reporters he would be asking the Environmental Protection Agency to examine what role climate change may have played in fuelling the storms, and he raised questions about the tornado warning systems.

"What warning was there? And was it strong enough and was it heeded?" Biden said.

'LIKE A BIG BOMB'

About 130 miles east of Mayfield in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Justin Shepherd said his coffee shop was spared the worst of the storm, which struck other businesses hard on the busy commercial strip just off the bypass to U.S. Highway 31 West.

"We've got some siding and roof damage here, but just across the road there's a brewery that half of it is gone. It's just totally gone, like a big bomb exploded or something."

One person was killed and five seriously injured when a tornado tore through a nursing home with 90 beds in Monette, Arkansas, a small community near the border with Missouri, according to Craighead County Judge Marvin Day.

"We were very blessed that more people weren't killed or injured in that. It could have been a whole lot worse," Day told Reuters.

A few miles away in Leachville, Arkansas, a tornado destroyed a Dollar General Store, killing one person, and laid waste to much of the city's downtown, said Lt. Chuck Brown of the Mississippi County Sheriff's Office in Arkansas.

"It really sounded like a train roaring through town."

In Illinois, at least six workers were confirmed killed after an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse collapsed in the town of Edwardsville, when the winds ripped off the roof and reduced a wall longer than a football field to rubble.

Amazon truck driver Emily Epperson, 23, said she was anxiously waiting for information on the whereabouts of her workmate Austin McEwan late Saturday afternoon to relay to his girlfriend and parents.

"We're so worried because we believe that, you know, he would have been found by now," she told Reuters.

In Tennessee, the severe weather killed at least three people, said Dean Flener, spokesperson for the state's Emergency Management Agency. And two people, including a young child, were killed in their homes in Missouri, Governor Mike Parson said in a statement.

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said it received 36 reports of tornadoes touching down in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

The weather forecast was broadly clear for Saturday night, but temperatures were expected to drop and thousands of residents lack power and water after the storm. As of Saturday afternoon, nearly 99,000 customers in Kentucky and more than 71,000 in Tennessee were without power, according to PowerOutage.US, a website tracking power outages.

Kentucky officials called on residents to stay off the roads and to donate blood, as responders rushed to rescue survivors and account for people in communities that had lost communications.

"We've got Guardsmen who are out doing door knocks and checking up on folks because there's no other communication with some of these people," said Brigadier General Haldane Lamberton of the Kentucky National Guard.

(Reporting by Cheney Orr; Additional reporting by Njuwa Maina, Brendan O'Brien, Rich McKay, Vishal Vivek, Makini Brice, Valerie Volcovici, Maria Caspani and Steve Gorman; Writing by Nathan Layne and Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Frances Kerry and Daniel Wallis)

-reuters

German floods kill at least 133; search for survivors continues

FRANKFURT - Rescue workers searched flood-ravaged parts of western Germany for survivors on Saturday as water levels remained high in many towns and houses continued to collapse in the country's worst natural disaster in half a century.

At least 133 people have died in the flooding, including some 90 people in the Ahrweiler district south of Cologne, according to police estimates on Saturday. Hundreds of people are still missing.

Around 700 residents were evacuated late on Friday after a dam broke in the town of Wassenberg near Cologne, authorities said.

Over the past several days the floods, which have mostly hit the states of Rhineland Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, have cut off entire communities from power and communications.

The flooding has also hit parts of Belgium and the Netherlands. At least 20 people have died in Belgium.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Armin Laschet, state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, were scheduled to visit Erftstadt, one of the hardest hit towns, on Saturday.

Laschet is ruling CDU party's candidate in September's general election. The devastation of the floods could intensify the debate over climate change ahead of the vote.

Scientists have long said that climate change will lead to heavier downpours. But determining its role in these relentless downpours will take at least several weeks to research, scientists said on Friday.

-reuters 

Dorian triggers massive flooding in Bahamas; at least 5 dead

NASSAU, Bahamas  – Hurricane Dorian unleashed massive flooding across the Bahamas on Monday, pummeling the islands with so much wind and water that authorities urged people to find floatation devices and grab hammers to break out of their attics if necessary. At least five deaths were blamed on the storm.

“We are in the midst of a historic tragedy,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in announcing the fatalities. He called the devastation “unprecedented and extensive.”

The fearsome Category 4 storm slowed almost to a standstill as it shredded roofs, hurled cars and forced even rescue crews to take shelter until the onslaught passed.

Officials said they received a “tremendous” number of calls from people in flooded homes.

A radio station received more than 2,000 distress messages, including reports of a 5-month-old baby stranded on a roof and a grandmother with six grandchildren who cut a hole in a roof to escape rising floodwaters. Other reports involved a group of eight children and five adults stranded on a highway and two storm shelters that flooded.

The deaths in the Bahamas came after a previous storm-related fatality in Puerto Rico. At least 21 people were hurt in the Bahamas and evacuated by helicopters, the prime minster said.

Police Chief Samuel Butler urged people to remain calm and share their GPS coordinates, but he said rescue crews had to wait until weather conditions improved.

“We simply cannot get to you,” he told Bahamas radio station ZNS.

Forecasters warned that Dorian could generate a storm surge as high as 23 feet (7 meters).

Meanwhile in the United States, the National Hurricane Center extended watches and warnings across the Florida and Georgia coasts. Forecasters expected Dorian to stay off shore, but meteorologist Daniel Brown cautioned that “only a small deviation” could draw the storm’s dangerous core toward land.

By 5 p.m. EDT Monday, the storm’s top sustained winds fell slightly to 145 mph (230 kph). It was crawling along Grand Bahama Island at 1 mph (2 kph) and then remained stationary.


The water reached roofs and the tops of palm trees. One woman filmed water lapping at the stairs of her home’s second floor.

In Freeport, Dave Mackey recorded video showing water and floating debris surging around his house as the wind shrieked outside.

“Our house is 15 feet up, and right now where that water is is about 8 feet. So we’re pretty concerned right now because we’re not at high tide,” said Mackey, who shared the video with The Associated Press. “Our garage door has already come off. … Once we come out of it with our lives, we’re happy.”

On Sunday, Dorian churned over Abaco Island with battering winds and surf and heavy flooding.

Parliament member Darren Henfield described the damage as “catastrophic” and said officials did not have information on what happened on nearby cays. “We are in search-and-recovery mode. … Continue to pray for us.”

A spokesman for Bahamas Power and Light told ZNS that there was a blackout in New Providence, the archipelago’s most populous island. He said the company’s office in Abaco island was flattened.

“The reports out of Abaco as everyone knows,” spokesman Quincy Parker said, pausing for a deep sigh, “were not good.”

Most people went to shelters as the storm neared. Tourist hotels shut down, and residents boarded up their homes. Many people were expected to be left homeless.

On Sunday, Dorian’s maximum sustained winds reached 185 mph (297 kph), with gusts up to 220 mph (354 kph), tying the record for the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever to make landfall. That equaled the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, before storms were named. The only recorded storm that was more powerful was Hurricane Allen in 1980, with 190 mph (305 kph) winds, though it did not make landfall at that strength.

The Bahamas archipelago is no stranger to hurricanes. Homes are required to have metal reinforcements for roof beams to withstand winds into the upper limits of a Category 4 hurricane, and compliance is generally tight for those who can afford it. Risks are higher in poorer neighborhoods that have wooden homes in low-lying areas.


Dorian was likely to begin pulling away from the Bahamas early Tuesday and curving to the northeast parallel to the southeastern coast of the U.S. The system is expected to spin 40 to 50 miles (64 to 80 kilometers) off Florida, with hurricane-force wind speeds extending about 35 miles (56 kilometers) to the west.

An advisory from the hurricane center warned that Florida’s east-central coast could see a brief tornado sometime Monday afternoon or evening.

A mandatory evacuation of entire South Carolina coast took effect Monday covering about 830,000 people.

Transportation officials reversed all lanes of Interstate 26 from Charleston to head inland earlier than planned after noticing traffic jams from evacuees and vacationers heading home on Labor Day, Gov. Henry McMaster said.

“We can’t make everybody happy, but we believe we can keep everyone alive,” the governor said.

A few hours later, Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, ordered mandatory evacuations for that state’s Atlantic coast, also starting at midday Monday.

Authorities in Florida ordered mandatory evacuations in some vulnerable coastal areas. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper warned his state that it could see heavy rain, winds and floods later in the week.

A hurricane watch was in effect for Florida’s East Coast from Deerfield Beach north to South Santee River in South Carolina. A storm surge watch was extended northward to South Santee River in South Carolina. Lake Okeechobee was under a tropical storm watch.

A National Guard official, John Anderson, said many people were complying with the evacuation orders.

“We have not seen much resistance at all,” he said in a phone call with reporters. People do understand that Dorian is nothing to mess around with.” /gsg

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

5 tourists rescued from flooded home as storm hits Hawaii

HONOLULU — Sirens wailed while workers piled sandbags in front of hotels and police blasted warnings to tourists to leave the world-famous Waikiki Beach as hurricane “Lane” barreled north after dumping nearly two feet of rain on Hawaii’s mostly rural Big Island.

Emergency crews rescued five California tourists from a home they were renting in Hilo after a nearby gulch overflowed and it flooded Thursday.

Suzanne Demerais said a tiny waterfall and small stream flowed near the home when she first arrived with four of her friends from the Los Angeles area. But the stream turned into a torrent and the river rose rapidly over 24 hours.


Hawaii County firefighters, who were in touch with the home’s owner, decided to evacuate the group before the water rose further. They floated the five out on their backs, Demerais said.

“It was quite an experience because we weren’t planning to have a hurricane during our vacation time,” Demerais said.

The hurricane, whose center was still offshore, lashed the Big Island with nearly 20 inches (50 centimeters) of rain in about 24 hours. It had maximum sustained winds near 120 mph (193 kph), making it a Category 3 hurricane.

Forecasters said the center of the storm will move close to or over parts of Hawaii’s main islands late Friday, bringing dangerous surf of 20 feet (6 meters).


About 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Hilo, on the state’s most populated island of Oahu, employees of the Sheraton Waikiki resort filled sandbags to protect the oceanfront hotel from surging surf.

Stores along Waikiki’s glitzy Kalakaua Avenue stacked sandbags along the bottom of their glass windows to prepare for heavy rain and flash flooding.

Police on loudspeakers told surfers and swimmers to get out of the water, saying the beach would be closed until further notice.

The Marriott Resort Waikiki Beach in Honolulu designated a ballroom on the third floor as a shelter for guests and began removing lounge chairs from around the pool and bar area.


At the Hilton Hawaiian Village, guest Elisabeth Brinson said hotel staff left a notice that the rooms will still have water and phone service, and a backup generator would power one elevator per building in the event of a power outage.

Brinson, a native of the United Kingdom now living in Denver, said many shops were closed, and those still open were frantic with people buying food, beer and water to take back to their rooms.

“We knew it was coming, so I tried to just cram as much as I could into the last few days in anticipation so we could cross things off of our list,” said Brinson, who is accustomed to hurricanes after living in Florida.



Lane was not projected to make a direct hit on the islands, but officials warned that even a lesser blow could do significant harm. Some areas could see up to 30 inches (about 80 centimeters) of rain.

United Airlines canceled its Friday flights to and from Maui. The airline added two additional flights from Honolulu to San Francisco on Thursday to help transport people off the islands.

Hawaiian Airlines canceled all Friday flights by its commuter carrier, Ohana by Hawaiian.

Hawaii’s biggest hotels are confident they can keep their guests safe as long as they stay inside, said Mufi Hannemann, CEO of Hawaii Tourism and Lodging Association.

“The only concern is those that venture outside of the properties, that would like to hike on a day like this or who would like to still go into the ocean and see what it’s like to take a swim or surf in these kind of waters,” Hannemann said.

Honolulu shopping malls and office buildings closed early on Thursday and planned to shut their doors Friday.

Shelters were open throughout the islands, with 350 people in them in Oahu. Aid agencies were also working to help Hawaii’s sizable homeless population, many of whom live near beaches and streams that could flood.

Because there’s not enough shelter space statewide, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency Administrator Tom Travis urged people who were not in flood zones to stay home.

The National Weather Service downgraded the Big Island to a tropical storm warning, meaning it expects sustained winds of 39 mph (62 kph) to 73 mph (117 kph) on the island instead of stronger hurricane force winds.

But a hurricane warning remains in effect for Oahu and Maui County.

The central Pacific gets fewer hurricanes than other regions, with about only four or five named storms a year. Hawaii rarely gets hit. The last major storm to hit was Iniki in 1992. Others have come close in recent years.

Because people in Hawaii are confined to the islands, they have to make sure they have enough supplies to outlast power outages and other potential emergencies.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency moved several barges packed with food, water, generators and other supplies into the region ahead of Hurricane Hector, which skirted past the islands more than a week ago, FEMA Administrator Brock Long said.   /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Gasquet recalls scenes in Stade de France during Paris attack

“It was not a sound, it was really a blast.”

As Richard Gasquet watched France take on Germany in a football match inside Stade de France, a disaster happened outside the walls of the stadium.

A disaster that not only shook Paris, but a catastrophe that shocked the world.

The attacks killed at least 129 people in the city with members of Islamic State of Syria tagged as the suspects.

“The match had started. We heard two explosions. I had even before heard some unbelievable sounds in les Parcs au Princes but this was obviously something else,” Gasquet told L’Equipe. “It was not a sound, it was really a blast. I was in a box suite, so there was [a] television and we could see what was happening in other parts of Paris.”

Gasquet, the World No. 9, said an evacuation was ordered after the third explosion, a moment he described as “very memorable images.”

“I went to the parking lot. We stayed a long time before leaving.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Objects seen in jet search are fishing equipment

PERTH, Australia — A cluster of orange objects spotted by a search plane hunting for any trace of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet turned out to be nothing more than fishing equipment, Australian officials said Monday, the latest disappointing news in a weekslong hunt that Australia’s prime minister said will continue indefinitely.

The crew of an Australian P-3 Orion search plane spotted at least four orange objects that were more than 2 meters (6 feet) in size on Sunday, and the pilot, Flight Lt. Russell Adams, dubbed the sighting their most promising lead in the search for Flight 370. But on Monday, Jesse Platts, a spokesman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, said the objects had been analyzed and officials had confirmed “they have nothing to do with the missing flight.”

It’s a frustrating pattern that has developed in the hunt for the Boeing 777, which vanished on a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 with 239 people aboard: Search crews have repeatedly spotted multiple objects floating in remote patches of the southern Indian Ocean, only for officials to later confirm they aren’t linked to the missing plane.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Monday acknowledged the search was incredibly complex, but said officials were “well, well short” of any point where they would scale the hunt back.

On Wednesday, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak plans to travel to Perth to see the search operations firsthand.

The search for Flight 370 has evolved over the past three weeks as experts sifted through a limited set of radar and satellite data, moving gradually from the seas off Vietnam, to waters west of Malaysia and Indonesia, and then to several areas west of Australia.

“This is an extraordinarily difficult exercise …. we are searching a vast area of ocean and we are working on quite limited information,” Abbott said, adding that the best brains in the world and all the technological mastery is being applied to the task.

“If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it,” he said.

He said the search that has been going on for more than three weeks is operating on guestimates “until we locate some actual wreckage from the aircraft and then do the regression analysis that might tell us where the aircraft went into the ocean.”

Ten planes were either over the search zone or heading there by late Monday afternoon, and another 11 ships were scouring the area, about 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) west of Australia. More than 100 personnel in the air and 1,000 sailors at sea were involved in Monday’s hunt, with some sections of the 253,000 square kilometer (98,000 square mile) search zone expected to experience low clouds and rain. It takes planes about 2 1/2 hours to get to the area, allowing a five-hour search before they must return to Perth.

Former Australian defense chief Angus Houston on Monday began his job of heading the new Joint Agency Coordination Center, which will oversee communication with international agencies involved in the search. The Perth-based center will position Australia to shoulder more of Malaysia’s coordination responsibilities as the search drags on.

Houston will also play a prime coordination role when victims’ families travel to Australia in the weeks ahead.

Abbott said he was not putting a time limit on the search. “We owe it to everyone to do whatever we reasonably can and we can keep searching for quite some time to come … and, as I said, the intensity of our search and the magnitude of operations is increasing, not decreasing.”

The Ocean Shield, an Australian warship which is carrying a U.S. device that detects “pings” from the flight recorders, was expected to leave Perth on Monday evening for the search zone, a trip that will take three to four days. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is coordinating the search, said it would first conduct sea trials on Monday afternoon to test the search equipment on board.

The search area remains vast, so investigators are hoping to first find debris floating on the ocean surface that will help them calculate where the plane crashed into the water.

Meanwhile, several dozen Chinese relatives of Flight 370 passengers visited a Buddhist temple near Kuala Lumpur on Monday to pray for their loved ones. They offered incense, bowed their heads in a moment of silence, knelt several times during the prayers and lowered their heads in kowtows. Buddhist nuns handed out prayer beads to them. “You are not alone,” one nun said. “You have the whole world’s love, including Malaysia’s.”

Several of the relatives were overcome with emotion, tears streaming down their faces.

The family members later made a brief statement to journalists, expressing their appreciation to the Chinese government and the people of Malaysia and the volunteers who have been assisting them. They bowed as a show of gratitude, but also said they were still demanding answers.

“To those who are guilty of harming our loved ones, hiding the truth, and delaying the search and rescue, we will also definitely not forgive them,” said a family representative, Jiang Hui.

The relatives’ comments Monday were seen as a small conciliatory move after they staged an angry protest in front of reporters on Sunday at a hotel near Kuala Lumpur. At the time, they chanted slogans, raised banners and called on the Malaysian government to apologize for what they dubbed missteps in the handling of the disaster.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Smartphone app to give earthquake warning

RIO DE JANEIRO— A smartphone app designed to give early warning of earthquakes could be ready as early as next year, according to scientists at the World Science Forum in Rio de Janeiro.

Researchers from the University of California showed off the project this week at a conference on how to use technology to ward off natural disasters.

The app is based on technology used in an early warning system prepared by a team under Professor Richard Allen, director of the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory.

California has already embraced the concept of an early warning network, with Governor Jerry Brown signing a bill in September mandating the creation of a system.

The smartphone app is capable of providing an alert between a few seconds and one minute before a tremor hits, depending on where an individual using it is in relation to the epicenter.

To do this, the app captures initial energy from the tremor, the so-called P wave or primary wave, which rarely itself causes damage.

The technology uses algorithms to detect rapidly when a quake is starting and determine its strength and location and when it is likely to reach its zenith and alert residents in potentially affected areas. The algorithms use data from regional networks monitoring seismic networks.

In the case of cell phones, those located at the actual epicenter of the quake will not receive the early warning.

But the tremors detected by the system will be transmitted in a chain to other receivers so that those a few kilometers (miles) away will be able to react to cloud-based data and glean more information on what is happening where and what is likely to happen next.

“All we need is a telephone at the epicenter of the quake which detects it and sends the information (saying) ‘I felt a jolt, I am in this place’ to a server,” explained Allen.

“There are many phones simultaneously doing this to enable the server to determine the site and magnitude of the quake to send people further away a warning. These warnings include (information on) how much time to the start of the tremor and also its intensity.”

The warning gives people precious time to seek out a secure place of refuge and halt industrial activity or transport, thereby reducing risk to the public at large.

The app uses various smartphone functions such as accelerometers and gyroscopes to determine movement, as well as GPS and Wi-Fi localization functions as well as a magnetometer to indicate direction.

The software makes use of the fact that there are 16 million smartphones in California alone and about one billion globally that are ever more interconnected.

The app will first be tested across a pool of several thousand users. Once it is fully rolled out it will be free via a coded access.

The biennial World Science Forum, held over three days this week in Rio after moving for the first time outside Budapest since its 2003 launch, brings together scientists, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations and researchers to debate issues of science policy.

The main theme of this year’s event was “Science for Global Sustainable Development.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

US sends ‘Mercy’ to Yolanda victims

MANILA, Philippines – A US Navy hospital ship will come to the Philippines to support disaster relief efforts in areas ravaged by the supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan).

Expected to dock in the Philippines this December, naval ship “Mercy” was activated by US Pacific Fleet on Wednesday for immediate deployment, commander of the US Pacific Fleet Admiral Harry Harris Jr. said in an official statement.

“If ordered to deploy, Mercy would get underway in the next several days and could arrive in the Philippines sometime in December, joining other US Pacific Fleet units already supporting Operation Damayan,” the Pentagon’s humanitarian assistance program for “Yolanda” victims launched in cooperation with the US Agency for International Development. Damayan in Filipino means “help in time of need”.

As of posting time, the US has transported more than 107,000 pounds of relief supplies.

In the official website of USNS Mercy has three to four operating rooms, one emergency room, four Intensive Care Unit beds and isolation ward, 62 ward beds and 22 hotel beds.

The US Navy will also send amphibious ships USS Ashland (LSD 48), USS Germantown (LSD 42), USS McCampbell (DDG 85) and USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE 10), which were expected to arrive in the country starting Thursday.

“This collection of ships and their complement of aircraft, to include much-needed helicopters, will provide food and water, the capability to move relief supplies to isolated areas, and to help move the badly injured for medical care,” Harris said.

source: globalnation.inquirer.net

Australian firm donates A$500,000 to Red Cross for Yolanda relief

MANILA, Philippines—Global resources firm BHP Billiton has donated A$500,000 to the Red Cross in response to the devastation wrought by “supertyphoon Yolanda” (international name Haiyan) in the Visayas region last week.

“The typhoon and its aftermath have had a severe impact on communities in the Philippines and given our history and relationship with the people of the Philippines, we hope this donation will assist the Red Cross in helping the local people in their recovery from this terrible event,” said Mike Henry, the BHP Billiton president.

The donation came from the Australian firm’s BHP Billiton Sustainable Communities, a charity it established as part of its community investment program.

Apart from the A$500,000 donation, BHP Billiton will also donate A$2 for every A$1 donated by an employee through its Matched Giving program.

source: business.inquirer.net

Spoelstra featured in typhoon relief ad; Heat, Carnival Corp. pledge $1M

MIAMI — Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, a Filipino-American, released a public service announcement with UNICEF on Wednesday asking people to help with typhoon relief efforts in the Philippines.

Spoelstra’s mother is from the Philippines, and the Heat coach has visited her homeland several times in recent years. The country’s eastern portion was devastated last Friday when Typhoon Haiyan struck, killing thousands, displacing hundreds of thousands and leaving enormous numbers of Filipinos homeless, hungry and thirsty.

“Devastation caused by the recent typhoon in the Philippines has been catastrophic and millions of children have been impacted,” Spoelstra said in the PSA, which was taped as he stood on the court where the Heat play home games.

The NBA, the NBA Players Association and the Heat are among the groups who have already announced donations to relief efforts. The Heat combined with Carnival Corporation to pledge at least $1 million to the effort; the team is owned by Micky Arison, who also chairs Carnival’s board.

In addition, the Heat held a moment of silence for those lost and affected by the storm before their game Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Spoelstra’s success as coach of the Heat has been huge news in the Philippines. Reporters from that country have traveled to cover the last three NBA Finals largely because of Spoelstra’s involvement, and when he returned to the Philippines as part of a sports envoy tour arranged by the NBA and the U.S. State Department in 2009 – his first trip there in 35 years – massive crowds awaited him at every stop.

Other than fans from the U.S. and China, the NBA has said that Filipinos are most active on the league’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“The NBA Family is teaming up with UNICEF to bring life-saving clean water, food, medicine and shelter that are urgently needed,” Spoelstra said in the PSA. “Join our team.”

He ends the spot by saying “Thank you” and “Maraming salamat po” – the Filipino phrase for “Thank you very much.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Filipinos abroad mobilize to help country

HONG KONG—Filipinos abroad, who have spent harrowing days trying to contact loved ones after a typhoon devastated their homeland, are mobilizing to send relief, despite misgivings about corrupt local officials pocketing aid on the ground.

With thousands feared dead and aid only trickling in after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: “Haiyan”) laid waste to entire coastal towns on Friday, many among the 10-million-strong diaspora are still frantically trying to find out if their relatives are alive and their homes still standing.

And from Asian capitals to the United States and Europe, Filipino communities are taking to churches and social media sites to raise funds for communities left with nothing—and growing increasingly desperate.

In Hong Kong, where some 150,000 Filipinos work as domestic helpers, the Red Cross said a hotline set up to trace the missing had been overwhelmed since the typhoon smashed into the nation’s central islands, displacing an estimated 673,000.

“The maids were crying. They didn’t know what to do,” spokesperson Denise Wong told AFP.

Liezel Miralles, a 40-year-old domestic worker from Batad, a coastal town of 20,000 people, had not been able to contact her husband and other relatives to find out if they had survived.

“I feel very, very, very sad, my whole family is there,” Miralles said as she bought groceries for her employer at a street-side market. “There is no house, no phone, no connection.”

On Sunday, when Hong Kong’s downtown throngs with domestic helpers congregating on their day-off, worker groups will hold an “information drive” on the crisis and gather donations.

But support group United Filipinos is one of many organizations and individuals around the world planning to direct aid only to nongovernment agencies.

“We are afraid that if we send to the government, it will just to go their pockets and will not reach the beneficiaries,” secretary general Eman Villanueva told AFP.

“Politicians are using it for their own benefit even in the midst of this devastating situation. They are still thinking for themselves.”

In Singapore, Dimples Larrazabal said the 24 hours it took for her to get in touch with her mother, her brother and his family in the town of Ormoc in devastated Leyte province seemed like an eternity.

“At first I was half-positive (that things would be OK) because our house is a good structure,” said Larrazabal, a 35-year-old homemaker. But she began to panic after seeing photos showing the unimaginable devastation.

“That’s when I cried ‘Oh my God! Nothing was spared!” she said. “I knew that Ormoc was directly in the path of the typhoon.”

Social media sites were inundated with posts from people searching for missing relatives, uploading pictures of individuals and families on Facebook and Twitter in posts tagged #tracingPH or simply #missing.

Google said it had updated its Person Finder site—which helps people find loved ones after a disaster—to include Philippines’ mobile numbers.

Krima Molina, a 26-year-old teacher from storm-struck Leyte now living in Tokyo, said she watched in horror as Facebook posts from friends at home turned into increasingly desperate pleas for help.

Homeless survivors were becoming ill from exposure, left with no shelter but makeshift shanties made of plastic tarps draped over plywood, she said. “They need medicine. They need volunteer doctors. A lot of people are injured.”

Many of the homes destroyed have been built with the earnings of the staggering 10 percent of the population that works abroad.

source: globalnation.inquirer.net

Snapshots from Philippine typhoon disaster zone

Four days after Typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) devastated islands in the central Philippines, survivors are desperate for food and clamoring to be evacuated. Here are some snapshots from the disaster zone:

— NO COMMUNICATION: The Philippine military says communication outages are making coordination with local government departments in hard-hit Tacloban city a major problem in the relief effort. Army Brig. Gen. Virgilio Espineli said, “We are organized. We have command and control. But how do we call the department of social welfare, the department of health, the department of public works and highways?”

— DEMINING NEEDED: A military armory just north of Tacloban airport’s tarmac was destroyed by the storm, which left explosives, grenades and military ordnance scattered around, some now buried in the mud. Military personnel are trying to keep people away, and at some point the area will need to be cleared.

— TRICKLE OF FOOD AID: Very little food aid has reached Tacloban. At the city’s airport, people crowded the destroyed terminal building and shouted at soldiers. “We are hungry,” one man said. “Please, please help us,” said another. A soldier yelled back that cargo planes were coming, and that people would be flown out.

— YOLANDA VS. HAIYAN: Philippine authorities gave Typhoon Haiyan a Filipino name, Typhoon Yolanda. That’s their policy because it is easier for local people to relate to Filipino names than foreign ones.

— DEAD BODIES: Many survivors expressed concern about dead bodies floating in the sea and lying on the ground. “They should be removed right away because all of us will get sick,” said 40-year-old Helen Cordial. Medical professionals say dead bodies are a negligible health hazard. “After a disaster, the top priority is look after the living. Rushing to bury the dead diverts resources away from rescue efforts and can make it impossible to identify bodies later,” the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

— RELIEF SUPPLIES IN, EVACUEES OUT: U.S. Army Maj. Leo Liebreich said American forces were hoping to bring five C-130 cargo planes to Tacloban to get people out Tuesday. “We’re bringing in relief supplies, and leaving with evacuees” for Manila, he said. “It’s pretty chaotic.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Aquino urged to declare nat’l day of mourning for ‘Yolanda’ fatalities

MANILA, Philippines – Opposition Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Tuesday urged President Benigno Aquino III to declare a national day of mourning for the people who perished from supetyphoon “Yolanda.”

Ejercito, in a statement, also urged Aquino to order all government agencies and schools in the country to fly the Philippine flag at half-staff “to signify sympathy and respect to the families and victims of the super typhoon.”

The senator made the proposals as he lauded the President for declaring a state of national calamity.




Aquino’s move, he said, came just hours after he filed a resolution Monday, calling for the declaration of a state of national calamity.

Ejercito said there was indeed a need to declare a state of national calamity to expedite the relief, rescue and rehabilitation efforts by the government and private sector, including international humanitarian assistance.

“This will also ensure to put a price freeze on the basic commodities, thus, will prevent the profiteering and hoarding of prime goods, medicines and petroleum products needed by the victims,” he  said.

“This move is just one of the steps to help the survivors of the super typhoon in rebuilding their lives and putting back normalcy in the affected regions,” the senator added.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

‘Yolanda’ death toll nearing 2,000—NDRRMC

MANILA, Philippines — The official death toll from supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name Haiyan) neared 2,000 Monday evening, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.

NDRRMC spokesman Major Rey Balido said that there were recorded 1,774 persons killed in areas hit by the typhoon.

In Eastern Visayas alone, there were 1,660 dead.


There were 2,487 injured and 82 missing on official records.

Yolanda lashed Philippines with its powerful winds and torrential rainfall, directly hitting central Philippines at its onslaught.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

More than 10,000 feared dead in typhoon-ravaged Philippines

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The death toll from a supertyphoon that decimated entire towns in the Philippines could soar well over 10,000, authorities warned Sunday, making it the country’s worst recorded natural disaster.

The horrifying estimates came as rescue workers appeared overwhelmed in their efforts to help countless survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which sent tsunami-like waves and merciless winds rampaging across a huge chunk of the archipelago on Friday.


Police said they had deployed special forces to contain looters in Tacloban, the devastated provincial capital of Leyte, while the United States announced it had responded to a Philippine government appeal and would send military help.

“Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families,” high school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, told AFP, as he warned of the increasing desperation of survivors.

“People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk… I am afraid that in one week, people will be dying from hunger.”

Authorities were struggling to even understand the sheer magnitude of the disaster, let alone react to it, with the regional police chief for Leyte saying 10,000 people were believed to have died in that province alone.






“We had a meeting last night with the governor and, based on the government’s estimates, initially there are 10,000 casualties (dead),” Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told reporters in Tacloban.

“About 70 to 80 percent of the houses and structures along the typhoon’s path were destroyed.”

On the neighboring island of Samar, a local disaster chief said 300 people were killed in the small town of Baser.

He added another 2,000 were missing there and elsewhere on Samar, which was one of the first areas to be hit when Haiyan swept in from the Pacific Ocean with maximum sustained winds of 315 kilometers an hour.

Dozens more people were confirmed killed in other flattened towns and cities across a 600-kilometer (370-mile) stretch of islands through the central Philippines.

Deadliest natural disaster

The Philippines endures a seemingly never-ending pattern of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other natural disasters.

This is because it is located along a typhoon belt and the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific Ocean region where many of Earth’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

However, if the feared death toll of above 10,000 is correct, Haiyan would be the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in the Philippines.

Until Haiyan, the deadliest disaster in the Philippines was in 1976, when a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake devastated the Moro Gulf on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, killing between 5,000 and 8,000 people.

Haiyan set other apocalyptic-style records with its winds making it the strongest typhoon in the world this year, and one of the most powerful ever recorded.

Witnesses in Tacloban recalled waves up to five meters (17 feet) high surging inland, while aerial photos showed entire neighborhoods destroyed with trees and buildings flattened by storm surges that reached deep inland.

“The effects are very similar to what I have seen in a tsunami rather than a typhoon,” the Philippine country director of the World Food Program, Praveen Agrawal, who visited Tacloban, told AFP.

“All the trees are bent over, the bark has been stripped off, the houses have been damaged. In many cases they have collapsed.”

In Washington, the Pentagon announced that US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had responded to a request from the Philippines for military aid.

“Secretary Hagel has directed US Pacific Command to support US government humanitarian relief operations in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan,” it said.

“The initial focus includes surface maritime search and rescue, medium-heavy helicopter lift support, airborne maritime search and rescue, fixed wing lift support and logistics enablers.”

United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon also pledged that UN humanitarian agencies would “respond rapidly to help people in need.”

Ban is “deeply saddened by the extensive loss of life” and devastation caused by Haiyan, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky in a statement.

Haiyan moved out of the Philippines and into the South China Sea on Saturday, from where it tracked towards Vietnam.

Although it weakened out at sea, more than 600,000 people were evacuated in Vietnam ahead of its expected landfall on Monday morning.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Glimpses of devastation a day after ‘Yolanda’

ILOILO CITY – A day after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” unleashed its wrath, only glimpses of the devastation in the Visayas was possible as reports came in trickles from places that were still without power or means of communications.

At least 22 people were reported killed in Iloilo, northern Cebu, Roxas City in Capiz, and Aklan but the number was expected to increase since communication remained difficult in these places, along with Leyte province. Most of the worst hit areas were still inaccessible and had not submitted reports to Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Offices.

(Many more were reported dead in Leyte, with initial unofficial reports placing them over 100.)

Six people were reported dead in Iloilo, six more in Cebu, four in Antique and three each in Aklan and Capiz, according to initial reports as of Saturday afternoon.

Almost all houses on the coast or on island-villages were destroyed or badly damaged by strong winds and big waves. Fallen trees and electric posts blocked roads and rice fields were littered with blown off galvanized iron roofing.

The howling winds did not spare churches, municipal and school buildings and other structures made of concrete.

After the strong winds, badly hit municipalities were still threatened by flooding due to rising waters from upland areas.

In Negros Occidental, Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. wept on Saturday morning upon seeing so many poor people rendered homeless in Cadiz City.

Aside from Cadiz, also hard hit in Negros Occidental were the cities of Sagay and Escalante and Toboso town, said the Provincial Disaster Management Team.

A report from the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office showed at as of 6 a.m. on Saturday, 59,209 Negrenses were affected by the typhoon in 24 towns and cities in Negros Occidental and 12,992 were staying in 193 evacuation centers.





At least seven towns in northern Cebu remained isolated after being whipped by Yolanda.

Badly hit were Bogo City and the towns of Medellin, San Remegio, Daanbantayan on mainland Cebu and the municipalities of Sta Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos on Bantayan Island.

Local officials of the affected areas were appealing for help because the devastation was widespread.
“The devastation is overwhelming. We appeal for help from the national government and from international agencies and organizations,” said Iloilo provincial administrator Raul Banias after an aerial inspection of the worst-hit areas in northern and central Iloilo.

“If you see the devastation, you will cry,” said Mayor Patrick Escalante of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, where at least 4,000 houses along the seashore and hinterland villages were destroyed.

Escalante appealed for food and other forms of assistance for the Cadiz victims to augment government help as the number of people in need was overwhelming.

The provinces of Capiz, Aklan, Antique and Iloilo were declared under a state of calamity by their respective provincial boards on Saturday to hasten the release of calamity funds.

Governor Marañon of Negros Occidental has asked the provincial board for a special session to declare the province under a state of calamity.

Cebu was already under a state of calamity following last month’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake.

Most of Panay Island was  without electricity for a second day on Saturday. Power was restored to parts of Iloilo City Friday evening.







Communication has been hampered by lack of telephone connections and mobile signals in municipalities.

The national road connecting Iloilo with Aklan and Capiz was impassable as of Saturday morning due to fallen trees and flooding.

Iloilo Vice Governor Raul Tupas said the supertyphoon also wiped out the livelihood of residents in coastal villages.

He cited the island village of Malangabang in Concepcion in Iloilo where at least 250 fishing boats were destroyed.

Tupas was acting as governor and chairman of the provincial disaster council because Governor Arthur Defensor was in Manila to attend the burial of his 14-month-old grandaughter.

In the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan, the ABL Sports Complex which served as an evacuation center and provincial command center was damaged when strong winds tore off a part of its roof.

At least 11,461 houses were destroyed and 6,855 others were damaged according to reports from six of the 15 towns of Aklan, according to Galo Ibardolaza, executive officer of the provincial disaster council.

“This is worse than Typhoon ‘Frank’,” said Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores, referring to the typhoon that devastated Aklan and other parts of Western Visayas in 2008.

Miraflores said it could take a month to fully restore electricity in the province due to the number of fallen electric posts and damaged connections.

At least 80 percent of houses and buildings, including the Immaculate Conception Metropolitan Cathedral and provincial capitol, were damaged or destroyed in Capiz, according to Gov. Victor Tanco.

“This is the worst calamity experienced by Capiz. We could not believed what happed,” Tanco told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

In Roxas City, shopping malls, churches and government buildings were damaged.

“It looks like Roxas City was crumpled. I have not seen a house without damage,” said Mayo Ala Celino.

Celino said assistance was also hampered by lack of personnel because the houses of most city hall employees and officials, including himself, had also been damaged.

In nothern Cebu, the towns of Bogo, Medellin, San Remegio, Daanbantayan, Sta. Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos were without communication, power and water supplies while only motorcycles and small vehicles could navigate the roads because of fallen trees.

Medellin Vice Mayor Alfonso Lim said they too needed food assistance for their people as the municipal government was unable to operate because government buildings were badly damaged.

The typhoon blew off the roofs of the public market, sports complex and public schools among others as about 70 percent to 80 percent of their houses, government structures and infrastructure were damaged by the typhoon.

In neighboring San Remegio town, about 90 percent of the houses were without roofs, said Councilor Jun Verallo.

Daanbantayan Mayor Augusto Corro said that at least 14 persons were injured by broken glass and flying GI sheets.

About 80 percent of the houses on Bantayan Island were destroyed.

In Sogod and Tabogon towns, fallen trees covered the roads. A ten-wheel truck carrying animal feed fell on its side in Tabogon.

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III urged Cebuanos not to be disheartedned but to rise together.

“Let us be strong. We’ve gone through several calamities in the past. I know we can do this. We’re determined to surpass these adversities. Let’s continue to pray. Let’s continue to be safe,” he said.

(Reports from Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Carla P. Gomez, Ador Mayol, Jhunnex Napallacan and Doris C. Bongcac, Inquirer Visayas)

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Bohol quake toll now at 155

MANILA, Philippines – The number of fatalities from the destructive earthquake that jolted parts of the Visayas and Mindanao jumped to 155, authorities said Wednesday.

Over 3 million people were affected by the killer quake.

In Bohol, Police Officer 3 Carl John Legazpi, operations clerk of the provincial office, said on Wednesday that there were 145 killed in the province as of 6:30 p.m.

The town with the most fatalities was Loon with 42 deaths, followed by Maribojoc with 15 and Antequera with 13,

The two individuals trapped inside the Congressman  Natalio Castillo Sr. Memorial Hospital in Bohol that collapsed during the earthquake were recovered dead, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokesman Major Rey Balido said.

There were 291 persons injured and 23 missing.

The Office of Civil Defense in Central Visayas said that nine people were killed in Cebu and one was recorded in Siquijor.

Balido said that 593,561 families or 3,017,814 persons in three provinces were affected. There were 51 evacuation centers put up in Bohol and Cebu City. Some 30,359 of these individuals were housed in temporary shelters. The NDRRMC’s official records in the afternoon listed 144 deaths.

Lieutenant General Roy Deveraturda, commander of Armed Forces Central Command based in Cebu, said that there were no more isolated towns and villages in Bohol, but it would take time to reach some of these areas.

“You just have to take a long route to reach a particular place. While we were hit by a very strong tremor, I believe the response was good. All agencies helped each other,” he said.

NDRRMC said that there were 23 bridges impassable in Bohol, while five roads were closed to traffic.

The Department of Public Works and Highways said that based on initial assessment, damage to roads and bridges has reached P57.8 million in Bohol. In Cebu, damage to properties was pegged at P17.67 million.

The earthquake also crumbled “signature churches” of the province, which were built during the Spanish era. Some of the hills of the famous Chocolate Hills were deformed.

Bohol and Cebu were placed under state of calamity on Tuesday.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

6.5-magnitude quake reported in Colombia

BOGOTA—A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled northwestern Colombia Tuesday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, authorities said.

The Seismological Network of Colombia said the quake struck at 10:43 a.m. (1543 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean, 99 kilometers (60 miles) from the town of Nuqui in the department of Antioquia.

Colombian authorities ruled out the threat of a tsunami.

The Colombian report said it was felt especially strongly in the city of Quibdo, the capital of the department of Choco, where people ran out into the streets.

It was also felt in the departments of Quindio and Tolima.

Colombian seismologists said the quake, which was at a depth of less than 30 kilometers (18 miles), had a reading of 6.5 on the Moment magnitude scale.

The US Geological Survey, reporting on the same event, measured the quake at 6.7 on the same scale.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Strong quake injures 20 in Taiwan

TAIPEI- A strong earthquake shook buildings in the Taiwanese capital Taipei on Wednesday, injuring at least 20 people and sparking a fire, emergency officials said.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 6.0 and said it struck at 10:03 a.m. (0203 GMT), 48 kilometers (30 miles) east of Nantou county in central Taiwan at a depth of 20.7 kilometers.

Taiwan’s central weather bureau put the magnitude at 6.1 and said it was felt across the island.

The national fire agency said at least 20 people were slightly injured in Nantou and nearby Changhua and Taichung counties during the quake, which also triggered a fire in Nantou that had since been extinguished.

The agency said it had received five reports of people trapped in lifts during the quake but they had all found their way to safety.

Cable news channel SET TV showed footage of one woman in Nantou being carried to an ambulance after she was hit in the head by fragments of a ceiling that came loose during the quake.

Taiwan’s high speed rail company said it had suspended all trains pending safety checks while the metro system in the capital Taipei was also temporarily suspended.

Many buildings in Taipei swayed while television footage showed some school children in Nantou fleeing their classrooms during the quake.

Nantou county was the epicenter of a 7.6-magnitude quake in September 1999 that killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in the island’s recent history.

Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net