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Limited bus and rail service tests Metro and its users
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 9, 2010; A05
Metrorail service will be extended Tuesday to some aboveground stations, although the time between trains will continue to be 30 minutes, Metro said Monday night. Rail and a modified bus service will start at 5 a.m., but service could be stopped if a predicted snowstorm develops.
Fifteen stations will remain closed because of snowdrifts on the tracks. Red Line service was to be limited to the sections between Medical Center and Union Station and between Glenmont and Forest Glen. On the Blue Line, trains will run only between Franconia-Springfield and Stadium-Armory. Service will be provided along the entire Green, Orange and Yellow lines.
On Monday, Metro riders faced snarled lines for buses and packed trains as the transit agency operated limited service while digging out before another onslaught, whose total accumulation was predicted at 10 to 20 inches by different weather services.
On Monday, Frustrated passengers were left waiting at stops near downtown, unable to squeeze onto overloaded buses on some routes during morning rush hour, riders reported.
Others waited for buses that never arrived along some emergency routes that were supposed to provide limited service.
News that buses would be running spread through apartment buildings and neighborhoods along Georgia Avenue in Northwest Washington. By 9 a.m., hundreds of people lined both sides of the road from downtown to the Beltway.
Some were heading into the District for work, while others were trying to get out, back to homes and families they had not seen since being stranded Friday by the arriving storm.
At Children’s Hospital, Daniel Banks heard the news about the buses and hiked almost a mile to a stop near Georgia Avenue and Irving Street, hoping he could reach his Silver Spring home for fresh clothes, food and prescriptions for him and his wife.
Banks said he had been at Children’s since Wednesday, when his daughter underwent stomach surgery. He had planned to return home Friday. “We’ve been there with a thousand other people living off the cafeteria. [Monday] morning they didn’t even open because they said they hadn’t gotten any more shipments of food,” Banks said. “It’s this bus or else; I need to re-up. We need clothes, money. I need to get home and get back.”
Meanwhile, would-be rail commuters jammed some platforms of underground stations Monday morning as they endured 30-minute waits for trains operating only in underground stations. By midafternoon, though, some stations appeared deserted. Overall ridership has been extremely light since Saturday.
Metro had about 400 of its 1,100 rail cars in tunnels Monday, including dozens stored in unused portions of the system to keep them out of the snow. Metro could only operate some of the available cars because of space constraints underground, officials said. On a typical morning, Metro uses about 800 cars.
If the agency tried to run more trains “they would be gridlocked,” said Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel. “There is only so much space. How far can they go before everything backs up?”
More than 500 Metro employees and contractors labored Monday to remove ice from bus yards, stations and tracks and dig out about 730 rail cars to restore some bus and aboveground rail service Tuesday, officials said. The goal is to prepare all cars for service by the end of the day, they said.
The extreme and continuous buildup of ice along the electrified third rail is Metro’s biggest challenge at the moment, according to a statement from the agency. Another critical problem is the ice blocking the switches that allow trains to move from one track to another.
Tackling the ice requires heavy, diesel-powered vehicles known as “prime movers” to clear snow and ice from the tracks. The vehicles are followed by trains that spray an ice-removing liquid on the tracks and then sweep over them to ensure that they are clear.
But snow often falls or blows back onto the tracks from trees or nearby drifts, causing tracks to refreeze and forcing workers to start over.
Workers are also plowing parking lots and areas near stations. They are spreading thousands of tons of salt and other ice-melting chemicals on roads, sidewalks and platforms. Metro says that once aboveground rail service resumes, about 75 percent of parking spaces will be available.
Posted: Feb. 9, 2010
Granholm: Carp battle is urgent
BY TINA LAM and TODD SPANGLER
Everything short of shutting Chicago-area locks falls short, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said after an hour-long White House summit Monday on Asian carp.
“We strongly urged them to close the locks,” Granholm said, saying her views were echoed in the meeting by the governors of Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. “This is urgent.”
The federal battle plans for carp, drafted by half a dozen agencies, include closing two locks near Chicago for a few days to a few weeks each month and adding more crews to hunt down and destroy Asian carp before large numbers of them can make it into the Great Lakes.
The battery of techniques they plan to use includes sonar equipment, carp-specific poison, electro-shocking, netting, and expedited testing for carp DNA.
“This level of attention is unparalleled,” said Nancy Sutley, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, who hosted the summit.
That still leaves three other pathways to the lake, including a pumping station north of Chicago and branches of the Calumet River, where there are no locks to close.
Although Granholm said she appreciates the federal plans, their cost, expected to be $78.5 million in the current fiscal year, will rob funding from other needs in the Great Lakes.
Congress approved $475 million this fiscal year for Great Lakes cleanups, an amount President Barack Obama pledged during his campaign, and the carp-fighting efforts will mostly come out of that funding, said Cameron Davis, an Environmental Protection Agency official.
DNA testing shows that the ugly, voracious fish might have made it into Lake Michigan at Calumet Harbor. However, no Asian carp have been found above the electric barrier built to hold them back, despite dozens of DNA hits above the barrier.
Michigan and other states had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order the locks closed, but the court declined. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has asked the court to reconsider since the justices did not know at the time about the DNA evidence indicating Asian carp might be in Lake Michigan.
Granholm said Michigan understands that the barge industry will lose money, but noted that barge traffic moving through the Chicago locks has dropped sharply in recent years already, and a Michigan study shows that the economic losses the industry would suffer would be $70 million rather $190 million, as the industry has claimed.
“When you put that on the scale with the amount of economic damage the Great Lakes would suffer, ours is a $7-billion sportfishing industry alone,” Granholm said. “Our economic losses would be irreparable.”
Asian carp can grow to huge sizes and have taken over Southern rivers they’ve invaded, out-competing native fish for food and wrecking the food chain. The Great Lakes already are impaired because of other invasive species. One species of carp leaps out of the water when boats approach, and some people have been injured.
The State of Illinois has resisted lock closures, saying the commodities such as coal and oil that barges carry are vital to its economy, and that closing the locks also would make it difficult to get rid of excess water during heavy rainstorms.
A group of Macomb County business leaders, anglers and legislators sent a virtual postcard Monday of a boat full of Asian carp to Illinois politicians and asked the public to do the same. The group launched its online campaign at www.noasiancarp.com to demand closure of Chicago-area locks, saying thousands of regional jobs are at stake if carp invade
Man Pulled From Rubble in Haiti Nearly 4 Weeks After Earthquake
By JOEL MILLMAN and DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—A 28-year-old man was pulled from the rubble of a market in Port-au-Prince on Monday and has been admitted to the University of Miami’s field hospital in the capital, adjacent to the airport, according to hospital officials.
It isn’t clear how long the man, whose first name is Evans, was trapped, the officials said. The man appeared disoriented; he said someone had brought him water while he was trapped.
He was found at the Croix Bossal market, where he sold rice, and his family said he had been missing since the devastating earthquake on Jan. 12.
Footage shot shortly after he was admitted to the field hospital showed a severely emaciated man in a checkered shirt.
Scientists say that survival beyond 10 days, for someone who is trapped, requires an unusual combination of circumstances, including an uninjured, healthy victim and access to water and air. But a defining feature of the Haiti quake has been theremarkable number of people rescued from collapsed buildings.
On Jan. 27, Darlene Etienne, a 16-year-old girl who had been trapped in the rubble of a home in Haiti for 15 days was pulled out alive, though severely dehydrated. She was taken to a field hospital and then airlifted to a French military ship.
Four days earlier, on Jan. 23, Wismond Exantus was extricated from the ruins of a hotel grocery store after being trapped for 11 days. The 24-year-old said he survived by drinking Coke and eating potato chips.
In addition to Ms. Etienne and Mr. Exantus, a 15-day-old baby was buried for a week in the coastal city of Jacmel before being rescued. A search-and-rescue team was demolishing the remains of a home—believing there was no chance the child, 8 days old when the quake struck, could be alive—when they found the baby in the same bed where she was napping when the earthquake struck. The bed had fallen to the ground floor, but the baby wasn’t even injured.
Only a handful of people have lasted more than 10 days trapped by an earthquake, according to a 2006 review published in Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.
Conditions in Haiti may be more likely to lead to long survivals than some previous disasters, largely because of the relatively temperate conditions. Rescue teams are also better prepared than they were years ago, because of an improved understanding of the effects of crushed limbs, doctors said.
UPDATE 1-Roche licenses new flu-fighting technology
Mon, Feb 8 2010
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters)
Genentech unit has licensed an experimental new technology that uses antibodies to fight influenza, including H1N1 swine flu, Harvard’s Dana Farber Cancer Institute said on Monday.
Dana-Farber said it and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute had signed a license agreement with Genentech, giving the company exclusive rights to manufacture, develop and market human monoclonal antibodies to treat and protect against group 1 influenza viruses.
Dr. Wayne Marasco at Dana-Farber, Robert Liddington at Sanford-Burnham and Ruben Donis of the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered the antibody technology and reported on it a year ago this month.
The antibodies — immune system proteins that attach to invaders such as viruses — can be used as direct treatment for flu. They also might be used to protect front-line workers and others at high risk during pandemics.
In studies, the antibodies — generated from the blood of 57 volunteers — neutralized a wide range of influenza viruses.
Influenza viruses cloak themselves in lollipop-shaped proteins called hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which mutate regularly and give influenza A strains the “H” and “N” designations in their names.
Because of virus mutations, vaccines have to be reformulated every year, and the viruses can develop resistance to the neuraminidase inhibitors, as they have to older antivirals.
The researchers used the natural antibodies as the basis for lab-engineered versions, called human monoclonal antibodies.
BOTULISM, CANINE – USA: (FLORIDA) SUSPECTED
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A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: 5 Feb 2010
Source: The Miami Herald [edited]
A month after frigid temperatures killed reptiles all over South
Florida, veterinarians are still treating dogs that may have
contracted botulism by gnawing iguana carcasses. The result:
paralysis so severe that a few had to be euthanized.
Like other cold-blooded creatures, thousands of iguanas froze to
death during the freeze. Some dogs mistaking them for chew toys have
shown classic symptoms of a disease so rare that most vets don’t see
a case for a decade. “I think it’s botulism, although it’s nearly
impossible to prove definitively,” said Dr. James Dugan, a Pinecrest
vet. His clinic has treated several dogs suffering varying degrees of
paralysis since the cold snap. All had munched on iguanas. “Why they
want to eat a rotten reptile that smells horrible and could kill you,
I don’t know,” Dugan said.
Paralysis begins in the back end, then progresses to the front legs,
and in some cases disables the diaphragm. At that point, dogs must be
intubated so they can breathe, an expensive step that many owners
can’t afford. In at least 2 such South Florida cases, dogs that
couldn’t breathe were euthanized. Serious problems like pneumonia
also arise when paralysis affects the esophagus.
Broward County veterinary neurologist Dr. Brian Roberts first raised
the alarm about the possible botulism link in a mass e-mail to South
Florida colleagues in late January 2010. He said that several dogs
had come to Veterinary Specialists of South Florida in Cooper City
with paralyzed hindquarters. The common denominator: dead iguanas.
“We didn’t have a clue what it was for days or weeks,” said Roberts,
who has sent tissue samples to the state’s animal diagnostic
laboratory in Kissimmee. He diagnosed botulism after ruling out other
possible conditions. There’s not much a vet can do beyond “supportive
care and range-of-motion” exercises, he added.
Typically, paralysis sets in a day or so after the iguana encounter,
and the worst symptoms last at least a week. The dogs can eat but
can’t stand or walk. However, they’re not in pain, vets say.
Haifa Smoked Fish Recall of Haifa brand packaged Whole Schmaltz Herring
BOTULISM, UNEVISCERATED FISH – USA: ex NORWAY, RISK, RECALL
***********************************************
A ProMED-mail post
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
Date: Fri 5 Feb 2010
Source: FDA [edited]
Haifa Smoked Fish, located in Queens, New York, is recalling Haifa
brand vacuum packaged Whole Schmaltz Herring with the lot number 20,
because the product was found to be uneviscerated.
The lot being recalled is a product of Norway, individually
vacuum-packed in clear plastic pouches with lot #20 indicated on the
label and distributed through various food retailers in the NY and NJ area.
The Whole Schmaltz Herring was sampled by a New York State
Agriculture and Markets Food Inspector during a routine inspection.
Subsequent analysis of the product by New York State Food Laboratory
personnel confirmed that Whole Schmaltz Herring was not properly
eviscerated prior to processing.
The sale of uneviscerated fish is prohibited under New York State
Agriculture and Markets regulations because _Clostridium botulinum_
spores are more likely to be concentrated in the viscera than any
other portion of the fish. Uneviscerated fish has been linked to
outbreaks of botulism poisoning.
No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this problem.
Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look
or smell spoiled and should return it to the place of purchase.
Consumers with questions may contact the company at 718-523-8899.
American bald eagle back to health after beak fixed by dentist
Recommend? (1) Anchorage An American bald eagle is able to hold its head high again after being nursed back to health by a dentist.
The bird of prey was taken to the Bird Treatment and Learning Centre in Anchorage after being found in a weakened condition with its beak damaged by a length of fishing line wrapped around it.
Kirk Johnson, a local dentist, used poster putty and a temporary crown of the sort normally fitted in his human patients — before colouring the finished product with a yellow highlighter to give it a nearly natural appearance
Blustery, lengthy storm could produce “blizzard-like” conditions
Comments
February 8, 2010
SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE
The National Weather Service is forecasting Chicago could get eight to 12 inches of snow from a winter storm expected to begin late Monday afternoon and continue through Tuesday night.
A winter storm watch remains in effect through late Tuesday night, predicting several inches of snow with heavy and drifting snow as well as sleet and ice accumulations, according to the National Weather Service.
“The storm is going to be a little bit of an unusual snow storm because of the long duration that’s expected,” Izzi said.
The worst weather is forecast for late Tuesday when there is expected to be a period of six hours when Chicago will experience northeasterly winds, which are favorable to lake effect snow, Izzi said.
The expected heavy snow fall is based on models that show two storms above the northern plains which are about to merge and are “on the perfect track” to hit Chicago, according to Izzi.
Izzi said this storm is not connected to the recent blizzard that pummeled the northeast.
“Vicious” winds of up to 40 miles-per-hour Tuesday night into Wednesday morning could result in “blizzard-like conditions” for the Chicago area, Izzi said.
The heaviest snow fall is expected near Lake Michigan in Cook, Lake and DuPage counties in Illinois and Lake and Porter counties in Indiana, according to Izzi.
Chicago’s western suburbs are forecast to receive “slightly less snow fall than the city,” anywhere from six to 10 inches, he said.
The National Weather Service is advising to allow for extra travel time and, if possible, to avoid travel all-together Monday night, Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
Highs of 29 degrees on Monday and 27 degrees on both Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast by the National Weather Service
Haiti health emergency in new phase: Helping fragile, vulnerable minds after quake catastrophe
By Frank Bajak (CP) – 13 hours ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The battered bodies may be mending, but the minds still struggle.
As many as one in five Haiti earthquake victims have suffered trauma so great with the multiple shock of lost homes, jobs and loved ones that they won’t be able to cope without professional help, doctors say.
In a country where mental health services barely existed before the quake, building the required support is a huge challenge. The symptoms can’t be diagnosed by stethoscopes, blood tests and X-rays, and can take time to surface after the initial shock of the disaster.
“It’s not about immediate psychological counselling,” said Dr. Lynne Jones, a senior medical adviser for the International Medical Corps. “It’s about assisting mourning. People cannot recover if their social needs are not met.”
Jones, a veteran of natural disasters and wars from Bosnia to Indonesia, is teaching front-line doctors how to identify “disabling fear” and, quite literally, hold people’s hands and listen.
Hugo Emmanuel is one of the untold thousands who doctors say have lost the ability to cope.
“Stay away! I don’t want you to touch me,” he barks at an American nurse who only wants to wash his shattered lower leg.
Emmanuel, 49, is an educated man of spindly limbs but voluble spirit who lies on a mattress on the floor of the kitchenette in the Espoir Hospital in the capital’s eastern hills.
He tore the cast off his leg last week. For days after he arrived two weeks ago, he only let the hospital director feed him; he claimed everyone else was trying to poison him.
Emmanuel, who lies in his underwear beneath a white sheet and towel, is at least getting personal attention. Most of those diagnosed with severe trauma are treated as outpatients because there is no room for them in the country’s 91 functioning hospitals.
“The doctors in such situations tend only to hand out tranquilizers,” Jones said. “We don’t want them to do that.”
Tranquilizers are hardly sufficient for earthquake victims like Emmanuel, who lost his house, both of his parents and his job.
“I was in a coma-type situation,” Emmanuel says in graceful French that reflects his experience as a Quisqueya University researcher. “Every time I think about losing my family, I lose my mind.”
He quickly corrects himself. “I’m not crazy. I just think I’m suffering from psychological shock.”
The hospital’s director, Dr. Gusse Darline, said Emmanuel is sporadically amnesiac. But that’s only part of his problem.
“He didn’t want to come into the hospital for treatment. We had to drag him in,” she said.
Darline says she doesn’t know what to do with Emmanuel once his leg heals.
Port-au-Prince’s only psychiatric hospital is barely functioning. All but 11 of its more than 100 pre-quake patients were removed by relatives who feared the building would collapse in another quake, said Dr. Peter Hughes, an Irish psychiatrist who arrived late last week and is studying what to do.
Hospital nurses have refused to accompany Hughes into the building – though it appears structurally sound to him – because “they are absolutely petrified” of another quake, he said.
“There’s no electricity and no running water. Some patients are in a barred room. There is a need for mattresses and working toilets.”
It is not known how many mental health workers are available to help in Haiti. Pan American Health Organization officials who are co-ordinating medical care among more than 200 aid groups have only just begun to create a database of hospitals, patients, doctors and medical resources.
But it seems clear that Haiti will have to train more of its own personnel to work on the front lines with people suffering from psychological trauma.
“The most urgent need … is not food and water which is temporary,” said Pierre Brunache Jr., an official with the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs who led a survey of relief workers and victims. “The most urgent need is for psychiatrists.”
PAHO Dr. Jorge Castilla, lead co-ordinator of the aid groups in Haiti, put out an urgent request Sunday for mental health professionals.
“But this is not easy because they have to be able to adapt to the culture and the language,” he said. “I can’t have hundreds of volunteers coming here who don’t speak the languages.”
Castilla said he’s looking to the French Caribbean islands of Guadelupe and Martinique as possible sources.
One of the most traumatic experiences for tens of thousands of Haitians is knowing that their relatives have been buried in mass graves, deprived of funerals while their survivors are denied the chance to properly grieve.
Walk into any one of the five public hospitals and 14-odd field hospitals in Port-au-Prince and you see the psychological scars of survivors who have not been able to bury their dead.
Many sit quietly in corners, staring blankly into space. Others cadge handouts or wait in line for tranquilizers.
A ‘Culture of Disaster Preparedness’ Requires Careful Planning
By Maj. John A. Gagan
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The writer, a native of Southern Pines, is now attending the Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He wrote this as a class project.
As the Sandhills region of North Carolina recovers from the first substantial round of wintry mix since the blizzard of 2000, it seems fitting to highlight the need for actionable disaster preparedness plans that are easily executable by individuals, communities and municipalities.
Recently, Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, author of “Survival: How a Culture of Preparedness Can Save You and Your Family From Disasters,” spoke to our class at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Gen. Honore served most recently as the commanding officer of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in 2005. While listening to the presentation, I was amazed at how such a basic concept could carry such important effect. I was struck by how little effort it took to develop a plan of action that could possibly save the life of another person – something the general described as “the ultimate human experience.”
His message resonated with me -profoundly. And in light of the recent earthquake disaster in Haiti, I thought it fitting to do my part in helping create a culture of preparedness, starting with my hometown of Southern Pines.
Many hard lessons learned and stopgap measures came out of the Hurricane Katrina experience. A national disaster preparedness policy, however, did not. As we were all shocked by the images of unimaginable human suffering broadcast live from the flooded Ninth Ward, many of us were left asking how this could happen in America. How could we have been caught unprepared?
To illustrate and bring sharper focus to this point from a perspective a little closer to home, many readers will remember the blizzard of January 2000, when Moore County was thrust into survival mode during an unprecedented winter storm that hampered the -ability of local government and its -citizens to coordinate relief operations.
This is in no way a criticism of the way the local emergency management departments handled the disaster response; on the contrary, local -emergency crews responded superbly to the crisis. But it highlights the need for disaster preparedness plans that are on the shelf, ready to be executed when needed.
In his presentation, Gen. Honore detailed a “system of systems” approach to creating a culture of preparedness from the individual level to the government. He described many of the systematic failures of the planning, development and maintenance of key infrastructure components that currently exist in our communities – everything from bridge design to -hospital generator placement.
“A culture of preparedness will teach America to be survivors and not victims,” he said.
National disaster preparedness starts with individual disaster preparedness. Although many municipalities have a robust disaster response capability, a disaster of significant proportion will most likely overwhelm the responsiveness of emergency service agencies because of the sheer volume of requests for help.
It is with this in mind that every family should have a disaster preparedness plan on the shelf, ready to initiate during a fire, tornado or terrorist act. At a minimum, for every member of the family, the plan should include three days’ worth of food, water and medicine. Cash, a weather radio and a first aid kit are essential.
At the municipal level, plans should include considerations for not just the first order of effects, but the second and third order as well. Basic plans should include the basics – food, shelter and clothing.
Second- and third-order effects include planning and resourcing for command and control architecture; emergency services coordination; transportation and evacuation plans; mass casualty triage management and evacuation; long-term shelter for -displaced citizens and a resettlement plan; backup long-range communication systems; and an electrical grid powered by backup generators that could be brought on line quickly.
Additionally, Gen. Honore made specific mention in developing plans that took into account the poor, handicapped and those in nursing homes as priority.
The U.S. Army trains its leaders to “get to the left” of contingencies through use of many systems and tools. One of them, the “composite risk management” process, is a five-step model that can easily be adapted to any application, be it household or governmental department, to help logically and methodically assemble a disaster preparedness plan.
Step 1 of such a plan is to identify the hazard. Step 2: Assess hazards to -determine risk. Step 3: Develop controls to mitigate risks and make risk decisions. Step 4: Implement controls. Step 5: Supervise and evaluate your decisions
If we all plan for disasters by -developing preparedness plans, both individually and collectively as a -society, we can create a culture of -preparedness and become survivors and not victims.
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