Sunday 22 September 2013

20 years later: Memories of the 1993 Amtrak Sunset Limited crash


At 2:48 a.m. on September 22, 1993, Amtrak's Sunset Limited train crossed Bayou Sara while a majority of its 220 passengers and crew members slept, unaware that in just a few short minutes they would witness the worst disaster in Amtrak's history to date.

Fog was thick over the water below as the 11-car train started its trek across Big Bayou Canot at 2:50 a.m. About one-third of the way across the bridge, passengers and crew members were suddenly woken as more than half the train plunged into the murky waters below.

Fuel tanks ruptured and flames leapt into the air, patches of fire springing up on the water where the fuel floated. Panicked passengers swam toward the shore, many drenched in still more fuel. Screams filled the air as other passengers reached the surface of the water, some no longer living.

It would be three days before officials could recover the 47 men, women and children killed of drowning, fire or smoke inhalation. More than 100 passengers were injured.

"It's not something we talk about all the time," said Steve Huffman, spokesman for the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, "(but) it never goes away -- especially when September rolls around."

Huffman was in his third year as MFRD spokesman when the towboat MV Mauvilla hit the bridge over Big Bayou Canot, displacing one of the bridge's support beams by approximately 38 inches -- enough to cause the derailment.

He viewed the wreckage from a U.S. Coast Guard boat as personnel on the Department's fireboat, the Ramona Doyle, worked to clear the wreckage. The Ramona Doyle stayed at the accident site for three days with crews swapping out occasionally for rest.

Fire crews cleaned each of the seven rail cars recovered from the water with fire hoses as divers with the Daphne Fire Department, Marine Corps Reconnaissance and other agencies worked with volunteers to recover bodies in water so murky they "couldn't see their hands in front of their faces," Huffman said.

"It was hard to fathom how that had happened," Huffman said. "As much as you hate to say it, it was people who survived and people who died. There was no in-between."

After the accident was cleared the whole department, including secretaries who fielded calls about the crash, underwent critical incident stress debriefing to help cope and recover from the grim scene at Big Bayou Canot.

One MFRD employee quit after the accident, citing stress from the Sunset Limited wreck.

"Some had more difficulty dealing with it than others," Huffman said. "He said he just couldn't deal with it."

Several months before the disaster MFRD had participated in a multi-agency drill, involving approximately 30 agencies, to deal with a simulated plane crash in the Mobile River, Huffman said.

The drill got agencies, which were typically on separate radio frequencies, speaking with one another and helped identify issues with communication.

Those issues hadn't been resolved by the time the Sunset Limited hit the water, affecting agencies' emergency response time.

"We lacked the ability to communicate with each other," Huffman said. "We are just now on a system where we can all communicate with each other... That's why we switched radio systems (in January)."

The Department has since added a fleet of at least four smaller boats to respond to similar disasters. They've also created mass causality trailers to carry large amounts of bandages and other necessary first aid equipment in case of a disaster.

"We have a lot of equipment now that we didn't have back then," Huffman said.

He said emergency responders have not had to use the mass casualty trailers yet, although they were on hand when the Carnival Triumph came to town in February, in case passengers were injured in the journey to land.

Sunday 22 September 2013

http://blog.al.com/live/2013/09/20_years_later_memories_of_the.html

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Identities of Rana Plaza victims: DNA test results expected in 3 weeks


Experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the USA on Sunday finished setting up a software called the Combined DNA Index System (Codis) in the DMCH DNA Laboratory

The relatives of those who went missing after the Savar Rana Plaza tragedy have been waiting for nearly six months to know what has actually happened to their loved ones.

Out of the 1,115 bodies pulled from under the rubble of the collapse, 234 that could not be immediately unidentified mainly because they had decomposed beyond recognition, were buried to the Jurain Graveyard in the capital.

The authorities, before burying the bodies, kept DNA samples from each of the bodies so that they could be later identified; but did not have the necessary apparatus to do the tests.

Apart from these 234, the rescuers could not find any trace of 87 other people who were reportedly inside the building when it collapsed.

Finally, the ill-fated relatives can now see a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel as the National DNA Laboratory of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital sets up the software needed for doing the DNA tests.

Experts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the USA on Sunday finished setting up a software called the Combined DNA Index System (Codis) in the DMCH DNA Laboratory.

The Codis will be used to match the DNA profiles of those who had been buried at the Jurain Graveyard with the samples collected from the relatives of those when have been missing.

The FBI has supplied the advanced computer programme completely free of cost, which would have otherwise cost Bangladesh government more than Tk10m.

The team of FBI experts finished installing the software on Sunday morning and subsequently started a four-day technical training programme for the 12 scientific officers who work at the DNA laboratory.

The laboratory is expected to start the process of matching a total of 321 DNA profiles on Thursday following a visit by US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan W Mozena.

“Hopefully, we will be able to know the results of the DNA profile matching in two to three weeks,” said Dr Sharif Akteruzzaman, chief of the DMCH laboratory.

Some 550 people, who said their relatives had been missing since the tragedy, have so far provided DNA samples.

At present only 68 laboratories in 34 countries use the advanced Codis software. After Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, Bangladesh is the fourth country to whom the FBI has given the software free of cost.

Generally, preparing a DNA profile from blood samples takes about seven to eight days. The process takes a little bit longer if the profile is to be made from bone samples.

The nine-storied Rana Plaza, that housed five garment factories, came down on April 24 with thousands trapped inside.

Sunday 22 September 2013

http://www.dhakatribune.com/law-amp-rights/2013/sep/23/identities-rana-plaza-victims-dna-test-results-expected-3-weeks

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