Death toll climbs to 21 and more then 40 still missing in Solomons Floods

Twenty one people have died and an estimated 52,000 people are affected across the Solomon Islands, after the worst flooding the country has ever seen.

The Government confirms at least eight of the deaths are children under seven years old.

A water and sanitation expert with UNICEF in Solomon Islands says portable toilets or latrines have to be quickly provided at the evacuation centres for flood victims on Guadalcanal.

Donald Burgess says the evacuation centres, mostly schools, are not designed to cater for the up to two thousand people staying in each facility, and they're in a state of chaos due to deteriorating hygiene levels.

“Because people have just moved with what they were wearing, they don't have anything, you know, they don't have any clothes, they don't have soaps at times knowledge about how to manage hygiene in such kinds of situations. So the camps are becoming places of chaos.”

Health kits were being handed out to 10,000 people sheltering in evacuation centres in the capital Honiara in a bid to prevent disease outbreaks, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

As many as 40 people are still missing in the Pacific island city after the Matanikau burst its banks Thursday following days of heavy rain, creating a torrent of water that swept away entire communities.

Three military cargo planes filled with humanitarian supplies have arrived from New Zealand and Australia this week and OCHA said more aid was beginning to arrive now that Honiara's main airport had reopened.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced a further NZ$1.2 million ($1.0 million) in aid funding, bringing the country's total contribution to NZ$1.5 million.

"The additional funding will be used to provide relief supplies and help restore health, water and sanitation systems -- it is now clear that these are areas of critical need."

Save the Children has reported cases of diarrhoea and conjunctivitis in the evacuation centres while the main concern is mosquito-borne dengue fever, which was already prevalent in Honiara before the floods.

Tuesday 08 April 2014

http://www.ntd.tv/en/news/world/asia-pacific/20140408/124214-death-toll-climbs-to-23-and-more-then-40-still-missing-in-solomons-floods.html

Thailand: 13 dead in ‘black spot’ lorry tragedy

Thirteen workers were killed and 15 injured when a lorry they were travelling in overturned on a steep mountain road in Wang Saphung district early yesterday.

The accident occurred about 1.30am on kilometre marker No.23 on Sai Na Sam Saeng-Samtom Road at Ban Mak Khaeng, tambon Nong Ngiew.

The 10-wheel lorry overturned at a sharp bend on the slope known to be an accident “black spot”.

Nine people died at the scene. Rescue workers took 19 injured people to Wang Saphung and Loei hospitals.

One person died at Wang Saphung Hospital and three were pronounced dead at Loei Hospital.

Lert Mankhong, the driver of the lorry, told police that he had been taking 26 sugarcane cutters from Sukhothai’s Si Satchanalai district to Nakhon Phanom.

He said the vehicle’s brakes failed as he attempted to negotiate the steep mountain road, adding that he had to swerve to avoid dropping down into a ravine. His swerving caused the lorry to overturn and crash into a wall.

The workers on the back of the truck were thrown off, he said.

Caretaker Deputy Transport Minister Prin Suvanadat said yesterday that the road falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Rural Roads.

He said the spot where the lorry crashed is widely known as ‘’the bend of 100 bodies’’, because so many people have been killed in road accidents there.

Gen Prin said police believe the accident occurred because the driver was not used to the route and was travelling the steep slope at night, putting the vehicle at increased risk of accident.

Land Transport Department director-general Asdsathai Rattanadilok na Phuket said checks had found that the vehicle involved in the accident was registered as a private lorry, so was being used illegally.

The lorry’s owner could face a jail term of up to one year, a fine of up to 20,000 baht, or both, Mr Asdsathai said. The lorry was registered on Dec 3, 1990 and last checked on Sept 11, 2013.

Somchai Prakobkaew, provincial branch chief for the Road Accident Victims Protection Company, said the families of the dead will each receive 200,000 baht in compensation while the injured will receive 5,000 baht for medical expenses.

Tuesday 08 April 2014

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/403905/13-dead-in-black-spot-lorry-tragedy

17 killed, 12 injured as bus falls into a gorge in Himachal Pradesh

17 people were killed and 12 seriously wounded when a bus fell about 400 metres into a gorge near Milla village of Himachal Pradesh on Monday.

While seven victims died on the spot, two on way to hospital and eight persons succumbed to their injuries at Paonta Sahib, Sirmaur SP Sumedha said.

All the bodies have been recovered and ten out of seventeen victims identified.

The injured were rushed to nearby Shillai hospital and shifted to Sub Divisional hospital, Paonta Sahib, after administering first aid.

The condition of five injured persons was stated to be critical and they are being referred to PGI, Chandigarh.

The bus was on its way from Milla to Paonta Sahib when the tragedy struck.

Seventeen persons have been admitted to hospital at Poanta while four were admitted at Shillai.

A magisterial inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident.

Most of the accident victims hail from Milla and Magnal village while one of the deceased was from village Phadog.

Deadly traffic accidents are common in India. In January, a bus crash killed 27 people in the western state of Maharashtra.

Around 140,000 people were killed in Indian road accidents in 2012 - which works out to 16 an hour - according to the government’s National Crime Records Bureau.

Bad roads, speeding vehicles and poor driving were among the contributing factors.

Tuesday 08 April 2014

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/himachal-pradesh-road-accident-seventeen-killed-milla-paonta-sahib/1/353452.html

Medical Examiners use new technique to identify unidentified corpses at U.S. Border

Once successfully getting through the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, undocumented immigrants face a large stretch of desert terrain along with extreme and bouts with over exhaustion that usually spells doom for about 180 of the border crossers a year.

Pima County Medical Examiner Dr. Greg Hess and his office sees more mummified cases of border crosses than any other in the country, Fox News Latino reported.

Hess is tasked with examining the bodies that come in, but because the bodies have been sitting it out under the extreme heat in the desert sun, they mummify faster than normally, making the process of obtaining fingerprints virtually impossible.

"The skin loses water content and elasticity. It will mummify, which means it becomes very hard and firm and leathery," Hess said.

He also told Fox that finding official identification on the person doesn't help in the process because most of them carry false documentation.

However, a technique to rehydrate the people's hands and revert the mummification process that was developed in 2001 is now being used by Hess to identify the subjects.

"We can rehydrate mummified hands using a sodium hydroxide solution ... that return the plumpness to the skin, the elasticity of it. So that you can take fingerprints," Hess said.

Hess said he places the mummified hands in the solution and lets them soak for 72 hours, but no more than that because the tissue can dissolve if is rehydrated for too long.

The rehydration process costs less than $100 per body but Hess the price is worth it because it allows a family to have closure.

"There is a sense of satisfaction in making that identification so there can be closure for the family, regardless of whether or not it's a family in the United States or from some other country," Hess said. "We try to provide that."

Tuesday 08 April 2014

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/10191/20140407/medical-examiners-use-new-technique-to-identify-unidentified-corpses-at-u-s-border.htm

Three more bodies recovered from Washington mudslide

The official death toll in the March 22 mudslide in Washington state was raised Monday to 33 with the finding of three more bodies.

Thirty of the 33 bodies have been identified, according to Snohomish County authorities.

In addition, 13 people remain missing, according to figures provided by the county sheriff’s office.

A rainsoaked hillside gave way on March 22, and millions of tons of earth, boulders and trees cascaded down onto a number of homes in a rural portion of the town of Oso, located 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Seattle, where some 200 people lived.

More than 600 people continue probing the huge area of mud, stones and other debris in an effort to recover more bodies.

However, sniffer dogs participating in the search will need two days of rest because they were losing their sense of smell due to fatigue, according to the spokesman for the Washington state Transportation Department, Kris Reitmann.

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson flew over the site in a helicopter with other officials on Sunday.

Inslee said at the end of his visit that he still had not given up hope of finding survivors.

Tuesday 08 April 2014

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=1913280&CategoryId=36641