Dozens of bodies found 'piled up' in Sierra Leone hospital after unreported Ebola outbreak

Dozens of bodies were discovered in a Sierra Leone hospital on Wednesday after an Ebola outbreak went unreported by health officials.

By the time the World Health Organisation (WHO) was called in, 87 people were dead, and the virus had hit eight of the area's 15 chiefdoms.

The WHO response team arrived on Wednesday, and what they found was disturbing. "They uncovered a grim scene," the agency said in a statement.

The local hospital had curtained off a section of the facility where 25 bodies were found. The organisation buried 87 people in 11 days, "including a nurse, an ambulance driver, and a janitor drafted in to removing bodies as they piled up."

The district had only reported 119 Ebola cases through December 9, and only 24 cases were reported last week. Over 350,000 people live in Kono District.

"We are only seeing the ears of the hippo," feared Sierra Leone Director of Disease Prevention and Control Dr Amara Jambai.

Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of reported Ebola cases with 7,897 infections since the outbreak began early this year.

However, Liberia reported 3,177 deaths from the virus, while Sierra Leone reported just 1,768.

Sierra Leone Health Minister Abu Bakarr Fofanah said that only laboratory-confirmed deaths are being recorded by the West African nation.

"It is difficult to put an exact figure on the deaths," he told Reuters. "They are adding suspected cases, so that is causing the discrepancies in the results. We are going by the textbook."

As of December 7, over 6,000 people have died from the Ebola outbreak that began in Guinea this spring. There have been nearly 18,000 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola infection this year.

Saturday 13 December 2014

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/dozens.of.bodies.found.piled.up.in.sierra.leone.hospital.after.unreported.ebola.outbreak/44362.htm

Georgia National Guard trains for disaster situations

The Georgia National Guard Homeland Response Force is making sure their volunteers know what to do in the event of a disaster.

"It gives them the opportunity to go, within range, and exercise their skills and what they're required to do in case a disaster happens in the United States," says Lt. Col. Michael Maddox.

The guardsmen will practice multiple scenarios at a training center in Perry. One of them is a search and rescue simulation. They must also pass a test in order for them to get their certifications.

"It doesn't just have to be a terrorist incident. It can also be a hurricane, a tornado, or anything that involves mass casualties," explains Sgt. Tyler Stanton.

During one exercise, trainees pretended a building had collapsed and searched for survivors. Once they found them, they cleaned the victims to rid their bodies of contaminants before sending them to the medical area for treatment.

Volunteers with the Homeland Response Force acted as victims during the simulations. They say training with real people better prepares them because they never know what they will really expect in a real-life situation.

"You don't know what exactly what you're going to expect when you get out into the field and you're out actually doing this type of stuff in real world. So, it's good to keep the soldiers on their toes," adds Stanton.

Guardsmen are tested about every two years to make sure they are up to date on training.

The guardsmen will begin their testing Saturday. They must pass and be certified in every element.

Saturday 13 December 2014

http://www.41nbc.com/story/d/story/georgia-national-guard-trains-for-disaster-situati/36937/YppDk2rCDUiQ9o0GmnN9iQ

Illegal structures vulnerable, but no disaster management plan in place

The district administration's response time to the building collapse in Narhe village in the wee hours of October 31 was about two hours, say locals, and that too was possible because a clerk from the tahsildar's office lives in the locality and alerted his superior within minutes of the collapse. His superior alerted his seniors in turn and the rescue operation started.

Narhe village is not a remote area, but is fairly well connected to the city by road. But like hundreds of villages surrounding the city, Narhe is not quipped with a Village Disaster Management Committee (VDMC), which is mandatory for panchayats.

It was unchecked construction on hills that led to the landslide in Malin village in Ambegaon taluka, located about 100kms from Pune city. The entire village had vanished in the landslide that claimed 151 lives. The National Disaster Response Force and the district collectorate were engaged in rescue and clearing operations for the next 10 days. But the response time to this tragedy was very delayed. It was a bus conductor who sent the alert about the tragedy when he saw debris in place of the village in the morning. It was evening by the time the first disaster management team reached the spot.

"There is absence of early warning system in our disaster management operations. Early warning systems are important to save lives. It is a fact that we are poorly equipped when it comes to disaster management," said R K Pachauri, director- general TERI. "We have to put institutions and mechanisms, which will protect life and property," he said.

The state government and district administration maintain that all is well with the disaster management plan and mechanism. The claims notwithstanding, the system is yet to show any result.

The Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) integrated disaster management plan report expresses doubt over the city's preparedness in case of a calamity. According to the report, the city would be caught unawares, its fire stations, fire tenders, staff and other critical equipment may prove inadequate, and its mechanism to protect water supply from probable terror attacks may fall short. "The city falls in the low capacity category to prevent and mitigate hazards. The civic body lacks a coordinated communication set-up that could warn the public and remain in communication with control mechanisms. The staff is not trained in performing emergency support function and incident response system functions," the plan added.

"The situation in the fringes is even more vulnerable. There are buildings that have come up on hills, river bodies, nullahs and even in quarries filled up with murrum. The illegal buildings must be demolished, but then there is political pressure," said a senior district official. He added that it is impossible to have a disaster management plan for illegal structures.

However, people living in such illegal buildings say they are aware of the possibility of a calamity, but have no choice. "I have to live here as my parents have invested in this apartment," said Mudassar, a private cab driver from Kondhwa. The building he lives in was constructed by a small time developer, which has no permissions in place to the best of Mudassar's knowledge. But he continues to stay here with his wife and children, hopeful that the developer hasn't compromised on the building's quality.

Saturday 13 December 2014

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Illegal-structures-vulnerable-but-no-disaster-management-plan-in-place/articleshow/45500544.cms

More than 100 feared dead after Indonesia landslide

More than 100 Indonesian villagers are feared to have died after a landslide triggered by torrential rain obliterated their rural community in Central Java.

Rescue workers were using their bare hands to claw through thick mud in search of survivors on Saturday after Jemblung village was swallowed up by a cascade of earth at around 6pm the previous day.

"It was like a nightmare," a survivor called Wahono, told the Associated Press.

"We suddenly heard a terrible roar and we were immediately fleeing from the rain of red soil. Many failed and they were buried in the ground." Imam, another survivor, told local television: "There was a roaring sound like thunder. Then I saw trees were flying and then the landslides."

By Saturday afternoon, 18 bodies had reportedly found buried under the mud or in the wreckage of smashed homes. They were removed from the area in orange and black body bags. Another 90 people were missing, feared dead, officials said.

"Rescuers are still trying to find more victims," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said in a statement.

"The challenge is that the evacuation route is also damaged by the landslide."

*Attempts to evacuate survivors from the area had begun on Friday night but were suspended because of the risk of further landslides, according to Pos Kota, an Indonesian newspaper.* *The Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management* had ordered police, military and volunteers into the area but a lack of communications was also hampering the rescue effort, reported Indonesia's *Antara News. * "The threat of possible repeat of the landslide at the scene is still hampering the search and rescue operation," the official told Xinhua, China's official news agency.

The national disaster agency said 15 people had been rescued. Eleven of those had to be hospitalized. The agency said hundreds of people, including police, soldiers and residents are digging through the debris with their bare hands, shovels and hoes searching for the missing.

More rain Saturday has hampered rescue efforts. Some heavy equipment has been brought in to help with the search.

The rainy season has begun in Indonesia, a time when landslides triggered by heavy downfalls and floods are common.

Few nations suffer more from the effects of natural disasters than Indonesia. Landslides are common during the October until April monsoon season and the country also suffers from volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and flooding.

The Indonesian city of Banda Aceh was ravished by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed almost 230,000 lives. The Boxing Day 2004 disaster was caused by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Saturday 13 December 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/indonesia/11291815/More-than-100-feared-dead-after-Indonesia-landslide.html

'Bay Area’s Titanic’: 1901 shipwreck near Golden Gate found

Scientists have located the wreckage of a passenger ship that crashed in 1901 near the site of what is now the Golden Gate Bridge, killing 128 people.

The ship, named the City of Rio de Janeiro, was discovered with the help of a remote submersible last month in 287 feet of water about a half mile from San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The ship was carrying 210 passengers, many of them Chinese emigrants, when it crashed on rocks in heavy fog. It went down in 10 minutes, with many of the passengers trapped in their berths below. Their bodies were never recovered.

"Many of these people were about to start a new life in a new country," said Robert Schwemmer, maritime heritage coordinator for the Office of National Maritime Sanctuaries. "They were only perhaps an hour away from the dock in San Francisco. That is something to think about."

Mr Schwemmer said the City of Rio de Janeiro disaster is often called the Bay Area's Titanic.

The location of the wreckage was a mystery until an expedition that included Mr Schwemmer and James Delgado, a maritime historian, made the discovery.

Mr Delgado said the discovery was "like turning on the light in a dark room. It's great. That's why we do what we do."

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have taken 3-D and sonar images of the wreckage.

The Rio, which carried 210 passengers and crew, crashed into the rocks at Fort Point near where the Golden Gate Bridge now stands, in a heavy fog, on Feb. 22, 1901. There was panic and confusion aboard, and the ship went down in 10 minutes. Many of the passengers were trapped in their berths below, and their bodies were never recovered.

James Delgado, a marine historian, calls the wreck a sunken cemetery. “It is a mud-filled tomb,” he said.

Most of the passengers and nearly all of the crew were Chinese. Many were emigrants on the last leg of a long journey from Asia. The ship’s last voyage began in China. The Rio stopped in Japan and Hawaii before heading for San Francisco Bay.

Fog obscured the Golden Gate on the night of Feb. 21, 1901, so Capt. William Ward anchored the ship just off the Cliff House, in sight of San Francisco.

Fateful decision

But before dawn, the fog seemed to lift, and after consulting with Capt. Frederick Jordan, the bar pilot, Ward weighed anchor and headed for the Golden Gate. The fog closed in again, however, and about 5:30 a.m. Feb. 22, the Rio ran onto the rocks.

There was tremendous confusion, according to accounts at the time. The officers and crew spoke different languages, and the lifeboats were never launched,. The ship’s lights went out, and the ship drifted off the rocks and sank.

Schwemmer is touched by the tragedy of that long-ago morning. “Many of these people were about to start a new life in a new country,” he said. “They were only perhaps an hour away from the dock in San Francisco. That is something to think about.”

Only 82 of the 210 people aboard were saved, many by the crews of Italian fishing boats heading out to sea. Ward went down with his ship. More than a year after the Rio sank, the vessel’s wooden pilothouse floated loose from the wreckage and drifted to Fort Baker on the Marin side of the Golden Gate. Inside were Ward’s remains. The Chronicle reported that he was identified by a watch he always wore and a watch fob made of a silver Chinese coin.

Scientists and treasure hunters have been looking for the Rio for years, partly based on century-old rumors that the ship carried a fortune in silver. A group whom Delgado and Schwemmer call “treasure hunters” thought they had found the wreck in the Golden Gate in 1987.

Search went awry

However, the searchers were unable to reach it, and the remote-controlled underwater vehicle they were using was lost in the swirling currents of the Golden Gate. Also, the NOAA scientists say, the expedition’s coordinates were off. So the search went on.

Delgado, who has studied shipwrecks for years, believes the rumors of sunken treasure were wrong. The silver bars in the old sea story were actually bars of tin, he said.

But the real scientific treasure lay in finding and photographing the wreck. Earlier this fall, an outfit named CodaOctopus Products was demonstrating some of its equipment to the San Francisco Police Department’s Marine Unit, which was interested in underwater searches. The demonstration took place near the Golden Gate where the freighter Fernstream sank in 1952.

New technology

Schwemmer and Delgado, who had been conducting research involving wrecks earlier in the year, heard about it, and CodaOctopus and Gary Fabian, a sonar expert, joined in the expedition to find the Rio.

“It was a beautiful clear November day, and the sea was flat calm,” said Schwemmer. “We had to work at slack water, between the tides. We could only make a few passes. I was glued to my seat. We were close to Fort Point. And there it was.

“You could see the bow clearly, and then the stern, all buried in 113 years of mud.”

Finding the wreck, Delgado said, “was like turning on the light in a dark room. It’s great. That’s why we do what we do.” The ship will likely remain where it is, buried in more than a century of mud and debris, like a maritime graveyard.

Saturday 13 December 2014

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11290033/San-Francisco-passenger-ship-wreck-found.html

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/The-Bay-Area-s-Titanic-finally-found-near-5948837.php