Drones: The future of disaster response

First responders to Monday's massive tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, were greeted with a blighted expanse of destroyed homes, blocked roads, downed power lines and a limited window of time to unearth survivors before the sun set.

Navigating the area on foot or by car was a challenge because of the debris. News and law-enforcement helicopters filled the air above, but while they gathered useful information for rescue crews, the noise they created was drowning out cries for help from trapped survivors.

The entire area was declared a no-fly zone.

But one airborne technology will soon make responding to these kinds disasters easier: unmanned automated vehicles (UAVs), more commonly called drones. These portable, affordable aircraft can launch quickly in dangerous situations, locate survivors and send data about their whereabouts to responders on the ground.

There is a lot of excitement about drones in the public-safety world, and they are very close to being used in the field after natural disasters. However, they still face lengthy regulatory hurdles, privacy concerns, and a public image problem inherited from their armed, military cousins.

Still, the UAV industry and emergency responders are preparing for the day when they can launch drones after tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and any other disaster.

"The public just isn't really in the habit of depending on them," said James Stuckey, CEO of Fireflight, an Oklahoma-based drone company. "When they start, they won't be able to do without them."

Drone power

The benefits of drones in an emergency are reach, speed, safety and cost. When there is no power, a UAV can fly through the dark and live-stream night-vision footage to people on the ground, its paths automatically programmed so it doesn't miss a spot. A mounted infrared camera can pick up on heat signatures of bodies, pinpointing the locations of survivors so rescuers know where to go.

Unlike manned helicopters, drones create very little sound and can even be outfitted with advanced listening devices to pick up hard-to-hear audio. They can go into dangerous situations that would pose a risk to pilots or responders on foot. While helicopter propellers can stir up debris and dust, UAVs weigh as little as three pounds and don't disturb what's on the ground, even when they're hovering just 10 feet above it.

Fireflight's unmanned aerial vehicles were designed to be used in wildfires. They're outfitted with infrared cameras that can see through smoke.

Prices for commercial UAVs range from $15,000 to $50,000 - a fraction of what a helicopter costs. They can fit in the trunk of a car and be up in the air in no time.

"It's usually 45 minutes to an hour after you arrive on scene on an incident before you get real information," said Fireflight's Stuckey, a veteran firefighter of 27 years. "We can have [a UAV] up in the air in three minutes."

Roadblocks to use

The American Red Cross of Central Oklahoma was considering using Fireflight's UAVs immediately after the tornado, but didn't because of the no-fly zone, according to Steve Klapp, the regional disaster assessment manager.

The Red Cross chapter has used UAVs in tests before, such as in a disaster-assessment exercise in March. On Wednesday it considered using the aircraft to gather boundary data at the tornado scene, but Klapp said he would probably end up getting the information from other sources this time.

"We're definitely planning to use them more in the future," said Klapp. "It's a question of the right situation."

The Oklahoma National Guard is also on the ground in Moore and has trained with drones for use in Afghanistan, but said it did not deploy any in the disaster area.

The main delay, according to Ben Gielow of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), a non-profit trade association for drone companies, is that the Federal Aviation Administration is very restrictive about who can fly a drone and how they can fly it. Congress has given the FAA until 2015 to come up with rules for flying UAVs in U.S. airspace, including safety regulations, how pilots need to be trained, how an aircraft is certified, and the process for notifying local air-traffic controllers.

Until those regulations are in place, any civilian or military organization that wants to fly drones above 400 feet needs to get a special waiver from the agency. This is a lengthy process that can take one or more years, according to Gielow, although the FAA claims to have shaved it down to an average of 60 days.

There is an exception for emergencies, which would expedite the application process, but it does not appear to be wildly used for disasters.

A life saver

Disaster response is just one use for drones by public safety agencies, which the AUVSI predicts will account for 10% of the future drone industry. Stuckey created Fireflight's unmanned aircraft specifically to help fire departments gather information during Oklahoma's wildfire seasons, the last three of which have been especially vicious.

Thermal-imaging cameras can be used to see through smoke, and the UAVs can go into areas that would be too dangerous for manned aircraft.

One of the first reported cases of a drone saving someone's life occurred three weeks ago. A man was driving along a highway at night in Canada when his vehicle rolled of the road, knocking him unconscious. It was dark, with near-freezing temperatures, and emergency workers were unable to locate the car and injured driver, even with night-vision goggles and a helicopter.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police deployed an unmanned aircraft with an infrared camera, which picked up on the man's heat signature.

And the types of tools that can be attached to a UAV are growing beyond cameras and weapons. New equipment allows drones to hear gunshots, detect chemical levels, track RFID tags, and measure radiation.

Privacy concerns

The most controversial domestic use is by law enforcement agencies interested in using drones for surveillance and to fight crime, a prospect that has privacy advocates and other citizens on edge. According to Gielow, only three law-enforcement agencies currently have approval to fly drones in the U.S.: The Mesa County Sheriffs office in Colorado, the Grand Forks Sheriff's Department in North Dakota, and the Arlington Police Department in Texas.

Privacy advocates fear the drones could be used for surveillance of anyone. The UAVs track people with the same advanced software being used in regular surveillance cameras.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been pushing the FAA to release details on all the public-safety agencies, military and security organizations and other groups that have been given permits to fly drones in U.S. airspace. The civil liberties group has even plotted all the known drone programs on an interactive map.

People in the drone industry don't think a blanket ban on UAVs is the answer to privacy concerns.

"The issue should not be focused on how you take that picture," said Gielow. "You can get the same thing from a manned helicopter, satellite, security camera or smartphone."

Instead, Gielow thinks people should focus on how the government uses and stores images of citizens, not the tools used to capture them.

A booming industry

Many other government agencies are already testing out drones. NASA is using them to monitor hurricanes, NOAA employs them in the Arctic to monitor wildlife and the USGS is using them for mapping and environmental studies.

While public safety and the military get the most attention for drone use, the biggest market for UAVs will actually be agriculture, according to the AUVSI. Up to 80% of drones will be used on farms, where they will track cattle, check on the health and hydration of crops, and even dispense pesticides.

The UAV industry is set to break open in the coming year. According to the AUVSI, the drone industry will create 70,000 jobs and have an economic impact of $13.6 billion in its first three years once the FAA establishes regulations.

Meanwhile, the aerospace industry is getting ready for the potentially lucrative drone age. Twenty-six states, including Oklahoma, are currently competing for six coveted FAA contracts for UAV test sites that will be used to collect more information about how to regulate the technology. The winning states will be announced later this year.

Silicon Valley also is paying attention. Earlier this month, a startup called Airware that's developed an open operating system for UAVs raised $10.7 million in investment funding. Most of Airware's customers are in countries like Japan and France, where the technology is more wildly used.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/23/drones-the-future-of-disaster-response/?hpt=te_r1

continue reading

19,000 children missing in Colombia

Some 19,000 children are missing in Colombia, authorities said Wednesday. More than 4,000 unidentified remains of children have been found in mass graves and are being identified.

The identification process of the 4,210, which is aimed at “ending the pain and uncertainty” will be carried out by Colombian family welfare institute ICBF and the national coroner’s office.

“We know that to identify the bodies of these children is a major technical challenge that requires time and thoroughness, but we also know that it helps the families to mourn and to heal this deep wounds is a priceless achievement, both for them and for the country,” said Carlos Eduardo Valdes, director for the Institute of Forensic Science.

According to Valdes the remains found belong to victims of violence, who went missing, were displaced or ended up recruited by illegal armed groups involved in the country’s armed conflict.

ICBF director Adriana Gonzalez said that the identification process contributed to the right to truth for the victims of violence and ended the phase of uncertainty and guilt for thousand of families.

This identification process represents a new phase in the decade-long cooperation between ICBF and the coroner’s office that claim to provide “a solid contribution to the construction of historical memory and reconciliation.”

According to the coroner’s office public database on disappeared persons, 50,000 people are still registered missing.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://colombiareports.com/identification-of-4210-children-skeletons-to-offer-truth-and-reconciliation/

continue reading

Despite 18 reminders, cops are yet to dispose unclaimed bodies in Sion

Even after 18 reminders from the civicrun Lokmanya Tilak Hospital at Sion, the police have not yet disposed three unclaimed bodies lying in the morgue over three months.

With two mortuary attendants suffering from tuberculosis and many others falling ill often, the head of the post-mortem centre says that the staff are exposed to infections due to these decaying corpses.

A government regulation clearly states that unclaimed bodies must be disposed of after seven days, unless required for solving crimes, or if the police have clues which make identification possible. According to the hospital, however, police tend to wash their hands of a body once it's sent to the morgue.

"It's the responsibility of the assistant commissioner of police to ensure that police stations under him dispose unclaimed bodies in time. But the police simply don't bother," said Dr Rajesh Dere, who heads Sion hospital's PM Centre.

The body of a 35-year-old Bangladeshi woman has been in the morgue for 122 days, and the Manpada police from Dombivli have not come forward to dispose it.

The second unclaimed body is of a man identified as Ravi Kanse. It has been there for 123 days, and the Vakola police have not turned up so far.

The body of 50-year-old man identified as Ramesh Dudani has been there for 80 days, and the Antop Hill police are yet to do the needful.

"We've written six letters to each of these police stations. We also wrote to senior inspectors, the ACP and even Deputy Commissioner of Police, but to no avail," said Dr Dere.

According to him, these three bodies apart, all other bodies too have been there beyond the permissible time limit. "Almost 99 per cent of bodies have been here for over seven days," said Dr Dere. He added that the morgue has 29 cabinets which accommodate one body at a time, but with five to six more bodies at any given time, they have to somehow cram the bodies in the cabinets.

Experts say that despite being kept in a morgue, bodies begin decomposing after two months. This puts other recently brought bodies at risk of quicker decomposition.

"Also, the staff have to enter the premises over 20 times a day. While the stench is unbearable, the risk of infection is higher due to the bodies kept there for long," Dr Dere added.

Friday 24 May 2013

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/civic/Despite-18-reminders-cops-are-yet-to-dispose-unclaimed-bodies/articleshow/20233508.cms

continue reading

India: Burying unclaimed bodies - The end, with dignity

Reading the third volume of ‘Deivathin Kural,’ S. Sridhar (9840744400) was moved by Paramacharya’s appeal to people to provide a decent burial for unclaimed bodies. “Don’t dump them in burial grounds like garbage. Arrange funerals with basic rituals. Set aside caste, religion, etc.,” he exhorts in the chapter. Sridhar decided on making it his mission and joined hands with Vishranthi, run by Savitri Vaithi. He worked with them for 15 years before starting his own unit, Anatha Pretha Kaingarya Trust, with the blessings of Mahaperiyava. That was in 1985.

The organisations that have tied up with the Trust include Vishranthi, Sai Charan, Aanandam and Kakkum Karangal. Nimmadhi and Premalaya, homes for war widows and the mentally challenged respectively, also approach the Trust.

Unclaimed dead bodies are buried after obtaining police clearance. In the case of orphanages, last rites are performed depending upon the religion of the dead. Sridhar himself lights the funeral pyre, chanting Ram’s name, singing `Raghupathi Ragava Raja Ram’ and remembering Mahaswamigal.

About Rs 1,500 is spent on each cremation and he manages the expenses from the Trust’s funds and personal money. The ash is dissolved in the sea. Some relatives of the departed turn up after the cremation. Sridhar revisits the cremation ground along with the relatives and helps them perform the rites to their satisfaction. He and his wife perform the rites in memory of the dead when they go to places such as Varanasi and Rameswaram. It is worth mentioning that the elderly, living in old age homes, volunteer to donate their eyes after their death.

Sridhar’s ancestors belonged to Nallamoor, about 10 km from Tindivanam. His grandfather was close to Subramania Sastrigal, poorvasrama father of Mahaswamigal. He started an elementary school on the advice of Sastrigal for the village children. Doing social service thus runs in the family. Sridhar’s sons and wife take over the responsibility when he is not around or busy otherwise.

Has he ever regretted? “Certainly not. But I feel a pang when estranged relatives refuse to visit the dying or the dead. With the support of the entire family, I am lucky to be doing this service. Nobody is turned away and no call is ignored.”

It would be appropriate to mention some others, who are engaged in the same mission. Neila, aged 50, has been burying unclaimed bodies from government hospitals for about eight years now, with assistance from her two children. She gets no support from her husband. She even organises programmes on suicide prevention.

Trivikrama Mahadeva, Bangalore, has been doing this for more than four decades now. The Government of Karnataka feted him and the state financial corporation helped him with a van. A flower vendor in Coimbatore, Shanta Kumar, is reportedly doing the same thing – giving a decent funeral to the unclaimed bodies that he picks up from government mortuaries. The efforts of Umar Ali and his friends at Udamalpet, have been appreciated by Dr. Abdul Kalam.

The Chennai-based advocate Venkatasubramaniam’s Jeevatma Kainkaryam Trust, in the name of Mahaswamigal’s poorvashrama mother, is also well known. As regards last rites, Ragavan, a retired Chennai Telephones employee, is offering his Chromepet Gayathri Trust’s services free or at a subsidised rate depending upon the need.

Sridhar has a dream. “I work with Sri Matha Trust in attending to poor cancer patients. The Trust is doing wonderful work but under the present circumstances, it has to send back the terminally ill to their homes. If the Government of Tamil Nadu can allot an acre of land in Tambaram or somewhere close-by, they can be given shelter. The Sri Matha Trust management has already written to the State Government in this regard. I hope there is a positive response.”

Thursday 23 May 2013

http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/the-end-with-dignity/article4742569.ece

continue reading

Savar building collapse: Volunteers haunted by rescue trauma

Mamun was hailed a hero for pulling survivors from the ruins of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza factory complex but now he struggles to sleep, haunted by the memory of sawing off a young woman’s hand.

“I had never even touched the hand of a woman before but it was the only way to save her and the others,” said the 22-year-old in an interview ahead of the one-month anniversary of the disaster.

“My hand was soaked in blood by the end and I still can’t get that image out of my head.”

A total of 1,127 people died when the nine-storey building collapsed on the morning of April 24 in Savar, a suburb of the capital Dhaka, making it one of the deadliest industrial disasters of all time.

But the tragedy took its toll on others, including an army of volunteers who rescued hundreds but also encountered unimaginable horrors such as bodies decayed beyond identity.

Many of the hundreds of volunteers who spent nearly three weeks sifting through the ruins have reported similar signs of trauma as that experienced by Mamun, who like many Bangladeshis only uses one name.

Mamun, a part-time tailor, risked his life to crawl through a hole to reach three women on the second day of the rescue effort, only to find that a hand of one of them was encased in concrete and she was blocking access to the others.

“She was pleading to me: ‘Please cut my hand’. There was no anaesthetic so I borrowed a hacksaw from the army,” he said.

The army says at least 2,438 people — mostly female garment workers—were rescued, including 968 people who were seriously injured. Many of them had limbs amputated either at the site or in hospital.

The scale of the disaster meant students at a medical college next to the local Enam Hospital had to carry out some of the amputations. Sometimes the operations were done without anaesthetic and howls of agony echoed around the hospital.

The hospital says it has treated around 60 volunteers for trauma, including several medical students.

Trainee doctor Sushmita Nargis said she has been taking anti-anxiety tablets as she tries to cope with the memories.

“At one stage it felt as if the only sound I could hear in my head was of ambulance sirens. They just wouldn’t stop,” said Nargis.

“And then there were those heart-wrenching cries of the amputees and their relatives ... How are you meant to feel when hundreds of patients lie all around you, crying and writhing in pain?”

The volunteers included students, street hawkers and housewives as well as garment workers who were the first on the scene.

Sometimes armed with little more than hammers or shovels, they proceeded to pull out hundreds of survivors whom they could see or hear crying out for help.

Others clubbed together to buy specialist drilling equipment.

The Bangladeshi government shunned offers from the United Nations and elsewhere for specialist help, leaving the army to co-ordinate the rescue effort.

As the days went by, the numbers of survivors fell away and the overwhelming memories that linger for the volunteers are the sights and smells of rotting corpses.

Even when the volunteers did manage to locate survivors, they were sometimes unable to bring them to safety as they were trapped by the debris.

Asma Akter Liza, who donated money to buy a drill after selling some of her books and clothes, fought back tears as she recalled the death of one young woman.

“I came across a girl called Bakul and she held out her hand to me from a tiny hole in the rubble,” said the 28-year-old housewife.

“I held her hand for hours and we talked about everything. She called me sister.

“But in the end we could not save her. She was stuck in such a tiny pocket that it was impossible.

“These days her eyes, her cries for help haunt me all the time. Sometimes I can’t control my tears.”

The trauma has prompted many volunteers to seek counselling or medication as they seek to blot out the memories.

“Every time I go to bed, it feels like I’m in a dark place from where I can’t escape,” said

Mamun. “I thought of going to a mental hospital, but I don’t have enough money.”

Mohammed Badal, who pulled 18 of his fellow textile workers from the ruins, also struggles to sleep.

“Whenever I try to sleep, I end up hearing them crying out to me: ‘Please save me brother, please save me brother’,” said the 25-year-old.

“I sometimes even hear the cries in the daytime.”

Thursday 23 May 2013

http://www.gulf-times.com/bangladesh/245/details/353562/volunteers-haunted-by-rescue-trauma

continue reading

Two more avalanche bodies recovered from Gayari

Two more bodies of Shaheed soldiers, who came under a huge snow slide last year, were recovered from Gayari sector in the ongoing search operation during the last 36 hours.

A spokesman for Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Wednesday that 131 bodies had been recovered so far while search for the remaining nine was continuing. It may be mentioned that on April 7, 2012, 140 soldiers and civilians of 6 Northern Light Infantry Battalion came under a huge snow slide at Gayari and embraced Shahadat. He said 121 bodies of martyrs were recovered before suspension of Operation Gayari due to winters on November 27, 2012.

After opening of weather and melting of snow, search for the remaining 19 martyrs commenced on April 15, 2013 by employing 228 military personnel and 29 heavy engineering equipment pieces including excavators, dozers and drill machines. It is once again reiterated that these sustained efforts would continue till recovery of last man, he concluded.

Thursday 23 May 2013

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-23042-Two-more-bodies-recovered-from-Gayari

continue reading

Train crash simulation for Emergency teams in Lincolnshire to test their readiness for a real-life disaster

Emergency teams in Lincolnshire this week simulated a train crash, to test their readiness for a real-life disaster. How did they cope with the panic, chaos and casualties?

The collision occurred at 8.22am. A three-coach train on the east coast mainline hit a trailer being pulled by a tractor. Two of the coaches careered off the tracks, one landing on its side, the other ending up titled at a crazy angle on an embankment. We got there minutes after the impact to see smoke and hear the cries of the passengers in the one carriage still left on the tracks. The passengers in the other two carriages were too traumatised to make much noise.

Until 8.22 it was an ordinary Tuesday morning in rural Lincolnshire. The big sky was slate grey and threatening rain; the rapeseed fields around the crash site swayed in the breeze. The one discordant note was struck by the Classic Cuisine van (hot dogs and burgers £3.80) parked in a field next to the crash site. A couple of hours later the van would be surrounded by hundreds of exhausted emergency staff as they tried to cope with Lincolnshire's biggest ever rail disaster.

Or should that be pseudo-disaster? A train had been derailed, and half an hour after the crash, in a bizarre secondary accident, a lorry looking for a way out of the traffic jam caused by the derailment hit a school, killing and injuring dozens of children and causing a chemical spill that threatened the village ("It's like Casualty," says one observer). But while the police, the fire and ambulance crews, the voluntary agencies, the rescue helicopters that descended on the scene were playing it for real, none of it is real. It's an exercise designed to test how the emergency services would react to a multiple catastrophe.

Lincolnshire takes these exercises very seriously. Every county has to have a disaster plan and to test disaster planning, but most do it using models. Lincolnshire, which two years ago simulated a coastal flood, does it for real – or as real as they can make it. "We have a good track record for realistic exercises," says David Powell, head of the joint emergency management service, who has been planning this week's disaster for nine months. "You test an awful lot more when the blue lights have to turn up, and suddenly they have to talk to each other."

Powell says only a real-time exercise can test the "buggeration" factors – unpredictable elements that no tabletop simulation can anticipate. This one, codenamed Exercise Georgiana (named after a woman killed in a rail disaster in Grantham in 1906), will involve more than a thousand people and last for three days.

The degree of realism is tempered by the fact that all the agencies know what is going to happen and when, though some of the finer details are left sketchy, and Powell reserves the right to introduce "injects", rogue elements he hasn't briefed the participants about. There are also the buggeration factors that no one can anticipate, such as the suspect package found near the school that causes the exercise to be suspended for 10 minutes just in case a real-life explosion is about to occur.

The disaster occurs at a training facility next to RAF Waddington a few miles south of Lincoln – the sort of place where you can crash a train without too many members of the public tweeting about it – but the real site Powell and his planners have in mind is Claypole, a village 15 miles away, which is on the east coast mainline and has a level crossing. The residents have been told their village is about to have disaster visited on it, and many have volunteered to play the part of walking wounded and distressed relatives at a survivor centre that, within a couple of hours of the train crash, will be improvised in the village hall.

The first thing that strikes you at the scene of the crash is how long it takes to get people out of the carriages, even the one that's upright. "There are people dying in here," one of the injured shouts through the window. But still the initial wave of emergency personnel stand around assessing the situation, deciding on a plan of action, establishing priorities. "Health and safety gone mad," wails the Guardian photographer, who looks like he's about to go in alone. He becomes apoplectic when the police start putting tape around the accident scene before getting the injured off the train. I start to fear there could be a real disaster.

Tony Rouse, one of the umpires for the exercise, points out that the power is still on, and the overhead power lines are probably on the ground – any crews trying to effect a rescue would be in danger of electrocution. "If you start losing paramedics, you exacerbate the situation," he says. "It's pointless them being casualties themselves. The whole operation would grind to a halt." He says it could be up to an hour before the casualties are treated. Don't they become hysterical? Surely the people on the train must be baffled by what's going on? "There is conflict," admits Spencer Creek, technical response manager for Lincolnshire fire and rescue, "and that conflict creates problems for responders and casualties. We have to measure the risk, and the risk mustn't outweigh what we're trying to achieve."

Some of the local people who have volunteered to be injured for the day are impressively stroppy about the long delay in providing treatment. "There's a guy in here who can't breathe," shouts one. "Can't one of you blokes who's standing around doing nothing come and help?" Others, though, are less realistic. Staying in character for hours is difficult. Sometimes these exercises are done with trained actors or volunteers who have role-play experience. Powell says that for this exercise they mostly preferred to use local people, including a group of local volunteer first responders, as a way of engaging the community. But I suspect there may also have been cost factors – this is a cheap way of getting bodies – and can't help thinking greater verisimilitude, more hysteria, a greater sense of panic would test the emergency services more.

I feel that even more strongly when I see Georgina Minter playing her role. Minter is one of the dozen or so pros that Lincolnshire has shelled out money on today – all members of Amputees in Action, men and women who have lost limbs and now make themselves available for simulations such as this. They have been made up so their severed limbs look ultra-realistic. Add Minter's Oscar-winning performance as a woman outside the school that has been hit by a lorry – "Where's my baby?" she keeps screaming to a paramedic who looks increasingly shellshocked and who eventually says, "Let's get her out of here, no niceties with this one" – and the test takes on a new dimension. Minter, who four years ago lost both her legs and a hand to necrotising fasciitis, suddenly makes you feel this is more than just a dry run.

"Our role is to rattle the emergency services out of their training mode, put them off a little bit and make them think outside the box," says Karl Ives, Amputees in Action's supervisor for the day: "We want to put a bit of stress on them."

"We're also desensitising them for when it happens for real," adds Lyndsay Adams, an amputee who starred in the Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies and who is today playing the headteacher of the school devastated by the chemical tanker. "They won't have seen it in real life, but this is as real as we can make it."

Dr Peter Holden, a GP who is working here today as a medical incident adviser, has attended three real-life disasters: Hillsborough, the bomb in Tavistock Square on 7/7, and the house explosion in Newark last Sunday. He accepts a test such as this can never quite mimic the real thing – "If this was real, you'd be looking at real blood," he says simply – but reckons the management challenges are the same. "What this does for those who've never really had to do it is make them realise that the first hour is utter chaos, the second hour is organised chaos, and the third hour you begin to go in the right direction."

Holden's role is to prioritise casualties. The paramedics bring them to him with their assessment, and in the space of about 30 seconds he then has to classify them as priority one, two or three. Priority one go straight to hospital; the rest, even those with bloodied faces and broken bones, will have to wait. The people who were getting stroppy on the train two hours ago are now getting stroppy all over again, wondering why they've been parked in a field. A group of boys from Newark College are shivering under blankets after being decontaminated following the chemical spill. One says his nose has been bleeding (in theory, you understand) for two hours. "I'm going to die of a nose bleed," he moans.

"The hard thing for all clinical staff is that in a major incident, you turn everything on its head," explains Holden. "You are doing the most for the most. You can't get stuck in on the first person on the scene. What we've got here is a large number of casualties, many with very serious, life-threatening injuries, who have been stabilised, resuscitated and now have to be shipped out. But we also have all these other people with quite significant injuries who are less serious, and our job there is to stabilise them and feed them into the medical chain so that the medical chain doesn't get indigestion. You will notice that I've ruthlessly kept the walking wounded here. The priority one people will die within minutes, whereas they will take days." You will not die of a nosebleed in two days. The young lad should be fine until at least the weekend.

Over at Claypole, the survivor reception centre is in full swing. The Red Cross is registering the walking wounded and the traumatised as they are brought in and offering first aid. Reassuring women from the Royal Voluntary Service are serving tea and custard creams – the essence of English stiff-upper-lipped fortitude. Local resident Claire Simmonds is playing a woman who believes her elderly parents were on the train and is giving the man from the rail company a hard time over the lack of information she is receiving. Mike Freeman, a volunteer with the Lincolnshire Chaplaincy Scheme, is offering support and trying to keep her calm.

Bang! Mark Bedford, playing a diabetic who was on the train and has lost his insulin, faints, falls off his chair and hits the floor with a resounding thud. If Minter takes the best actress award, Bedford must get best actor. This is one of several identities Bedford was issued with when he reported for volunteer duty. In the morning he had been Mr Disruptive. "We were putting pressure on people really," he says. "It was entertaining. There was a lady from Germany who couldn't speak English. I had the idea of using Google translate to help her."

He says for the most part it worked, but did at one point translate "Where is my brother?" as "Do you need your bathroom repairing?"

Meanwhile, in Lincoln, a strategic command centre has been established in a former nuclear bunker at the county's fire and rescue HQ. There are three levels in the command chain: bronze command – the emergency services on the ground; silver command – a large room at the bunker filled with "cells" dealing with big-picture issues such as logistics, the environment and the media; and gold command, where strategic policy is laid down by 40-plus key people from the 20 or so agencies dealing with the disaster.

I attend the three o'clock meeting, chaired by Chief Inspector Paul Gibson, where they assess how the casualties are being treated, whether Claypole should be evacuated because of the chemical spill, how they will cope with the chaos at local stations (the east coast main line is closed and they are expecting agitated commuters to fight to get on to buses), and when casualty figures should be released. Karen Spencer, the council's strategic communications manager, is desperate to get some figures out – Twitter, like nature, abhors a vacuum and will not be slow to guesstimate figures, she argues – but Gibson is reluctant until they are verified. Their standoff adds a nice moment of drama.

Spencer tells me after the meeting that emergency personnel have to realise the social media revolution has changed the nature of disaster management. "There are so many members of the public with smartphones that people will be tweeting photographs and information immediately," she says. "We are hours and hours late in response. I can only say it so many times. I almost strangled the woman chairing the earlier meeting."

There are tensions between competing parts of the emergency jigsaw: the police are cautious and inherently hierarchical; the council is more used to collective decision-making; its media staff are inclined to be as open as they can in releasing information. Simon Burgess, the council's strategic communications officer, says a key part of the exercise is to highlight these tensions. "No one should be worried about failing," he says. "That's what it's all about – identifying problems. Everything is recorded; everything is minuted; and in the end, in about two weeks' time, we'll be looking at everything – what worked, what didn't work."

By late afternoon, a press statement has been released saying eight people have been killed (I've been tipped off the number of dead will more than double on succeeding days); the police are advising people to "stay calm"; the fire service spokesman clunkily refers to a "protracted ongoing incident". Back at Waddington, the casualties have been freed from the train and the wrecked school, the stroppy walking wounded and the young man with the nosebleed have gone home, and an eerie silence has descended. Two bigwigs from gold command assessing the situation after day one – day two will see the start of the search for the body parts scattered across the site – look content. Given the scale of the catastrophe, it hasn't been a complete disaster.

Thursday 23 May 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/22/how-would-you-cope-rail-disaster

continue reading

Zimbabwe mass graves: Horror tales from the war

66-year-old Rangadza Machiha narrates the “worst” years of his life. It is a period that he rarely wants to talk about. For him it was a time of trouble. A time spent burying dismembered bodies, cleaning and taking fingerprints of slain comrades, digging and dumping their bodies in shallow graves.

“Nhau dzerufu hadzinakidzeka idzi mfana. I was tortured, electrocuted and was put in leg irons and handcuffs for nearly three months. I want to appeal to people to remain united so that this is not repeated. It was a painful experience. Let this be history and never to be repeated. That is my appeal to the people of Zimbabwe,” Mudhara Machiha pleaded.

One thing that is true about the old man is that he still can relate his ordeal at the hands of the Rhodesian security forces 34 years ago like something that happened a fortnight ago. Indeed, that has left a deep scar in his life that he cannot wish away.

It was the war of liberation. The enemy had declared that blacks would never rule the country and was prepared to go to any length to prevent an independent Zimbabwe. The Smith regime was brutal. It left a trail of sorrow in the African family fabric. Many despicable things happened. Let’s continue to tell the tales of our liberation struggle.

Arrested at the height of the liberation struggle after the battle of Rombwe in Rusape on December 28, 1977, Machiha with others were taken to the notorious Rusape Selous Scout Camp.

“On arrival he was covered in a black sack and taken to a room for interrogation. In the room there were pictures of nationalists like Cde (Josiah) Tongogara, President Mugabe and others. These had a wanted dead or alive tag above their heads. A huge reward was placed on their heads,” he said

“I still remember that among those arrested was a freedom fighter, Cde Gafa Tichatonga, who denied knowledge of me. If he had said he knew me I could have been history by now. I was put in leg irons and tortured.

They connected electricity to my male organ and one toe. I cried and thought I would never sire a child again. This was to become a daily occurrence for the next three months,” he added.

Mudhara Machiha was only freed from the leg irons when a relative who was in CID saw him.

Pained by his condition, the policeman oiled the locks that were now rusting and unlocked the shackles. From then on he was to join those who were burying bodies at Castle Farm.

“At the burial site we had to quickly dig the shallow mass graves and cover the bodies as the soldiers who accompanied us feared attacks from the freedom fighters. The numbers differed but ranged between five and eight.

One day we buried 26 bodies in a shallow grave and they came from many areas. They were of all ages and sexes. Some had lost their limbs, heads and others torn to pieces.

“I remember freedom fighters were placed in room at the camp. We would be tasked to wash their hands and take fingerprints. Some of the policemen would puff smoke to neutralise the odour from decaying bodies.

It was a bad experience but there was nothing we could do. We had to perform the duties at gunpoint,” he said.

“Dead bodies would be brought from as far as Wedza and Ruwangwe and Nyanga to be buried in mass graves there. They would be carried in four to five trucks for burial a day and we buried them in the vlei just after that little stream in the east of Mabvazuva suburb.”

Among the names of black soldiers who tortured him most at the camp where Sergegant-Major Chisese while other had nicknames like Mbudziyadhura, Komboniyatsva, Tsvotsvotsvo and Chigadziramemba.

“I remember one known as Mari. That man was cruel, he was my tormentor-in- chief,” Mudhara Machiha says fighting back his tears. He was released on August 18 1978.

“They just told me to leave the camp. I moved to Tsanzaguru Township. I still carry the effects of the torture,” he added.

His experiences at the Rusape Selous Torture Camp tally with that of Mbuya Mazano arrested in Rukweza after fleeing the Battle of Tsanzaguru.

“We were tired after running the whole way from Rusape that I and others decided to climb a huge mango tree for cover. The homestead had a lot of such trees and it was easy to find cover in them.

It was unfortunate that a group of soldiers passed below the mango tree and two of decided to sit under the tree to rest. Because of fear, one of us fell from the tree alerting the soldiers.

“She had blown our cover. The soldiers forced us to climb down the trees before force marching us to St Baduwa where there were people who had been shot dead. We were told to climb into the trucks with the bodies and to sleep alongside the dead bodies.

At road curves blood would spill out of the trucks but we had to remain quiet fearing we would be shot,” she said.

On arrival the bodies were first dumped next to their tent at the camp before being reloaded again for burial at the “butchery”.

“We were forced again to get on the trucks for a makeshift court at the butchery. In the makeshift court there was an electric stool where prisoners of war were forced to sit while being interrogated. The soldiers would drop burning plastics on your naked bodies.

“I did not have to sit on the hot stool as one black soldier shouted; “Ibhebhi rakanaka ndiri kurida usaripise”. That was how I was spared the torture and imminent death at the butchery. Unfortunately, some of my friends who were on the truck with me were tortured and later executed.

They were put in black plastic and buried here,” she said.

Unfortunately for Gogo Mazano that was the start of worse things to come. She was to stay at the camp with soldiers taking turns to rape her. They would move around with her as their sex object.

“Imagine being raped by more than 10 people a day. If you failed to please them they would severely assault you. At one point I fell pregnant but I was beaten till I lost that pregnancy. I was admitted at hospital for nearly three months.

On discharge they came and took me back to the camp. I was only released during the ceasefire in 1979.

“It still haunts me today. It is disheartening that these people have gone scot free and are still unrepentant,” she said.

She recalls some of her tormentors were still alive but most had left the area after independence. Another victim of Rusape Selous Scout Camp Gogo Regina Doto said she was picked in Vhengere Township by a group of auxiliary troops on their way to Chiwetu Rest.

“On arrival at the rest camp, a black cloth was tied on the faces of all the ‘prisoners’ so we would not see what was going on in the camp. Before they had started interrogating us there was the sound of gunfire and so we were again bundled into the trucks and driven to Rusape Selous Scout Camp. On arrival red cloths were tied around our eyes so that we could not see our tormentors. It was also a sign that we had to be executed,” she said.

“Whilst the Rhodesian soldiers were still contemplating what to do with us, the spirits smiled on us and they the camp was attacked by the guerrillas. The Rhodesian troops scurried for cover in the holes at the camp leaving us to face the fire.

“We took advantage of the commotion and ran for dear life back to Vhengere. That is how we survived the camp. It was only towards end of the war that the Selous Scout came to take part of the suburb to Castle Camp. It was painful to see skeletons with shoes on, functioning watches in hand but with no flesh.

“They boasted that they had killed so many. I remember one of them saying there are thousands of your brothers here. They took us to a pit near that hill where we were shown hundreds of decomposing bodies that were to be burnt.

“You see that pit, it used to be deep and that is where most of your brothers and sisters’ bodies were burnt. As they drove away, blood would spill from the trucks along the way and it was a sad sight,” she said.

“At that time, blood of the people who had been killed at the execution site flowed down the slope. There were pits everywhere in this area with bodies of people who were forced to dig their own graves, before being shot and buried there,” she said.

Thursday 23 May 2013

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79421:horror-tales-from-the-war&catid=42:features-news&Itemid=134#.UZ1kDYdzA34

continue reading

Cleveland Police use UK Missing Person's Bureau website to identify unresolved cases

Cleveland Police is seeking the services of the UK Missing Person’s Bureau in identifying two outstanding missing people on their records – the oldest dating back to 1970.

Now police also want any information from anyone local on Teesside who can help.

The UK Missing Person’s Bureau was created in April 2008 and forms part of the national operational support to police forces.

Part of their work includes a police service-wide review of the number of bodies and body parts that remain unidentified and enables police forces to call a central team to match details of current or historic missing people with information held on their database.

The bureau helps determine where additional forensic techniques could be used to try to bring resolution to a family about the identity of a person, and is now utilising its website to specifically publicise unidentified bodies in the form of a searchable list of cases.

The two outstanding cases which Cleveland Police hold relate to a body (age and sex unconfirmed) washed up on the beach at Redcar in 1970 and a man found in woods near to the A178 Graythorpe to Seal Sands Road in Hartlepool in 1981.

The body at Redcar was wearing black boots, multi coloured red and fawn socks and a leather belt.

The man in Hartlepool was approximately 20-30 years, 170cm tall, with mousey collar length hair and blue eyes.

He was wearing a blue and navy blue striped jumper, checked shirt and grey corduroy trousers.

The white Adidas training shoes he was wearing at the time had the name ‘SAYER’ written in pen on the inside.

The database can be accessed by anyone via the link www.misingpersonspolice.uk and any suggestions as to the possible identity of individuals can be relayed back to the bureau.

Thursday 23 May 2013

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/cleveland-police-use-missing-persons-4003005

continue reading

Death toll rises to 23, with 10 still missing, in blast at China explosives plant

The death toll from a massive blast at an explosives plant in eastern China has risen to 23 with 10 people still missing.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday that 19 others were injured by the explosion, which ripped through the plant in Shandong province on Monday.

The blast was so strong that 10 of those killed could only be identified by their DNA. Experts from the State Administration of Work Safety have been sent to the factory and are investigating the cause of the explosion.

China has sought to tighten access to explosives used for quarrying following a series of attacks by people using homemade bombs. However, safety rules are often ignored and industrial accidents remain common.

Thursday 23 May 2013

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Death+toll+rises+with+still+missing+blast+China+explosives/8418213/story.html

continue reading

Casualty counts from disasters can be imprecise

Initial casualty figures from disasters can be notoriously inaccurate, as is being demonstrated once again as authorities backtrack on the number of fatalities from the Oklahoma tornadoes.

After tornadoes struck Joplin, Mo., in 2011, the list of missing people swelled to 1,500 as family members struggled for days to locate loved ones. The death count in Joplin eventually stood at 161.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, officials initially believed 5,000 to 7,000 people were missing, said Ellen Borakove, a spokesman for the city medical examiner. The death total ended up at 2,753.

Since tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma on Monday afternoon, the reported death count has varied markedly—from 51 late Monday, to 91 early Tuesday and then declining sharply to 24 some hours later.

That number is likely to fluctuate in coming days, say medical and law-enforcement officials who have dealt with natural disasters and mass casualties.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said at a news conference Tuesday that officials didn't have a firm number of fatalities. "We are working real hard right now to get a more accurate count on the loss of life," she said.

The confusion isn't unusual. The aftermath of a high-casualty disaster, officials said, can be a chaotic scene filled with misinformation, thousands of frantic people, poor communication, blocked roads, hosts of hospitals working in tandem and floods of police and rescuers.



"The fog is thick, and it will be for some time," said Rob Chappel, the coroner in Joplin. "We didn't have any sort of a solid count for at least 48 hours." Added New York's Ms. Borakove: "Originally, you have information from any source you can find. Information is coming from everywhere."

Ms. Fallin said some of the Oklahoma victims had been taken to the state medical examiner's office, but officials also were trying to confirm reports that bodies were taken directly to funeral homes.

In Joplin, Mr. Chappel said, police and emergency personnel sifted through piles of rubble for weeks, looking for remains across miles. Individual remains were put in separate body bags, though some bags later were consolidated when identities were matched up, Mr. Chappel said.

Some remains at first thought to be those of humans proved otherwise after laboratory tests. Cadaver dogs often mistook animal remains, Mr. Chappel said.

For hours after the disasters in Joplin and New York, cellphone networks were overloaded or damaged. People were stranded and unable to reach relatives. That was true Tuesday near Oklahoma City, officials said.

Amid the disruption in Joplin and New York, a host of issues clouded the proper identification of the dead or missing. Calls flooded in to authorities from people reporting missing relatives and friends, but follow-up calls often weren't made after an individual was found.

Someone may report a Bill Johnson missing, while another friend or family member may report a William Johnson. Until it can be determined that these two people don't exist, the individuals are counted separately.

Mr. Chappel, the Joplin coroner, said friends would try to locate people who had moved away months or years ago. Calls inundated authorities' offices from media outlets around the world, leaving officials strapped to communicate.

"We love the press because it helps us get the word out, but the press also can really get in the way of your work," Mr. Chappel said.

Victims were taken to a host of hospitals over a wide area. It often would take hours or days before fatalities were reported, Mr. Chappel said. In New York, officials struggled with a similar handicap as victims were fanned out to hospitals across the city.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324102604578497272536297086.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

continue reading

No more bodies or survivors likely in the rubble, Oklahoma official says

Officials in Oklahoma City said on Tuesday that 24 bodies were recovered after a devastating tornado tore through Moore, Okla., a sharp decline from the 51 deaths they previously reported.

"We have got good news. The number right now is 24," said Amy Elliott, chief administrative officer at the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Office. The prior figure of 51 dead may have included some double-reported casualties, Elliott said.

"There was a lot of chaos," Elliott said.

She cautioned that additional bodies could yet be recovered from the rubble.

All but three of the bodies that have been recovered have been identified and are being returned to their families, Elliott said.

Pre-dawn emergency workers searched feverishly for survivors in the rubble of homes, primary schools and an hospital in an Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.

The 2-mile(3-km) wide tornado tore through town of Moore outside Oklahoma City, trapping victims beneath the rubble as one elementary school took a direct hit and another was destroyed.

Reporters were cleared back from Plaza Towers Elementary School, which sustained a direct hit Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb told CNN. But television pictures showed firefighters from more than a dozen fire departments working under bright spotlights to find survivors.

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster area in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local efforts in Moore after the deadliest U.S. tornado since one killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri, two years ago.

The White House said Obama would make a statement on the Oklahoma tornado at 11 a.m. It said the president was brieved overnight on the tornado tragedy.

There was an outpouring of grief on Plaza Towers' Facebook page, with messages from around the country including one pleading simply: "Please find those little children."

A separate Facebook page set up to reunite people in the area hit by a tornado on Sunday with their belongings and pets also showed entries for Moore residents overnight.

Another elementary school, homes and a hospital were among the buildings leveled in Moore, leaving residents of the town of about 50,000 people stunned at the devastation and loss of life. Many residents were left without power and water.

The National Weather Service assigned the twister a preliminary ranking of EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, meaning the second most powerful category of tornado with winds up to 200 mph.

Witnesses said Monday's tornado appeared more fierce than the giant twister that was among the dozens that tore up the area on May 3, 1999, killing more than 40 people and destroying thousands of homes. That tornado ranked as an EF5, meaning it had winds over 200 mph.

The 1999 event in Oklahoma ranks as the third-costliest tornado in U.S. history, having caused more than $1 billion in damage at the time, or more than $1.3 billion in today's dollars. Only the devastating Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes in 2011 were more costly.

"I am close to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado, especially those who lost young children. Join me in praying for them," Pope Francis said in a Twitter message.

Jeff Alger, 34, who works in the Kansas oil fields on a fracking crew, said his wife Sophia took their children out of school when she heard a tornado was coming and then fled Moore and watched it flatten the town from a few miles away.

"They didn't even have time to grab their shoes," said Alger, who has five children aged four to 11. The storm tore part of the roof off of his home. He was with his wife at Norman Regional Hospital to have glass and other debris removed from his wife's bare feet.

Moore was devastated with debris everywhere, street signs gone, lights out, houses destroyed and vehicles tossed about as if they were toys.

The dangerous storm system threatened several southern Plains states with more twisters. The area around Moore faces the risk of severe thunderstorms on Tuesday, which could hamper rescue efforts.

Speaking outside Norman Regional HospitalNinia Lay, 48, said she huddled in a closet through two storm alerts and the tornado hit on the third.

"I was hiding in the closet and I heard something like a train coming," she said under skies still flashing with lightning. The house was flattened and Lay was buried in the rubble for two hours until her husband Kevin, 50, and rescuers dug her out.

"I thank God for my cell phone, I called me husband for help."

Her daughter Catherine, seven, a first-grader at Plaza Towers Elementary School, took shelter with classmates and teachers in a bathroom when the tornado hit and destroyed the school. She escaped with scrapes and cuts.

The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center provided the town with a warning 16 minutes before the tornado touched down at 3:01 p.m. (2001 GMT), which is greater than the average eight to 10 minutes of warning, said Keli Pirtle, a spokeswoman for the center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The notice was upgraded to emergency warning with "heightened language" at 2:56 p.m., or five minutes before the tornado touched down, Pirtle said.

Television media measured the tornado at more than 2 miles wide, with images showing entire neighborhoods flattened.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed a temporary flight restriction that allowed only relief aircraft in the area, saying it was at the request of police who needed quiet to search for buried survivors.

Oklahoma activated the National Guard, and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency activated teams to support recovery operations and coordinate responses for multiple agencies.

Briarwood Elementary School, which also stood in the storm's path, was all but destroyed. On the first floor, sections of walls had been peeled away, giving clear views into the building; while in other areas, cars hurled by the storm winds were lodged in the walls.

The number of injured as reported by several hospitals rose rapidly throughout the afternoon.

"The whole city looks like a debris field," Glenn Lewis, the mayor of Moore, told NBC.

"It looks like we have lost our hospital. I drove by there a while ago and it's pretty much destroyed," Lewis said.

The massive twister struck at the height of tornado season, and more were forecast. On Sunday, tornadoes killed two people and injured 39 in Oklahoma.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

http://www.jsonline.com/news/usandworld/oklahoma-death-toll-downgraded-to-24-double-counting-cited-b9915332z1.html

continue reading

Human parts on sale in Nigeria

Emotions ran high, Tuesday, at Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, following startling revelations by suspected members of three syndicates, who specialised in selling human parts to herbalists and persons suspected to be clerics. The suspects told a bewildered crowd that human heads were sold for N8,000; hands, N4,000 and private parts N10,000.

One of them, Agboola Kolawole, who blamed his indulgence on poverty and inability to pay his children’s school fees, disclosed that he had so far sold four heads of his deceased siblings to a herbalist, who in turn sold to some persons they identified simply as Alhajis.

The Alhajis, as gathered, offered to pay one of the suspects N40,000 to get a live human being, only for the suspect, Sanni Kazeem, to be apprehended during his search for prey.

Recovered from one of the arrested herbalists, identified as Ajibade Rafiu (40), who the suspects said they supply with the human parts, was a dried human finger suspected to be that of a lady, and a concoction, which he said was made from grounded human head mixed with local gin.

The concoction, according to Rafiu, was to fortify him against spiritual attacks.

Their arrest, according to the Command’s spokesperson, Ngozi Braide, followed a tip-off from the officer-in-charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ikeja, Abba Kyari, that one of the suspects, Jamiu Adeleke, was at the verge of selling a human hand for N21,000.

The operatives, according to Braide, who paraded the suspects before newsmen, stormed Owode town, Ogun State, where Adeleke was arrested while attempting to sell the human hand to a buyer.

She said: “Adeleke confessed that one Sanni Kazeem sold it to him for N6,000. When Sanni was arrested, he also confessed to the crime, adding that he had supplied two human heads to a dealer named Akinwowo Fatai (30), who was also arrested.

Akinwowo, on his part, confessed to have received the human heads and another four human heads from another supplier, one Agboola Kolawole (40), who was later arrested in the same Owode town.”

“Kolawole confessed that he cut the heads of his two late brothers and two late sisters buried in private graves in their compound and sold them for N8,000 each. The final buyer/receiver, one Ajibade Rafiu (30), a herbalist, was also arrested.

“During interrogation, the suppliers said they got their human parts from various grave yards in Ogun State, while the middlemen doubled the prices and sell to the herbalist, who is the end user.

“Sanni Kazeem also confessed that two popular Alhajis in the same Owode town had bought one head from him before and also requested for a live human being for N40,000.”

She added that the first suspect arrested, Adeleke, jumped out of a moving vehicle in his attempt to escape and sustained fatal injuries, which later resulted in his death, adding that effort was still on to arrest others indicted in the business.

One of the suspects, Agboola Kolawole, said: “Yes, I sold my dead siblings' parts for N8,000 each. I was tempted to do that because of poverty and inability to pay my children’s school fees.

“Just as I was thinking of how to pay their school fees, a friend approached me and asked why I should be suffering when there was a way out. When I asked how, he said I should go and get some human parts that he would pay me.

“That was how I went to my late brother’s grave at night, exhumed the bodies of two of them and cut off the heads.

“When I took them to the friend, he gave me N16,000 and told me to get him four hands. This time around, I went to my late sisters graves and cut off their hands. I was paid N8,000 for a set of hands.

” Kazeem Sanni said he usually went to cemeteries to exhume dead bodies and cut off the needed parts.

He said: “The cemetery I usually frequent is CMS. I usually go there at night when the guards are asleep.

“I sell skull for N8,000 to Alpha Jamiu (Muslim cleric). So far, I have gone to the cemetery thrice to cut off human parts.

“Two weeks ago, he called to say that his clients needed a human being, promising to pay me N40,000. When I asked him how that was possible, he said he would give me a charm that would hypnotise the victim to facilitate his/her abduction.

“I told him I would think about it. But I never went back to him again because I felt I could not do that.”

However, it was gathered that Alpha Jamiu, the middleman, pays the supplier N8,000 but sells the parts thrice the amount to end users.

The herbalist, Ajibade Rafiu, told journalists that he bought a human head for N8,000, with an intention to prepare a fortification concoction for himself.

He said: “I burnt the human head and later ground it, poured it inside a plastic and added local gin and other roots. I prepared the concoction for myself.

“It is to fortify me against any attack because in this job if you are not fortified people may attempt to throw spiritual arrows at you. But with this, if anybody tries it, it will backfire.”

Wednesday 22 May 2013

http://world.myjoyonline.com/pages/nigeria/201305/106449.php

continue reading

All 28 bodies recovered from Indonesian mine

Rescuers have recovered all 28 bodies from a collapsed underground room inside the giant U.S.-owned gold and copper mine in Indonesia's province of Papua.

Thirty-eight workers were undergoing safety training inside the Big Gossan facility when the roof collapsed May 14. Ten injured miners were rescued.

A statement from the mine operator PT Freeport Indonesia said its Emergency Response Team recovered and identified the last victim early Wednesday.

Mining operations at the Grasberg mine have been suspended since the accident to respect the victims and concentrate on the recovery effort. The mine owned by Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. employs more than 20,000 workers.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/28-bodies-recovered-indonesian-mine-room-19229765

continue reading

Bangladesh: Red Crescent with the victims of Savar tragedy

On 24 April 2013, an eight-storey building collapsed in Savar, an industrial suburb located on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka. More than 3,000 people were working in factories and shops housed inside the building when it caved in. Volunteers and staff from the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) rushed to the spot and established a mobile first aid camp to assist the wounded.

The Red Crescent volunteers worked alongside other first responders in the search & rescue operation, and helped with the management of dead bodies. Red Crescent ambulances transported the injured survivors to various hospitals. While 1,127 bodies were recovered from the wreckage, 2,438 people were rescued alive.

The ICRC delegation in Dhaka supported the Red Crescent with 1160 body bags, 20 helmets and pairs of gloves as well as mobile phones to help survivors to give news to their families.

Friends and families of missing workers sought news of their loved ones at the Red Crescent camp in Savar. Volunteers visited the hospitals where the injured were being treated to give them the chance to inform their family of their condition and whereabouts. Over the three weeks of the rescue operation, the Red Crescent met with family members of 457 missing workers, recorded their personal details and tried to locate their relatives among the injured and dead. Up to 16 May, more than 70 people had been located, the living reunited with their loved ones and the deceased handed over to families for burial.

Throughout the entire operation, 205 trained volunteers of Bangladesh Red Crescent worked round the clock in two shifts. While some of them were involved in searching for people trapped in the collapsed building, others provided First Aid to the wounded, while others made efforts to reunite separated family members.

Youths from the Red Crescent cut through piles of steel, iron and concrete to find people buried underneath.

Since the onset of the disaster, the Red Crescent makeshift camp in Savar provided first aid not only to the injured survivors, but also to other first responders.

Dignified and proper management of the dead in disasters is fundamental in helping families know the fate of their relatives and mourn their dead. A team of Red Crescent volunteers supported the rescuers in carrying the deceased. For identification purposes, physical features and personal belongings were noted down before the bodies were placed inside body bags supplied by the ICRC. 293 bodies still remain unidentified, of which 187 have been tested for DNA.

Wednesday 22 May 2012

http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/photo-gallery/2013/05-21-bangladesh-savar-tragedy.htm

continue reading

10 killed as canoe capsizes in Congo River

Ten people died after a canoe capsized Monday in River Congo, in the DR Congo's southwestern Bas-Congo Province, the regional administrator told the media.

The administrator, Mr Germain Kapula, said that the canoe was transporting 17 people from Madimba to Maselele, to take part in a wedding ceremony.

He said that besides the 10 bodies retrieved, there were three survivors including a baby.

Mr Kapula added that rescue efforts were underway to try and find the four missing bodies.

Canoes are the main means of transport in Bas-Congo Province, but almost all do not undergo any security checks, thus making them unreliable.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

http://www.africareview.com/News/Ten-killed-in-southwest-DRC-boat-accident/-/979180/1858890/-/y9nlcmz/-/index.html

continue reading

Arizona desert: Identifying unidentified migrants

In the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office here — repository of the nation’s largest collection of missing-person reports for immigrants who have vanished while crossing the United States-Mexico border — 774 sets of remains awaited identification in mid-May, stored in musty body bags coated in dust.

For the family of Andrés Valenzuela Cota, the remains represent a chance to turn the page on a sad chapter of family history. Mr. Cota was 45 when he disappeared on July 15, 2011, after calling a niece in Los Angeles and asking her to send $100 to a Western Union office in Cananea, Mexico, a staging point for smugglers bringing migrants through Arizona.

As Congress debates the most sweeping changes to the country’s immigration system in decades, the remains stored here are also a nagging reminder of the complicated variables of the border-security equation. The number of migrant apprehensions declined precipitously in recent years, one of the strongest indicators that fewer people have tried to cross the border illegally. But the number of migrant deaths has remained high.

“Less people are coming across,” said Bruce Anderson, the chief forensic anthropologist at the medical examiner’s office, “but a greater fraction of them are dying.”

There were 463 deaths in the past fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30 — the equivalent of about five migrants dying every four days, according to an analysis by the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group. In the time federal statistics have been compiled, only 2005 had more deaths, and in that year, there were more than three times as many apprehensions.

As security at the border has tightened, pushing migrants to seek more remote and dangerous routes, the largest number of the deaths last year occurred along the punishing stretch of desert that spans the southernmost tip of the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, the busiest along the border.

The only riskier stretch is the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas, where, from Oct. 1 to April 30, law enforcement officers or ranchers found the bodies of 77 immigrants, or more than half the number of bodies recovered there in all of the past fiscal year: 150.

In that sector, the most deaths have occurred in Brooks County, small and struggling at 944 square miles, where the average household income is $25,000. The number of migrant remains recovered is on pace to double that of last year, a record for the county, at 129, said a county judge, Raul Ramirez. Most of the dead are believed to be from Central America, Judge Ramirez said.

In Tucson, the medical examiner’s office, which handles autopsies for the border counties in the Tucson sector — three of Arizona’s four border counties — received 49 sets of remains from Jan. 1 to May 9, Dr. Anderson said. Each was assigned a number, then photographed, cataloged, weighed and measured. Clothes, tattered by the elements and wildlife, were placed in plastic bags.

For years, identification of the remains was elusive because there were so few clues. Few immigrants from impoverished rural communities could be traced with dental records. ID cards, found in pockets and backpacks, were unreliable because many were forgeries, bought by Central Americans to elude the authorities in Mexico, which the migrants had to cross illegally before reaching the United States.

Assembling the remains, like linking a mandible that arrived in the office early this spring to a set of remains that was missing one, is like solving a grisly puzzle. It requires manually searching the color-coded paper case files lining the walls in Dr. Anderson’s office: one shelf for cases from the late 1990s, when there were few, and the rest for the more than 2,100 deaths since 2001.

“The cause and manner of death is easy: it’s either there or it’s undetermined,” said Dr. Gregory L. Hess, chief medical examiner in Pima County. “It’s what goes on in trying to identify the person that can take a long time.”

Early this month, the office unveiled a computerized mapping database bearing the records of 1,826 migrants who died in the desert, listing GPS coordinates for where they were found and, if known, their sex, age and cause of death. It gives the public the first comprehensive glimpse of the complexity of the problem. Combined, the hundreds of red dots that represent people who died of exposure to the intense desert heat and cold, by far the most common among the causes of death, look like an unshapely bruise.

The project began five years ago, through a partnership with Humane Borders, a nonprofit group that had already been plotting the deaths. An anonymous donor provided $175,000 to develop the database.

The lone mandible had been plucked from deep inside the desert near Three Points, west of Tucson. Angela Soler, a forensic anthropologist at the office, searched the database for bodies found in the same area. There were 52 in a six-mile radius.

Dr. Soler started by focusing on those that were closest. One was the complete body of a man found and identified in 2008. Another was found in 2012, an unidentified Hispanic man between 20 and 35, the most common demographic among dead migrants. She pulled the file and found that the body was missing a mandible. (DNA tests are under way to determine whether they are a match.)

“It took hours to do what might have taken months,” she said.

In March, the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office asked the family of Mr. Cota, the migrant who disappeared in 2011, for his dental records to see if he was among the unidentified dead stored there. There were seven possible matches among the bodies found in Cochise County, for which the office handles autopsies and where Mr. Cota is believed to have entered the country, based on what he told his relatives on his last phone call.

A brother-in-law, who asked not to be identified because he feared the drug cartels that control the human-smuggling business, said the family had filed missing-person reports on both sides of the border; visited local hospitals, police stations and prisons in Arizona; and retraced Mr. Cota’s route, posting fliers bearing his name and photograph in communities along the way.

“Every door we’re knocking is closed,” the brother-in-law said. “Nothing opens.”

Mr. Cota lived for 20 years in California, most of it illegally, overstaying a visa. When his mother became deathly ill, he left for Los Mochis, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, to say goodbye.

In September 2010, he tried to cross back through San Diego using a fake passport, but he was caught and imprisoned for 45 days. After his release, he tried twice to sneak across the border, without success. A relative eventually told him to go to a Mexican border city, Nogales, where a smuggler could bring him into Arizona “for a discounted rate,” his brother-in-law said.

On his last call, Mr. Cota said he was about to start his journey, but had to leave his cellphone behind. He promised to call again in six days.

On May 9, Robin C. Reineke, a cultural anthropologist at the medical examiner’s office, searched the database for a match, going through the cases from Cochise County one by one. Mr. Cota was not among them. The search goes on.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/us/immigrant-death-rate-rises-on-illegal-crossings.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

continue reading

Tsunami: Naming the Dead (video)

In Thailand around 5,000 people are thought to have been killed when the giant wave struck on Boxing Day 2004. The number of foreigners reported missing in the disaster prompted the Thai government to enlist the help of forensic experts from across the globe. They set up a specialist disaster victim identification centre, where identification work is still continuing months after the disaster hit.

For those who lost relatives in the disaster the identification and repatriation of a body is essential in allowing them to start rebuilding their lives.

The tsunami swept through an area of Thailand hundreds of miles across, scattering debris and the dead alike. Simply recovering all the bodies was a mammoth task for a police force already stretched to the limit rescuing injured survivors. With so many bodies being recovered, temples were being used as temporary mortuaries. With no electricity or running water they were hardly ideal. But there was simply nowhere else to take them.

Photographs of the bodies had been posted outside these temples. Friends and relatives desperately trawled them for any signs. But for the forensic experts, the idea that relatives could be relying on visual identification was worrying. Mistakes can always be made when distressed relatives try to confirm the identity of their loved ones by sight. In Thailand the conditions made identification even more difficult.

The heat of the Thai sun accelerated the decomposition process, leading to discolouration of the skin and causing the outer layers of skin to begin peeling off. The heat also meant bacteria grew at an extreme rate. Bacteria give off gases which can cause bodies to swell, further hampering visual identification.

The situation was eventually brought under control. A new mortuary was constructed with refrigerated containers for storage of the bodies and purpose-built examination rooms. Only now could the full forensic procedures begin.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQypaDUIz4A

continue reading

At least five illegal migrants drown off the coast of northern Morocco

At least five illegal migrants drowned off the coast of northern Morocco as they were attempting to reach Spain, the Moroccan authorities said late on Monday.

The rescue services were alerted to the presence of a "polyester boat with a group of illegal immigrants on board that was in difficulty off the Marchica lagoon, in Nador province," local authorities were quoted as saying by the official MAP news agency.

They arrived at the scene and recovered five bodies, all male, while managing to save seven of the passengers, including four women, who were taken to hospital in Nador for treatment.

Nador lies next to Melilla, a Spanish enclave bordering Morocco on the Mediterranean coast, one of the European Union's only two land borders with Africa, along with the other Spanish territory of Ceuta to the west.

Thousands of African immigrants attempt to reach Spain every year from northern Morocco, either via Melilla or by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, often in overcrowded and makeshift boats.

In the early hours of Monday, more than 30 sub-Saharan migrants stormed the six-metre (20-foot) border fence at Melilla, five of whom managed to penetrate the territory, according to the Spanish authorities.

Last month, 11 African migrants, including three women and two children, died when their boat carrying 34 people capsized in Moroccan waters as it was heading for Spain.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

http://www.thelocal.es/20130521/five-drown-in-spain-morocco-migration-crossing#.UZtqpXfdfTA

continue reading

Three years on, Mangalore air crash victims a faded memory

It was one of India's worst aviation disasters. But on its third anniversary, not even the memorial to the 158 persons killed in the Mangalore plane crash of May 22, 2010, remains. The IX 812 Dubai—Mangalore flight overshot the runway and crashed into a valley at Bajpe.

The Ground Zero has been overrun by dense foliage. The steel frame of the memorial, which was vandalized five months after it was erected, is gone. The Tannir Bavi burial site, where 12 unidentified victims were laid to rest, is unmarked and can't be easily located. The Air India Express disaster and its victims seem to have been forgotten.

But the tragedy remains etched in the memory of the victims' relatives and those who were closely associated with the victims. One such person is Robert Pinto of Valencia. Yuganthar Rana and Mohammed Ali, Air India crew killed in the crash, were his tenants. His communication with various authorities regarding a memorial at the burial site has been stonewalled.

The last communication regarding a memorial at the mass burial site was by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to the Dakshina Kannada administration in September 2011, asking for information on the ownership of the site.

"If the allotted site belongs to AAI, the office will take up the matter with the corporate headquarters,'' stated then airport director MR Vasudeva.

Air India sources said: "We cannot go and build a memorial either at Kenjaru Ground Zero as it's private land or at Tannir Bavi because it belongs to the port. The district administration and port authorities have to take a call on this. The port had given the land on the explicit understanding that graves had to be left unmarked and no memorial could be built. There was tremendous time pressure on us at that time to bury the bodies, and the civil administration helped us with that site."

Pinto said the main objection of Air India officials to building a memorial at Tannir Bavi is that a high-tension power line runs over the site. "Weren't they aware of this earlier? Why did they have to chose such a site where the victims' memory cannot be perpetuated," he asks.

Families of the victims are still waiting for the ‘right compensation’ in at least two courts.

“We had questioned the disparity in awarding the compensation of women and children who died in the crash as some of them were given lower than the recommendation of the Montreal convention. The recommendation of the convention does not discriminate women and children when awarding compensation. We had challenged it in the Kerala High Court, but Air India got it set aside through the divisional bench, which forced the Mangalore Air crash Victim’s Families Association (MACVFA) to file a revision petition in the Supreme Court,” said Mohammad Beary, president of the Association.

In the second set of compensation cases, a few families thought that they were entitled for a higher compensation but they did not get what they expected. “18 families questioned the lower compensation in the Mangalore court. The Kerala HC, in its order, had observed that those who were dissatisfied with the compensation, can approach the court. Air India had closed the issue after awarding compensation. In some cases, Air India had given compensations up to Rs8 crore, while in some other cases, the compensation was lower than the recommended sum in the Montreal convention. Hence, the case has been reopened as per the observation of Kerala HC,” Beary added.

However, some of the families of the victims have been quietly leading their lives without bothering much about the legal issues over the compensation. The association membership and attendance of members in the meetings has been dwindling and this time (on May 22) the association may not even hold a meeting of the families as many of them are totally out of contact. “We will have a quiet meeting at the homes of one of the victims in Mangalore and another in Kasargod,” he said.

Rana and Ali were Pinto's tenants for more than two years. Ali, who had got a job in Saudi Arabia, was serving the last 15 days of his contract with Air India.

The 51-year-old Mayankutty K.P. is one of the seven lucky survivors from the Air India Express plane crash in Mangalore three years ago, on May 23, 2010.

Like many of the next-of-kin of the dead victims of the Mangalore plane crash, he has had to engage in a protracted legal battle to claim due compensation for the crash.

Mayankutty, who now works for a real estate company in Umm al Quwain, at half the salary that he used to earn before the tragedy, said he has filed a case in the Kochi High Court with another plane crash survivor, Krishnan Koolikunnu, for claiming due compensation in tune with international civil aviation rules.

He said Krishnan, his co-passenger on that fateful flight, is now unemployed and is searching for a job in Qatar, where he is on a visit visa.

“I am thankful to God that I could escape from the blazing plane and was saved by a fraction of a minute. I was sitting on seat 22F by the window,” he reminisces.

Mayankutty hails from Kannur, Kerala. Most of the air crash victims hailed from Mangalore, Malabar region of Kerala. He travelled to the Mangalore airport, which is almost the same distance as Calicut Airport from his home town.

“All of a sudden there were sudden violent jolts to the plane, and it felt as if the aircraft had hit something. I could see from the window that the front of the plane was on fire, and all I could hear was screaming and crying of my co-passengers, especially children seeking help,” Mayankutty recalls the dreaded event.

“They were shouting in different languages,” he says. “Their cries for help still wake me up at night and I think this will haunt me till my death,” he says.

“I was shocked and did not know what to do because the lights had gone off inside the aircraft. Suddenly, I could see light from a small crack in the middle of the aircraft. After unfastening my seat belt, I rushed to the area and with full force jumped through the small gap,” he says.

“There were many families on the aircraft because it was summer vacation time, and what I could hear clearly were the cries of children calling their parents for help. I thought my death was near.”

Of the 166 people on board the Air India Express Flight IX-812 (Dubai to Mangalore) that crashed in Mangalore on the morning of May 23, 2010, the only survivors were Ummer Farooq Mohammed (26), Joel Pratap D’Souza (24), Mayankutty, Krishnan Koolikkunnu, Pradeep G.K., Mohammed Usman of Hampanakatta and Puttur Ismail Abdulla (35).

After jumping from the aircraft, Mayankutty, then 48 years old, landed in a forest and sustained head injuries, but he ran for life through the thick forest and reached a railway track.

“After I jumped from the plane, the entire plane was on fire and all the people still inside died. I still don’t know how I escaped. As the third anniversary of the tragedy approaches, I keep praying for those who died in the plane crash.”

Mayankutty was rushed to a nearby hospital, and he had only his passport and mobile phone with him. The checked-in luggage, handbag and everything in the plane went up in flames. “It was a very special journey for me because we were planning to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I had bought a special gold ring and necklace as gift for my wife Fathu. I kept the necklace and ring in the suitcase because I wanted to show her immediately after reaching home,” he said. “Even though I lost the gold ornaments, I have presented myself alive as her wedding silver jubilee gift.”

He claims that while some relatives of the crash victims got compensation of up to Rs7,500,000 (approximately Dh515,000), others are still fighting for due compensation. Mayankutty says he received Rs500,000 (approximately Dh34,000).

“I was discharged after undergoing treatment at the Mangalore hospital for four days. I spent five months in India, and lost my job as the Public Relations Officer of Emirates Shipping Company. After six months, I came back in search of a new job and joined a real estate company in Umm al Quwain at half the salary I used to get earlier,” he says.

Krishnan, another passenger who survived the crash, was working as a foreman in a construction company here. “He too lost his job and has been jobless for some time now. He is still searching for a decent job in Doha (Qatar), where he is on visit visa. Many people, ministers, Indian businessmen and companies promised jobs for plane crash survivors and the relatives of the victims. As far as I know, nobody got any job. These were all false promises,” Mayankutty says.

A case has been filed in the Kochi High Court jointly by Mayankutty and Krishnan. After working for a decade in the UAE and earlier in Saudi Arabia, Mayankutty feels that he has to continue working till his elder son, Munavar Mayankutty, currently an MBA student in India, get a decent job.

“I did not want to come back to the Gulf. I did not get a decent compensation from the insurance company. We are still fighting the case in the court,” he said, adding that he is in touch with Krishnan.

Mayankutty, like other survivors, is optimistic that he will get due compensation “On the occasion of the third anniversary of the Mangalore plane crash, I pray for all the victims, including 19 children. I am fortunate to have survived the tragedy,” he says.

“It is unfortunate that we have to fight a case in the court to get compensation. Of course, Rs500,000 is not the right amount of compensation. Some people got Rs7.5 million,” he said. Tuesday 21 May 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Three-years-on-Mangalore-air-crash-victims-a-faded-memory/articleshow/20166055.cms

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/1835409/report-after-3-yrs-they-still-await-rightful-compensations

http://www.emirates247.com/news/their-cries-for-help-still-haunt-me-mangalore-aie-crash-survivor-2013-05-12-1.506046

continue reading