Related: Toledo Goes Dry
Behind Toledo’s water crisis, a long-troubled Lake Erie" by Michael Wines | New York Times
Only problem is my printed article has the byline of John Seewer of Associated Press (is that a real name regarding this story? Seriously?)
"Toledo mayor lifts water ban" by John Seewer | Associated Press August 04, 2014
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Mayor D. Michael Collins called the drinking water safe and lifted the ban at a Monday morning news conference. ‘‘Families can return to normal life,’’ Collins said.
Meaning there was anger and panic so the government backtracked with public relations.
I wide my articles would stay normal and not be rewritten and reedited all the time. WTF?
Ohio’s fourth-largest city warned residents not to use city water early Saturday after tests at one treatment plant showed readings for microcystin above the standard for consumption, most likely from algae on Lake Erie. Ohio Gov. John Kasich declared a state of emergency.
Early Monday, Collins kept in place an advisory against drinking or using the water pending additional tests. At a 3 a.m. news conference, Collins said he decided to keep the advisory in place, even though latest test results suggest the algae-induced toxin contaminating the lake had probably dissipated to safe levels. The mayor said two tests had come back ‘‘too close for comfort.’’
I was told he drank a glass of tap water, but who really knows where they got the water?
Remember when Obama went swimming in the Gulf after the BP spill, except he really didn't?
Later Monday, Collins said six new test results came back without traces of the toxin.
At this point the article begins to retain some of its verbatim, but it won't last long.
City officials recommended that residents who had not used their water since the ban started flush out their systems by running water. They also cautioned everyone not to all do it at once, and told people not to water lawns or wash cars at the risk of overwhelming the system.
With the warning, worried residents told not to drink, brush their teeth or wash dishes with the water descended on truckloads of bottled water delivered from across the state. The Ohio National Guard was using water purification systems to produce drinkable water.
Some hospitals canceled elective surgeries and were sending surgical equipment that needed sterilized to facilities outside the water emergency, said Bryan Biggie, disaster coordinator for ProMedica hospitals in Toledo.
In southeastern Michigan, authorities were operating water stations Sunday for the 30,000 customers affected by the toxic contamination.
?????
Drinking the water could cause vomiting, cramps and rashes. But no serious illnesses had been reported by late Sunday. Health officials advised children and those with weak immune systems to avoid showering or bathing in the water.
Amid the emergency, discussion began to center around how to stop the pollutants fouling the lake that supplies drinking water for 11 million people. The toxins that contaminated the region’s drinking water supply didn’t just suddenly appear.
Collins said that, going forward, scientists and political leaders need to come together and figure out how to address the algae problem in Lake Erie.
‘‘It didn’t get here overnight, and we’re not getting out of this overnight,’’ Collins said.
Water plant operators along western Lake Erie have long been worried about this very scenario as a growing number of algae blooms have turned the water into a pea soup color in recent summers, leaving behind toxins that can sicken people and kill pets.
In fact, the problems on the shallowest of the five Great Lakes brought on by farm runoff and sludge from sewage treatment plants have been building for more than a decade.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a satellite image showing a small but concentrated algae bloom centered right where Toledo draws its water supply, said Jeff Reutter, head of the Ohio Sea Grant research lab.
The bloom was much smaller than in past years and isn’t expected to peak until early September. But instead of being pushed out to the middle of the lake, winds and waves drove the algae toward the shore, he said.
The amount of phosphorus going into the lake has risen every year since the mid-1990s.
Almost a year ago, one township just east of Toledo told its 2,000 residents not to drink or use the water coming from their taps. That was believed to be the first time a city has banned residents from using the water because of toxins from algae in the lake.
Researchers largely blame the algae’s resurgence on manure and chemical fertilizer from farms that wash into the lake along with sewage treatment plants. Leaky septic tanks and stormwater drains have contributed, too. Combined, they flush huge amounts of phosphorus into the lake.
Environmental groups and water researchers have been calling on Ohio and other states in the Great Lakes region to drastically reduce the amount of phosphorus flowing into the lake. Ohio lawmakers this past spring took a step toward tackling the algae problem when they enacted a law requiring most farmers to undergo training before they use commercial fertilizers on their fields. But they have stopped short of mandating restrictions on farmers.
The International Joint Commission, an advisory agency made up of Canadian and U.S. officials, said last year urgent steps are needed to reduce phosphorus applied to fields, suggesting among other things that states ban the spread of manure on frozen or snow-covered ground.
That report came after a state task force in Ohio called for a 40 percent reduction in all forms of phosphorus going into the lake.
Agriculture industry groups have been asking farmers for more than a year to reduce phosphorus runoff before government regulators step in and impose their own restrictions.
‘‘We’re clearly showing progress,’’ Reutter said. ‘‘You have to decide for yourself whether you think it’s fast enough.’’
In Michigan, Detroit’s 4 million-user water system gets its water from Lake Huron and the Detroit River. In the face of the Toledo water crisis, Detroit officials plan to review their contamination procedures Monday, water department Deputy Director Darryl Latimer told The Detroit News. He said it was unlikely Detroit would face a problem like Toledo's.
Is that why the water has been shut off in Detroit?
‘‘The system is tested every two weeks for blue-green algae,’’ Latimer said. ‘‘We haven’t seen the precursors for this type of toxin.’’
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
You know what a blank spot means, right? Drink up, I guess. The Globe's Toledo tap runneth dry.
Related: "Residents of Mount Baldy awoke Monday to sunny skies and mud-filled streets. They swapped stories while drying out carpets and shoveling dirt from in front of their homes."
A weekend of severe storms and mudslides should at least help with the fires.
"India evacuates 60,000 after deadly landslide" Associated Press August 05, 2014
PATNA, India — Rescue workers urgently removed about 60,000 of people in eastern India on Monday after a deadly landslide in neighboring Nepal blocked a river that could burst its banks and submerge scores of Indian villages.
Related: Buried by Nepalese Landslide
Authorities in Nepal said there is no hope that more than 150 missing people are still alive after being buried by rocks, mud, and trees in Saturday’s landslide in Mankha, 75 miles east of Katmandu. Nineteen others are confirmed dead.
But as disaster workers continued to clear debris Monday, the danger area moved downstream to eastern India, where 125,000 people are in peril.
The landslide blocked a river in Nepal, causing it to back up and form a massive lake that is threatening to overflow.
‘‘We are keeping our fingers crossed right now,’’ said Aniruddh Kumar, a senior disaster management official in India’s Bihar state. He said it was not clear how much water might come down from the lake. Nepal’s army triggered three explosions Saturday to allow some water to flow out, but much remains trapped.
Kumar said Bihar state has asked all government doctors and civil officials in threatened areas to cancel vacation plans. Indian soldiers, as well as air force helicopters and jets, were on standby. The local government also invoked a law allowing authorities to forcibly evacuate villagers who refuse to leave. The government has so far evacuated 60,000 people and set up 120 relief camps. All public schools in the area have been closed to provide space to house evacuees.
The annual June-to-September monsoon season is vital for the agrarian economies of South Asia but also brings floods and landslides.
Another landslide hit a village in eastern Nepal Monday, killing four people and leaving six missing. And the death toll from a massive landslide in western India last week rose to 108, according to rescue official Sandeep Rai Rathore.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Monday completed a two-day trip to Nepal aimed at boosting ties with a country that India has long ignored and where China already has a strong presence.
Who cares about the geo-f***ing-politics right now?
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Oh, yeah.
"Survivors pulled from quake debris" Associated Press August 05, 2014
KUNMING, China — Rescuers found scores of survivors on Monday as they dug through homes shattered by an earthquake in southern China that killed at least 398 people and injured more than 1,800. Rainstorms were expected to continue to hinder rescue efforts over the coming days.
About 12,000 homes collapsed when the quake struck Sunday afternoon in impoverished Ludian County, around 230 miles northeast of Yunnan province’s capital, Kunming, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Rescuers digging in the debris by hand freed a 5-year-old boy whose legs were injured, Xinhua reported. It also said firefighters rescued 32 people who had been trapped and had retrieved the bodies of 43 residents.
Drenched survivors were sitting along muddy roads in the rain waiting for food and medication, Xinhua reported.
Medics were reporting severe shortages of medicine and an inability to perform operations on the severely injured, while rescuers said their work had been hampered by continuous downpours and quake-triggered landslides, Xinhua said.
Ma Yaoqi, an 18-year-old volunteer in the quake zone, said by phone that at least half of the buildings had collapsed on the road from the city center of Zhaotong to the hardest-hit town of Longtou. The rest of the buildings were damaged, she said.
About 230,000 people had been evacuated.
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Also see: Something Gone Zhongrong in China
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Nothing on either one there, although there was a printed photograph regarding a landslide in Utah that didn't make the web version.
"100 missing and feared dead as ferry crossing Bangladesh river capsizes" Associated Press August 05, 2014
LOUHAJONG, Bangladesh — A ferry with about 250 passengers capsized while crossing a river in central Bangladesh on Monday, and officials said more than 100 people were missing and presumed dead.
It was unclear exactly how many people were on board the Pinak because ferry operators in Bangladesh rarely maintain passenger lists.
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The ferry capsized in the Padma River in Munshiganj district, about 28 miles south of the capital, Dhaka, as villagers watched in horror from the shore.
More than four hours after the ferry capsized, authorities said they were still waiting for a larger vessel needed to launch a proper rescue operation.
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Jasim Uddin, 35, was among a crowd of people who watched the vessel go down from the shore, recording it on his cellphone as it disappeared.
When the survivors began to come to shore, he said they were exhausted and panicked.
‘‘One woman swam nearly to shore and was picked up by a speedboat,’’ he said. ‘‘She was crying, saying she has two daughters. It was panic. Everyone was praying to God.’’
As news spread of the accident, about 500 people, including relatives of the missing, gathered by the water, many of them weeping and holding photos of their loved ones.
Oh, man.
Scores of people die in ferry accidents every year in Bangladesh, where boats are a common form of transportation. The Padma is one of the largest rivers in Bangladesh, a delta nation crisscrossed by more than 130 rivers.
Poor safety standards and overcrowding are often blamed for the accidents. In May, about 50 people died in a ferry accident in the same district.
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How are those factory inspections going?
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Divers fail to find Bangladesh ferry that capsized" New York Times August 06, 2014
NEW DELHI — Rescue workers in Bangladesh fought against powerful currents and heavy rain Tuesday in hopes of recovering bodies from an overloaded river ferry that had capsized and sank the day before, leaving more than 120 passengers missing and presumed dead.
Ashrafur Rahman, a representative of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, said divers had been unable to locate the wreckage on the riverbed, roughly 80 feet below the surface.
“We can’t find the ferry,” Rahman said.
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"Hypothermic man rescued after boat catches fire" Associated Press August 05, 2014
SEATTLE — The Coast Guard rescued a severely hypothermic man clinging to his partly submerged life raft off Washington state’s northwestern tip after his boat caught fire and he abandoned it on Sunday.
The man had been on the raft for nearly an hour when an agency helicopter hoisted him up around noon and took him to a hospital. Petty Officer 3rd Class Katelyn Shearer said she did not know his condition, but he was able to walk into the facility.
The agency released a photo showing the 25-foot vessel engulfed in flames after its engine caught fire 3 miles north of Neah Bay. It was not yet known what caused the fire on the boat, which split in half and sank.
The boat’s operator sent a distress call around 11 a.m., saying he was abandoning ship. The signal from the man’s handheld radio helped rescuers find him.
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NEXT DAY ADDERS:
"Sweden prepares to evacuate thousands as fire rages" Bloomberg News August 06, 2014
STOCKHOLM — Swedish authorities are preparing to evacuate thousands of people as emergency services struggle to contain the biggest forest fire to hit the country since it started recording such events.
The fire, near Sala about 60 miles northwest of the capital, has been raging since Thursday. Villages including Gammelby and Vaestervaala have been evacuated and preparations are in place for similar actions in Norberg, a town of about 4,500 inhabitants, should the fire spread, according to the website of the Vaestmanland County Administrative Board. The fires have so far claimed one life, according to Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
Sweden has had a dry and hot summer. Temperatures in the region Monday were the highest recorded in Sweden since 1992.
Authorities have evacuated some 1,000 people, and say they will move people from the town of Norberg if the blaze continues to spread.
The fire has already spread to cover an area of 60 square miles.
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