Pilot was texting before emergency medical helicopter crash that killed 4, NTSB records show

Associated Press - This photo provided by the National Transportation Safety Board, shows the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed near Mosby, Mo., on Aug. 26, 2011. The pilot of an emergency medical helicopter may have been distracted by text messages when he failed to refuel his helicopter and misjudged how far he could fly before running out of fuel. The helicopter crashed, killing the pilot and three others on board. Government investigators are expected to point the case as another example of the distracting role cellphones and other electronic devices are playing in transportation accidents. (AP Photo/NTSB) 

NTSB probes case of texting helicopter pilot - Pilot was texting before emergency medical helicopter crash that killed 4, NTSB records show - The pilot of a medical helicopter that ran out of fuel and crashed, killing four people, was distracted by text messages when he should have been conducting pre-flight checks, accident investigators said Tuesday.

The case "juxtaposes old issues of pilot decision making with a 21st-century twist" — distraction by portable electric devices, said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman. The board was meeting to determine the cause of the August 2011 accident near Mosby, Mo., and to make safety recommendations.

The case is the first fatal commercial aircraft accident investigated by the board in which texting has been implicated. It underscores the board's worries that cellphones and other distracting electronic devices are a growing factor in accidents and incidents across all modes of transportation — planes, trains, cars, trucks and even ships.

The pilot, James Freudenbert, 34, of Rapid City, S.D., exchanged 20 text messages, mostly with a coworker, over a span of less than two hours before the helicopter crashed into a farm field a little over a mile from an airport where he hoped to refuel, documents made public by NTSB show.

Freudenbert missed several opportunities to see that the helicopter was low on fuel before he began the first leg of the mission, including apparently failing to conduct a pre-flight check and to look at the craft's fuel gauge.

Three of the messages were sent and five were received while the helicopter was in flight, although not in the final 11 minutes before it crashed, according to a timeline.

Freudenbert also exchanged text messages as he was reporting by radio to a company communications center that the helicopter was low on fuel. The helicopter was on the ground at the time waiting for the patient, who was being transferred from one hospital to another, and a nurse and a paramedic to board.

Although the pilot wasn't texting at the time of the crash, it's possible the messaging took his mind off his duties and caused him to skip safety steps he might have otherwise performed, said experts on human performance and cognitive distractions. People can't concentrate on two things at once; they can only shift their attention rapidly back and forth, the experts said. But as they do that, the sharpness of their focus begins to erode.

"People just have a limited ability to pay attention," said David Strayer, a professor of cognitive and neural science at the University of Utah. "It's one of the characteristics of how we are wired."

"If we have two things demanding attention, one will take attention away from other," he said. "If it happens while sitting behind a desk, it's not that big of a problem. But if you are sitting behind the wheel of a car or in the cockpit of an airplane, you start to get serious compromises in safety."

In October 2010, two Northwest Airlines pilots overflew their destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by 100 miles while they were engrossed in working on flight schedules on their laptops.

A text message — especially one accompanied by an audible alert like a buzz or bell — interrupts a person's thoughts and can be hard to ignore, said Christopher Wickens, a University of Illinois professor emeritus of engineering and aviation psychology. If the subject of the email is especially engaging, or especially emotional, that also makes it hard to ignore, he said.

The helicopter was operated by a subsidiary of Air Methods Corp. of Englewood, Colo., the largest provider of air medical emergency transport services in the U.S. The company's policies prohibit the use of electronic devices by pilots during flight.

Freudenbert apparently didn't check the amount of fuel on board the helicopter before taking off from the company's base in St. Joseph, Mo., even though he had been briefed that the aircraft would be low on fuel because it had been used the night before for training exercises. He radioed that he had two hours of fuel shortly after the helicopter was airborne.

But when the helicopter landed less than 10 minutes later in Bethany, Mo., to pick up the patient, Freudenbert radioed the communications center again to report that the copter was lower on fuel than he had initially thought. He estimated he had about 45 minutes worth of fuel, which investigators said they believe was a lie intended to cover up his earlier omissions. In fact, the helicopter had 30 minutes of fuel left, they said. Federal Aviation Administration regulations require 20 minutes of reserve fuel at all times.

Freudenbert opted to continue the patient transfer to a hospital in Liberty, Mo., changing plans only enough for a stop at an airfield 32 minutes away for fuel. The helicopter stalled and crashed about a mile from the airfield. A low fuel warning light might have alerted Freudenbert to his true situation, but the light was set on "dim" for nighttime use and may not have been visible. A pre-flight check by the pilot, if it had been conducted, should have revealed the light was set in the wrong position, investigators said. ( Associated Press  )

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Flood in Jakarta, a constant headache in three centuries (1)

Flood in Jakarta, a constant headache in three centuries - Floods have become synonymous with the living experience of people residing in Jakarta. For hundreds of years, dealing with floods every year has become a part of the people`s life in this city, which was under Dutch occupation from 1619 to 1949, and known as Batavia during that time.

Instead of coming up with a solution to handle the annual flooding of Jakarta, especially during the rainy season, policy makers and hydrologists have been unable to reach a consensus regarding an appropriate solution for this problem. Dutch national Jan Pieterzn Coen built Batavia nearly four centuries ago as a waterfront city, and constructed canals in Jakarta, which were similar to ones in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

"The plan is there, but how can you implement it? It needs support, involvement, cooperation of all stakeholders, despite their personal wishes, desires and interests," Dr Wim Ravesteijn, an associate professor and head of the Technology Dynamics and Sustainable Development at the Technology University of Delft (TUD) in the Netherlands said recently, during a colloquium held by the Indonesian Student Association (PPI) Delft in Jakarta.

Ravesteijn, who has also authored the book, "For Profit and Prosperity, The Contribution made by Dutch Engineers to Public Works in Indonesia" said the problem of flooding in Jakarta required not only the role of technical engineering but also that of engineering policy experts.

===

Flood and Jakarta are like two faces of the same coin. According to a Masters student at the Water Management Department at Institute for Water Education (UNESCO-IHE), Kurniati Widyastuti, solutions designed to address flooding in Jakarta should identify the root cause of the problem, which can actually be found in the field.

"The cause of the flooding is very complex, and it can be due to any social, environmental or policy-related reasons, or because of a combination of all three," she said.

Dr Wim Ravesteijn, an associate professor and head of the Technology Dynamics and Sustainable Development at the Technology University of Delft (TUD) in the Netherlands agreed and pointed out that a proposal, which might seem a solution at first, could also create new problems. "What exactly is the problem and who is facing the problem should be carefully noted, because different persons or affected groups have different perceptions," he stated.

Ravesteijn, who has also written a dissertation, titled "The Lords of the Auspicious Waters, Irrigation and the Colonial State in Java, 1832-1942," said he was inspired to write the dissertation by the river Bengawan Solo in Central Java, and also pointed out some of the causes for flooding in Jakarta which can be referenced to find new solutions.

Geographically, around 40 percent of Jakarta is made up of low lying areas, which are prone to flooding, especially during the season of the west monsoon rainfall, which impacts 13 rivers including the Ciliwung and Angke, which cut through Jakarta en route to the Java Sea.

This situation is exacerbated by the widespread deforestation in the water catchment areas, which has reduced the land`s capability of retain any rainwater.

Rapid population growth has triggered other problems such as the need for potable water, and excessive water pumping has lead to land subsidence and the consequent rise in the sea level. In addition to this, drains blocked with disposed waste also restrict the flow of water, which has happened in the instance of the Pluit reservoir, and makes the problem of flooding in Jakarta even more complicated. ( republika )

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Timeline: Disasters to hit Indonesia since 2004

Timeline: Disasters to hit Indonesia since 2004 - Following is a look at some the major disasters, man-made and natural, to hit Indonesia since the Asian tsunami of 2004 as a 8.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia on Wednesday.

December 26, 2004 - More than 170,000 people are killed or listed missing after a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra island triggers a tsunami. The toll in affected Indian Ocean countries reaches 230,000 dead.

March 28, 2005 - A magnitude 8.6 quake off Sumatra was estimated to have killed 1,300 people, many on Nias island off Sumatra's west coast.

September 5, 2005 - Airliner operated by domestic carrier Mandala Airlines crashes in a residential area of Indonesia's third-biggest city, Medan, killing 102 aboard and 47 residents in an inferno on the ground.

May 27, 2006 - Earthquake rocks area around ancient royal city of Yogyakarta, killing at least 5,000 and destroying or damaging 150,000 homes.

July 17, 2006 - A tsunami after a 7.7 magnitude quake in West Java province kills at least 550. At least 54,000 are displaced.

December 30, 2006 - A ferry with at least 600 aboard sinks during a storm as it travels between Borneo and Java. About 250 survivors are found in the days after the accident.

January 1, 2007 - An Adam Air plane flying from Surabaya to Manado with 102 people aboard crashes into the sea off the west coast of Sulawesi.

March 6, 2007 - Two strong earthquakes kill at least 72 people and hurt dozens in the West Sumatra provincial capital of Padang.

January 11, 2009 - Nearly 250 people missing after a ferry travelling from Pare-Pare on the west coast of Sulawesi to the city of Samarinda capsizes in bad weather.

May 20, 2009 - About 100 people are killed when a military transport plane crashes in East Java.

September 2, 2009 - A 7.0 magnitude quake strikes Java, killing more than 60 people. More than 25,000 are displaced by the quake, which hit just off the coast, and 86,000 homes are damaged, though no major power or industrial installations are hit.

September 30 - More than 1,100 people are killed when a magnitude 7.6 quake struck off the city of Padang on the coast of Sumatra. Thousands of people were trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings.

October 25/26, 2010 - Mount Merapi, on the outskirts of the city of Yogyakarta on Java island erupts, killing more than 130 people and forcing the evacuation of nearly 300,000.

A day earlier, a tsunami pounded remote islands in western Indonesia, killing at least 445 people. The tsunami, triggered by a 7.5 magnitude quake that struck 78 km west of South Pagai, one of the Mentawai islands, flattened several villages and a surf resort.

December 18, 2011 - A wooden boat, with a capacity of 100 people, breaks up and sinks in heavy seas about 90 km (55 miles) off Java. The vessel was carrying illegal immigrants from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan and was heading to Australia. As many as 200 people died in the disaster.

April 11, 2012 - An 8.6 magnitude earthquake strikes some 308 miles southwest of the city of Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, at a depth of 20.5 miles, the U.S. Geological survey says. ( Reuters )

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New 'Doomsday Preppers' Show Highlights Extreme Survivalists

New 'Doomsday Preppers' Show Highlights Extreme Survivalists - It's better to be safe than sorry, which is why FEMA guidelines recommend stockpiling your pantry with three days worth of food in case of a natural disaster. Meanwhile, Paul Range and Gloria Haswell have enough in store to feed 22 people for 15 years — as well as enough guns, bullets and bug-out vehicles to wage a small war. The couple occupies nine steel shipping containers arranged in a castle formation outside Floresville, Texas. A system of windmills and solar panels powers the compound, and human body waste is used to generate methane, which serves as their cooking fuel.

It's all because they are worried Earth's magnetic poles might switch.

Range and Haswell are among those profiled in "Doomsday Preppers," a weekly TV documentary premiering on the National Geographic Channel tomorrow (Feb. 7) at 9 p.m., with a bonus episode at 10 p.m. following the premiere. The show takes viewers on a shocking tour of modern-day apocalypse paranoia, from Range, Haswell and their steel fortress to a Californian who has trained himself to survive off garden weeds in preparation for a major earthquake.

While the show may highlight a few of America's most extreme cases, apocalypticism — fear of the end of the world as we know it — is at a historic high point, according to Lorenzo DiTommasso, chairman and associate professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal. The phenomenon has experienced peaks and valleys throughout history. Right now, "we're in a peak, and have been for the last 40 years," DiTommasso said.

Fear of nuclear obliteration started the rise in apocalypticism, but today, the main factor driving its continuing spread is the rapid exchange of ideas — especially scary ideas — on the Web.

"There's no single more important explanation as to the presence of apocalyptic thought in the world today than the development of the Internet," DiTommasso told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience. "You can learn everything you want about the flipping of the magnetic poles on the Internet. And you can find out related information that would lead you to also believe the poles are going to flip because of, for instance, the presence of a previously unknown planet in the solar system."

Indeed, doomsday preppers Range and Haswell have come to believe that the coming magnetic pole reversal will cause a sudden shift in the continents, triggering enormous earthquakes and rapid climate change. They've learned just enough to inspire a total lifestyle transformation — despite the scientific consensus that the chance of a magnetic pole reversal happening in their lifetimes is vanishingly small.

Others profiled in the show fear a total financial collapse, an electro-magnetic pulse caused by a solar flare taking down the national power grid,terrorist attacks and so on. "People come to apocalypticism for different reasons, and once they're there they share a set of assumptions that defines the group: First, they believe there is something dreadfully wrong with the world, and it's not likely to be fixed. The second part is they believe an imminent change is coming about," DiTommasso said.

He estimates that more than half of the world population believes in some sort of apocalyptic theory, from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim belief in the return of God (called the Rapture in Christianity), to the belief in pseudo-scientific theories like a coming planetary collision. The current peak in doomsday fears, DiTommasso said, "speaks to the prevalence of doomsday preppers today."

Personally, DiTommasso believes apocalypticists are correct in recognizing that there are grave threats in the world, but they're misguided as to what forms these will take. "You don't have to expect an apocalypse," he said. "Look outside — the environment is being degraded right now. Instead of standing outside, looking up for the comet that's going to obliterate the Earth, look around you." ( LiveScience.com )

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Man-made flu virus with potential to wipe out many millions if it ever escaped is created in research lab

'Anthrax isn't scary at all compared to this': Man-made flu virus with potential to wipe out many millions if it ever escaped is created in research lab - Scientist responsible is bracing himself for a media storm - Just five tweaks to H5N1 makes it more contagious - Contagious version of bird flu could cause pandemic - Scientists divided over whether findings can be released

A group of scientists is pushing to publish research about how they created a man-made flu virus that could potentially wipe out civilisation.

The deadly virus is a genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain, but is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time.

The research has caused a storm of controversy and divided scientists, with some saying it should never have been carried out.

Deadly: The new strain of bird flu could wipe out millions of people at a time

The current strain of H5N1 has only killed 500 people and is not contagious enough to cause a global pandemic.

But their are fears the modified virus is so dangerous it could be used for bio-warfare, if it falls into the wrong hands.

Virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands lead a team of scientists who discovered that a mere five mutations to the avian virus was sufficient to make it spread far more easily.

He conducted his tests on ferrets as the animals have become a model of choice for influenza and have similar respiratory tracts to humans.

Fouchier is so prepared for a media storm that he has hired an advisor to help him work on a communication strategy.

The research done was part of an international drive to understand H5N1 more fully.

Fouchier admitted the strain is 'one of the most dangerous viruses you can make' but is still adamant he wants to publish a paper describing how it was done.

The study is one of two which has caused serious debate about scientific freedom and about regulating research which might have potential public health benefits but at the same time could also be useful for bio-terrorism.

The other paper, also on H5N1, was done by a joint team at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Tokyo.

It is understood to have had comparable results to the study done by Fouchier.

Dangerous: It is feared if new details of the avian flu is published, it could be used for bioterrorism

Both papers are now being reviewed by the U.S National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB).

NSABB does not have the power to prevent the publication but it could ask journals not to publish.

Paul Keim, chairman of NSABB, said: 'I can't think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one. I don't think anthrax is scary at all compared to this.'

Traditionally scientific research has always been open so that fellow scientists can review the work of others and repeat their methods to try and learn from them.

But numerous scientists have said they believe research on the avian flu should be suppressed.

However bio-defense and flu expert Michael Osterholm, who is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of innesota, said the work carried out was important medically.

He added he could not discuss the papers because he was a member of NSABB but said if they were published certain information could be withheld and made available to those who really need to know.

'We don't want to give bad guys a road map on how to make bad bugs really bad,' he said. ( dailymail.co.uk )

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Bangkok floods could go into next year

Bangkok floods could go into next year - Parts of Bangkok could still be flooded next year, Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday, despite waters receding significantly in some areas of the city after weeks of inundation.

Thailand's worst floods in half a century, caused by months of unusually heavy monsoon rains, have left at least 562 people dead and damaged millions of homes and livelihoods around the country.

In an effort to spare Bangkok's economic and political heartland, authorities have been trying to drain the floods through waterways in the east and west of the sprawling capital of 12 million people, and out to sea.

But while Bangkok's centre has remained dry, it could be a number of weeks before the entire capital is free from the floodwaters, according to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

"Personally I want to see people happy in the new year, but I am not confident about western areas, where it is difficult to drain water," she told reporters, when asked whether the floods would go on into 2012.

A television reporter works in floodwaters in front of Don Muang airport in Bangkok, on November 14. Parts of Bangkok could still be flooded next year, Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday, despite waters receding significantly in some areas of the city after weeks of inundation



Local villagers, seen here listening to Bangkok's governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, in front of Don Muang airport in Bangkok, on November 14. Parts of Bangkok could still be flooded next year, Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday, despite waters receding significantly in some areas of the city after weeks of inundation

She said that eastern areas were likely to be dry before the new year.

"The general situation is stable as floodwaters drain into the sea, but how quickly it drains depends on the contours of each area," Yingluck added.

On Monday, angry residents in the city's flooded west protested by briefly blocking a major highway, as frustration mounted that parts of the Thai capital are suffering badly while the centre stays dry.

Around 70 people also gathered at a major floodwall in northern Don Mueang district, watched by about 30 police officers, to stop authorities repairing a gap they had opened to allow water to drain away from badly flooded areas.

A spokesman for the Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC), the government agency charged with dealing with the floods, said a compromise had been struck to partially repair the eight-metre (26-foot) breach.

Yingluck, who only came to power in August and has come under intense pressure over her management of the flood crisis, insisted again on Tuesday that she had worked "with good intention and to the best of her ability".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, due to visit the flood-hit kingdom on Wednesday, will offer a "very substantial" aid package to Thailand, the State Department has said. ( AFP )

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Could the Taj Mahal Collapse in 2 Years?

Could the Taj Mahal Collapse in 2 Years? - An Indian archaeologist denied Friday claims that the Taj Mahal could collapse in as little as two years.

Britain's Daily Mail reported Wednesday that the iconic structure -- which attracts four million tourists a year -- could "cave in between two and five years," citing Agra lawmaker Ramshankar Katheria.

The 358-year-old marble mausoleum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is also regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The newspaper reported that the foundations have become brittle and are disintegrating. Cracks appeared last year in parts of the white marble tomb, and the four minarets which surround the monument are showing signs of tilting.

However, in an interview with AFP on Friday, chief archaeologist at The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) -- which began a major facelift for the Taj Mahal in 2007 -- dismissed the dire predictions.

Indian Muslims offer prayers at a Mosque at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India

"We have been having regular tests conducted and agencies including Survey of India have never pointed out such threats to the survival of the Taj Mahal," the ASI's chief archaeologist in Agra, I.D. Dwivedi, said.

Katheria, speaking to AFP, denied forecasting the collapse of the structure, but said he had conveyed his fears for the future of the Taj Mahal to Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and president Pratibha Patil.

"I am demanding a high-level inquiry to analyze the severe threat posed to the wooden structures in the foundation of the Taj," the lawmaker said. ( foxnews.com )

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The Ballad of Fukushima: In the Wake of Disaster, Japan’s True Character Emerges

The Ballad of Fukushima: In the Wake of Disaster, Japan’s True Character Emerges - The iconic Japanese film “The Ballad of Narayama” tells the story of a village where everyone who reaches the age of 70 is sent away to the top of Mount Narayama to die. The old make way for the young so that newer generations may have enough to eat.

What makes the film compelling is that it is not shocking. Instead, the brutal practice appears entirely natural in the context of a small and remote village in 19th-century Japan.

The world of Narayama acknowledges the reality of Malthusian laws that protect society against overpopulation. Filial relations are subject to the inexorable logic of survival, which demands that the old stop being a burden on the young. The son who carries his aging mother to the mountain groans under the emotional and moral weight of the journey, but he is duty-bound to undertake it.

If there is any consolation, it is that his son, too, will carry him one day. Generations must pass so that generations may arrive. Sometimes they have to pass even before they are dead.

“The Ballad of Narayama” came to mind as news appeared about how elderly Japanese were volunteering to replace younger workers battling to cool tsunami-crippled nuclear reactors in Fukushima. These older engineers, along with other specialists, offered to move into the radioactive plant so that younger Japanese could avoid exposure to radiation hazards that could leave them childless or even kill them.

“The Ballad of Fukushima” has yet to be penned. If it is, it will be even more beautiful and cruel than “The Ballad of Narayama.” Unlike in Narayama, there is no Malthusian logic at work in Fukushima. No custom, let alone law, justifies such self-sacrifice in Japan today. The absence of volunteers from Fukushima will not tip the ecological balance toward disaster. Japan will not collapse if the volunteers live out their retirement in safety.

Yet, the volunteers — aged 60 to 78 — have decided to celebrate Japan’s future more than they care for themselves in their fading years. This is the Narayama refrain running through their courage.

The Fukushima volunteers — “activists” might be a better word — have given several matter-of-fact explanations for their decision. One is that it makes scientific sense for them to venture into radioactive territory. Since cells take longer to reproduce in older people, any cancer caused by absorbing radioactivity would take much longer to form. One activist declared with a touch of humor that he would be dead from something else long before any radiation-caused cancer could kill him.

Others take a generational view of the catastrophe itself. In interviews with the media, they have spoken about how their generation used its knowledge and skills to build the facility in the 1960s and 1970s. In return, they benefited enormously from nuclear power. But the earthquake and the tsunami turned a safe and clean source of energy into a national catastrophe. Hence, they have a moral responsibility to deal with the aftermath of that nightmare.

Yet others note that they simply have an obligation to protect youth in a rapidly-aging Japan. In the process, they observe that they are losing their fear of death.

These selfless arguments reinforce the view of Japanese society as being one with a strong sense of itself. Loyalty to the nation becomes a way of life.

Of course, Japan is not the only nation with such a sense of itself. Every nation displays this sense to a certain extent; otherwise, it would not be a nation. What makes Japan exceptional is the way in which the sense of being Japanese informs society not only in the best of times but also in the worst of times.

This was seen in the way that Japanese society responded to the earthquake and the tsunami themselves. There was no social breakdown. Instead, with the social resilience accumulated over time, people lined up calmly for help, helped one another and got through each day with the belief that the following day or week would be better. There was hardly any looting even though the forces of law and order had been battered, like everything else, by the natural disaster.

This expression of the Japanese character is rather different from the famed Bushido spirit. That is the way of the warrior, a special code of conduct that reflects a samurai’s sense of honor and discipline. Frugality, loyalty, the mastery of martial arts and an emphasis on honor unto death characterize that spirit.

Some of these elements — especially loyalty — were certainly present in the Japanese response to the crisis. However, the military dimension was lacking entirely. The main actors in the national drama were not warriors but civilians molded by the social democratic culture of post-war Japan. They were civilian heroes in a war unleashed by nature.

As Japan returns to normal, people elsewhere would do well to remember the extraordinary stories created by the disaster. The Japan that was the first Asian country to modernize, the Japan that is a miracle of post-war economic recovery, the Japan that has led the latest phase of Asian industrialization — this Japan is well-known.

However, there is another Japan of everyday heroes who make their mark not during eras of prosperity but during times of adversity. They are often anonymous; even when they are celebrated in the media and by their neighbors, they often vanish from sight afterward.

It is this other Japan that is a true beacon of hope at a time when honor and loyalty are not universally plentiful values. In acknowledging the value of the Fukushima activists, we do no more than celebrate the best in ourselves. ( thejakartaglobe.com )

READ MORE - The Ballad of Fukushima: In the Wake of Disaster, Japan’s True Character Emerges

Arizona Wildfires Force Evacuation Of Another Town

Arizona Wildfires Force Evacuation Of Another Town -- Stiff winds whipped up a gigantic blaze in the mountains of eastern Arizona on Monday, forcing the evacuation of a third resort town and casting a smoky haze over states as far away as Iowa.

Winds of about 30 mph, with gusts above 60 mph, blew heavy smoke from the fire into Greer, a picturesque town where most of the 200 fulltime residents had already fled. Everyone still there and in the nearby area known as Sunrise were ordered to leave Monday afternoon.

"It's heartbreaking," Allan Johnson, owner of the 101-year-old Molly Butler Lodge in Greer, the oldest in the state, said of the fire barreling down on the resort town. He was pessimistic about the chances of saving the lodge and the hundreds of vacation homes in the area.

Robert Joseph, 64, rides his ATV as smoke plumes from the Wallow fire fills the sky in Luna, N.M., Monday, June 6, 2011. Firefighters worked furiously Monday to save a line of mountain communities in eastern Arizona from a gigantic blaze that has forced thousands of people from their homes and cast a smoky haze over states as far away as Iowa. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

"We're numb – our entire family and our friends are just numb," he said.

Late Monday, a huge pall of black smoke loomed over the twin towns of Eager and Springerville, home to about 7,000 people, and sheriff's officials told residents there to prepare to leave.

The winds and expected lightning are making matters worse in an area dotted with cabins and campgrounds that have long provided a cool summer getaway from the oppressive heat of the nearby desert.

"It's probably and, I'm going to say this, going crazy," fire information officer Kelly Wood said of the fire.

"It's coming from the southeast and it's pushing everything to the northeast," Wood said. "We don't know exactly how far it's gone. It's fair to say it's going to grow with these winds."

The fire was projected to have grown to nearly 365 square miles, officials said Monday, based on overnight mapping flights that have not yet been verified. Officials believe an abandoned campfire may have sparked the blaze more than a week ago.

Several hundred people turned out for a community meeting Monday night at which fire officials urged residents to be ready to evacuate if the fire continues to grow. They vowed to give residents of Eager and Springerville and as much notice as possible of an evacuation.

So far, the flames have destroyed five buildings and scorched nearly 230,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest. No serious injuries have been reported. The blaze nearly doubled in size between Saturday and Monday.

About 2,700 to 3,000 people are believed to have fled Alpine and Nutrioso late last week and headed to larger towns for shelter, Gov. Jan Brewer said.

Roughly 2,500 firefighters, including many from several western states and as far away as New York, are working to contain the wildfires, fire information officer Peter Frenzen said.

Brewer signed an emergency declaration Monday that will allow the use of $200,000 in emergency funds and authorizes the mobilization of the National Guard if it becomes necessary.

She praised the work of the federal government in fighting the flames.

"The federal government has stepped up and done their job and we believe we have everything that is necessary at this point in time to keep everything under control," Brewer said.

Brewer also praised the firefighters battling the fires.

"We feel at this point in time that all the boots that are necessary are on the ground now," she said.

A ridge of high pressure was carrying the haze to central Iowa, said Kyle Fredin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Denver. The smoke was visible in New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas.

Fredin said the smoke wouldn't be noticeable in the Midwest, where humidity already makes conditions hazy. He said it could, however, produce striking orange-pink sunrises and sunsets.

In eastern Colorado, the haze obscured the view of the mountains from downtown Denver and prompted some municipal health departments to issue air quality warnings.

In Arizona, the fire and heavy smoke created pea-soup visibility, forcing the closure of several roads, including about a two-mile stretch of Highway 180 between Alpine and the New Mexico line, Frenzen said.

Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest Supervisor Chris Knopp speculated at a community meeting on Friday that an abandoned campfire was responsible for the fire.

At least one building was lost when the blaze crept into a subdivision of ranch homes near the New Mexico border on Sunday, fire information officer Eric Neitzel said. Last week, four summer rental cabins were destroyed.

Alpine has been under mandatory evacuation orders since Thursday night, along with Nutrioso and several lodges and camps in the scenic high country.

Heavy smoke is visible at least 200 miles to the northeast, in Gallup, N.M. By Monday evening, smoke was filling the valley surrounding Albuquerque.

In Springerville, Ariz., about 15 miles from Greer, a giant plume of white smoke that had billowed thousands of feet into the air turn black as dusk neared. The smell of smoke permeated the community and nerves were rattled.

David Chimera, owner of the Spur Feeds Store at the edge of town, said customers have been coming in to buy seed and other supplies for their horses and livestock as they make preparations to evacuate.

Some have already left homes that are closer to the fire. Larry Hoppe was one of them.

Hoppe, who lives with his family near Nutrioso, was on vacation in Arkansas when he heard about the fire. He said his two horses were too spooked by the smoke, wind and commotion to be loaded up and had to remain at his home.

"The good Lord has given us plenty of time. We didn't have to do anything in a panic mode. We had time to make an orderly evacuation. It's amazing the blessings you get as the storm is going on," Hoppe said.

Firefighters have, so far, kept the flames out of Alpine and Nutrioso. Residents of the New Mexico town of Luna, about 15 miles east of Alpine, were warned Monday to be prepared to evacuate if the fire closes in.

The fire is the state's third-largest, behind a 2002 blaze that blackened more than 732 square miles and destroyed 491 homes and a fire in 2005 that burned about 387 square miles in the Phoenix suburb of Cave Creek.

Another major wildfire, the state's fifth-largest, burned in southeastern Arizona, threatening two communities.

The 156-square-mile blaze devoured two summer cabins and four outbuildings in recent days but weren't reported earlier because crews couldn't reach them, fire management spokeswoman Karen Ripley said.

Ripley said that the 100,000-acre fire held steady throughout Sunday.

"They did quite well in holding the fire today," Ripley said.

The fire danger in tinder-dry Arizona prompted the full closure of the Coronado National Forest near Tucson beginning on Thursday. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Arizona Wildfires Force Evacuation Of Another Town

Japan moves to protect children as new nuclear leak revealed

Japan moves to protect children as new nuclear leak revealed - Japan will pay schools near the quake-ravaged Fukushima nuclear power plant to remove radioactive top soil and set a lower radiation exposure limit for schoolchildren after a growing outcry over health risks.

The Education Ministry triggered protests in April when it set a radiation exposure limit for children of 20 millisieverts per year, the same dosage the International Commission on Radiation Protection recommends for nuclear plant workers.

The decision became a focal point for anger over Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handling of the crisis and the forced evacuation of tens of thousands residents.

Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki said Tokyo would pay for local schools to remove topsoil in playgrounds that exceeded radiation limits.

It would also set a target of radiation exposure for children at schools of one-twentieth of the previous limit.

"We will provide financial support to schools . for measures to deal with soil in school yards as a way to lower radiation levels for children," Takaki told a news conference.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11 and the massive tsunami that followed killed about 24,000 people and knocked out power to the Fukushima plant, triggering the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

The crisis has displaced some 80,000 residents from around the plant and prompted a review of Japan's energy policy, with the government "starting from scratch" on nuclear policy.

Greenpeace on Thursday slammed the country's "continued inadequate response" and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power said another 36 tonnes of radioactive water had leaked from a waste disposal building that has served as a temporary storage site.

The approach of Japan's rainy season increases the risk of radiation spilling into groundwater and will require tighter monitoring, Tokyo Electric spokesman Junichin Matsumoto said ( Reuters )

READ MORE - Japan moves to protect children as new nuclear leak revealed

Radiation fears surround France's old uranium mines

Radiation fears surround France's old uranium mines – It looks like any other another leafy woodland path in Brittany, but campaigners say ramblers on this particular trail may face levels of radiation at least 10 times higher than normal.

The path runs alongside a disused uranium mine in the hamlet of Rosglas, one of over 200 suspect sites dotted across France, this one marked with just a makeshift sign drawn up by local anti-nuclear campaigners.

When the leaders on the world's most powerful developed economies meet this week at the G8 summit to discuss the aftermath of Japan's Fukushima reactor disaster, France will urge them to keep faith with nuclear power.

Some three-quarters of France's domestic power comes from nuclear plants, and the country is keen to export its expertise in the form of modern third generation EPR reactors -- which it insists are safe.

But abandoned works like the one in Rosglas are testimony to an earlier era when France's race to join the atomic age employed more lax standards.

Chantal Cuisnier - (From L) Member of the Association "Sortir du nucleaire" (No more nuclear) of Cornouailles, Chantal Cuisnier, and members of the Rosglas Ecologist association Stephane Bienvenu and Francois-Gael Rios, seen here measuring radioactivity near a disused uranium mine in the hamlet of Rosglas, near Meslan, one of over 200 suspect sites dotted across France.

"These sites were pretty much abandoned, vegetation has grown up over them, but the radiation is still there," Chantal Cuisnier of local anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucléaire Cornouaille told AFP.

Cuisnier's group recently recorded levels of radiation up to 20 times above normal around the mine, which closed in the mid 1970s.

The group's findings were validated in a report by France's respected Independent Research and Information Commission on Radioactivity (CRIIRAD).

Today, the site is the responsibility of Areva, a majority state-owned French multinational that builds nuclear power stations and manages uranium mines around the world.

"Radiation levels are very slightly higher than natural levels," said Areva spokesman Maxime Michaut, who argued that it would be surprising if this were not the case, given that Rosglas is a former uranium mine.

The company says its figures show the levels are 10 times above normal, but insists the situation, "does not represent an immediate public health risk."

Michaut also said Areva was monitoring all of the disused uranium mines it is responsible for in France, including Rosglas, and would take action on a case-by-case basis if necessary.

Cuisnier is unconvinced by such arguments.

"Any dose of radioactivity carries a risk of mutation or cancer. Here we are talking about levels that are ten to 20 times higher than normal on a public footpath for a distance of 500 metres," she said.

The CRIIRAD is similarly critical of the situation.

"These exposures are totally unjustified and levels should be reduced by properly redeveloping the site and removing radioactive material," the organisation warned in a 2008 report.

Ange Le Lan the mayor of the nearby village of Meslan, in whose jurisdiction the abandoned mine falls shares some of the concern.

"It's unfortunate that Areva has taken such a long time to look into the situation and that their actions came about as a result of activity by local environmental groups," he told AFP.

Parents at the village school clearly seem uneasy about having a disused uranium mine in their back yard.

"It's not always easy living in an area with uranium. I can't say I feel entirely comfortable," said one mother who had recently moved to Meslan and asked not to be named.

"Nothing's been done at all. We've had no information, nothing?s been done at the site, there's been no effort to clean things up. Nothing," added one angry father.

France began operations at the first of its 200 or more uranium mines in 1946 and the majority of the sites were closed during the 1970s and 1980s although the last mine on French soil was working up until 2001.

Most of the mines were not managed by Areva when they were working, but the company inherited responsibility for the sites from their former owners.

In a 2005 report, CRIIRAD criticised the way they were being managed.

"Uranium mining has caused significant contamination of the environment in violation of the international principles of radio protection," it said.

Today, France imports fuel for its network of nuclear power stations, often from mines run by Areva in other parts of the world, notably Africa. ( Agence France Presse )

READ MORE - Radiation fears surround France's old uranium mines

Japan's TEPCO admits further reactor meltdowns

Japan's TEPCO admits further reactor meltdowns – The operator of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday said it believed fuel had partially melted inside three reactors, as long suspected by experts.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said new readings on water gauges indicated that the fuel had dropped to the bottom of the containment vessels of units two and three, matching its earlier assessment of unit one.

In all three reactors, relatively low temperatures indicated that the fuel was now mostly covered by water that has been pumped into the vessels, meaning there was no immediate threat of an uncontrolled full meltdown.

"It is highly possible that (partial) meltdowns have occurred at reactors two and three," a TEPCO spokesman said as the firm released its latest analysis of data from the plant after the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Fukushima - The Fukushima nuclear power plant in northeast Japan. The Fukushima plant has been hit by new setbacks, including a water leak from a reactor vessel and another spill of contaminated water into the ocean.

"Most of the fuel is believed to have fallen to the bottom (of pressure vessels that contain fuel rods) as has happened in reactor one," he said. "They are now being cooled and are in stable conditions."

Japan's March 11 disaster, which left nearly 25,000 people dead or missing, knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima plant. This led reactors to overheat, triggering the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

Reactors four, five and six were under maintenance when the quake hit.

TEPCO estimates it will bring all six reactors to safe "cold shutdown", with low pressure and low temperatures, by some time between October and January, although it will take far longer to dismantle the plant.

Emergency crew have sprayed water into the facility since the quake to cool down the reactors and keep fuel rods in containment pools submerged under water, creating tonnes of toxic runoff that has leaked into the Pacific.

This week TEPCO warned that containment vessels for the radioactive water were almost full.

The company is building a new water treatment facility and has also docked a storage tank called the "megafloat" off the site to hold more low-level contaminated water.

An international panel of nuclear experts arrived in Japan this week to assess the accident and is due to report back to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna in late June.

The IAEA announced last week the mission, headed by Mike Weightman, chief inspector of nuclear installations in Britain, would comprise 20 experts from 12 different countries.

Japan has also decided to set up a panel independent of the nuclear industry and bureaucracy, and mostly made up of academics, to look into the causes of the crisis. It is expected to compile a mid-term report in December and a final report by mid-2012. ( Agence France Presse )

READ MORE - Japan's TEPCO admits further reactor meltdowns

The Century of Disasters Meltdowns. Floods. Tornadoes. Oil spills. Grid crashes. Why more and more things seem to be going wrong, and what we can do a

The Century of Disasters - Meltdowns. Floods. Tornadoes. Oil spills. Grid crashes. Why more and more things seem to be going wrong, and what we can do about it.

half-mile wide twister tore through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday, killing nearly 100. The tornado was one of 68 reported across seven states this weekend. Unfortunately, this century will be a time when natural disasters and failures of human design go hand-in-hand. As Joel Achenbach explained earlier this month in the article reprinted below, we've engineered a planet that works well but is susceptible to catastrophic failures.

This will be the century of disasters.

In the same way that the 20th century was the century of world wars, genocide, and grinding ideological conflict, the 21st will be the century of natural disasters and technological crises and unholy combinations of the two. It'll be the century when the things that we count on to go right will, for whatever reason, go wrong.

Late last month, as the Mississippi River rose in what is destined to be the worst flood in decades, and as the residents of Alabama and other states rummaged through the debris of a historic tornado outbreak, physicists at a meeting in Anaheim, Calif., had a discussion about the dangers posed by the sun.

Solar flares, scientists believe, are a disaster waiting to happen. Thus one of the sessions at the American Physical Society's annual meeting was devoted to discussing the hazard of electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) caused by solar flares or terrorist attacks. Such pulses could fry transformers and knock out the electrical grid over much of the nation. Last year the Oak Ridge National Laboratory released a study saying the damage might take years to fix and cost trillions of dollars.

But maybe even that's not the disaster people should be worrying about. Maybe they should worry instead about the ARkStorm. That's the name the U.S. Geological Survey's Multihazards Demonstration Project gave to a hypothetical storm that would essentially turn much of California's Central Valley into a bathtub. It has happened before, in 1861-62, when it rained for 45 straight days. The USGS explains: "The ARkStorm draws heat and moisture from the tropical Pacific, forming a series of Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) that approach the ferocity of hurricanes and then slam into the U.S. West Coast over several weeks." The result, the USGS determined, could be a flood that would cost $725 billion in direct property losses and economic impact.

While pondering this, don't forget the Cascadia subduction zone. That's the plate boundary off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, one that could generate a tsunami much like the one that devastated Japan in March. The Cascadia subduction zone runs from Vancouver Island to northern California, and last ruptured in a major tsunami-spawning earthquake on January 26, 1700. It could break at any moment, with catastrophic consequences.

All of these things have the common feature of low probability and high consequence. They're "black swan" events. They're unpredictable in any practical sense. They're also things that ordinary people probably should not worry about on a daily basis. You can't fear the sun. You can't worry that a rock will fall out of the sky and smash the earth, or that the ground will open up and swallow you like a vitamin. A key element of maintaining one's sanity is knowing how to ignore risks that are highly improbable at any given point in time.

And yet in the coming century, these or other black swans will seem to occur with surprising frequency. There are several reasons for this. We have chosen to engineer the planet. We have built vast networks of technology. We have created systems that, in general, work very well, but are still vulnerable to catastrophic failures. It is harder and harder for any one person, institution, or agency to perceive all the interconnected elements of the technological society. Failures can cascade. There are unseen weak points in the network. Small failures can have broad consequences.

Most importantly: We have more people, and more stuff, standing in the way of calamity. We're not suddenly having more earthquakes, but there are now 7 billion of us, a majority living in cities. In 1800, only Beijing could count a million inhabitants, but at last count there were 381 cities with at least 1 million people. Many are "megacities" in seismically hazardous places—Mexico City, Caracas, Tehran, and Kathmandu being among those with a lethal combination of weak infrastructure (unreinforced masonry buildings) and a shaky foundation.

Natural disasters will increasingly be accompanied by technological crises—and the other way around. In March, the Japan earthquake triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown. Last year, a technological failure on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to the environmental crisis of the oil spill.

In both the Deepwater Horizon and Fukushima disasters, the safety systems weren't nearly as robust as the industries believed. In these technological accidents, there are hidden pathways for the gremlins to infiltrate the operation. In the case of Deepwater Horizon, a series of decisions by BP and its contractors led to a loss of well control—the initial blowout. The massive blowout preventer on the sea floor was equipped with a pair of pinchers known as blind shear rams. They were supposed to cut the drillpipe and shear the well. The forensic investigation indicated that the initial eruption of gas buckled the pipe and prevented the blind shear rams from getting a clean bite on it. So the "backup" plan—cut the pipe—was effectively eliminated in the initial event, the loss of well control.

Fukushima also had a backup plan that wasn't far enough back. The nuclear power plant had backup generators in case the grid went down. But the generators were on low ground, and were blasted by the tsunami. Without electricity, the power company had no way to cool the nuclear fuel rods. In a sense, it was a very simple problem: a power outage. Some modern reactors coming online have passive cooling systems for backups—they rely on gravity and evaporation to circulate the cooling water.

Charles Perrow, author of Normal Accidents, told me that computer infrastructure is a disaster in the making. "Watch out for failures in cloud computing," he said by email. "They will have consequences for medical monitoring systems and much else."

Technology also mitigates disasters, of course. Pandemics remain a threat, but modern medicine can help us stay a step ahead of evolving microbes. Satellites and computer models helped meteorologists anticipate the deadly storms of April 27 and warn people to find cover in advance of the twisters. Better building codes save lives in earthquakes. Chile, which has strict building codes, was hit with a powerful earthquake last year but suffered only a fraction of the fatalities and damage that impoverished Haiti endured just weeks earlier.

The current Mississippi flood is an example of technology at work for better and for worse. As I write, the Army Corps of Engineers is poised to open the Morganza spillway and flood much of the Atchafalaya basin. That's not a "disaster" but a solution of sorts, since the alternative is the flooding of cities downstream and possible levee failure. Of course, the levees might still fail. We'll see. But this is how the system is supposed to work.

On the other hand, the broader drainage system of the Mississippi River watershed is set up in a way that it makes floods more likely. The cornfields in parts of the upper Midwest, for example, have been "tiled" with pipes that carry excess rainwater rapidly to the rip-rapped streams and on down to rivers lined with levees. We gave up natural drainage decades ago. The Mississippi is like a catheter at this point. Had nature remained in charge, the river would have mitigated much of its downstream flooding by spreading into natural floodplains further upriver (and the main channel would have long ago switched to the Atchafalaya river basin—see John McPhee's The Control of Nature—and New Orleans would no longer be a riverfront city).

One wild card for how disastrous this century will become is climate change. There's been a robust debate on the blogs about whether the recent weather events (tornadoes, floods) can be attributed to climate change. It's a briar patch of an issue and I'll exercise my right to skip past it for the most part. But I think it's clear that climate change will exacerbate natural disasters in general in coming years, and introduce a new element of risk and uncertainty into a future in which we have plenty of risks and uncertainties already. This, we don't need.

And by the way: Any discussion of "geoengineering" as a solution to climate change needs to be examined with the understanding that engineering systems can and will fail. You don't want to bet the future of the planet on an elaborate technological fix in which everything has to work perfectly. If failure isn't an option, maybe you shouldn't try it to begin with.

So if we can't engineer our way out of our engineered disasters, and if natural disasters are going to keep pummeling us as they have since the dawn of time—what's our strategy? Other than, you know, despair?

Well, that's always worked for me, but here are a few more practical thoughts to throw in the mix. First, we might want to try some regulation by people with no skin in the game. That might mean, for example, government regulators who make as much money as the people they're regulating. Or it could even mean a private-sector regulatory apparatus that polices the industry, cracking down on rogue operators. The point is, we don't want every risky decision made by people with pecuniary interests.

Second, we need to keep things in perspective: The apparent onslaught of disasters doesn't portend the end of the world. Beware disaster hysteria in the news media. The serial disasters of the 21st century will be, to some extent, a matter of perception. It'll feel like we're bouncing from disaster to disaster in part because of the shrinking of the world and the ubiquity of communications technology. Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta are always in a disaster zone somewhere, demanding to know why the cavalry hasn't showed up.

Third, we should think in terms of how we can boost our societal "resilience." This is the buzzword in the disaster-preparedness industry. Think of what you would do, and what your community would do, after a disaster. You can't always dodge the disaster, but perhaps you can still figure out how to recover quickly. How would we communicate if we got flared by the sun and the grid went down over two-thirds of the country? How would we even know what was going on? Maybe we need to have the occasional "18th-century weekend" to see how people might get through a couple of days without the grid, the cell towers, the cable TV, the iTunes downloads—the full Hobbesian nightmare.

And make an emergency plan. Buy some batteries and jugs of water just for starters. Figure out how the things around you work. Learn about your community infrastructure. Read about science, technology, and engineering, and don't worry if you don't understand all the jargon. And then, having done that, go on about your lives, pursuing happiness on a planet that, though sometimes dangerous, is by far the best one we've got ( slate.com )

READ MORE - The Century of Disasters Meltdowns. Floods. Tornadoes. Oil spills. Grid crashes. Why more and more things seem to be going wrong, and what we can do a