Make a home for yourself inside your own head.
You’ll find what you need to furnish it - memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things.
That way it will go with you wherever you journey.**
Tad Williams
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.0 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
5.2 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
Yesterday -
8/29/10 -
5.0 NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.1 SOUTHERN EAST PACIFIC RISE
5.3 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.1 SICHUAN-YUNNAN-GUIZHOU, CHINA
VOLCANOES -
INDONESIA - Mount Sinabung volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has erupted again, sending ash and smoke several kilometres into the atmosphere. The volcano erupted again early on Monday, spewing black ash and soot two kilometres (1.24 miles) into the air. The eruption was bigger than Sunday's and has affected some local flights. Domestic flights that were due to fly over the volcano have been suspended until further notice. Meanwhile, relief workers are now providing shelter and medical aid to the villagers who have been affected by the volcano's eruptions. The majority of villagers within a 6km (3.7 miles) radius of Mount Sinabung have been evacuated. More than 18,000 people are now living in camps and government shelters. Workers say that the immediate danger the villagers face is respiratory problems. Thousands of face masks have been handed out to protect them from the thick ash and smoke that has permeated the atmosphere.
TROPICAL STORMS -
Hurricane DANIELLE was 571 nmi ESE of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Hurricane EARL was 197 nmi N of Fort de France, Martinique.
Tropical storm KOMPASU was 520 nmi S of Kagoshima, Japan.
Tropical storm LIONROCK was 169 nmi SE of Hong Kong.
Hurricane Earl, churning toward the Caribbean, has intensified and reached Category Two strength. "Further strengthening is forecast ... and Earl is expected to become a major hurricane by late Monday." The centre of Earl was currently located 80km east northeast of Barbuda, moving west northwest at 24km/ph.
Forecast to gain "major" Category 3 status, outer rainbands association with a strengthening Hurricane Earl were affecting the islands of Antigua and Barbuda on Sunday.
Even five years after Hurricane Katrina, the names of hundreds of the dead remain a mystery and the death toll is mired in dispute. Of an estimated 1,464 victims officially recognized by the state of Louisiana, more than 500 names have not been publicly released. And Louisiana's once-ambitious efforts to tackle dozens of related cases of missing persons and unidentified bodies ran out of money in 2006 and has never been revived. DNA, X-rays and other technology mean that identification remains possible years from now if additional remains get found or family members of the missing submit evidence that gets linked to the nameless. Yet no state or federal agency today keeps track of those who remain missing from Katrina - or have since been confirmed dead. There is no central place for scattered surviving families to call. In New Orleans, 31 unidentified victims' bodies were buried in a $1.5 million monument in 2008. None has been identified since then.
Hundreds of victims of the nation's most deadly modern natural disaster remain anonymous for unknown reasons. Many were elderly and poor. Around 64 percent of the storm victims were older than 65. Most came from New Orleans Parish. The dead were racially diverse: 56 percent black; 40 percent white; 4 percent Asian; 4 percent Native American and 2 percent Hispanic. "We present that a lesson learned is about those left behind due to lack of physical or financial means."
A Columbia University professor estimates the true death toll will top 3,500 if those killed by the storm and by its many after-effects are accurately tallied. And yet other counts put the toll at an estimated 1,800. "This is a mass fatality event - one that is more common in the Third World. To find another one as large in the U.S. in terms of the people who died - you have to go back to 1900 to the Galveston flood when there was no (National Weather Service), there was no Internet ... and there were no automobiles. Why on earth did so many people die in 2005? The injustice of it is just amazing."
HEAVY RAINS, SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
PAKISTAN town submerged amid fight to rebuild levees. Sujawal, a town of some 250,000 people, has been totally submerged while people battle to save the nearby city of Thatta which is being used as a key staging post for flood relief workers. Authorities are still trying to rebuild levees around Thatta against the raging Indus river. But water is still advancing on the all-but-abandoned city. "We fled so hastily that we could not even pick up our belongings. We are sitting in this graveyard under the blazing sun, looking for shade here and there. We have nothing to eat. The floodwater swept away our cows and buffalo."
Pakistan will face devastating problems in the future, unless flood reconstruction efforts begin immediately. A month after the floods began, the effort is still focused on the first stage of relief, rescuing and evacuating people. But farmers have only a small window in which to plant the next harvest's crops, and that is fast closing, raising fears of future hunger. "Pakistan doesn't have the luxury of waiting for the emergency phase to be over before starting the reconstruction." The massive floods have left some 8 million people in need of emergency relief. Four weeks since the flooding began, the scale of this humanitarian crisis is still growing. And on the ground, the amount of aid available is a long way from meeting the need. Across the country, some 17 million people have been affected. "Every day we hear that new areas are affected. '
HEALTH THREATS -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. has recalled about 8,500 pounds of ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli. The move came after three people, two in Maine and one in New York, were identified as becoming ill from a strain of E. coli. None of the three required hospitalization. The USDA says it believes certain BJ's Wholesale Club stores in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Virginia received the products. The recalled ground beef was shipped June 11 to distribution centers, where it was repackaged into consumer-size packages and sold under different retail brand names. The USDA did not identify the brands. The government "strongly encourages consumers to check their freezers and immediately discard any product subject to this recall." The government lists the recall as Class 1, meaning "there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death." Consumers with questions regarding the recall should contact the Cargill consumer line at (877) 788-4953.
