#avian earthquake resources

[apothecarinomicon]

Spring week 4 part 3

After my hectic experience with the marshbloom, I decided to take a day for myself. Greenmoor isn’t anywhere near the ocean, but Meltwater Loch is big enough that I figured a day spent there could be considered a beach day. And after the couple of weeks I’d had, boy did I need a beach day.

But anyone who’s read this far ought to be familiar with my luck by now. There’s a lot to record, but I’ll try to get it down in order.

 ────⊱⁜⊰──── 

It was a beautiful day—clear blue sky, warm air, and (at least when I first arrived) no one around at Meltwater Loch. I spread out a towel on the beach and laid down for a good session of sunbathing. I’ve never been one for tanning, but  simply laying doing nothing while being warmed by the sun and cooled by the breeze felt absolutely decadent.

After a while of simply existing, I became aware of the sound of a bird calling above me. I cracked my eyes open and recognized the large forms of a pair of gull-drakes flying overhead. Gull-drakes are a strange hybrid, both reptilian and avian. Their torsos and wings are feathered, while their heads, tails, and talons are scaled. They do have beaks like gulls, but their tails are prehensile like their alleged draconic ancestors’. I say ‘alleged’ because no one knows how the hybrid gull-drake came into being. The sheer anatomy and scale discrepancy between the average seagull and the average dragon fossil (they were much larger in ancient times than the pocket-sized lizards we have today) seems to rule out any cross-breeding. Additionally, the typical combination of traits displayed by gull-drakes is too awkward and ungainly to be the result of natural selection. And yet, there have been records of the gull-drake’s existence for just about as long as there have been records—the third-oldest surviving written document, in fact, is a bestiary which includes them along dozens of other species, most of which are now extinct.

Nature is a strange thing.

Digressions aside, there was a reason this caught my attention. Gull-drakes are scavengers, and have been known to leave catches uneaten while they go out to hunt for more. It’s just an evolutionary quirk—they prefer to feast only once per day. This means that, as they leave their nests unattended, some other opportunistic creature could come by and steal their catch. 

It’s easy to identify a gull-drake nest, too—they tend to be very large, and are often positioned balanced atop large, pointy rocks. If a gull-drake catches you stealing, though, it’ll chase you and squawk at you and try to peck you until you drop the stolen goods and flee. They’re not too smart, though, so hiding in nearby foliage (say, a patch of large ferns) will fool them easily.

All of this to say, I managed to get myself a shock fish without a rod, all while only getting chased a little ways by a jealous, stupid bird.

 ────⊱⁜⊰──── 

As I returned to my towel, I heard an unusual sound—the put-put-put of a motor. Machinery of that kind is a fairly new invention, and unless you know how to make it, very expensive.

The woman driving the boat certainly looked like she knew how to make a motor. She was dwarven, with russet hair and a long beard, both held in thick braids. She was (as dwarves are) rather short—I'd estimate maybe one-and-a-fifth meters tall, and nearly as wide—with large hands and feet, and limbs thickly corded with muscle. She wore dark green coveralls and had a fairly heavy-duty fishing rod held in one hand so that it rested on her shoulder.

She shut the motor off as she neared and called out to me, asking if I was the village witch. I said that I was, and she told me that she was friends with my crocodilian patient. She thanked me for helping him, and said he would have been a goner without my potion-making skills. I demurred just a bit, saying I wasn't the only healer who helped him that day. She scoffed and dismissed my humility outright, saying that I might as well have been the only one—that without my care the village doctor wouldn't have been able to do anything.

She introduced herself as Janneth Hillhorn, and I told her my name in turn. She asked what I was doing out by Meltwater Loch and I told her I was taking a day off. She let me know that her cottage was just around the other side of the lake, near Glimmerwood Grove and right on the border of Blastfire Bog, and that I should feel free to stop in any time. I thanked her.

At this point, there was a tremor in the water. It couldn't have been an earthquake because the land wasn't shaking, but the water abruptly became much more active. Ocean-like waves crashed into the shore and Janneth held tight onto the sides of her boat, doing her best not to capsize. I would have been quite alarmed in her situation, but Janneth barely seemed preturbed. I asked something along the lines of "what the blight is going on?!" As the water settled, Janneth told me that this was a common occurence on Meltwater Loch, a quirk that—many said—was due to the emotions of its guardian sea-dragon, Bàs Bàta. I found this explanation rather silly, reminiscent of an old wives' tale. I'd never heard of a sea-dragon before, and given that the name ‘Bàs Bàta’ directly translated to "boat death," I figured it was just a local story told to frighten children and dismissed it out of hand.

Astute readers should be growing worried for me right about now.

Janneth offered to give me one of the fish she'd caught as a thanks for helping her friend. I initially refused, but she insisted. She looked through her basket and pulled out a dentist crab. The gel their claws produce is good for the mouth and plenty else besides, so I accepted and thanked her. She thanked me right back and said (perhaps jokingly?) not to run afoul of Bàs Bàta while I was out by the loch. I forced a laugh as she sped away.

Once she was out of sight, I collected some claw gel from the dentist crab and released it back into the water.

 ────⊱⁜⊰──── 

There was another rumbling as I made my way back to the beach, and as it abated I saw something bob up to the surface of the water close to the shore. It presented itself, et cetera et cetera, I waded in to see what it was.

I scooped it out of the water and found myself holding a glass bottle, like the kind that rum or sweet wine would come in, sealed with a cork and containing a rolled-up sheet of paper. Of course, I opened it immediately. I found that the sheet inside wasn’t quite *paper,* but something more slippery—maybe made of seaweed? It did have writing on it, though. As I unfurled it, a few things that looked like pebbles fell out. I barely managed to catch them before they hit the surface of the water. I put them in my pocket for safe keeping.

The writing on the note was as follows, with no spelling changes by me:

Let it be known that I fink this whole exercise is stupid. And pointless. And probly meant as some kind of sick, twisted punishment. No one but little kids believe in terrafolk, so I don’t know why the instructress is making us do this.

Even if anyfing could live above the water, there’s no way its advanced enough to read. How would it get all the minerals it needs wivout processing the water?

But anyway. I guess I ave to fulfill the prompt. 

Me name is Genoveva, I live in the I.S.A.C.S. (that's short for 'Isolated Sovereign Aquatic City-State, but we all just pronounce it like 'Isax") and I’m in the fifth year of me education. I hate me name. I wish I could ave somefing exotic like a John or a Steve or a Sarah, but I’m stuck wiv boring old Genoveva. If you’re somehow able to read this, that must mean you ave schools on the surface, too. Wat ar they like? Ar they as boring up there? We all ave to sit in a circle and listen to the instructress drone on and on and on.

I live wiv me merma and me perpa and me two baby brothers. Do you ave family? I've got loads of cousins too.

On the rubric it says I ave to include a small gift, so I'm putting some fossil fish scales in wiv this letter. I found em on me way to school this morning and there not of use to me, but I figure you probly don't ave fish on land so maybe scales ar valuable up there.

If you're inclined to write back (no pressure), you can just pop your note in the bottle and put it back into the water. It'll find its way to me—there's magic all around, don't you know.

Signed,

Genoveva Galbrait, 5th year

[An accessible version of this letter can be found here.]

The letter obviously has some pretty complex implications. An entire society under the surface of Meltwater Loch, entirely unaware of the world above the surface beyond fairy stories? What must life be like down there? What kind of society must they have? How do they supply food? Get rid of waste?

What resources might be available there that can't be found on the surface?

I decided that somehow I was going to find a way to visit ISACS, and learn everything I could about it. I bet that would impress the University of Arcbridge. I wasn't sure how I would breathe under the water for long enough, but I was determined to find a way.

Take your final guesses now what happened next.

That water-quaking started up again, this time stronger than before. Waves crashed against the beach where I stood, and I felt a great vibration in my chest and in my head. 

And then, it broke the surface of the water.

Giant and blue-green and serpentine, Bàs Bàta rose up before me. A blighting sea-dragon, it stood straight up in the air at least twice as tall as my cottage—and that was just the part of its body I could see. Its head was shaped like the tip of an arrow, with three great spikes sprouting out of the back (the outer two longer than the middle one). It let loose another deep roar, dousing me in spittle. It thrashed about, causing great waves to crash onto the shore, and through my shock I realized its movements might be less characteristic of anger than of pain.

My suspicions were confirmed when it roared again: one of the fangs right near the front of its mouth was missing a chip, and had a great crack running nearly all the way up to the root. That had to hurt. I'd never treated a non-humanoid  before—or, for that matter, a cracked tooth—but I realized even past the moral obligation to help, there was no way I could access the underwater city-state without calming Bàs Bàta down.

I found out later, after I'd scrambled away from the lake and sprinted back to the cottage, after wiping the saliva off of me and getting at least some of it in a bottle for potion use, that the saliva was actually a really useful ingredient in treating shattered teeth. As it turns out, it's a pretty strong painkiller. Unfortunately, I knew I'd need more than just that to make a cure, and with the sheer size of Bàs Bàta, I suspected I'd need to make more than one potion.

That will have to be a longer term project, then, because the events of my relaxation day have worn me out. I've got to get to bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

⇦●〇●⇨

[deepmarkcomputer]

2020 [Sustainable Business]

It is said that the Maya predicted that 2012 is the end of world’s year, but now some people said the 2020 is.I don’t think people all over the world will have a better life in 2020.At the beginning of 2020, nature has fully demonstrated to us the power of extreme weather、natural disasters、biological invasion and viruses.Even now, many countries are suffering from viruses.

1 Australia. The Australian wildfires had been burning for 6-9 months. It reported that the residents’ homes had been destroyed,and it caused some people to get bronchitis and lung disease, which is an irreversible and progressive disease. At the same time, the fire has emitted hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,it induced extreme local weather: heavy rain, heavy hail, hurricane...At the same time, the fire killed about 600 million animals.

2 In Africa, a locust disaster has broken out for a month and a half. It is expected that in 2020, a food crisis will break out in the world.

3 In Asia, there is currently a new type of coronavirus.The world has collapsed although China is currently under control. Many people died in this Pandemic,until now the vaccine has not been successfully developed, some countries are still fighting with viruses.  At the same time, the source of the virus has not been determined. Bats? seafood? wild animals? Or some people even said that  is the polar frozen soil melting and ancient viruses appearing on the sea?

4 Americas: In the United States, they are still fighting with coronavirus. American is still one of the countries with the largest number of confirmed cases and deaths.And at the same time,the virus problem has intensified the problem of ethnic conflict. 

5Japan, nuclear leak, earthquake, tsunami...

6 Canada: Blizzard with a depth of 3 meters is also caused by extreme weather around the world.

7 Philippines, the extremely dangerous dormant Taal volcano seen in 80 years and it has erupted and 450,000 people have been forced to flee.

8 Avian influenza broke out in Saudi Arabia, killing more than 20,000 birds.

  Only in 2020, we suffered frequent disasters:wildfires in Australia, melting of polar ice, accelerated disappearance of species, raging viruses, and significant climate change; it caused major economic losses for the current human society, even some of which are even irreparable. Whether we can leave the environment for human existence in the future is worrisome... 

Some people naively think that humans are at the top of the food chain. However, there is no bottom-end resource provision, nothing.Therefore, caring for nature and cherishing resources is not just an initiative, but also a concrete action by everyone. This should be a way to "repair" the relationship between human and nature. From being grateful to nature to caring for nature, you are actually in awe of nature. And to fear nature is to fear humanity itself.

   Before the catastrophe, the whole world should understand that human beings are interdependent and share wealth and woe, and cooperation and help will only emerge once people have the consciousness of a community of destiny.

  Maybe we are now undergoing a transformation in the history of human civilization and we are witnesses for the historical turning point. People often feel that life is endless from generation to generation, the continuation of the history of human civilization cannot be separated from the earth's ecological environment on which mankind depends. No matter how advanced the future technological development is, it will be the most severe challenge for mankind to restore the destroyed ecological environment. 

[punalavaflow]

State parks chief: ‘Pele is in control now’

Lava Tree State Monument and MacKenzie State Recreation Area “are closed and will likely remain so for a very long time,” the state parks chief said Sunday.

“Pele is in control now,” state Parks Division Administrator Curt Cottrell said in a written statement. “She already reclaimed Kalapana State Park back in 1990 and may well decide to perform substantial makeovers to Lava Tree and/or MacKenzie.”

MacKenzie and nearby Malama Ki Forest Reserve appear to be significantly made over in photographs taken Thursday and released Sunday by the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Lava Tree and MacKenzie, both in lower Puna, have been closed since shortly after the eruption began May 3 in Kilauea’s lower East Rift Zone. MacKenzie is adjacent to the first ocean entry. According to DLNR, both parks were closed for public safety.

State Parks Hawaii Island Supervisor Dean Takabayashi visited Lava Tree on Monday and noted damage to the restrooms and park walkway, likely caused by the magnitude-6.9 earthquake on May 4.

“We have to keep these parks closed because they’re close to lava and subject to gas emissions from the eruption. We don’t know yet what other dangers have been created by the earthquake and six-week old eruption,” Takabayashi said.

DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources officers have written dozens of citations to sightseers caught at Lava Tree and MacKenzie. They’ll continue heavy patrols in both parks to keep people out of restricted areas for their own safety, the department said.

Two Hilo residents, 32-year-old Alexander White and 41-year-old Ruth Moss, were cited Saturday by a DLNR enforcement officer on Highway 137 near MacKenzie State Recreation Area.

According to DLNR, White and Moss were with two children walking along the shoreline at Coconut Grove at 12:45 p.m.

The officer reported that none was wearing masks and sulfur dioxide in the area had reached 2.3 parts per million earlier in the day. The federally-recognized safe level for SO2 is less than 2.0 ppm.

All were escorted back to the roadblock on Highway 137 and the adults were cited.

Under a supplemental emergency proclamation signed by Gov. David Ige, loitering in a restricted lava zone is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.

These citations bring the number of people cited by DLNR and county police since the eruption began on May 3 to 76.

About half of the 1,514-acre Malama Ki Forest Reserve has been closed for weeks. The lava has burned much of the forest and volcanic emissions have defoliated hundreds of trees. The reserve served as a habitat to sub-populations of native forest birds which have developed unique resistance to avian pox and avian malaria.

“We would hate to lose that genetic pool,” said DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife Hawaii island Branch Manager Steve Bergfeld. “Due to current and further expected losses of Malama Ki’s habitat, populations of wildlife may no longer persist, rapidly decline, or become further fragmented and/or contract in range.”

The eruption also has destroyed the Wai‘opae Tidepools Marine Life Conservation District. Less than 1 percent of the marine environment in Hawaii is fully protected by these districts, so the loss of Wai‘opae is extremely significant, DLNR said.

The eruption is adding new acreage to the island, and newly created land, by law, becomes what DLNR called “state unencumbered land” and falls under the jurisdiction of the DLNR Land Division.

“This continuing eruption is changing the way DLNR and its division’s manage public lands in the lower Puna District,” Board of Land and Natural Resources Chairwoman Suzanne Case said. “There is tremendous alteration of the landscape on a broad scale and daily basis. Most dramatic is the complete lava inundation of Kapoho Bay including the covering of the Wai‘opae Tidepools ….”

DLNR is advising recreational fisherman to use state boat ramps other than the one at Pohoiki. Issac Hale Beach Park, where the ramp is located, is in a restricted area and closed.

The four commercial permittees at Pohoiki were offered the opportunity to relocate to the Wailoa Harbor Ramp in Hilo. Two of the larger vessels secured transient dock slips there for up to 120 days.

“DLNR and many of its divisions continue to support Hawaii County during this unprecedented natural event with resources and personnel on the ground. First and foremost we want to take every step needed to make sure people are safe and stay out of places that, like the landscape, can change in a flash,” Case said.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported Sunday that fissure No. 8 continued to erupt with a full channel flowing to the ocean at Kapoho.

Volcano area residents were advised to check their gas, electrical and water connections after earthquakes.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Recovery Center at Keaau High School Gym remains open daily between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

And Tropic Care 2018 is open today between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. today at Keaau High School, providing free medical, dental and eye care for everyone, not just residents displaced by lava.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.

The post State parks chief: ‘Pele is in control now’ appeared first on Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

from Hawaii News – Hawaii Tribune-Herald https://ift.tt/2tHEMMr

[marcjampole]

Upside of downsizing the American dream: It may slow down use of fossil fuels and global warming

In discussing climate change, the very broadest view we can take is the unfolding of evolution. Recent findings uncover a strong connection between the composition of gases in the atmosphere and the development of life on Earth. Factors such as earthquakes, volcanoes, the activity of the sun, the warming and cooling of the globe, Earth’s slightly irregular rotation in orbit and the impact of asteroids have affected the amount of methane, oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere and water. Some species thrive and others falter when this mix of gases changes, either suddenly or over large expanses of time.

Most relevant to this discussion is the percentage of oxygen in the air. Paleontologist Peter Ward (University of Washington) and geologist Joe Kirschvink (California Institute of Technology) explain in A New History of Life: The Radical New Discoveries about the Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth that in Triassic times, just before the extinction event that ushered in the Jurassic period, the precursors of mammals called the therapsids dominated the earth. Compared to reptiles, these ur-mammals had less efficient lungs (as do mammals), but it didn’t matter since the earth was relatively rich in oxygen.

But something happened during the extinction event that separates the Triassic and the Jurassic periods to reduce the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere, enabling reptiles, including dinosaurs, to thrive and impeding the development of mammals. The rise of the dinosaurs may result directly from a reduction of oxygen and increase in nitrogen in the atmosphere. While science now confirms that the crash of a large asteroid is implicated in the death of all land dinosaurs and most avian dinosaurs (the surviving flyers becoming birds), evolutionary scientists now believe that the central factor in the rise of mammals, and thus primates and humans, was the increase in the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere from 14-16% to about 21% about 65 million years ago.

Humanity’s current spewing of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a year is already changing the mix of gases dissolved in our oceans. Once the waters become supersaturated with carbon dioxide, if we are still in the midst of our fossil fuel burning spree, we can be reasonably certain that the overall percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere will increase and, more significantly for the survival of humanity, the percentage of oxygen will decrease.

That’s the long-term threat of failing to limit severely the amount of carbon we release into the environment. But before the composition of atmospheric gases radically could change, humanity would already have suffered—and perhaps gone extinct—from pandemics, famines, extreme weather events and resource wars: The four horses of the apocalypse known as global warming.

I recently did the latest version of the individual footprint test, which estimates the number of earths it would take to have the resources to support every human being in my style. Now I’m a voluntary simplicity warrior: I walk or ride the subway as much as possible, only occasionally taking the bus. I was in a car for less than 200 miles last year and took one airplane trip. We eat primarily locally grown food and I eat energy-intensive red meat but once a week. We compost. We live in a 1,200 square-foot apartment in a 17-story building that recently switched to gas heating. We buy only wind-powered electricity and recycle everything allowed. But despite these best efforts, my footprint computes to 1.5 earths for everyone. What else can I do without government intervention, besides maybe to get my building to go solar? The subway has to start using less energy and the buses have to eventually run on wind- or solar power, probably on rails. My food, clothes, computers—everything will have to be made and delivered more cheaply.

And that’s in energy efficient New York City! What about the rest of the country, where automobile travel dominates, mass transit has been allowed to wither and people live in and therefore heat larger spaces, and do so less efficiently, in free-standing houses? If everyone in the world lived as the average American does, it would take the resources of five earths.

The upside of the downsizing of the American dream that the growing inequality of wealth and income has produced is that it will soon shrink the footprint of many Americans. But we have to change what we do with the vast excess capital produced by squeezing the middle and lower classes. Currently, we give it to a small group of very lucky, if typically well-connected, individuals and families, AKA the super wealthy. Instead, we should use taxes to confiscate this excess capital and fund mass transit, wind and solar power, alternative technology development and adaptation, local sourcing projects throughout the United States.

We should also invest heavily in promoting negative population growth. Imagine, if everyone in the world limited themselves to having one child, the population would naturally shrink to a more manageable size. With fewer people, we could sustain a higher average quality of life.

Make no doubt about it—for humanity to survive, Americans will have to start using less energy and other resources and there will have to be a lot fewer of not only us, but of all the peoples of all the nations.

[mrlongkgraves]

Hurricane health effects will not blow over quickly

Hurricane health effects make lasting impact on public health.

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria are long gone, but their physical and emotional impact may be felt for years to come. Images of roofs ripped off homes and people wading through waters in Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas have not ceased since Hurricane Harvey made landfall Aug. 26.

While preservation of life was the focus during the storms and soon after, when each storm passes focus turns to cleanup, assessing damage and rebuilding, all of which can take weeks, months, even years. Add to the mix the physical stressors and emotional turmoil experienced by residents of affected areas and it becomes apparent how devastating hurricanes truly are.

According to a preliminary estimate from Moody’s Analytics, the storms may have caused up to $200 billion in damage to areas, including Florida and Texas — a number comparable to the costs incurred by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. Damage to Puerto Rico alone as a result of Hurricane Maria’s assault is estimated to be between $45 billion and $95 billion, and the U.S. territory remains the site of a humanitarian crisis.

Heather Chung, MSN, PhD, RN, director of psychiatric services at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, is one of many nurses who are witnessing firsthand the hurricanes’ health effects on the thousands who have lost homes, workplaces, transportation and much more.

Chung’s team is seeing a surge in the number of patients who are experiencing the re-emergence of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and relapse into substance use — issues they had overcome way before Harvey struck.

One veteran patient had driven to Galveston, Texas, to check on a relative’s home when he started experiencing symptoms of PTSD as he drove through the devastated neighborhood, Chung said. The man had initially suffered from PTSD after serving in the military, and was unaware that he had lapsed into a different mental state as he started forming a suicide plan. Fortunately, his brother knocked on the door before he started carrying out his plan and drove him to the hospital.

Although it may be tempting for patients to push aside medical needs like mental health treatment as they grapple with the overwhelming tasks of rebuilding their lives, neglecting these medical issues can lead to problems in the long term, said Roberta Lavin, PhD, APRN-BC, associate dean for academic programs at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

“It’s really important for nurses to take a holistic approach and help their patients address their basic needs because this will allow them to focus on their medical needs,” Lavin said.

“Nurses may feel like social services are not their role, but we need to take the time to educate our patients about the resources that can help them find food, shelter, medication and other things critical for stability,” Lavin said.

At Houston Methodist Hospital, one of the largest influxes of patients after Hurricane Harvey was people suffering from dementia, and the family members of these patients need assistance understanding the options for these now-homeless relatives, said Alric Hawkins, MD, a psychiatrist at the hospital.

“Many of these new patients were living in their communities but not functioning very well, and after they lose their homes and familiar environments, they are unable to live independently anymore,” he said.

The mental health professionals at Houston Methodist Hospital also are starting to see increasing numbers of patients who are experiencing drug and alcohol relapse as they cope with the grief and depression triggered by the loss of homes, possessions and routines.

“We are giving these patients a brief counseling session and directing them to pursue help through longer-term counseling, psychiatry and support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous,” said Marshall Getz, PhD, an educational psychologist at the hospital.

The impact of standing water

During and after Hurricane Harvey, Kelsea Bice, BSN, RN, CEN, a nurse in the emergency room at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center in Houston, saw a number of patients who needed treatment for skin infections. One woman had been carrying her cat through the water, but the cat scratched her and created an open wound. And more patients are arriving at the hospital after construction accidents.

“People who don’t usually work with building materials are getting injured as they pull out drywall and carpet or try to demolish their own homes,” Bice said. “We’re seeing more lacerations, flare-ups of arthritis and falls.”

Texas officials are encouraging people to get tetanus booster shots because the disease enters the body through cuts. Based on CDC reports after Hurricane Katrina, evacuees and rescue workers during the recent storms may be at risk of MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant bacterium, and Vibrio pathogens, or flesh-eating bacteria.

Cases of mosquito-borne illnesses such as Zika, dengue and West Nile virus also may increase among people who were forced out of homes and buildings for days at a time during the storms. As people return to their homes, exposure to molds also can increase the risks of inflammatory reactions, asthma and allergies.

Preparing for future health issues

While some people recover their economic security, mental and physical health within a few months after storms like Irma and Harvey, this is not the norm, according to studies by David Abramson, PhD, MPH, a clinical associate professor at NYU College of Global Public Health.

Abramson studied the long-term impact of disasters on communities after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. He found recovery often takes three to five years or longer. After studying New Jersey residents whose homes were significantly damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Abramson found 27% of these people were experiencing moderate or severe mental health distress two and a half years after the storm. Fourteen percent reported signs and symptoms of PTSD more than two years after the storm.

“We’ve also been struck by how long kids can have potentially serious emotional disturbances even five years after these events,” Abramson said.

In his 2015 Sandy Child and Family Health Study, children living in homes with minor damage were more than four times as likely to feel sad or depressed as children living in homes that were not damaged. They were more than twice as likely to have difficulty sleeping.

“I think nurses can play an important role in picking up on some of these issues early,” Abramson said. Oftentimes the loss of a home can trigger these mental health issues, and asking about a patient’s housing circumstances gives them an opportunity to share about the psychological challenges they are facing, he said.

To provide mental health services for children who were suffering from longer-term effects of Hurricane Sandy, NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island in New York created a specialized program to identify children who needed additional psychological support. The program, which was funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, started six months after the storm and continued for two years, and children were screened in the primary care setting. Some children were having flashbacks and fears of another disaster during power outages or rain storms. Others were anxious because their parents seemed stressed and preoccupied as they faced the task of rebuilding their lives after Sandy.

“A lot of times parents didn’t know how to deal with the stress, and they didn’t communicate with their children,” said John Jannes, PhD, associate executive director for the department of behavioral health at NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island. “One of the most important things we did is encourage family members to talk to each other about what was going on. Children also needed to hear that Sandy was a very rare event, and a simple rain storm doesn’t mean it will happen again.”

Even though the community impact of hurricanes may linger for years, caregivers who were on the front lines of Sandy said the disaster also gave patients an opportunity to discover their own resilience. “Many employees at the hospital lost everything, but they still came to work,” said Katrina Maneri, RN, assistant nursing director for psychiatry at the hospital. “The community pulled together to support one another, and the experience brought me closer to the community.”

Freelance writer Heather Stringer contributed to the writing and research of this article.

Courses Related to ‘Disaster Planning’

60081: RNs Shelter Victims of Disaster  (1 contact hr) Never in the history of the U.S. has disaster preparation and response been as vital as it is today. Disasters are frequently classified as manmade or from natural causes. In addition to the threat of manmade disasters — such as terrorist attacks — and natural disasters — such as fires, floods and earthquakes — the focus of disaster preparation has grown to include emerging infectious diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome and avian influenza. This module will help nurses better understand the role of Red Cross nurses during major disasters and help nurses decide whether DHS nursing may be where they can best contribute their time and talents to help their fellow citizens.

60050: When Disasters Strike  (1 contact hr) This module features an overview of disaster management in EDs, including the definition of the four stages of disaster management and the appropriate triage of patients. It also describes the unique considerations of disasters that involve a chemical, radiological, or biological agent. Preparation of ED personnel, such as EMTs and RNs, will enable them to respond to disasters and the patient populations affected by them more effectively.

The post Hurricane health effects will not blow over quickly appeared first on Nursing News, Stories & Articles.

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[thecoroutfitters]

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

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Practical Preparedness – Planning by Prevalence

When we jump on preparedness sites, sometimes we’re immediately struck by the enormous loads of things to buy, do, and learn. We immediately start hearing about WROL, battle rifles, ammo counts in the thousands, pressure canners, INCH/BOB bags and locations, pace count, and primitive skills. World- and nation-altering events such as nuclear war, internet-ending viruses, Nibiru, Agenda 21 and NWO, and the like pop up. They all have their places, but sometimes things get missed and it can make for a very overwhelming introduction. It can make it hard to prioritize where to spend our time and financial budgets even for those with experience and years of exposure to the prepared mindset.

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To make it a little easier to prioritize, we can work in stages. We can look at what is most likely to occur in the near future and our lifetimes, and use that information to help us decide where to focus our time, efforts and resources.

Zone-Ring Systems

In permaculture, planning is based on zones. The basic premise is that you start at 0 or 1 with the self or home, and move outward through 2-4 and eventually into Zone 5. The inner rings have the most immediate contact with the resident, while the outer rings are visited less frequently. Other systems also use similar ring concepts of involvement, frequency and impact.

The same can be applied to preparedness, just like we modified a Health Wheel to fit our particular interests and needs. In this case, instead of looking at the frequency with which we’ll make contact with an area, we’ll be looking at the frequency with which things occur and impact our worlds.

Like permaculture, I’ve gone with five general categories. In this case, they are: Daily, Seasonal/Annual, 5-10 Year, Generational, & Lifetime/Eventually/Maybe. There are some examples for the average Western World resident. Later in the article there’s a few tips for planning for and around those most and least-prevalent scenarios.

Zone 1/First Ring – Daily Occurrences

A layoff can be just as devastating as a zombie invasion if you aren’t prepared.

Daily emergencies are those that strike somebody somewhere every single day in our English-reading modern life. While some affect larger groups, these tend to be personal or family related items. They’re the kinds of things the neighbors might not even notice. Some examples are:

Layoff, cut hours, cut wages

Major bills (roof, medical, HVAC, veterinary)

House fire

Major injury/developing disability

Theft, burglary, mugging

Vehicular accident & malfunction (temporarily removing transportation)

Temporary power outages (hours to 1-3 days)

Personal physical altercation (mugging, home invasion, the drunk at a bar, date rape)

Missing person(s), family death

When considering the financial aspects of preparedness, also consider the things that might not affect jobs, but do affect our income and-or our ability to offset daily costs. For instance, an injury that prevents gardening and picking up overtime or a second job as a stocker, pipe-fitter, or forklift driver, or a developing disability that renders an arm/hand weak or unusable and prevents needlepoint, canine grooming, or weaving.

Zone 2/Second Ring – Seasonal/Annual Occurrences

These are the things we can consult our Almanacs and insurance companies to consider. They regularly tend to affect a larger number of people. It might be a block or a street in some cases, parts of a town or county, or might impact a whole state if not a region. They’d be things like…

River ice jam flooding

  Busted water mains

Boil/No-Boil water orders

Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes

Wind & thunderstorms

Wildfire

Significant or extreme snowfall

Summer drought

Temporary outages (2-5 days)

River ice lockups and floods

Active shooter or bomb threat, terrorist events

Let’s hope that last stays firmly in the “annual” category or shifts back to the third prevalence ring for most of us. Let’s also acknowledge that in some places and nations, it’s already more common to be caught in crossfire of some sort than it is to live peaceful lives, and for some of them, it’s as or almost as common as paying monthly bills or going out to eat.

Zone 3/Third Ring – 5-10 Year Occurrences

These are the things that happen regularly, but infrequently. Some occur on cycles. Some, as with the natural disasters above, are a nearly predictable cycle. Some aren’t really predictable, per se, but as with tornadoes in one of the nations’ tornado alley or hurricane-prone areas, you learn to expect them. We can expect them to affect a larger area or more people in many cases.

Natural Disasters from above

Mudslides

Major industrial or business closures/layoffs

Drought (personal & widespread impacts)

Widespread livestock illnesses (such as the avian diseases that pop up regularly)

Temporary outages (3-14 days)

Changing life phases (child-birth & toddlers, school-age kids, driving-age youths, empty nests, retirements)

Fuel cost cycles

Zone 4/Fourth Ring – Generational Occurrences

The span covered by the term “generation” tends to change if you use the strictest definitions. Most account for a generation to cover about 20-30 years. Some examples of things that very much tend to be generational include:

Major wars (mental & physical disabilities, income effects good & bad)

Recessions, depressions

Fuel cost cycles (more extreme)

Serious multi-year “weird” weather (droughts, floods, late or early springs)

25- & 50-year flood levels

Some diseases

Zone 5/Fifth Ring – Lifetime/Eventual/Possible Occurrences

A lot of these are going to affect not just a region, not just one nation, but many. In some nations and regions, they may fall under the fourth ring of prevalence instead of the fifth. Some of these are also the big-fear “gotcha’s” or clickbait types that seem to draw folks in. Some are truly believed in, and I try not to judge people on what they believe. Poles have shifted in the past, Yellowstone has erupted, we’ve had serious solar effects on power, and asteroids have struck our earth. Will they happen again in our lifetime or eventually? Some almost certainly. Some are a firm “maybe”. Some are … possible.

Great Depression

Devastating Midwest seismic activity

National or global pandemics in the Western world

Major Ring of Fire activity

Significant volcanic eruptions (the atmosphere-blocking ash type)

Major global climate change (for the hotter or colder)

EMP, devastating solar activity

Nation-crippling electronic-based virus(es)

Alternative Scale Systems

Like permacuture’s zoning, the business world can also give us some scale systems to apply. High-probability, high-reward, urgent-response items are given priority, while lower-chance and less-likely risks are tended to later. We can create the same for our preparedness.

Another way to look at the five rings would be to apply a timespan for event duration. Perhaps 3-7 days, then 3-6 weeks, 3 months, 6-12 months, and 18-months+.

Like using prevalence, using time spans creates a measurable scale that works off a “most likely” basis. Most of us, at some point inside 1-5 years, will have some sort of financial upheaval or power outage that makes the supplies in the first few rings useful.

Ensuring we have everything we need to cook, clean, stay warm (or cool), and pay bills for those periods will keep us more balanced in our preparedness, and make us better prepared for the things that are MOST likely to occur in our near future and our lifetimes.

Applying Prevalence Rings

It’s inarguable that if you’re ready for the New World Order to freeze the planet and then send out FLIR drones to drop nuclear bombs in the midst of a planned or unplanned foreign-nation bank account hack while satellites are inaccessible due to solar storms’ interference, you’re pretty much good.

That’s not a particularly practical place to start and it might not be the best plan for resource allocation unless everything else really is covered.

There are a world’s worth of things that occur on a small-scale, inside homes and towns, that happen a lot more frequently than the dinosaurs and mega-mammals die out.

I see an awful lot of people hyped on one thing that can go wrong and might one day go wrong, but they exclude all kinds of things that do actually happen.

They forget that we sometimes have disasters that mean daily life is taking place all around us, or in the rest of the county, state, nation and world. They neglect fire extinguishers and smoke detectors for the sexy-cool aspects of preparedness like the rifles and Rambo knives.

Fact is, most of us will experience something from the first tier or two in our lives at least once, and for some of us, they’re regular parts of life.

In many cases of upheaval and crisis, we’re still going to want electricity, most likely.

We will still have a job or need to find a new one, will still be expected to present ourselves showered and with money to receive services, will still have doctor’s appointments, hunting and squatting in county-state-national parks will still be frowned on, and combat gear in the streets will still be the exception rather than the rule.

In some cases, the duration of our life-altering events might only be a few hours or days. However, in many parts of the world, those hours or days can be seriously inconvenient if not downright deadly. The ability to keep a CPAP machine running, repair a down or wrecked vehicle, and continue on with life after a squirrel invasion or a tree comes down is just as important as defending the home from looters and making beeswax candles.

Being able to repel the zombie horde does me little good if my vehicle is in poor repair on a daily basis and leaves me stranded on my way to work. 5K-10K rounds of ammo times my 7 platforms sounds nice, unless I don’t keep oil, coolant, jumper cables and fix-a-flat or a mini air compressor in my vehicle so I can limp my way home to them safely – on a daily basis.

Prioritizing instead of jumping willy-nilly – and tracking instead of continuing to add to whatever my favorite prep stash is – can help prevent daily disasters from truly causing upheaval.

Overlap Between Rings

The nice thing about seriously assessing what is likely to go wrong based on prevalence in the past is that we can sometimes make just little twitches.

We don’t have to be ready for all-out neighborhood wars over food, grazing rights, and tickets to the Earth Arks to create that overlap.

A bug-out bag serves as a shelter-in-place kit as well as a “standard” wildfire or hurricane evac kit. Having a month or two of food (or far more) means we can also weather a big bill because we can skip buying groceries.

Image: How’s your insurance coverage?

Preparing by Prevalence

Resources like the Ready.gov site and our insurance carriers can help us determine what goes wrong in our area. We might be well served making maps using the information they give us about regular, fifty-year and hundred-year floods, wind storms, and snow/hurricane routes to apply to our walk-out and drive-out plans.

We can also use their information – like, what is the number-one thing that causes job-loss or vehicle and home damage in our area – to make sure we’re buffered against it.

Pat’s preparedness arc and the article about a balanced wheel (especially the comments) may help even longtime preppers better assess where they stand, and focus or refocus on any gaps between normal daily life and the return of the Ice Age, Dust Bowl, total economic collapse, and other extreme events. They – and the standard FEMA/Red Cross recommendations for 3-7-10-14 days of supplies – can be excellent starting places for beginners.

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