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smdisasterrelief · 4 years ago

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Is Your Home in a Flood-Prone Area? Here are Some Tips to Prepare

While the weather forecast does not specifically predict where storms might strike, weather officials are still urging all Floridian residents to prepare early than expected for any tropical storm or hurricane. Eventually, every hurricane or storm comes with heavy rainfall and subsequently mass flooding which can cause evacuations and heavy property damage.

ServiceMaster Restore by PWF has been serving Floridian residents for 30 years, and long has been trusted when it comes to disaster restoration services. ServiceMaster shares some unique tips in preparation for a flood.

Pre-Season Preparation Stage

Make a Program and Research in Advance

Most Floridians survive hurricane flooding by having an anti-hurricane program which includes flooding. Preparation is the key to any natural disaster. Research in advance whether your area is prone to flooding through Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) online flood maps, showing risk levels and locations in specific geographic areas, or calling your county planning division to get an assessment of flood risk areas.

Next, talk to your neighbors for they are more knowledgeable with flood experiences in the area, interview them about how high was the last time it flooded and get some tips what they had done. Moreover, it is advisable to make a list of a questionnaire in detail, so you can make an early preparation with good judgment in advance. Advanced know-how helps a lot in making emergency preparation and most of all, it will give you more confidence and strong courage to overcome flooding situations.

Organize Anti-Flood Setup inside the House.

Organizing in an anti-flood setup the insides of your house may cost some budget adjustments, but it’s worth a risk for some. Elevating electrical components like switches, electrical sockets, and wiring at least 12 inches above the predicted flood levels is a safe option. In this way, it would reduce the damage, hazard, and dangers during the recovery period.

Cleaning Up Drainage System

Do an early clean-up of your draining system. Water and sewage systems are particularly prone to flood damage where debris, leaves of trees, and other sorts of obstructions that can hinder the flow of water should be cleaned up and removed.

Waterproof Your Basement

This is advisable especially for frequently flooded areas, even though it may require a large amount of budget but it’s worth it in the long run. Prevention against hazards and safety of your property and your family is a top priority.

Make Plan for Evacuation Route

Create a Plan B, in the worst scenario, you would know what to do next. Knowing all routes within your geographic vicinity with the know-how to navigate could save your life and your family. Train your family members as to what to do (avoiding panic) during flooding, the meeting place, and how to survive the high waters.

Get a Flood Insurance.

For flood-prone area homeowners, it is advisable to get flood insurance in advance. The National Flood Insurance Program can provide a list of flood insurance companies, which is, by the way, has a separate coverage compared to a regular homeowner’s insurance, or you can visit Floodsmart.gov to get an estimate of the pricing for flood insurance for your geographic location/address.

Before the Hurricane Stage

Always on Alert

Do what the Floridians do, ‘always staying alert’, keeping watch of Hurricane News (local news channel), and staying updated with the latest news especially the flooding (should be taken seriously).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issues a Flood Watch when the flooding conditions are right. By then, is the perfect time to protect your furniture, appliances, and important items on the insides of your house. A Flood Warning means that a flood is happening now or going to take place soon.

Move-Up/Elevate Furniture and Appliances

Once a Flood Watch occurs, immediately move furniture, appliances, valuables, and important documents (Passports, birth certificates, Property and assets documents(deed/lease to home), proof of address, insurance policies, and Journal/Diary (Family /Emergency information) to a safe place. Keep in mind to stay focus, do not panic. Prioritize first your family’s safety and then your property assets. If the flood is likely to occur sooner than expected, forget your house and head to higher ground as planned.

During the Storm Stage

Safely stay inside your house, and stay away from windows and doors. Move up your family to higher ground, or if you have a second-floor house for their safety. Closely monitor the NOAA radio for the latest flood updates. Follow the instructions of local authorities like avoiding contact with floodwaters especially for children and wait until normalcy has been restored. After the Storm Stage

Closely contact your family, friends, relatives, and neighbors about their status and yours. Advisable to send text messages which can be faster than a phone call. Even though the rain may stop, keep listening to local news while staying alert always for extended rainfalls and flooding. If there is a need to evacuate, make ready your plan for evacuation. It is advisable to follow the local authorities’ instructions rather than staying in your house. Make sure it is safe outside, check if the storm has really gone. Document all the damages on your property by taking videos and pictures for personal and insurance use.

Summary:

Flood preparation solutions through the four stages of a hurricane pre-season stage- program with advance research; before the storm: staying alert; during the storm: staying inside/monitor/follow authorities; and after the storm: document aftermath.

For any flood restoration services call ServiceMaster by PWF, specializing when it comes to water and storm damages on your home or business when restoring it. Water Damage Emergency can be traumatic, we understand that. Our goal is to get your life back to normal as quickly as possible.

You can contact our service offices at St Petersburg and other parts of Northeast Florida, our technicians will be happy to answer for your flood damage remediation, water damage restoration services, fire damage repairs in Pinellas, mold remediation, cleaning services, and sewage cleaning in Duvall, Clay and St.Johns. For other details, please visit our website @ https://www.servicemasterbypwf.com/.

#FIRE DAMAGE RESTORATION GAINESVILLE #MOLD DAMAGE RESTORATION GAINESVILLE #RESTORATION COMPANY GAINESVILLE #STORM DAMAGE RESTORATION GAINESVILLE #WATER DAMAGE RESTORATION GAINESVILLE #WATER REMOVAL GAINESVILLE

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samanthasroberts · 6 years ago

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Thursday briefing: Hurricane Irma flattens Caribbean communities

Atlantics biggest ever storm brings death and devastation the great British beer rip-off and how the aristocracy has kept its vice-like grip on wealth and power

Top story: Mega-storm carves destructive path

Good morning – it’s Warren Murray with the news from near and far.

Hurricane Irma has left a trail of destruction through the Caribbean. The emergency is continuing and so is our live coverage. Tiny nation-states and territories such as Antigua and Barbuda have been among the worst affected thus far by the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.

There has been massive property destruction on the island of Barbuda, while St Martin and St Barthélemy have also been heavily battered. Multiple fatalities have been reported – at least six people died in the French part of St Martin, local officials said. In Puerto Rico 965,000 people were left without power and nearly 50,000 without water.

Play Video

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Hurricane Irma reaches the Caribbean – video report

Irma is heading towards the US mainland and authorities have warned it could strike southern Florida by Sunday afternoon. There are evacuation orders in Miami-Dade county. Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Hurricane Jose has also formed in the open Atlantic, and Hurricane Katia in the Gulf off the coast of Mexico. Jose posed no immediate threat to land at time of writing, according to forecasters, but Katia may threaten the coast of Mexico where officials have issued a hurricane watch.

‘See what happens’ – South Korea has commenced the full deployment of the controversial Thaad missile defence system amid protests, while China has held air warfare exercises off the Korean peninsula as tensions continue to simmer following the North’s nuclear test. The White House says Donald Trump is ready to invoke sanctions against any country that trades with Kim Jong-un’s regime if the UN security fails to take action. Trump said after a phone call with Xi Jinping, the president of China – North Korea’s biggest trading partner – that “we will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea”. Asked if he was considering military action against the North, Trump said: “Certainly that’s not our first choice, but we will see what happens.”

As if Asia wasn’t already tense enough, India’s army chief has warned of the potential for simultaneous war with China and Pakistan after his country was involved in a tense 10-week standoff over disputed Himalayan territory. General Bipin Rawat said that situation could still snowball into a conflict with China that Pakistan would be able to exploit. “We have to be prepared … warfare lies within the realm of reality,” Rawat said.

The Brexit leaks – Fallout continues after the Guardian’s exclusive revelations about government Brexit policy papers. This morning we are reporting on leaked documents that show the deep divide between the negotiating positions of the EU and Britain. According to these latest files, Brussels is soon to publish five combative position papers – including one that demands Britain solve the problem of the Irish border, and others setting out demands for protecting EU goods, companies and data. The leaks come a day after the Guardian obtained a draft memo setting out a hardline British position on post-Brexit EU migration that has been heavily criticised as “completely confused”, “economically illiterate” and “catastrophic” for industry – as well as causing deep alarm among EU citizens living and working in the UK.

‘Atrocity’ – Spain’s government is furious after the regional parliament in Catalonia voted to stage an independence referendum. Perennial separatist agitations came to a head in Barcelona when the ruling pro-sovereignty coalition pushed through legislation by 72 votes to 52 to hold the plebiscite on 1 October. Opposition lawmakers walked out of the chamber. Spain’s central government is going to the constitutional court seeking to have the parliament’s vote annulled, and public prosecutors are filing charges against the Catalan speaker for allowing it. Courts have previously banned moves towards Catalan independence as unconstitutional.

Surrey pint is UK’s dearest – London has lost its dubious mantle as the most expensive place to buy a beer. In affluent Surrey, where house prices are double the national average, a pint now costs £4.40, which is 20p more than you will pay in the capital. It is the first time this has happened since 1982. Fiona Stapley, editor of the Good Pub Guide 2018, said the ranking may be skewed slightly by the guide featuring so many smaller, local boozers – making London seem “cheaper” than it really is. London and Surrey are the only two areas officially in the guide’s rip-off category. Herefordshire and Yorkshire are the cheapest at £3.31 for a pint, followed closely by Shropshire.

Load of flannel – At the Guardian Morning Briefing, we are dedicated to tackling the big issues facing the world. Today’s conundrum crying out for some peer-reviewed science: how often to wash your pyjamas. There are actual people who do it every day (“neurotics”) and some who almost never (“mingers”). Professor Sally Bloomfield, from the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene, says the longer you leave it, the more your risk spreading your personal crop of bacteria and viruses to someone else or, errm, parts of your own body where they might be unwelcome. For most households, says Bloomfield, once a week should be adequate – though her own admission to sleeping in the nuddy may throw her credentials into some doubt.

Lunchtime read: Why the aristocracy are still in charge

While the majority of hereditary peers have been excluded from the House of Lords, the rich, landed and powerful have plenty of other ways to maintain their dominion, writes Chris Bryant.

Lord Grimthorpe and the Duke of Devonshire at Royal Ascot 2015. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse

The Labour MP indicts Britain’s aristocracy as historically motivated by “not a noble aspiration to serve the common weal but a desperate desire for self-advancement … They grasped wealth, corruptly carved out their niche at the pinnacle of society and held on to it with a vice-like grip”. Despite social changes, a third of Britain’s land still belongs to them, including some of the most prestigious and valuable real estate in the world. Tax breaks and other forms of official favour preserve their privilege, while British law keeps the full extent of their wealth hidden underground. They still live in castles on sprawling estates, and play with guns, horses and hounds – existing “wrapped in the old aura of entitlement, counting their blessings and hoping that nobody notices”.

Sport

Tennis fans in New York will once again miss out on a Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal encounter after Juan Martín del Potro downed the Swiss to reach the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows. Nadal, the world No1, took just an hour and 36 minutes to beat Andrey Rublev to book his place in the final four.

In the women’s draw, an American champion is guaranteed after all four semi-final spots were taken by home players – Madison Keys, Coco Vandeweghe, Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens – for the first time since 1981. The London 2012 bid team have defended themselves against any suggestion of corruption, insisting they are “as close to certain as possible” the right to host the Olympics in the capital was won cleanly. Manu Tuilagi’s prospects of an England comeback this autumn have suffered another blow after it emerged he is set to undergo knee surgery this week. And Jamie Vardy’s football academy is already bearing fruit with four of its first intake taken on by professional clubs.

Business

Asian stocks bounced back into the black overnight after Donald Trump threw his weight behind a plan to extend the US government’s debt ceiling. But some investors cautioned that it is only a temporary fix until December and could come back to haunt the markets later in the year.

The FTSE100 is expected to see a modest rise when it opens later. The pound is buying $1.304 and €1,093.

The papers

A mixed bag of fronts today, although many papers do feature Hurricane Irma as it carves across the Caribbean. The i has the daunting headline “May God protect us all” – there are millions of people at risk and mass evacuations are under way.

Guardian front page, 7 September 2017.

The FT splashes on disquiet among some of the UK’s biggest companies at perceived “strong-arm” tactics by Downing Street, which wants them to sign a letter praising the government’s approach to Brexit. The Telegraph leads with Brexit as well, saying Theresa May’s plans are “in disarray” as two of her most senior ministers “distanced themselves” from leaked immigration policies.

Those draft policies were leaked to us at the Guardian, and our front pagecontinues with more exclusive revelations about the UK’s and the EU’s conflicting positions on Brexit.

The Sun leads with the headline: “Wazza off the Razza” and says Wayne Rooney has vowed to cut back on his big nights out. The Times leads with “Crackdown on university pay” and says institutions will be fined if they fail to justify paying their vice-chancellors more than the prime minister. The Mail’s mainstory is that half of GPs want to close their patients list because surgeries are full. Lastly, the Mirror splashes with “School bans skirts” and says parents in Lewes are unhappy with the introduction of gender-neutral clothing.

If you would like to receive the Guardian Morning Briefing by email, bright and early every weekday, sign up here.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/thursday-briefing-hurricane-irma-flattens-caribbean-communities/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/02/09/thursday-briefing-hurricane-irma-flattens-caribbean-communities/

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allofbeercom · 6 years ago

Text

Thursday briefing: Hurricane Irma flattens Caribbean communities

Atlantics biggest ever storm brings death and devastation the great British beer rip-off and how the aristocracy has kept its vice-like grip on wealth and power

Top story: Mega-storm carves destructive path

Good morning – it’s Warren Murray with the news from near and far.

Play Video

1:10

Hurricane Irma reaches the Caribbean – video report

Lunchtime read: Why the aristocracy are still in charge

While the majority of hereditary peers have been excluded from the House of Lords, the rich, landed and powerful have plenty of other ways to maintain their dominion, writes Chris Bryant.

Lord Grimthorpe and the Duke of Devonshire at Royal Ascot 2015. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse

Sport

Business

The FTSE100 is expected to see a modest rise when it opens later. The pound is buying $1.304 and €1,093.

The papers

Guardian front page, 7 September 2017.

Those draft policies were leaked to us at the Guardian, and our front pagecontinues with more exclusive revelations about the UK’s and the EU’s conflicting positions on Brexit.

If you would like to receive the Guardian Morning Briefing by email, bright and early every weekday, sign up here.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/thursday-briefing-hurricane-irma-flattens-caribbean-communities/

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dinafbrownil · 5 years ago

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California Fires Illuminate Trauma And Resilience

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Dorothy Hammack had planned to wash her thick, dark hair in the kitchen sink Friday morning. She couldn’t yet shower, due to the incision on her breast from a biopsy a few days before. Her doctor had already called to let her know the results: She had breast cancer.

She was supposed to be researching treatment options and organizing doctor appointments. Instead, Hammack, 79, was standing in her pajamas in the parking lot of a makeshift evacuation center in Santa Rosa, the urban center of Sonoma County’s celebrated wine country. The Kincade Fire was blazing in the mountains above the home she shared in nearby Windsor with her fiancé, Aldo Lovati, 64. Winds predicted to be fast and furious were expected that evening, and the couple was among the 180,000 people who ultimately would be ordered to evacuate as the fire tore through the rugged terrain of northeastern Sonoma County and bore steadily southwest.

Much to Hammack’s dismay, her hair remained wrapped in a gray-and-black nightcap. There had been no time to wash it. She was upbeat, though, laughing at the stream of banter and jokes Lovati told to keep them distracted.

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By Saturday, hundreds of others would join them at the shelter set up by the Red Cross at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, in the southwestern corner of the city. Across the street, hundreds more evacuees got set up at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. Like Hammack, many of them came with ongoing health concerns and urgent medical needs made all more challenging by the chaos of evacuation.

Peggy Goebel, a nurse from Windsor, was helping oversee the medical operation, run largely by volunteers who had responded to calls from Goebel or their employers to lend their services. They provided basic care (like making sure Hammack’s incision was clean) and helped people fill prescriptions or get medical equipment such as walkers and wheelchairs. There were also licensed therapists trained to counsel people during disasters.

Winds in excess of 70 to 80 mph whipped through the region, bringing down trees and pushing the Kincade Fire toward the house of nurse Peggy Goebel, a Red Cross volunteer, as she helped oversee medical operations at an evacuation shelter in Santa Rosa. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester/KHN)

This is Goebel’s third year volunteering with the Red Cross, a relationship that began during another fire. Twenty-five hours into a shift with no foreseeable end, she still had enough spunk to organize newly arrived volunteer physicians from the local Sutter Health hospital and nursing students from Santa Rosa Junior College, where she teaches. As she showed them around, a fire blazed across the street from her home in Windsor. She didn’t know whether the house would be there when she got back. Her sister’s wasn’t when she returned after the 2017 Tubbs Fire, a massive wildfire that devastated Santa Rosa, killing 22 people and incinerating thousands of homes.

“It’s very traumatic. People just passed the anniversary of the 2017 fires, and they went through this big PTSD,” Goebel said. “Lots of people had issues.”

Two years ago, the situation was very different. In 2017, people arrived at the shelters in the middle of the night, startled awake by a fire that roared fast and unexpected from the forested hills north of town. They came without shoes, in their nightgowns, without medicines, money or important documents. “That was hard to deal with, trying to provide physical, emotional, medical support,” Goebel said.

This time around, people were calmer, because they had time to prepare. The scale of evacuations posed a challenge, but it was nothing like the last time, she said.

That let the medical personnel focus on the extreme needs of some people who ended up at the shelter. There was the frail elderly woman who was near death when she arrived — another volunteer called nearly two dozen convalescent facilities before finding one that could take the woman, ensuring she wouldn’t die in the shelter. And there was the elderly man with dementia who had been dropped off alone. Afraid he might wander away or otherwise hurt himself, fellow evacuees volunteered to look after him during the night.

A police officer brought an elderly woman with Parkinson’s disease after the people living with her decided they couldn’t take her with them during the evacuation. She was taken to a room at the shelter where the elder residents of an assisted living facility in Healdsburg were lined up in hospital beds, many accompanied by their caretakers.

The Red Cross volunteers always ask those caretakers to stay, said Goebel. Not everyone in need came with help, though. Among them were people with Alzheimer’s disease and a man with multiple sclerosis.

As she made her way between the veterans’ hall and the fairgrounds, Goebel said she was rejuvenated by how quickly people mobilized to help one another, and the resilience of her community after the last set of big fires.

Not only had the community pulled together, but it was much better prepared this time. The winds whipping through the region at 70 to 80 mph were stronger than they had been in 2017. But through mass evacuations and an all-hands-on-deck assault on the fire, authorities and firefighters so far have prevented the worst. As of Tuesday morning, there were no deaths and just a couple of injuries.

Patients in the hospitals across the county that had been evacuated were transferred to other facilities without incident. A doctor described the parade of newborns in their tiny beds, taken from Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit and transferred to hospitals farther south. As buses pulled away with patients, two people stood outside clutching a balloon reading, “Congratulations.”

Through mass evacuations and an all-hands-on-deck assault on the fire, authorities and firefighters so far have prevented the worst. As of Tuesday morning, there were no deaths and just a couple of injuries. (Anna Maria Barry-Jester/KHN)

On Saturday, the day after his arrival, Aldo Lovati walked across the same parking lot he had stood in the day before, wearing the same green long-sleeve shirt and gray sweatpants. Today, he was much quieter. It had been a rough night of little sleep in close quarters. He was mad at himself for being ungrateful — he desperately wanted to focus on the generosity of strangers, and how lucky they were to have food and shelter. But he was feeling tired, sad and frustrated. “I’ve lost my dignity in here; I just really feel that I’ve lost my dignity,” he said.

Lovati had struggled through some mental health issues that predate the fire. A breakdown a few years ago had taken a toll on family relationships, and it was all coming to the surface now that he was in need of help. “It’s gotten to me. I just want to go home,” he said.

Hammack wandered out to find him, her thick, dark hair fluttering in the wind, and the two held hands as they talked. She, too, was feeling more tired than the day before, and the news of her diagnosis was starting to set in. The incision from her biopsy hurt; she was supposed to put hot compresses and pressure on it and made do with unused sanitary pads she’d gotten at the makeshift Red Cross clinic. They began to laugh again, recounting how she’d pulled one out to give him when they couldn’t find a napkin at lunch.

Hammack said she was tired and wanted to go back in to lie down on a cot. Lovati agreed she should be lying down and asked why she had come out. “We’re a couple, right? We look out for one another,” she replied.

This KHN story first published on California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/california-fires-illuminate-trauma-and-resilience-emergency-shelters-health-care/

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zeroviraluniverse-blog · 7 years ago

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Trump criticises Florida shooting officer for 'poor job'

Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/trump-criticises-florida-shooting-officer-for-poor-job/

Trump criticises Florida shooting officer for 'poor job'

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media caption‘School sheriff didn’t have the courage’

An armed officer who stood outside a Florida school where a gunman killed 17 people last week “certainly did a poor job”, the US president has said.

Deputy Scot Peterson resigned after an investigation found he failed to confront the suspect.

President Trump said the officer trained his whole life but “certainly did a poor job” protecting students.

Mr Trump said Mr Peterson was a “coward” who “didn’t react properly under pressure”.

“He trained his who life but when it came time to do something he didn’t have the courage,” Mr Trump told reporters outside the White House on Friday. “He certainly did a poor job.”

What did the officer do?

His comments came a day after Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel revealed that Mr Peterson, the 54-year-old school resource officer, stood outside for four minutes while the alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz gunned down students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

He said video footage showed Mr Peterson arriving at the building where the shooting broke out about 90 seconds after the first shots were fired, and that he remained outside for about four minutes. The attack lasted six minutes, Sheriff Israel said.

“I am devastated. Sick to my stomach. He never went in [the school],” Sheriff Israel said.

Asked what Mr Peterson should have done, Sheriff Israel said: “Went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.”

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Students were evacuated in small groups after the 14 February shooting

Mr Peterson is yet to publicly comment on what happened. Officers are reportedly guarding his home.

Sheriff Israel said Mr Peterson had not given a reason for why he did not go into the building where the shooter was. It is unclear if he will face charges.

Sheriff Israel said he would not be releasing the video showing Mr Peterson and might never do so, “depending on the prosecution and criminal case” against the 19-year-old suspect accused of carrying out the shooting, former student Nikolas Cruz.

The gunman used a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, police say, and escaped the scene before being seen and arrested later.

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Media captionSeven things the NRA blames after Florida

Why was Deputy Peterson there?

School resource officers are sworn law enforcement officers who are responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools, although their exact roles differ from school to school and authority to authority.

Employed by the local police or sheriff’s office, they document incidents and can make arrests, as well as working on areas such as mentoring and education.

There are between 14,000 and 20,000 such officers in the US, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Mr Peterson had been in his position at the school since 2009, local media report.

The Sun-Sentinel newspaper said he had worked for the sheriff’s office since 1985 and office records showed his salary for 2016 was $75,673 (£54,137).

Were there any other failures?

Concerns have been raised about both the school’s video surveillance system and whether warnings about Nikolas Cruz were ignored.

It has been reported that the person watching the surveillance system was relaying information 20 minutes old to police, so officers believed the gunman was in a certain area when he was not.

It has also been reported that calls were made to local authorities in 2016 and 2017 expressing concern about Nikolas Cruz, including one saying he was planning to attack the school.

When will the school reopen?

Teachers will be allowed back in on Friday. Both students and teachers are invited to a reorientation on Sunday, ahead of classes resuming on Wednesday.

The three-storey building that was attacked is to be torn down.

Are teachers now going to be armed?

In recent days both President Trump and the NRA have spoken about this.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington on Thursday, Mr LaPierre reiterated that his group backed it.

Is it time for US teachers to carry guns?

He said the NRA would help any US school with their safety and security, free of charge, adding that “opportunists” pushing for more gun control “hate the NRA. They hate the second amendment. They hate individual freedom”.

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Media captionFlorida shooting: Why the NRA wields so much power

The second amendment in the US constitution protects the “right to keep and bear arms”.

America’s gun culture in 10 charts

Mr Trump floated the idea of arming teachers at a White House event on Wednesday where he heard from survivors of the Florida school shooting,

Discussing school safety with state and local officials on Thursday, he explained why he believed that it would work, saying: “Shooters won’t walk into a school if 20% of people have guns.”

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Media captionTeacher at Florida school where 17 people died says arming some teachers would be wrong

Mr Trump added: “What I’d recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus. We give them a little bit of a bonus.”

But Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers union, disagreed that arming teachers was a suitable solution.

“Anyone who wants guns in schools has no understanding of what goes on inside them – or worse, doesn’t care,” she said.

What other measures are being talked about?

Survivors of last week’s deadly shooting have called for stricter gun laws, prompting the nationwide activist movement #NeverAgain.

Those survivors are organising a rally against mass shootings in Washington planned for 24 March and are expecting up to 500,000 people, according to the Washington Post.

Sister rallies for “March for Our Lives” are also being planned in cities across the country.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionVictim’s father tells Trump of rage

Mr Trump has said he supports raising the age at which a person can buy a gun from 18 to 21 and insists the NRA would back such a proposal.

“I don’t think I’ll be going up against them,” Mr Trump said of the gun lobby. “They’re good people.”

Mr Trump also took to Twitter on Thursday to push for national background checks for the mentally ill, a policy which the NRA chief later echoed at the conference.

“Anyone adjudicated as mentally incompetent or dangerous to society should be prevented from getting a gun,” said Mr Trump.

The US president has also directed his administration to take steps to ban gun “bump stocks”.

The accessories – which enable a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute – were used by a gunman who killed 58 concert-goers in Las Vegas last October.

#criticises #Florida #job #officer #Poor #shooting #Trump #News #Random News

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andrewmawby · 7 years ago

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September 7, 2017 AsktheBuilder Emergency News

This is a RARE EMERGENCY alert message.

I did this a few years back with Hurricane Sandy that pummeled New Jersey and New York City back in late October, 2012.

Hurricane Irma LOOMS

This is really for folks who live NORTH of FL. If you're in Florida, you're about out of time and you may have already evacuated.

Here's what you need to know about the aftermath of Hurricane Irma:

Your local police and fire department will BE THERE TO HELP after the storm, but you're not their top priority. It's not because they don't care, it's just they have more valuable community assets they have to protect.

For example, think about fuel depots, grocery stores, hospitals, nursing homes, all energy infrastructure, etc. Anything that's important to get the community back up on its feet so the masses like you and me can get things are far more important than some house located at 4893 Vista View Drive.

Your home and all others in the community are at the BOTTOM of the pre-plan list fire departments maintain. Investing valuable first responder assets after natural disasters into one single home is not a wise thing to do. It works when just your home is on fire, but not when 10,000 houses in the community are destroyed.

Cold Truth

How many fire trucks are within fifty miles of your house? How many ambulances? Unless you live in a huge city like Chicago, Los Angeles or New York City, I'd venture to say less than 250 TOTAL.

How many houses are going to be damaged by the storm? Tens of thousands / hundreds of thousands?

Do you see why you can't count on first responders to come to your assistance?

Your neighbors and friends probably will NOT be able to help you. They'll have their own homes to contend with.

It's going to take MONTHS to get repairs done. The law of supply and demand is in play. There are only so many contractors and if 20,000 homeowners need work, many are going to wait. That'll be you.

You're going to have to make emergency repairs to protect your home from more weather after the storm.

You need to TAKE ACTION NOW to protect VALUABLE things. Get sentimental items that can't be replaced protected. Wrap in heavy garbage bags to keep them dry. Keep them up high somewhere.

How are you going to survive?? What about food and water? What about temporary shelter?

What about all your important papers? WHERE ARE THEY? Gather them up. They should have been scanned and put up in the cloud, but it's too late for that now.

TAKE PHOTOS NOW of everything you own to show the insurance company. Upload the photos to the CLOUD!!!! You could lose your cell phone in the storm.

Cover important furniture with plastic tarps or sheets to prevent water damage from roof leaks. This will only work in areas where the windows and doors won't be blown out by the storm.

Don't try to stick around if you're near the coast and you think you can win. The storm surge will kill you.

I could go on and on and on....

The biggest thing I want you to realize is it's up to YOU to protect yourself and to account for your survival. Don't count on any first responders. They'll be busy with MORE IMPORTANT community assets.

I wish you the best of luck if you're in harms way.....

Tim Carter Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com

Do It Right, Not Over!

Author's Note:

Within eight hours of sending out this emergency newsletter, I heard from Butch. Here's what he sent me:

Tim,

This is well written and very true. I’m a retired emergency management director from a Florida coastal county. Everything you said, I have already said to the people in my county. Thank you for putting this on your web site.

Butch Baker

from builders feed http://www.askthebuilder.com/september-7-2017-askthebuilder-emergency-news/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

newstfionline · 7 years ago

Text

More than 12 million without power in Florida as Hurricane Irma’s effects linger

By Joel Achenbach, Katie Zezima, Mark Berman and William Wan, Washington Post, September 11, 2017

MIAMI--As Hurricane Irma dissipated into a tropical storm on Monday, Florida’s residents emerged to streets littered with debris and downed trees while nearly two-thirds of the state was left without electricity.

The once-powerful storm left trailer homes sliced open like ripe melons, boats tossed upside down on roadways and centuries-old trees strewn across power lines. As it trailed off on Monday, Irma’s rains caused floodwaters to rise from Jacksonville, Fla., to Charleston, S.C., continuing to impact a massive area of the American southeast.

But it could have been much worse.

That was the grateful mantra on the lips of many on Monday, even as an estimated 12 million Floridians prepared for a dark night without air conditioning in the muggy post-storm swelter. Though there was significant property damage in the Florida Keys and in some parts of southwest Florida, officials said it was remarkable that so far they are investigating just a small number of fatalities that came as the storm made landfall. It was unclear how many were directly related to the storm.

The lack of electricity across most of South Florida was the most pressing and crippling problem. Millions could remain in the dark for days or even weeks as utility companies struggle to navigate impassable roads and floodwaters to slowly restore power.

But in the face of cataclysmic warnings and worries--including a mass exodus from Florida’s most-populous area--Irma largely spared many of the major cities predicted to be in its path. Some, including Tampa and Orlando, escaped relatively unscathed. Others, such as Jacksonville, experienced unlikely--and record-breaking--effects.

Waters in Jacksonville, in the state’s far northeast, sent residents scrambling to the top floors of their houses Monday morning. The St. Johns River, which cuts through the city, overflowed its banks, flooding bridges and streets.

Rescuers used boats, water scooters and even surfboards to get to residents surprised by the rising waters, said Kimberly Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Clay County emergency center. “You have to get creative in a situation like this,” she said.

Morgan said that evacuation shelters, which already held 700 people before Monday, we’re expected to fill up even more. “We don’t think we’re going to see the end of this until Friday,” she said.

Authorities warned that it was not yet safe for evacuated residents to return to their homes in many areas of Florida, the threat of floods still looming as rivers swell with rainwater and storm surges continue to send rising ocean waters into towns, especially in northern Florida. And state officials warned that another approaching storm, Hurricane Jose, is pushing still more water toward the northern part of the state.

Gov. Rick Scott (R) called the flooding in Jacksonville “historic”--officials said the city could end up with four feet of standing water--and he warned the many residents still stuck in the dark that “it’s going to take us a long time to get the power back up.”

Irma’s thrashing winds cut power to two-thirds of all power company customers in Florida, totaling more than 6.5 million customer accounts. Because each account often represents more than one person, the overall number may be historic, said Eric Silagy, president and chief executive of Florida Power and Light (FPL), the state’s largest utility, which supplies power to about half of Florida. Silagy said Monday that as many as 9 million people were affected by his company’s outages.

Shawna Berger, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, said 1.2 million of its 1.8 million customers were without power in Florida and noted that if you multiply that number by 2.5--per the latest census data, she said--that shows that 3 million people were affected.

“We’ve never had that many outages,” Silagy said. “I don’t think any utility in the country has.”

The outages pose a particular issue in Florida, where temperatures in Miami and Tampa are forecast to get into the 90s this week. Silagy warned that some people “could be out of power for weeks,” particularly if crews need to rebuild parts of the sprawling electrical system. The utility has sent out 19,500 workers across Florida to restore power and is trying to secure more crews from out of state.

Because of the storm’s size, FPL crews were not able to start restoration efforts until late Sunday night, Silagy said. And they are still not able to move across northern Florida, he said, with debris and flooding impeding their way.

The blackouts extended to surrounding states, with more than 146,000 power outages in South Carolina and outages trending upward in Georgia on Monday night as the remnants of Irma passed through.

As a testament to Florida’s fortune, Caribbean countries preceding it on Irma’s path continued to struggle to recover Monday long after the storm had passed. In Cuba, the hurricane’s scissoring winds and strafing rain had torn apart buildings and roofs and sent flooding along the northern coast. The storm ravaged the Virgin Islands, devastated Barbuda and pummeled other islands on its path.

Irma is expected to keep losing force as it continues inland, and forecasters say it should be a tropical depression by Tuesday afternoon. But the storm maintained its remarkable reach, with tropical-storm-force winds reaching more than 400 miles.

As the storm moved inland Monday, it continued pouring torrential rain onto Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama, where President Trump declared a state of emergency on Monday night.

In Atlanta, Delta Air Lines canceled about 800 flights from its hub operations Monday in anticipation of “strong crosswinds,” which could reverberate through the air travel system nationwide. Thousands of flights already have been halted due to the storm. Atlanta, hundreds of miles from any coast and more than 600 miles north of the place where Irma first hit the mainland, was placed under its first tropical-storm warning.

As the skies began to clear, hordes of evacuees inland began making plans to return home--a mass migration that had Florida officials pleading for patience and more time.

Nearly 6 million people were told to evacuate ahead of Irma, in what is believed to be the largest evacuation in American history.

Many roads remained blocked by heavy trees, authorities warned. Fuel also was a concern, with some seaports closed and tanker trucks unable to refuel gas stations along the homeward path of many residents.

“Wait for direction from local officials before returning to evacuated areas,” Scott told evacuees in a tweet.

Driving in many cities remained extremely hazardous--an exercise in vigilance due to downed trees and the ubiquitous palm fronds that lurked in wait like alligators on the street. In Miami, some residents expressed frustration about the evacuations, which in many cases ultimately weren’t necessary.

“Everyone got stirred up, and they were told to leave,” said Sara Edelman, 29, a biologist walking along 104th Street with her mother, Philis Edelman, 60, an officer worker. “And now there’s no one to clean the trees up.”

Dan Zumpano, 44, who lives nearby, said he believes authorities began evacuations “way too early” in an abundance of caution, driving people from places that ultimately weren’t seriously impacted by the storm into areas that were: “I thought it was the right thing to do, but I think they sent a lot of people right into the core of the hurricane.”

That was a familiar story: People who evacuated from Miami to Tampa. And then, in some cases, from Tampa to Orlando. The storm followed many of them the entire time. “Every day you saw the models changing,” Zumpano said.

But all along Miami’s streets, signs also remained of the hurricane’s fury and the tragic possibilities that might have been.

Sailboats on Miami’s Coconut Grove marina were flipped over. Million-dollar yachts were half submerged in the bay. Once-idyllic parks looked like desolate war zones. Large trees toppled over, roots dangling in the air.

Resident Paul Plante came to the marina to check on his home and boat, which he had docked indoors. His boat was fine, and he and his sister looked in disbelief at the submerged boats in the bay that weren’t so lucky.

“You have to take nine different roads to get here now, but everything was okay,” he said. “The storm surge could have been so much worse. We’re lucky.”

#Hurricane Irma #Florida