EDM Friday Briefing: Typhoon Haima, San Francisco Bomb Scare, Phoenix Serial Killer

Emergency and disaster management briefing for October 21, 2016: Typhoon Haima heads for Hong Kong; San Francisco experiences a bomb threat scare; Phoenix police release 911 calls to help catch a serial killer; San Francisco police arrest two people in connection with a recent school shooting; firefighters work to contain an Alaskan wildfire; New York City police shoot a mentally ill woman; Common chemicals may be causing expensive health problems; and NASA flies ‘testing’ drones near a Nevada airport.

1. Hong Kong is bracing for the powerful [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-storm-hongkong-idUSKCN12L02F” title=”Typhoon Haima on Friday”], with its winds clocked at a destructive 85 mph. Public transportation routes in and out of Hong Kong were shut down while numerous businesses, schools, government building closed. According to the latest tracking models, Typhoon Haima will [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/20/asia/hong-kong-typhoon-haima/index.html” title=”skirt the Hong Kong coastline before making landfall”] in Guangdong province, China.
2. [link url=”http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/10/20/bomb-squad-responding-to-suspicious-incident-near-hall-of-justice/” title=”A bomb scare in San Francisco”] led to a freeway shutdown and snarled traffic for hours Thursday morning. Officials closed I-80 after the bomb squad was alerted of a suspicious incident near the city’s Hall of Justice. Police also initiated a ‘shelter-in-place order’ and evacuations from near the parking lot in which the suspect vehicle was located. Local TV news crews reported that there was a [link url=”http://abc7news.com/news/sf-bomb-threat-prompts-evacuations-heavy-traffic/1565035/” title=”note attached to the car stating that a bomb was inside.”] After three hours, bomb squad officials gave the all-clear, indicating the bomb threat was a hoax.
   

   Note attached to the car saying bomb inside. pic.twitter.com/8kKIUg7kzf

   — Vic Lee (@vicleeabc7) October 20, 2016

3. The Phoenix serial killer who has shot and killed seven people and wounded two others is still at large, prompting [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/20/asia/hong-kong-typhoon-haima/index.html” title=”the city’s police department to release recorded 911 calls”] related to the attacks. Officials stated that they’d received more than 3,000 tips since the shooting spree began in March, but those tips have decreased in recent months. In [link url=”http://www.12news.com/news/local/valley/chilling-911-audio-captures-panic-after-serial-street-shootings/338561654″ title=”one of the chilling recordings,”] a female caller is heard screaming for help, telling the 911 operator that her brother was shot and bleeding near their home. Police hope that the recordings may prompt more witnesses to come forward.
4. Police in San Francisco [link url=”http://abc7news.com/news/sfpd-arrests-two-suspects-in-connection-to-school-shooting/1565452/” title=”arrested two suspects in connection”] with the high school shooting that took place on Tuesday afternoon. Three students were injured in the shooting, one critically. Police have not yet named the two people they have in custody, nor did they offer any [link url=”http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/10/20/two-arrested-in-san-francisco-school-shooting/” title=”information on the other two suspects”] still at large in the area.
5. The Alaska Division of Forestry reported that a [link url=”http://www.youralaskalink.com/news/moose-creek-fire-containment-increases/article_fe101380-9657-11e6-8e97-5326dc653fd5.html” title=”wildfire that has been burning since Oct. 15″] is about 70 percent contained. An estimated 300 acres of Moose Creek – approximately 12 miles north of Palmer, Alaska – have burned so far, according to officials. Eighty personnel are currently fighting the fire with hopes of fully containing it by Sunday. Hampering their efforts is [link url=”https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/mat-su/2016/10/20/crews-fight-cold-to-help-contain-matanuska-valley-wildfire/” title=”persistent cold weather and frigid temperatures”] that have frozen pipes and forced firefighters to winterize their pumps.
6. New York City’s mayor and its police chief have each [link url=”http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NYC-66-Year-Old-Deborah-Danner-Shot-and-Killed-by-Police-in-Bronx-397561821.html” title=”condemned the shooting killing of mentally ill woman”] Deborah Danner in her Bronx apartment Tuesday. Mayor Bill de Blasio stated that previous 911 reports existed of Danner, who suffered from schizophrenia. Both Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Police Commissioner James O’Neill have promised extensive investigations into the death. Danner, who was 66, wrote a poignant essay in 2002 detailing her lifelong struggle with mental illness and documented that she felt that the police were [link url=”http://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-killed-nypd-written-problems-police-deal-mentally/story?id=42938210″ title=”ill-equipped to deal with the mentally ill.”]
7. [link url=”http://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(16)30275-3/fulltext” title=”The Lancet and Endocrinology”] reported that daily exposure to low levels of chemicals found in everyday objects like plastic water bottles, toys, cosmetics, and metal cans costs the United States billions of dollars in health care and disability expenditures. The so-called endocrine-disruptors found in these common commodities [link url=”http://www.voanews.com/a/everyday-chemicals-cost-us-billions-in-health-care-disability/3555700.html” title=”accrue an annual health-care bill of more than $340 billion”] – which is 2.3 percent of the gross domestic product. Scientists who conducted the study report that the endocrine-disrupting chemicals affect hormones in the body and – over time – can result in neurological and behavioral disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism in children, infertility in adults and also various cancers.
8. Earlier this week, NASA [link url=”http://www.recode.net/2016/10/20/13349610/nasa-drones-tests-air-traffic-control-systems-nevada-faa” title=”flew drones in Reno, NV”], and soon discovered that the drone’s pilots couldn’t spot them in the sky — which is illegal under the current federal drone rules. It was part of a NASA research project — in partnership with the FAA — to develop an unmanned air traffic control system. Experts believe this is a critical step before companies are cleared to deliver goods to people’s doorsteps via unmanned drones. NASA worked with [link url=”http://mynews4.com/news/local/nasa-unr-test-flying-drones-out-of-sight-for-first-time” title=”the University of Nevada, Reno”] for this week’s drone flights and they hope that drone regulations will soon encompass ‘out-of-sight’ flying.