AMU Emergency Management Public Safety

EDM Friday Briefing: Atlanta Winter Storm; Fighting Zika; Extreme Forest Fire Prediction

EDM Briefing for Jan 6, 2017: Atlanta winter storm warning, fighting the spread of Zika, extreme forest fires could follow dry year, police shootings in New York, funding for gun injuries lags behind, fire at oil platform in Gulf of Mexico, too many people and not enough beds in English hospitals.

    1. A warning goes into effect today for a winter storm that could dump up to 4 inches of snow on parts of metro Atlanta and North Georgia. Gov. Nathan Deal issued a state of emergency, which begins at noon Friday, as the metro area braces for the “biggest snow threat” in three years. The emergency order covers 79 Georgia counties, including all of metro Atlanta. The Georgia Emergency Management Agency warned residents Thursday to prepare to stay at home for at least three days.

    1. Experts warn that health workers have a thinning arsenal of insecticides capable of killing mosquitoes that carry Zika and similar viruses. Eliminating disease-carrying mosquitoes is a niche business with costly barriers to entry. Developing a new chemical insecticide and securing regulatory approvals can cost more than $250 million and take nearly a decade. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is now recommending a new pilot technique to control diseases transmitted by mosquitoes by making use of nature. Researchers at Monash University in Australia have discovered that mosquitoes artificially infected with a bacterium called Wolbachia do not transmit dengue, chikungunya and Zika as easily.[relink url=”http://edmdigest.com/response/emergency-preparation-requires-prior-planning-and-logistics/” url2=”edmdigest.com/mitigation/mitigation-and-cities-in-decline/”]
    2. Another dry year for Canada’s Northwest Territories could mean a severe forest fire season in 2017. Preliminary data for 2016 shows a fourth straight year of below-average precipitation alongside higher-than-normal fall temperatures. Combined, those conditions have led to low levels of snow across much of the territory. When these limited snowpacks persist into the late winter and early spring season, this can often be the precursor to severe forest fires.
    3. Police officers shot a man three times in the leg as he drew a handgun, while responding to a call about gunfire on Staten Island early Thursday morning. When the man was taken into custody, the officers discovered that he was wearing a ballistics vest, which had absorbed another bullet. It was the third time in less than 36 hours that police officers had shot someone in the city. The police said the two other men, who were killed in separate shootings in Brooklyn, had also brandished weapons.
    4. Every year in the U.S., more than 30,000 people die from gun related activity, putting guns ahead of HIV, Parkinson’s disease, malnutrition, hypertension, intestinal infection, peptic ulcer, anemia, viral hepatitis, biliary tract disease, atherosclerosis and fires. Yet, the funding for research on gun violence lags far behind other leading causes of death, according to a new study which says gun violence should be treated as a public health crisis.[relink url=”https://amuedge.com/winter-operations-part-ii-equipment-adjustments/” url2=”https://amuedge.com/advantages-of-using-response-times-as-a-metric/”]
    5. A fire broke out on an oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico early yesterday, forcing four workers to evacuate by lifeboat before the blaze was extinguished. There were no injuries and inspectors found no sign of pollution, authorities said. The company that owns the platform, Renaissance Offshore LLC, has suspended oil production on it and a second platform it owns, the statement said, adding that 17 oil wells associated with the two platforms were similarly “shut in” before the workers were evacuated. Company and government inspectors confirmed that no oil is leaking into the water from either the platform or the wells.

https://twitter.com/camboviet/status/817149277520744449

  1. A third of hospital trusts in England issued alerts warning they needed urgent action to cope with the pressure of patient numbers last month. In the most serious cases, the hospitals declared they were unable to give patients comprehensive care. Operations have been cancelled and patients have been left waiting on trolleys. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said patients in affected hospitals could face delays in receiving pain relief and antibiotics.

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