EDM Thursday Briefing: Missing EgyptAir Flight, Ecuador Earthquakes, Mount St. Helens Eruption Anniversary

Emergency and disaster management briefing for May 19, 2016: EgyptAir Flight 804 vanishes from radar on its way from Paris to Cairo, two more earthquakes strike Ecuador, yesterday marks the 36-year anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption, the UNISDR announces the debut of World Tsunami Awareness Day, and limited progress is made in the quest for Zika funds.

1. EgyptAir Flight 804 [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egyptair-airplane-idUSKCN0YA08W” title=”vanished from radar“] en route to Cairo early this morning. The flight from Paris to Cairo was carrying 66 passengers and crew when it disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean. The flight left Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:09 p.m. Wednesday and was set to arrive in Cairo at approximately 3:15 a.m. EgyptAir reported that the [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/middleeast/egyptair-flight-disappears/index.html” title=”last contact with the plane as 173 miles from the Egyptian coast“] when the plane was flying at an elevation of approximately 37,000 feet.
2. [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-quake-idUSKCN0Y90TG” title=”Two more earthquakes struck Ecuador yesterday,“] one registering at magnitude 6.7 and a second at magnitude 6.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), leading to at least one death and a dozen injuries. Yesterday’s quakes come about a month after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit the nation, killing at least 650 people. The April 16 magnitude-7.8 quake also injured more than 6,000 people, made nearly 29,000 homeless, and [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-quake-idUSKCN0Y90TG” title=”caused an estimated $2 billion in damage.“]

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3. Exactly 36 years ago yesterday, May 18, 1980, [link url=”https://amuedge.com/looking-back-at-the-mount-st-helens-eruption-36-years-later/” title=”a magnitude-5.1 earthquake struck Washington State.“] The quake occurred just seconds before the explosion which began the eruption of Mount St. Helens volcano. The Mount St. Helens eruption resulted in [link url=”https://amuedge.com/looking-back-at-the-mount-st-helens-eruption-36-years-later/” title=”57 deaths, an estimated $1 billion damages,“] and obliterated 396 meters off the top of the peak. Before the eruption, Mount St. Helens stood at 9,677 feet; after the eruption, the peak measured 8,363 ft.

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4. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) announced that [link url=”https://amuedge.com/first-ever-world-tsunami-awareness-day-set-to-debut-in-november/” title=”World Tsunami Awareness Day will debut this November.“] According to the UNISDR, the inaugural World Tsunami Awareness Day will focus on two main topics: [link url=”https://amuedge.com/first-ever-world-tsunami-awareness-day-set-to-debut-in-november/” title=”education and evacuation.“] Over the past century, a total of 58 tsunamis have resulted in about 260,000 deaths worldwide.

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5. The Senate voted to advance [link url=”http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/us/zika-senate-vote-emergency-funding.html” title=”$1.1 billion in emergency Zika funding“] that can be used to combat the mosquito-borne virus in the U.S. The $1.1 billion agreement is less than the $1.9 billion originally requested by the White House in February. The House also passed Zika funding later in the day yesterday, but the agreement calls for just [link url=”http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/18/house-passes-fraction-zika-funding-white-house-requested/84573720/” title=”roughly a third of the original $1.9 billion request.“] The House bill would provide $622 million to combat the virus. The ongoing differences of opinion in Congress make [link url=”http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/zika-house-senate/483225/” title=”the exact future of Zika funding uncertain“] at this point.

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6. The World Health Organization (WHO) now [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/health/zika-virus-low-moderate-risk-in-europe-by-summer/” title=”expects Zika to reach Europe by late spring.“] The WHO recently published its first risk assessment of Zika virus transmission in Europe, and identified [link url=”http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/health/zika-virus-low-moderate-risk-in-europe-by-summer/” title=”the island of Madeira northeast regions of the Black Sea“] as having the highest risk on the continent. Additionally, the WHO determined 18 more European countries that have a moderate likelihood of an outbreak, including France, Italy, Malta, Croatia, Israel, and Spain.

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7. Two Chinese military aircraft [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-south-china-sea-idUSKCN0Y92ZA” title=”intercepted a U.S. military reconnaissance plane over the South China.“] The two Chinese fighter jets reportedly [link url=”http://www.nbcnews.com/news/china/chinese-intercept-u-s-military-spy-plane-over-south-china-n576351″ title=”flew about 50 feet from the U.S. aircraft,“] while the U.S. jet flew a “routine patrol” in international airspace. China and the U.S. have traded [link url=”http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-south-china-sea-idUSKCN0Y92ZA” title=”conflicting complaints in recent months“] about the militarization of the South China Sea. The incident is under investigation by U.S. Pacific Command.
8. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently [link url=”http://www.enewscourier.com/news/local_news/fema-releases-assistance-totals-related-to-tornadoes/article_a9f38106-195c-11e6-b38e-c7b3aa38d065.html” title=”released assistance totals“] from a series of tornadoes that devastated the Southeast in 2011. According to FEMA, assistance to residents in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee [link url=”http://www.enewscourier.com/news/local_news/fema-releases-assistance-totals-related-to-tornadoes/article_a9f38106-195c-11e6-b38e-c7b3aa38d065.html” title=”totaled more than $504 million,“] and Alabama residents and communities alone received more than $361 million in aid.

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