Tag Archives: Death

Tropical Storm Erika Death Toll Climbs

The death toll from Tropical Storm Erika has risen to 12.

Roosevelt Skerrit, the Prime Minister of Dominica, said on Twitter that 12 people are now confirmed dead on the tiny island nation and “the number may be higher.”

The path of the storm now has it tracking squarely over the state of Florida, although forecasters no longer believe the storm is going to reach hurricane status.  Florida officials are warning residents to prepare for the storm despite the weakened predictions.

“We’ve got concerns all across the state now because it’s going to be coming clear across the state,” Gov. Rick Scott told reporters.  He called the storm “a serious threat.”

Scott noted that it’s been years since Florida has experienced a hurricane or tropical storm of any significance in his call for people to prepare.

“Think of how many people have moved to our state and never even experienced a hurricane,” Scott told reporters.

The U.S. Coast Guard sent a warning to ports along South Florida to prepare.

“Mariners are reminded that there are no safe havens in these facilities and that ports are safest when the inventory of vessels is at a minimum,” a Coast Guard statement said. “All oceangoing commercial vessels and oceangoing barges greater than 500 gross tons should make plans for departing the port.”

Plague Claims Another Life

Another western U.S. resident is dead because of the plague.

Officials in Utah say an elderly woman has died after contracting the potentially fatal disease earlier this month.  They could not confirm how the woman was infected but speculated that she likely had contact with a dead animal or fleas.

Utah officials would not release the name of the woman or any demographic information other than she was “elderly.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says 11 plague cases have been found this year in the U.S. and three patients have died.

“It is unclear why the number of cases in 2015 is higher than usual,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated in a brief update.

The average number of cases per year is between 5 and 6.

“Health care providers should consider the diagnosis of plague in any patient with compatible signs or symptoms, residence or travel in the western United States, and recent proximity to rodent habitats or direct contact with rodents or ill domestic animals,” the CDC says in its report.

“In humans, plague is characterized by the sudden onset of fever and malaise, which can be accompanied by abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting.”

British Born ISIS Hacker and Recruiter Killed in Drone Strike

A British citizen who intelligence officials say was a head of terrorist group ISIS’ cyberwarfare division has been killed in a U.S. drone strike.

Juaniad Hussain, also called Abu Hussain al-Britani, died in an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria.  U.S. officials say they have a “high level of confidence” that Hussain is dead.

Hussain has been confirmed as the target of the attack as he moved in a convoy.  The strike was part of a 48 hour campaign aimed at the terrorist’s power structure in their self-proclaimed capital.

“This is a great intelligence success,” one U.S. official told CNN.

Cybersecurity experts say that while Hussain was more of a nuisance than serious hacker, he was especially dangerous in recruiting hackers and others to join the terrorist group.

“He wasn’t a serious threat. He was most likely a nuisance hacker,” Adam Meyers, vice president of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, told the London Independent.   “It was his involvement in recruitment, communications and other ancillary support that would have made him a target.”

Hussain had spent six months in prison for hacking the personal address book of British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2012.  He left for Syria soon after the sentence.

Typhoon Goni Hammers Japan

Typhoon Goni has slammed into Japan with wind gusts topping 112 m.p.h. and has left as many as 26 people dead and over 100 injured.

Officials in Japan urged more than 600,000 people to flee their homes and to seek shelter.

The storm made landfall around 6 a.m. in Kumamoto prefecture.  The storm then crossed over one of the country’s four main islands before heading into the sea of Japan and striking North and South Korea.

The storm essentially paralyzed the country, with air and rail service suspended during the course of the storm.  Over 470,000 homes were without power at one point during the storm’s crossing of the nation.

Officials say at least one man is confirmed missing and presumed dead in a landslide caused by the torrential rain.  The city of Hiroshima ordered the evacuation of 70,000 because of potential landslides.

The storm had previously left 26 dead in the Philippines with 15 still reported as missing.  Thousands of homes were destroyed and hundreds of thousands have been left with no shelter because of storm damage.

The typhoon is beginning to break up as the eye has collapsed but heavy rain is still pouring into North and South Korea.  North Korean officials say that at least 40 people have died because of storm related flooding and over 1,000 homes have been damaged.

Second Yosemite Tourist Infected with Plague

The second tourist within a month to Yosemite National Park has been found to have contracted the plague.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed Tuesday a “presumptive positive” for plague in a patient who visited Yosemite and the Sierra National Forest in August.  The Centers for Disease Control is now testing the patient, who’s demographic information is not being released to the press.

In late July, a child from Los Angeles County became infected with the plague after camping with their family at Crane Flat Campground in Yosemite National Park.  The child is still hospitalized but recovering from the infection.

“Although the presence of plague has been confirmed in wild rodents over the past two weeks at Crane Flat and Tuolumne Meadows campgrounds in Yosemite, the risk to human health remains low,” the state Department of Public Health said in a statement. “Action to protect human and wildlife health by closing and treating campgrounds was taken out of an abundance of caution.”

Health officials say that campers should never feed squirrels and other small animals.  They also said for campers to avoid making camp near rodent burrows and to wear long pants and use bug repellant to keep the fleas that carry the disease at bay.

The plague has killed two people so far this year in Colorado.  The Centers for Disease Control says there is an average of seven human plague cases per year in the United States.

Syrian Government Bombs Civilians in Douma

The Syrian government has killed over 100 civilians in a series of airstrikes on a marketplace and other buildings in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

Syrian warplanes attacked the suburb Sunday and Monday with Sunday’s initial attack on a market killing over 80 civilians including women and children.

“In some places there was not enough capabilities to transfer the victims. It was very painful to see dead human bodies just left on the sidewalk,” said Abdullah al-Shami, a media activist, told CNN. “Scores of injured were bleeding while waiting their turn to get treatment.”

“It was really difficult to identify the bodies of the martyrs. Some of them were burned to the bone, so we couldn’t add them to the documented list,” said a 28-year-old spokesman of the Syrian Civil Defense Force, who declined to give his real name to Reuters for security reasons.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Syrian troops waited after the initial attack for rescue personnel to arrive on the scenes of the bombings and then struck the same areas with a second volley.

The United Nations issued a swift condemnation of the attacks, saying that the “attacks on civilians are unlawful, unacceptable and must stop”.

The White House also issued a strong condemnation of the actions of the Syrian government.

“This latest tragedy is just another reminder of the inhumane acts perpetrated daily by the Asad regime against the Syrian people,” National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.  “The regime is responsible for killing thousands of innocent Syrian civilians and destroying entire towns and cities, historical sites, schools, mosques, markets, and hospitals.  These abhorrent actions underscore that the Asad regime has lost legitimacy and that the international community must do more to enable a genuine political transition.”

(Misspellings of the Syrian regime listed in the quote above were done purposefully, as that is how the White House spells the regime’s name.)

Bangkok Bomber Caught on Video

Investigators in the bombing of a shrine in Bangkok, Thailand say they have video showing the suspected bomber leaving the scene of the attack.

The bombing has left 22 people dead and more than 120 injured.  Officials said the death toll is hard to maintain because many of the bodies were dismembered in the blast.

Police say a man in a yellow shirt was shown on video approaching the area with a black backpack that is not shown when he leaves the area.

“It is quite clear that he is the perpetrator in this case,” said Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri, a spokesman for the Thai national police.

“There are individuals or a group of people in our country who have ill will to the country,” he said. “This is a movement that probably wishes for political gain, and to destroy the economy, destroy tourism, among other things.”

Gen. Prawut said it was obvious from the bomber’s mannerisms that he was a professional.

The bombing site was a major intersection between the shrine and a large shopping mall.  The blast was so powerful that blood was found on the second story of the shopping mall.

Military Troops Brought in to Fight Western Wildfires

With over 100 wildfires burning in Western states, the U.S. military is now training troops to join the fight against them and provide relief to some of the 25,000 firefighters on scene.

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that 200 active duty troops will be split into 10 units of 20 men and all deployed to the same fire.  The move marks the first time that active duty military has been called out to fight domestic fires.  The troops will come from 17th Field Artillery Brigade of the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington.

National Guard troops have already been on the scene at several fires to help firefighters.

Officials in Idaho reported that an elderly woman died and 50 homes were destroyed in a cluster of fires along the Clearwater River.  The “Clearwater Complex” fire has burned more than 50,000 acres of timber & brush.

A spokesman for Clearwater fire command said that they are facing significant shortages and have had requests for reinforcements for ground forces and aircraft returned “UTF” or “unable to fill.”

Currently fourteen major wildfires are impacting Idaho.  Oregon and Washington have more than 30 large fires and have totaled the highest property losses from the flames.

At least 32 homes were destroyed in fires burning in north-central Washington near the resort town of Chelan.

Ten Killed in Ukrainian Violence

Ten people are dead in eastern Ukraine after pro-Russian rebels opened fire on government forces and buildings.

The attacks by the Russian proxies killed two Ukrainian soldiers and eight civilians.

“We really strongly condemn this escalation of fighting and we call all sides to cease it and to observe the ceasefire,” European Commission spokeswoman Catherine Ray told journalists in Brussels.

Ukrainian military officials say that pro-Russian forces are continually violating the cease-fire agreed to in the Minsk II accord.

“This war looks like a war of attrition,” Gen. Viktor Muzhenko, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s Russia’s intent to demoralize our forces, and using that mechanism they want to influence Ukraine’s military leadership as well as the state leadership.”

The United Nations says the conflict in Ukraine has killed over 6,000 people since April 2014.  At least 1.4 million people have been forced to leave their homes.

Rain Could Release Cyanide into Air after Tianjin Explosion

Environmental officials are warning the deaths from the explosion at the port of Tianjin may not end with the dousing of the fires that are still burning.

There are now fears that rain could release poisonous hydrogen cyanide into the air in the event of a heavy rain.  Also, more explosions could be possible as many of the chemicals still at the site violently explode when they come into contact with water.

“If there is rain, it will produce hydrogen cyanide, so we are monitoring it closely,” Bao Jingling, chief engineer for the Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau told NBC News.  He added the nation’s anti-chemical warfare military divisions are on site.

Scientists also have admitted that they have found sodium cyanide in the waters of Bohai Bay.  Local officials say that they learned over 700 tons of sodium cyanide was stored at the site, 70 times the legal limit and that the chemicals had not been reported to Chinese customs officials.

The government has cleared a 1.8 mile area of the city with over 6,000 families forced from their homes.

The death toll from the blast has officially reached 114 and local rescuers say at least 90 people are still reported missing including many firefighters.  One firefighter told the NY Times that he doesn’t know the fate of 25 men from his brigade and “no one told [his crew] the fire involved chemicals.”

Some fire experts are speculating that the water from the hoses of the fire crews came into contact with explosive chemicals, causing the massive second explosion that had the force of 21 tons of TNT.

A 40-year-old man was found alive in the debris on Saturday and is hospitalized.  Thousands are now homeless because of the fire’s impact on surrounding buildings.

The city’s residents have taken to the streets to demand the government buy out their homes so they can begin a new life.  They say the toxins from the explosion are likely much worse than the government will admit.