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Storm bears down on Florida, hurricane threatens Hawaii

Three storm systems are shown (L TO R) Tropical Depression Nine to the southeast of Florida, Tropical Depression Eight just off the coast of the Carolinas and Hurricane Gaston in the central Atlantic Ocean are shown in this GOES East satellite image captured August 29, 2016.

(Reuters) – Forecasters issued a tropical storm warning on Wednesday for the Florida Gulf Coast, where preparations were being made for life-threatening flooding and fierce winds, while residents of Hawaii’s Big Island were warned of an encroaching hurricane.

Some local governments in Florida have begun distributing sandbags as the unnamed tropical depression heads toward the state’s Gulf Coast where as much as 15 inches of rain could fall from Indian Pass on the panhandle along the Gulf of Mexico to north of Tampa, the National Hurricane Center said in an early morning advisory.

“Persons located within these areas should be prepared to take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water,” the center said.

The center also issued a hurricane watch for the coast, saying the system, which is currently packing 35 mph (55 kph) with higher gusts, is expected to strengthen as it heads east.

Flooding, storm surge, fierce winds and tornadoes were all threats to the region, which could begin feeling the storm late on Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a statement.

On its current path, the system could make landfall on Florida’s north-central Gulf Coast on Thursday, bringing storms into Georgia and the eastern Carolinas on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Florida raised the activation status of its State Emergency Operations Center on Tuesday to begin preparing.

Another unnamed tropical depression was turning out to sea on Wednesday after threatening the North Carolina coast, according to the hurricane center.

On Hawaii’s Big Island, residents were warned on Tuesday of an encroaching hurricane expected to bring strong winds and heavy rains.

The National Weather Service (NWS) tracked Hurricane Madeline swirling about 235 miles (380 km) east of the town of Hilo around 11 p.m. local time on Tuesday. The storm was forecast to “pass dangerously close” on Wednesday, prompting the NWS to issue a hurricane warning for the island.

Madeline was ranked as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph), the weather service said.

The County of Hawaii sent residents an alert about the hurricane’s dangers, including heavy rains that could lead to mudslides, as well as possibly damaging ocean swells.

“Preparations to protect life and property should be completed by nightfall today,” the alert said.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Richard

Health official warns Zika virus could spread across U.S. Gulf

The New York State Department of Health unveiled a Zika Prevention Kit for pregnant women during the rollout of a Zika Information hotline and

By Chris Prentice

(Reuters) – One of the top U.S. public health officials on Sunday warned that the mosquito-borne Zika virus could extend its reach across the U.S. Gulf Coast after officials last week confirmed it as active in the popular tourist destination of Miami Beach.

The possibility of transmission in Gulf States such as Louisiana and Texas will likely fuel concerns that the virus, which has been shown to cause the severe birth defect known as microcephaly, could spread across the continental United States, even though officials have played down such an outcome.

Concern has mounted since confirmation that Zika has expanded into a second region of the tourist hub of Miami-Dade County in Florida. Miami’s Wynwood arts neighborhood last month became the site of the first locally transmitted cases of Zika in the continental United States.

“It would not be surprising we would see additional cases perhaps in other Gulf Coast states,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the allergy and infectious diseases unit of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said in an interview on Sunday morning with ABC News.

Fauci noted that record flooding this month in Louisiana – which has killed at least 13 people and damaged some 60,000 homes damaged – has boosted the likelihood Zika will spread into that state.

“There’s going to be a lot of problems getting rid of standing water” that could stymie the mosquito control efforts that are the best way to control Zika’s spread, he said.

U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed 1,835 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

On Friday, Florida Governor Rick Scott confirmed that state health officials had identified five cases of Zika believed to be contracted in Miami Beach.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told pregnant women they should avoid the trendy area and suggested those especially worried about exposure might consider avoiding all of Miami-Dade County.

NIH’s Fauci on Sunday said the conditions of most of the country make it unlikely there would be a “diffuse, broad outbreak,” even though officials need to prepare for that possibility.

He compared it with diseases such as Dengue, which is endemic in certain tropical and subtropical regions of the world but rarely occurs in the continental United States. In Miami’s Wynwood area, experts have seen “substantial” knockdowns of mosquito populations.

Still, its containment is more complicated because Zika can be sexually transmitted, Fauci said.

“This is something that could hang around for a year or two,” he said.

The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Alan Crosby)

Florida is investigating apparent new case of locally transmitted Zika

Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks at a press conference about the Zika virus in Doral, Florida, U.S. on August 4, 2016.

By Julie Steenhuysen

(Reuters) – Florida health officials are investigating a new non-travel- related case of Zika virus in Palm Beach County, but it is not yet clear whether the person contracted the virus from local mosquitoes or from a recent trip to Miami.

Governor Rick Scott said in a statement on Monday that the infected person recently traveled to Miami-Dade County, which is experiencing an outbreak of Zika caused by local mosquito transmission. So far, 16 people have been infected in the Miami area. The Palm Beach case brings the state’s tally to 17.

An investigation was under way to determine how the person in Palm Beach County became infected.

The governor said the state still believed active transmission of the virus were confined to a one-square-mile (260-hectare) area in Miami-Dade County that includes Miami’s Wynwood district.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning pregnant women to avoid this area in Miami because Zika has been tied to birth defects, including microcephaly, which can case severe developmental problems.

With the school year approaching, Scott said he had ordered the department of health to work with the state’s department of education “to ensure students, parents, educators and district leaders have all the resources and guidance they need to combat the Zika virus.”

The continuing Zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil, where it has been linked to more than 1,700 cases of the microcephaly, and has since spread rapidly through the Americas. Its arrival in the continental United States has been widely anticipated.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Bernard Orr and Jonathan Oatis)

Florida woman killed in London was retired educator

Police officers stand near a forensics tent after a knife attack in Russell Square in London

(Reuters) – A Florida woman killed in a knife attack in London this week was a mother, a retired special education teacher and an avid tennis player, local and national media said on Friday.

Darlene Horton, 64, of Tallahassee died at the scene after a 19-year-old man with suspected mental health problems went on a rampage with a knife in central London’s Russell Square on Wednesday evening, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Five other people were injured in the attack, for which police said there was no evidence of a link to terrorism.

Horton was in London with her husband Rick Wagner, a psychology professor at Florida State University (FSU), the university said on Thursday.

“There are no words to express our heartache over this terrible tragedy,” FSU President John Thrasher said in the statement.

Horton worked as an educator for special-needs children for 30 years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Her friends described her to the Tallahassee Democrat as a dedicated teacher and pleasant personality.

“She is absolutely lovely. Just one of the nicest, sweetest family focused people who is very happy in her space and place,” neighbor Jane Marks said.

Horton loved spending time in London, where her husband taught each summer and her two grown daughters would regularly visit, a friend told the Wall Street Journal.

Horton’s neighbor Mary Alice Linzy told the newspaper that the couple enjoyed entertaining Florida State students and visiting London museums.

“I’m just devastated,” Linzy told the Journal. “She was one of the warmest and most beautiful people. This was somebody that I’ve never seen cross.”

Horton was also involved in the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Foundation and the local humane society, her friends told the Tallahassee Democrat.

Linzy told both papers that her friend was an avid tennis player. Horton and her husband were soon to return to Tallahassee, where her regular doubles match waited.

“I’m just going to miss her so much. She was an inspiration for me,” Linzy said to Tallahassee Democrat. “Every time I step on the tennis court now I’m going to be thinking of Darlene. I just cannot believe it.”

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Pregnant in Miami: Zika’s arrival adds new anxieties

Visitors walk through the Wynwood arts district of Miami

By Letitia Stein and Jilian Mincer

TAMPA, Fla./NEW YORK (Reuters) – Since Florida officials declared that the Zika virus is circulating in the state, Miami-area resident Karla Maguire has avoided taking her toddler son to a playground where mosquitoes may be biting. She walks her dogs less frequently and vigilantly applies bug repellent when she must go outside.

An obstetrician and gynecologist who is herself pregnant, Maguire has become scrupulous about following the advice that she gives patients to protect against Zika, which can cause a rare but devastating birth defect. Maguire works near the city’s Wynwood neighborhood identified on Friday as the first site of local Zika transmission in the continental United States.

“It is frustrating to spend a lot of time avoiding mosquitoes,” said Maguire, a physician at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, noting the discomfort of wearing long sleeves during Florida’s steamy summer. “You just end up being inside a lot.”

Physicians in Miami and beyond have seen this week a spike in concerned calls from pregnant women, particularly after health officials advised them not to travel to Wynwood and said any expecting mothers who had done so since mid-June should be tested for Zika.

On Wednesday, Florida said it would provide Zika testing to pregnant women at county health departments at no cost, and make available additional lab services to handle “the expected increase in tests being administered.”

The warnings raised anxiety in a city already on high alert for Zika’s arrival from Latin America, where it has spread quickly since first being detected in Brazil last year. The threat to newborns aside, Zika is otherwise considered a mild illness, and up to 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms.

All summer, Florida health officials have issued daily notices tallying the rise in cases acquired through travel to countries where Zika is widespread and advised the public to protect against mosquito bites. Along with 15 local cases, Florida is monitoring 391 picked up through travel abroad, which include 55 cases involving pregnant women.

One baby born in the state to a woman infected in Haiti has been diagnosed with the birth defect microcephaly, a condition defined by small head size that can lead to developmental problems.

TAILORING THE MESSAGE

Health officials expect that southern U.S. states vulnerable to mosquito-borne disease will see smaller, localized Zika outbreaks, given widespread use of window screens and air conditioning, compared with Latin American countries.

In Miami’s trendy Wynwood district, known as a place to hop between art galleries and tour outdoor murals, some doctors fear that a counterculture ethos may diminish the impact of medical recommendations to combat Zika.

Batsheva Stern, who is 28 weeks pregnant, sees no reason to avoid the district, where her husband, Zak, owns a popular bakery.

“I’m not so nervous,” said Stern, 27, recounting the advice of her midwife: “Don’t freak out, nothing is happening.”

But Dr. Elizabeth Etkin-Kramer, a gynecologist in private practice nearby, worries about birth defects resulting from unplanned pregnancies in some of her Wynwood-area patients who eschew birth control pills, noting the community is also skeptical of vaccines and antibiotics.

On Tuesday, she met with a patient who is 18 weeks pregnant and working near the affected area. The patient questioned her recommendation to be tested for Zika infection.

“Her feeling is, if something is going on, there is nothing you can do about it, short of termination,” said Etkin-Kramer, an officer in the Florida district of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “I think it would be important to know, and if God forbid she is positive, then we can look closely by ultrasound and get a lot more information.”

Beatriz Mendes Pereira Lopes, 26, an attorney who is five months pregnant, has moved twice trying to avoid Zika. She went to Miami in April, as the hot months in her home of Brazil spurred mosquito breeding.

Last month, she returned to Brazil, now in its cooler winter, anticipating its mosquitoes would be in hibernation. Now that Zika has begun circulating in Miami, she concedes that her future options may be limited until a vaccine is developed.

“It’s impossible to get rid of all the world’s mosquitoes,” she said via email.

(Reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Fla. and Jilian Mincer in New York; Additional reporting by Zachary Fagenson in Miami; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Bernard Orr)

Florida begins insecticide spraying to kill Zika carrying mosquitoes

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen inside Oxitec laboratory in Campinas, Brazil,

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Florida will conduct an aerial insecticide spraying campaign at dawn on Wednesday in an effort to kill mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus, officials in Miami-Dade County said.

The campaign will cover a 10-mile area that includes the one-mile-square area just north of downtown Miami that health officials have identified as the hub of Zika transmission in the state, the officials said on Tuesday.

On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an unprecedented travel warning, urging pregnant women to avoid travel to the Miami neighborhood at the center of the investigation.

The Zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil, where it has been linked to more than 1,700 cases of microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. The virus has spread rapidly through the Americas and Caribbean and its arrival in the continental United States has been widely anticipated.

Florida health officials announced another non-travel related case of Zika on Tuesday, bringing the total to 15.

The aerial spraying campaign was recommended by the CDC in conjunction with the Florida Health Department to reduce adult mosquito populations that might be capable of carrying the Zika virus.

In a conference call on Tuesday, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden expressed concern that vector control efforts so far have not been as effective as hoped. A CDC expert is currently conducting tests in Miami to see if mosquitoes in the area have developed insecticide resistance.

Florida had been using two products in the pyrethroid class of insecticides. In its aerial campaign, the state will use a chemical called Naled that has been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to Joseph Conlon, a spokesman for the American Mosquito Control Association.

Naled is from a different class of insecticides known as organophosphates. According to the CDC, the chemical has been widely used to control mosquito populations in the United States, including in Miami, Tampa and New Orleans.

The CDC recommended the same chemical for aerial spraying in Puerto Rico, but the recommendation has been met with protests from residents concerned about its impact on health, bees, agriculture and the environment.

Miami-Dade health officials said residents do not need to take special precautions during the aerial spraying activities, but it has recommended that people with known allergies remain indoors.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Florida has identified 10 more Zika cases; calls in feds for help

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen at the Laboratory of Entomology and Ecology of the Dengue Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The state of Florida has identified 10 more cases of Zika virus caused by local mosquitoes and has asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send in experts to help with the investigation of the outbreak.

The state now has a total of 14 cases of Zika caused by locally transmitted mosquitoes, according to a statement issued on Monday by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

The Florida Department of Health said it believes active transmission of Zika is restricted to one small area in Miami-Dade County, just north of downtown Miami.

The health department said six of the 10 new cases are asymptomatic and were identified through the door-to-door community survey and testing that it is conducting.

Scott said the state has called on the CDC to activate a CDC Emergency Response Team to assist the Florida Department of Health and other partners in their investigation, sample collection and mosquito control efforts.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bill Trott)

FDA takes steps to protect blood supply in Florida amid Zika probe

By Julie Steenhuysen and Toni Clarke

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered blood banks in Florida’s two most densely populated counties to stop collecting blood as health officials determine whether Zika has begun transmission in the continental United States.

Florida has been investigating four possible cases of local transmission in Miami-Dade County and Broward County. It is the first U.S. state to report cases that may not be related to travel to other countries with active outbreaks.

Zika has struck hardest in Brazil, where the outbreak was first detected last year, and has since spread rapidly through the Americas. The virus can cause a rare birth defect, microcephaly, in newborns whose mothers have been infected, and is believed to be linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults.

Zika most commonly infects people via mosquito bite. But reports of the virus being transmitted through sex and blood transfusions has prompted public health officials to recommend additional precautions for sexual partners and blood banks.

In a statement posted online on Wednesday, the FDA said blood centers in the two Florida counties should stop collecting blood until they can test each unit or put in place technology that can kill pathogens in the blood.

The FDA also recommended that nearby counties implement the same measures as it moves to prevent transmission of the virus through the blood supply.

OneBlood, Florida’s biggest blood collection center, said it will begin testing all of its collections for Zika virus, effective July 29, using an investigational screening test and that it is working as quickly as possible to comply with the FDA’s request.

The FDA has authorized the emergency use of several investigational Zika screening tests, including products made by Hologic Inc and Roche Holding AG.

The agency has also approved a pathogen inactivation technology made by Cerus Corp that kills the virus in blood platelets and plasma. The company is conducting clinical trials to show it can also kill pathogens in red blood cells.

The United States uses roughly 12 million units of red cells, four million plasma units and two million units of platelets a year.

Unlike oxygen-carrying red blood cells, which can be kept for 42 days in a refrigerator, or plasma, which keeps for a year if frozen, platelets have a shelf life of just four to seven days.

Platelets in general tend to be scarce because there are fewer donors. It can take up to two hours to extract platelets using an apheresis machine, said Dr. Richard Benjamin, chief medical officer for Cerus. And because of their short shelf life hospitals typically do not keep much surplus.

It can be hard to source them from elsewhere, too. By the time they are flown from one place to another they may only have two days of life left.

“All we need is a few more Zika hotspots and there will be a shortage of platelets across the country,” Benjamin said.

The FDA’s action follows Florida’s announcement on Wednesday that it had identified two additional Zika cases – one more in each county – that were not related to travel to an area where the virus is being transmitted.

A CDC spokesman said on Wednesday that “evidence is mounting to suggest local transmission via mosquitoes” in South Florida, noting that the cases fit transmission patterns seen with prior mosquito-borne outbreaks such as Chikungunya.

FDA said it will continue to monitor the situation in Florida in cooperation with the CDC and state public health authorities and provide updates as additional information becomes available.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Florida identifies two more Zika cases not related to travel

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Florida health department said on Wednesday it was investigating another two cases of Zika not related to travel to a place where the virus is being transmitted, raising the possibility of local Zika transmission in the continental United States.

The Florida health department said it has identified an additional case of Zika in Miami-Dade County, where it was already investigating a possible case of Zika not related to travel, and another case in Broward County, where it has been investigating a non-travel related case.

“Evidence is mounting to suggest local transmission via mosquitoes is going on in South Florida,” said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

“These cases fit similar transmission patterns for mosquito-borne diseases such as Chikungunya that we’ve seen in South Florida in years past.”

To confirm whether Zika is being transmitted locally, epidemiologists must survey households and neighbors within a 150-yard radius around the residence of the person who has Zika, which constitutes the flying range of the mosquitoes that carry the virus.

According to the U.S. Zika response plan, Zika transmission is defined as two or more cases not due to travel or sex with an infected person that occur in a 1-mile diameter over the course of a month. Evidence of the virus in local mosquito populations can also be used to confirm local transmission.

Florida heath department officials said investigations into the new cases begins today. The state is urging residents and visitors to participate in requests for urine samples by the department in the areas of investigation. These results will help the department determine the number of people affected.

In addition to the possible cases of non-travel related transmission, Florida on Wednesday reported 328 travel-related cases of Zika. The state is monitoring 53 pregnant women who had Zika infections.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Suspects sought in Florida nightclub shooting that left two teens dead

Fort Myers police at scene of Club Blu shooting

By Chris Tilley

FORT MYERS, Fla. (Reuters) – Florida police said on Monday they had taken three people into custody but were searching for additional suspects in connection with a shooting outside a nightclub just after midnight that left two teenagers dead and more than a dozen people wounded.

The shooting took place shortly after 12:30 a.m. EDT (0430 GMT) on Monday in the parking lot of Club Blu, which was hosting an event open to teenagers, the Fort Myers Police Department said.

Police said Stef’An Strawder, an 18-year-old high school basketball star, and Sean Archilles, 14, were killed. Two other people were critically wounded.

Police officials in Fort Myers, located on Florida’s Gulf Coast, said terrorism was not a factor in the state’s latest outburst of gun violence this summer, but provided no details about a possible motive.

The three young men were arrested after fleeing the scene in two vehicles and were charged in connection to that pursuit, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted on Facebook.

According to the statement Derrick Church, 19, was charged with assault on a law enforcement officer after accelerating his vehicle toward a sheriff’s deputy. Church was shot in the stomach by the deputy during that altercation, but was treated and had been released from a hospital, the sheriff’s department said.

Demetrius O’Neal, 19, and Tajze Battle, 22, were taken into custody on suspicion of resisting arrest, according to the statement.

“This was not a terrorist act,” Fort Myers interim Police Chief Dennis Eads said at a news conference.

He said officers responding to the shooting found chaos at the scene.

“No one really knew what was going on or what happened,” Eads said.

Officers provided first aid to victims, bandaging some with tourniquets to stop bleeding, he said. Paramedics took some victims to the hospital while others drove themselves.

At least 19 people, ranging from 12- to 27-years-old, were treated at local hospitals, said Lisa Sgarlata, chief administrative officer for Lee Memorial Hospital.

Three patients remained hospitalized at Lee Memorial as of Monday afternoon, two of whom were in critical condition.

The shooting came six weeks after a massacre at a nightclub in Orlando, in central Florida, where a gunman who sympathized with Islamist extremist groups killed 49 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Despite the recent violence, Florida Governor Rick Scott said the state’s crime rates were at a 45-year low.

Fort Myers, about 150 miles southwest of Orlando, was the scene of another shooting incident last October when one person was killed and several wounded by gunfire at a festival that attracts thousands of people in zombie costumes.

ALL-AGES PARTY

Before the latest shooting, Club Blu, located in a partially vacant strip mall, was hosting a “swimsuit glow party” for people of all ages, according to a flyer posted on Twitter by television station WINK.

The nightclub said on its Facebook page that the shooting occurred when the venue was closing and parents were picking up their children. The page later appeared to have been removed.

“We tried to give the teens what we thought was a safe place to have a good time,” the nightclub’s post said, adding that armed security guards were present inside and outside the club. “It was not kids at the party that did this despicable act.”

Jean Archilles, 37, the father of the 14-year-old killed, said his son loved sports, especially basketball.

“It happened for a reason. I don’t know what the reason is,” he said in a telephone interview, adding that he had not been told details about his son’s death.

Sean Archilles was due to enter eighth grade at Royal Palm Exceptional Center, while Strawder was to start his senior year at Lehigh Senior High School, according to the Lee County School District.

Strawder’s mother, Stephanie White, told the News-Press newspaper that her son was shot in his right shoulder as he walked out of the club and was pronounced dead at the hospital. His 19-year-old sister survived a gunshot wound in the leg, White said.

Police said shots were also fired at a nearby residence, where there was one minor injury.

In a video interview, Syreeta Gary said her daughter and a friend ran for cover. Her daughter escaped unscathed, but a bullet struck a friend in the leg.

(Additional reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Frank McGurty and Laila Kearney in New York and Mary Milliken and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; editing by Leslie Adler and G Crosse)

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