Description

At least two people were killed and 18 homes damaged by a thunderous explosion in a south Indianapolis neighborhood late Saturday night. Dramatic images from the scene showed large fires and destroyed homes. Local fire officials confirmed to WTHR early Sunday that at least two people died in the explosion. The blast was reported shortly after 11 p.m. near South Sherman Drive and Stop 11 Road on the south side of Indianapolis. “Multiple houses engulfed in flames. Even the police officers that got to the scene before I did were not sure what happened. Kind of a surreal scene, even for police officers,” Marion County Sheriff John Layton told the station. The cause of the explosion and fires wasn’t immediately clear, but Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard dismissed reports of a possible plane crash as he arrived at the scene. Fire officials said separately that investigators would be checking whether natural gas was possibly involved but they had no further details on what was behind the blast that sent tall flames skyward.rnrnBallard said at least two homes had been destroyed by the powerful blast and that the damage went on “for blocks on end.”Television video showed tall flames shooting overhead and spreading to numerous homes shortly after the blast reported around 11 p.m. Saturday. Hours after the flames pierced the skyline, firefighters had begun containing the flames and thick clouds of gray smoke billowed overhead. “It was so strong that it clearly had an effect for blocks,” Ballard said from the area. Beyond the burning homes there was wider damage in the neighborhood: windows shattered in nearby homes, walls caved in and garage doors were knocked off their hinges. Residents were told to evacuate to a nearby elementary school and people could be seen shivering in white blankets handed out to them as they moved off. Ballard said investigators will have to see what they find in coming days. “We’re going to need some comforting in the next few days,” he said. Earlier, Capt. Rita Burris with the Indianapolis Fire Department told The Associated Press that the scene looked like something out of a war zone. “It’s really messy,” she said soon after it began. She said by telephone that firefighters immediately began the work of containing the house fires.. She said there was preliminary information of injuries.

Situation Update No. 4

Posted:2012-11-01, 04:43:05 [UTC]

Ref.no.: BH-20121101-37066-USA

Situation Update No. 4
On 2012-11-11 at 15:33:15 [UTC]

Event: Biological Hazard
Location: USA (Pacific Region) MultiStates 19 states

Number of Deads: 32 person(s)
Number of Injured: 0 person(s)
Number of Evacuated: 0 person(s)
Number of Infected: 438 person(s)

Situation:

Thirty-two people have now died and 438 have been sickened in the fungal meningitis outbreak linked to tainted steroid injections, U.S. health officials reported Friday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had the following state-by-state breakdown of cases: Florida: 23 cases, including 3 deaths; Georgia, 1 case; Idaho, 1 case; Illinois, 2 cases; Indiana: 52 cases, including 4 deaths; Maryland: 23 cases, including 1 death; Michigan: 128 cases, including 7 deaths; Minnesota: 11 cases; New Hampshire: 13 cases; New Jersey: 27 cases; New York: 1 case; North Carolina: 3 cases, including 1 death; Ohio: 16 cases; Pennsylvania: 1 case; Rhode Island: 3 cases; South Carolina: 1 case; Tennessee: 81 cases, including 13 deaths; Texas: 2 cases; Virginia: 50 cases, including 2 deaths.

Ten of the 438 cases involve what the CDC calls “peripheral joint infection,” meaning an infection in a knee, hip, shoulder or elbow. These joint infections aren’t considered as dangerous as injections near the spine for back pain that have been linked to the potentially fatal meningitis infections. Meningitis is inflammation of the lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The steroid injections are used to treat pain in the lower back as well as joints. Massachusetts officials said last week that they had put emergency regulations in place that give the state greater control and scrutiny over specialty pharmacies such as the New England Compounding Center, believed to be the source of the tainted steroid injections linked to the outbreak, according to published reports.

Infected patients have developed a range of symptoms approximately one to four weeks following their injection. People who have had a steroid injection since July, and have any of the following symptoms, should talk to their doctor as soon as possible: worsening headache, fever, sensitivity to light, stiff neck, new weakness or numbness in any part of your body or slurred speech, the CDC said. The CDC and state health departments estimate that roughly 14,000 patients may have gotten steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center. All of the fungal meningitis patients identified so far were thought to be injected with the steroid methylprednisolone acetate, according to the CDC. The New England Compounding Center is what’s known as a compounding pharmacy. These pharmacies combine, mix or alter ingredients to create drugs to meet the specific needs of individual patients, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Such customized drugs are frequently required to fill special needs, such as a smaller dose, or the removal of an ingredient that might trigger an allergy in a patient. Compounding pharmacies aren’t subject to the same FDA oversight as regular drug manufacturers are, but some members of Congress say the meningitis outbreak highlights the need for more regulatory control.

RSOE EDIS ALERTMAIL

Situation Update No. 2

Posted:2012-11-08, 03:44:39 [UTC]

Ref.no.: EQ-20121108-37132-GTM

Situation Update No. 2
On 2012-11-08 at 16:57:19 [UTC]

Event: Earthquake
Location: Guatemala Departmento de San Marcos San Marcos and Quetzaltenango

Number of Deads: 48 person(s)
Number of Injured: 155 person(s)
Number of Evacuated: 0 person(s)
Number of Infected: 0 person(s)

Situation:

At least 48 are dead and dozens are missing in Guatemala, as residents huddled in the dark and frigid streets wrapped in blankets in fear of aftershocks early Thursday. Others crowded inside its hospital, the only building left with electricity after the powerful earthquake on Wednesday. Crews worked through the night in San Marcos, searching rubble for survivors and more dead following the magnitude 7.4 quake that struck Wednesday near Guatemala’s border with Mexico. In the town of San Cristobal Cochu, firefighters picked at a collapsed house trying to dig out 10 members of one family, including a 4-year-old child, who were buried, fire department spokesman Ovidio Perez told the radio station Emisoras Unidas. Volunteers carrying boxes of medical supplies began arriving in the area in western Guatemalan late Wednesday. Eblin Cifuentes, a 26-year-old law student, and a group of his classmates already were collecting medical supplies as part of a school drive to provide aid for the only hospital in San Marcos, a poor, mainly indigenous mountain area of subsistence farms. When the quake hit, the group decided to bring everything they had collected. “Thank God nothing happened to us and that’s why we have to help out,” Cifuentes said. The quake caused terror over an unusually wide area, with damage reported in all but one of Guatemala’s 22 states and shaking felt as far away as Mexico City, 600 miles (965 kilometers) to the northwest. It hit hardest in San Marcos, where more than 30 homes collapsed and many of the colorful adobe buildings in its center were either cracked or reduced to rubble, including the police station and the courthouse. The temblor tore a large gash in one of the streets. Hundreds of frightened townspeople stayed in the open, refusing to go back inside after more than five strong aftershocks shook the area. President Otto Perez Molina said that 40 people died in the state of San Marcos and eight more were killed in the neighboring state of Quetzaltenango. Hundreds of people crammed into the hallways of San Marcos’ small hospital after the quake seeking help for injured family members. Some complained they were not getting care quickly enough.