Category Archives: Emergency Response

Robot Rodeos Conjure Up Disasters and Pancake Contests

Extreme Hazard robot essaying an obstacle course at the Robotic Vehicle Range, Kirtland AFB, Alberquerque, NM. Sandia National Labs.

Extreme Hazard robot essaying an obstacle course at the Robotic Vehicle Range, Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, NM. Sandia National Labs.

A sultry day was in the offing near Purnell OK, the seat of McCurtain County in the state’s southeast quadrant, just a dozen miles northwest from the triple point where Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma meet. One hundred forty miles northeast, the National Weather Service Doppler radar station KSRX at Ft. Smith Arkansas, was monitoring a cold front approaching from the west, driven by a mass of cool dry air sweeping down from the northern plains. Typical for the late spring in the American prairie, this eastbound mass was colliding with a warm, wet air mass streaming north from the Gulf of Mexico, now roiling under a cool dry tongue at 700 mb. Buoyant but trapped under heavier cool air, supercells were forming in the humid 850 mb surface layer twenty miles west of Purnell.

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Fuel Barges Explode – 3 Injured

Fuel Barge Fire, Mobile Alabama, 4/24/13

As reported by Ed Payne, CNN, here, At least six explosions rocked two fuel barges carrying gasoline as they were docked on the Mobile River, in Mobile Alabama. All people are believed to be accounted for.Three people were taken to the USA Medical Center with burns. They remain in critical condition. The barges were being prepped for reload. The fires were monitored from a distance.

I wonder if authorities in Alabama chose to monitor the fires from a safe distance rather than risk the lives of emergency responders. Perhaps mindful of the 10 to 16 first responders killed in the fire and explosion at the West, Texas fertilizer plant last week (my coverage is here).

Thinking long term, we should be developing an efficient and sustainable energy infrastructure with fuel from kitchen waste, farm waste, and sewage.

If the Nega-Watt is the Least Expensive, Cleanest and Most Valuable unit of energy, and the Nega-Fuel-Watt is the 2nd Least Expensive, 2nd cleanest and 2nd Most Valuable, then the “Fuel-From-Waste-Watt” is the 3rd Least Expensive, 3rd Cleanest and 3rd Most Valuable unit of energy.

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A candidate for General Assembly to represent NJ Legislative District 12, and an analyst with Popular Logistics, Lawrence J. Furman holds a Bachelor’s in Biology, and an MBA in “Managing for Sustainability” from Marlboro College, Vermont. He also has experience in information technology. He can be reached at ‘Larry” at Furman For New Jersey. com

35 Dead in Fire and Explosion at Texas Fertilizer Warehouse. Others Missing.

West Fertilizer Explosion. Courtesy Mother Jones.

West, Texas. April 18, 2013. An explosion during a fire at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas killed 35, including at least 10 firefighters and EMS responders. At this time, 6 other EMS responders are missing. If not found alive, and the outlook appears grim, the death toll will jump to 41, including at least 16 First Responders. This is a devastating loss of first responders in a community of 2600 and a tragic loss to the families and friends of those killed. 160 people were injured, according to CNN, here.

Detail of the Explosion

This news clip, from CBS, reports, “The explosion, with the force of a small earthquake, was felt 15 miles away. The blast knocked out windows half-a-mile away.”

Cloud from explosion at Texas fertilizer plant.

West Fertilizer Company may have been negligent – that’s for the courts to decide.Ricardo Lopez, writing in the LA Times, reported, “West Fertilizer Co. paid $5,250 last year to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, PHMSA, over violations discovered in 2011.” CBS also reported that the last EPA inspection was 1985 and that West Fertilizer Co was fined in 2006 for failure to implement a disaster plan.

The Houston Chronicle, reported, here, that

West Fertilizer was cited in 2006 for lacking a permit,
An intermediate school near the plant has been evacuated “more than once” due to fumes and pollution from the plant,
The plant had not been inspected by Occupational Health and Safety Administration, OSHA in more than 10 years,
West Fertilizer, incorporated in Texas in May 2004, did not get its state air pollution permit until 2007 after a complaint was filed about foul odors from the facility.

The Chronicle, also reported, here, that Donald Adair, the owner of Adair Grain and West Fertilizer, issued a statement Friday afternoon expressing sympathy,

My heart is broken with grief for the tragic losses to so many families in our community. I know that everyone has been deeply affected by this incident. Loved ones have been injured or killed. Homes have been damaged or destroyed. Our hearts go out to everyone who has suffered.

I was devastated to learn that we lost one of our employees in the explosion. He bravely responded to the fire at the facility as a volunteer firefighter. I will never forget his bravery and his sacrifice, or that of his colleagues who rushed to the trouble.

The citizens of Texas and of the United States need to decide if the regulatory regimes are inadequate. Government safety regulations are like government regulations prohibiting drunk driving. Drunk drivers don’t mean to do any harm, they just want to get home after having a good time. Remember that canonical accounting rule: “Assets = Liabilities + Owners’ Equity.” Business owners want to make money selling valuable products, and just want to add a few dollars to “Owners’ Equity” perhaps by subtracting a few dollars from the category of “Safety & Emergency Preparedness” in the “Liabilities,” column.

Final questions:

If fertilizer is so explosive why is it good to use on our lawns and use it to grow our food? What alternatives are available?

Mr. Adair sounds like an alcoholic who has just learned that he has killed someone after driving while intoxicated and crashing into another car. If we prosecute drunk drivers for killing by accident while under the influence, or creating what Justice Holmes called “A clear and present danger,” shouldn’t we prosecute owners of corporations for killing by accident, or creating a clear and present danger, especially when, as appears to be the case here, there is a pattern of disregard for regulation?

The staff, budgets, and authority of regulatory and enforcement agencies such as PHMSA, OSHA, and the EPA have been cut under the administrations of President George W. Bush and by the House of Representatives under the leadership of John Boehner. Should we continue to cut the staff and budgets of PHMSA, OSHA, EPA and other regulatory and enforcement agencies or should we rethink our approach to law enforcement and regulation?

Sequestration illuminates absence of long-term, coherent risk policies

Our national policy for disaster recovery and rebuilding – putting aside, for the moment, risk assessment, mitigation, planning, and response – is effectively no policy. We make it up as we go along. Did victims of terrorism on September 10, 2001, or beforehand receive compensation? Did airlines before 9/11 get special legislation absolving them of liability? Even assuming that there is a legitimate question about the etiology of Ground Zero responders’ illnesses, wouldn’t a reasonable and compassionate country willingly support dying and seriously ill responders and their families – rather than stalling, essentially starving them out? James Zadroga, The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act allocated $4.2 billion to create the World Trade Center Health Program; the legislation was signed in January 2011; Zadroga died in January, 2006. Then, as now, partisan legislative politics delayed the matter.

Microserrated Kitchen Knife – Never Needs Sharpening

Florence Fabricant’s article, DINER’S JOURNAL; Food Stuff: Keep the Hacksaw In the Garage, from the Style Section of the New York Times, caught my eye, and fired up my imagination in regards to citrus and other fruit drinks in the heat.

Neatly slice that blushing peach or that ripe tomato bursting with juice. Cut thin rounds of firm, peppery salami. Gently quarter sea scallops. Whack wedges of lime for drinks. These and many more everyday kitchen jobs will not daunt the new French paring knives by Nogent, with handles in bathing-suit colors.

What makes these knives unusual is that the stainless steel blades have serrations so fine as to be almost microscopic. They do not give hacksaw treatment to delicate fruits; they can handle tougher jobs, and, for those whose sharpening steels and stones simply gather dust, they require no sharpening.

Stainless steel knives with nearly microscopic serrations and no need of sharpening? The implications are not trivial: firefighters and rescue workers cutting people from seat belts; remote medical facilities able to re-use surgical instruments after sterilization but without resharpening? Survival knives which can undergo protracted use in harsh environments?

According to Nogent’s Canadian website, the firm is French, has been in existence since 1823.

Toolmonger: go-bags, emergency supplies and tool storage

Toolmongerhas an excellent discussion – don’t just read the post, read the comments, Toolmonger’s readers are an outstanding crowd – about the best ways to store and transport tools. Box vs. Bag: How Do You Carry Your Tools? This discussion is easily applicable to go-bags, or any emergency supplies for emergency response, evacuation, or rebuilding. The same storage principles are useful for paramedics, electricians or soldiers: if perfect, the result is the right tools for a given set of tasks, as light as possible, and easily accessible. Of course, it’s impossible to predict every possible problem – but that makes it even more useful to have sets of tools pre-arranged per task.

Apple, Blackberry, and Classical Physics

In “The World Will Not End, and Other Predictions for 2012,” I wrote “Apple and IBM will continue to thrive. Microsoft will grow, slightly. Dell and HP will thrash. A share of Apple, which sold for $11 in December, 2001, and $380 in Dec. 2011, will sell for $480 in Dec. 2012.”

Apple has already spiked to 427.75. If I’m proven wrong it may be because I underestimated Apple’s projected future value.

What about Research in Motion, RIMM? They invented mobile e-mail, with the first “Blackberry” in ’98 or ’99. When you got paged, you could write a response, send it, and it would be received almost immediately. It was tied to email, integrated with Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes. I remember it well. As a database administrator on Wall Street I carried one for two years. In my current professional role I have carried one for six and managed a Blackberry Enterprise Server, along with other servers. In the late 90’s it was basically a pager with a keyboard and software that did e-mail. Today, you can also take pictures, browse the web – gives new meaning to the word ‘crawl’- listen to music, make phone calls.

But what will be the value of Research in Motion next year? Still around $8.5 B? Down to $6.2 B? Back up to about $30 B? If they don’t change, I imagine the value will be $4.0 to $6.0 B, or they will be a division of another company, such as AT&T, NorTel, Winstream, HP, or a private equity firm.

Here’s the basic financial data on the companies:

Basic Data on Apple and Research in Motion
Stock	Price	Mkt Cap	EPS	P/E	52 Wk Low	52 Wk High
AAPL	419.81	390.18	27.67	15.17	310.5	427.75
RIMM	16.17	8.47	4.24	3.81	12.45	70.54
Table 1

At first glance the company looks like a tremendous investment: RIMM is a $8.7 Billion company with no debt, earns $4.24 per share (EPS), has a Net Profit Margin of 17.13, and the stock only costs $16.17 per share (as of close of trading Friday, January 13, 2012). The ratio of stock price to earnings (P/E) is 3.81. Their network is secure and robust. A Blackberry handheld should be on the belt of every first responder. They are lighter and probably as secure, more reliable, more robust than the Motorola units carried today, and they also do instant messaging, virtually instant e-mail, and come with a built-in camera. They don’t belong in your “go-bag;” they belong on your belt.

At second glance, an analyst put the intrinsic value at $22.00 per share or $12 billion (up from $16 per share and $8.7 Billion) saying “the network is worth $12.50 per share, their patents are worth $7.50 per share, and they have $2.00 per share in the bank.

Compare this to Apple. A $390 Billion company, Apple has no debt, EPS of 27.67, NPM of 23.95, and the stock only costs 419.81 per share. The P/E is 15.17. Apple also makes an instant communications device, but it doesn’t have it’s own network. Research in Motion does. So if the AT&T, Verizon, or other network is down you will still be able to send a “PIN to PIN,” “BBM” or E-Mail with a Blackberry, but not with an iPhone. On the other hand, there is an iPhone app that turns the camera flash into a flashlight.

These are summarized in Table 1, “Basic Data,” above and Table 2 “Other Financial Information,” below. (Note: all data are from Google).

Other Financial Information
	Debt to Assets	Return on Avg Assets	Net Profit Margin
AAPL	0	27.06	23.95
RIMM	0	29.56	17.13
Table 2

The data also show that Apple, with a price of $419.81 is close to it’s historic 52-week high of $427.75, while, at $16.17 RIMM is close to it’s historic 52-week low of $12.45. Looking at the chart from last year, Apple was steady from January to July (and you could have lost money by investing in it at $360 in January and selling at $310 in July) but increased after July. Research in Motion, on the other hand, dropped pretty steadily from February 17, 2011 to December 20, 2011.

What’s next for APPLE and Research in Motion? What was it that Newton said? “A body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.” I have a lot of confidence in Apple. It’s in motion. Rumors about the iPad 3 are that it will be lighter, faster, and have better graphics. They will make improvements on the iPads, iPhones, iPods, iMacs, Mac Books, iOS, OS X, the applications software, and who knows, they may even get Apple TV right this year. (They will, sooner or later.) As far as Research In Motion; some of their products – the Blackberry hand-helds and Blackberry Enterprise Server software are terrific. However, I would have a lot more confidence in the company’s future if I was an “Outside force” hired to act upon the body. (I would also kill to work at APPLE.)

Virginia Nuclear Reactors Shut Down Due To Earthquake

Andrew Restuccia and Ben German reported (here) on E2 Wire, “the Hill’s Energy & Environment Blog” that:

Two nuclear reactors at the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Va., automatically shut down Tuesday shortly after a magnitude-5.9 earthquake shook the state and surrounding area.

The plant lost offsite power and is now running its cooling systems on diesel generators….

A dozen nuclear plants in the eastern part of the United States have declared “unusual events” because of the earthquake.

It’s good to know that the diesel powered emergency cooling systems are operational, and the operators (presumably) have sufficient fuel to keep the cooling systems running during the emergency.

But …

How long will the plants be offline?
Don’t we need the power those plants would generate during and in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake?

This illustrates a major problem with nuclear power:

Rather than enhance the security of the grid and infrastructure nuclear power must be shut down during certain classes of emergency.

A 1.0 gigawatt nuclear power plant is made up of one or two reactors. Both must be shut down during an earthquake, however, as we saw from the melt-downs in Japan, the emergency cooling system must stay up. A 1.0 gigawatt wind farm is made up of 286 separate and discrete turbines of 3.5 mw each. A 1.0 gigawatt solar farm is made up of 5 million 200 watt modules and thousands of inverters. These are made up of hundreds or thousands of identical modules. Like nuclear power plants, they can be engineered to withstand earthquakes. But unlike nuclear power plants THEY DON’T NEED EMERGENCY POWER DURING THE EMERGENCY! And even if a few solar modules or wind turbines fail due to an earthquake and aftershocks, most will come on after the storm! And there is no fossil fuel based emergency cooling system needed for solar power or wind power systems!

Oyster Creek To Close in 2019

Oyster Creek, courtesy of Nukeworker.com

Chicago, Illinois based Exelon Corporation recently announced that it will close the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in 2019. (NY Times, NJ.com AP). Oyster Creek, in Lacey, New Jersey, is the nation’s oldest operating nuclear power plant. It’s roughly 75 miles south of New York City and 60 miles east of Philadelphia. Exelon was recently granted a 20-year extension on its operating license by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission despite the wishes of local environmentalists, environmental groups, and people concerned about evacuations in the event of an emergency, and public concerns from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.

The plant uses a single pass cooling system which sucks in 500 Billion gallons of cool water each year (click here) from Barnegat Bay, heats it 20 to 30 degrees, and returns the heated water to the bay. This kills billions of adult and juvenile fish, clams, crabs, and shrimp, and hundreds of billions, if not trillions of hatchlings, less than a centimeter in length. This has had a negative effect – possibly a disastrous effect – on the fish and wildlife populations of Barnegat Bay during the 40 year operating life of the plant to date. The NJ DEP demanded that Exelon retrofit the plant with cooling towers.

Exelon claims the cooling towers would cost $600 million, roughly $1.00 per watt for the 610 megawatt reactor. Other estimates for the cooling towers range from $200 million to $800 million. Exelon decided to close the plant rather than spend the money on the cooling towers and other maintenance. This is a gain for current Exelon shareholders as they defer a hundreds of millions on capital improvments, and corresponding hundreds of millions of liabilities, while they collect revenues and realize profits from the sale of electricity for the next nine years.

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Web Server on your cellphone – a new design space

Jonas Landgren on Information Technology and Emergency & Crisis Response: Web Server on your cellphone – a new design space.

Last night, I successfully installed Nokias Mobile Web Server on my S60 cellphone. I have been aware of this service for some while but I never really took the time to install it, until now. My reaction to the experience of accessing my cellphone via my laptop web browser was significant. Like a kid on Christmas Day. The web server is a stripped down Apache server with some add-ons. The Nokia software opens up the mobile phones functionality so you can do many nice things in a remote mode. My mind goes a bit wild when, in a hands-on-fashion, I explore what it could mean that all mobile devices are connected to the internet. The range of new solutions seems endless. For emergency and crisis response, it might mean that we could design and deploy solutions that in new ways provide connectivity across a network of response actors. There is no longer a need to add yet another device such as a tabletpc just in order to provide a two-way data communication. I hope that we in a short time will be able to publish some desirable concepts that shows the possibilities for Swedish Emergency and Crisis Response. Until then … have a look at: http://mymobilesite.net/

However, what works in Sweden, an eminently sensible society, might fail in the United States, where utility companies have a spotty record in committing investment into infrastructure which doesn’t promise a rapid payback.

KE2YK Reports on Ham Radio in Haiti

Ham Radio

[Many thanks to Bill Seidel of Revanche, a long-time ham operator, for his infinite patience in explaining ham and RF operations. We’re going to try to keep reporting on ham operations in, to, and from Haiti.]

KE2YK’s Random Oscillations reports on ham radio efforts in Haiti. From ARRL Sends Ham Aid To Haiti:

Even though the communications infrastructure in earthquake-ravaged Haiti is being rebuilt, there is still need for Amateur Radio communications. To assist in this effort, the ARRL’s Ham-Aid program is providing equipment for local amateurs to use.

On Friday, January 22, the League sent a programmed Yaesu VHF repeater with a microphone, as well as ICOM handheld transceivers, Yaesu mobile 2 meter rigs with power supplies and Kenwood mobile 2 meter rigs. Comet antennas, Larsen mobile antennas with magnet mounts, coax and batteries were also included in the package that was shipped to the home of the President of the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) for distribution. All items were donated by their manufacturers.

Haiti

“In the horror of this tragedy, there still are stars and the cooperation between the ARRL, IARU Region 2 and the Radio Club Dominicano and has been bright,” said ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP .

“It was donations from our members and friends that began the Ham Aid program in Katrina’s aftermath. Now once again, that sharing between hams will provide help in another worst-case incident. ARRL members and donors need to know that their gifts will be used very well indeed.”

How You Can Help in Haiti

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New Mission for Guantanamo – Aid to Haiti

Pallets of Bottled Water bound for Haiti

yogi bear hd download full

As covered in The Guardian, UK, and by WAVY-10, Virginia Beach, the disaster in Haiti as a result of the recent earthquake is giving the American base at Guantanamo Bay two new missions: supplying aid and potentially detaining thousands of Haitian migrants.

The U.S. has designated Guantanamoas the hub of the aid operation. Dozens of helicopters and planes take off daily to ferry supplies and personnel to the stricken country or to American ships off the coast.

This makes sense as Guantanamo is a US Base so we have control over it, and it is about 200 miles from Haiti, so proximate to the disaster.

In a related story, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the World Bank says it plans to extend an additional $US 100 million in emergency aid to Haiti to help recovery and reconstruction from the devastating earthquake.

Obama and The People Fight Terrorism

President Barack Obama

In response to the Christmas Day attempted terror attack, President Obama’s actions and former Vice President Cheney’s comments highlight the differences between the two administrations: The Bush Administration was famous for not being “Reality Based” (NY Times). The Obama Administration investigates first, thinks, and ACTS(Reuters), while accepting responsibility for any failures. “Ultimately, the buck stops with me,” Obama said. “As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people.” (CS Monitor)

On 12/29/9, President Obama said it was a systemic failure (Christian Science Monitor). On 1/3/10, he said the attack was planned in Yemen (NY Times). We also know he approved US counter-terror strikes in Yemen, which occurred on 12/24/09 (NPR / NYTimes) and which killed Al Queda Terrorists. Continue reading →

Chivalry is Alive and Well On Campus

Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009, 2:00 AM. New Brunswick, NJ. A young man, let’s call him Al, came upon a 17 year-old young woman, who’s name is omitted to preserve her anonymity and dignity. She was in a state of staggering intoxication. Al called his friend Bill, who knew the girl, knew her parents, and took responsibility for her. Bill called an ambulance, rode in it with the girl to the hospital, called her parents, sat with her in the emergency room, from 2:30 to 8:00 AM, at which time the girl’s parents arrived, before returning to his room at the Alpha Beta lodge of Sigma Delta.

The girl’s Blood Alcohol Level, BAC, was 0.275. A BAC of 0.300, 16% below the level of surgical anaesthesia (BRAD / Wikipedia ), can turn lead to a coma, which can be fatal. (Note that a BAC of 0.080 is the legal definition of intoxication for the purposes of a drunken driving offense. The girl’s was 3 1/2 times the legal limit.) Therefore it is not a stretch to consider that at a cost to Bill of a night’s sleep, he and Al saved the girl’s life.

The editors of Popular Logistics are to know Bill. We know the girl’s parents will always remember this and will be forever grateful. We hope the girl has learned something as well.

Terrible Problems with 911 Systems

9-1-1 Should Never Give Me A Busy Signal. By Jason Kincaid at TechCrunch.

Last night I got word that my parents had witnessed a tragic accident while driving in Northern California. I won’t get into the details, but suffice to say one person was killed and others were left bleeding, in various states of unconsciousness. Thank God my parents were not hurt in the accident, but they witnessed it first hand, as well as the disturbing aftermath.

Immediately after the accident, my parents and other witnesses began trying to dial 9-1-1. Attempt after attempt resulted in a busy signal. This isn’t unusual in the event of an emergency, as multiple dialers often tie up the lines to report the same incident. Except it seems that nobody managed to get through for far too long: emergency personal didn’t arrive for 20 minutes. The first officer to arrive at the scene said it took him two minutes to get there from the time he got the call. Which means that it took approximately 18 minutes for the news to reach him in the first place. Continue reading →