Why Is Wal-Mart Preparing For A Major Earthquake On The New Madrid Fault?

TheSurvivalPlaceBlog

By Michael Snyder

Buried in a Wall Street Journal article from about a week ago was a startling piece of information.  According to a Wal-Mart executive, Wal-Mart “participated in an exercise to prepare for an earthquake on the New Madrid fault line” earlier this summer.  And officials at the U.S. Geological Survey have just released a report which indicates that they believe that the New Madrid fault zone has the “potential for larger and more powerful quakes than previously thought“.  So should we be concerned?  Do they know something that we don’t?  The USGS also says that the frequency of earthquakes in the central and eastern portions of the United States has quintupled over the past 30 years, and that significant earthquakes have started popping up in areas of the country that were once extremely quiet.  Along with the new report, the USGS released the following…

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Liberian man in Nigeria being tested for Deadly Ebola Virus

A Liberian man is being tested for the deadly Ebola virus after he collapsed on arrival at an airport in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, a mega-city of 21 million people, the Lagos State Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Ebola has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since it was first diagnosed in the region in February, straining their impoverished healthcare systems.

If confirmed, the case would be the first on record of one of the world’s deadliest diseases in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy and, with 170 million people, its most populous country.

The special adviser on public health to the Lagos state government, Yewande Adeshina, told a news conference the man, who is in his 40s, arrived at Lagos airport from Liberia on Sunday. He was rushed to hospital and put in an isolation ward, she said.

“The patient was admitted and detained on suspicion of possible EBV (Ebola virus) infection, while blood sample collection and testing was initiated,” she said. The test results were pending, she said.

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva confirmed one suspected case of Ebola in Nigeria and said samples had been sent to a WHO lab for testing.

Adeshina said Lagos state authorities had requested the flight’s manifest to contact the other passengers. They would also trace the man’s travel route and had already distributed protective clothing to health workers, she said.

Ben Neuman, a virologist and Ebola expert at Britain’s University of Reading, said it was important to note that Ebola is one of a number of viruses that can cause haemorrhagic fever, and that others, including Lassa fever virus and Dengue virus, could turn out to be the diagnosis in this case.

“Some of these other, more common haemorrhagic fever viruses have already been the cause of false alarms in the ongoing west African Ebola outbreak,” Neuman told Reuters in London, urging calm.

HEALTH WORKERS AT RISK

Nigeria has some of the continent’s least adequate healthcare infrastructure, despite access to billions of dollars of oil money as Africa’s biggest producer of crude.

The Ebola outbreak started in Guinea’s remote southeast and has since spread, aided by a lack of information about the disease and affected communities’ suspicion of emergency medical staff.

A recent wave of infections among medical personnel is raising questions about the preparedness of regional health structures.

Sierra Leone announced on Wednesday that Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor leading the fight against Ebola in the country, had himself contracted the disease following the deaths of several nurses at the treatment centre where he works.

Dozens of nurses at the centre staged a sit-down strike this week, calling for management of the government-run facility to be transferred to medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

“If you have that number of health personnel being infected within a relatively short period of time, there is definitely something wrong with the system,” Deputy Health Minister Abu Bakarr Fofanah said on Thursday.

He said Khan was responding well to treatment, however.

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, which causes diarrhoea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding and can kill up to 90 percent of those infected, although the mortality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent.

http://tinyurl.com/mrho5te

Plane makes an emergency landing in South Burlington, USA

No passengers were injured in an emergency plane landing Thursday afternoon at Burlington International Airport, according to Heather Bowman, an operations specialist at the airport.

 

The Canadair Regional Jet 200 aircraft made an emergency landing around 5:30 p.m., shortly after takeoff. The landing was attributed to mechanical issues after a pilot felt “unknown vibrations,” Bowman said.

 

The emergency was characterized as a Phase 5 — the highest emergency alert.

 

“The system is all based off of souls on board,” Bowman said. “With it being an air carrier that has more than 30 souls on board, we declared it a Phase 5 … It’s not like Phase 1 is a little emergency and Phase 5 is a big one. It’s based on how many people we need to respond.”

 

Bowman said the aircraft was up in the air for about 15 minutes before it circled back to the airport for inspection.

 

The Air Guard, the airport’s fire department and police, and the South Burlington Fire Department responded to the emergency call.

 

After the plane landed a brief inspection was done, according to South Burlington Fire Department Captain Gary Rounds. Rounds said the plane was then taxied back to the gate where its occupants were evacuated.

 

The runway was closed for about 15 minutes, she said.

 

Airport Director Gene Richards told the Burlington Free Press at 7:45 p.m. that the Delta Airline operated plane, which was on its way to Detroit, was still being inspected, but that the airport was planning to have the flight take off later Thursday evening.

 

Bowman, speaking at the airport Thursday afternoon, said the airport is a “well-oiled machine” when it comes to emergency response.

 

“We work on this, and we practice this over and over so we are ready to respond in a safe and efficient manner,” Bowman said.

http://tinyurl.com/ph2j92x

MAGNITUDE 5.0 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=392569

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 827 km SE of Tokyo, Japan / pop: 8,336,599 / local time: 02:05:43.6 2014-07-26
1545 km N of Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands / pop: 48,220 / local time: 03:05:43.6 2014-07-26
1814 km SE of Seoul, South Korea / pop: 10,349,312 / local time: 02:05:43.6 2014-07-26

MAGNITUDE 5.9 SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=392527

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 1370 km NW of Vancouver, Canada / pop: 1,837,969 / local time: 03:54:49.6 2014-07-25
160 km W of Juneau, United States / pop: 31,275 / local time: 02:54:49.6 2014-07-25
134 km SW of Haines, United States / pop: 1,713 / local time: 02:54:49.6 2014-07-25

MAGNITUDE 5.1 SOUTH OF TONGA

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=392508

Subject To Change

Depth: 10 km

Distances: 477 km S of Nuku‘alofa, Tonga / pop: 22,400 / local time: 21:32:37.6 2014-07-25
455 km S of ‘Ohonua, Tonga / pop: 1,241 / local time: 21:32:37.6 2014-07-25

MAGNITUDE 2.3 CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN REGION

Subject To Change

Depth: 32 km

 

Distances: Latitude, Longitude 28.0286 -16.1822 

MAGNITUDE 5.1 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=392475

Subject To Change

Depth: 72 km

Distances: 175 km SE of Sapporo-shi, Japan / pop: 1,883,027 / local time: 13:18:17.4 2014-07-25
148 km NE of Aomori-shi, Japan / pop: 298,394 / local time: 13:18:17.4 2014-07-25
82 km S of Shizunai, Japan / pop: 22,436 / local time: 13:18:17.4 2014-07-25

MAGNITUDE 5.3 LEYTE, PHILIPPINES

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=392454

Subject To Change

Depth: 20 km

Distances: 373 km N of Davao, Philippines / pop: 1,212,504 / local time: 07:57:27.4 2014-07-25
168 km E of Cebu City, Philippines / pop: 798,634 / local time: 07:57:27.4 2014-07-25
30 km SE of Hingatungan, Philippines / pop: 2,019 / local time: 07:57:27.4 2014-07-25