0914 New Bern, NC recovers, urriHurHurricane Florence continues.
Hurricane florence made landfall early friday.
According to Lieutenant David Daniels with the New Bern police Department, approximately three hundred sixty people have been rescued after flood waters stranded Hundreds of residents.
Daniels also said that due to new requests, the amount of people still needing rescue was up to one hundred forty.
The flooding was a result of hurricane florence’s storm surge, which caused the neuse and trent rivers to rise ten feet overnight.
Over twelve hundred 9-11 calls came in over a twelve-hour period, according to the associated press.
Over forty-three hundred residents and three hundred businesses were damaged due to the storm Surge.
Florence was downgraded to a Tropical storm Friday afternoon.
Tropical Storm Florence is currently projected to cut across the north Carolina south Carolina border before turning north east.
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0914US Hurricane Florence venomous snakes
As if Hurricane Florence could get any worse, they are now saying the storm could have brought a plague of venomous snakes.
While the coast is having 85mph winds, ten feet of water, extreme power outages and threatening floods at two nuclear power plants, now, Local Reptile handlers are warning that the storm is threatening to flush out all kinds of killer serpents from their habitats on the coast, and send them slithering into local neighborhoods.
Vice land reports there are six venomous snakes native to North and South Carolina but Thad Bowman, a reptile expert at a Myrtle Beach zoo, told the paper cottonmouths and copperheads are most likely to wind up in the floodwaters brought by storm.
Gerald O’Malley, director of toxicology at Myrtle Beach’s Grand Street Hospital, told the Sun News QUOTE “They inject venom, which causes tissue destruction, platelet loss, [and]causes bleeding…It can cause death.”
With inches of rain per hour, people caught in the storm very well could be swimming with deadly snakes.
To avoid potential snake bites, authorities say to stay inside, as if the storm wasn’t a big enough indicator to do so.
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0914 US Deadly gas explosions in Massachusetts
Eight thousand people were driven from their homes and one person was killed north of Boston yesterday, as a series of eighty gas fires and explosions hit the area, filling the skies with thick smoke.
Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield, commenting on the scene, said "It looked like Armageddon."
The calamity was caused by a local gas provider, Columbia Gas, which had accidentally overpressurized its aging municipal gas lines, as it attempted to test the gas supply system.
Local police in Andover, North Andover and Lawrence attempted to manage traffic while calling for an evacuation of all customers of the gas company.
Traffic lights are out, and all roads into Lawrence are closed until further notice.
Firefighters from across Massachusetts responded to the scene as a ten-alarm fire, and the Red Cross set up evacuation centers in churches and schools.
Eight thousand, six hundred gas meters are being shut off in order to conduct inspections.
Eighteen thousand people were without power, as the electric lines were shut down to avoid further explosions.
Most of those evacuated were still awaiting word this afternoon as to when they could return.
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0914 Paul Manafort pleads guilty
Paul Manafort became the fifth of Donald Trump’s campaign associates to plead guilty.
Manafort took a guilty Plea on friday morning to two criminal charges.
This comes before Manafort was due before a second jury over his work in Ukraine.
Manafort would have been facing charges of conspiracy against the U.S, conspiring to launder money, failing to register his foreign lobbying work, misleading the government about that work, and obstruction of justice.
Manafort’s plea puts a ten year cap on any of his sentences, but he will not be sentenced until November 16th.
These charges come from the Special Investigation by Robert Mueller into the Presidential Campaign of Donald Trump.
Four former Trump aides have pleaded guilty to charges related to the special counsel investigation: Michael Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer; Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser; Rick Gates, the former deputy campaign chairman; and George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser.
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0914 Idlib, Turkey, Iran and Russia
The Syrian city of Idlib remains the last of the cities held by anti-syrian-regime forces.
The turkish government under President Erdogan has been reinforcing their position in the province of Idlib, causing a standstill between Russia, Iran and the Syrian Regime of President Bashar-Al Assad.
In a recent op-ed for the Wall Street journal, Erdogan called for the international community to stop president assad from carrying out any attacks on Idlib.
The United nations has also addressed the matter, saying that an attack on Idlib could be the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the twenty-first century.
At a UN meeting in Tehran earlier this week, Russian officials said that a peaceful resolution could still be met between the regional powers.
The united states has remained outside of the matter, save for President Trump tweeting on September third that President Assad should not recklessly attack the province.
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0914
Friday, September 14, 2018
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Runs __08: 33__ w/Lockout Kill Date/Time __________________
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0914 OR Bark protects the forest
One Portland organization is using a little known environmental law to fight logging in Mt Hood National forest. Earlier this month, 175 volunteers with the non-profit Bark camped out in the newest proposed timber sale in Mt Hood National Forest. They combed all 4,000 acres of the North Clack Timber sale looking for discrepancies between forest service documents and reality on the ground.
Carlye Meisburger has the story:
[Raw text rendering of Carlye Meisburger's interview at the Bark camp:]
When most people go camping they're there to relax enjoy the wonders around them. When Bark volunteers get the other to camp they have something different in mind we've been walking around in these units for the last few weeks and we've been finding a lot of old growth forest that is unmarked we've been finding lots of unmarked water system so yeah that's are going to be doing today is we're gonna be walking around in one of these units and seeing what's really going on on the ground yeah from August 22 to September 3 bark volunteers camped in the north clack timber sale outside of Estacada. Each day they surveyed units of the sale searching for things of the Forest Service had overlooked this is called ground truth thing the graduating is basically walking out to the force with maps and Forest Service documents in hand and feel checking what ecological conditions exist out in the forest. Compared to what the Forest Service claims is there. That's Michael crock that. He's a force watch coordinator bark he's also one of the people who leads the camp out of all in tears referred to as base camp. Rowntree thing is the basis of barks mission the more discrepancies bar confined between for service documents and what's really happening in the forest the more trees they can potentially save. What we do what parks for work is is. Tracking all of the projects that the Forest Service is proposing out here and what that means is you know monitoring all the projects by getting people out and ground treating them collecting information. And then using that information to hold the Forest Service accountable whenever there's a public comment period for any opportunity to engage with them about the way that they're managing the Forest Park is able to engage with the for service regarding the proposed timber sale because of a little known law called the national environmental policy act enacted in 1970 outlines a process for assessing the environmental and community impacts of major federal projects which involves a public commenting.. This is why base camp is so important because post base camp park has almost 200 people who can speak about what they've seen on the ground in the timber sale and what they would like to see happen to the land. Offers a necessary counterbalance to the commercial logging prerogative. We really try to articulate a voice that's more rooted in. Healthy ecosystems and communities and sort of global climate justice over extractive industries and we advocate for accessible use of the forests and for wildlife and for forests as a place of climate resilience carbon storage and clean water this year was the third base camp park is hosted by the second weekend of the camp out volunteers to discover ecological conditions that will get acres of trees dropped from the north clock timber sale base camp coordinator Audie fuller shared some of the findings at the very very minimum we've at least gotten 40 acres drops just because we found 2 retrieval nests and there mandatorily gonna have to drop those some of the other things we found though is that like a lot of the units that they have planned. Are way too steep to do the kind of logging that they want to do they're not allowed to do blocking. On on a hillside that is 30 per 35 percent slope and were finding like 50 plus percent slip some places that are just basically straight clips better just like they wouldn't be able to have but they're heavy machinery on it and I'm not sure why they're planning to but it's like it's like a cliff that leads to a creek that's like a lot of the the places which if you put that together a cliff. And a creek with a bunch of logging what you're gonna get is like not really not really landslides and if they can even put their equipment out there so it's like. If. If we don't stop it at least a lot of it then they're gonna have to really go back and go back to some early planning stages and. Rethink what they're doing because it just doesn't doesn't make any sense if the for service doesn't rethink what they're doing. Proposes changes the park doesn't in good enough there's another option. They can sue. On September 11 week after conclusion of base camp bark and other environmental defense groups filed suit to challenge the for service over a different timber sale the crystal clear restoration project is the largest timber sale proposed amount hood in over a decade park is arguing that the Forest Service chose to disregard scientific evidence and public input regarding how to manage the sale specifically the Forest Service field adequately analyze the impact of logging on the habitat of the northern spotted owl a pack of gray wolves. Although the ultimate goal is to get an entire timber sale cancelled barks associate director Courtney ray says that park has gone acres dropped from every proposed timber sale they've tried to protect we always get some units dropped and according to the the art of war if you death if you take out 10 percent of the. Opponents army then you've decimated them so every time we save 10 percent we say that we decimated it no you know there's no part of this force that doesn't have some place that is based on our current environmental laws it's illegal to log in it and we have to find that and prove it. Preserving Mount Hood National Forest is the main mission of park and its base camp. Another purpose is to make the force acceptable to people who wouldn't otherwise feel comfortable venturing into the woods I think. The forest and Mount Hood. Our for people living in the city. For a lot of people a place that's might seem really inaccessible. And so one of the goals of this camp is to. Make you know bush whacking through a beautiful forest like this something that's a little bit less scary a little bit more accessible through you know arranging carpools and providing meals in a safe place to camp which I think is really important because I think that where. There's a nature deficit that exists in our society and I really see people have. A lot of. Positive impacts on their life after coming out of the forest and and seeing this kind of thing. And getting involved in plug into the community that's doing this work park also leads free hikes the second Sunday of the month. They understand that foster a connection with the forest is what will the courage people to want to save it. This connection is evident at all volunteers for first timers to base camp like Connor are particularly overwhelmed by the wild force there serving. We're standing on a slope it's incredibly lash there's like sword ferns in Oregon grape and cedars and Doug firs and hemlock in the light comes through the canopy in really magical way and it's just like the perfect temperature and smells amazing you can hear very light running water. Not to like over romanticized it's like kind of the Denning ritual has been volunteering with bark for over 5 years and has attended all 3 base camps she summed up the way in which building a connection with the timber sale can be bitter sweet. The unit I was in today is clearly old growth forest.And. It clearly has lots of spotted owl habitat and retrieval habitat. And. We measured a tree that was 63 inches in diameter. It's it's diameter is larger than I am tall. It's pretty amazing. And. When I was measuring that tree I was suddenly overcome with grief at the thought that that trees. Mike at cut to be made into 2 by fours because Congress has a mandate of a certain number of board feet that the Forest Service has to provide every year for logging. And so that's another another component of how we feel one or in the forest is sometimes I feel grief. And sometimes I feel energized that we're gonna do something about. Reporting for cable I'm calling my speaker.