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As Many As 200 Sickened In Seattle Tower Norovirus Outbreak
Norovirus is highly contagious and causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Donna Gordon Blankinship
12/08/2015 05:18 pm ET
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE
(AP) -- As many as 200 people have gotten sick in a norovirus outbreak
at a downtown Seattle office building, health officials reported Monday.
Illness
at the Russell Investments Center grew exponentially after a catered
event in the building, but several cases were reported before the event
last Tuesday, according to Public Health-Seattle & King County,
which is still investigating the outbreak that began last week.
Between
175 and 200 cases have been reported to the health department either
independently or through a survey of people who went to the catered
event in the building.
"We anticipate that
number is probably low," said Dr. Meagan Kay, medical epidemiologist for
communicable diseases with the Seattle and King County Public Health
Department.
Two people spent one night in a
hospital because of norovirus, and another eight people were treated in
emergency rooms during the past week.
Exploding meteor: Bright bolide lights up Friday night sky from Chilliwack to Nanaimo to Seattle
By PATRICK JOHNSTON, The ProvinceDecember 5, 2015
A
bolide, or exploding meteor, similar to this one was spotted in the
night sky over the Lower Mainland and Western Washington on Friday
night.
Photograph by: NASA , The Province
Tina Robertson was just trying to catch a stray cat out in front of her property when she heard it.
“It freaked me right out,” she said.
Then she looked up to see a “big ball of fire.”
“It was moving like hell,” she said. “It was big, but not as big as that one in Russia.”
What
she and other witnesses as far afield as Seattle and Nanaimo seem to
have seen around 6:50 p.m. Friday was a type of meteor known as a
bolide. Bolides are as bright as a full moon; they’re a meteor that
doesn’t just burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, it explodes.
Washington mudslide's confirmed death toll rises to 16
By Matt Pearce
March 25, 2014, 7:49 p.m.
The
confirmed death toll for the Washington state mudslide rose to 16 on
Tuesday night, and officials said rescuers might have located eight more
bodies. If so, that would bring the toll to 24.
The
day was rainy and difficult for the more than 200 rescue personnel
scouring the mud and slurry just east of Oso, using cadaver dogs and
sometimes their hands to pick through the wreckage.
"We didn’t
find any signs of life; we didn’t locate anybody alive," Travis Hots,
chief of Snohomish County Fire District 21, told reporters. "Our
condolences go out to the families that have lost people here."
About
49 homes were smashed in northwestern Washington, about an hour north
of Seattle, when a massive segment of land cut away from a hill along
the Stillaguamish River on Saturday.
Rescuers have found no
survivors since the first day, and have been holding out diminishing
hope for a miracle rescue. Instead, the death toll has continued to
rise, with two more bodies recovered Tuesday, Hots said.
Hope for survivors of landslide dims as death toll rises as high as 24
By Ed Payne, Ana Cabrera and Mariano Castillo, CNN
updated 10:18 PM EDT, Tue March 25, 2014
After landslide, search for missing ahead
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Two more bodies have been recovered and up to eight more have been located
NEW: Lists of missing and unaccounted for are being revised, an official says
The body of a Navy commander and his dog have been recovered, the family says
Landslide has affected or destroyed nearly 50 structures, officials say
Darrington, Washington (CNN)
-- Brenda Neal was still at the firehouse at midnight, watching as
rescuers caked with mud returned from the search for survivors of a
massive landslide in rural Washington state.
But they had no answers for her about her missing husband, Steven.
There was despair on their faces, she said.
Rescuer: Houses exploded from the mud
Rescuers
on Tuesday continued to battle debris and mud -- with the consistency
of quicksand in some places -- in the search for survivors, but hopes
dimmed as news broke that more bodies were found.
"Unfortunately,
we didn't find any signs of life," Snohomish County Fire District 21
Chief Travis Hots told reporters during a briefing.
The
number of dead climbed to as high as 24 with the recovery Tuesday of
two more bodies and another eight believed to have been located in the
debris.
Authorities
did not immediately release the identities of the dead nor did they
provide details about where the bodies were found.
At
least 176 people are unaccounted for. Officials have stressed those
unaccounted for are not necessarily all victims of the disaster. They
say they believe many names have been duplicated.
Three
sheriff's deputies who specialize in missing persons cases have begun
reviewing the lists to get a more accurate count,Snohomish County
Emergency Management Director John Pennington said.
Steven Neal's family holds out hope, despite discouraging signs.
Neal is a plumber who was on a service call in the area where the landslide hit.
"None of us feel like he's gone," Brenda Neal said.
Her daughter, Sara, agreed: "I think if anyone had a chance to getting through, it would be him."
The
waiting came to end Tuesday for the family of U.S. Navy Cmdr. John
Regelbrugge, 49, whose body and that of his dog were found by his
brothers, his sister-in-law, Jackie Leighton, told CNN. Still missing is
Regelbrugge's wife, she said.
On Monday, search efforts yielded a grim result -- six bodies.
But searchers still are going through the area with the hopes of making rescues, Pennington said earlier Tuesday morning.
"I
believe in miracles, and I believe people can survive these events.
They've done it before," and they can do it again, he told reporters.
The
landslide covered about a square mile and was caused by groundwater
saturation tied to heavy rain in the area over the past month. It
affected Oso, with a population of about 180, and Darrington, a town of
about 1,350.
Authorities have been warning the search area remains unstable
A
volunteer rescue worker was injured Tuesday while working in an area
where the landslide struck, according to a statement released by the
Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. The rescue worker was hit in the head
by debris kicked up "in helicopter wash," it said.
President
Barack Obama, in the Netherlands on Tuesday, asked that "all Americans
to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state and the community
of Oso."
Obama said he had spoken with Gov. Jay Inslee and signed an emergency declaration.
Early hopeful signs, such as the rescue of a 4-year-old boy on the day of the landslide, have faded for some.
DARRINGTON, Washington (CNN) —Brenda
Neal was still at the firehouse at midnight, watching as rescuers caked
with mud returned from the search for survivors of a massive landslide
in rural Washington state.
But they had no answers for her about her missing husband, Steven.
There was despair on their faces, she said.
Rescuers
on Tuesday continued to battle debris and mud -- with the consistency
of quicksand in some places -- in the search for survivors, but hopes
dimmed as news broke that more bodies were found.
"Unfortunately,
we didn't find any signs of life," Snohomish County Fire District 21
Chief Travis Hots told reporters during a briefing.
The number of
dead climbed to as high as 24 with the recovery Tuesday of two more
bodies and another eight believed to have been located in the debris.
Authorities
did not immediately release the identities of the dead nor did they
provide details about where the bodies were found.
At least 176
people are unaccounted for. Officials have stressed those unaccounted
for are not necessarily all victims of the disaster. They say they
believe many names have been duplicated.
Three sheriff's deputies
who specialize in missing persons cases have begun reviewing the lists
to get a more accurate count, Snohomish County Emergency Management
Director John Pennington said.
Steven Neal's family holds out hope, despite discouraging signs.
Neal is a plumber who was on a service call in the area where the landslide hit.
"None of us feel like he's gone," Brenda Neal said.
Her daughter, Sara, agreed: "I think if anyone had a chance to getting through, it would be him."
The
waiting came to end Tuesday for the family of U.S. Navy Cmdr. John
Regelbrugge, 49, whose body and that of his dog were found by his
brothers, his sister-in-law, Jackie Leighton, told CNN. Still missing is
Regelbrugge's wife, she said.
On Monday, search efforts yielded a grim result -- six bodies.
But searchers still are going through the area with the hopes of making rescues, Pennington said earlier Tuesday morning.
SEATTLE -
A 48-year-old Granite Falls man was seriously injured when a tree
fell on his car on SR 203 and a 2-year-old was hurt when a branch fell
from a tree at Roosevelt Way NE and NE 42nd street in Seattle.
Credit: Martin Tuip
The only road in and out of Ernie's Grove near Snoqualmie was blocked by a tree hanging over live power lines.
The WSDOT closed the SR 520 floating bridge for two hours because of high winds and waves.
Brad Husick lives down the street from the bridge. He said he could hear the bridge creaking.
Credit: WSP
"I've lived here 12 years, and these are some of the highest waves I've seen,” he said.
Troopers said as many as 50 cars were abandoned on the westbound lanes. Troopers on foot escorted the people back to their cars.
The Department of Transportation said criteria for closing the bridge
to traffic and opening the draw span is 50 mph gusts sustained for 15
minutes. When a 40 mph gust is sustained for one minute, a warning alarm
calls crews to the bridge for inspection and monitoring.
DOT says they make every attempt to reduce disruption to drivers but in an emergency they have to close the bridge quickly.
The last time the 520 bridge was closed for wind and waves was Dec. 14, 2006.
I-90 remained open on Saturday. Although it had waves crashing over
it, it is a much bigger structure. The last time it was closed was the
Inauguration Day storm of 1993. Thousands without power
This map traces the course of the Seattle fault across Puget Sound, through the city and across Lake Washington to the Eastside.
The next big earthquake on the Seattle fault could trigger
destructive landslides in the city, potentially affecting a much larger
area than previously thought, and in areas outside those currently
considered to be landslide prone, a new University of Washington-led
study shows.
“A major quake along the Seattle fault is among the worst-case
scenarios for the area, since the fault runs just south of downtown.”
said Kate Allstadt, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences.
“Our study shows the need for dedicated studies on seismically induced
landsliding.”
Allstadt is the lead author of a paper documenting the research, published online Oct. 22 by the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
Co-authors are John Vidale, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences
and Allstadt’s doctoral adviser, and Arthur Frankel of the U.S.
Geological Survey, which funded the research.
The research offers a framework for simulating hundreds of earthquake scenarios for the Seattle area.
This map traces the course of the Seattle fault across Puget Sound, through the city and across Lake Washington to the Eastside.
While the region is vulnerable to deep earthquakes, shallow
earthquakes and catastrophic quakes in the Cascadia subduction zone off
the Pacific Northwest coast, a shallow crustal quake on the Seattle
fault would likely be most damaging to the city.
The Seattle fault crosses Bainbridge Island and cuts across West
Seattle and Beacon Hill, just south of downtown, then crosses Lake
Washington to the eastern suburbs and the Cascade foothills. The last
major quake on that fault was about 900 A.D., and scientists have
documented that it triggered giant landslides that caused large tracts
of forest land to slide to the bottom of Lake Washington.
The Seattle Basin that underlies much of the city amplifies ground
motion and generates strong seismic waves that tend to increase the
duration of the shaking. Allstadt said the hazard of landslides
triggered by earthquakes is very high and warrants greater attention, in
Seattle and in other areas prone to the phenomenon.
Rescuer: Houses exploded from the mud
