Preparing for Emergency: Keeping the Lines of Communication ...

by Scott James,?December 23, 2012, 9:40 p.m.

The night was silent. Nani and Bill carefully crawled out of their bed, reaching underneath to pull out their hiking shoes. ?Was that an earthquake?? Bill asked. Nani replied, ?Either that or we just got hit by a semi truck.?

They heard glass shattering in the background. Nani flipped on her flashlight. ?Wow, what a mess,? Bill said as he looked around their bedroom. As they made their way to the front door with their Map Your Neighborhood guide, Bill tore off the last page. He affixed it to the outside of their door showing a large ?OK? to anyone passing by.

Nani tried both her cell phone and landline telephone. ?They?re both out.? she told Bill. ?Looks like our communication systems just went seriously low-tech.?

The desire for information is a common response after a natural disaster, which is made complicated when the disaster is widespread. Emergencies will knock out our normal means of communication and, unless we?ve done a bit of pre-planning, we?ll be left in the (informational) dark. In a widespread emergency, normal communications (telephone lines, cell towers) may not be restored for weeks to months, as we?ve seen in the aftermath of recent earthquakes and tsunamis. The information needed after an emergency ranges from broad (how widespread an area was affected, which dictates how soon help will arrive) to narrow (two people on our street need medical attention ASAP). By ensuring you have two-way communications to and from both your hyperlocal area as well as your region, you can make significantly better decisions for yourself, your family, and your neighbors.

Emergency Communication Strategies

As we learned in Dr. Johnson?s Map Your Neighborhood program, communications begin right away after a disaster with the placement of an OK sign or a HELP sign on your front door. Neighbors who have gathered and then sent out a team to canvas the street will use these signs to focus quickly on those most in need. Since we cannot rely on any technology communication such as telephones immediately after an emergency, this low-tech solution is both appropriate and efficient.

People Power.?Signs are one low-tech communication option. Bicycles, horses, and even a teenager from the cross country team are other possibilities for helping communications flow after a disaster that has blocked our roads from vehicular travel. Your daily walk will give you a good idea of how far you can travel by foot to solicit information from and share news with neighbors. Go! Bainbridge?is an organization dedicated to expanded nonvehicular travel and transportation around our town and a great resource for anyone walking, biking, or horse riding.

Two-Way Radios.?We can also leverage high-tech solutions during post-disaster Map Your Neighborhood safety sweeps, such as short-range two-way radios (also known as walkie talkies) that have been pre-charged or stored with fresh batteries removed but attached. Fast communication via these short-range devices is particularly important for more dense housing like apartment complexes where shouting for help to Map Your Neighborhood teammates will be ineffective as well as for exurban neighborhoods with more distance among homes.

Two-way radios are a useful addition to any go bag?and have value in nonemergency times when cell phones are not reliable, such as during hiking. Long-range two-way radios can transmit over distances from 5 to 20 miles. However, for both short- and long-range radios, keep in mind that the manufacturers grossly overstate the distance of effectiveness. Any obstruction to the signal (trees, walls, vehicles) will cause interference and lower the effective range.

Having at least one of these long-range radios in each neighborhood is important for communication with other neighborhoods and the emergency professionals in the area who are gathering information and coordinating relief efforts. Some disasters we can see coming?like a hurricane or a flood?and take appropriate measures. But many disasters, such as tornados or earthquakes, don?t announce themselves in advance. It?s for those unknowable emergencies that communication before the event is so important. A small bit of discussion and planning ahead of time can prepare a neighborhood. Part of that pre-planning includes equipping your street with the correct communications gear, since your local Ace Hardware will sell out of walkie talkies within the first 30 minutes of an emergency.

When looking at emergency weather radios and two-way communication devices (both short-range and long-range), remember to think through how to power those devices in a long emergency. After Hurricane Sandy, we saw citizens creating and sharing solar panel recharging hot spots on street corners. As we discussed in our article on energy, one set of chargers can power an entire street full of devices.

Let?s Talk Ham.?The use of both short- and long-wave handheld radios is important for family reunification plans that have wisely designated an out-of-area contact person to help coordinate the gathering of family members in a disaster area. But what to do when both cell and phone systems are down and you are trying to reach your out-of-area contact person? Ham radio bridges the gap between local communication and long-distance communication in a no-power scenario after a natural disaster.

Thankfully our town has an active radio club?that can connect the various parts of our small town even when our phone and cell systems have become overwhelmed and failed. David?Gutierrez of the Bainbridge Amateur Radio Club will work with the fire department in the aftermath of a disaster to reestablish communications across the town and beyond.

We currently have ham radio installations at several neighborhood shelters. Through Prepared Neighborhoods, we are recruiting more with the goal of having a shelter within walking distance of every neighborhood in our town. Post-disaster, after they secure their own family and immediate neighborhoods, local ham radio operators are to walk to their nearest shelter equipped with ham radio equipment so they can help with communications. These shelters?such as Islandwood?and the Senior Center?are being set up by Prepared Neighborhoods to provide for winter warmth and year-round communications with the emergency professionals in our town.

Emergency Operating Centers.?On Bainbridge Island, the fire department is responsible for training city employees in emergency preparedness, creating an Emergency Operating Center system, and encouraging Map Your Neighborhood preparation among citizens. I asked Assistant Fire Chief Luke Carpenter about our emergency procedures. He said,??The Emergency Operating Center (EOC) system exists to provide continuity of service for the governance of our island. It is a locus for information after a large disaster, for both the collection and dissemination of information. In an emergency, all community needs like public works come into our EOC. If our local resources can handle it, the resources get dispatched. If we can?t handle the request locally, we push it up to the county?s EOC, and the process repeats there with them pulling from their county resources. From there the request can quickly go up to state and federal levels for fulfillment.?

Carpenter gave an example specific to Bainbridge Island and the system of neighborhood shelters we are currently setting up: ?Let?s take fuel trucks as an example. If we lose power, the warming center at the Senior Center is activated. But if we lose power for an extended period, their propane-fired system will need to be refilled as it only has a six-day supply of fuel. That pending need comes to us, and our EOC looks at our facilities. Because there is no propane storage on the island, we would pass that request on to the next communication node off our island: the Kitsap County Department of Emergency Management (KCDEM) EOC. The propane would likely be delivered via barge if the bridge is down and the ferries are not operating.?

Bulletin Boards.?Years ago our town had a bulletin board system in place for distributing information in situations in which Internet and telephone systems were inoperable. An acrylic holder was mounted outside Ace Hardware to protect the paper flyer that would be posted as part of that system. The system has since fallen by the wayside, but it could be resurrected quickly if citizens were to take responsibility for the its maintenance. An map of these bulletin board locations could be maintained by the Prepared Neighborhoods team for the use of our officials in an emergency.

Backup Communications Systems.?To further facilitate communications, Prepared Neighborhoods has contracted with the software development team Recovers?to create the backup systems that our town would be able to use?with or without power?for communications among neighborhoods, our shelters, and our professionals at the fire department. Bainbridge Island is the first Recovers project to be worked on before a natural disaster has struck (most of their clients are in the middle of experiencing a flood or the aftermath of a tornado).

The Recovers team has been quite responsive to our numerous change requests for tweaking their online tools to better fit a team working on preparedness rather than a team responding to an existing emergency. Caitria O?Neill is the CEO and Co-Founder of Recovers. We talk every week as we?re building out the Bainbridge Island site on their platform. I recently asked her specifically about the importance of communications.

Both disaster preparedness and recovery depend upon the ability of a community to communicate with itself and the outside world. Every community has a wide range of technical capability. There will be extremely tech-savvy households standing right next to a resident who chooses not to have any devices that connect to the Internet. When trying to reach people with information on how to prepare and recovery information in the case of a disaster, you have to keep this in mind. A working system has to continue to function when the web goes down in an emergency.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, we saw a few amazing communication systems spring up. New York City residents with web connectivity and tech expertise scraped the Internet for information, updates, and explanations of how to access aid. They then shared this information using a variety of social media tools and other software. People who saw it could print off a resource sheet and distribute it in one of the ?dead zones? to those who could not access and collect this information themselves. Gaps in Internet access were covered by volunteers who knew that they could help by walking around with information on foot.

Really, the tools don?t matter as much as the plan. You can train residents right now where to find information to print and distribute after a disaster. You can leverage a door-to-door volunteer who is using an iPad or paper forms for data collection. The important thing is to start planning and to assume different levels of tech capability for each neighborhood.

Local Media.?In addition to leveraging communications experts from afar, we?ve also turned to experts in our own backyard to help our emergency preparedness professionals quickly and efficiently get out the word during and after emergencies. Our local go-to source for daily news on our island is called Inside Bainbridge,?published by Julie Hall and Sarah Lane (disclosure: Sarah is also one of my editors!). Just as other local citizens have their own Step 10 in the Map Your Neighborhood procedures, Sarah and Julie are on the hook for helping our fire department and local ham radio operators with navigating social media and texting for the dissemination of emergency response information. I asked Sarah about her preparation for post-disaster communication:

With our increased awareness of what happens to media in an emergency, in some ways it feels like we are returning to an older time, a time with a town crier or a posted broadside. But really what?s happening is we are learning to be more agile and to use the wide array of tools available to us. We start with our website. When that goes down, we use our phones and post via Twitter. When the cell towers are down, we turn to ham radio and send out news that way.

I feel we?re very fortunate to have a forward thinking Fire Department at the helm, inviting us to participate in the process early on, well before the emergency, because they have a good understanding of the options and the way the different technologies work and then stop working. They understand that commanding an audience and knowing how to deliver the news are essential, no matter what the medium.

Starting the Conversation Before the Disaster

Citizens can alleviate much of the pressure put on our preparedness professionals in a time of widespread crisis by coordinating efforts directly among neighborhoods to leverage our huge range of collective skills. As we discussed earlier, one Map Your Neighborhood street may have three medically trained citizens living on it, and another may have two structural engineers. When a disaster strikes, after each Map Your Neighborhood street has ensured its initial stability, residents can begin to communicate with other nearby streets to asses their needs. Being able to swap a nurse for a structural engineer greatly benefits both locations.

Communication is one of the building blocks to good relationships, whether it is with your spouse or the rest of your neighborhood. The success of your Map Your Neighborhood project relies on open dialogue with the rest of your neighbors at least once a year to update one other on any special needs, changes in the home, and additional skills you?ve learned that year that can be of benefit to the neighborhood.

Meeting the Neighbors.?We do our Map Your Neighborhood annual get-together as a post-holiday party each year, part of a ?we can survive another winter together? set of holiday parties, usually set in January after the business of the season has begun to wane a bit. We?ll spend ?about 45 minutes discussing Map Your Neighborhood and the rest of the evening socializing. But that?s just for our street.

Bainbridge Islander Leslie Marshall has spent several years combining individual streets in her Commodore neighborhood to form a cohesive Map Your Neighborhood group spanning 65 homes.

People have busy enough schedules that it is difficult to find a time that works for even a majority of the invitees, let alone everyone. What has worked for me is to go to every home in our neighborhood, explain to the adult who answers the door just what the MYN and Prepared Neighborhoods initiatives are all about, and have that person fill out the questionnaire right then. If no one is home when I visit or if it is just not a good time for a conversation, then I keep returning until I can have the chat and collect the data. (Some of the conversations continued for an hour or more!) If the person declines to participate (which happened for just two homes out of 65), I thank them and do not return.

This takes time but has the benefit of being good exercise in the fresh air for me! It also helps build trust. Some neighbors have, after our conversation, walked with me to their next-door neighbor to introduce me. I have gotten to know each of our neighbors personally through these conversations, and we chat briefly when I pass them by on my daily walks. We made an email distribution list, which has a secondary use when dealing with the rash of burglaries in our neighborhood about two years ago.

When I decided that our list really needed updating this year, it was much easier to collect the data?everyone except the newest neighbors knew me at least by name, and this time the data were going to our highly regarded Fire Department. Many thanked me for keeping us all informed and spontaneously offered even more assistance if any emergency did arise. This kind of approach obviously takes a lot of time, but the results are impressively thorough. And it is a great way for a newcomer (which I was when this all started) to get connected in a deep way to one?s community.

A Community Conversation. Communications about neighbors taking care of neighbors do not need to be limited to Map Your Neighborhood conversations. As we?ve been discussing in previous articles, the connection between emergency preparedness and sustainability in our neighborhoods spans multiple topics, from water and food to shelter and transportation.

Bringing interesting conversations to the forefront on a wide variety of topics important to citizens is the passion of Bainbridge Islander Ann Warman.?Ann?s most recent venture, VillageSpeak,is a forum in which local is put at the forefront. ?Local issues, local leaders, and local discussions? is the tagline for this forum that cultivates listening, learning, and engaging on issues important to the heart of a small town.

VillageSpeak was formed as a nonpartisan organization, to bring people together from all across town, connecting diverse voices and ideas. We wanted to deepen neighborly exchange and create a regular forum to explore local issues from many different perspectives before challenges hit the fire, not just during and after.

Connected community gives character to place. It?s through open conversations that town involvement deepens, that mutual concern is elevated, and that new paths are discovered, cultivating our community as a responsive, safe place for individuals and families. Building community is a process that spans the lifetime of a village and its people. Our town thrives when inclusion, collaborative discussion, and civic participation are honored and encouraged.

As Ann described, conversations within our neighborhoods about preparedness are not just relegated to what we do during and after an emergency. To build true resiliency and create true sustainability in our community and our individual lives, we can take action now. Rather than just lamenting the latest natural disaster or foolishly thinking ?it can?t happen here,? consider taking action instead. Start with a discussion with just a few of your neighbors about checking in on each other after a disaster. And enjoy the peace of mind those new relationships bring.

Related Posts:

Preparing for Emergency

Preparing for Emergency: Developing Resilience Within a Community

Preparing for Emergency: Starting with Food

Preparing for Emergency: Water?The Precious Resource

Preparing for Emergency: Come on Baby Light My Fire

Preparing for Emergency: Gimme Shelter

Disaster Preparedness Part 5: Bainbridge Hoods Organizing

Disaster Preparedness Part 4: Your New Year?s Resolution

Disaster Preparedness Part 3: Family First

Disaster Preparedness Part 2: People Get Ready

Disaster Preparedness Part 1: The Fire Department Takes Over?

Map Your Neighborhood Party This Evening: Get Prepared

Scott James is an entrepreneur, advisor, investor, and the founder of Prepared Neighborhoods, a program of Sustainable Bainbridge. More details at www.scottjames.me. Join the conversation about this series in the comments below or at?www.preparedneighborhoods.com.

Photos by Richard Topalovich, Matt Debnam, teofilo, Alan Turkus, Peter Fristedt, Jim Champion, and Bill Stilwell.

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?2012 Inside Bainbridge. All rights reserved. This material, including original photographs, may not be rewritten, republished, redistributed, or broadcast without permission.

Source: http://www.insidebainbridge.com/2012/12/24/preparing-for-emergency-3/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=preparing-for-emergency-3

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Delhi gangrape: Anger about the crime is justified, not violence, says ...

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday addressed the nation on the Delhi gangrape issue and appealed for peace. In his short address to the people of India, Singh said that while the "anger about the crime was justified, violence was not". He assured that the government would make all efforts to ensure the safety of women in the country.

"As a father of three daughters myself, I feel as

strongly about this as each one of you. My wife, my family and I are all joined in our concern for the young woman who was the survivor of this heinous crime," he said in his address. Appealing to maintain peace, Singh said: "I appeal to all sections of the society to maintain peace and help us in our efforts."

"Anger for this crime is justified but not violence. Let's pray for her and her loved ones," he said. "I assure you that we will make all possible efforts to

ensure security and safety to all women in this country," the Prime Minister added in his address. He assured that the government "will examine into delay not only the responses to this terrible crime but also all aspects concerning the safety

and security of women."

Breaking his silence on the gangrape case of a 23-year-old woman, who was brutally raped and beaten up in a moving bus in the national capital on the fateful night of November 17, Singh had on Sunday night said that the public anger was "genuine" and "justified" but appealed for peace while promising all steps to ensure safety of women in the country.

Thousands of protesters in Delhi took to the streets on Saturday and Sunday demanding justice for the rape survivor and death penalty for the culprits. The Prime Minister also expressed sadness over the turn of events that led to clashes between the angry protesters and the police at India Gate on Sunday.

"We are all joined in our concern for the young woman who was the victim of a heinous crime in Delhi. There is genuine and justified anger and anguish at this ghastly incident. We are constantly monitoring her medical condition. Let us all pray for her and her loved ones during this critical time," he said in a statement.

"I feel deeply sad at the turn of events leading to clashes between protesters and police forces. I appeal to all concerned citizens to maintain peace and calm," he added. The Prime Minister's statement came as protests continued for the sixth day on Sunday and turned violent.

Assuring safety and security of women across the country, Singh in his statement said, "I assure you that we will make all possible efforts to ensure security and safety to all women in this country. I seek the cooperation of all sections of the society to help us in this endeavour and maintain peace."

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Though earlier the meeting was to take place at Hyderabad House in Delhi, due to law and order concerns Singh said he'll meet Putin at his residence 7 RCR.

(With additional information from PTI)

Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-gangrape-anger-for-the-crime-is-justified-not-violence-says-pm/312040-37-64.html

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Official: Navy SEAL from Pottstown died of apparent suicide - abc27 ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. military officials are investigating the apparent suicide of a Navy SEAL commander in Afghanistan.

A U.S. military official says SEAL Team Four member Cdr. Job W. Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pa., died Saturday of a non-combat-related injury that the official says "appears to be the result of suicide."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the death is still being investigated.

Troops from SEAL Team 4, which is based in Virginia Beach, Va., are part of the mission to train Afghan local police to stave off the Taliban in remote parts of Afghanistan.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Source: http://www.abc27.com/story/20416128/official-navy-seal-from-pottstown-died-of-apparent-suicide

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The world mourns with Connecticut; gifts pour in

Volunteer Anthony Vessicchio of East Haven, Conn., helps to sort tables full of donated toys at the town hall in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Volunteer Anthony Vessicchio of East Haven, Conn., helps to sort tables full of donated toys at the town hall in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A message of support hangs over a table full of donated toys at the town hall in Newtown, Conn., Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

ADDS NAME TO DAUGHTER - Robbie Parker, left, carries his daughter, Madeline, 4, following funeral services for his 6-year old daughter, Connecticut elementary shooting victim Emilie Parker, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Ogden, Utah. Emilie, whose family has Ogden roots, was one of the victims killed in a Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

A girl looks into the hearse carrying the casket of Josephine Gay after the funeral services at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012, in Newtown. Gay, was one of 20 children and six adult victims killed in on the Dec. 14 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown. (AP Photo/The News-Times, Cody Duty) MANDATORY CREDITCREDIT

A horse drawn carriage carrying the body of Anna Grace Marquez-Greene leaves the church after her funeral in Bloomfield, Conn., Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012. Marquez-Greene, 6, was killed when gunman Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week, killing 26 people, including 20 children, before killing himself. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)(AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) ? People around the world are grieving with residents of Newtown, and many are expressing their support by sending toys, money and other gifts to the town.

They were moved by the shocking murders of 20 little children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School just over a week ago.

The outpouring of tens of thousands of teddy bears, Barbie dolls, soccer balls, board games and more has come from toy stores, organizations and individuals worldwide.

"It's their way of grieving. They say, 'I feel so bad, I just want to do something to reach out,'" said Bobbi Veach, who was helping out Saturday at Edmond Town Hall, where all of Newtown's children were invited to choose a toy.

Even as the town was trying to spread Christmas joy on Saturday, tiny victims of the massacre were still being buried. A service was held in Ogden, Utah, for 6-year-old Emilie Parker. Others were held in Connecticut for 7-year-old Josephine Gay and 6-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene.

In Ogden, people tied pink ribbons around trees and utility poles in memory of Emilie, who was buried at Evergreen Memorial Park next to her maternal grandfather, who died 2? months earlier.

Dozens of emergency responders paid their respects at the start of the service for Josephine at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown, walking through the church and up to the altar.

A horse-drawn carriage brought the miniature coffin of Ana to The First Cathedral church in Bloomfield, where 1,000 mourners gathered to bid goodbye. The service included a performance by Harry Connick, Jr., who has played with the girl's jazz saxophonist father, Jimmy Greene.

Police say 20-year-old Adam Lanza was the killer. They say he had killed his mother earlier across town and took his own life after the school massacre. Police still don't know why he did it.

Millions of dollars have poured into Newton in the aftermath of the tragedy. The United Way of Western Connecticut said the official fund for donations had $2.8 million in it on Saturday. Others sent envelopes stuffed with cash to pay for coffee at the general store, and a shipment of cupcakes arrived from a gourmet bakery in Beverly Hills, California.

The Postal Service reported a six-fold increase in mail in the town and set up a unique post office box to handle it. Some letters were addressed to the "First Responders" or just "The People of Newtown." One card arrived from Georgia addressed to "The families of 6 amazing women and 20 beloved angels." Many contained checks.

"This is just the proof of the love that's in this country," Postmaster Cathy Zieff said.

Peter Leone said he was busy at his Newtown General Store when he got a phone call from a woman in Alaska who wanted to give him her credit card number.

"She said, 'I'm paying for the next $500 of food that goes out your door,'" Leone said. "About a half hour later another gentleman called, I think from the West Coast, and he did the same thing for $2,000."

The basement of the town hall building resembled a toy store, with piles of stuffed animals, dolls, games, and other gifts. They all were inspected and examined by bomb-sniffing dogs. The children could choose whatever they wanted.

Newtown resident Amy Mangold, director of the local Parks and Recreation department, attended with her 12-year-old daughter, Cory. She acknowledged that most attendees could afford to buy their own gifts but said "this means people really care about what's happening here. They know we need comfort and want to heal."

Many people have placed flowers, candles and stuffed animals at makeshift memorials that have popped up all over town. Others are stopping by the Edmond Town Hall to drop off food, toys or cash. About 60,000 teddy bears were donated, said Ann Benoure, a social services caseworker who was working at the town hall.

Tom Mahoney, the building administrator who's in charge of handling gifts, said the town plans to donate whatever is left to shelters or other charities.

In addition to the town's official fund, other private funds have been set up. Former Sandy Hook student Ryan Kraft, who once was Lanza's babysitter, set up a fund with other alumni that has collected almost $150,000. It is earmarked for the Sandy Hook PTA.

Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel is raising money for a memorial to the victims. He said one man wrote a check for $52,000 for the project.

Several colleges, including the University of Connecticut, have set up scholarship funds for Sandy Hook students and relatives of victims.

A board of Newtown community leaders is being established to determine where they money is most needed, said Isabel Almeida with the local United Way.

While the town is grateful for all the support, Almeida said, it has no more room for gifts. She encouraged people to donate to others in memory of Sandy Hook victims.

"Send those teddy bears to a school in your community or an organization that serves low-income children, who are in need this holiday season, and do it in memory of our children," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed, Christopher Sullivan, Eileen AJ Connelly, Susan Haigh and John Christoffersen contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-23-Connecticut%20School%20Shooting/id-2e842dc7383a469bb71c40fa39a37c8a

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Pot farms wreaking havoc on Northern California environment

EUREKA, Calif. ? State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish.

In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants ? mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it.

"That is just one small watershed," said Scott Bauer, the state scientist in charge of the coho recovery on the North Coast for the Department of Fish and Game. "You extrapolate that for all the other tributaries, just of the Eel, and you get a lot of marijuana sucking up a lot of water.? This threatens species we are spending millions of dollars to recover."

The marijuana boom that came with the sudden rise of medical cannabis in California has wreaked havoc on the fragile habitats of the North Coast and other parts of California. With little or no oversight, farmers have illegally mowed down timber, graded mountaintops flat for sprawling greenhouses, dispersed poisons and pesticides, drained streams and polluted watersheds.

Because marijuana is unregulated in California and illegal under federal law, most growers still operate in the shadows, and scientists have little hard data on their collective effect. But they are getting ever more ugly snapshots.

A study led by researchers at UC Davis found that a rare forest carnivore called a fisher was being poisoned in Humboldt County and near Yosemite in the Sierra Nevada.

The team concluded in its July report that the weasel-like animals were probably eating rodenticides that marijuana growers employ to keep animals from gnawing on their plants, or they were preying on smaller rodents that had consumed the deadly bait. Forty-six of 58 fisher carcasses the team analyzed had rat poison in their systems.

Mark Higley, a wildlife biologist on the Hoopa Indian Reservation in eastern Humboldt who worked on the study, is incredulous over the poisons that growers are bringing in.

"Carbofuran," he said. "It seems like they're using that to kill bears and things like that that raid their camps. So they mix it up with tuna or sardine, and the bears eat that and die."

The insecticide is lethal to humans in small doses, requires a special permit from the EPA and is banned in other countries. Authorities are now regularly finding it at large-scale operations in some of California's most sensitive ecosystems.

It is just one in a litany of pollutants seeping into the watershed from pot farms: fertilizers, soil amendments, miticides, rodenticides, fungicides, plant hormones, diesel fuel, human waste.

Scientists suspect that nutrient runoff from excess potting soil and fertilizers, combined with lower-than-normal river flow due to diversions, has caused a rash of toxic blue-green algae blooms in the North Coast rivers over the last decade.

The cyanobacteria outbreaks threaten public health for swimmers and kill aquatic invertebrates that salmon and steelhead trout eat. Now, officials warn residents in late summer and fall to stay out of certain stretches of water and keep their dogs out. Eleven dogs have died from ingesting the floating algae since 2001.

The effects are disheartening to many locals because healthier salmon runs were signaling that the rivers were gradually improving from the damage caused by more than a century of logging.

"Now with these water diversions, we're potentially slamming the door on salmon recovery," said Scott Greacen, director of Friends of the Eel River.

In June, Bauer and other agency scientists accompanied game wardens as they executed six search warrants on growers illegally sucking water from tributaries of the Trinity River. At one, he came upon a group of 20-somethings with Michigan license plates on their vehicles, camping next to 400 plants. He followed an irrigation line up to a creek, where the growers had dug a pond and lined it with plastic.

"I started talking to this guy, and he says he used to be an Earth First! tree-sitter, saving the trees," Bauer said. "I told him everything he was doing here negates everything he did as an environmentalist."

The man was a small-timer in this new gold rush. As marijuana floods the market and prices drop, many farmers are cultivating ever bigger crops to make a profit. They now cut huge clearings for industrial-scale greenhouses. With no permits or provisions for runoff, the operations dump tons of silt into the streams during the rainy season.

Scanning Google Earth in his office recently, Bauer came upon a "mega grow" that did not exist the year before ? a 4-acre bald spot in the forest with 42 greenhouses, each 100 feet long.

Figuring a single greenhouse that size would hold 80 plants, and each plant uses about 5 gallons of water a day, he estimated the operation would consume 2 million gallons of water in the dry season and unleash a torrent of sediment in the wet season.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/5WuwqWFz4PM/la-me-pot-enviro-20121223,0,2366168.story

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This Musical Firewall Is Pretty But Won't Keep Your Network Safe

Sure, firewalls are an important part of secure computing, but they aren't nearly as cool as their name suggests. You know, like an actual wall made out of fire. This firewall isn't exactly that either, but it's a step closer, and bears at least a passing resemblance to fire despite being a bit safer to touch. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CaqFY44qAC0/this-musical-firewall-is-pretty-but-wont-keep-your-network-safe

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New Blog Features Polls About Renewable Energy and Energy ...

Setbal, Portugal ( freepressreleases ) December 21, 2012 ? David Cameron, the English Prime minister, has installed a small urban wind system in his official residence in a clear sign of support to the wind energy industry ? something that contrasts with the position of another conservative leader, Ronald Regan, in the eighties, when he ordered the removal of the solar panels installed in the White House by his predecessor, President Jimmy Carter.

These events, and the position of the right and the left over the wind and renewable energies, or the resistance of many people to the proximity of wind systems to their properties, are part of a poll created by House-Energy.com, in its new blog, launched this month.

This first poll has two parts?, explains Eduardo Reisinho, a co-founder of the House-Energy.com project. One is more general or in some ways more political. It involves some curious events like the fact that big oil companies are also investing in wind and solar projects. The other aims to find out whether people are well informed in issues like the fact that the wind energy estimated capacity is nine times that of solar energy. That?s just an example?

But does the poll intend to survey any groups in particular? No, said Eduardo. We are not trying to promote it among any specific group. The positions of the green communities or other people more directly related to the wind industry are well known. It?s much more interesting to see where the wider public stands.

And how representative can the poll results be? A wide participation would make it more representative, of course, explained Eduardo. And that?s why we are trying to raise the attention for it among the media. Anyway the poll also intends to be informative, and representativeness isn?t all that we are looking for. Each question of the poll is preceded by some facts or explanations? Interaction and information are of equal importance to us.

Eduardo also said that House-Energy.com intends to launch other polls about energy efficiency and home improvement issues. We have amassed a wide set of information in our site, and we want to share it in a more interactive way, with a wider public, through our new blog. Home energy efficiency is very important. Conservation measures in our homes can provide a reduction of at least 30% in energy consumption. Combined with the use of renewables that?s a lot, even when it comes to global warming or energy security, he added.

To find out more, and to participate in the poll: http://house-energy.com/blog/

To visit the main site: http://www.house-energy.com/

Contact:
Eduardo Reisinho | House-Energy.com
moc.liamgnull@ygrenE.esuoH.tcatnoC

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Source: http://www.freepressreleases.com/blog-features-polls-renewable-energy-energy-efficiency-2/331411

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