Massachusetts Fire Officials Urge Prompt Holiday Tree Disposal

January 4, 2013Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Massachusetts fire officials are urging residents not to keep Christmas trees too long into the new year.

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South Carolina Emergency Officials Study Sandy for Lessons

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Emergency officials on the South Carolina coast are looking at Superstorm Sandy to try to learn ways to better prepare for future storms.

Horry County emergency management director Randy Webster has been looking at the impact of Sandy, The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported.

The storm hit the East Coast on Oct. 29, causing problems from North Carolina to Maine. More than 100 deaths were reported, most from drowning in the storm surge. The storm had moved by Myrtle Beach two days earlier, far offshore.

Webster has considered what would have happened if Sandy had hit the area.

“The immediate coastal impacts would be just as catastrophic, but when you get into that larger infrastructure issue we don’t have the same issues,” he said.

The Grand Strand would not face the same problems with damage to the transportation network, Webster said. The concentration of the population is also much less than New York.

The storm would have been similar to Hurricane Hugo in 1989 as far as the storm surge, up to 13 feet, he said. But Sandy lacked Hugo’s winds.

“There’s more work to be done to recognize that storm surge needs to be at the forefront and not the category of the hurricane that represents the wind speeds,” Webster said.

Storm surge impacts have been studied for Horry and Georgetown counties. Study results for the rest of the state are expected to be ready before the 2013 hurricane season that begins in June, said Sam Hodge, Georgetown County’s emergency management director.

Both men worry about complacency, since Hugo was the last major storm to hit South Carolina.

“As prepared as we think we are, we don’t know until it actually happens,” Hodge said. “There’s the unknown of will the people actually evacuate? Will we have a death toll with people failing to evacuate like they did up there?”

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: Southeast NewsTopics: disaster preparedness, South Carolina, storm losses, Superstorm SandyHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Colorado Officials Take Sides in Fracking Dispute

September 25, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Some 60 mayors and city council members from 17 communities have asked Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper to have the state drop a lawsuit over fracking that challenges oil and gas drilling rules adopted by the city of Longmont.

The (Grand Junction) Daily Sentinel reported that the signers include the entire boards of Carbondale, Crested Butte, Lyons, Westminster and Bennett.

At issue is whether the state alone has the power to regulate oil and gas drilling, or whether local communities can add stipulations to how and where drilling can be performed. Hickenlooper and the energy producers argue that a patchwork of regulations is unworkable.

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Indiana Emergency Officials to Storm Chasers: Stay Home

April 27, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The recent outbreak of severe weather in Kansas had storm chasers out in full force. So many of them, in fact, that emergency officials everywhere are taking notice, and putting out warnings.

In Indiana, Delaware County Emergency Management Agency Director Jason Rogers’ advice to would-be storm chasers? Stay home.

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N.Y. Officials Target Safety on Dangerous Roadway in Nassau County

May 9, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Safety upgrades are planned for a New York highway that has averaged five pedestrian deaths annually since 2005.

Officials in Nassau County are targeting repainted crosswalks, increased signal time for walkers, and upgraded crossing signals.

Newsday reports the changes are coming to Hempstead Turnpike.

The 16-mile roadway that runs through the center of the county has seen an average of five pedestrian deaths annually between 2005 and 2011. State transportation officials say further safety improvements are also being studied.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a transportation advocacy group, ranks roads for pedestrians annually. Hempstead Turnpike has topped its list of most dangerous roads for walkers in the New York region four times.

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: East NewsTopics: pedestrian safety, road safetyHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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