Miscellaneous News

Miragedriver

Brigadier
I read this article and it just breaks my heart to think of the terror this family when through at the very end. Very very sad:(. The man will have regrets and second thought for the rest of his life.
I'm going home early today to hug my wife and children.


Missing Mom Swept Away by Texas Floods Called Sister as Rain Poured Down

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Julie Shields said her sister Laura McComb had been in touch with her Saturday night when the rain started pouring down in Wimberley, a river town between Austin and San Antonio.

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Laura and her husband, Jonathan McComb, had come with their 4- and 6-year-old children as part of a bigger group of friends from Corpus Christi who wanted to spend
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Weekend on the Blanco River.

"My sister and I had been texting and talking throughout the night and she had told me around 11:00 that water had started coming in," Shields told ABC News affiliate
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in Austin.

About three hours later, Shields became the last person to hear from her sister, who’s still missing, along with her children.

"She called me, she said 'I'm in a house. I'm floating down the river. Tell mom and dad I love you and pray,'" Shields told KVUE.

Jonathan McComb survived and was found on a river bank by rescue crews. He broke his rib, sternum and suffered a collapsed lung, and has been treated at a hospital in San Antonio.

"He is absolutely devastated,” Shields said. “He did everything he possibly could to save them.

"What happened was the house slammed into a bridge and the house broke in two and they had all been in the house together holding hands but when the house hit the bridge and it separated, he got separated from everyone else," she said.

The state team from the
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was to resume their search this morning for the McCombs and the nine others who are still missing, but the family is not overly optimistic.

"I think recognizing with what's happening with the weather, we all know and we have accepted that they're gone," Shields said.

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SteelBird

Colonel
China says South Korean traveller tested positive for Mers virus
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A South Korean man who travelled to China has tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers), a potentially deadly virus, officials said.

This comes as a Hong Kong woman, who shared a flight with a male Korean patient, was rushed to hospital in Sham Shui Po today with Mers symptoms.

The 44-year-old man travelled to Hong Kong on Tuesday afternoon, then travelled by bus to Huizhou in Guangdong province. His elder sister, who is in South Korea, also contracted the deadly virus.

The man had visited his father - who also contracted the virus - on May 16, then developed a fever three days later. He sought medical help on May 25 before leaving for Hong Kong the next day, it was reported.

He was found to have a fever and cough by airport medical officers at Hong Kong airport. Leung Ting-hung, controller of the Centre for Health Protection, said the man denied having any connections with Mers patients or visiting medical facilities where Mers patients were treated when checked by medical staff.

He was quarantined and tested in Huizhou city. Leung said the medical staffer who had contact with the man tested negative for Mers or influenza.

The man was among 166 passengers and crew members onboard Asiana Airlines flight OZ723 that arrived in Hong Kong, and some 10 commuters on a cross-border bus that left from the airport bus station for the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

South Korea has already confirmed nine Mers cases so far, though none are in critical condition.

The infections were all traced to the original case of a man in his late 60s diagnosed on May 20 after returning from a trip to Saudi Arabia.
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ABC78

Junior Member
Massive rescue operation underway on the Yangtze River

[Massive rescue operation underway on the Yangtze River

Published on Jun 1, 2015

A passenger ship carrying 458 people capsized in the Yangtze River while traveling from Nanjing to Chongqing. Rescue teams have located the ship in the Hubei section of the River on Tuesday morning. Thirteen people have been rescued so far.]


[Animation shows how Eastern Star ship capsized

Published on Jun 2, 2015

An animation showing how the Eastern Star ship, carrying 458 passengers, capsized on the Yangtze River on Monday night. Only 14 have been rescued so far and hundreds are still missing.]

 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Really sad situation. Sounds like the vessel capsized during a violent storm...some are saying a tornado.

One of the survivors who got out into the Yangtze, said he only had 30 seconds as it rolled over to get out.

I am afraid they are not going to find very many alive in there.

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shen

Senior Member
Big tragedy. If all those people missing are dead, this would be biggest passenger ship disaster since the founding of PRC. One old lady rescue after rescuers established communication by hammering on the upturned hull and cut the hull open.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
As of two hours ago, Yahoo News reported this:

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Yahoo News said:
JIANLI, China (AP) — Hopes dimmed Wednesday for rescuing more than 400 people still trapped aboard a capsized river cruise ship that overturned in stormy weather about 36 hours earlier, as hundreds of rescuers searched the Yangtze River site in what could become the deadliest Chinese maritime accident in decades.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that 13 bodies had been pulled from the boat, which was floating with a sliver of its hull jutting from the grey river water. A total of fourteen people have been rescued, but the vast majority of the 456 people on board, many of them elderly tourists, were unaccounted for.

The Eastern Star was traveling upstream Monday night from the eastern city of Nanjing to the southwestern city of Chongqing when it overturned in China's Hubei Province in what state media reported as a cyclone with winds of up to 80 mph (130 kph).

State media reported that rescuers heard people yelling for help within the overturned hull, and divers rescued a 65-year-old woman and, later, two men who had been trapped. CCTV said more people had been found and were being rescued, but did not say whether they were still inside the overturned hull.

The yelling was heard Tuesday, and it is not known if any sounds were heard Wednesday. CCTV said rescuers would possibly support the ship with a giant crane while they cut into portions of the hull.

Access to the site of the site was blocked by police and paramilitary troops stationed along the Yangtze river embankment. Scores of trucks belonging to the People's Armed Police were parked along the verge and at least two ambulances were seeing leaving the area with their lights on and sirens blaring.

Huang Delong, a deck hand on a car ferry crossing the Yangtze several kilometers (miles) upstream of the site, said he was working Monday evening when the weather turned nasty.

"From about 9 p.m. it began raining extremely hard, then the cyclone hit and the wind was really terrifying," Huang said while crossing the broad river in a steady drizzle Tuesday afternoon.

Huang said he thought it was the worst disaster on that stretch of the river — the world's third-longest river — in living memory. The official Xinhua News Agency said the sinking could become the country's worst shipping accident in seven decades.

"We will do everything we can to rescue everyone trapped in there, no matter they're still alive or not, and we will treat them as our own families," Hubei military region commander Chen Shoumin said at a news conference shown live on CCTV.

The survivors included the ship's captain and chief engineer, both of whom were taken into police custody, CCTV said. Relatives who gathered in Shanghai, where many of the tourists started their journey by bus, questioned whether the captain did enough to ensure the passengers' safety and demanded answers from local officials in unruly scenes that drew a heavy police response.

Xinhua quoted the captain and the chief engineer as saying the four-level Eastern Star sank quickly. The Communist Party-run People's Daily said the ship sank within two minutes.

Tour guide Zhang Hui said in an interview with the state-run Xinhua News Agency from his hospital bed that he grabbed a life jacket with seconds to spare as the ship listed in the storm, sending bottles rolling off tables and suddenly turned all the way over.

Zhang, 43, said he drifted in the Yangtze all night despite not being able to swim, reaching shore as dawn approached.

"The raindrops hitting my face felt like hailstones," he said. "'Just hang in there a little longer,' I told myself."

Some survivors swam ashore, but others were rescued after search teams climbed on the upside-down hull.

Thirteen navy divers were on the scene and 170 more were joining them, Chen said.

The 65-year-old woman was rescued by divers who took an extra breathing apparatus up into the bowels of the ship and spent about five minutes teaching her how to use it before bringing her out to safety, Chen said.

"That old woman had a very strong will and learned very fast, and after 20 minutes she surfaced to the water and was rescued," he said.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang traveled to the accident site about 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan.

At a late-night meeting, Li demanded an "overnight battle," urging divers to keep combing ship compartments for more miracles, Xinhua reported.
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The overturned ship had drifted about 3 kilometers (almost 2 miles) downstream before coming to rest close to shore.

State media originally said there were 458 people on board, but CCTV said Wednesday it had been carrying 405 Chinese passengers, five travel agency employees and a crew of 46. The broadcaster said most of the passengers were 50 to 80 years old.

Passengers' relatives gathered in Shanghai at a travel agency that had booked many of the trips, and later went to a government office to demand more information about the accident before police broke up the gatherings.

A group of about a dozen retirees from a Shanghai bus company were on the trip, said a woman who identified herself only by her surname, Chen. Among them, she said, were her older sister and brother-in-law, both 60, and their 6-year-old granddaughter.

"This group has traveled together a lot, but only on short trips. This is the first time they traveled for a long trip," Chen said.

The Eastern Star was 251 feet (76.5 meters) long and 36 feet (11 meters) wide, and could carry a maximum of 534 people, CCTV reported. It is owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corp., which focuses on tourism routes in the popular Three Gorges river canyon region. The company could not be reached for comment.


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As of two hours ago, Yahoo News reported this:

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...
Thirteen navy divers were on the scene and 170 more were joining them, Chen said.
...​

I am a little disappointed in the underwhelming response compared to other Chinese disaster relief efforts, given its been 36 hours since it happened I expected they would have more than just 13 divers on the scene. I wonder if this is a location that is hard to get to quickly, if local authorities don't have access to many divers, and/or if the storm that sank the ferry slowed down help from arriving at the scene. With the fast sinking the reports didn't say if it was reported right away or if that was delayed as well.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
I am a little disappointed in the underwhelming response compared to other Chinese disaster relief efforts, given its been 36 hours since it happened I expected they would have more than just 13 divers on the scene.
Well, it's world wide news and I am sure the Chinese are doing everything they can.

13 trained divers getting there quickly is quite a lot, and more than enough to keep three divers in the water 24 x 7 if they want to in 4 shifts of six hours each.

Besides, the article clearly states, "Thirteen navy divers were on the scene and 170 more were joining them."

170 more were on the way when that was written.

They clearly have mobilized a lot of other people and equipment. I see about ten boats of various types surrounding the wreck, and have seen hundreds of PLA personnel who are mobilized to handle traffic, access, transporting the victims...both injured and bodies.

I did not get an underwhelming feeling watching it.

I was a part of a Search and Rescue Team when we lived in Montana years ago and I have to say that I think they look very squared away.
 
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shen

Senior Member
I am a little disappointed in the underwhelming response compared to other Chinese disaster relief efforts, given its been 36 hours since it happened I expected they would have more than just 13 divers on the scene. I wonder if this is a location that is hard to get to quickly, if local authorities don't have access to many divers, and/or if the storm that sank the ferry slowed down help from arriving at the scene. With the fast sinking the reports didn't say if it was reported right away or if that was delayed as well.

There are 4000 people involved in the rescue altogether. Previously they were considering turning the ship upright with crane on a salvage ship, but that might killed any survivors still alive in air pockets.

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"About 180 navy divers were joined by more than 110 rescue boats and six helicopters Tuesday night, battling wind, rain and darkness to look for anyone who might be clinging to life."

I don't like this trend these days of captain leaving the sinking ship first. If he didn't do his duty and organize evacuation before leaving, he should be prosecuted.
 
There are 4000 people involved in the rescue altogether. Previously they were considering turning the ship upright with crane on a salvage ship, but that might killed any survivors still alive in air pockets.

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"About 180 navy divers were joined by more than 110 rescue boats and six helicopters Tuesday night, battling wind, rain and darkness to look for anyone who might be clinging to life."

I don't like this trend these days of captain leaving the sinking ship first. If he didn't do his duty and organize evacuation before leaving, he should be prosecuted.

After reading more about the incident and the response it's clear the bad weather caused the tragedy and hindered help. My dissatisfaction with the response is only with the small number of divers that got to the scene within 24 hours, there were only 13 of them within 36 hours which is too little too late.

Perhaps some sort of UUV could have helped?

Since the ship listed and sank in two minutes I don't think the captain or crew could have done much in this case. If they happened to be at the right place and were very quick maybe they could have sent out an SOS and/or sounded an alarm on board but that's probably it.
 
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