fufor's unregelmässige news

By Ashley Sanders
The News staff writer
PORT ARTHUR, TX — An apparent pipeline explosion shook Michael Scott’s bedroom window Thursday morning.

Scott and neighbors Desiree Sandifer and Cody Price ventured a few blocks west of their Nederland homes to the Studio 6 motel to get a better view of the large inferno visible from almost any location in Mid or South Jefferson County.

The explosion occurred just before 2 a.m. in an area near U.S. 69 and 60th Street in Port Arthur.

“It shook my windows,” Scott said. “It was like a really loud roar in the distance.”

As the fire intensified, so did the roar as the blaze gathered more strength.

First responders quickly sealed off U.S. 69 and feeder roads leading to the main thoroughDeputy Fire Chief John Avery said a combination of two products, crude butadiene and ethylene, were feeding the flames.

One officer was heard across the police scanner describing trees going up rapidly in the blaze.

Officials from Union Carbine/Dow Chemical Pipeline have stopped the flow of material feeding the fire, Port Arthur police reported about 4:30 a.m. Thursday. At about 8:30 a.m., heavy black smoke could still be seen coming from the area, hanging low to the ground and blowing toward the northeast. The plume reached past Twin City Highway and created a haze over the Huntsman facility on FM 366 and Hogaboom Road near Groves. The fire continued to burn at mid-morning and the shelter-in-place advisory is still in effect, Deputy Fire Chief John Avery said at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Firemen were sent out to the Stonegate area around 2:30 a.m. to get air quality readings in that area. An easterly moving breeze was sweeping the burn off from the blaze into the Stonegate community.

Initial, unconfirmed reports heard on the police scanner indicated that excessive levels of Hydrogen Sulfide or “sewer gas” were released into the air as a result of the explosion.

First responders established a command center on ONYX property and said they would notify residents in the Stonegate area to remain in their homes through individual telephone calls.

Butadiene is created in the steam cracking process of breaking hydrocarbons into other products, including ethylene, according to Wickipedia.org. Most butadiene is used to produce synthetic rubber. It is also used to make nylon. Ethylene is also a product of hydrocarbon distillation and is considered a building block chemical for many other chemical products. Both chemical are extremely flammable and exposure can cause a variety of symptoms. Hydrogen sulfide is colorless and should not be inhaled for long periods of time.

The STAN hotline was activated at 3:22 a.m., with Port Arthur Police and Fire Departments issuing a shelter in place for residents living between U.S. 69 and Twin City Highway and all residents of Port Arthur.
http://tinyurl.com/2lxvrx

Pipeline Explosion in Port Arthur
02:21 Min.

WATCH VIDEO: http://tinyurl.com/2j5sqy


10:30 a.m. UPDATE: Product flow stopped
The Port Arthur News

Officials from Union Carbine/Dow Chemical Pipeline have stopped the flow of crude butadiene and ethylene in a pipeline that ruptured and caught fire just before 2 a.m. Thursday near the intersection of U.S. 69 and 60th Street. The pipeline continued to burn at midmorning.

The shelter-in-place advisory is still in effect, Deputy Fire Chief John Avery said at 10:30 a.m. Thursday.

Butadiene is created in the steam cracking process of breaking hydrocarbons into other products, including ethylene, according to Wickipedia.org. Most butadiene is used to produce synthetic rubber. It is also used to make nylon. Ethylene is also a product of hydrocarbon distillation and is considered a building block chemical for many other chemical products. Both chemical are extremely flammable and exposure can cause a variety of symptoms.

Port Arthur Police blocked all traffic around the perimeter of the burning pipeline. Traffic on U.S. 69 is blocked from Texas 73 to Jimmy Johnson Boulevard. All roads between Ninth Avenue and U.S. 69 in the affected area are blocked.

Heavy black smoke could be seen coming from the area about 8:30 a.m, hanging low to the ground and blowing toward the northeast. The plume reached past Twin City Highway and created a haze over the Huntsman facility on FM 366 and Hogaboom Road near Groves.

The Port Arthur Police Department is encouraging all residents living around U.S. 69 and 60th Street to shelter in place. The call was ordered early Thurdsay after air quality readings taken in the Stonegate area indicated high levels of Hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is colorless and should not be inhaled for long periods of time.

PAPD said residents living between U.S. 69 and Twin City Highway should heed the shelter in place order until further notified.
For more information, call PAPD at 983-8600.
http://tinyurl.com/39hbre

Before it's too late
Published: 10.18.07
Olmert expected to tell Putin Israel will not accept nuclear Iran, will weigh all options to remove such threat
Shimon Shiffer

The prime minister will enter the Kremlin Thursday with an unequivocal message to the Russian President: Under circumstances whereby Iran possesses a nuclear weapon, while Russia supplies Syria with advanced weaponry, Israel will be forced to weigh its options vis-à-vis such threats.

The issues of key concern to the prime minister that are expected to be raised at the meeting in Moscow, primarily pertain to Russia's involvement in building Iran's nuclear project. Senior Russian officials are trying to convince their Israeli counterparts that the Iranian nuclear project is under tight Russian control. Vladimir Putin even announced in the past that nuclear weapons in Iranian hands would also endanger his own country and he hinted to Ehud Olmert that Russia would not supply Iran oil that would enable it to manufacture such weapons.

Moreover, Putin has often reiterated that he has a special commitment towards more than a million immigrants who came to Israel from the former USSR, and would not do anything to put them in harm's way. Israel, Olmert is expected to tell Putin Thursday, that Israel will not accept possession of atomic weapons in Iranian hands – and would weigh all options to eliminate such a threat.

It may be assumed that Putin will tell Olmert of his impressions of the meeting he held this week with the Iranian leadership in Tehran. Yet there is no point in expecting that the Russian President will relay any messages from Ahmadinejad to Olmert, since the abyss between Israel and Iran at this stage cannot be bridged.

Another area of concern to Olmert is the new arms deals Russia is about to engage in with Syria, and which are financed by Iran. Among other things Putin intends to provide Assad with ground-to-bair missiles and anti-aircraft missiles that to date he has not sold to any other country.

In an attempt to make Russia aware of the dangerous implication of these arms deals, in recent months Israel presented to the Kremlin evidence that Russian weapons sold to Syria had been transferred to Hizbullah. During the two hours Putin has allocated to the meeting, Olmert also plans to express his objection to Russia's attempt to mediate between the Fatah and Hamas factions with the aim of forming a unity government.

The visit to Moscow was coordinated eight days ago in a telephone conversation between Olmert and Putin. The two leaders agreed to meet after Putin returns from his historic visit to Tehran – the first such visit by a Russian leader since 1943.

The prime minister speaks to the Russian president at least once a month by phone and attributes great importance to the intimate dialog which he believes he has succeeded in creating with Putin. The Russian president is making an effort to show the world that Russia is a super-power, equal to the US; there is barely an international issue where Putin does not demonstrate an independent approach, primarily one that is defiant of the American stance.

"Russia is a key player in the global arena," said a senior source close to the prime minister. "Hence engaging in dialog is of the utmost importance."

The open dialog between Israel's and Russia's leaders is not obvious: Just 20 years ago any random encounter between an Israeli and Russian official in the UN corridors in New York generated giant headlines.

In Israel there is hope that the close ties that currently prevail between the two countries will allow Olmert to convince Putin to consider Israel's fear of an existential threat posed by a nuclear Iran.
http://tinyurl.com/2kuaf4

Health Alert: Virginia Super Bug Death Closes Virgina Schools - US Researchers Report Sharp Rise in Drug Resistant Infection Deaths - CALL FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLIC AWARENESS
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007

- Virginia School District Closes - Entire School Disinfected
- "I can confirm that there was a Prince William County high school student, within the last two weeks, that had MRSA," said Lucy Caldwell, Northern Virginia regional spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health

Warning letters sent home to parents in Weston, CT, Rome, NY

About the MRSA Bug...finding its way into the school system Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a type of staph that is resistant to certain antibiotics. These antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities (such as nursing homes and dialysis centers) who have weakened immune systems but is now making its way into the nation's school system. Staph or MRSA infections in the community are usually manifested as skin infections, such as pimples and boils, and occur in otherwise healthy people.

Hygiene steps to help prevent infection...Practice good hygiene:

1. Keep hands clean by washing thoroughly with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
2. Keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage until healed.
3. Avoid contact with other people's wounds or bandages.
4. Avoid sharing personal items such as towels or razors.

Research Update - U.S. researchers have estimated that nearly 19,000 people in the United States died in 2005 after being infected with a drug-resistant bacteria.

The findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention led the study.Researchers looked at nearly 9,000 cases of the infection and 1,600 in-hospital deaths among patients infected with the bacteria called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. They estimate that more than 94,000 people in the United States were infected with the bacteria in 2005, and that those infections were associated with 18,650 deaths. They say most of the infections were related to health care treatment facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes. But the researchers say they surveyed largely urban areas and that the number of cases of invasive MRSA may be overestimated. They also caution that it is possible that the bacteria may not have caused or contributed to some of the deaths.
http://tinyurl.com/2qf7q5