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Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Trapped in the Snow
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Monday, October 14, 2013
Strongest Indian cyclone since 1999 nears coast
This image provided by the U.S. Naval Research Lab shows Indian Cyclone Phailin taken Friday Oct. 11, 2013 at 6:32 a.m. EDT (10:32 GMT). Officials ordered tens of thousands of coastal villagers to flee their homes Friday as a massive cyclone _ so large it filled nearly the entire Bay of Bengal _ gathered strength and headed toward India's eastern seaboard. The Indian Meteorological Department warned that Phailin was a "very severe cyclonic storm" that was expected to hit with maximum sustained winds of 210-220 kilometers (130-135 miles) per hour. Forecasters are saying Cyclone Phailin will hit the region Saturday evening. (AP Photo/Naval Research Lab)
This image provided by the U.S. Naval Research Lab shows Indian Cyclone Phailin taken Friday Oct. 11, 2013 at 6:32 a.m. EDT (10:32 GMT). Officials ordered tens of thousands of coastal villagers to flee their homes Friday as a massive cyclone _ so large it filled nearly the entire Bay of Bengal _ gathered strength and headed toward India's eastern seaboard. The Indian Meteorological Department warned that Phailin was a "very severe cyclonic storm" that was expected to hit with maximum sustained winds of 210-220 kilometers (130-135 miles) per hour. Forecasters are saying Cyclone Phailin will hit the region Saturday evening. (AP Photo/Naval Research Lab)
Indian villagers look at the Bay of Bengal in Gokhurkuda, in Ganjam district , 215 kilometers (136 miles) from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar, India, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. The Indian Meteorological Department warned that a massive cyclone Phailin was a "very severe cyclonic storm" that was expected to hit India’s eastern seaboard with maximum sustained winds of 210-220 kilometers (130-135 miles) per hour. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)
Indian fishermen try to balance their boat as they pull it out from the Bay of Bengal at Gokhurkuda in Ganjam district 215 kilometers (136 miles) away from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar, India, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. The Indian Meteorological Department warned that a massive cyclone Phailin was a "very severe cyclonic storm" that was expected to hit India’s eastern seaboard with maximum sustained winds of 210-220 kilometers (130-135 miles) per hour. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)
A young Indian boy sits on an anchored boat at the Bay of Bengal coast in Gokhurkuda in Ganjam district 215 kilometers (136 miles) away from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar, India, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. The Indian Meteorological Department warned that a massive cyclone Phailin was a "very severe cyclonic storm" that was expected to hit India’s eastern seaboard with maximum sustained winds of 210-220 kilometers (130-135 miles) per hour. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)
An Indian man holds on to his umbrella as he fishes in high tide waves at Gopalpur beach, in Ganjam district, 215 kilometers (136 miles) away from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar, India, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. The Indian Meteorological Department warned that a massive cyclone Phailin was a "very severe cyclonic storm" that was expected to hit India’s eastern seaboard with maximum sustained winds of 210-220 kilometers (130-135 miles) per hour. (AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout)
BHUBANESHWAR, India (AP) — The strongest cyclone to threaten India in more than a decade bore down on its east coast Saturday as authorities bused and trucked tens of thousands of villagers from their mud and thatch coastal homes to government shelters inland.
Officials canceled holy day celebrations and stockpiled emergency supplies in coastal Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states, with forecasters saying Cyclone Phailin, a massive storm that nearly covers the Bay of Bengal, will hit the region Saturday evening.
The Indian Meteorological Department warned that Phailin was a "very severe cyclonic storm" that was expected to hit with maximum sustained winds of 210-220 kilometers (130-135 miles) per hour.
However, the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii forecast maximum sustained winds of 269 kilometers (167 miles) per hour with gusts up to 315 kilometers (196 miles) per hour.
U.S. meteorologists said the storm is flirting with historic power.
"If it's not a record it's really, really close," University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy told The Associated Press. "You really don't get storms stronger than this anywhere in the world ever. This is the top of the barrel."
To compare to killer U.S. storms, McNoldy said Phailin is near the size of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which killed 1,200 people and caused devastating flooding in New Orleans, but Phailin also has the wind power of 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which had 165 mph (265 kph) winds at landfall in Miami.
The storm shows no sign of weakening and has an impressive eye, said Ryan Maue of the private weather firm Weather Bell. He called it a "critically dangerous situation with a rare Category 5 landfall," which he said in that region has a history of being catastrophic.
Category 5 storms have winds exceeding 155 mph.
If the storm continues on its current path without weakening, it is expected to cause large-scale power and communications outages and shut down road and rail links, officials said. There would also be extensive damage to crops.
Satellite images of the storm showed its spinning tails reaching nearly 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the east coast of India to the west coast of Myanmar, an area roughly the size of France.
Using trucks and buses, authorities evacuated 40,000 people from 40 villages to government-run shelters, schools and buildings in five districts of Orissa state, said Surya Narayan Patra, the state revenue and disaster management minister.
Patra said officials plan to take another 100,000 people to safer areas before the cyclone hits.
"No one will be allowed to stay in mud and thatched houses in the coastal areas," he said.
The government also began evacuating 64,000 people from the low-lying areas of three vulnerable districts in neighboring Andhra Pradesh state, said state Revenue Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy.
Officials have been stockpiling emergency food supplies, and setting up shelters for people expected to flee the heavy winds and rains. The Indian air force said four transport planes and 18 helicopters were being kept ready for relief operations in the region.
Weather forecasters had been predicting waves up to 2 meters (7 feet), but warned that the storm has been gaining strength and its impact could be severe.
What makes this storm so fearsome is that there's no wind shear to weaken it and the water that is fueling it is warm and deep, McNoldy said. Those are the ingredients for a record storm.
The Bay of Bengal has been the scene of some of the deadliest storms in recent history. A 1999 Orissa cyclone of similar strength killed 10,000 people.
This storm could get as deadly, but the region Phailin is aiming at is not quite as low lying, so that's something that might lessen its death toll, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private Weather Underground.
"This is as bad as it gets," said Masters, who used to fly into hurricanes. "This is a top end Category 5 cyclone. You don't get these very often."
___
Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-11-AS-India-Cyclone/id-44cc10497c1b440fb0fd44ad30e46a11Similar Articles: hell on wheels
Friday, October 11, 2013
McDonald's President Was Caught Off Guard By Low-Wage, Single Mom
A video of a McDonald's worker confronting the president of the fast-food behemoth has gone viral this week, with the help of a fast-food workers' campaign aimed at raising hourly wages to $15.
In the short clip, the worker, Nancy Salgado, a Chicago single mother of two, shouts out to Jeff Stratton, president of McDonald's USA, who was standing at a podium in a ballroom giving a talk.
"It's really hard for me to feed my two kids and struggle day to day. Do you think this is fair, that I have to be making $8.25 when I have worked for McDonald's for 10 years?" Salgado shouts out from the back of the room.
Stratton's response? "I've been there 40 years."
As Salgado calls out that she needs a raise, she is escorted out of the room, and in the video you can hear a voice say, "You're going to be arrested." Later, police reportedly issued her a ticket.
In bringing attention to this video, the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago, which is helping to build the campaign for $15-per-hour wages, has circulated a press release highlighting the disparity between McDonald's corporate profits — which totaled $5.5 billion last year — and workers' wages. According to WOCC, the median wage of cooks, cashiers and crew is $8.94 an hour.
According to an MIT living wage calculator, an adult with one child needs to make $20.86 an hour working full time in the Chicago area to afford the basics.
There's been suggestion on social media that Stratton's response was curt and insensitive. So we reached out to McDonald's to ask him if he would have responded differently to Salgado had the circumstances been different — say, if she had not barged into a private event and interrupted him.
"Yes, Jeff Stratton was caught off-guard at this church-based event," a McDonald's spokeswoman told us by email.
And why did Stratton bring up his 40 years at McDonald's? Well, it turns out "his 40-year anniversary was that very week, so it was top of mind for him," the spokeswoman said.
The company points out that Stratton first joined McDonald's back in the '70s as a restaurant crew member and has worked his way up.
McDonald's says its history is full of examples of individuals who worked their first job with the company and went on to have successful careers both within and outside of McDonald's.
As for the push from workers for higher hourly wages, McDonald's says it "does not determine wages set by our more than 3,000 U.S. franchisees," according to the company spokeswoman.
At the restaurants run by McDonald's USA — less than 10 percent of the roughly 14,000 outlets in this country — the spokeswoman explains, "we pay salaries that begin at minimum wage but range up from that figure, depending on the job and employee's experience level."
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