Fire/EMS/ERs/disasters, etc.

[neoplacebo]

If nothing else, I would not mind getting my hands on a few boxes of those little bottles of liquor. Maybe a few packs of peanuts, too.

Yeah, it has been a while since you flew. They haven't offered peanuts for maybe decades. Last time I flew I think was out of Portland ME to Memphis and back. Decent flight but cramped seats and basically zero amenities. I think the "choices" were 4 miniature pretzels or one generic cookie. Quite a few years before that, I had flown in to visit my folks around their birthdays and got to their house around 8-9pm. My mum, as mums do, asked was I hungry, or "was I on a dinner flight." I laughed at the the time and told her they haven't done dinner flights for a long time and she wouldn't recognize the flights now from back when she would go to England a time or so a year. Old pictures of food servings in coach class look imaginary. From real food served on plates to stale pretzels and room to take a nap to hunched over with you seat "in a completely upright position" - yeppers, real progress.

The onlly time I ever flew on an international flight was when I got out of the navy. I flew from Japan to somewhere in Alaska and then to Oakland, CA. If I remember right, I got to Oakland about an hour before I left Japan. And the last time I flew, it was on a free trip my ex wife won in a contest where she worked for the local cable company. She won a trip to San Francisco and a hotel room along with tickets to some big wrestling event at the Cow Palace. So we went and stayed in the same hotel as the wrestling people. We were in an elevator with Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair once that day. Then we went to the pre event party at the Cow Palace but left early and drove down to Monterey in the rental car. Man, there's nothing I'd not give to have one of those homes on that scenic coastal drive in Monterey. I remember that nearly every other one had a for sale sign in the yard. Each would have cost millions I guess.

[O Really]

Woman jumps to escape Berlin high-rise fire
NBC News
Dramatic new video shows a woman jumping from the 11th floor of a high-rise and into a firefighter’s arms, as flames shoot out of an apartment window. NBC News’ Daniele Hamamdjian reports.Aug. 16, 2026

Ummm, no. Great work on the part of the firefighter, and certainly scary, but unless it was the worlds tallest firefighter and tree, it was more like second floor.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/vi ... er/NBCNews

[GoCubsGo]

Woman jumps to escape Berlin high-rise fire
NBC News
Dramatic new video shows a woman jumping from the 11th floor of a high-rise and into a firefighter’s arms, as flames shoot out of an apartment window. NBC News’ Daniele Hamamdjian reports.Aug. 16, 2026

Ummm, no. Great work on the part of the firefighter, and certainly scary, but unless it was the worlds tallest firefighter and tree, it was more like second floor.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/vi ... er/NBCNews

It actually was the eleventh floor. She jumped two floors down into the basket of a snorkel truck.

[O Really]

It actually was the eleventh floor. She jumped two floors down into the basket of a snorkel truck.

Ah, thanks.

[Vrede too]

Fast-growing Hawk Fire near Reno triggers mass evacuation orders
90K or more.

'All we can do is pray.' Thousands without power nearly 2 weeks after Indiana storm


Thanks, Exxon.

[GoCubsGo]

OMG

[Vrede too]

OMG
https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/20 ... 5446609146
https://x.com/xalertnow/status/2092592399604122064
https://x.com/Benarasiyaa/status/2092533159900623207

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/at-least ... d5e57c493f
Thousands dead? At least hundreds of tourists missing, including Americans. They probably preferred riverside hotels.

... “It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us. As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher. When I saw it enter our home, I tried to grab my wife’s hand and take her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud,” said Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor, who was being treated at a small hospital.

“Four or five hours later, a helicopter came to rescue me. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.”

... Initial reports from Nepali officials suggested an earthquake in the area could have caused the lower part of a glacier to collapse and trigger the floods....

... The German Research Centre for Geosciences said there was a 4.4-magnitude quake approximately seven minutes before the time shown on the security footage time-stamp.

That sucks.

[GoCubsGo]

I read that the avalanche caused earthquake-like tremors and registered on the Richter scale, not that it was an earthquake.

[GoCubsGo]

CNN is saying over 1,300 missing.

[Vrede too]

This principal in Nepal evacuated 900 students before flooding swept away their school

Hero.

... Dawadi's decision to evacuate the school saved at least 900 students from last week's devastating flash floods in Nepal, unleashed after a glacial collapse in the Himalayas. The disaster killed over 950 people in Nepal and Tibet, while more than 4,400 remain missing.

... Across northern Nepal, the floods have left thousands of children without classrooms, disrupted their education and raised fears that the disaster could cost them months of schooling. Aid group Save the Children said in a statement that at least 69 schools in northern Nepal were destroyed, putting the education of nearly 19,000 students at risk.

... But Dawadi is reluctant to accept the role of hero. For him, rescuing his students was his responsibility. Now he says, students will need psychological counseling. Then, lessons must begin again, even if the school must temporarily relocate.

His appeal to the Nepalese government is simple: rebuild the schools and get children back to classes.

[Vrede too]

Where on Earth is safest from global catastrophe?

Spoiler:

Australia, only 14 time zones away.

[Vrede too]

DonOLD illegal, again.

Trump admin 'unlawfully usurped the authority' of FEMA and violated post-Katrina reform law, judge rules

The Trump administration violated federal law when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) slashed the workforce for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a court ruled this week.

In a 32-page order on cross motions for summary judgment, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, a Bill Clinton appointee, found DHS "unlawfully usurped the authority" of FEMA "to make its own personnel decisions" with reductions in force (RIFs) throughout 2025....

"Here, the Court finds plaintiffs are entitled to judgment on their APA claims that DHS and FEMA have acted in excess of statutory authority and contrary to law, based on the defendant agencies' actions that violate both the Post-Katrina Act and the appropriations act that ended the recent government shutdown," the order reads....

"DHS acted unlawfully in usurping FEMA's authority over its personnel, and FEMA [through a former official] acted unlawfully in acquiescing to DHS's exertion of authority over FEMA's CORE renewals and staffing numbers," the order continues....

Illston also condemned the coverup.

We Hellene survivors agree - , DOGE, Melon and Friendly Fire Barbie.