The BBC is kind: Ebola: Hospital mistakes blamed for US transmission. The head of the Centers for Disease Control characterizes the new case at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital as “a breach in protocol”. It was a potentially deadly fv<k up by the same people who sent Thomas Eric Duncan home with some meds when he showed up at their emergency room with flu-like symptoms and told them he had been in Liberia. They lied about his telling them about Liberia, and now it would appear they didn’t properly train their people to keep themselves safe.

They did remember to send the decontaminating team to their worker’s apartment immediately, which is progress, but they don’t seem to be able to do something as simple as maintaining the safely of the personnel who deal with Ebola patients.

Position: 18.7N 63.4W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [315°] near 12 mph [19 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 85 mph [140 kph].
Wind Gusts: 100 mph [160 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 25 miles [ 35 km].
Minimum central pressure: 984 mb.

Currently about 40 miles [ 65 km] North-Northwest of Anguilla.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the British Virgin Islands, St. Martin, and Anguilla.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for St. Maartin, St. Barthelemy, Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for St. Thomas and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Position: 33.7N 49.9W [ 4PM CDT 2100 UTC].
Movement: East [100°] near 25 mph [41 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 85 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [100 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 205 miles [335 km].
Minimum central pressure: 993mb ↑.

Currently about 865 miles [1395 km] East of Bermuda.

Fay has lost its tropical characteristics and become extra-tropical. This is the final NHC advisory.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

It’s the second Monday in October, so it is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Have a happy one.

The US Federal government has decided to call it Columbus Day, even though it should be the 12^th of October which was the second Wednesday in 1492. But it’s okay that the holiday is on the wrong day, because Christopher Columbus [AKA: Cristoforo Colombo, Cristóbal Colón] didn’t find what he was looking for and identified what he did find incorrectly. The important thing is that a large area of the map got changed from “here be dragons and sea serpents,” to “here be gold and cannibals” and no mention was made of the oppressive heat, mosquitoes, or hurricanes.

[Read more →]