Foreign

World’s Largest Cruise Ship Makes Maiden Voyage from Miami

By Web News 371

The world’s largest cruise ship has set sail from Miami, Florida, on its maiden voyage, but there are concerns about the vessel’s methane emissions.

The 365m-long (1,197 ft) Icon of the Seas has 20 decks and can house a maximum of 7,600 passengers. It is owned by Royal Caribbean Group.

The vessel is going on a seven-day island-hopping voyage in the Caribbean.

Environmentalists warn the liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered ship will leak harmful methane into the air.

Built at a shipyard in Turku, Finland, the Bahamas-registered ship has seven swimming pools and six water slides.

It cost $2bn (£1.6bn) to build and also has more than 40 restaurants, bars and lounges.

Although LNG burns more cleanly than traditional marine fuels such as fuel oil, there is a risk that some gas escapes, causing methane to leak into the atmosphere.

Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

“It’s a step in the wrong direction,” Bryan Comer, director of the Marine Programme at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

“We would estimate that using LNG as a marine fuel emits over 120% more life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than marine gas oil,” he said.

Earlier this week, the ICCT released a report arguing that methane emissions from LNG-fuelled ships were higher than current regulations assumed.

BBC / Titilayo Kupoliyi

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels and also join our Whatsapp Update Group 

Foreign

Florida Police Stunned Sighting 10-Year-Old Driver on Highway

By Web News 316

Police in Florida got a shock when the driver they stopped on a major highway turned out to be a 10-year-old boy.

The boy and his 11-year-old sister were stopped in Alachua, hundreds of miles from where they were reported missing by their mother earlier in the week.

Police said the pair had made their runaway bid after she had confiscated their electronic gadgets.

“Much to their surprise deputies observed a 10-year-old male driver exit, with his sister,” they said.

The Alachua County Sheriff’s office described the traffic stop as “high risk” and late at night – 03:50 local time (07:50 GMT) on Thursday.

The white sedan the pair had been travelling in had been reported missing by their mother in North Port, Florida, a city more than 200 miles (320km) from Alachua.

Officers learned that “both children were upset with their mother because she took away their electronic devices, which is believed to have been done because they were not using them appropriately”, the sheriff’s office said.

Police added there was no reason to believe they were being mistreated at home.

The children’s mother drove three hours north to Alachua to collect her children.

“Our detectives did speak with their mother at length who was clearly doing her best to raise two young children and she was very receptive to the recommendations they provided in helping her get assistance,” police said.

The legal age to obtain a learner’s permit in Florida is 15, while drivers must be 18 years old to apply for a full licence.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Crime

Racial Hatred: Gunman Kills Three Black People in Florida Store

By Web News 358

A gunman killed three black people in a racially motivated attack then killed himself in Jacksonville, Florida, the city’s sheriff said.

The man, described as white and in his early 20s, entered a Dollar General store and opened fire, triggering a standoff with police.

Sheriff T K Waters said two men and a woman were killed by the gunman, who wore body armour and left manifestos.

Mayor Donna Deegan said it was a “hate-filled crime” driven by racist hatred.

The sheriff said the shooter – who has not yet been officially named – carried a lightweight semi-automatic rifle and a handgun.

He is believed to have acted alone and allegedly wanted to kill himself. He lived in Jacksonville’s Clay County with his parents and left several messages about his intentions, Sheriff Waters said, including one to his parents and another to the media. The sheriff added that at least one of the guns had a swastika drawn on it.

The standoff took place at this Dollar General store

The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting, which it is treating as a hate crime.

The attack happened less than a mile from the historically black Edwards Waters University.

Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan told local TV channel WJXT: “One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called the gunman a “scumbag” and described the shooting as “horrific”.

“He [the gunman] was targeting people based on their race, that is totally unacceptable,” said Mr DeSantis, who is competing to be the Republican party’s presidential candidate.

“This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions and so he took the coward’s way out.”

The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting.

In a statement provided to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, Dollar General said it was “heartbroken by the senseless act of violence that occurred at our Kings Road store”, adding that “supporting our Jacksonville employees and the DG family impacted by this tragedy is a top priority as we work closely with law enforcement”.

There have been over 28,000 gun deaths in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

The Jacksonville attack comes on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr’s famous “I have a dream” speech. Tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital on Saturday to mark the historic milestone in the civil rights movement.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

Hurricane Nicole Hits Florida

By Web News 444

Hurricane Nicole hit Florida on Thursday with 70mph (110kph) winds but has been downgraded to a tropical storm after it slowed on making landfall.

States of emergency remain and evacuation orders are in place, with heavy rain and storm surges forecast.

Nicole has already lashed Grand Bahama Island as a huge category-one hurricane, with the scale of the devastation not immediately clear.

Storms of this size so late in the year are extremely rare.

After Florida, Nicole is set to hit Georgia and South Carolina, It could possibly even hit Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York later in the week.

November hurricanes are rare in Florida since record-keeping began in 1853, the sunshine state has been hit by only two in 1935 and 1985.

Nicole comes just weeks after Hurricane Ian hit Florida, leaving more than 100 people dead.

Forty-five of the state’s 67 counties are under a state of emergency and four counties are under mandatory evacuation orders.

More than 100,000 customers have been left without power by the storm.

Bbc/Adebukola Aluko

Foreign

Hurricane Ian Aftermath: Flesh-eating Illness Cases Increase in Florida

By Web News 507

The Florida county that was devastated by Hurricane Ian last month has seen a surge in cases of flesh-eating bacteria illnesses and deaths.

Officials say Lee County, where the category four storm made landfall on 28 September, has recorded 29 illnesses and four deaths owing to the bacteria.

Vibrio vulnificus infections can be caused after bacteria enter the body through open cuts.

The bacteria live in warm brackish water, like standing floodwaters.

“The Florida Department of Health in Lee County is observing an abnormal increase in cases of Vibrio vulnificus infections as a result of exposure to the flood waters and standing waters following Hurricane Ian,” a spokesperson at the county health department said.

The statement called on residents to “always be aware of the potential risks associated when exposing open wounds, cuts, or scratches on the skin to warm, brackish, or salt water”.

“Sewage spills, like those caused by Hurricane Ian, may increase bacteria levels,” the statement continued. “As the post-storm situation evolves, individuals should take precautions against infection and illness caused by Vibrio vulnificus .”

Collier County, just south of Lee County, has also recorded three confirmed cases that officials say are storm-related.

Across Florida, there have been a record 11 confirmed deaths attributed to the bacterium this year, and a total of 65 cases, according to state health data. Officials estimate that nearly half are related to Hurricane Ian.

Vibrio vulnificus is known as “flesh-eating” because it can develop into necrotising fasciitis, a condition that causes tissue to break down. It is not the only bacteria that can cause necrotising fasciitis.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around one in five Vibrio vulnificus patients dies, sometimes within only a day or two of becoming ill.

It can cause sepsis if it enters the bloodstream, and can sometimes lead to amputations to prevent its spread to other parts of a patient’s body.

BBC/ Oluwayemisi Owonikoko

Subscribe to our Telegram Channel and join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

Florida: Death Toll Mounts in the Wake of Hurricane Ian

By Web News 419

A huge search and rescue effort is continuing in Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which cut a swathe of destruction across the US state.

At least 10 people have died in the state but officials fear the confirmed toll could rise considerably.

Joe Biden has warned the category one storm could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history, with a “substantial loss of life”.

Ian is now moving inland and heading towards North and South Carolina.

A blackout is still affecting some 2.2 million Florida homes and businesses.

The flood waters have been so severe they have trapped some people in their homes, officials said, with the National Guard going door to door in the city of Orlando to rescue those stranded.

The 10 deaths that have been confirmed were all in southwest Charlotte County, which saw intense winds.

Joseph Tiseo, a local commissioner, told the BBC the area had a “tremendous wind event that lasted for 12 hours straight… it was brutal”.

He said it was not yet clear how many of the deaths were a direct result of the hurricane.

A little further south, Lee County took the brunt of the storm surge.

The state’s Governor Ron DeSantis told a news conference on Thursday evening that the damage in Fort Myers, a harbourside city there, was “almost indescribable”.

“To see a house just sitting in the middle of Estero Bay literally must have gotten picked up, flown because of the massive wind speed and the storm surge and deposited in a body of water,” he said.

“I would say the most significant damage that I saw was on Ford Myers Beach, some of the homes were wiped out, some of its was just concrete slabs”

One woman who lost her home said the experience is “numbing” and has her feeling “overwhelmed”.

“It’s not my first hurricane but it’s my first total loss,” Karen, who lives on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers told Reuters.

Some residents had to swim out of their homes.

“You have to either swim or drown,” an Orlando woman told CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the US.

A woman in Fort Myers, who swam to safety when her ground-floor apartment began to flood, said when she returned home she “had to wait about five minutes for all the floodwaters to come out”.

And at the Sun Seekers mobile home park in North Fort Myers, residents recounted their terror as they tried to protect themselves with blankets.

“It was terrifying because you’re helpless”, one of the residents, Kim said. “We had no [phone] service to call anyone, but no one would have come anyway.”

At the governor’s briefing, Kevin Guthrie, director at the Florida Division of Emergency Management warned about “indirect deaths” – the fatalities that can happen after a storm system has passed.

He warned homeowners to watch out for power lines mixed in trees and said no one should be tinkering with generators and chainsaws, or climbing ladders without proper training.

“People need to be extremely careful,” Mr Guthrie said.

“If you do not know how to use a chainsaw. If you do not know how to climb a ladder. If you do not know the difference between a cable line and a power line, you should not be doing that.”

Some parts of Naples, a seaside city south of Fort Myers, have been rendered a dark and deserted ghost town, and the city’s iconic pier has been smashed in half.

The BBC’s Bernd Debusmann, who is reporting from Naples, says a concession stand – which just days ago marked the halfway point on the pier – now stands precariously over the water, with splintered pieces of wood hanging off.

About a block from the beachfront, some roads remain impassable and underwater, while others have been left covered in mud as the water slowly recedes.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram Channel and join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

Miami Building Collapse: Search For Survivors Continues

By Web News 635

A huge rescue operation is under way in Miami-Dade County, Florida, after a 12-storey residential building partially collapsed, killing at least one person.

According to report, rescuers are combing through the rubble, searching for survivors, and were seen pulling a boy out alive,as images from Surfside, north of Miami Beach, show a pile of debris on one side of the building.

One person died, at least eight people were injured and there are fears that others are trapped.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said they had sent 80 vehicles to the scene,while police are also assisting with the rescue operation.

BBC.