reuters.com - By Ryan McNeill, Deborah J. Nelson and Duff Wilson - September 4, 2014

As the seas rise, a slow-motion disaster gnaws at America’s shores

Part 1: A Reuters analysis finds that flooding is increasing along much of the nation’s coastline, forcing many communities into costly, controversial struggles with a relentless foe.

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cdc.gov - Press Release
For Immediate Release: Thursday, July 17, 2014
Contact: CDC Media Relations
(404) 639-3286

Seven months after the mosquito-borne virus chikungunya was recognized in the Western Hemisphere, the first locally acquired case of the disease has surfaced in the continental United States. The case was reported today in Florida in a male who had not recently traveled outside the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working closely with the Florida Department of Health to investigate how the patient contracted the virus; CDC will also monitor for additional locally acquired U.S. cases in the coming weeks and months.

submitted by Albert Gomez

miami.cbslocal.com - by Joan Murray - July 16, 2014

WEST PALM BEACH (CBSMiami/AP) — . . . State officials say the number of Florida travelers who contracted the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus since the beginning of the year has risen to 81.

Officials say all the patients documented in Florida contracted the virus while traveling in the Caribbean. . .

. . . Experts said it’s only a matter of time before someone develops Chikungunya in South Florida which is why they are alerting the public to let them know it exists.

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(CLICK HERE - CDC - CHIKUNGUNYA IN THE UNITED STATES)

(CLICK HERE - FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH - CHIKUNGUNYA)

(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE)

submitted by Joe Browder

Offsetting carbon emissions by conserving ocean vegetation

thebluecarbonproject.com

What is Blue Carbon?

The problem: The growing emission of carbon dioxide from a wide range of human activities is causing unprecedented changes to the land and sea. Identifying effective, efficient and politically acceptable approaches to reduce the atmospheric concentration of CO₂ is one of society’s most pressing goals.

submitted by Albert Gomez

National Research Council. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Fifth Biennial Review, 2014. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014.

The Everglades ecosystem is vast, stretching more than 200 miles from Orlando to Florida Bay, and Everglades National Park is but a part located at the southern end. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the historical Everglades has been reduced to half of its original size, and what remains is not the pristine ecosystem many image it to be, but one that has been highly engineered and otherwise heavily influenced, and is intensely managed by humans. Rather than slowly flowing southward in a broad river of grass, water moves through a maze of canals, levees, pump stations, and hydraulic control structures, and a substantial fraction is diverted from the natural system to meet water supply and flood control needs. The water that remains is polluted by phosphorus and other contaminants originating from agriculture and other human activities. Many components of the natural system are highly degraded and continue to degrade.

Deaths due to overdoses of prescription painkillers like OxyContin dropped sharply in Florida, the first such decline in a decade, according to a new report published by the CDC. (Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times)

latimes.com - by Lisa Girion - July 1, 2014

Public health officials have identified a sharp decline in overdose deaths involving prescription painkillers for the first time in a decade.

Deaths involving OxyContin, Vicodin and other narcotic painkillers dropped by 26% over two years in Florida after a crackdown on pain clinics that dispensed high volumes of the medications, according to a government study released Tuesday.

Lawmakers there barred doctors in these "pill mills" from selling the drugs they prescribed.

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STUDY - Decline in Drug Overdose Deaths After State Policy Changes — Florida, 2010–2012

submitted by Luis Kun

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - June 17, 2014

Drug-resistant germs kill more than 40 percent of individuals with serious infections, and they tend to have a higher kill-rate among patients with weaker immune systems, including the elderly and young children. In Florida, several hospitals handled antibiotic-resistant germ outbreaks without alerting the public. Since 2008, twelve outbreaks have affected at least 490 people statewide, but the Florida Department of Health (FDH) did little to inform the public.

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submitted by Cheryl Stroud

nap.edu - Institute of Medicine. Understanding the Connections Between Coastal Waters and Ocean Ecosystem Services and Human Health: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014.

usresilienceproject.org - October 31, 2011

U.S. Resilience Project (USRP) reports are designed to showcase how public policy can benefit from private-sector best practices in security, business continuity, risk management, and disaster preparedness.

Harness the Power of Intelligent Networks and Social Media

The focus for national preparedness should be on creating situational awareness, enhanced decision-making and rapid response; Platforms like the U.S. Resilience System, that are based upon distributed intelligent social networks and crowd-sourcing, can enable far more agility and adaptability than a highly structured, hierarchical capability with significantly better outcomes at far less cost. Exploiting U.S. leadership in this area has the potential to create significant engagement in preparedness, disaster response, and regional resilience building.

Coast Guard contains fuel spill in Government Cut

Estimated 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel leaked into water

Please go to the following link if you have any issues viewing this link.

http://www.local10.com/news/coast-guard-contains-fuel-spill-in-government-cut/25504244 

The distribution of this article is in support of dissiminating important local information on the current environmental disaster.  All footage and content is strictly owned by Local10.com

President Barack Obama signs flood insurance bill into law.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

nola.com - by Bruce Alpert - March 21, 2014

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama Friday signed into law hard-fought legislation that will limit flood insurance premium increases to no more than 18 percent a year.

White House officials called Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., shortly after 1 p.m. CT to say the bill is now law.

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(CLICK HERE - H.R. 3370)

insurancejournal.com - by Andrew G. Simpson - January 7, 2014

The U.S. Senate is expected to take a key vote soon on a bill that would delay some of the flood insurance rate hikes triggered by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. . .

. . . The procedural vote on S.1846 was originally planned for Wednesday, but the Senate is still dealing with an extension of federal unemployment benefits, delaying consideration of the flood bill. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a major advocate for the bill, told USA Today that  “next week is more realistic” for any vote on the flood bill.

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