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Widespread
blackout in Toronto caused by spike in demand
"A
spike in demand caused a circuit breaker to overheat, said Acting
District Chief Brian Kelly. The equipment had to be sufficiently
cooled before it could be safely restarted.
Thousands of homes
were without electricity — and air conditioning — after one of
the hottest days this summer, as the city issued an extreme heat
alert for the second day in a row Thursday.
Businesses without
power were hit hard by the blackout. House on Parliament, a pub on
Parliament St., wasn’t able to serve food to customers who ordered
around 8:18 p.m., the time of the outage."
2
dead as violent storm rips through Great Smokies
"Crews
spent Friday clearing trees and reaching stranded visitors at Great
Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, a day after violent
thunderstorms swept through the popular tourist spot, killing at
least two people and injuring several others.
The storms hit
Thursday evening at the west end of the 500,000-acre, densely
forested reserve on the Tennessee-North Carolina line. The storms
then moved down the mountains to the Tennessee River Valley."
1 million chickens culled in outbreak of H7N3 bird flu in Mexico
6
July, 2012
July
6, 2012 – MEXICO
- An
outbreak of the H7N3 bird
flu virus in western Mexico has infected about 2.5 million chickens
and led authorities to destroy or dispose of almost a million birds.
The country’s Agriculture Department said 129 farms in the western
state of Jalisco have been inspected. Flu was confirmed in birds at
24 of the sites and tests continued on most of the rest. The farms in
question have been placed under quarantine, the department said in a
statement. The outbreak has caused increases in the price of chicken
and egg products in Mexico. –AP
Concern
mounts crisis could spread: Poultry
farmers in Belize, especially in border areas near Mexico, are being
asked to step up their bio-security measures as the Belize
Agricultural Health Authority has placed a national poultry health
alert following Mexico officially reporting a major outbreak of
highly pathogenic H7N3 Avian
Influenza (“Bird
Flu”).
The outbreak has hit three commercial poultry layer farms in the
central Mexican state of Jalisco and Belizean authorities have
announced that precautionary measures are being taken and border
controls along the Belize/Mexico border are being strengthened.
However, in a bid not to create panic and drive down sales,
authorities are sending the message that poultry products are safe
for human consumption. “The disease rarely affects humans and
requires direct contact with sick birds. In humans, the disease
causes conjunctivitis and mild flu symptoms. The outbreak in Mexico
started on June 13, 2012. In total, over one million birds are
believed to be susceptible across the three farms and over 200,000
have already died from the outbreak. A further 60,000 have been
destroyed. The sick birds showed signs of weakness, poor alertness,
difficulty in breathing, were lying on their side and had drooping
wings prior to death,” stated officials. Other countries in the
region, Guatemala in particular, have also called national alerts and
are strengthening their surveillance and diagnostic programs for
Avian Influenza. Control measures being applied in Mexico include:
movement controls on poultry and poultry products; official sampling
in commercial poultry farms, backyard poultry farms, and poultry
markets; assessment of biosecurity and good livestock practices; and
depopulation of affected farms. This outbreak in Mexico is considered
a threat to Belize and the region due to a previous major outbreak in
Mexico (in the period 1993 – 1996) where the disease became endemic
and also spilled over into Guatemala and El Salvador.
–Caribbean 360
6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes seafloor off island of Vanuatu
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