Man helps impaired co-worker in Navy Yard rampage

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When the shots rang out at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters in Washington on Monday morning, civilian employee Omar Grant let others run for the exits on the first floor of an atrium while he took his visually-impaired coworker by the arm, Yahoo! News reported.
 
People left behind keys, cellphones and other personal belongings, said Grant, who told USA TODAY he works in network support.
 
The visually impaired co-worker, Lindwood, did not want to give his last name. He was using a white walking stick.
 
"We heard two shots and started wondering if that was the sound of someone dropping something or if they were really shots," Grant told the news organization. "We heard three more shots and that's when people started running out of the building and getting the hell out of there."
 
Grant took Lindwood by the arm and the two walked together from the base to the nearby Metro station. In a photo taken by Chris Moody of Yahoo! News, two men are seen escorting Lindwood.
 
 
 

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Most Coloradans lack flood insurance

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Thousands of Colorado homeowners may face a personal financial disaster in the wake of the state's severe floods.
 
Standard homeowner insurance policies don't cover damage from floods, and most homeowners in the state don't have separate flood insurance.
 
In Colorado, only 22,000 homes and businesses have flood insurance, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Most of those are residential policies.
 
"These are rare events so people think, 'It's not going to happen to me,' " says Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America.
 
He estimates that 10% to 25% of Colorado homes in high-risk flood areas have coverage. In New Orleans and parts of Florida, coverage runs more like 50% to 60%, says Hunter, who previously ran the National Flood Insurance Program. The federal program is the main source of flood insurance coverage for homeowners, renters and businesses.
 
In three Colorado counties hard hit by the floods, the percentage of single-family homes with flood insurance coverage is in the low single digits, FEMA and Census Bureau data show.
 
Boulder County has 4,779 flood insurance policies, FEMA says, but more than 77,000 detached single-family homes, Census data shows.
 
El Paso County, with almost 170,000 single family homes, has 3,915 policies. Larimer County has almost 90,000 single-family homes and 1,343 policies.
 
FEMA urged more Colorado residents to buy flood insurance — for homes and businesses — last year after wildfires destroyed or damaged more than 344,000 acres of land.
 
Fires destroy natural forest barriers and increase erosion risk, flash floods, mud flows and debris flows.
 
"We're in for at least 10 more years of this," says Steve Schopper with the Colorado Springs Fire Department and the Manitou Springs Fire Department. Manitou Springs has been hit with four flash floods since last summer's wildfires, he says.
 
Any homeowner with a mortgage backed by the federal government, most often through Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, in a high-risk flood area must have flood insurance.
 
But even homeowners with flood insurance may not have coverage for their homes' contents.
 
Joe Meckle, 53, of hard-hit Lyons estimates that he's lost about $100,000 in chiropractor equipment from his home office.
 
Given that he had insurance on the home, he considers himself fortunate. He hopes to get a low-interest loan, as part of the federal disaster relief, to help rebuild his practice.
 
"I'm in better shape than most," Meckle says. He feels for people who paid off mortgages and didn't maintain flood insurance in the face of rising costs, he says.
 
His latest premiums — for $250,000 in coverage — ran about $2,100 a year. "When it was $50 a year, it wasn't a big deal," but then the cost "became significant," he says.
 
Last year, Congress passed flood insurance reform, which called on FEMA to raise rates to reflect true flood risks and make the program more financially stable.
 
Nationally, the average flood insurance premium runs $650 a year, FEMA says.
 
Consumers should consider flood insurance even if they're not in a mapped flood plain, FEMA says. Typically, 25% of damages occur outside of high-risk areas, it says. More than 90% of presidentially declared disasters include flooding, FEMA says.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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U.S. 6 dead, suspects sought in Navy shooting

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WASHINGTON — A manhunt was underway for two more possible shooters after six people were killed and several others wounded Monday at the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters here, the Navy said.
 
Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said a shooter was dead and one police officer was wounded in an "engagement" with at least one gunman.
 
"One shooter is deceased,'' she said. "We have multiple victims inside who are deceased. We potentially have two other shooters who have not been located."
 
Lanier said police are searching for a white male wearing a tan military-style uniform with short sleeves, a military beret and a hand gun. Police are also searching for a black man around 50 years old wearing an olive drab military-style uniform and carrying a long gun, Lanier said.
 
She said there was no evidence that the suspects were military members.
 
A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the fluid nature of the investigation, said authorities were investigating the possibility of other shooters, but there was no immediate evidence of more than one assailant.
 
Washington Mayor Vincent Gray called the incident a "horrific tragedy" and lauded police for their quick response.
 
Media outlets including CBS and the Associated Press, citing the Navy, said the number of dead had risen to six. Maj. Ed Buclatin, the public affairs chief for the Navy Installations Command, earlier had tweeted "four killed and eight injured."
 
FLIGHTS: Airport resumes operations after Navy shooting
 
Janis Orlowsky, chief medical officer at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, said the hospital was treating three victims — a male D.C. police officer and two women.
 
She said the police officer had multiple gunshot wounds to his legs and was in surgery. One woman was shot in the shoulder, and the other in the head and hand. All are expected to survive, she said.
 
The hospital had been told to expect additional victims, Orlowsky said. "We're pretty darned experienced at this."
 
Rick Mason, a program management analyst who is a civilian for the Navy, said he was at the Navy Yard when a gunman began shooting from a fourth-floor overlook in the hallway outside his office. He said the gunman was aiming down at people in the building's cafeteria on the first floor. Mason said he could hear the shots but could not see a gunman.
 
Mason said overhead speakers told workers to seek shelter and later to leave the building.
 
Patricia Ward, a logistics management specialist, said she was in the cafeteria. "I heard three shots — pow, pow, pow. Thirty seconds later I heard four more shots."
 
Then panic, as people tried to get out of the cafeteria. "A lot of people were just panicking. There were no screams or anything because we were in shock."
 
Dave Sarr, an environmental engineer, was walking down a nearby street when he saw people running from the Navy Yard. Sarr has seen an evacuation drill a few days earlier at the Navy Yard. "At first I thought it was another drill," Sarr said. "Then I saw an officer with his weapon drawn."
 
President Obama made a brief statement, describing the victims as "patriots" and promising a thorough investigation. "I made it clear to my team that I want the investigation to be seamless," Obama said.
 
The first news broke with the Navy reporting on its Twitter feed that there was an "active shooter" at Building 197 at the Navy Yard, and that three shots had been fired at 8:20 a.m. ET. The Navy later reported deaths and injuries, but details remained fluid.
 
James Killingsworth, a mason from Frederick, Md., was working on rebuilding a historic wall about 100 yards from the Navy Yard entrance when he heard two gunshots. If there were any other shots, he said, they were immediately drowned out by wailing sirens.
 
"Everything they had, Secret Service, federal police, everyone came speeding down the street. I've never seen so many police in my life," he said. "Scary morning."
 
Flights at nearby Washington Reagan National Airport were disrupted, with all departures temporarily halted at the airport.
 
The Navy Yard is located on the banks of the Anacostia River, a few blocks from the Nationals baseball stadium. It's in an urban area where the development of new parks, shops and apartments has been ongoing.
 
The Washington Nationals baseball team had not determined whether Monday night's game against the Atlanta Braves would be played. A parking lot at Nationals Stadium was being used as a site for families seeking to reunite with loved ones who work at the Navy Yard.
 
The city had not decided how long the area by the Navy Yard, including the baseball stadium, would remain closed to the public, said Keith St. Clair, communications director for the deputy mayor for public safety and justice.
 
Naval Sea Systems Command is the largest of the Navy's five system commands and accounts for a quarter of the Navy's entire budget. It builds, buys and maintains the Navy's ships and submarines and their combat systems.
 
NAVSEA headquarters' security requires guests to pass through turnstiles that are watched by security guards before entering. Visitors must also turn in their phones and other electronic recording devices upon entry.
 
Capt. Michael Graham, who works at NAVSEA, was running late this morning and by the time he arrived at work the base was already in a lockdown.
 
Graham said he had never seen a shelter-in-place drill in his five years at NAVSEA.
 
"I've never seen a shelter-in-place, I've seen the normal fire drills things like that, but never a shelter-in-place drill," said Graham. "Normally the drills you have are to get out of the building."
 
Marine Barracks Washington also put its base on a partial lockdown, only allowing Marines to leave if they were on official business, said Capt. Jack Norton, a base spokesman. A small contingent from Marine Barracks Washington's Guard Company serves at the Navy Yard, Norton said.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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More than 1,000 unaccounted for in deadly Colorado floods

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The number of people unaccounted for in flood-ravaged Colorado rose Sunday to 1,254 as flooding spread to 15 counties and rain continued to fall.
 
Many of those unaccounted for were reported unreachable on the phone by family members.
 
"We don't expect to find 1,254 fatalities," said Micki Trost, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
 
Five fatalities — four in Boulder County and one in El Paso County — have been confirmed since the bulk of the rain began Wednesday evening. Still the number of fatalities could rise. An 80-year-old woman in Larimer County's Cedar Grove was missing and presumed dead after her home was washed away by the flooding Big Thompson River , the county sheriff's office said Sunday. The woman was injured and unable to leave her home Friday night, sheriff's spokesman John Schulz said. A second Larimer County 60-year-old woman is also presumed dead after the river destroyed her home the same night.
 
Some 1,500 homes have been destroyed and about 17,500 have been damaged, according to an initial estimate released by the Colorado Office of Emergency Management.
 
Some people just don't know what's come of their relatives. A Dallas man saw a photo of his mother's Big Thompson Canyon home in ruins on a Denver TV website. "I don't know that she's even OK," Rob Clements told The Coloradoan about his mother, Libby Orr, 73, with whom he last spoke on Thursday. "I presume she is. But her house, if not completely gone, fell into the river and is most of the way gone."
 
Many roads and bridges in the state are damaged or destroyed, said Amy Ford, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation.
 
Crews are assessing the extent of the damage, which will cost "hundreds of millions" of dollars to repair, she said.
 
The actual number of roads damaged or destroyed is unknown, Ford said. Sections of three U.S. highways — 34, 36 and 72 — and various mountain roads are heavily damaged, she said.
 
Thirty highway bridges are destroyed, 20 are seriously damaged, and transportation officials suspect 20 others are damaged.
 
"Our first priority is looking at roads to repair," Ford said. "We're also looking at roadways near water that weren't closed to make sure they are safe."
 
Recovery "will take weeks, if not months," she said.
 
Long-time Boulder resident Tom Kahn said there were some mudslides in his neighborhood near the base of a mountain that overlooks the city of Boulder, but his house did not suffer any major damage. Water "poured" into some nearby houses, he said.
 
"It's very sad," said Kahn, a Realtor who has lived in Boulder since 1967. "Our beautiful Boulder is hammered. Mother Nature wins."
 
He said Four Mile Canyon, one of several canyons where people live outside of Boulder, is "a total wipeout."
 
"Life goes on, but it's so heartbreaking."
 
Boulder resident Rudy Harburg said the most prevalent problem in the city of Boulder is flooded basements. He said the local Home Depot sold 700 sump pumps in four hours.
 
"I have not seen as much rain in the 55 years I have lived in Boulder," said Harburg, who owns apartments in the city.
 
In front of a house on a hill above the University of Colorado campus, he said he saw people piling a couch and other furniture in front of the front door to keep water from rushing into the house.
 
A few days ago, a major street in Boulder, Baseline, was "a torrential river," and Boulder Canyon, the big canyon leading into and out of the city, is "a disaster," he said.
 
The Boulder Sheriff's Office has reported that mudslides, debris and water have destroyed or made impassable mountain roads in Boulder Canyon and other canyons west of the city.
 
Harburg said, though, that media pictures showing extensive flood-related damage – particularly in hard-hit, nearby Lyons — are not representative of downtown Boulder. He said he has encountered roadblocks blocking some city streets, but he has usually been able to drive without obstruction through the city.
 
He said many college students were making the best of the situation, "dancing in the rain and running around in bikinis" on the hill above campus.
 
He praised city officials, because "our infrastructure — roads, storm sewers and drainage systems — has held up."
 
About 14,500 people have evacuated from flooded areas in 15 counties, and 1,329 stayed overnight Saturday in 26 emergency shelters, Trost said.
 
Many displaced residents are staying with family or friends or in hotels, she said.
 
Rain fell intermittently Saturday, and 4 inches of rain were expected Sunday.
 
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said Sunday he expects the weather to clear Monday morning or afternoon.
 
The state has "a lot of broken roads and broken bridges, but we don't have broken spirits," he said.
 
Hickenlooper said helicopters rescued more than 2,000 people in need of evacuation in flooded areas.
 
The size of the flood-affected area is growing.
 
Flooding has impacted the foothills on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains from Fort Collins in northern Colorado to Canon City, about 180 miles away in southern Colorado.
 
The hardest-hit counties are Boulder and Larimer in the north and El Paso in the south. The state's two largest public universities are in the two northern counties — the University of Colorado in Boulder and Colorado State University in Larimer's most populous city, Fort Collins.
 
In El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs, the Manitou Springs area has been most affected by the flooding, Trost said.
 
Floodwaters have now spread east to the Great Plains in eastern Colorado. An emergency shelter has been set up in Sterling, about 102 miles east of Fort Collins and the Rocky Mountain foothills.
 
Want to help out Colorado flood victims? Trost says anyone wishing to send financial assistance should go to helpcoloradonow.net.
 
Liz Erley, chairwoman of the Lyons Community Foundation. , says anyone wishing to help Lyons residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged should send a check to the Lyons Community Foundation/Relief Fund, The Community Foundation, 1123 Spruce St., Boulder, Colo., 80302.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Navy Yard building home to Sea Systems Command

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WASHINGTON — The shooting Monday at the Navy Yard here took place in Building 197, the headquarters of the Navy Sea Systems Command, an essential component of the country's sea service.
 
According to the Navy, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is the largest of the Navy's five system commands. About 3,000 people work in the command headquarters at the Navy Yard.
 
It has an annual budget of almost $30 billion, and the command makes about 25% of the Navy's entire budget. The command has a total workforce of 50,000 civilian, military and contract support personnel. The command engineers, builds, buys and maintains the Navy's ships and submarines and their combat systems, according to the Navy. It has facilities around the world.
 
The building where the shooting took place is a high-security facility because of the sensitivity of the information handled by the command. It is inside the Navy Yard, itself a military installation that would not allow public access.
 
Most military bases require a sticker to get through the gates. Often base commanders will heighten security by requiring identification checks.
 
Visitors who don't work there would usually need to be cleared in advance and at some bases they might have their vehicle searched.
 
The Sea Systems Command headquarters has another layer of security, which requires an additional badge and has turnstiles similar to the Pentagon. The command works with sensitive documents, including equipment test results.
 
The Navy Yard was established in 1799 and is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy.
 
Washington's Navy Yard area has gone through a revitalization in the last five years since the completion of the stadium for the National League's Washington Nationals. It also close to Capitol Hill.
 

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Memorial to 1928 storm victims largely ignored

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — South Florida officials are considering improvements for a memorial and mass grave for hundreds of victims of the 1928 hurricane, still the deadliest natural disaster in state history.
 
A fence and marker were installed in 2003 at the West Palm Beach field where 674 victims of the hurricane were buried. Now, though, paint is peeling from those installations and while the city mows the grass every few weeks, the memorial is largely ignored by the public.
 
"It has never looked this bad in all the 14 years I've been on the board," said City Commissioner Ike Robinson, whose former district included the site.
 
City Commissioner Sylvia Moffett tells The Palm Beach Post that neighbors aren't sure whether adding amenities such as an amphitheater or restrooms would attract more park activity or constitute sacrilege.
 
"Even if it's not an active park, we owe it to people to maintain it," Moffett said.
 
Monday marks the 85th anniversary of the storm. The Category 4 hurricane knocked out the dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee.
 
At least 2,500 people died in the storm and flooding. Amid health fears, authorities dug mass graves or burned corpses in massive pyres.
 
Hundreds of black victims were buried in the West Palm Beach field, which was a paupers' cemetery. For decades, it remained empty and unmarked.
 
Robert Hazard, an advocate for the memorial site, envisions a park with tables for checkers and chess, space for yoga classes and educational kiosks. He also hopes Florida could make the site a state park.
 
City parks and recreation director Christine Thrower said the site was designed more as a memorial than as a public park. However, she said she was open to Hazard's ideas.
 
"There are many things we could do to honor what the area stands for," she said.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Jaden Smith Slams Education: ‘School Is The Tool To Brainwash The Youth

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Will and Jada please come get your son!

Jaden Smith recently took to his Twitter account to dismiss the educational system and tell his four million followers they would be better off if they dropped out of school!

“If everybody in the world dropped out of school we would have a much more intelligent society,” he wrote. “All the rules in this world were made by someone no smarter than you. So make your own.”

He went on to say “school is the tool to brainwash the youth.”

“If newborn babies could speak they would be the most intelligent beings on planet Earth,” he added. “Education is rebellion.”

We don’t know what sparked the 15-year-old’s rant, we do know his parents, Will and Jada Smith, practice a hands-off approach when it comes to parenting and education.

“The way that we deal with our kids is, they are responsible for their lives,” the actor said during a recent interview with E! Online.”Our concept is, as young as possible, give them as much control over their lives as possible and the concept of punishment, our experience has been—it has a little too much of a negative quality,”

“So when they do things—and you know, Jaden, he’s done things—you can do anything you want as long as you can explain to me why that was the right thing to do for your life,” Will said.

We hope Jaden finds the light and it leads him back in a direction toward school!

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Report: Over 65,000 U.S. bridges in need of repair

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Motorists coming off the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge into Washington are treated to a postcard-perfect view of the U.S. Capitol. The bridge itself, however, is about as ugly as it gets: The steel underpinnings have thinned since the structure was built in 1950, and the span is pocked with rust and crumbling concrete.
 
District of Columbia officials were so worried about a catastrophic failure that they shored up the horizontal beams to prevent the bridge from falling into the Anacostia River.
 
And safety concerns about the Douglass bridge, which is used by more than 70,000 vehicles daily, are far from unique.
 
An Associated Press analysis of 607,380 bridges in the most recent federal National Bridge Inventory showed that 65,605 were classified as "structurally deficient" and 20,808 as "fracture critical." Of those, 7,795 were both — a combination of red flags that experts say indicate significant disrepair and similar risk of collapse.
 
A bridge is deemed fracture critical when it doesn't have redundant protections and is at risk of collapse if a single, vital component fails. A bridge is structurally deficient when it is in need of rehabilitation or replacement because at least one major component of the span has advanced deterioration or other problems that lead inspectors to deem its condition poor or worse.
 
Engineers say the bridges are safe. And despite the ominous sounding classifications, officials say that even bridges that are structurally deficient or fracture critical are not about to collapse.
 
The AP zeroed in on the Douglass bridge and others that fit both criteria — structurally deficient and fracture critical. Together, they carry more than 29 million drivers a day, and many were built more than 60 years ago. Those bridges are located in all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and include the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, a bridge on the New Jersey highway that leads to the Lincoln Tunnel, and the Main Avenue Bridge in Cleveland.
 
The number of bridges nationwide that are both structurally deficient and fracture critical has been fairly constant for a number of years, experts say. But both lists fluctuate frequently, especially at the state level, since repairs can move a bridge out of the deficient categories while spans that grow more dilapidated can be put on the lists. There are occasional data-entry errors. There also is considerable lag time between when state transportation officials report data to the federal government and when updates are made to the National Bridge Inventory.
 
Many fracture critical bridges were erected in the 1950s to 1970s during construction of the interstate highway system because they were relatively cheap and easy to build. Now they have exceeded their designed life expectancy but are still carrying traffic — often more cars and trucks than they were originally expected to handle. The Interstate 5 bridge in Washington state that collapsed in May was fracture critical.
 
Cities and states would like to replace the aging and vulnerable bridges, but few have the money; nationally, it is a multibillion-dollar problem. As a result, highway engineers are juggling repairs and retrofits in an effort to stay ahead of the deterioration.
 
There are thousands of inspectors across the country "in the field every day to determine the safety of the nation's bridges," Victor Mendez, head of the Federal Highway Administration, said in a statement. "If a bridge is found to be unsafe, immediate action is taken."
 
At the same time, all that is required to cause a fracture critical bridge to collapse is a single unanticipated event that damages a critical portion of the structure.
 
"It's kind of like trying to predict where an earthquake is going to hit or where a tornado is going to touch down," said Kelley Rehm, bridges program manager for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
 
Signs of age are clear. The Douglass bridge, also known as the South Capitol Street Bridge, was designed to last 50 years. It's now 13 years past that. The district's transportation department has inserted so-called catcher beams underneath the bridge's main horizontal beams to keep the bridge from falling into the river, should a main component fail.
 
Alesia Tisdall, who drove over the bridge every day for 15 years but now crosses it only occasionally, said she found its "bounce" unnerving.
 
"You'd look at the person sitting next to you like, 'Did you feel that bounce?' And they'd be looking back at you like they were thinking the same thing," said Tisdall, a computer systems specialist at the Justice Department.
 
Peter Vanderzee, CEO of Lifespan Technologies of Alpharetta, Ga., which uses special sensors to monitor bridges for stress, said steel fatigue is a problem in the older bridges.
 
"Bridges aren't built to last forever," he said. He compared steel bridges to a paper clip that's opened and bent back and forth until it breaks.
 
"That's a fatigue failure," he said. "In a bridge system, it may take millions of cycles before it breaks. But many of these bridges have seen millions of cycles of loading and unloading."
 
That fatigue is evident in a steel truss bridge over Interstate 5 in Washington state — south of the similar steel truss that collapsed in May. The span that carries northbound drivers over the east fork of the Lewis River was built in 1936.
 
Because of age, corrosion and metal fatigue caused by vibration, the state has implemented weight restrictions on the bridge. Washington state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Heidi Sause said the bridge wasn't built for the kind of wear — bigger loads and more traffic — that is now common.
 
"This is a bridge that we pay close attention to and we monitor very carefully," Sause said.
 
The biggest difference between the bridge over the Lewis River and the one over the Skagit River that collapsed May 23 is that the span still standing has actually been listed in worse condition. State officials hope to replace it in the next 10 to 15 years.
 
While the Skagit span was not structurally deficient, the I-35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis in 2007 had received that designation. The bridge fell during rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the cause of the collapse was an error by the bridge's designers, not the deficiencies found by inspectors. A gusset plate, a fracture critical component of the bridge, was too thin.
 
Many of the bridges included in the AP review have sufficiency ratings — a score designed to gauge the importance of replacing the span — that are much lower than the Skagit bridge. A bridge with a score less than 50 on a 100-point scale can be eligible for federal funds to help replace the span. More than 400 bridges that are fracture critical and structurally deficient have a score of less than 10, according to the latest federal inventory.
 
The Brooklyn Bridge is among the worst.
 
There are wide gaps between states in historical bridge construction and their ongoing maintenance. While the numbers at the state level are in flux, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Pennsylvania have all been listed recently in the national inventory as having more than 600 bridges both structurally deficient and fracture critical.
 
Pennsylvania has whittled down its backlog of structurally deficient bridges but still has many more to go, with an estimated 300 bridges in position to move onto the structurally deficient list every year if no maintenance is done. Barry Schoch, the state transportation secretary, said in an interview that officials would like to add redundancy to fracture critical bridges when they can, particularly if a bridge is also structurally deficient.
 
"Those are high on the priority list," Schoch said.
 
After the 1983 collapse of the I-95 bridge over the Mianus River in Connecticut, the focus turned to a fracture critical bridge style known as pin-and-hanger assembly.
 
Pennsylvania worked over the following years to add catcher beams to its pin-and-hanger spans. That's the case now on the George Wade Bridge that carries I-81 traffic across the Susquehanna River. More recently, crews have also been trying to move the bridge off the structurally deficient list after finding significant cracks in the piers.
 
Officials say northeastern states face particular challenges because the infrastructure there is older and the weather is more grueling, with dramatic and frequent freeze-thaw cycles that can put stress on roads and bridges.
 
Many Pennsylvania lawmakers have long sought to boost transportation funding, in part to address crumbling bridges. But this year's proposals, including Gov. Tom Corbett's $1.8 billion plan, stalled amid fights over details.
 
That's a common issue among infrastructure managers in other states, who say they don't have the money to replace all the bridges that need work. Instead, they continue to do patch fixes and temporary improvements.
 
Washington's Douglass bridge has been rehabilitated twice. The catcher beams were added because the pin-and-hanger expansion joints that hold the bridge's main girders in place had deteriorated to the point "we were concerned that we could have a failure, and that the failure could be catastrophic," said Ronaldo Nicholson, the chief bridge engineer for the area.
 
"If the joint fails, then the beam doesn't have anything to carry itself because there are only two beams. Therefore the bridge fails, which is why we call it fracture critical," Nicholson said.
 
The bridge has a sufficiency rating of 60, an increase from the 49 rating in 2008 before some repair work was done. It remains structurally deficient because inspectors deemed the superstructure in poor condition due to "advanced structural steel section loss with holes and overhang bracket connection deficiencies," according to an inspection report from earlier this year.
 
A new bridge would cost about $450 million if it was required to be able to open so large ships can travel the Anacostia, an infrequent occurrence, Nicholson said. If not, the cost could be as low as $300 million, he said.
 
Nicholson emphasized that if city officials feel the bridge is unsafe, they'll prohibit trucks from crossing or close the span entirely. Inspections have been stepped up to every six months instead of the usual two-year intervals for most bridges. In the meantime, officials are trying to stretch the bridge's life for another five years — the time they estimate it will take to build a replacement.
 
Congressional interest in fixing bridges rose after the 2007 collapse in Minneapolis, but efforts to add billions of extra federal dollars specifically for repair and replacement of deficient and obsolete bridges foundered. A sweeping transportation law enacted last year eliminated a dedicated bridge fund that had been around for more than three decades. State transportation officials had complained the fund's requirements were too restrictive. Now, bridge repairs or replacements must compete with other types of highway projects for federal aid.
 
The new law requires states to beef up bridge inspection standards and qualifications for bridge inspectors. However, federal regulators are still drafting the new standards.
 
"Do we have the funding to replace 18,000 fracture critical bridges right now?" Rehm asked. "No. Would we like to? Of course."

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Final OK given to right the Costa Concordia wreck

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Read Time:5 Minute, 2 Second
GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy (AP) — Authorities have given the final go-ahead for a daring attempt Monday to pull upright the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner from its side in the waters off Tuscany, a make-or-break engineering feat that has never before been tried in such conditions.
 
The ship capsized there 20 months ago, and Italy's national Civil Protection agency waited until sea and weather conditions were forecast for dawn Monday before giving the OK to try to right it. In a statement Sunday, the Civil Protection agency said the sea and wind conditions "fall within the range of operating feasibility."
 
The Concordia struck a reef near Giglio Island the night of Jan. 13, 2012, took on water through a 230-foot gash in its hull and capsized just outside the harbor. Thirty-two of the 4,200 passengers and crew members died. The bodies of two of the dead have never been recovered, and may lie beneath the wreckage.
 
Never before have engineers tried to right such a huge ship so close to land. If the operation succeeds, the Concordia will be towed away and broken up for scrap.
 
Salvage experts had originally hoped to right the 115,000-ton vessel last spring, but heavy storms hampered work. Crews have raced to get the Concordia upright before another winter season batters the ship against its rocky perch — damage that would increase the chance that it couldn't be towed away in one piece.
 
Salvage master Nick Sloane seemed optimistic in the final hours before the operation began, saying Sunday that testing of the machinery in recent days had actually lifted the 985-foot ship up about 2.5 inches, or 0.15 degrees. There have been concerns that the rocks of the reef on which the Concordia is resting were so embedded in the hull that the ship would resist being pulled off.
 
"We know that … she is lively enough to move," Sloane told reporters.
 
The operation to bring the ship vertical involves dozens of crank-like pulleys slowly rotating the ship upright at a rate of about 3 yards per hour, using chains that have been looped around its hull. Tanks filled with water on the exposed side of the vessel will also help rotate it upward, using gravity to pull the exposed side down.
 
Once upright, those tanks — and an equal number that will be fixed on the opposite side — eventually will be filled with air, rather than water, to help float the ship up off the reef so it can be towed away.
 
Last week, the head of Italy's Civil Protection agency, Franco Gabrielli, said there was no "Plan B" if the rotation failed since there would be no other way to try again. But Sloane said he was confident the ship would withstand the stress of the rotation.
 
The most critical time will be the first hour or so of the operation, since that's when the ship will be detached from the reef.
 
This weekend, tourists and locals waded and swam in pristine waters just beyond the harbor, with the hulking wreck an ugly backdrop and reminder of the harrowing night when a few thousand people straggled ashore. Since the Concordia came to rest on its side, visitors have come to gawk at the wreck, providing the tiny fishing island a year-round tourist season it never had before.
 
Mayor Sergio Ortelli has asked for patience from the island's 1,400 residents during Monday's operation, which he expected would last about 10-12 hours. Ferries linking Giglio to mainland Tuscany stop running at dawn Monday, meaning teachers for Giglio's two schools were arriving Sunday night for classes.
 
Since the shipwreck, no major pollution has been found in the waters near the ship. But should the Concordia break apart during the rotation — a possibility authorities describe as remote — absorbent barriers have been set in place to catch any leaks. Fuel was siphoned out early in the salvage operation, but food and human waste are still trapped inside the partially submerged vessel and might leak out.
 
As a precaution, Ortelli told islanders last week that water tanks on the island would be topped up in case the water supply becomes contaminated.
 
Other inconveniences were expected. The island that lives off fishing and tourism sends its compacted garbage every Monday to the mainland by boat. That sanitation service will have to be re-scheduled when the port shuts down for the rotation operation, known in nautical parlance as "parbuckling."
 
One of the last ferries of the day Sunday brought a mix of tourists wanting to see the boat for what might be the last time on its side and many who had spent over a year preparing to bring it upright. They included Franco Ferraiuola, a crane operator who wouldn't be working Monday — he has some time off — but was bringing his wife to the island to watch the dramatic attempt.
 
He acknowledged that many of the experts were confident they could bring the ship vertical in one piece but he voiced some concern.
 
"There is always the unknown. Nothing is certain," he said.
 
In July, five Costa employees were convicted in a plea bargain of manslaughter and sentenced to less than three years apiece. Capt. Francesco Schettino, whom prosecutors accuse of pulling the Concordia off-course in a stunt to bring it closer to Giglio, is currently on trial, accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and leaving the ship before all passengers and crew were evacuated. He has denied the charges and insisted the reef wasn't on his nautical charts.
 
Costa is a division of Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise ship company.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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After fire, boardwalk businesses face stark choices

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Read Time:4 Minute, 17 Second
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Boardwalk business owners in New Jersey have begun to assess the damage caused by a devastating fire a little more than 10 months after they were forced to rebuild after Superstorm Sandy.
 
As firefighters in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights continued to pour water on their stores Friday, all they could do is consider the odds that they would need to start over once again.
 
"Everyone is kind of (thinking), 'Now what? What's next?'" said Bill Wutzer, 74, of Seaside Park, who lost one of his three boardwalk businesses, Seaside Steak House & Clam Bar, in the fire. "At this point, there aren't any answers."
 
The fire that tore through the boardwalk claimed 30 or more businesses that are synonymous with summers at the Jersey Shore — clam bars, pizza shops, arcades and concessions. The damage to the boardwalk alone is expected to be at least $1.88 million.
 
The fire forced business owners to once again brace for the financial and emotional toll it would take to rebuild. Or, in some cases, not rebuild.
 
The fire struck less than a year after many of them saw their businesses flooded by Sandy — a disaster that left them cobbling together money from their savings, loans, grants and insurance proceeds. On Friday, they were again listening to an all-too-familiar pledge from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie that he would convene state agencies to come up with a plan to help them recover.
 
Like Sandy, the fire hit at the end of the summer tourism season, giving businesses plenty of time to rebuild.
 
But time isn't the problem. Money is.
 
FunTown Pier, devastated by the fire, had previously applied to the state to expand. But the fire may hinder its plan. The business might not be able to find insurance, said Greg McLaughlin, general manager.
 
'Worse than Sandy'
 
Hasham Khan, owner of Quick Stop Convenience Store and Street Corner, two businesses for which not even frames remain, said he didn't have insurance and doubted whether others along the boardwalk did either.
 
"This is worse than Sandy," he said.
 
Businesses took to social media to alert their customers about their fate. The Beachcomber Bar & Grill left no doubt, posting photos of its charred restaurant on its Facebook page, the floor a mix of ash and water. Kohr's Frozen Custard Inc., where the fire is believed to have started, said it lost all four stands.
 
"What can we say? Our hearts are broken," it posted in what was a common refrain.
 
Business owners, still numb, relived Thursday, the day of the fire. Angie Lombardi, who has owned Angie's Alley, an amusement business, for four years, said she got a text from a friend who said her machines might be on fire.
 
She drove to Seaside Park, arriving around 2:30 p.m., when the fire was modest. But just 10 minutes later, she knew her business was in trouble. Now her arcade games are gone, and she said she will have to wait on her landlord to see what happens next.
 
"Whatever the outcome is, you just have to work with (it)," Lombardi said.
 
John Earle Livingston, 58, who owns and operates several boardwalk businesses, estimated that he lost about $20,000.
 
His family has been a fixture on the boardwalk for the last eight decades. He lost everything, including old photos of the boardwalk, items of historical value and keepsakes from his mother, who died in 2006.
 
"I don't have anything to retrieve," he said.
 
Plans to reopen
 
Some business owners and their employees echoed the dust-yourself-off spirit they learned after Sandy.
 
Maruca's Tomato Pies was making plans to reopen, store manager Joe Maruca said, noting that the shop survived a fire in the 1980s.
 
And others took solace in small fortunes, the result of the hard work of firefighters.
 
"You look around and people have lost everything," said Daniel Shauger, manager of Funtown Arcade. "You could consider us to be one of the lucky ones," Shauger said. "We still have a building standing."
 
But for merchants who have spent the past year rebuilding from Sandy, and muddled through the slow summer that followed, the fire was demoralizing. Wutzer figured he spent as much as $80,000 of his own money repairing his three restaurants after Sandy. He was able to reopen Seaside Steak House & Clam Bar in April.
 
The shop burned down Thursday. Wutzer didn't have insurance for its contents, and he wasn't sure what his landlord would do. Yet on Friday, he was at Marathon Steakhouse in Seaside Heights, one of his restaurants that escaped the fire. It was open. And, from the sound of things, it would stay open.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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