WAUSAU, Wis. (WAOW) -- Educators become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, Mar. 1.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services, or DHS, confirmed on Thursday, Feb. 25, that people who are 65 and older, teachers and child care workers will be prioritized among the new eligible groups.
Some may get shots right away while others may need to wait. Central Wisconsin health systems have said they want to make more progress with those 65 and older before moving to teachers.
Tammie Simon, Vice President for Quality, Innovation and Patient Safety at Marshfield Clinic Health System said, "It could take months, honestly it's truly dependent on our vaccine supply."
The Department of Health Services said districts with higher populations of students of color and low-income families will be prioritized, other districts may face longer waits than initially expected.
Wausau school district director of human resources, Tabatha Gundrum said, "We will not be starting our vaccines March 1st, I know that for a fact."
Similarly, Wood county health department officials said they would not start vaccinating teachers and other groups until, "better progress is made on those 65 and older."
Soon, however, teachers will get vaccines specifically for them.
Gundrum said she was told by Aspirus health systems that, "there will be a dedicated portion of the vaccines that will be released by the state that will be available just for school district employees both in Wausau and other school districts throughout the region."
The Wausau school district says they will receive their vaccinations from their healthcare provider, Aspirus, in a matter of weeks, not months, starting with those who work in special education.
Gundrom said, "We're focusing on highest risk first. We'll go to high school staff, then middle school then elementary staff."
But another hold up is hard for some to hear.
"A lot of our staff is anxious to get the vaccine. And there's disappointment that it hasn't gone as fast as we would have liked," said Gundrum.
Marshfield Clinic receives roughly 2,200 first doses every week with 26,000 patients currently on their wait list. The health system said it is still focusing on those 65 and older, educators will be about a month out.
The state's goal is to have all educators fully vaccinated by the end of April.
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The impulse to seek out challenge and danger can be called ‘voluntary post-traumatic growth.'
People engage in challenging activities because of their consciousness-changing effect.
Extreme sports can also cause exhilarating neurological or physiological changes, such as heightened adrenaline or a release of endorphins.
After leaving university I had a temporary office job and worked with a man who was an amateur motorcyclist. Every year he went to the Isle of Man – a small island midway between England and Ireland – to take part in the ‘TT races’, known as the most dangerous motorsport event in the world. Motorcyclists race along narrow public roads, with sharp corners and steep hills, at speeds of up to 200 miles an hour. Every year there are a number of fatalities (3 in both 2017 and 2018, and 2 in 2019) and hundreds more serious injuries. The island brings over hundreds of extra nurses and doctors from mainland Britain to help deal with the injuries.
Once I asked my colleague why he liked the race so much, even though it was so dangerous. I realised straight away that it was a stupid question. He replied, ‘That’s why I like it – because it’s dangerous! Because it’s the opposite of everything about my office job. It’s not just the thrill of going so fast, it’s the feeling you get at the end, when you’ve done it, and you’ve survived. You’ve overcome the challenge and you feel fantastic. You feel like you can do anything. The world seems like a different place.’
Several years later, I met the man again by chance, and asked him if he still did the TT races. ‘No, I’ve got a family now,’ he replied, sounding slightly rueful. ‘So I thought it’s too much of a risk. Maybe I’ll start again when my kids are older. Now I’m learning to paraglide instead.’
The Urge for Safety Vs. The Urge For Danger
This story illustrates one of the paradoxes of human beings. There are two conflicting urges inside us. One part of us likes safety and stability – the kind which office jobs bring. We shy away from danger and difficulty, and try to protect ourselves from misfortune. We like to have secure jobs that give us a steady income, and to organize our lives into steady routines, which we repeat over and over. We like to feel that our futures our secure, and that we and our children aren’t going to lack for anything.
But there’s another part of us that pushes in a different direction, rebelling against safety and security. This part of us seeks out adventure and adversity. It seems to relish challenge and danger. We climb mountains, run marathons, and practice extreme sports such as paragliding or bungee jumping. We give up highly paid and secure jobs to work for charities, or to go sailing around the world. For this part of our being, it’s more important to feel alive than to feel safe. It’s almost as if we need challenges to keep ourselves awake, as if too much safety and routine puts us into a semi-comatose state in which we sleepwalk through our lives. We know – if only unconsciously – that challenges like the above are character-building, leading to increased confidence and resilience. They put us in touch with deep reserves of creativity and skill inside us, and make us feel that we are living at our full potential.
I refer to this impulse to seek out challenge and danger as ‘voluntary post-traumatic growth.' Post-traumatic growth describes the long-term after-effects of traumatic experiences. Research has shown that all traumatic experiences can bring positive effects such as a greater sense of confidence and competence, a heightened sense of appreciation, a wider sense of perspective, a stronger sense of meaning and purpose, more authentic relationships, and so on. My view is that we human beings like to put ourselves in difficult and even traumatic situations as a way of harnessing some of these effects. We know intuitively that by surmounting challenges and dangers, we will gain the some of the benefits that people gain accidentally after traumatic incidents. We sense that we will become more confident and competent, more appreciative of our lives, and so on. In extreme cases – such as my colleague the motorcyclist - it is possible that people are acting on a subconscious impulse to expose themselves to the danger of dying in order to gain some of the psychological benefits of encountering death. These can be similar to those of post-traumatic growth in general, but more powerful.
Of course, this isn’t the only reason why people practice extreme sports or voluntarily put themselves through challenges. Extreme sports certainly may cause exhilarating neurological or physiological changes, such as heightened adrenaline or a release of endorphins. Overcoming challenges also brings a sense of achievement and accomplishment.
In addition, I think that people practice challenging activities because of their consciousness-changing effect. Challenging activities are very effective ways of inducing “flow” –a state of intense absorption which intensifies our mental energy and brings a powerful sense of well-being. They may even induce what I call ‘awakening experiences,’ or higher states of consciousness. In these moments the world around us become vivid and beautiful, and we feel a sense of connection with a deeper aspect of our own being, and also feel as if we have become part of our surroundings. The challenge and danger of the activities is a powerful focus for our attention, which quietens our minds and brings us into a state of heightened awareness.
The urge to grow is natural to human beings. It’s almost as if there is an evolutionary impulse inside us, impelling us to uncover new depths of our being, and to extend our range of experience. It seems that we are not meant to be static. We feel frustrated when we’re trapped, and our urge to grow can’t express itself. Challenge is like light to us – when we have it, we grow; when we lack it, we shrivel up inside. Of course, life itself offers us regular challenges, but if our lives become too easy and safe, then we may feel impelled to create challenges for ourselves, so that we can continue to grow.
City and Borough of Juneau’s Urban Avalanche Advisory lowered from extreme on Saturday to high as of Sunday morning, said the city’s emergency program manager in a news release.
The danger persists, said Tom Mattice in an update to the avalanche advisory, but Juneau may make it out unscathed if things continue improving.
“I am of the opinion that if Behrends (Avenue chute) didn’t slide with the 5 degree warming, 2” of moisture, and 1’ of snow yesterday, it will probably start to slowly stabilize today with the falling temps and decreased loading rates,” Mattice said in the release. “So although natural avalanches are still likely, I think we may have dodged a bullet for the time being on the big one.”
A high danger level means avalanche conditions remain “very dangerous,” according to the North American Public Avalanche DangerScale, natural avalanches remain likely and human-caused avalanches very likely. Spending time in avalanche terrain or avalanche zones is not recommended, according to the scale.
In the past 24 hours, 13 inches of snow fell at the Mount Roberts Tram, according to CBJ’s Urban Avalanche Advisory. More than a foot of snow fell at Eaglecrest.
While things are heading in a positive direction, Mattice said, caution and prudence remain critical to staying safe.
“Dangers remain high, the deep instabilities still exist, Please make your own safety decisions. It’s still a great day to avoid time spent in avalanche terrain and yet by tonight the urban danger should be reduced enough to return to homes,” Mattice said. “Please recognize avalanche forecasting is an imperfect science, there is no certainty that a large avalanche could not occur and yet trends are slowly heading back the right way.”
A more complete forecast is expected later today as snow conditions become better understood, according to the advisory. Mattice recommended staying clear of the Flume Trail and urban avalanche areas during the early part of the day until conditions improve later in the afternoon.
At the center
As wet, heavy snow fell outside, an air of determination was on display at Centennial Hall as masked workers set up the final phase of an evacuation center to support people in the path of the Behrends Avenue avalanche chute.
A total of 39 houses sit in the path of a potential avalanche, and about 20 people were expected to take refuge overnight in Centennial Hall, Mattice said.
Three people and one cat had arrived by 8 p.m. Animal control officers were present to provide free boarding for any pets that came to Centennial Hall with their owners.
This is the first time CBJ has suggested evacuation of the Behrends Avenue corridor area since 2008.
Britta Tonnessen, Red Cross disaster program manager, said volunteer coordination started Friday afternoon and on-site setup and had started around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. With the threat of COVID-19 transmission still looming, virus mitigation was in place.
Inside the Sheffield Ballroom, workers set up tents with cots, pillows and blankets. The tents afford privacy and help with virus mitigation, Tonnessen said.
Basic COVID-screening and personal protective equipment were available to workers and those arriving for shelter.
“This is quarantine and isolation sheltering from COVID,” Mattice said.
Tonnessen said that three shifts of volunteers will provide services throughout the evening, overnight and morning shifts. The Salvation Army will offer breakfast vouchers Sunday morning.
The shelter will remain open until the danger has passed.
“Our plan will adjust based on what happens,” she said, noting that the greatest danger is likely to occur during the early morning hours on Sunday.
“If an avalanche hits homes, we’d do a damage assessment and offer different recovery assistance,” she said.
Mattice said that he walked the Behrends Avenue corridor early Saturday and knocked on doors to let people know of the impending danger.
He talked with more than half of the homeowners, and many were already making preparations to leave the area until the danger passes. Many people reported plans to stay in a hotel or with friends. Several people had already left the area, he said.
“It’s good we went to that level. A few people were not aware of the danger,” he said.
Mattice said that some residents were hesitant to leave.
“A few people said that it would never happen here. So, I shared the history and explained that there’s no way to predict an avalanche’s path. I told them about some of the damage done to houses in the area over the years.”
Mattice said that wet avalanches tend to hook east. In contrast, drier conditions tend to send avalanches to the west. But, he said, there’s no way to predict the direction. He noted that the 1962 avalanche that affected the area went straight down.
“Historically, we’ve seen avalanches to the water,” he said. “This storm is notable with a huge warming at the end of a week with a lot of snow,” he said.
• Contact reporter Dana Zigmund at dana.zigmund@juneauempire.com or 907-308-4891.
Centennial Hall was appropriated by the City and Borough of Juneau as an evacuation shelter for those in the path of possible avalanches on Feb. 27, 2021. (Michael S. Lockett / Juneau Empire)
Centennial Hall was appropriated by the City and Borough of Juneau as an evacuation shelter for those in the path of possible avalanches, including appropriately distanced pod sleeping arrangements like those shown here, on Feb. 27, 2021. (Michael S. Lockett / Juneau Empire)
Chicago Public Schools is taking its biggest step toward a return to normalcy Monday, a full 349 days after the pandemic closed schools and upended education as families and educators knew it. But school, for the foreseeable future, will still look nearly unrecognizable.
The vast majority of the 421 elementary and middle schools welcoming students back over the next week — more than 92% — will be less than half full, and 42% will be less than a quarter full.
Teachers across the city are expecting single-digit students per class, including some with no children returning at all. Schools have split their returning students into Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday cohorts, with Wednesdays reserved for school cleaning and remote learning for all.
Principals have been frank with parents in school meetings over the past few weeks and months. At many schools, the focus will be causing as little disruption as possible to remote learning. Which for most in-person students means their return to classrooms could feature a similar educational experience to the one at home.
Though every school is free to tailor the district’s plans to its needs, educators will largely work with in-person and remote students simultaneously. Most teachers will sit at a computer at the front of the classroom and provide virtual instruction as they have this whole school year. For large portions of the day, students will sit at socially distant desks either following along on their own devices or a projector screen.
The mere presence of a teacher and classmates, however, is sure to benefit many students who have borne the brunt of the pandemic’s social isolation — even as classes are split into pods with a maximum of 15 students who are not allowed contact with other groups.
Many educators have also planned limited activities in the so-called “asynchronous” time that continues to be set aside in remote learning for independent activities rather than live instruction.
There are also some classrooms that will have no teacher, whether because of a health accommodation or other planning reasons. In those classrooms, newly hired seasonal employees will supervise students as they learn virtually from a teacher or a substitute who is working remotely.
“Of course, it will be remote learning from the classroom. Almost all of our kids are remote,” said a principal who asked to not to be named to be able to openly share thoughts on the plan.
That principal believes the school is ready to keep students and staff safe from COVID-19 — but is more concerned with keeping intact students’ virtual experience.
“If we did anything other than remote learning from the classroom, we would be hurting almost all of our students. Any other choice would mean choosing for almost all of our students to learn less. We are not going to do that.”
Another principal said the non-live, asynchronous time would give teachers a good opportunity to work with the students who are in front of them while remote students work independently.
Still, schedules have already changed at many elementary schools to accommodate in-person learners. The amount of instructional time is falling for many remote students, and time dedicated to small group learning, for example, may be shifting from several days per week to one for those at home.
“No matter if a family is hybrid or remote, there are still gaps in the plan that families are greatly concerned about,” leaders of the parent group Raise Your Hand wrote last week.
A preschool student gets his temperature checked as he walks into Dawes Elementary School in Chicago.Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
N. Side, NW Side schools see bigger share of students returning
Whether because of health concerns or a realization of what in-person learning will entail, the families of about 17,000 students have decided to remain in remote learning after originally opting to return. That puts an expected 60,000 preschool through eighth grade and special education cluster students — 29% — back in classrooms, and leaves 145,000 still remote.
More than 37,000 of those students in K-5 are due to return Monday, with another 18,500 in grades 6-8 set to return next week. That’s aside from the 5,000 pre-kindergarten and special education cluster program students who have been in classrooms already, and 74,000 high school students have no scheduled return date.
Most schools will have small class sizes because of the smaller percentage of students returning and the smaller student pods. But while lots of buildings may feel empty relative to pre-pandemic days, there could still be challenges — especially for those where many students are returning.
A preschool student washes his hands at Dawes Elementary School at 3810 W. 81st Pl. on the Southwest Side.Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
The 25 schools with the highest share of their students opting to return to classrooms are concentrated on the Northwest Side, the North Side and in the Mount Greenwood community on the Far South Side. Mount Greenwood Elementary is expecting more than 1,000 students back, nearly 85% of its enrollment and about 500 kids more than the next closest school.
Meanwhile, places like Morton School of Excellence in East Garfield Park, Spry Elementary in South Lawndale and Telpochcalli Elementary in Little Village have fewer than 20 students, or about one-tenth of their student bodies, scheduled to return.
Aside from class instruction, other parts of the school experience will look vastly different than when schools shut down nearly a year ago.
CPS has spent over $100 million to implement health and safety protocols it believes will keep infections low.
Masks will be required for students and staff at all times other than lunch. Kids will be expected to enter and exit through various doors around the building. Student and staff temperatures will be taken near the entrance, and kids will be told to frequently wash their hands or use hand sanitizer.
If a student’s temperature taken at the entrance registers above 100.4 or if they develop symptoms during the day, they’ll be sent to a designated isolation room until their parent or guardian picks them up. A select few schools have installed quarantine pods that look hospital-grade in gymnasiums or auditoriums in case the regular isolation room gets full.
A quarantine pod at Bell Elementary on the North Side.Provided
At some buildings, each classroom will be designated a specific stairwell and bathroom to use. Bathrooms should have alternating sinks and toilets blocked off to encourage social distancing. Drinking fountains in most schools are expected to be covered by plastic wrap and be inaccessible.
There are still educators and families who are worried the protocols won’t uniformly be followed, leaving cracks in the plan that could cause COVID cases to rise.
But district officials believe if the initial reopening goes smoothly, more parents and teachers will become comfortable with in-person instruction, leading to more students returning for the fourth academic quarter that starts April 19.
“Elementary school families will be offered an opportunity to come back to school prior to the start of the fourth quarter, and we hope you will consider sending your child to school,” the district said in a letter sent to families Saturday.
Lunch and specials
Rather than the usual spectacle that is a school lunch period, many students will eat in their classrooms at their desks — which will be 6 feet apart. They’ll be expected to sit forward and not interact with others while their masks are off. Some schools may use larger spaces if they’re able to maintain social distancing, or they might opt for outdoor lunch or recess once the weather warms.
One principal called lunch a “high-stakes time” when the strongest precautions should be taken to avoid infections.
Art teachers at some schools will travel from one student pod to another to limit movement of large groups of students or will teach online from another classroom altogether. Those who have more than 10 classes to teach will split their courses into five-week blocks or by quarter, so educators work with the same set of 10 pods five days a week for a period of time, and then shift to a second set of pods for the next period of time.
For physical education, many schools plan to conduct masked exercises of “mild- to low-intensity,” largely in classrooms. And after-school clubs may be held in a limited in-person way — or kept online.
Students will bring their CPS-issued laptops and tablets to school and back home every day. Kids who use their own privately purchased devices for remote learning will be asked to keep those home and will instead have a CPS device to use at school.
“School will look and feel very different,” Erik Olson, principal at Hamline Elementary in Back of the Yards, said in a video guide to school reopenings.
A cps bus aide sits inside an empty classroom at Jordan Community Elementary School in Rogers Park earlier this month as some CPS students came back for in-person schooling.Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Soldiers from Eritrea systematically killed "many hundreds" of people, the large majority men, in a massacre late November in the Ethiopian city of Axum in the Tigray region, Amnesty International said Friday. The new report echoed the findings of an Associated Press story last week and cited more than 40 witnesses.
As pressure on Ethiopia increased over what might be the deadliest massacre of the Tigray conflict, the prime minister’s office announced that "humanitarian agencies have now been provided unfettered access to aid in the region." It added that the government "welcomes international technical assistance to undertake the investigations (into alleged abuses) as well as invites the potential to collaborate on joint investigations."
And yet the government alleged the Amnesty report relied on "scanty information," and said the human rights group should have visited the Tigray region. Amnesty said it requested permission from the government in December and never received a response.
"As you know, no independent human rights monitors have been allowed in the region since the conflict began," spokesman Conor Fortune said in an email to the AP.
FILE - In this Monday, Nov. 4, 2013 file photo, the Church of St. Mary of Zion in Axum, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. A new Amnesty International report issued Friday, Feb. 26, 2021 says soldiers from Eritrea systematically killed "many hundreds" of people, the large majority men, in a massacre in late November 2020 in the Ethiopian city of Axum. (AP Photo/File)
Crucially, the head of the government-established Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Daniel Bekele, says the Amnesty findings "should be taken very seriously." The commission's own preliminary findings "indicate the killing of an as yet unknown number of civilians by Eritrean soldiers" in Axum, its statement said.
The Amnesty report describes the soldiers gunning down civilians as they fled, lining up men and shooting them in the back, rounding up "hundreds, if not thousands" of men for beatings and refusing to allow those grieving to bury the dead.
Over a period of about 24 hours, "Eritrean soldiers deliberately shot civilians on the street and carried out systematic house-to-house searches, extrajudicially executing men and boys," the report released early Friday says. "The massacre was carried out in retaliation for an earlier attack by a small number of local militiamen, joined by local residents armed with sticks and stones."
The "mass execution" of Axum civilians by Eritrean troops may amount to crimes against humanity, the report says, and it calls for a United Nations-led international investigation and full access to Tigray for human rights groups, journalists and humanitarian workers. The region has been largely cut off since fighting began in early November.
Ethiopia’s federal government has denied the presence of soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, long an enemy of the Tigray region’s now-fugitive leaders, and Eritrea’s government dismissed the AP story on the Axum massacre as "outrageous lies." Eritrea's information minister, Yemane Gebremeskel, on Friday said his country "is outraged and categorically rejects the preposterous accusations" in the Amnesty report.
But even senior members of the Ethiopia-appointed interim government in Tigray have acknowledged the Eritrean soldiers’ presence and allegations of widespread looting and killing.
Ethiopia said the "alleged incident" in Axum "will have to be thoroughly investigated."
And Ethiopia's ambassador to Belgium, Hirut Zemene, told a webinar on Thursday that the alleged massacre in November was a "very highly unlikely scenario" and "we suspect it's a very, very crazy idea."
No one knows how many thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict between Ethiopian and allied forces and those of the Tigray regional government, which had long dominated Ethiopia’s government before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018. Humanitarian officials have warned that a growing number of people might be starving to death as access, while improving, remains restricted.
"Hostilities must cease immediately," the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement in response to the Amnesty International report, adding that "the level of suffering endured by civilians, including children, is appalling."
The presence of Eritrean soldiers in Tigray has brought some alarm. The United States has repeatedly urged Eritrea to withdraw its soldiers and cited credible reports of "grave" human rights abuses.
On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States is "gravely concerned" by reports of atrocities.
"The United States has repeatedly engaged the Ethiopian government on the importance of ending the violence, ensuring unhindered humanitarian access to Tigray, and allowing a full, independent, international investigation into all reports of human rights violations, abuses, and atrocities," Blinken said in a statement. "Those responsible for them must be held accountable."
Witnesses of the massacre in Axum told Amnesty International that Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers jointly took control of the city but the Eritreans carried out the killings and then conducted house-to-house raids for men and teenage boys.
Bodies were left strewn in the streets after the events of Nov. 28 and 29, witnesses said.
"The next day, they did not allow us to pick the dead. The Eritrean soldiers said you cannot bury the dead before our dead soldiers are buried," one woman told Amnesty International. With hospitals looted or health workers having fled, some witnesses said a number of people died from their wounds because of lack of care.
"Gathering the bodies and carrying out the funerals took days. Most of the dead appear to have been buried on 30 November, but witnesses said that people found many additional bodies in the days that followed," the new report says.
After obtaining permission from Ethiopian soldiers to bury the dead, witnesses said they feared the killings would resume any moment, even as they piled bodies onto horse-drawn carts and took them to churches for burial, at times in mass graves.
The AP spoke with a deacon at one church, the Church of St. Mary of Zion, who said he helped count the bodies, gathered victims’ identity cards and assisted with burials. He believes some 800 people were killed that weekend around the city.
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Mountain mornings above Ketchum, Idaho often begin with cannon fire. The enemy? Avalanches. The Sun Valley Ski Patrol uses explosives to test the snowpack on the mountainside. It's one way Scooter Gardner, head of snow safety for the resort, keeps his guests safe.
"Our ultimate goal is to give the skiing customer as much skiable terrain as possible, that is as safe as possible," Gardner told correspondent Serena Altschul.
To the blissfully unaware, it might seem like overkill. But beyond the boundaries of America's ski resorts, the threat from avalanches is a very real part of mountain life.
Last month snowmobilers got caught in an avalanche in Utah:
"All the snow is, is a horizontal representation of the season's weather," said backcountry guide Chris Marshall.
To really understand the danger of snowpack on a steep slope, you have to dig a little deeper.
Since the start of the pandemic, enrollment at avalanche classes by Sun Valley Guides has more than doubled with people looking to safely get away into America's wild and rugged backcountry.
Marshall walks students the basics of search and rescue, terrain management, and – critically – how to "read" the layers of snow like a geologist reads sediment. "The more readily this slides off, that's going to show poor bonding between those layers," he said, slicing into the snowpack.
"When you've got snow that looks like sugar, and especially when you can see the individual crystals with your naked eye, these are facets."
A lesson in snowpack physics by guide Chris Marshall.CBS News
Snow scientists say climate change has heightened avalanche risk. Throughout much of the West there was heavy Fall snow followed by drought. That formed a weak layer which was then buried under several feet of snow – prime conditions for the most dangerous type of avalanche, what is called a slab avalanche. Bruce Tremper, who was the head of the Utah Avalanche Center for some 30 years before retiring in 2015, described a slab avalanche as like "a cohesive plate of snow, like a magazine sliding off of an inclined table."
"Ninety-three percent of the time, that avalanche is triggered by the victim or somebody in the victim's party," Tremper said. "It means we have a choice. We can avoid avalanches if we want to by not triggering avalanches."
In 1977, as a young member of the Ski Patrol at Bridger Bowl in Montana, Tremper was warned to stay off of a slope that was a notorious avalanche path … not that he listened.
"And the first thing that happens, it feels like somebody pulls out the rug from underneath me, and I flop down on the snow and it just pulled me downhill," he recalled.
Tremper credits managing to grab a tree with saving his life.
"And I just felt like I was underneath this huge waterfall getting pounded to death. I was just tumbling down the slope, going head over heels and all over the place. Hat, mittens gone, skis gone. I mean, snow is going everywhere, down my underwear, under my eyelids. And when it came to a stop, I was buried up to my chest."
When snow is moving down a slope, it often feels like water. But when it comes to rest, it tends to set like concrete. Had Tremper been fully buried, he might have had only about 15 minutes to live.
Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, said, "One of the really important misconceptions is that you can dig yourself out if you get buried. And just because of how the avalanche flows when you get buried, the snow compacts – it's really, really hard."
In Western states this winter's weather has produced snowpack conditions that are making avalanches even more threatening than usual.CBS News
Of current snow conditions, Greene said, "It certainly is going to be one of the worst years in a long time. I'm hoping it's not going to be the worst year."
In fact, the week of January 30 was the worst week for avalanche fatalities in the U.S. since 1910, with 15 dead. And the season is far from over.
Greene said, "You know, it's a pretty amazing natural hazard in that you have a person that goes across a snow slope and can release maybe thousands of tons of debris that goes rolling down the hill. One of the accidents we had this last week, the avalanche itself, the break in the snow was over 3,000 feet wide. And that's triggered by a person."
Altschul asked, "If there's a high avalanche risk, do you generally shut down public lands?"
"Typically, we don't do that," Greene replied. "Part of our culture in the United States, and certainly the western United States, has a high degree of value on freedom and personal responsibility. So, these are our public lands. They're there for everybody to enjoy. And that's a wonderful thing for all of us to have access to.
And with that freedom to use those lands comes the responsibility to take care of ourselves and then also take care of the other people in our communities."
So, viewer beware: If you're pushing the boundaries, you're on your own...
Altschul asked Tremper, "What are the best ways to survive an avalanche?"
"It's kind of like asking, 'What do I do if I get in a car wreck,' you know?" Tremper replied. "And the answer is, there's not much you can do because, you know, these things are really, really dangerous. And by the time you've triggered that avalanche, you've already made all the mistakes."
CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Roughly a year ago, nearly 8,000 burned in the Golden Gate Estates, as a massive wildfire ripped through the community.
Fast forward to 2021, as we prepare for wildfire season here in Southwest Florida, Melinda Avni with Florida Forest Service says, numbers show it’s getting dryer here in the sunshine state.
“We’re sitting at about 424 for Collier County right now and on average, for the 3 counties, it's about 409. So, it's getting dryer, and once that drought kicks up to about 500, we start to get very concerned, that means our surface fuels are very dry, our trees are very dry. While there is still moisture in the soil, and above the water table level so we know we can reach it easily, it's not necessarily staying in the trees,” said Avni.
Avni says trees, no matter the size, along with debris can add fuel to the flames.
“It doesn’t look like much but what’s behind us shows exactly what we're talking about. This area here goes from 1-hour fuels to 100 hours fuels, If you look around and see more of the larger trees, you’re getting more to 1000-hour fuels,” said Avni.
Now while it may be tough to go and inspect every tree, or blade of grass to determine a fuel level, Avni says, simply start by securing your home.
‘The ember zone is basically anything a mile from the fire. So if you're within a mile of undeveloped or wildland area, there’s a chance that a wildfire should erupt there, the embers from that can impact your home. So, keep that checked, keep that defensible space, that first 5ft is crucial, ideally you want 30ft. Don’t have trees very close together, don't have them right against your home, keep that grass cut neat,” said Avni.
Right now, the biggest concern for Florida Forest Service is patterns show they are moving into more of a fire year and away from a fire season. Avni says after securing your home if you need a second opinion, Florida Forest Service is ready to take your call.
“We can come out, we can take a look, we can tell them what their actual risks are. We can point them to some resources that could help them make some changes to improve their outcomes,” said Avni.
For more information on how to get in contact with the Florida Forest Service, head to their website.
tetekrefil.blogspot.com Tents and cots are set up at the city’s evacuation center at Centennial Hall on February 27, 2021. The center is set up for residents in the path of a potential avalanche. (Photo by Jennifer Pemberton / KTOO)
At 10 a.m. Saturday, Juneau’s urban avalanche forecast was for “extreme” danger. That’s a five on a scale that goes to five. The city’s emergency manager, Tom Mattice, said it was the first time he’d ever forecasted an extreme avalanche condition for Juneau.
It was also the first time since 2008 that the city was recommending people in the Behrends Avenue neighborhood evacuate their homes due to the avalanche danger.
The Behrends Avenue avalanche path runs down Mount Juneau on the side facing Gastineau Channel, near Juneau-Douglas High School. It’s obvious where the path is, especially in summer when you can see a distinct lack of trees. At the bottom of the path is three rows of houses.
“I knocked on 39 doors today,” said Tom Mattice from the city’s evacuation center on Saturday night. “Couple of them are on the edge of the avalanche path, but that’s how many I logged.”
He said most people are staying at friends houses or hotels.
“Several people have motor homes or boats or relatives in town,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that people had options.”
So, the city teamed up with the Red Cross and opened up Centennial Hall. There were only a few people registered shortly after it opened at 8 p.m.
One of the ballrooms was set up with about a half dozen white tents, each with a few cots inside so families could stay together and spread out from other groups of people for both privacy and COVID-19 safety.
“We’ve got wool blankets, fleece blankets and pillows in there for folks. There’s a shower house outside,” said Michelle Brown, a Juneau city employee and Red Cross volunteer.
Two officers with Juneau Animal Control were there, too, so that people could bring their pets with them, or even drop them off if they needed to stay somewhere pets weren’t welcome. They had a few cat carriers and some leashes at the ready.
“What we’re offering is holding people’s animals for up to ten days if need be free of charge,” said Jordan Bales. “Also vaccinating and applying treatments that they may need to keep them safe in the shelter.”
Jordan Bales and Diana Moon from Juneau Animal Control are volunteering at the city’s evacuation center at Centennial Hall on February 27, 2021. The center is set up for residents in the path of a potential avalanche. (Photo by Jennifer Pemberton / KTOO)
No pets were at the center at the time, but someone had stopped by to say his cat had run away in the avalanche zone. They filed a lost pet report for him and were hopeful the cat would be found.
As of late Saturday, there have been no slides in the Behrends Avenue Area. But, the weather is about to take a turn for the worse.
“The moisture rate and precipitation rate is going to increase between midnight and 6 a.m. And temperatures are going to warm between midnight and 10a.m.,” Mattice said. “So, during that time we’re going to continue to raise the freezing level and put rain on snow at upper elevations that have seen deep instabilities in the last week.”
The top layer of snow, called the storm slab, was already a meter deep on Friday, he said, and with another foot on top that he thinks Juneau probably got today, that would be enough snow to reach the houses at the bottom of the Behrends Avenue avalanche path. Underneath the storm slab is a deeper “persistent weak layer” of snow from earlier in the year. If that layer slid down the hill with everything on top of it, that avalanche would go all the way past the houses and Glacier Avenue and down to Gastineau Channel.
That persistent weak layer of snow exists throughout the region.
“This year is going to be dangerous and spooky,” Mattice said. “And it may not end until all the snow is gone in the spring.”
Mattice was hoping to get a few hours of sleep tonight before getting up early to check on how much rain or snow fell overnight. He says he’ll update the avalanche advisory at 7 a.m. And by 10 a.m., he’ll hopefully know if it’s safe or not for evacuees to head back home.
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February 28, 2021 at 03:17PM
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Juneau sets up evacuation center for residents affected by extreme avalanche danger - KTOO
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DENVER — Snowboarder Maurice Kervin glided into the snow along the steep terrain in the Colorado backcountry like he’s done so many times.
There was no warning for what happened next as he glanced over his shoulder: a rush of snow swiftly heading his way.
Caught in an avalanche last month, the 25-year-old deployed his airbag to help stay on the surface of the snow debris and rode out a slide large enough to bury a house. Once he finally — and safely — stopped, Kervin let out a powerful scream.
“Just raw emotion,” he explained. “Happy to be alive.”
This has been an historically dangerous avalanche season, with 32 confirmed fatalities so far, primarily in the West. The accidents have involved different recreational activities — snowboarding, skiing, snowmobiling, hiking.
Avalanche experts are warning the threat of slides in the backcountry may only be growing worse due to a particularly unstable sort of snowpack that’s only seen about once a decade.
“I hope I’m wrong and we’re out of this cluster,” said Simon Trautman, a specialist at the U.S. Forest Service’s National Avalanche Center. “But it won’t be because the conditions are changing. The danger isn’t going away. People’s decisions may change or the number of people in the backcountry may change because of the information but the conditions will not be the driver to get us out of this.”
Snow waiting to crumble
Here’s why the conditions are so unstable in the West, where all but one of the fatalities have occurred: Early fall snow was followed by a long dry period, creating a weak layer of snow. Strong storms in late January covered and preserved this weakness, making the conditions in parts of the backcountry look as enticing as ever — but with unsteady snow just waiting to crumble.
In the time of a pandemic, too, with more recreational enthusiasts having the opportunity or desire to retreat into the backcountry.
Among the deaths this season have been 15 skiers, eight snowmobilers, four snowboarders and four snowshoers/climbers/hikers. There were 15 confirmed fatalities from slides between Jan. 30 and Feb. 7, which experts say was the most in a seven-day period since 1910.
The 10-year average for people killed in avalanches around the U.S. hovers around 26 per season, according to Ethan Greene, the director of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
Colorado has reports of 11 killed by avalanches this season, the most of any state. Avalanche experts closely examine the accident reports and study the photos, looking for links to tie all these deadly slides together.
Really, though, they have nothing in common except maybe the unpredictability of the snowpack, which can be affected by windstorms shifting and piling snow atop weak layers and, of course, the ever-changing weather conditions.
Juneau’s urban avalanche forecast describes “extreme” danger Saturday evening with the potential for “historic avalanches” in residential areas.
City officials recommend that residents in the avalanche zone of the Behrends neighborhood in downtown Juneau evacuate their homes.
The city and the Red Cross are opening Centennial Hall as an emergency shelter for anyone who chooses to leave their home. The doors will open at 8 p.m. on Saturday and COVID-19 mitigation measures will be in place.
In the advisory, Emergency Manager Tom Mattice also recommends that all residents avoid avalanche paths including the Flume Trail.
“People need to make their own safety decisions,” he wrote. “But we feel that with the forecast for the next 24 – 48 hours natural avalanches are likely and of great size.”
The City and Borough of Juneau describes the Behrends Avenue avalanche path as the neighborhood directly above the Breakwater Inn, a horseshoe area of houses between Glacier Highway, Behrends Avenue and Ross Way; adjacent to Highland Drive.
Original story, 2:38 p.m. Friday:
Avalanche forecasters are warning of increasing danger in downtown Juneau and the surrounding backcountry, especially if more snow and rain falls on an already unstable snowpack. If conditions worsen, the city would recommend evacuation of downtown neighborhoods.
Juneau city officials said in a release Friday that there is potential for “historic avalanches” in the downtown area through Monday. Depending on temperatures and how much snow falls, the city’s Urban Avalanche Advisory could be raised to “extreme” danger, which is the highest level on the scale.
“I have never forecasted an extreme avalanche condition,” said Tom Mattice, the city’s emergency programs manager.
He is advising downtown residents to be cautious, especially if they live near the Behrends Avenue avalanche path. If residents end up evacuating their homes on the city’s recommendation, a shelter would be set up at Centennial Hall.
Mattice says they’ve recently seen avalanches of snow four to six feet deep throughout the region.
“In the urban environment, if we have a four foot deep avalanche that’s wide enough across the face of the Behrends path, (then) that’s more than enough to hit houses,” he said.
The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities is warning of increased avalanche hazard along Thane Road. Residents along the road should be prepared for an extended road closure if crews are unable to safely remove any avalanche debris.
Kanaan Bausler of the Coastal Alaska Avalanche Center says they’ve already seen widespread avalanche activity all around Juneau, from Douglas Island down to Snettisham Inlet. And they expect more avalanches over the weekend.
A freezing rain crust has formed on top of recent snow that fell on a weak snow layer. Bausler says the snow’s weakness can be triggered from even a flat spot on the terrain.
“And then, it’ll travel through that freezing rain crust and collapse the looser snow below and the denser snow above,” he said. “So, it can travel great distances and we’ve already seen avalanches that have traveled over a quarter mile just from propagating through the snowpack.”
He says they’re warning people heading out to the backcountry to use extreme caution, even in terrain that is generally considered safe from any avalanches.
He says the unstable snowpack conditions could potentially last through the rest of the season.
Seattle Public Schools informed hundreds of teachers and other school staff that they may be among those called back to buildings beginning March 8th to teach in-person - before the district reaches a reopening agreement with Seattle Education Association.
In a controversial move, the school board voted Thursday to classify as “essential” staff members who serve some of the highest-needs students with disabilities, as well as those in the district’s preschool and Head Start programs.
This would not apply to general education kindergarten or first grade teachers, who the district has said would return to classrooms this spring. The only dissenting vote came from Board Director Brandon Hersey, who is a teacher in another district.
The Seattle Education Association responded swiftly and with anger. SEA said this move violates its memorandum of understanding with the district because it would change staff working conditions, and that the district has not yet satisfied union concerns regarding health and safety precautions to prevent coronavirus transmission.
“There is nothing the district could do more to undermine the process and to cause irreparable harm to negotiations than take this bad-faith approach,” SEA President Jennifer Matter told district leaders and the school board in a sharply-worded letter.
In taking the aggressive step, the district exercised a clause in its MOU with the union that allows it to deem certain staff as responsible for “essential” work “that is required to maintain basic operations of the district, or on-site work critical to meet an essential student or business need.”
Superintendent Denise Juneau, in a written statement, said “Working with our partner union, SEA, will continue, but because we haven’t reached an agreement yet, we have to begin to take the steps to bring educators back for our students.”
“I applaud the board’s courageous action to designate as essential these instructional services,” Juneau said.
The state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction also set a March 1st deadline for districts to submit their reopening plans in order to guarantee access to federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. Seattle stands to receive $41 million.
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious disease, President Joe Biden, and Washington state Governor Jay Inslee have all stressed that schools can and should reopen as soon as possible, and that risks are low if carefully mitigated by measures like universal mask-wearing and social distancing.
Seattle, the state’s largest district, is also one of the last districts in the state to return to in-person learning at any significant scale. The latest negotiations over how and when to expand in-person learning began in January, with union concerns hinging primarily on whether the district has put in place sufficient health and safety precautions, including increased ventilation in classrooms and PPE for staff.
Most school staff are not currently eligible for Covid vaccination, because Washington gave lower priority to educators than many other states. School staff age 50 and older will be eligible in the next vaccine phase, but younger staff members are several phases away from vaccine eligibility.
Neither does receiving an “essential” designation by the district give staff automatic Covid vaccination priority.
The union holds that the memorandum of understanding allows the district to assign special education staff to work with students one-on-one, and only after an evaluation process to determine that in-person services are critical for the student to make educational progress. Currently, 148 students are receiving in-person special education services in the district -- fewer than 2 percent of all special education students.
The district’s plan would remove that evaluation hurdle for some special education students, and require staff to work in classes of as many as 15 students, up to five days a week.
“The ‘essential’ task provision of the memorandum of understanding was never intended to allow the Superintendent to unilaterally impose new working conditions without negotiation, as clearly outlined in the current MOU,” SEA leaders wrote in an email to members and the district community.
Union leaders called the district’s move a “union-busting tactic” and said it is considering filing an unfair labor practice charge.
The district's position, said Concie Pedroza, the district’s chief of student supports services, is that the "essential" designation for staff enables the district to assign them work it considers critical.
Pedroza pointed to other staff the district has classified as “essential,” including staff in the admissions office back in September, “as we were learning that bilingual families were really struggling with access to remote.” Nutrition, custodial, and payroll staff have also been deemed “essential,” Pedroza said, and are working in-person.
The district’s move drew harsh criticism from many union members, including many who were notified Friday that they may be required to return to buildings in just over a week. The district estimated about 350 staff will be deemed “essential” to serve an estimated 600 special education students whose parents have indicated they are interested in returning. Many preschool staff members and students would also return.
“It’s extremely alarming," said a developmental preschool instructional assistant who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
“Employees in intensive pathways cannot do their jobs without being very close to their students... for long periods of time, holding hands to guide them, toileting them, helping them eat, and helping them learn through significant hand-over-hand instruction,” she said.
Although students learning in-person will be required to wear masks if possible, some students with disabilities will be allowed to go maskless if they do not tolerate them or cannot safely wear them, Pedroza said. Staff slated to return to buildings said they anticipate many of the students they serve will not be masked for that reason.
Despite that, Lisa Reibin Evans, a paraeducator who has worked one-on-one with preschool students at North Beach Elementary School since January, said she’s been waiting for a month to receive KN95 masks the district promised. Eventually, she said, she got some from a colleague.
“The district is not ready. This is not going to work,” Reibin Evans said. Her PPE box is understocked, she said. “I had to go into the cafeteria the other day to get gloves."
Reibin Evans said she does not trust that the district can successfully scale up services and protect students and staff if it cannot do so for the four dozen or so staff members she estimates are already serving students in-person.
The district insists that it is ready. “SPS has prepared school buildings for the return of in-person instruction, with all necessary safety equipment, ventilation upgrades, social distancing, transportation, and meal services,” the district said in a written statement.
Janis White, president of Seattle Special Education PTSA, called the whole situation “tragic.”
“We’re coming up on one year of being remote, and so many families are truly in crisis at this point,” White said. “Their students with disabilities are not capable of learning through the remote learning process.”
Still, White said, she finds disconcerting word from some staff currently serving students in buildings that they have not had the PPE they need and that communications about safety measures were inadequate. She worries that the district’s move to reopen schools before an agreement is reached with the union could do more harm than good.
“It does seem to me that everybody is going to be better served if there's a collaborative process, with transparency, and that there's an agreement before students go back,” White said.
“My fear with all of what's happening now is that it's going to turn into a distraction, potentially, and delay getting services to kids who desperately need them.”
The district said its next step will be determining which eligible families want to return and assigning staff accordingly. Students will begin returning in phases March 11th following three days of staff in-person training, the district said, beginning with children in preschool and Head Start and some elementary students who receive special education services.
The district has not yet announced return dates for other special education students in intensive pathways. And it has yet to agree with the union on a reopening plan for any other students in grades K-12.
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February 28, 2021 at 08:31AM
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Seattle Schools says many "essential" staff will be called back to classrooms in March - KUOW News and Information
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