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Australia braced for more storms as nine die By Nick Squires in Sydney Last Updated: 1:42am BST 11/06/2007 Australians were braced for more atrocious weather this week after the worst storms in more than 30 years killed nine people and forced the evacuation of thousands of others in the East as swollen rivers cut off towns and farms. During three days of wild weather roads collapsed, cars were washed away with people still inside and a giant freighter was washed ashore by mountainous seas at Newcastle, north of Sydney. John Howard, the prime minister, called it "an immense disaster". The...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- One phase of the state's emergency evacuation plan is still not complete. A new report said the state has not hired any buses to help with an evacuation this hurricane season. According to the report, the state has received bids for the contract but has not decided if it will accept one or open a new round of bidding. The state-endorsed hurricane plan insists the buses will be there if needed.

New Orleans Weighs Evacuation Plans Thursday April 5, 2007 1:16 AM By CAIN BURDEAU Associated Press Writer NEW ORLEANS (AP) - With hurricane season less than two months away and memories of Katrina less than two years old, city leaders are still trying to sort out how they will evacuate residents this year if another storm approaches. Tourism leaders oppose using the convention center as a staging ground to evacuate the city's neediest, fearing it would hurt the travel economy by reviving images of the misery it harbored after Katrina hit Aug. 29, 2005. Their resistance poses a potentially serious...

rules:link only http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_NEW_ORLEANS_EVACUATION_LAOL-?SITE=LAMON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Japan, U.S. detail ROK evac plans / Countries to assist citizens in crisis The Yomiuri Shimbun The Japanese and U.S. governments have begun work to strengthen a cooperative system in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula, including the creation of a plan to evacuate civilians of the two countries living in South Korea, sources said. According to the sources, the Japanese government is considering an evacuation plan that will oblige the nation to provide a temporary refuge for Americans evacuated from South Korea, while the plan would require the United States to help transport Japanese evacuees using...

Fox News just broke in with an alert. They said that a Brookline, Massachusettes elementary school was being "evacuted" (strange use of word) after several students became "violently ill".....Developing....

APEX, N.C. -- Authorities evacuated Apex residents and closed downtown streets late Thursday after a cloud containing chlorine gas spewed from a volatile industrial fire. Apex Town Manager Bruce Radford said a leak at the EQ North Carolina plant on Investment Boulevard sent several large plumes of chlorine gas into the air around 9 p.m. A large fire broke out at the plant afterward, with multiple explosions heard nearby. "This is the worst possible hazardous materials incident you could have," Radford said.

With the World Trade Center death toll shrinking to somewhere around 3,000, many hesitate to speak of a miracle or a success. But those are the words they are using when they remember that thousands of others got out alive before the towers collapsed. Many officials say the loss of life would have been many times higher if not for three factors: the timing of the attack, before the buildings had filled to their usual workday peak; emergency-evacuation improvements prompted by the 1993 terrorist bombing of the trade center; and the urgent reaction of workers, many of whom had been...

Short report... 20 being treated by Haz Mat in Van Nuys.

KEY WEST, Fla. - Visitors were ordered to leave the Florida Keys on Sunday because of the possibility that Hurricane Ernesto could threaten the island chain, emergency officials said. The Monroe County Emergency Management office told tourists with immediate plans to travel to the Keys to postpone their trips and ordered those already in the island chain to leave. All travel trailers and recreational vehicles also were ordered off the islands immediately.

Aer Lingus flight evacuated in Ireland,P. ROBERT BARR Associated Press LONDON - An Aer Lingus flight from New York with 239 passengers aboard was evacuated in Ireland Friday following a threat against the aircraft, airport authorities said. Aer Lingus Flight 112 was evacuated during a scheduled stop at 2:50 a.m. EDT at Shannon airport in western Ireland, said airport spokesman Eugene Pratt. The plane was en route to Dublin. The threat "came to a police station in Dublin, and referred to some explosives aboard that specific flight," Pratt said. No trace of explosives was found in the initial search.

Davis, WVa. (AP) - Suburban Washington, D.C., residents would likely jump in their cars and drive through the Eastern Panhandle, Maryland and Virginia in the event of a terror attack, a new West Virginia University survey shows. West Virginia officials say the survey underscores the need for a regional plan to handle an exodus of 6 million or 7 million people. Many of them plan to leave the region, either heading north, south or straight through the panhandle, said WVU assistant professor Brian Gerber, who worked on the survey. He presented the results Wednesday to more than 100 public safety...

Humanitarian Aid Organization Israel La'ad Comes to Kiryat Shomena Is the UN and the International Red Cross Discriminating Against Israel? By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Kiryat Shmona ---August 9.....The supermarket in Kiryat Shmona, Israel was empty. No lines, no loudspeakers announcing sales, no sound of cash machines opening and closing. Breaking this silence was the wail of air raid sirens as an endless line of shopping carts filled to the brim with everything from milk and cheese to washing detergent and shaving cream waited by one cash register. Driving in large, green and blue pickup trucks, flying Israel flags...

Americans pack Canadian rescue vessel Ship could be last ticket out of war zone, but only 49 Canadians show up to board Globe and Mail Mark MacKinnon July 27, 2006 TYRE, LEBANON — Taking advantage of a brief lull in the Israeli assault on this port city, a desperate crowd of foreign nationals, including 49 Canadians, escaped war-battered southern Lebanon Wednesday aboard a Canadian-chartered vessel. Canada had been expecting to pick up as many as 1,000 stranded Canadians, and officials could only guess why so few actually turned up. Some may already have fled by land or remained in the...

Senate minority Leader Reid (D-NV) and House minority Leader Pelosi (D-CA) have submitted bicameral legislation to protect the weakest among us from any peril, anywhere in the world, at any time. The legislation, coined “The No Dummy Left Behind Act” will mandate the use of US military assets as well as provide authority to commandeer commercial craft to provide for the prompt evacuation/rescue of US citizens no matter what they did to get themselves into their present situation. The legislation mandates a 48 hour limit for the evacuations, regardless of location or circumstances. After the 48 hour limit, the legislation...

ALARM - the American evacuated last leave Lebanon BEIRUT - the last Americans wishing to leave Lebanon in prey to violence left the wearing of Beirut Wednesday evening in direction of Cyprus, indicated to AFP official American.

edited video: American Evacuation from Lebanon, July 2006 (46,398kB WMV9)      raw video (MP4)   2244608 Jul 22 18:12 bus01.MP4   5881856 Jul 22 18:13 musterpoint01.MP4      3850240 Jul 22 18:13 musterpoint02.MP4   3850240 Jul 22 18:14 port01.MP4   3211264 Jul 22 18:14 port02.MP4   6291456 Jul 22 18:15 ship01.MP4   4947968 Jul 22 18:16 ship02.MP4  12124160 Jul 22 18:17 ship03.MP4    507904 Jul 22 18:17 ship04.MP4   2408448 Jul 22 18:18 taxi01.MP4   3850240 Jul 22 18:18 taxii02.MP4 PHOTOS RY2.QO01.jpg                             2006-JUL-21 21:51:50   236kRY2Bus01.jpg                             2006-JUL-21 21:51:50   218kRY2Bus02.jpg                             2006-JUL-21 21:51:50   133kRY2Cruise01.jpg                          2006-JUL-21 21:51:49   200kRY2Cruise02.jpg                          2006-JUL-21 21:51:49   263kRY2Cruise03.jpg                          2006-JUL-21 21:51:49   230kRY2Cruise04.jpg                          2006-JUL-21 21:51:49   227kRY2Cruise05.jpg                          2006-JUL-21 21:51:50   136kRY2Cruise06.jpg                          2006-JUL-21 21:51:50   230kRY2OrientQueen02.jpg                     2006-JUL-21 21:53:57   279kRY2OriientQueen01.jpg                    2006-JUL-21 21:53:57   252kRY2Port01.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:53:57   245kRY2Port02.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:53:57   693kRY2Port03.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:53:57   220kRY2Port04.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:55:13   289kRY2Port05.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:55:13   348kRY2Port06.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:55:13   254kRY2Port07.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:55:13   254kRY2Port09.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:55:13   216kRY2Port10.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:57:18   268kRY2Port11.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:57:18   795kRY2Port13.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 21:57:18   249kRY2Port14.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 22:09:46   227kRY2Port15.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 22:09:46   235kRY2Port16.jpg                            2006-JUL-21 22:09:46   697kRY2Preboard01.jpg                        2006-JUL-21 22:09:46   262kRY2Preboard02.jpg                        2006-JUL-21 22:09:46   280kRY2Preboard03.jpg                        2006-JUL-21 22:10:41   280kRY2Preboard04.jpg                        2006-JUL-21 22:10:41   252k

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2006 – The Defense Department evacuated 957 U.S. citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus yesterday aboard the contracted cruise ship Orient Queen, bringing the total to 12,870 since the crisis in Lebanon began July 16, DoD officials said today. Also, DoD airlifted the first humanitarian supplies promised to those in the war-torn country, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Three helicopters delivered three kits of medical supplies to Red Cross personnel. Each of the three medical kits has enough medicine and supplies to meet the needs of 10,000 people for three months. Seven other kits have arrived in Cyprus...

WASHINGTON — A leading Arab-American advocacy group has sued the U.S. government, claiming that it failed to protect American citizens from the fighting in Lebanon. The lawsuit, filed Monday on behalf of about 30 American citizens by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, alleges that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld did not take all possible steps to secure the safety and well being of U.S. citizens when fighting erupted between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas. The committee is asking the U.S. District Court in Detroit to order the U.S. government to request a cease fire and to...

You could sense that, in the evacuation from Lebanon, much of Canada's media thought it had another Walkerton or Katrina on its hands. The Globe and Mail, CBC, CTV and others were positively salivating over what they saw as an opportunity to sting yet another conservative government for not caring enough about a public crisis. So they hustled reporters and camera crews to Larnaca, Cyprus and Mersin, Turkey and gleefully began beaming back to Canadian readers and viewers the accounts of disgruntled evacuees hopping mad that Ottawa had not rescued them immediately, on the very day they decided to leave...

BEIRUT (CP) - Big ships bolstered efforts to ramp up the evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon on Sunday, with officials hoping to have their most productive day yet. More than 2,000 Canadians were expected to leave in Ottawa's slowly growing effort to move tens of thousands of Canadians out of the strife-torn country. Some 4,400 Canadians had left through Saturday. At Canada's evacuation centre in a borrowed dance hall adjacent to Beirut's port, hundreds of exhausted people sat quietly eating snacks and waiting for their turn to board a boat. Around them, children used seat cushions for pillow fights and...

American Navy sailors use a military radio as American citizens stand on board an LCU (Landing Craft Utility) at a beach in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 21, 2006, to be taken to the USS Trenton, which will evacuate 2,000 Americans to Cyprus. The United States prepared to ship about 5,000 Americans from Beirut Friday to nearly complete the evacuation of its citizens from Lebanon as the international exodus reached a peak. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)An American Navy sailor carries an American girl as they board an LCU (Landing Craft Utility) at a beach in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 21, 2006, as...

Freerepublic Exclusive: Photo Diary -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In port prior to boarding -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scenes from the muster point where evacuees check in and board buses to the Orient Queen.     -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Glimpse of Safety --------------------------------------------------------------------------------   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From the bus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bus ride to the Beirut port from the muster point near the Embassy.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In port prior to boarding -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Buses arrive at Beirut port, Orient Queen is in the background. British helicopters arrive, land, take on evacuees from buses, and then depart.       Lebanese soldier providing port security lights up a cigarette. Lebanese navy (both ships!)...

OTTAWA- Despite media reports highlighting complaints and frustration about Canada's efforts to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Lebanon, two-thirds of Canadians give Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government a passing grade for its handling of the crisis, says a new opinion poll. The Ipsos Reid survey of 1,023 people, conducted on Thursday night on the Internet for CanWest News Service and Global National, found 66% of respondents were satisfied when asked about the government's response to "the largest evacuation of Canadian citizens in Canada's history." "I think Canadians are looking at this and saying, 'This is a war zone,' "...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2006 – Air Force C-17 Globemaster III crews assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron operating in Southwest Asia have added another mission to their resume, providing humanitarian civil assistance to the effort to evacuate Americans from Lebanon. Airlift operations have responded quickly to the urgent needs in the Middle East, supporting U.S. citizens evacuating from Lebanon to Cyprus, U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials said. The 816th EAS is flying water and meals, as well as essential personnel and equipment, to Royal Air Force Base Akrotiri on the island of Cyprus. In the first four...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2006 – Military aircraft and sea vessels will evacuate more than 4,000 Americans from Lebanon today, DoD officials said. Officials expect the USS Trenton, the USS Whidbey Island and the contract carrier Rahmah to carry around 4,200 American citizens to safety, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Gary Keck said. The Navy ships will carry evacuees to Cyprus, and the Rahmah will carry roughly 1,400 Americans to Mersin, Turkey. Cypriot officials said they expect roughly 60,000 evacuees of all nationalities in the country, and the evacuation is straining its resources. Turkey has offered the seaport of Mersin as an...

Whiners: Find your own way out of Beirut After being rescued from war zone, a little gratitude would be nice The Edmonton Journal Fri 21 Jul 2006 Page: A18 Section: Opinion Byline: Lorne Gunter Aw, the boat ride was too long, was it? And you say it was too hot? There was no doctor on board, either? And the departure was delayed. And the port was chaotic. And too little food and water had been laid in. And some of you had to sleep on the floor!? Oh, the indignity of it. To listen to the whining and carping...

A RADICAL Muslim cleric had his bid to evacuate Lebanon aboard a British ship rejected when officials blocked his return to the United Kingdom. British authorities turned down a request from Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed for a one-month visa to Britain. The preacher, who called for Muslims to rise up against Westerners, was frightened he would be bombed by the Israelis.

It's been a happy ending for at least one American woman in Lebanon despite bombings and chaos that sent thousands of other foreigners fleeing by land, air and sea.   After a nine-day ordeal, Laura Gabriel, a 38-year-old woman who has been in Beirut for three months trying to adopt a Lebanese child, is evacuating too, but she will be taking with her something very precious: her baby.  "We're waiting to hear what exactly our evacuation plans are. But just knowing that I will finally be going home with him, to have this nightmare end and have him meet his...

MANAMA, Bahrain - U.S. military medical personnel, either on standby or already aboard ships, will act as first responders in the assisted departure of American citizens from Lebanon. One U.S. Navy physician and two corpsmen from Expeditionary Medical Facility (EMF) Kuwait, are aboard the civilian cruise vessel Orient Queen as it ferries passengers to the safety of Lanarca, Cyprus, said Capt. Vernon Morgan, force surgeon at U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain. The U.S. Air Force has also stationed one physician and two medics at the entry points where American citizens are arriving in Cyprus. A 23-member Air Force...

NORFOLK - More than 1,000 American citizens were plucked off a beach in Beirut by landing craft today and transported out to sea and the safety of the Norfolk-based amphibious transport dock Nashville. The ship then took them to Cyprus 140 miles away to board commercial aircraft for home. A similar long day is planned again Friday for the Nashville and at least three other Norfolk-based amphibious ships that were scheduled to join in the evacuations. "It's like a giant slumber party," Capt. Dee Mewbourne, the Nashville's commanding officer, said by satellite telephone today.

"I'm out!!! Got out on the Orient Queen yesterday to Larnaca. Am now in Athens and will be in Chicago tonight. More then. Feel free to share this, as I don't have time to post yet. Got lots of pictures of the evacuation. And about half of the passengers WERE NOT U.S. Citizens!!! Lebanese nationals with Green cards and what all. My group were almost the ONLY people speaking English. It was sickening. MAKE THEM ALL PAY!!! They were treating it as a vacation cruise oblivious that their country is being destroyed. We were so mad we couldn't stand it....

Post 215 on the 7/20 Middle East live thread contains wonderful news that rebel_yell2 got out on the Orient Queen and is making his way home. I know many have been following his story so thought I'd post the good news! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1668955/posts?page=215

LARNACA, CYPRUS - The first group of exhausted Americans evacuated from Beirut arrived on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus before dawn today aboard a cruise ship in what was expected to become one of the largest evacuations since World War II. With its white paint and festive lights, the eight-deck Orient Queen reminded some at dockside of the Love Boat. But one glance at the estimated 900 people on board made it clear that this had not been a pleasure cruise. The passengers who had fled the fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces started coming down the gangway at 2:30...

LARNACA, Cyprus (CP) - Stephen Harper grabbed a few hours' sleep aboard his prime ministerial plane as he prepared to help evacuate some of the Canadians fleeing the Middle East conflict. He spent the night on an airport tarmac in the Mediterranean resort town Larnaca and planned to invite 100 Canadians aboard his military Airbus for a return flight home Thursday. The aircraft is equipped with a pair of single beds, which Harper and his wife Laureen used to grab a few hours' rest before the whirlwind evacuation journey. Harper, accompanied by his "image-handlers," shrugged off suggestions his last-minute stop...

WASHINGTON, July 19, 2006 – Evacuating thousands of Americans from Lebanon is an extremely complicated undertaking, but one that servicemembers train to accomplish, Defense Department officials said here today. American servicemembers have been involved in getting U.S. citizens out of danger since the founding of the republic. Before the current non-combatant evacuation order - or NEO - for Lebanon, U.S. servicemembers helped evacuate people from Liberia in 1993, Tanzania and Kenya in 1998, Indonesia after the tsunami in 2005, Liberia again in 2004, Panama in 1989 and Saigon in 1975. Each of these NEO evacuations had different causes and different...

U.S. to evacuate 7,000 from Lebanon by Friday State Department waives fees for Americans fleeing fighting (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it will help evacuate 7,000 Americans from war-torn Lebanon within the next two days. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told CNN's "American Morning" that 1,000 would leave Wednesday, 2,000 Thursday and 4,000 more by Friday. About 450 of the estimated 25,000 Americans in Lebanon have been evacuated to the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants started July 12. Wednesday's arrivals in Cyprus included dozens of U.S. college students who endured...

Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday rejected criticism that Britain had reacted slowly in evacuating its nations from Lebanon in the face of week-long Israeli bombings of the country's civilian infrastructure. Speaking at a joint conference with the Croatian prime minister, Ivo Sanader, Blair insisted that his government was acting "as quickly as we possibly can" to get its citizens out. "We have taken out of Lebanon the first 60 people - that was done yesterday. The first ship will come today, so obviously we can take far greater numbers out," he said. Britain is under criticism over its evacuation plans...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Jonathan Chakhtoura, a 19-year-old Lebanese-American, is eager to escape the outbreak of Mideast fighting here. But he says he's extremely disappointed with the way U.S. authorities have handled the evacuation. "Every time I call to see what's going on the lines are busy," he said of the U.S. Embassy. "When they answer, they say they don't know," said Chakhtoura, who wants to be back in Boston before his fashion design classes start Sept. 6. "A lot of people don't know what is going on. There is so much confusion. If it's security they are worried about, then...

Has the U.S. been too slow in evacuating citizens, as some say? Yes No

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Americans trying to leave Lebanon began boarding a cruise ship in Beirut on Wednesday that will take them out of the war-torn country to Cyprus. Women carrying backpacks and clutching their children boarded the Orient Queen after bidding tearful farewells to relatives. More than 1,000 Americans are expected to depart Lebanon on Wednesday, U.S Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman told The Associated Press. Those leaving Lebanon will enter the United States through Baltimore-Washington International Airport, a spokesman for the governor of Maryland, Robert Ehrlich, said Tuesday. The large-scale evacuation of U.S. nationals begins following criticism over delays that...

Headline from MSNBC Also: CNN just reported that fair grounds in Cyprus have been secured to house 500 beds and another 250 hotel rooms are secured for evacuees

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2006 – A contracted ship has docked in Lebanon to evacuate U.S. citizens caught in the fighting there, and U.S. officials have ordered the expeditionary strike group based around the USS Iwo Jima to assist in the effort, DoD officials said here today. DoD contracted a Greek ocean liner, the Orient Queen, to evacuate American citizens from Beirut, and that vessel has docked, a senior DoD official told reporters. The liner can hold up to 750 people for the five-hour voyage to Cyprus, an island nation in the western Mediterranean. In addition, six CH-53 helicopters -- three...

MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- U.S. Sailors and Marines from the USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) have been directed to assist in the authorized departure of American citizens from Lebanon. The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon has requested military assistance to help American citizens who wish to depart Lebanon to leave in a secure and orderly manner. Commander, Task Force 59, Marine Brig. Gen. Carl Jensen, is in Cyprus directing military efforts to provide support to the Embassy. The ESG and MEU are operating in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of...

Secretary Rice has directed the State Department in this case to waive the requirement for American citizens departing Lebanon to reimburse the United States Government for their travel costs. We want to do everything we can to facilitate the departure of American citizens from Lebanon. Today’s step removes one potential worry for our citizens at this difficult time.

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2006 – While U.S. authorities in Cyprus are expecting to evacuate at least 5,000 Americans from Lebanon, they are preparing for any contingency, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said today. Navy Vice Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, who also commands the U.S. 5th Fleet, briefed Pentagon reporters from his headquarters in Bahrain. Nine U.S. Navy ships are converging on Lebanon from U.S. Central Command and from U.S. European Command. The European Command ships are arriving in the "joint operating area" already, Walsh said. The CENTCOM ships are expected over the next few days. DoD also...

Fox is reporting live for Beirut. Sea Stallion helicopters are now evacuating women, children and other special cases from via landings at the Beirut embassy.

U.S. to begin evacuation of citizens in Lebanon by cruise ship on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2006 – A U.S. military team is now in Lebanon evaluating the possibility of evacuating thousands of American citizens there, a Defense Department spokesman said here today. "There was an operation this morning involving some U.S. servicemembers to evacuate a small number of people from Lebanon at the request of the U.S. Embassy there," Army Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, a Pentagon spokesman, said. A survey and assessment team from U.S. Central Command is now in Lebanon, Ballesteros said. The team is "planning with the (U.S.) Department of State there for the way ahead," he said. News...

Arrival in Cyprus of the first evacuated Americans of Lebanon NICOSIE - a score of Americans, first natives of the United States to being evacuated of Lebanon, arrived Monday at Cyprus on board a helicopter. A ferry chartered by France for its part left the island bound for Beirut. American nationals arrived on the tarmac of the airport of Cyprus after being evacuated by a helicopter of the American Navy. "Some were under medical treatment, in particular a dialysis", specified a spokesman of the army. France also will evacuate its nationals who wish to flee the bombardment Israelis. A...