With a little bit of luck, I have lived my life hitherto in a relative bubble of innocence. Before today, I knew not the existence of sewer geysers. This terrifying video shot by a youtube user captures the intense eruption of a sewer geyser in Montreal, Canada. The force of the geyser blows open a manhole cover, lifts a car off the ground, and severely damages the vehicle. As the underground waste spills out into the road, the cameraman remains steady. He films as the eruption reaches disgusting new heights towards the video’s end.
5-star beaches open, safe and monitored
Summer is in full swing, all those summer travel tips are either being used or ignored and it’s time to head to the beach. If that beach is open. An annual survey of water quality and public notification at U.S. beaches found that the number of beach closings and advisories in 2010 reached 24,091 the second-highest level in 21 years.
Our friends at WalletPop.com reported last month on The Best — and the Dirtiest — Beaches in the U.S. They told us about the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and their 21st annual list rating many popular beaches. Let’s take a closer look at the top beaches that made “Superstar Beach” status in the NRDC 5-star rating guide. Those Superstar beaches deserve special notice for not only receiving a 5-star rating this year, but for having perfect testing results for the past three years, indicating a history of very good water quality.Delaware: Rehoboth Beach-Rehoboth Avenue Beach, in Sussex County
More information from Rehoboth.com:
“Rehoboth Beach is a beautiful small town on the East Coast featuring enjoyable year round weather, beautiful real estate, great restaurants, and tax free shopping – all just two hours from Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia. Rehoboth Beach offers plenty for the whole family to do, including its one mile Boardwalk, its beautiful clean beaches and water, and its many other recreational activities.”
Delaware: Dewey Beach, in Sussex County
NorthJersey.com describes Dewey Beach
“A sun-dappled and libido-fueled testament to hedonistic beach life, come the height of summer, tens of thousands of fun-seekers flood into Dewey Beach, Del., a costal town with a year-round population of about 350 that can swell to 30,000-plus on summer weekends. On a mile-long stretch of sand between the quiet seaside town of Lewes and the popular family resorts of Bethany Beach and Fenwick Island, this is where hard-partying, binge-drinking youth congregate for all-night wilding.”
Minnesota: Park Point Lafayette Community Club Beach, in St. Louis County
GoDuluthMn.com tells us:
“As you drive along Duluth’s Skyline Parkway, you will see something unusual as you look down towards Lake Superior. In the central part of Duluth, just across the Aerial Lift Bridge, is a long strip of land. Park Point is the world’s longest freshwater sandbar (more than five miles long) that stretches out into the largest freshwater lake in the world.”
New Hampshire: Hampton Beach State Park in Rockingham County
From HamptonBeach.org:
“Where else along the Seacoast can you find 80 free evening concerts taking place throughout the summer and fantastic fireworks displays every week? Where else can you spend a spectacular summer day on the sands, sandwiched between refreshing Atlantic surf and row after row of accommodations, amusements, boating adventures, restaurants, and shops?
Only at Hampton Beach, a great beach and a whole lot more!”
See more beaches at NRDC Ratings for a Selection of U. S. Popular Beaches.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an environmental action organization that uses law, science and the support of 1.3 million members and online activists to protect the planet’s wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
Death by cruise ship? It can come in several ways
OK, so “death by cruise ship” is not exactly the kind of story that makes us want to break out the suntan lotion or brush up on our Bingo skills but it happens. People can and do die on a cruise ship for a variety of reasons. Earlier this week the decrepit Russian ship that sank in the Volga river was a Titanic-like example we might not think possible today. But it happened and over 100 people died. Still, there are other ways to die on a cruise ship. Some you really have to try to make happen, others just sort of happen all on their own.
Fall off the ship
Its not as hard to do as we might imagine. But people who do this really have to be determined to be successful. Nobody simply falls off. Nobody really gets blown off by high winds either. If the ship is in a high-wind situation, open decks get closed for obvious safety reasons. Suicide By Cruise Ship is a common reason though as well as alcohol/drug-induced shenanigans close to the edge of the ship. Most common reason for falling off a cruise ship: sitting/standing on the guard rail of a balcony stateroom.
Get murdered
A 57-year-old Los Angeles County teacher pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Thursday in the beating death of his wife on the Carnival Elation in July 2009. KTLA.com reports that Robert McGill admitted that he “deliberately and intentionally” killed his wife, Shirley McGill, after an argument. The couple were celebrating Robert’s 55th birthday and Shirley’s retirement by going into the port city of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico according to court papers. Witnesses aboard the ship saw McGill just before he beat his wife of five years to death in the bathroom of their cabin saying he was stumbling around and barely able to walk.The Ship Sinks
Again, that does not happen all that much. Like never. Finding out what went wrong is the focus of investigations into the sinking of that Russian river boat. These things are not supposed to happen in today’s world and that incident could have been prevented had the ship been maintained properly and commonly-accepted safety protocols followed.
Disappear
This week marked six years since George Smith mysteriously disappeared from Royal Caribbean‘s Brilliance of the Seas. He was on an eight day honeymoon sailing when something went terribly wrong and he somehow went overboard to be lost at sea.
It’s a tragic yet fascinating story that captivated media world-wide at the time and maritime personal injury attorney Jim Walker was all over it.
“Our firm represented Mr. Smith’s wife, Jennifer Hagel. She hired us to obtain answers to what happened to her husband and to seek compensation for his death” Walker says on his CruiseLawNews blog wrapping up a week-long series of posts about the event today.
The incident started a firestorm of attention on the cruise industry how it does business and what they could do to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.
“Mr. Smith’s disappearance, and the manner in which Royal Caribbean chose to handle the incident, brought much needed attention to the cruise industry” said Walker adding “The events which followed Mr. Smith’s death led to five Congressional hearings into disappearances and crimes on cruise ships, culminating in the passage of the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act in 2010.”
Bad medicine
Cruise ships have what amount to fully-functioning hospitals aboard that can handle anything from a case of motion sickness to surgery.
Don and Marlene Bryce were celebrating Don’s retirement and their 53 years as a married couple on Holland America Line’s Rotterdam. Eight days into the cruise, Don became ill so Marlene called the ship’s doctor who gave Don medicine for vomiting reports injuryboard.com. Apparently treating Don for motion discomfort, his condition worsened. Marlene communicated to the ship’s infirmary several times over the next few days that Don was not getting better only to be told to give him more medicine.
12 days into the cruise, in the middle of the night, Don’s skin was turning dark. Marlene called for a nurse, who never came. Give him water and food, she advised over the phone.
Finally at 4:50 a.m., after Marlene called again, a nurse arrived. By this time Don’s skin was dark, and he was cold. Then he collapsed and died. The doctor arrived two minutes later.
“I was probably five feet away from him on a chair and saw him die,” said Marlene tells KOMO and ABC News.
Under maritime law, cruise lines aren’t responsible for the actions of the doctors they hire, since the doctors are independent contractors.
Not everybody dies
In defense of the cruise industry, the number of people who die while on a cruise is quite small, probably about the same as the number of people who die licking stamps.
CruiseJunkie.com tracks this sort of thing and list Cruise and Ferry Passengers and Crew Overboard. Since 2000 the number they report is 164 people. That’s out of an estimated 83 gazillion people who have taken a cruise and lived to tell about it. The cruise line with the most people overboard? No, not the Funships of Carnival Cruise Line but Royal Caribbean according to CruiseJunkie.
Is there hope for me?
If all this has you a bit worried about your upcoming cruise-of-a-lifetime and you don’t want it to be the last, following some simple safety tips will probably reduce the odds of dying on your cruise.
- Watch the drinking– As noted here, alcohol and/or drugs are a common ingredient in the recipe for death by cruise ship. Its really easy to get loaded on a cruise with crew members walking around with trays of drinks that you don’t even have to carry cash to buy. Going ashore in Mexico is not like going to your favorite local Mexican restaurant. They play by different rules and not one bar will be held accountable for selling you too much liquor like they might stateside.
- Be medically responsible- Tell your travel agent or the cruise line in advance of any existing medical conditions you may have no matter how small. Once on the ship, pay a visit to the ships infirmary to be sure they got that information and to put a face with it. Later, if you have to call about a problem, odds are someone you met will answer. Medical professionals naturally “size up” people when they meet them then note differences if they meet again.
- Don’t go if you don’t want to– Going along on a cruise vacation because that is what the rest of the family or group wants to do is not a good idea if you too are not into it. This is not like a theme park ride. This is a floating city and a closed environment you can not walk away from. That can lead to all sorts of bad, negative things. What might have been a simple misunderstanding on land can become a major problem at sea resulting in really destructive behavior.
Death by cruise ship? It can be avoided pretty easily.
Flickr photo by Jemingway
Russian riverboat tragedy highlights cruise ship safety
The Russian river boat Bulgaria went down at 2 p.m. local time Sunday about 450 miles east of Moscow. While the exact cause is unknown, it was reported to be raining heavily at the time, the ship was maintained poorly and a lax implementation of safety rules look to be contributing factors in the Titanic-like sinking of the ship. The tragic accident highlights good reasons for some of the strict requirements major cruise lines have for passengers.
The ship was overloaded
The 56 year old ship had 208 people on board including 25 unregistered passengers and not enough life vests in Russia’s worst river accident in three decades.
“We have raised 41 bodies. There are 28 women, 10 men and the rest are children,” an emergencies ministry official in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan where the accident occurred Sunday told the Interfax news agency.
This is one reason why major cruise lines (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, etc) have cabins rated to hold a certain number of passengers. While double occupancy is the industry standard, a limited number of cabins on most ships will accommodate more, but not all. U.S. Coast Guard ship inspections put a high emphasis on safety and ships not in compliance with standards are not able to sail. Period.
Children lost at sea
As many as 60 of the passengers may have been children, Russian media reported, and survivors said some 30 children had gathered in a room near the stern of the ship to play just minutes before it sank.
“Practically no children made it out. There were many children on the boat, very many,” survivor Natalya Makarova said on state television. She said she had lost her grip on her daughter as they struggled to escape.
Major cruise lines tag children with arm bands and know were children are. In order to board ships operated by major cruise lines, strict documentation requirements are in place that must be satisfied or boarding will be denied.
The Moscow Times reports that thirty-six children who died on the Bulgaria all had the same birth date, Dec. 30, 1999, on the passenger manifest, indicating that they were allowed to board without their identification documents, said ministry official Marat Rakhmatullin.
Safety is an ongoing issue with major cruise lines who are constantly working to make ships even safer. Royal Caribbean, for example, introduced a tagging system on Oasis of the Seas for three to 11-year-olds that uses an electronic device built into the wristbands that all children on the ship must wear. The system enables parents to locate children wherever they are among the ship’s 16 decks reports the Telegraph.
Safety not a big priority
Lax implementation of safety rules are responsible for many of Russia’s deadly accidents, from fires to plane crashes and mining disasters since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Major cruise lines hold safety drills at the beginning of each voyage so passengers know what to do in case of emergency.
‘It sank in two or three minutes, very fast,” Liliya Khaziyeva, a spokeswoman for the Rescue Service from the neighboring Udmurtia region, said by phone from a boat near the accident site. “We found dead people wearing life vests, people who were simply unable to leave the ship.” reports Business Week.
Last overhauled in 1980, the ship was running with a malfunctioning left engine and was not licensed to carry passengers.
One possible cause appeared to have been a lack of air conditioning which prompted the crew to open portholes that were then flooded by an incoming wave reports the Moscow Times.
Lessons learned
History will probably write that this ship sank over safety issues. From overloading the vessel with too many passengers to relaxed maintenance or simply attempting to operate a ship that was too old, the incident clearly points out how very important these issues are and what a good job major cruise lines do of answering the call for safety.
Safety drills at the beginning of each cruise on major cruise lines are mandatory, ships have ample life vests for all guests and oversight by government authorities keep the system in check.
Today’s Titanic
The Russian incident naturally raises some serious questions. Are today’s cruise lines operating as safely as possible? Is it possible to ever have another Titanic-like event?
Major cruise lines have set-in-stone rules regarding documentation needed to board a passenger ship. The requirements are strict and systems on board keep track of every passenger coming on or going off a ship. Behind-the-scenes activities performed by everyone from travel agents to embarkation staff at the pier help insure a safe voyage.
Cruise liners today are much bigger and better equipped. At 46,328 gross registered tons, Titanic was the largest and most advanced ship of her day. Today’s largest and most advanced ship, Allure of the Seas, is more than four times larger and carries almost twice as many people. Big ships are not nearly as “remarkable” as they were in 1912. Shipyards seem to crank them out as fast as they are ordered. Cruise lines deploy ships all over the planet now without hesitation to move one if an itinerary does not produce the anticipated results.
This Russian riverboat tragedy looks to be a totally preventable accident if common safety and maintenance procedures used by cruise lines world-wide had been followed. It is also a good reason to pay attention during those safety drills performed at the beginning of each cruise. Yes, odds are your cruise ship will not sink, but its a good idea to know what to do in case of an emergency and maybe have a little more patience with cruise line workers who insist on following the rules.
Flickr photo by mil8
Snore absorption room to give travelers restful sleep
A UK trial of a snore absorption room by Crowne Plaza Hotels promises relief for travelers without medication or specialized equipment. The new room is a result of research revealing more than half of UK couples are losing between one and five hours sleep a night due to the snoring and snuffling of their partners with three in ten couples coming close to splitting up because snoring is coming between them.
“We’ve all been there. Lying wide awake at three o’clock in the morning burying our head under a pillow to drown out our partner’s snoring. There’s nothing worse than being kept up all night and that’s why we’ve designed this specific snore absorption room to help give our guests a great night’s sleep” said Tom Rowntree, spokesperson for Crowne Plaza in a release.
The new hotel room features sound proofing on walls to absorb the loud frequencies, a special sound absorbing head board, an anti-snoring bed wedge which acts as a body pillow, an anti-snoring pillow which uses magnets and a white noise machine which is proven to help drown out the droning snoring noise and help sleep and relaxation.
“Snoring is a common problem and whilst it’s thought of as a male problem, women can suffer from it as well. Snoring is made by vibrations of the soft palate and tissue in the mouth, nose and throat. Whilst there is no cure for snoring, Crowne Plaza is trying to reduce the impact of snoring by trialing a snore absorption room.” said Dr Chris Idzikowski, sleep expert.
Crowne Plaza is big on the whole idea of sleep. Their Sleep Advantage Program features dedicated quiet zones, luxurious bedding and pre-sleep in-room Aromatherapy that includes a lavender pillow spray and eucalyptus pulse oil to help you relax, breathe easier and sleep well.
That’s good news when traveling with a stranger who snores but chronic snorers are encouraged to take a look at other, more permanent, remedies which often treat the cause. Sleep Apnea, says the Mayo Clinic, “is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. You may have sleep apnea if you snore loudly and you feel tired even after a full night’s sleep” urging “If you think you might have sleep apnea, see your doctor. Treatment is necessary to avoid heart problems and other complications.”
Flickr photo by Perfecto Insecto