You have heard about the recent Ebola outbreaks in West Africa. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says it is the largest in history. As of October 8, there have been over 3500 deaths. You can find an update here. Detailed information about the disease is available on Medline Plus. The CDC is working with other U.S. government agencies, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other domestic and international partners and has activated an Emergency Operations Center to help coordinate technical assistance and control activities with partners. It has also deployed teams of public health experts to West Africa and will continue to send experts to the affected countries, according to its website.
The U.S. Department of State has issued a Fact Sheet for travelers and the WHO also has one here. The Indiana State Department of Health has compiled a list of resources and medical providers on its Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) – Information webpage. Recent federal documents on the Ebola virus are available on the online Catalog of U.S. Government Publications here.
ABC issued a story last month titled, “You Can Help Map the Ebola Zone and Fight the Outbreak.” Anyone who wants to help with the Geographic Information System (GIS) program volunteer can join online. For more GIS-related information, see the 2014 West Africa Ebola Response wiki.
President Barack Obama has proclaimed October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Domestic and Intimate Partner violence is a re-occurring issue worldwide. According to the National Library of Medicine’s Medline Plus webpage on Domestic Violence, this type of abuse includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats of physical or sexual violence, and emotional abuse. It can happen to women and men. The abuse affects the victim and perpetrator, their families, and the community at large. According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway, the impact of domestic violence on children can include immediate behavior and cognitive problems and long term issues like depression, anxiety, and PTSD. If you or someone you know experiences domestic or intimate partner violence, there are many resources in your community to turn to for help. The anonymous National Domestic Violence Hotline is one of them. Their philosophy is “Get Help, Get Involved, Stay Safe.”
The CDC’s website on Violence Prevention features a new data tool to collect information on violent death in 32 states, the National Violent Death Reporting System. This is an anonymous database with sources that include state and local medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement, crime labs, and vital statistics records. The goal of the database is to link information together to help save lives. Data is available online to the general public through CDC’s WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System).
The Indiana State Department of Health provides a complete list of Violence Prevention resources by topic here.
The Great Central U.S. ShakeOut, an annual earthquake drill, will take place October 16, 2014, at 10:16 a.m. in communities around the Midwest. Find out who is participating in this opportunity to discuss emergency plans and preparedness for earthquakes. When the drill starts, “Drop, Cover, and Hold On”: Drop to the ground, take Cover under a table or desk, and Hold On to it as if a major earthquake were happening (stay down for at least 60 seconds). Practice now so you will immediately protect yourself during earthquakes!
View the ShakeOut Drill Manuals for K-12 Schools, Businesses, Non-profits and Other Organizations, Government Agencies and Facilities, and Individuals with Disabilities under the “Resources” section of Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s webpage. Download your own Earthquake Smart Checklist.
Read more from the U.S. Geological Survey about why the New Madrid seismic zone remains a concern for both Indiana and the entire Midwest, discover the history of the earthquakes in the area, and learn more about specific hazards for Evansville.
Indiana Geological Survey has a Quake Cottage earthquake simulator (a 25 x 8 x 14 ft unit mounted on a double-axle trailer) that mimics the shaking experienced during earthquakes having magnitudes ranging from 3.0 to 7.0. The next public event for the Quake Cottage will be October 25, 2014 at the Physics Open House on the IU-Bloomington campus.
Columbus Day is celebrated in October to commemorate Christopher Columbus's landing in the New World at San Salvador Island in the Bahamas on October 12. American Memory’s Today in History website provides historical references to Columbus Day and its meaning. During the morning of October 12, 1492, a sailor on board the Pinta saw land. The following day, 90 crewmembers of Columbus’s fleet surveyed what was an island in the Bahamas and named it San Salvador (now Watling Island, then called Guanahani by native Bahamians). This ended a voyage that began nearly ten weeks earlier in Palos, Spain.
The first recorded celebration of Columbus Day in the United States took place in 1792. The day was organized by the Society of St. Tammany, known then as the Columbian Order. It commemorated the 300th anniversary of the landing of Columbus and his crew. The 400th anniversary of the event inspired the first official Columbus Day holiday in the United States. President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation in 1892, “recommending to the people the observance in all their localities of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America” and describing Columbus as “the pioneer of progress and enlightenment.” In the decades that followed, the Knights of Columbus, an international Roman Catholic fraternal benefit society, lobbied state legislatures to declare October 12 a legal holiday. Colorado was the first state to do so on April 1, 1907. New York declared Columbus Day a holiday in 1909 and on October 12, 1909, New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes led a parade that included the crews of two Italian ships, several Italian-American societies, and legions of the Knights of Columbus.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt designated Columbus Day (then celebrated October 12) a national holiday in 1934. Since 1971, when Columbus Day was designated the second Monday in October, the day has been celebrated as a federal holiday. In many locations across the country Americans hold parades to commemorate the day.
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