Hurricane Ian’s trauma will leave a lasting mark on Floridians’ mental health, experts say
ORLANDO, Fla. — Though Hurricane Ian will be measured by the death and destruction it caused across the state, experts warn the storm’s aftermath will also include lingering harm to many Floridians’ mental health.
Deborah Beidel, a psychologist and University of Central Florida psychology professor, said those who found their homes uninhabitable after the storm may experience trauma responses to cope with the losses.
“You might be experiencing a lot of depression at this time because everything that you build your entire life in some cases has been washed away,” Beidel said.
Beidel has been serving the State Fire Marshal’s office since Sept. 30, coordinating the mental components of urban search and-rescue teams. She said events like Ian can trigger anxiety and stress for those going through recovery.
—Orlando Sentinel
Spike in COVID-19 cases across Europe could mean fast-spreading winter wave
With winter weather just around the corner, the first hints of another wave of COVID-19 have emerged in Europe, according to data released by the World Health Organization this week.
Infections across Europe — the majority of them caused by omicron subvariants that dominated the summer months — have been steadily climbing in several nations, including in the United Kingdom, France and Italy.
According to WHO data released Wednesday, cases across the European Union spiked to 1.5 million last week, up 8% from the week prior. Hospitalizations are also up across the 27-nation bloc, with Italy reporting a 32% jump in admissions and a 21% increase in intensive care admissions for the week ending on Oct. 4.
Britain, meanwhile, reported a 45% increase in hospitalizations when compared with the week prior. “This is to be expected as the weather gets colder and more time is spent together indoors,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, said. “Most countries no longer have measures in place to limit the spread of the virus.”
—New York Daily News
Amtrak train amputated legs of California man lying on tracks. Jury to decide who’s to blame
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — By the time Yuba City police found Joe Nevis on a sidewalk at 1:11 a.m. Dec. 24, 2016, they decided he was too drunk to take to jail, and instead had him taken to Rideout Memorial Hospital in nearby Marysville.
Nevis spent 20 minutes at the hospital, where Dr. Hector Lopez noted that he was wet and smelled of alcohol, but determined that Nevis was medically stable, able to walk in a straight line and could be discharged, lawyers say.
The construction worker then left the hospital at 2:02 a.m. and walked off without waiting for his discharge papers, and less than an hour later somehow ended up lying on nearby railroad tracks, where the Amtrak Coast Starlight train headed north toward Klamath Falls, Oregon, sliced off his legs and kept going, with the engineers unaware of the incident, lawyers say.
Now, six years later, the 34-year-old Nevis is sitting in a wheelchair accompanied by his service dog in a federal courtroom in Sacramento, where jurors in his negligence lawsuit are expected to decide in the coming weeks: Who’s to blame?
Nevis’ attorney contends the rail company, the hospital and Lopez all are liable, and that evidence presented over the next three to four weeks in his lawsuit will show Nevis is due a payout to compensate him for the lifetime of suffering he has ahead of him.
—The Sacramento Bee
For Europe, Biden’s ‘Armageddon’ warning can’t be dismissed
European leaders said Friday that President Joe Biden’s warning about “Armageddon” and Russia’s possible use of nuclear weapons shows the seriousness of the threat from Moscow’s escalation in Ukraine.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats should be taken very seriously. “If nuclear weapons are used, then this is a whole new level,” she said. “And nobody can win a nuclear war. This is very clear. And I understand those messages have been given to Putin and the Kremlin that you can’t win this war.”
In recent days, U.S. and other western officials have downplayed the imminent risk of a nuclear weapon being used, saying there were no indications that Moscow is preparing to use its arsenal. The Russian president has renewed his nuclear rhetoric as he announced the annexation of Ukrainian territory, but it echoes similar warnings he has issued since he invaded Ukraine in February.
European Union leaders, meeting in Prague to discuss the war in Ukraine and the bloc’s energy crisis, were joined Friday via videoconference by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
—Bloomberg News
