High Winds blew down a large tree onto a home In Wenatchee, Wash., early Friday morning, Dec. 15, 2006. Police say no one was injured. About 1.5 million homes and businesses in Washington and Oregon had no power early Friday following a howling windstorm.

Northwest storm leaves 1.5 million in the dark

SEATTLE - Residents of the Pacific Northwest struggled to stay warm Saturday after the worst windstorm in more than a decade knocked out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses and killed at least six people.

About 950,000 customers in Washington and Oregon remained without power Friday night. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, and with temperatures expected to drop over the weekend, officials warned people not to use outdoor grills, propane heaters or other carbon monoxide-producing equipment indoors.

Firefighters in Kent found 33 people from four families suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning Friday night, fire Capt. Kyle Ohashi said. They had taken their barbecues inside to cook or heat their apartments as temperatures dipped into the 30s.

They were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and all were expected to survive, Ohashi said.

In Oregon, a family of six was sickened by carbon monoxide from a generator set up in a garage in Gresham after the storm knocked out power, police said. Three children were hospitalized in critical condition late Friday, while one child and both parents were listed in good condition.

Winds gusted to a record 69 mph early Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking the old mark of 65 mph set in 1993. Winds were clocked at 113 mph near Mount Rainier.

Power was knocked out at one of the airport's concourses, canceling dozens of flights. Flights were also canceled at Portland International Airport in Oregon, and Amtrak canceled service between Seattle and Portland after downed trees and mudslides blocked the tracks.

Two people were killed in Washington in traffic accidents involving windblown trees, while one died after getting trapped in her basement by rising floodwaters. A fourth person was killed while he slept when the top of a tree snapped off and crashed into his home.

On the Oregon coast, an elderly couple died in a house fire caused by candles they were using during a power outage.

Puget Sound Energy, Washington's largest private utility, had 625,000 customers without power on Friday night. Some won't have their lights back on for days, spokeswoman Martha Monfried said.

Seattle City Light reported 107,000 outages Friday evening, while Snohomish County Public Utility District said 20,000 of its customers were still in the dark.

In Oregon, Portland General Electric said it had about 130,000 customers without power Friday evening, while Pacific Power said it was down to 64,000. Some of those customers are in Washington state.

The storm was the most intense to hit the region since the Inauguration Day storm of Jan. 20, 1993, which killed five people and caused about $130 million in damage, said Clifford F. Mass, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

Drug resistant TB 'more severe'

The problem of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis may be even more severe than previously thought, experts warn.

A survey of 79 countries by the World Health Organization published in the Lancet found TB drug resistance in virtually every one.

Particularly high levels of resistance were seen in regions of the former Soviet Union and parts of China.

About a third of the world's population is infected with the TB bug, with 8.9 million developing TB each year.

In 2004, the respiratory disease caused 1.7 million deaths worldwide.

Anti-microbial drugs have proved very effective at treating TB.

But experts believe their misuse has given the bacteria too much chance to evolve new defences which render the drugs less effective.

The biggest problem is patients failing to complete a full course of the drugs.

Even though symptoms might have disappeared, small amounts of the bacteria may remain, and are capable of mutating.

Multidrug-resistant TB strains are those that are resistant to at least the two most potent drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin.

More dangerous strains

Scientists have recently reported an even more worrying from - extensive drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) - which has been found among people with HIV in South Africa.

The latest study was carried out for the Global Project on Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance, which was set up in 1994.

From their analysis, the WHO team estimated there were 424,000 cases of multidrug-resistant TB world-wide in 2004.

China, India and Russia accounted for half of these cases.

The researchers believe about 1% of new cases of TB are caused by multidrug-resistant strains. However, in eight countries, including Kazakhstan and Latvia, the figure was above 6.5%.

Three countries - Andorra, Iceland and Malta - had no cases of resistance to first-line drugs, while in the United States, Hong Kong and Cuba, the cases of MDR TB showed a decline.

Lead researcher Dr Mario Raviglione said: "The findings of the Global Project emphasise the importance of implementing sound tuberculosis control activities to prevent further creation of MDR tuberculosis, and the necessity of mainstreaming high-quality treatment for MDR tuberculosis into routine tuberculosis control programmes.

"Otherwise XDR-TB is bound to keep emerging as a fatal variant of TB, especially in high HIV prevalence settings."

Cases of tuberculosis (TB) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland rose by 10.8% in 2005, figures show.

Lack of funds

Professor Peter Davies, of the organisation TB Alert, said TB - and in particular multidrug resistant strains of the disease - was a bigger problem than people had expected it to be.

He said around US$500m had been committed globally to the search for new drugs - but this was only around half the amount a commercial pharmaceutical company spent on developing one product.

"We are simply not getting the funding for new drugs and vaccines that is required," he said.

"New drugs are being discovered, but there is no money to put them through randomised clinical trials.

"We have known this is a problem for 20 years, but we have not been serious about controlling TB."

Disaster funds 'unfairly divided'

Millions of people are missing out on vital aid despite record-breaking donations from governments and the public, a report says.
In 2005, emergency aid reached at least $17bn (£8.6bn) - outstripping any other year, the World Disasters Report says.

But while high-profile cases such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina attracted donors, countless other crises were neglected, it says.

It calls on governments, aid agencies and the media to redress the balance.

More than 99,000 people were killed and 161 million affected by natural disasters last year, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The report says a string of sudden disasters including the 2004 tsunami, the South Asia quake and a record hurricane season along the US Gulf Coast, led to unprecedented generosity in 2005.

The cost of the crises totalled about $160bn - more than double the decade's annual average, the federation says.

Governments donated more than $12bn in aid - the highest figure since records began in 1970.

Individuals gave more than $5.5bn for survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami alone - the most NGOs worldwide have ever collected in a year.

Yet, despite these enormous contributions, many millions of people are still suffering, the report says.

Emergency appeals for Chad, Guyana, Ivory Coast, Malawi and Niger raised on average less than $27 in humanitarian aid per person compared with $1,241 for the tsunami.

Appeals for the Republic of Congo, Djibouti and Central African Republic were 40% funded, while the tsunami and South Asia quake appeals were funded 475% and 196% respectively, the report said.

Media spotlight

International Federation President Juan Manuel Suarez Del Toro said such huge disparities were unacceptable.

"The generous response in 2005 shows people and governments are committed to helping those in need.

"Now we must ensure aid goes where it is most needed and that it is not skewed for political, security or media reasons," he said.

The report argues that uneven media coverage - with its ability to sway the public and politicians - contributed to the inequitable spread of funding.

Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005, killing about 1,300 people, generated 40 times more Western print coverage than Hurricane Stan that killed more than 1,600 people in Guatemala soon afterwards, the report says.

Money sent by Guatemalans working abroad to areas affected by the hurricane totalled $413m - 20 times more than the UN appeal had raised by early December 2005.

Underlying causes

Many millions of people also miss out on potentially life-saving aid because crises go unrecorded, the report says.

In Guatemala, as in many countries, the main disaster databases fail to record vast numbers of localised floods, mudslides or earthquakes.

No-one records, for example, how many migrants die in the Sahara or in small boats while attempting to reach Europe.

These small crises add up to more deaths and affect many more people than a few major events, the report says.

The federation advocates directing political will towards creating conditions in which humanitarian agencies can operate in the more hidden and dangerous parts of the world.

The report also calls for large, common emergency response funds; developing a global measure of humanitarian need; and agreeing trigger points for action with donors and host governments.

Markku Niskala, International Federation Secretary General, also called for a better understanding of the underlying causes of disasters such as food insecurity and regional conflict.

"For many people, daily life contains the seeds of crisis. Neglecting their vulnerability turns today's risk into tomorrow's disaster," he said.

Firefighters stable with serious burns

Fire authorities are investigating today's incident in north-east Victoria in which nine New Zealand firefighters were injured while battling a blaze.

Four suffered serious burns but are in a stable condition after being airlifted to Melbourne's Alfred Hospital.

Five others are being treated for minor burns.

They were in a contigent of 40 New Zealand firefighters working on a spot fire when the main blaze intensified in the Howqua Valley, near Mansfield.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) spokesman Ewan Waller says most got away.

"But actually, nine were caught in the path of the main fire and they took evasive action, lay down as low as they could and the main fire went over the top of them," he said.

"And then, the radiant heat from the second wave of the fire seems to have done most of the damage."

Mr Waller says the most seriously-injured men should be out of hospital within a few days.

"The burns are mainly to the hands and face, which is the exposed part outside the uniform or the protective equipment," he said.

The DSE's Duncan Pendrigh says it is another indication of the volatile fire conditions Victoria is facing over summer.

"Today was a pretty mild day and if the fire has flared up in such a way that has led to this, that underlines that we need to take as many precautions as possible," he said.

Meanwhile, Country Fire Service spokesman Craig Ferguson says cooler conditions have helped crews in the state's north-east and in Gippsland strengthen containment lines.

"Our strategy is to ensure that we are able to look at building control lines around communities for when the weather swings back around," he said.

The fires have burnt about 570,000 hectares.

Worsening conditions are forecast for late next week.