After pummeling Florida and Georgia, deadly Michael heads to the Carolinas
CNN
By Nicole Chavez
October 11, 2018
An 11-year-old girl was killed in Seminole County, Georgia during the storm, emergency management officials said. A metal carport was picked up by the wind and crashed through the roof of a structure, hitting the girl's head, said Travis Brooks, the county's emergency management director. Brooks said several hours passed before emergency officials could reach the unincorporated area where the incident took place.
Residents rescue a couple of dogs after the storm destroyed several buildings in Panama City.
CNN) After slamming Florida and lashing Georgia, Michael is far from finished as it swirls northeast, threatening the storm-weary Carolinas.
Since making landfall on Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the now tropical storm has left thousands of people without power, uprooted trees, turned homes and marinas into ruins and killed at least 2 people.
"It feels like a nightmare," Linda Albrecht, a councilwoman in Mexico Beach, Florida, said of the catastrophic damage in her town. "Somebody needs to come up and shake you and wake you up."
The wrath of Michael continued into Georgia, bringing possible tornadoes and winds that kept first responders away from the streets for hours --- even as the storm weakened and became a tropical storm.
On Thursday, authorities and residents will begin to discover the full extent of Michael's destruction in Florida and Georgia while the Carolinas brace for possible flooding, tornadoes and dangerous winds in many of the same areas still recovering from Hurricane Florence flooding.
read more here
Live updates on Hurricane Michael
Motorcyclist killed in Saturday crash was JBER soldier
KTVA News
By Chris Klint
October 8th 2018
The man killed last weekend in a Gambell Street motorcycle crash was an Army soldier, military officials confirmed Monday.
JBER soldier Staff Sgt. James Alcorn, 35, died in an Oct. 6, 2018 motorcycle crash on Gambell Street in Anchorage, according to Anchorage police. (Credit: From U.S. Army Alaska)
Staff Sgt. James Alcorn, 35, was a field artilleryman assigned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson's 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division according to U.S. Army Alaska spokesman John Pennell.
Alcorn, who joined the Army in 2006, served at Fort Benning, Fort Knox and Fort Bragg in the southern U.S. before being assigned to JBER in July 2016. He had served two combat tours in Afghanistan, as well as one in Iraq.
read more here
Please find a way to forgive me!
The Greenville News
Kirk Brown, Published
Oct. 10, 2018
JARED JOHNS, A 24-YEAR-OLD ARMY VETERAN WHO SERVED IN AFGHANISTAN, KILLED HIMSELF ON SEPT. 11, THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DAY THAT CALLED HIM TO SERVE.
Then Jared placed a 9mm handgun under his chin and pulled the trigger.
His suicide on Sept. 11 came 17 years after the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania that convinced a young boy to grow up to be a soldier.
In the last hour of his life, Jared Johns left a note on the dry-erase board in the Greenville apartment he shared with his twin brother.
“I’m sorry. I messed up," he wrote. "This isn’t what I wanted."
After retreating to his room and locking the door, the 24-year-old Army veteran who served in Afghanistan recorded a video on his cellphone.
"I can't do it anymore," he said tearfully as he sat on his bed.
The video included a message for his 2½-year-old son, Liam, and 18-month-old son, Jaxson.
"I hate that I'm not going to get to see you grow up, but it's better this way, I promise," Jared said.
He apologized to his parents.
"Just please find a way to forgive me," he said.
read more here
Veterans are sleeping in their cars at VA medical centers
Fox News
By Caleb Parke
October 10, 2018
“We didn’t have anything,” Freeman told Fox News. “We tried several things – beds in the hospital, hotel vouchers – but the biggest thing the Defenders Lodge provided was capacity and consistency.” The Defenders Lodge was the result of a public-private partnership between the VA and the PenFed Foundation, which raised $11 million in donations to fund the construction of the lodge. The 52 room facility can house up to 104 veterans and has a dining room, library, and private outdoor spaces. Freeman said it is full every night of the year.
James Schenck, President and CEO of PenFed Credit Union; Honorable Frederick F.Y. Pang, Chairman of the PenFed Foundation, Billy Bryels, Veteran; Lisa Freeman, former Director/CEO, VA Palo Alto Health Care System; Assembly Member Marc Berman (24th District); State Senator Jerry Hill (13th District); William Ball, Chief, Voluntary and Hospital Services, VA Palo Alto Health Care System at the Lee & Penny Anderson Defenders Lodge.
U.S. veterans are forgoing treatment at Veterans’ Affairs clinics due to the high cost of lodging in some areas, but one group has a solution.
Billy Bryels, a retired Vietnam Veteran and double Purple Heart awardee, told Fox News he slept in his car several times because of the high hotel costs, much like several of his fellow veterans.
But today he is one of many who goes to the “Lee & Penny Anderson Defenders Lodge” located in Palo Alto, California, where veterans and their caregiver can stay in the state-of-the-art $17 million facility free of charge. He called it a God-send for veterans getting treatment.
“What are other veterans doing if they don’t have a Defender’s Lodge available to them?” Bryels asked. “I hope this kind of facility continues across the country.”
It was an idea former VA Palo Alto Health Care System Director and CEO Lisa Freeman thought of after hearing stories like Bryels’ of the veteran’s plight. Today, a hotel room runs at about $300-400/night in the area.
read more here
Veterans Affairs misdiagnoses and delays nearly kill SoCal veteran
ABC 7 News
Robin McMillan and Lisa Bartley
October 9, 2018
NO LEGAL RECOURSE - CALIFORNIA STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS EXPIRES DURING VA DELAYS
To make matters even worse - during the eight months it took the VA to tell Brian that his primary care physician was a not a VA employee, the California one-year statute of limitations on medical malpractice had expired - meaning he could not sue in civil court either.
TEMECULA, Calif. -- Brian Tally is a military veteran, a husband, a father of four - and until a few years ago - a successful small business owner. Now, he spends much of his day in a beat-up recliner chair, the only relief he says from unrelenting pain.
"There's not a day that goes by that I'm not in pain," Tally said. "This is the only thing that takes the pressure off my spine."
Brian served four years in United States Marine Corps, but now he's in what he calls the fight of his life.
Brian's downward spiral began in January 2016. Severe back pain, night sweats - he made urgent phone calls to his primary care doctor through the Department of Veterans Affairs. She prescribed painkillers over the phone.
The pain only got worse. He went to the VA's emergency room in Loma Linda twice. Both times - he did not get to see a doctor. And twice - no one ordered a simple blood test.
"I was on the floor, I was in traumatic pain...I was literally in tears," Brian recalled. "They gave me an X-ray and the VA ER in Loma Linda diagnosed me with having a low back sprain and told me to go stretch."
He was seen by a nurse practitioner both times, but again - no doctor.
Brian followed up, as instructed, with his primary care physician at the VA clinic in Murrieta.
read more here
