Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

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raven
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by raven » Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:40 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Tue Dec 10, 2019 11:04 am
Oh, I'd definitely go visit if I could afford it and was in the area. But I'd be doing so on the assumption that as it was open to tourists it was safe to visit.
It's volcano. They're never 'safe'. They're always unpredictable.

I don't know how many tourists realise that though.

We lived on Big Island, Hawai'i for 3 years. When we arrived, the realtor made a point of telling us about someone she knew who went out to the lava flows, there was a bench collapse, as happens now and then, and it killed her. I don't know if this was a real incident, because a quick google doesn't find it, but people definitely die hiking out near the lava flows and the realtor was probably just warning us as we were quite excited about it all and we had little ones.

Volcanies National Park put out lots of safety information, but there's lots of hazards that aren't immediately obvious besides actual lava/eruptions. Steam explosions, flung rocks, toxic gases. Sulphur dioxide triggering asthma is probably the most frequent problem.

While we were there we hiked across a crater. (Kilauea Iki. There wasn't any lava there back then, obviously. There has been since.) We explored lava tubes. We hiked to the lava flows twice, and stood probably 10-12 feet from flowing lava. We had to cross a couple of miles of old flows to get there. The rangers would mark out a path you were meant to stick to by gluing little flourescent squares to the rock, but there was no guarantee it was safe. When lava cools into rock it tends to form a skin over air pockets so there's a danger of falling through. Saw someone do that; nasty gash on the shin. Could've been worse. They tell you to wear long trousers & good boots, but the basalt is black, if it's sunny it gets very hot, and many people don't bother.

We did not go near where lava was entering the sea. Because they tell you not to do that. People still do.

There were risks to all that. Of low likelihood, but serious consequence. We were pretty aware of them. We took them. If anything had gone wrong, it would've been on us I think.

We also went whale watching. :D

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Grumble » Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:40 pm

nefibach wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:38 pm
Fishnut wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:28 pm
The death toll is up to 8 and a further 8 are presumed dead. 120 square metres of skin is being imported from the US and Australia to help treat the burns. Two patients have 90% burns and all have more than 30% burns. There's also a lot of damage to airways and 22 people are still on airway support.

Burns are the thing that terrify me most (well, and drowning). I got a bad scald that required a trip to the burns unit (freshly made cup of black tea spilled over my thigh and stomach) and while I healed brilliantly (thanks to the excellent care from the NHS) it was the most painful thing I've ever experienced. I can't imagine how much pain these people are in.
It's the lung damage that gives me the fear. Volcanic gases can get up to 1000C, and ash is essentially tiny shards of glass. The damage that breathing in hot gases and ash shards could do, and will have done, doesn't bear thinking about.
Volcanic gases can contain HF as well.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by nefibach » Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:44 pm

Grumble wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:40 pm
nefibach wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:38 pm
Fishnut wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:28 pm
The death toll is up to 8 and a further 8 are presumed dead. 120 square metres of skin is being imported from the US and Australia to help treat the burns. Two patients have 90% burns and all have more than 30% burns. There's also a lot of damage to airways and 22 people are still on airway support.

Burns are the thing that terrify me most (well, and drowning). I got a bad scald that required a trip to the burns unit (freshly made cup of black tea spilled over my thigh and stomach) and while I healed brilliantly (thanks to the excellent care from the NHS) it was the most painful thing I've ever experienced. I can't imagine how much pain these people are in.
It's the lung damage that gives me the fear. Volcanic gases can get up to 1000C, and ash is essentially tiny shards of glass. The damage that breathing in hot gases and ash shards could do, and will have done, doesn't bear thinking about.
Volcanic gases can contain HF as well.
Volcanic gases contain all sorts of very nasty things, including sometimes but not always HF. SO2 or H2S are pretty much a given, along with water and methane, and a bunch of other unpleasantries. But you don't even have to get into that detail to see how bad breathing that stuff in is. If it were just hot water and ash, you'd be in trouble.

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by nefibach » Wed Dec 11, 2019 11:04 pm

raven wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:40 pm
Fishnut wrote:
Tue Dec 10, 2019 11:04 am
Oh, I'd definitely go visit if I could afford it and was in the area. But I'd be doing so on the assumption that as it was open to tourists it was safe to visit.
It's volcano. They're never 'safe'. They're always unpredictable.

I don't know how many tourists realise that though.

We lived on Big Island, Hawai'i for 3 years. When we arrived, the realtor made a point of telling us about someone she knew who went out to the lava flows, there was a bench collapse, as happens now and then, and it killed her. I don't know if this was a real incident, because a quick google doesn't find it, but people definitely die hiking out near the lava flows and the realtor was probably just warning us as we were quite excited about it all and we had little ones.

Volcanies National Park put out lots of safety information, but there's lots of hazards that aren't immediately obvious besides actual lava/eruptions. Steam explosions, flung rocks, toxic gases. Sulphur dioxide triggering asthma is probably the most frequent problem.

While we were there we hiked across a crater. (Kilauea Iki. There wasn't any lava there back then, obviously. There has been since.) We explored lava tubes. We hiked to the lava flows twice, and stood probably 10-12 feet from flowing lava. We had to cross a couple of miles of old flows to get there. The rangers would mark out a path you were meant to stick to by gluing little flourescent squares to the rock, but there was no guarantee it was safe. When lava cools into rock it tends to form a skin over air pockets so there's a danger of falling through. Saw someone do that; nasty gash on the shin. Could've been worse. They tell you to wear long trousers & good boots, but the basalt is black, if it's sunny it gets very hot, and many people don't bother.

We did not go near where lava was entering the sea. Because they tell you not to do that. People still do.

There were risks to all that. Of low likelihood, but serious consequence. We were pretty aware of them. We took them. If anything had gone wrong, it would've been on us I think.

We also went whale watching. :D
I'm glad that you were given sufficient information that you could make an informed decision.

Having actually looked into a White Island tour not very long ago, I can assure you that the level of detail available on the risks you'd be taking was not comprehensive. For example, there was no information on the amount of shelter available on the island were there to be, say, even a very a small eruption. It turns out that the amount of shelter on the island is completely inadequate and wouldn't have helped anyone. There was no information on the type of eruption, which has an impact on how dangerous it is - small effusive eruptions are much easier to get away from than small explosive eruptions, for eg. There was no information on the risks. In fact, eruptions weren't even mentioned as a risk, as I've said before. It was all fairly benign stuff like hot streams and bubbling mud.

And whilst it's easy to say all volcanoes are dangerous, that's not actually true. Not all volcanoes are active, and indeed dormant volcanoes are safe by definition, as they are incapable of erupting again. Even amongst active volcanoes, some have been quiet for long enough that they've been culturally deemed 'safe' as whilst they may erupt in the future, humans might not be around to see it.

Indeed, we do seem to keep building settlements on active volcanoes. Rotorua is a volcano, and a very big one. It's got a town of 55,000 people built in the middle of it. Auckland is another volcano. It has a city of 1.6 million people built on it. Are these places safe? Well, define 'safe'.

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by dyqik » Wed Dec 11, 2019 11:10 pm

I drive up and down a volcano regularly. It's safe enough that many world governments will spend billions building and staffing telescopes on top of it. It hasn't erupted in four millennia.

The one just the other side of the road has a couple of observatories on it, but is far more active. The last lava flows from it are from the mid '80s.

And just the other side of that is Kīlauea, which fairly regularly erupts with rivers of lava and ejecta being thrown out.

Hawaiian volcanos are relatively safe. This is what led to the massive underestimation of Mount St Helens, AIUI.

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Gawdzilla Sama » Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:01 am

veravista wrote:
Tue Dec 10, 2019 2:12 pm
Veravistina was there a couple of years ago with her boyfriend. Apart from the fact it was hideously expensive to actually land on the island she thought that the provision of the safety equipment was a triumph of optimism over practicality. A pair of insulated boots and a hard hat? The boots I can see, but a hard hat?
Lava bombs of varying sizes can be ejected. When I lived on Mt. Etna (Paterno) we would get them shot up a few thousand feet above the peak (10,500 ft. at that time.)

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by raven » Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:16 am

dyqik wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 11:10 pm
I drive up and down a volcano regularly. It's safe enough that many world governments will spend billions building and staffing telescopes on top of it. It hasn't erupted in four millennia.
That's what took us to Big Island. MrRaven was working on them.

Yeah, I should've qualified that as active volcanoes aren't safe, shouldn't I. Kilhauea is relatively safe as volcanoes go, but there are deaths. Not sure how many, but if you're risk-averse one might be too many. Cars seem to be the biggest danger though.
From: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4244893/
"While exposure to gases poses a risk and has produced injuries and fatalities, most injuries and fatalities are caused by motor vehicles on the roadways or air travel accidents.These caused 178 of 262 park fatalities during 1993 to 2002.4 Other causes of death from this period during a study of park hazards indicated that thermal burns, heat stroke, cardiac arrest, respiratory distress, and mechanical injury rounded out the remainder."
I would not have been too keen on White Island, I think. Too close to the crater, that was my first thought when I saw the pictures.

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by bjn » Thu Dec 12, 2019 1:45 pm

IANAgeogolist, while all volcanoes are dangerous, stratovolcanoes (eg White Island) are more dangerous than shield volcanoes (eg the Big Island). The former tend to explode while the later tend to ooze lava. I wouldnt want to be anywhere near an erupting stratovolcano while I’ve been right up to the Kilauea lava flow setting sticks on fire.

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by rockdoctor » Thu Dec 12, 2019 1:50 pm

I have visited numerous active volcanoes in Iceland, Italy, Ecuador, Colombia (and inactive volcanoes in many more places)
The scariest (in hindsight) was Galeras in 1991; we descended into the crater and walked around on the floor. There were low clouds so visibility was limited, with white mist moving around rapidly in the wind. Suddenly there was a rumble and part of the cloud turned black then dark grey as the ash ejection dissipated. We made our exit smartish but it took 30 mins to climb back out.
Two years later the nearby town of Pasto was hosting a volcanology conference and numerous trips to the volcano were organised. It erupted and killed 6 scientists and 3 tourists.
Pichincha was another one we visited. We descended to the bottom of the crater and had lunch, and measured some fumarole temperatures. Then people started getting altitude sickness so we decided to leave. The ascent to the rim was very unpleasant - you are supposed to descend rapidly if you suffer from altitude sickness, but we had to climb hundreds of metres first. People were vomiting and worse all the way up.
A few days later it did a minor eruption.

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by nefibach » Thu Dec 12, 2019 6:00 pm

rockdoctor wrote:
Thu Dec 12, 2019 1:50 pm
I have visited numerous active volcanoes in Iceland, Italy, Ecuador, Colombia (and inactive volcanoes in many more places)
The scariest (in hindsight) was Galeras in 1991; we descended into the crater and walked around on the floor. There were low clouds so visibility was limited, with white mist moving around rapidly in the wind. Suddenly there was a rumble and part of the cloud turned black then dark grey as the ash ejection dissipated. We made our exit smartish but it took 30 mins to climb back out.
Two years later the nearby town of Pasto was hosting a volcanology conference and numerous trips to the volcano were organised. It erupted and killed 6 scientists and 3 tourists.
Pichincha was another one we visited. We descended to the bottom of the crater and had lunch, and measured some fumarole temperatures. Then people started getting altitude sickness so we decided to leave. The ascent to the rim was very unpleasant - you are supposed to descend rapidly if you suffer from altitude sickness, but we had to climb hundreds of metres first. People were vomiting and worse all the way up.
A few days later it did a minor eruption.
Holy sh.t, you went into Galeras? :o

For anyone not familiar with the Galeras tragedy, you might want to read No Apparent Danger, by Victoria Bruce. It's excellent, and also covers the Nevado del Ruiz disaster where 23,000 people were killed.

https://www.amazon.com/No-Apparent-Dang ... 0060958901

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by rockdoctor » Thu Dec 12, 2019 10:30 pm

To get to the army base on the rim of Galeras you drive up the skinny zigzag road, past all the signs saying 'beware of the mines'. The army guys were very friendly and gave us coffee in the freezing damp air, and showed us the fixed chains on the other side of the rim for climbing down.
While in the crater I walked around a small crater billowing steam. Then the steam blew over me and I discovered it was acid. Very sting-ey and corrosive - the next day my trousers fell apart.
After the small ash eruption we made a hasty retreat and climbed out up the chains

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by rockdoctor » Thu Dec 12, 2019 10:35 pm

I also walked up Etna when it was doing some minor banging and spitting. As we approached the crater rim, through a field of head-sized rocks, there was a loud bang and some little dots flew up inside the crater edge. Then they came down around us as half-melted head-sized lumps.
We ran down the slope to get away. After regrouping I realised it was all confined to just that point. I circled around the crater a bit and went back up.
I was rewarded with a spectacular view inside the crater, with a small lava lake churning around at the lowest point

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Fishnut » Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:11 am

Six bodies have been retrieved from the island. The Guardian has a decent live blog of the post-retrieval press conference and reactions while the NZ Herald has some useful background (their live blog is sh.t imo). One thing that has struck me is how angry the families are that the bodies haven't been retrieved sooner. I understand the grief and the need for closure but I don't get why they are so keen to send other people into a life-threatening situation. The brother of one victim has said,
"With the current conditions of sunshine baking and decomposing his body, he's going from a situation where we could have an open casket to now more likely not having a body at all – due to your Government's red tape and slow decision making."
Given that some of the people who are alive have 80% burns the chances are that his brother was in any state to have an open casket even if he was retrieved as soon as the smoke cleared are slim to non-existent.

One body is in the water close to shore but was unable to be retrieved and one body is still missing.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by discovolante » Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:27 am

Fishnut wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:11 am
Six bodies have been retrieved from the island. The Guardian has a decent live blog of the post-retrieval press conference and reactions while the NZ Herald has some useful background (their live blog is sh.t imo). One thing that has struck me is how angry the families are that the bodies haven't been retrieved sooner. I understand the grief and the need for closure but I don't get why they are so keen to send other people into a life-threatening situation. The brother of one victim has said,
"With the current conditions of sunshine baking and decomposing his body, he's going from a situation where we could have an open casket to now more likely not having a body at all – due to your Government's red tape and slow decision making."
Given that some of the people who are alive have 80% burns the chances are that his brother was in any state to have an open casket even if he was retrieved as soon as the smoke cleared are slim to non-existent.

One body is in the water close to shore but was unable to be retrieved and one body is still missing.
I think it's just really, really hard for people who are experiencing stuff like this to be able to, and to be expected to, accept the complexities and difficulties of stuff like this. I don't want to encourage a derail but by way of an example, there seems to be frustration at the pace of the Grenfell inquiry but I have colleagues who are working on it and imo given the sheer amount of work that has had to be done, it has progressed really quickly. I realise an inquiry is a slightly different set of circumstances than physically retrieving bodies but it seems from the quote that they see it as a bureaucracy issue rather than a safety one (and don't see that they can be closely linked).

Having said that, those are the people who are quoted and quite possibly not everyone affected feels the same way.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Fishnut » Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:43 am

discovolante wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:27 am
Fishnut wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:11 am
Six bodies have been retrieved from the island. The Guardian has a decent live blog of the post-retrieval press conference and reactions while the NZ Herald has some useful background (their live blog is sh.t imo). One thing that has struck me is how angry the families are that the bodies haven't been retrieved sooner. I understand the grief and the need for closure but I don't get why they are so keen to send other people into a life-threatening situation. The brother of one victim has said,
"With the current conditions of sunshine baking and decomposing his body, he's going from a situation where we could have an open casket to now more likely not having a body at all – due to your Government's red tape and slow decision making."
Given that some of the people who are alive have 80% burns the chances are that his brother was in any state to have an open casket even if he was retrieved as soon as the smoke cleared are slim to non-existent.

One body is in the water close to shore but was unable to be retrieved and one body is still missing.
I think it's just really, really hard for people who are experiencing stuff like this to be able to, and to be expected to, accept the complexities and difficulties of stuff like this. I don't want to encourage a derail but by way of an example, there seems to be frustration at the pace of the Grenfell inquiry but I have colleagues who are working on it and imo given the sheer amount of work that has had to be done, it has progressed really quickly. I realise an inquiry is a slightly different set of circumstances than physically retrieving bodies but it seems from the quote that they see it as a bureaucracy issue rather than a safety one (and don't see that they can be closely linked).

Having said that, those are the people who are quoted and quite possibly not everyone affected feels the same way.
You're quite right and I have a huge amount of sympathy for the friends and relatives of those who've died. I know from personal experience that after a sudden and unexpected loss seeing the body can provide a sense of understanding that they've really gone, which leads to closure eventually. I'm sure I'd be just as desperate to get a loved one back if I was in that situation. but I hope I'd have the presence of mind to not want to risk other families going through what I'm going through if something went wrong.

I worked for an independent review into a department at a local hospital a few years ago and even though we had a small scope and timescale, it was still a monumental task that took far longer than the families were happy with. And of course some were unhappy with our findings. Until you have that hands-on experience you can't easily appreciate how much effort goes into these things.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by discovolante » Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:55 am

Fishnut wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 1:43 am
You're quite right and I have a huge amount of sympathy for the friends and relatives of those who've died. I know from personal experience that after a sudden and unexpected loss seeing the body can provide a sense of understanding that they've really gone, which leads to closure eventually. I'm sure I'd be just as desperate to get a loved one back if I was in that situation. but I hope I'd have the presence of mind to not want to risk other families going through what I'm going through if something went wrong.

I worked for an independent review into a department at a local hospital a few years ago and even though we had a small scope and timescale, it was still a monumental task that took far longer than the families were happy with. And of course some were unhappy with our findings. Until you have that hands-on experience you can't easily appreciate how much effort goes into these things.
Yeah, I think that as humans, regardless of any or no religion, really really need some kind of ceremony/finality when someone dies. I know I do. Sorry, no research for that, but it just seems to be a pretty unchangeable constant of human nature. But yes I do see where you are coming from. I suppose though there's no changing the fact that people will react to things in certain ways, and it's about working out how to adapt to those reactions and communicate with people who feel that way. Which is hard and I'm not even going to pretend to have a clue how to go about it. And quite possibly there is no way of avoiding it completely.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by OneOffDave » Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:44 pm

There were similar issues regarding the recovery of those killed in the collapse of the former power station at Didcot. The building they were buried under was so unstable that they couldn't send anyone in to retrieve them. The families were threatening to sue the police over it but hopefully someone told them that they'd not get anywhere with that and it'd just cost them tens of thousands.

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Fishnut » Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:30 pm

OneOffDave wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:44 pm
There were similar issues regarding the recovery of those killed in the collapse of the former power station at Didcot. The building they were buried under was so unstable that they couldn't send anyone in to retrieve them. The families were threatening to sue the police over it but hopefully someone told them that they'd not get anywhere with that and it'd just cost them tens of thousands.
Did they ever get the bodies out in the end? I remember the collapse but don't remember much past the initial aftermath.

This is a fascinating article on how the patients are being treated. They have to be kept in warmer than normal rooms as they have little thermoregulatory abilities due to the loss of skin. Fortunately, as the care of the burns sounds excruciatingly painful, most are barely conscious still and many are on ventilators due to the lung damage.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by gosling » Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:01 pm

Fishnut wrote:
Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:30 pm
OneOffDave wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:44 pm
There were similar issues regarding the recovery of those killed in the collapse of the former power station at Didcot. The building they were buried under was so unstable that they couldn't send anyone in to retrieve them. The families were threatening to sue the police over it but hopefully someone told them that they'd not get anywhere with that and it'd just cost them tens of thousands.
Did they ever get the bodies out in the end? I remember the collapse but don't remember much past the initial aftermath.
From the Wiki:
On 23 February 2016, a large section of the former boiler house at Didcot A power station collapsed while the building was being prepared for demolition.[17][18] One person was killed outright and three people were listed as missing presumed dead.[19]

...

On 17 July 2016, what remained of the structure was demolished in a controlled explosion. The bodies of the three missing men were still in the remains at that time. A spokesman said that due to the instability of the structure, they had been unable to recover the bodies. Robots were used to place the explosive charges due to the danger and the site was demolished just after 6 o'clock in the morning (BST). The families said that they wanted their dead relatives back in one piece, not hundreds of pieces but the demolition company highlighted the inherent danger of rescue operations citing that "legally you could not justify humans going back in."[21]

The search for the missing men continued the day after the controlled demolition. On 31 August 2016, it was confirmed that a body had been found in the rubble and the search had been paused to allow specialist teams to recover the body.[22] On 3 September the body was identified as Christopher Huxtable from Swansea.[23]

On 8 September 2016 police confirmed they had found the body of one of the remaining two missing men.[24] On 9 September, the body was formally identified as that of missing workman Ken Cresswell.[25]

The last missing worker was found on 9 September.[26] He was identified as John Shaw from Rotherham.[27]

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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Fishnut » Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:31 pm

gosling wrote:
Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:01 pm
Fishnut wrote:
Mon Dec 16, 2019 12:30 pm
OneOffDave wrote:
Fri Dec 13, 2019 12:44 pm
There were similar issues regarding the recovery of those killed in the collapse of the former power station at Didcot. The building they were buried under was so unstable that they couldn't send anyone in to retrieve them. The families were threatening to sue the police over it but hopefully someone told them that they'd not get anywhere with that and it'd just cost them tens of thousands.
Did they ever get the bodies out in the end? I remember the collapse but don't remember much past the initial aftermath.
From the Wiki:
On 23 February 2016, a large section of the former boiler house at Didcot A power station collapsed while the building was being prepared for demolition.[17][18] One person was killed outright and three people were listed as missing presumed dead.[19]

...

On 17 July 2016, what remained of the structure was demolished in a controlled explosion. The bodies of the three missing men were still in the remains at that time. A spokesman said that due to the instability of the structure, they had been unable to recover the bodies. Robots were used to place the explosive charges due to the danger and the site was demolished just after 6 o'clock in the morning (BST). The families said that they wanted their dead relatives back in one piece, not hundreds of pieces but the demolition company highlighted the inherent danger of rescue operations citing that "legally you could not justify humans going back in."[21]

The search for the missing men continued the day after the controlled demolition. On 31 August 2016, it was confirmed that a body had been found in the rubble and the search had been paused to allow specialist teams to recover the body.[22] On 3 September the body was identified as Christopher Huxtable from Swansea.[23]

On 8 September 2016 police confirmed they had found the body of one of the remaining two missing men.[24] On 9 September, the body was formally identified as that of missing workman Ken Cresswell.[25]

The last missing worker was found on 9 September.[26] He was identified as John Shaw from Rotherham.[27]
Thanks for that. That must have been incredibly stressful for the family but I'm glad that all the bodies were found and there was no further loss of life.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Fishnut » Wed Jan 08, 2020 10:50 am

The Guardian has an update on the survivors. There are 13 still in hospital in New Zealand: 8 at Middlemore, 2 at Waikato, 2 at Hutt Valley and 1 at Christchurch hospital. Four are still in critical condition, and 3 are in intensive care still. There are hopes to start repatriating people to the northern hemisphere at the end of the month.

There are also 13 still in hospital in Australia, but no details were given as to their condition.

The two bodies that were missing have not been found and search efforts have ended, though will be resumed if new information comes to light.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Fishnut » Sun Feb 09, 2020 6:07 pm

Another follow-up on some of the survivors. It's a bit of a puff-piece but it's a good reminder of the long road to recovery they have.
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Fishnut
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by Fishnut » Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:45 pm

It's six months since the eruption and the NZ Herald has done an update on the survivors. One of the tour-guides, whose 19th birthday was the day of the eruption, suffered burns to 80 per cent of his body and underwent 25 surgeries. Another tour-guide suffered full-thickness burns to 45 per cent of her body. A tourist suffered third-degree burns to 70 per cent of her body and lost parts of her fingers in the eruption. It seems incredible that anyone could survive those sorts of injuries and it's a testimony not just to their strength but to medical science.
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by shpalman » Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:27 am

having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
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Re: Whakaari/White Island volcanic explosion

Post by OneOffDave » Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:44 am

Surviving the Volcano by Stanley Williams is another good account of the Galeras incident and the long road to recovery after.

I was delivering training last week and the person presenting after me was part of the UK Disaster Victim Identification team. It was a really useful presentation and explains just why it all takes so long and the way they have changed things based on learning over the years

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