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Emergency and disaster management briefing for October 26, 2018: Two people are dead in a random shooting at a Kentucky supermarket, an American Airlines plane was struck by a fuel truck while preparing to depart New York’s LaGuardia airport, flash flooding in Jordan has killed at least 20 people–majority of them school children, the FAA confirms a civilian aircraft disappeared from radar Thursday while en route to the Bahamas, flooding that followed heavy rains in a coastal region in Russia has killed at least 6 people, a strong earthquake struck western Greece and damaged the port of Zakynthos, and a plane bound for Warsaw was forced to make an emergency landing for a bomb threat.

  1. [link url=”https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kentucky-shooting/two-dead-in-kentucky-supermarket-shooting-police-idUSKCN1MY2TT” title=”Two people are dead following an allegedly random shooting”] at a grocery store in Kentucky on Wednesday. The gunman, Gregory Alan Bush, 51, entered a Kroger in Jeffersontown, fired multiple rounds at a man and killed him, then walked back outside into the parking lot and shot a female victim multiple times. An armed citizen allegedly engaged the suspect in an exchange of gunfire, but no one was injured, and the suspect fled in a vehicle but was [link url=”https://kdvr.com/2018/10/24/multiple-people-shot-inside-grocery-store-in-kentucky/” title=”apprehended by police a short time later”].  
  2. An American Airlines plane bound for Miami from New York’s LaGuardia Airport Friday morning, [link url=”https://www.foxnews.com/us/fuel-truck-strikes-american-airlines-plane-with-passengers-onboard-at-laguardia-airport” title=”was struck by a fuel truck while preparing to depart”] from its gate at Terminal C. Flight 1249 had 172 passengers and five crew members on board when the truck allegedly clipped the wing of the aircraft, however, there were no reported injuries.  Passengers were placed onto another aircraft for their flight, and [link url=”https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Fuel-Truck-Strike-Plane-LaGuardia-Airport-498643301.html” title=”maintenance teams were inspecting the damage”], which they have initially reported as being minor.  
  3. The death toll in a flood in Jordan has now reached 20, with [link url=”https://www.foxnews.com/world/death-toll-in-jordan-flood-rises-to-20-mostly-children” title=”most of the victims being school children”], as the search for victims continued Friday with sniffer dogs, helicopters, and search and rescue teams. Heavy rains on Thursday afternoon caused flash flooding that swept through an area of hot springs, where a group of school children and their adult chaperones from a private school in Amman, were taking a break. The torrent of water, which came down from higher ground, swept them away, some as far as the Dead Sea–several kilometers away–with [link url=”https://www.foxnews.com/world/death-toll-in-jordan-flood-rises-to-20-mostly-children” title=”a total of nearly three dozen injured, 26 of them children”].  
  4. Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed Thursday that a civilian aircraft en route to the Bahamas from South Carolina [link url=”https://www.foxnews.com/us/plane-disappears-off-south-carolina-coast-faa-says” title=”disappeared off radar after making an emergency call to air traffic controllers”]. The plane–with an unknown number of people on board–vanished from radar at around 11:30 a.m., about 110 miles off the coast of South Carolina, initiating a search that continued overnight with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton crew. [link url=”https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southcarolina-plane/u-s-coast-guard-searches-through-night-for-downed-plane-idUSKCN1N0016″ title=”Air support for the search resumed Friday morning”], and officials noted that the aircraft registration and ownership would not be released until the plane was found.  
  5. At least six people have died after [link url=”https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-flood-casualties/flood-kills-six-people-near-russian-black-sea-resorts-agencies-idUSKCN1N00W1″ title=”torrential rainfall on Wednesday sparked widespread flooding”] near a coastal resort area in Russia. The heavy rainfall fell across a region near the Black Sea, spawning floods in at least a dozen towns and settlements nearby the coastal city, Tuapse. Six people were found dead during search operations, and [link url=”https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-flood-casualties/flood-kills-six-people-near-russian-black-sea-resorts-agencies-idUSKCN1N00W1″ title=”at least one person remains missing from the region”].  
  6. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), [link url=”https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-quake/powerful-quake-shakes-western-greece-no-major-injuries-idUSKCN1MZ37K” title=”a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the Ionian Sea”], south of the island of Zakynthos (Zante), in western Greece, on Thursday. The quake damaged the port of Zakynthos, and a 15th century monastery, and shaking was also felt as far away as Albania, Italy, Libya, and Malta, but no major injuries were reported. The area also received numerous aftershocks, [link url=”https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45988853″ title=”which briefly disrupted power and closed schools for the day”], including a magnitude 5.6 tremor.  
  7. [link url=”https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wizzair-landing/warsaw-bound-plane-makes-emergency-landing-over-bomb-threat-false-alarm-idUSKCN1MZ2CI” title=”A bomb threat that forced the emergency landing of an aircraft”] bound for Poland from Georgia on Thursday, turned out to be a false-alarm. The airplane, operated by low-cost carrier, Wizz Air, departed Kuttaisi, Georgia and made an emergency landing in Bucharest, Romania’s capital city, at 1320 GMT, and passengers were immediately evacuated from the aircraft. After a [link url=”https://emerging-europe.com/news-in-pictures/wizz-air-flight-forced-to-land-in-bucharest-following-bomb-threat/” title=”thorough search of the 173 passengers and their luggage was conducted by authorities”], the plane safely departed for its final destination in Warsaw, Poland.  

By William Tucker

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that Washington had sent additional troops to the Jordan-Syria border to assist in the management of refugees and to monitor the status of Syria’s chemical weapons. The U.S. has had a troop presence in Jordan for some time and this additional deployment shouldn’t be construed as a build up towards military intervention in Syria.

By William Tucker

The political leadership of Hamas has left Syria for Qatar and Egypt. According to Hamas, the group’s chief, Khaled Meshaal, has moved to Doha and his deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouk, is located in Cairo. This move by Hamas shows that the split between Syrian President Bashir Assad and the militant group is likely permanent. For Hamas, this wasn’t an easy choice.