Red Cross To Close Flood Centre In Terrace
By 250 News
The Red Cross plans to close the doors on its Flood Recovery Centre in Terrace tomorrow, but officials says they realize efforts to recover from flooding throughout the northwest earlier this month will continue for some time.
“Red Cross volunteers and staff have worked very hard to ensure that people in the Terrace area who have been impacted by flooding have access to the essential services that they need,” says Tim Alexander, Emergency Response Team Leader. “But we know that it will take weeks, possibly even months, for families to fully recover. We want to assure these people that they can still access Red Cross help and support by calling 1-800-278-7177.”
Alexander says clients who have already had a needs assessment conducted or accessed Red Cross services can also follow up on their case by calling that number.
Canadian Red Cross staff and volunteers have been on the ground in Terrace since the middle of June, ensuring that the basic needs of those affected by flooding are being met. The Red Cross has assisted over 160 local clients, conducting in-depth needs assessments and providing them with RONA clean-up kits, plush toys for affected children, and vouchers for food, clothing, and water. In a limited number of cases the Red Cross has also supported families forced out of their homes by flooding with short-term housing. In addition to assisting clients at the Flood Recovery Centre, Red Cross volunteers travelled to local communities that were hardest hit by the flooding in order to offer services and support.
The Canadian Red Cross funded these flood recovery efforts and is thanking donors for their generous support.
Financial donations to assist those affected by flooding in northwest BC can be made:
- By calling the Canadian Red Cross 24hr toll-free donation line at 1-800-418-1111
- Online at www.redcross.ca (choose ‘Western Canada Floods and Severe Weather’ from the drop-down menu)
- By mailing a cheque or money order to the Canadian Red Cross, 1399 Sixth Avenue, Prince George, BC, V2L 5L6. Cheques should be made payable to the Canadian Red Cross and earmarked ‘Western Canada Floods & Severe Weather’.
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remlin lays claim to huge chunk of oil-rich North Pole
Map: The Lomonosov ridge
Luke Harding in Moscow
Thursday June 28, 2007
The Guardian
Under international law, no country owns the North Pole. Photograph: Daisy Gilardini/Getty
It is already the world's biggest country, spanning 11 time zones and stretching from Europe to the far east. But yesterday Russia signalled its intention to get even bigger by announcing an audacious plan to annex a vast 460,000 square mile chunk of the frozen and ice-encrusted Arctic.
According to Russian scientists, there is new evidence backing Russia's claim that its northern Arctic region is directly linked to the North Pole via an underwater shelf.
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Under international law, no country owns the North Pole. Instead, the five surrounding Arctic states, Russia, the US, Canada, Norway and Denmark (via Greenland), are limited to a 200-mile economic zone around their coasts.
On Monday, however, a group of Russian geologists returned from a six-week voyage on a nuclear icebreaker. They had travelled to the Lomonosov ridge, an underwater shelf in Russia's remote and inhospitable eastern Arctic Ocean.
According to Russia's media, the geologists returned with the "sensational news" that the Lomonosov ridge was linked to Russian Federation territory, boosting Russia's claim over the oil-and-gas rich triangle. The territory contained 10bn tonnes of gas and oil deposits, the scientists said.
Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper celebrated the discovery by printing a large map of the North Pole. It showed the new "addition" to Russia - the size of France, Germany and Italy combined - under a white, blue and red Russian flag.
Yesterday, however, some scientists doubted whether Russia's latest Arctic grab stood up to scrutiny.
To extend a zone, a state has to prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory. Under the current UN convention on the laws of the sea, no country's shelf extends to the North Pole. Instead, the International Seabed Authority administers the area around the pole as an international area.
"Frankly I think it's a little bit strange," Sergey Priamikov, the international co-operation director of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St Petersburg, told the Guardian. "Canada could make exactly the same claim. The Canadians could say that the Lomonosov ridge is part of the Canadian shelf, which means Russia should in fact belong to Canada, together with the whole of Eurasia."
Mr Priamikov said the area was one of breathtaking natural beauty. It was much drier, colder and quieter than the western Arctic, he added. "I've been there many times. It's an oasis for marine life," he said. Asked whether it would be feasible to drill for oil, he said: "Yes".
The shelf was 200 metres deep and oil and gas would be easy to extract, especially with ice melting because of global warming, he said.
Russia has the world's largest gas reserves. It is the second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia. The Kremlin is keen to secure Russia's long-term hegemony over global energy markets, and to find new sources of fuel.
Russia first made a submission in 2001 to the UN commission on the limits of the continental shelf, seeking to push Russia's maritime borders beyond the existing 200-mile zone. It was rejected.
But the latest scientific findings are likely to prompt Russia to lodge another confident bid - and will alarm the US, which is mired in a 13-year debate over ratification of a UN treaty governing international maritime rights.
The Law of the Sea Treaty is the world's primary means of settling disputes over exploitation rights and navigational routes in international waters. Russia and 152 other countries have ratified it.
But the US has refused, arguing it gives too much power to the UN. If the US does not ratify it, Russia's bid for the Arctic's energy wealth will go unchallenged, proponents believe.