Powerful rainstorms hitting California in the past two weeks have killed 17 people, the state’s emergency department reported Jan. 11. “It’s been a very dangerous and deadly series of events,” Brian Ferguson, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Services, told The Epoch Times. The victims lived in nine different counties with the number of…

JOHANNESBURG—Prolonged rains and flooding in the Durban area of South Africa have claimed the lives of at least 45 people, damaging the port, major highways, and surrounding areas in KwaZulu-Natal province, according to local officials. South Africa’s military has been deployed to Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area on Tuesday to assist with rescue…

The Victorian government is injecting an “immediate” $115.6 million (US$85 million) into the state’s Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) and will restructure the organisation as it struggles to handle emergency call volumes. Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said the inspector-general for emergency management was investigating reports that 12 people had died while waiting for the…

Northern Territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles has confirmed the first case of the new “Omicron” COVID-19 variant in the Territory. The Australian man, who had flown from Johannesburg to Darwin on a repatriation flight, tested positive to COVID-19 on Saturday. Genomic sequencing has since revealed that he is infected with the “Omicron” variant, making him…

The American Ambulance Association has warned that the nation is facing a “crippling workforce shortage” that threatens to undermine the 911 emergency services amid an unsustainable turnover rate of staff. According to the AAA/Avesta 2019 Ambulance Industry Employee Turnover Study, turnover among emergency medical technicians (EMT’s) and paramedics was in the 20 to 30 percent range annually,…