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Merry Christmas!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/12/1....ap/index.html
UnrealSEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- -- Four family members were found dead Monday in their home of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning, bringing the death toll from the Northwest's worst windstorm in a decade to 14.
The four -- one woman and three males -- were found in a home in Burien, a south Seattle suburb, along with another relative who was clinging to life, said King County sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart. Like many in the area left without power after the storm, they had been running a generator in their garage, authorities said.
"Other family members had last talked to them around Saturday," Urquhart said. "They called us to make a welfare check. We broke into the house and found them."
Carbon monoxide -- an odorless, colorless and highly toxic gas -- was also responsible for killing two men over the weekend. One had been using a portable generator in his living room; the other was using a charcoal grill to heat his bedroom.
At least 100 people have developed symptoms of exposure to carbon monoxide since the winds knocked out power to more than a million homes and businesses late last week. Dozens were treated in a hyperbaric chamber that re-oxygenates the blood at Virginia Mason Medical Center, officials said.
Of the 14 storm-related deaths, 12 were in Washington and two were in Oregon.
"We're dealing with a carbon monoxide epidemic in Western Washington," said Dr. Neil B. Hampson at Virginia Mason's Center for Hyperbaric Medicine. "This has the potential to be the worst case of carbon monoxide poisoning in the country."
The region's worst windstorm in more than a decade struck on Thursday, knocking out power to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses. Wind gusted to 113 mph during the storm near Mount Rainier and to a record 69 mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
About 200,000 customers were still without power in western Washington, utilities reported, as temperatures were in the low to mid-20s over most of the affected area early Monday. Authorities said it could be days before power is restored. (Watch residents cope with downed trees, long lines for gas)
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a statewide disaster and the state National Guard was mobilized to help get fuel and supplies to hard-hit areas.
Merry Christmas!
By JIM SALTER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 14 minutes ago
KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - Preliminary autopsy results showed that the seven people found dead inside a duplex apartment over the weekend suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, the coroner said Tuesday.
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"It does not appear to be any trauma — no injuries, no signs of struggle, anything like that were found," Adair County Coroner Brian Noe said.
Noe said toxicology results, which will take several weeks, will help determine whether other factors contributed to the deaths of five young adults and two children and whether the deaths were accidental.
The bodies were discovered Sunday afternoon by a 15-year-old baby sitter and two of her friends.
Police didn't identify the victims, but relatives said Maranda McDermott, 23, died, along with her son Adam McDermott Jr., who just turned 1 last week, and daughter Melina McDermott, who would have been 2 on Dec. 30. A 4-year-old sister who wasn't home at the time survived.
Relatives identified two of the other victims as Jeremy Liner, 19, and Reginald Washington, 21. The other victims were a 21-year-old man and 21-year-old woman. All were from Kirksville.
The sitter, Heather Glaspie, often cared for the children and became worried when she couldn't reach McDermott, the tenant of the duplex, early Sunday.
On Monday, Police Chief Jim Hughes confirmed a reading on a fire department sensor indicated a high level of carbon monoxide at the site.
The home heating system was functioning properly and was not the source of any problem, Hughes said. A van parked in the garage was taken to a crime lab, but Hughes would not say whether it had been running. The lab was also looking at a second van parked in the driveway.
At a candlelight vigil Monday night, about three dozen relatives and friends of the victims had already decided carbon monoxide was to blame. They just didn't understand how it could happen.
"I'm going to miss my grandbabies," said Grayling Ramsey, McDermott's stepfather. "You can't question God why he did this. He did it for a reason. But it's hard."
"We just celebrated both of their birthdays last week," Ramsey added.
Ramsey said he and his wife, Lisa Lewis, had taken their 4-year-old granddaughter to St. Louis for Christmas shopping Sunday. They were on their way back to Kirksville when they got a telephone call from Glaspie, telling them what had happened to the others.
Lewis said the children's father died a year ago, which leaves the 4-year-old "with just us. I don't know what I'm going to do when she asks me what happened to them. But I will do my best."
For those of you who didn't understand my post, I don't want to read this around Christmas time damnit...
I second that.
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