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US puts up $750K to evacuate an American who was aboard hantavirus cruise ship from remote island
International
AP

US puts up $750K to evacuate an American who was aboard hantavirus cruise ship from remote island

  • By MATTHEW LEE - AP Diplomatic Writer

The Trump administration has put up $750,000 to charter a private yacht to evacuate a single American citizen from a remote South Pacific island after she had been aboard a cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak. That's according to two U.S. officials and an internal government document obtained by The Associated Press. The woman, who may have been exposed to the virus while aboard the cruise liner in April, had gotten off the ship and flown to San Francisco before traveling to isolated Pitcairn Island through Tahiti. The costly evacuation has added strain to the State Department budget for unforeseen emergencies. Its balance is at the lowest level in seven years.

FBI seizing evidence at California plant where chemical tank overheated and forced evacuations
National News
AP

FBI seizing evidence at California plant where chemical tank overheated and forced evacuations

  • By CHRISTOPHER WEBER - Associated Press

Federal authorities served a search warrant on Wednesday at a Southern California aerospace facility where a chemical tank overheated last month, forcing 50,000 residents to evacuate. The warrant signed by a federal judge last week approved the seizure of documents and records related to the “storage, use, or disposal” of methyl methacrylate, the chemical inside the affected tank. The FBI confirmed its agents were searching GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems in the Orange County city of Garden Grove.

40,000 people under evacuation orders for a chemical tank leak in Southern California
National News
AP

40,000 people under evacuation orders for a chemical tank leak in Southern California

  • By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, CLAIRE RUSH and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM - Associated Press

About 40,000 people are under evacuation orders and schools have shut down in Southern California due to a hazardous chemical leak. Officials say a storage tank began leaking methyl methacrylate, a chemical used in making plastic parts. The tank overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, where evacuations were initially ordered. Officials expanded evacuation orders Friday to include parts of Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster after failing to stop the leak overnight. The tank was holding between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons of the chemical at the GKN Aerospace facility, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft.