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From the Los Angeles Times

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Japan fears a nuclear disaster after reactor breach

Officials warn of health risks, telling people in a 20-mile area to stay indoors as dangerous levels of radiation leak into the air after a third explosion and fire at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) plant.

by Laura King, Ralph Vartabedian and Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 15, 2011

— Dangerous levels of radiation escaped a quake-stricken nuclear power plant after one reactor's steel containment structure was apparently breached by an explosion, and a different reactor building in the same complex caught fire after another explosion, Japan's leaders told a frightened population. Authorities warned that people within 20 miles of the crippled reactors should stay indoors to avoid being sickened by radiation.

The fast-moving developments at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo, catapulted the 4-day-old nuclear crisis to an entirely new level, threatening to overshadow even the massive damage and loss of life spawned by a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Prime Minister Naoko Kan, in a nationwide address to the Japanese people, called for calm even as he acknowledged the radiation peril. Dressed in industrial-style blue coveralls, he offered solemn assurances that authorities were doing "everything we can" to contain the leakage.

"There is a danger of even higher radiation levels," he said — chilling words to a nation where the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the waning days of World War II are known to every schoolchild. Slightly elevated radiation was detected in Tokyo, but not at health-affecting levels, officials said.

Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, speaking shortly afterward, said radiation levels around the plant's six reactors had climbed to the extent that "without a doubt would affect a person's health." But he insisted that outside the existing 12-mile evacuation zone, there was little or no health danger.

But people anywhere close to the plant were told to turn off ventilators drawing air from outdoors and not to hang laundry in the open air in order to avoid contamination.

The announcements, more than 12 hours after the situation at the Unit 2 reactor at the Fukushima plant began to deteriorate with the exposure of its fuel rods to air, heightening the threat of meltdown, generated anger and fear in the earthquake-affected area and beyond. Many Japanese do not believe that either the government or the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., have been forthcoming about the extent of the danger amid a series of malfunctions at Fukushima.

The mayor of a small city that falls partly within the evacuation zone offered an unusually harsh public critique of the utility and Kan's administration.

"The government and Tokyo Electric Power have neglected to update residents with accurate information," Kazunobu Sakurai, the mayor of Minamisoma, told the public broadcaster NHK. "We need the government to keep us informed, to send emergency supplies and to help move residents who are inside the evacuation zone."

Survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings in World War II have been criticizing the nuclear power company's handling of the crisis.

"Nuclear power generation has been said to be safe but it was proved that it's very fragile," Hirotami Yamada, 79, bureau chief of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, told Kyodo.

The explosion followed an early morning acknowledgment from Tokyo Electric Power that, because of human error, the fuel rods inside the Unit 2 reactor had been at least partly exposed to air for more than two hours during two separate incidents the previous evening, allowing them to heat up and causing a buildup of explosive hydrogen gas. Independent experts said it was a grave development that heightened the risk of an uncontrolled release of radiation into the environment.

Authorities also disclosed that a fire broke out at the complex' Unit 4 after a blast left two gaping holes in an outer wall. The fire was later reported to have been extinguished, though it was unclear what caused it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Japanese officials told them that the explosion and subsequent fire were located at the unit's spent-fuel storage pond and that radioactivity was being released directly into the atmosphere.

By Tuesday afternoon, Kyodo was reporting that the pond was boiling because the water level was too low.

Authorities also reported that the only two reactors where explosions have not occurred — Units 5 and 6 — were registering rising temperatures.

The U.S. government mobilized emergency resources to help Japan grapple with the developing nuclear crisis, dispatching a team of Nuclear Regulatory Commission experts late Monday, activating an atmospheric radioactivity monitoring center at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area and rushing additional Navy ships to the region.

In the best-case scenario, the situation at the damaged reactors will take weeks, if not months, to stabilize, U.S. nuclear experts said.

"They do not have the situation under control," said Robert Alvarez, a nuclear expert at the Institute for Policy Studies and a former Energy Department official.

The company's acknowledgement that a "suppression pool" at the bottom of Unit 2, designed to serve as a last line of defense against a meltdown, was believed to have been breached could represent a major escalation of the crisis, said Victor Gilinsky, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"If that is true, then there is a path to the control room, the workers and the outside environment," he said.

The cooling problems at Unit 2 represent the most serious development yet in the crisis at the plant, said nuclear specialist Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

When the fuel rods get too hot and react with water, they produce hydrogen gas that vents from the reactor into the containment building. When enough hydrogen accumulates, it becomes explosive. Containment buildings around two other reactors at the Fukushima complex already suffered explosions, on Saturday and Monday.

Engineers had begun using fire hoses to pump seawater into the Unit 2 reactor — the third at the plant to receive the last-ditch treatment — after the emergency cooling system failed. Company officials said workers were not paying sufficient attention to the process, however, and let the pump stall, allowing the fuel rods to become partially exposed to the air.

Once the pump was restarted and water flow was restored, another worker inadvertently closed a valve that was designed to vent steam from the containment vessel. As pressure built up inside the vessel, the pumps could no longer force water into it and the fuel rods were once again exposed.

Four officials from Tokyo Electric Power in dark suits and looking somber began their nationally televised news conference hours after the onset of the problems at the Unit 2 reactor by bowing and apologizing for the worry caused.

In something of a contradiction, officials at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that, even in a worst-case scenario, the three troubled reactors at Fukushima had been depressurized by the release of radioactive steam, which would decrease the destructiveness of any breach, according to Kyodo News.

But other nuclear experts said it remained possible that an overheated uranium core in any of these reactors could melt down and breach its containment vessel, exposing the environment to a radioactive plume.

The seriousness of the situation was further underscored Monday when the French Embassy in Tokyo advised its citizens to move away from Japan's capital to protect themselves against possible radiation exposure.

A flight ban was imposed within 20 miles of the Fukushima plant because of the radiation danger. Air China and two Taiwanese carriers, Eva Airlines and China Airlines, canceled flights to Japan over radiation fears.

The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet also said Monday that it had ordered the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan away from Fukushima after detecting low-level contamination when it was about 100 miles northeast.

Nearly 200,000 Japanese had already been evacuated from a 12-mile zone surrounding the plant, and the company said it had moved 750 workers away from the plant, leaving 50 to deal with the crisis.

In the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday that it had received a formal request from Japan for assistance and was sending 10 people with expertise in boiling-water reactors. Agency spokesman Scott Burnell said the experts knew that they might have to "undergo radiation doses larger than normal."

Another serious risk involves the more than 200 tons of spent nuclear fuel that is stored in pools adjacent to the reactors, Alvarez said. Those cooling pools depend on continually circulating water to keep the fuel rods from catching fire. Without power to circulate the water, it heats up and potentially boils away, leaving the fuel rods exposed to air.

An aerial image of the Fukushima plant shows the loss of high-capacity cranes needed to move equipment to service the reactor. The photo also appears to show that the spent fuel pool is steaming hot, which may indicate the water is boiling off, Alvarez said.

U.S. nuclear experts said they were particularly concerned about the Unit 3 reactor because it is fueled in part with plutonium, an element used in hydrogen bombs that can be more difficult to control than the enriched uranium normally used to fuel nuclear power plants.

The U.S. Department of Energy activated the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center at Livermore to create sophisticated computer models of how the radioactive releases from Fukushima No. 1 would disburse into the atmosphere. The center, which was created to deal with contamination in the event of a nuclear war, played a key role in predicting contamination patterns during the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear crisis.

Even before the admission of how serious the problems at the Fukushima complex had become, there were signs that the legendary patience and politeness of Japanese in the face of such adversity was wearing thin. In Natori, north of Tokyo, the top floor of the City Hall was repurposed into a disaster-relief center. There, in an oft-repeated scene, a woman in red pants and a brown coat berated government workers for sitting comfortably in their offices with heat, 24-hour power and water while the rest of the prefecture lacked basic services.

Voice cracking, she said the government had been far too slow in restoring the electricity and repairing roads and basic infrastructure.

"She's complaining that our operation doesn't work so well," said Chizuko Nakajima, a government worker in the senior citizen department, who was helping distribute food as an emergency volunteer. "Actually, it's true. We're so overwhelmed."

Adding to the sense of anxiety, strong aftershocks have rippled across a wide area since Friday's quake, with fresh jolts shaking Tokyo on Tuesday. Japan's Meteorological Agency said Saturday there was a 70% probability of another powerful temblor in the coming three days.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-quake-web-20110315,0,7002081,print.story

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Japan's nuclear problems pose little danger to U.S., Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief says

Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, says there is 'a very low probability' of harmful radiation levels affecting any U.S. territories. Jaczko says the U.S. is providing technical assistance to Japanese officials in response to the crisis at Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant.

by Michael A. Memoli, Washington Bureau

March 14, 2011

The threat to the United States of a meltdown at a Japanese nuclear plant is minimal, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday.

Speaking at the White House, Gregory Jaczko said there is "a very low probability" of harmful radiation levels affecting any U.S. territories, and that the government is providing technical assistance to Japanese officials in response to the crisis at Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant.

"Right now, based on the information we have, we believe that the steps that the Japanese are taking to respond to this crisis are consistent with the approach that we would use here in the United States," Jaczko said. "We advise Americans in Japan to listen to and to follow the instructions of the Japanese government with regard to the nuclear facilities."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that President Obama has been briefed multiple times since Friday's earthquake and tsunami. The White House counter-terrorism advisor, John Brennan, is coordinating the administration's response.

Officials also told reporters that the U.S. is well-equipped to respond to events like the one in Japan. The government reviewed its readiness to deal with natural disasters in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

"We believe we have a very solid and strong regulatory infrastructure in place right now," Jaczko said.

Amid calls for a moratorium on construction of any new domestic plants, Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman said nuclear power must be considered as part of any energy strategy. He said 20% of all U.S. energy comes from nuclear power, and it accounts for 70% of all carbon-free energy.

"We do see nuclear power as continuing to play an important role in building a low-carbon future. But be assured that we will take the safety aspect of that as our paramount concern," he said.

Two experts from the NRC are on the ground in Japan, primarily working with the U.S. Embassy there and also keeping in contact with their Japanese counterparts. The United States stands prepared to offer additional support as requested, the officials said.

Monday brought not only continued concern over loss of life and the threat of a nuclear meltdown, but questions over whether the Japanese economy can withstand the devastating blow of multiple disasters. Carney said Obama has "full confidence in the capacity of Japan to address the economic challenges."

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-white-house-nuclear-response-20110315,0,6894038,print.story

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Resident of San Diego County 'bomb house' pleads guilty, faces 30 years in prison

A 54-year-old Escondido-area man admitted in federal court Monday that he made a wide variety of explosives and kept them in his rented home, and also that he used a firearm in two bank robberies.

George Djura Jakubec faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison on the bank robbery charges, according to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.

Jakubec, a Serbian emigre and unemployed software consultant, was arrested Nov. 18 after a gardener was injured in a backyard explosion at the home on Via Scott just outside the city limits of Escondido in northern San Diego County.

County authorities later determined that the explosives were too volatile to remove safely; the home was destroyed in a controlled burn Dec. 9.

No motive for the bomb-making is suggested in the plea agreement between prosecutors and Jakubec's attorney. But Jakubec's estranged wife had told reporters that her husband was mentally unstable.

Under the plea bargain, no additional prison time will be requested beyond the 30 years for the bank robberies. The bomb charges will be dropped when Jakubeci is sentenced.

Sentencing is set for June 13 in federal court. As part of the plea, Jakubec agreed to pay $541,000 to the county government -- the cost of the controlled burn -- and $54,892 to Bank of America, the amount taken in the two robberies.

"Jakubec will be held accountable for his actions and for placing the community of Escondido at risk," said John Torres, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Among the explosives were blasting caps and parts of grenades. Chemicals similar to those used by Al Qaeda terrorists were also found.

There was no evidence that Jakubec used the homemade arsenal in any crimes. Jakubec has remained in federal prison since his arrest.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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From the New York Times

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Japan Confronts Multiple Crises as Death Toll Climbs

TOKYO — Japanese authorities struggled to contain new nuclear emergencies on Tuesday — including a possible rupture in a reactor containment vessel — as the death toll continued to climb with search teams reaching towns that were flattened by last week's earthquake and tsunami.

The National Police Agency said Tuesday afternoon that 2,722 people have died, and many thousands were still missing. Bodies continued to wash ashore at various spots along the coast after having been pulled out to sea by the tsunami's retreat.

Some 400,000 people were living in makeshift shelters or evacuation centers, officials said. Bitterly cold and windy weather that was pushing into northern Japan was compounding the misery as the region struggled with shortages of food, fuel and water.

An explosion Tuesday morning at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station -- the third reactor blast in four days -- damaged the vessel containing the nuclear core at reactor No. 2 , government officials said, and there was a growing fear of a catastrophic meltdown.

The overwhelmed operator of the nuclear plants, Tokyo Electric Power Company, confirmed there had been radiation leaks and that water was being pumped into three overheated reactors in the Fukushima complex.

A fire that broke out Tuesday morning at a fourth reactor was extinguished by mid-afternoon, although the government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, later said that temperatures were now rising inside a fifth and sixth reactor in the complex.

People living within about 12 miles of the reactors at Fukushima were ordered to evacuate, and those within about 20 miles were told to stay indoors and close all windows, doors and vents. If people had laundry hanging outside, the government advised, they should not bring it inside or touch it.

Tokyo-area residents began to buy and stockpile food, water, candles and batteries as shelves at grocery stores became increasingly bare. Prime Minister Naoto Kan went on national television to implore people not to panic.

But there was plenty of panic in the stock market: Fevered selling drove down the Nikkei stock index by 10.6 percent at the close of trading.

There were scattered news reports of some foreigners fleeing Japan, and one Western diplomat said Tuesday night that “anecdotes and rumors” were swirling in the international community.

Still, there appeared to be no mass exodus. The United States Embassy, for example, was not urging resident Americans to leave.

The ambassador, John V. Roos, said that about 1,300 Americans were living in the five northern prefectures most affected by the earthquake and the tsunami. American consular officers were making their way to Sendai and other northern cities on Tuesday to conduct “welfare-and-whereabouts” checks on American citizens there.

“We are encouraging U.S. citizens to heed the instructions of the Japanese civil defense authorities,” Mr. Roos said.

The commander of American forces in Japan, Lt. Gen. Burton M. Field, confirmed that some American troops aboard three helicopters had been contaminated by radiation when they apparently flew through a radioactive plume released from the crippled nuclear complex.

“We found contamination on the clothes of several crew members, and one crew member had some on his skin,” said General Field. “The exposure rate was about the same as you would get over a monthlong period outside in the sun. We assess that as very, very low.”

He added that the crew members got a good scrubbing with soap and water and were back on duty.

Chinese health and environmental officials on Tuesday gathered for emergency meetings on how to respond in case radioactive fallout hit China. The government said it was stepping up monitoring for radiation and would swiftly report results.

China's Meteorological Administration said prevailing winds would carry radioactive material away from China until Thursday, and possibly beyond. “China will not be affected,” the agency said on its Web site.

Air China canceled all flights to and from Tokyo and Sendai until Thursday.

Nations such as South Korea and Singapore have announced they would bolster inspections of Japanese food imports.

The United States Geological Survey revised the magnitude of the earthquake to 9.0, from 8.9, but it was the subsequent tsunami that did the most damage. The initial wave scoured away entire communities, and desperate survivors searched Tuesday for signs of friends and relatives who remained missing.

There was plenty that was missing in the fishing village of Minamisanriku: the city hall, the hospital, the shipyard, police stations — and 8,000 people.

The tsunami might have crashed most heavily into this town that once was home to more than 17,000. Situated at the back of a mountainous V-shaped cove, the town was swamped by the first surge of muck and seawater that was 30 feet high as it roared between the valley walls.

As the deluge pressed in on them, Sanae Sato, 71, said 400 townspeople rushed to the community center where she worked. They thought the five-story building would be high enough to protect them. But when the water reached the fourth floor, they all sought shelter in the attic.

From the attic window, Ms. Sato said, she saw the floodwaters hurling cars along, with drivers and passengers still inside. Houses broke from their foundations and were carried along, their owners perched on the ridges of the roofs.

“I saw people trying to balance on the rooftops like surfers,” she said. “It didn't work. It was like hell.”

The Miyagi prefectural government said Tuesday that search teams had located 2,000 people in Minamisanriku who had been missing and presumed dead. They had fled to surrounding towns as the tsunami bashed the coastal areas of the town.

Troopers from Japan's Self-Defense Forces cleared roadways into the village on Tuesday as a long line of fire trucks waited to enter. Closer to shore, teams of searchers rummaged through the crushed houses and collapsed shops. They peered into cars that had been swallowed by the mud, hoping to find survivors. Searched cars were marked with yellow tape.

One gruesome discovery was a mud-caked woman hanging by her head from the roof of a gas station. She was brought down, covered in a blue plastic tarp, and her body was laid by the station to await collection by another disaster team.

Rescue teams from 13 countries pressed on with the searches in other towns, some assisted by dogs. In the air, helicopters shuttled back and forth, part of a mobilization of some 100,000 troops, the largest since World War II.

Because Fukushima have been lost to the national power grid, Tokyo Electric announced plans for rolling blackouts across the region to conserve electricity — the first controlled power cutbacks in Japan in 60 years.

The first set of blackouts Tuesday morning began in four prefectures outside Tokyo. The utility, which provides service to 45 million people in the region, said the cuts could continue for six weeks.

Public conservation of electricity was significant enough, the company said, that the more drastic blackout scenarios were being scaled back. Still, anticipating deep and lengthy power cuts, many people were stocking up on candles, water, instant noodles and batteries for radios.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16japan.html?_r=2&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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For Honolulu's Homeless, an Eviction Notice

HONOLULU — From his home on Ilalo Street, Banery Afituk can feel the breeze off Mamala Bay, two blocks away. Walking out his front door, to his right, he can make out the tops of the luxury ocean liners, and to his left, some of this city's finer high rises. “I like it here,” he said, as his three children played around him.

Home for Mr. Afituk, his pregnant wife and their children is, in fact, a tattered tent rising low off the sidewalk, one of dozens that have sprung up in a colony of homelessness near the downtown of this tropical tourist getaway.

But all these tents, including Mr. Afituk's, are about to disappear. Hawaii redevelopment officials told residents of this fetid colony that by Tuesday they would remove the estimated 75 remaining tents, lean-tos and other structures, forcing about 100 people who have called the area home to find somewhere else.

State officials said they were simply trying to enforce the law and clean up the waterfront district to encourage development in a desirable corner of the island where the tents, piles of garbage and wandering homeless offer quite a contrast to the rest of Oahu.

But this forced exodus is only the latest chapter in Hawaii's difficult relationship with its homeless as it wrestles with two forces: a warm climate that facilitates outdoor living and the threat to the image of the state that is central to tourism.

Advocates for the homeless said this latest sweep would have the same effect as the last few: the homeless will simply take their tents elsewhere.

“I understand that they are caught between a rock and a hard place,” Doran J. Porter, executive director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance in Hawaii, said of state officials. “This isn't an appropriate place for lean-tos and tents.”

And Mr. Porter said he knew full well that state officials were under pressure from the business community. “My concern is that they need to have solutions of where these folks are going to go,” he said. “We can't keep kicking them out of one place where they go to another. That's why they are there in the first place: they were kicked out of Waikiki and the beaches. This has been going on for years.”

Anthony Ching, the executive director of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, said his agency's mandate to redevelop this 600-acre plot had been jeopardized by the illegal dwellings. He said once they were gone, city workers would power-wash the sidewalks and clean up garbage and grassy areas.

“We are not evicting them per se,” he said. “We are telling them they can't have structures on the roadway. That does not inhibit their use of the sidewalk.”

In the tents, people appeared accepting of their fate.

“I have no idea where I'm going to go,” said Douglas Sencio, 52, who works at a carwash, as a young girl next to him ate spaghetti from a pan bubbling on a portable camp stove. “It's comfortable. We try to make it comfortable. And they come to take it from us. They said, ‘You have to move, you have no choice.' ”

This patch of poverty is in a stretch of Honolulu that most tourists probably do not see, unless they glance down some of the side streets running off Ala Moana Boulevard on the trip from the airport. It makes for a startling contrast in a place better known for the surfers on the wild beaches of the North Shore and the developed beaches of Waikiki, where tourists can be seen carrying frothy drinks down the beach, listening to the soft strum of Hawaiian folk music at the House Without a Key.

There is block after block of tents and tarps, shopping carts, bicycles and piles of garbage. Mr. Afituk said he went to a nearby restroom

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/us/15homeless.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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EDITORIAL

Japan's Multiple Calamities

Any comment on the disaster in Japan must begin with the stunning scale of human loss. Thousands dead or missing from the devastating earthquake and tsunami surge. Hundreds of thousands homeless. Whole villages wiped out. And now there is the threat of further harm from badly damaged nuclear reactors. The worst-case accident would be enormous releases of radioactivity.

The unfolding Japanese tragedy also should prompt Americans to closely study our own plans for coping with natural disasters and with potential nuclear plant accidents to make sure they are, indeed, strong enough. We've already seen how poor defenses left New Orleans vulnerable to Hurricane Katrina and how industrial folly and hubris led to a devastating blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

It is sobering that such calamities could so badly hurt Japan, a technologically advanced nation that puts great emphasis on disaster mitigation. Japan's protective seawalls proved no match for the high waves that swept over them and knocked out the safety systems that were supposed to protect nearby nuclear reactors from overheating and melting down.

It is much too early to understand the magnitude of what has happened. But, as of now, this four-day crisis in Japan already amounts to the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

From early reports, it appears that the troubled reactors survived the earthquake. Control rods shut down the nuclear fission reactions that generate power. But even after shutdown, there is residual heat that needs to be drawn off by cooling water pumped through the reactor core, and that's where the trouble came.

The nuclear plant lost its main source of electric power to drive the pumps, and the tsunami knocked out the backup diesel generators that were supposed to drive the pumps in an emergency. That left only short-term battery power that is able to provide cooling water on a small scale but can't drive the large pumps required for full-scale cooling.

Early Tuesday morning, the frightening news came that Japan was facing the full meltdown of crippled reactors at a nuclear power station — with unknown and potentially catastrophic consequences. In a televised address to the nation at 11 a.m. local time, Prime Minister Naoto Kan pleaded for calm as he announced that radiation had spread from the reactors. He added that there was “a very high risk” of further leakages.

With the United States poised to expand nuclear power after decades of stagnation, it will be important to reassess safety standards. Some 30 American reactors have designs similar to the crippled reactors in Japan. Various reactors in this country are situated near geologic faults, in coastal areas reachable by tsunamis or in areas potentially vulnerable to flooding. Regulators will need to evaluate how well operators would cope if they lost both primary power and backup diesel generators for an extended period.

This page has endorsed nuclear power as one tool to head off global warming. We suspect that, when all the evidence is in from Japan, it will remain a valuable tool. But the public needs to know that it is a safe one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/opinion/15tue1.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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Parker County kidnapping leads investigators to look at cases of two other women who vanished, including suspect's wife

by AVI SELK

March 14, 2011

Investigators are reviewing the cold cases of at least two missing women after a third was rescued from what the Parker County sheriff called Jeffrey Allan Maxwell's “house of horrors” in Corsicana.

Meanwhile, a retired Fort Worth police detective said he had “no doubt” that Maxwell, who now faces charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, got away with killing his wife 19 years ago.

Maxwell, 58, was arrested Saturday after sheriff's investigators and Texas Rangers discovered a Parker County woman — missing since her house burned down nearly two weeks ago — was being confined in a secret compartment in Maxwell's home.

The woman had been bound, raped and probably tortured, said Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler, adding, “I hope to never see it again.”

An affidavit listed a bed with chains, leather restraints and sexual devices among items seized from the home. An investigator connected to the case reported seeing an electric winch used for stringing up animal carcasses.

The affidavit said Maxwell confessed to kidnapping and sexually assaulting the woman. He claimed he had been paid to make the reclusive 62-year-old “go away,” the affidavit said, but refused to tell investigators who paid him.

And while Texas Rangers continue to interview Maxwell, investigators are exploring possible connections to at least two disappearances in the last two decades, including his wife's.

Fowler said his department was re-examining the 2000 disappearance of Amelia Smith. Much like the current case, the 51-year-old woman's house and car near Azle were destroyed in a suspicious fire on the same night she went missing.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Fort Worth Police Department said detectives were “researching” the case of Martha Martinez Maxwell, who has been missing since 1992 from the home she shared with Maxwell and their son.

‘Never any doubt'

The lead investigator at the time, retired Fort Worth Police Detective W.S. “Sonny” Byington, said Monday that he had always suspected Maxwell and was “tickled to death to hear they finally got him on some charges.”

“Always,” Byington said. “There was never any doubt in my mind that he was responsible for his wife's disappearance.”

Maxwell first came to police attention in 1987 when his wife turned up on the side of a road in Oklahoma — alive but with her throat cut ear to ear.

Martha Maxwell told investigators her husband had duct-taped her mouth and tortured her with electric wires in their upstairs bedroom before drugging her. “The next thing I remember is waking up in Parkland Hospital,” she said.

Maxwell was arrested and charged with the crime while Martha fled to Mexico with the couple's son, the detective said.

But after Maxwell “kept sending her letters,” said Byington, she returned to her husband and dropped charges against him.

About five years later, Martha Maxwell disappeared.

First wife

Byington said Maxwell claimed his wife had abandoned the family.

“He said it's just her tough luck,” the detective said. “He would never admit she did anything but run away.”

Byington also said that Maxwell's first wife, whom he remarried after his second disappeared, told the detective her husband may have molested their daughter. A few months after that interview, Rita Stephenson Maxwell divorced Maxwell a second time, changed her name and left the state.

Maxwell's neighbors at the time didn't relieve his suspicions, said the detective.

“The things they told me were just scary,” Byington said. “That he was a big bully type guy, very aggressive, a pervert.”

Parker County case

Those recollections echoed the comments of residents near Perrin in Parker County, where for several years Maxwell had lived across the road from the woman he allegedly abducted at gunpoint March 1, beating her with a rolling pin as he forced her into his car.

Neighbors described Maxwell as a large, crude man who had shot dogs and relentlessly pursued the woman, who was apparently born in the small wooden house she rarely left. After the woman's house burned down on March 3, neighbors' suspicions led the sheriff to Maxwell's doorstep in Corsicana, with a warrant for a blue car a witness had spotted near the woman's house before the fire.

The sheriff said the suspect initially denied knowing anything about the missing woman.

Then a Ranger “heard a noise from inside the house,” said Fowler. “Like something moving across the floor. The door burst open, and she screamed ‘I'm here! I'm here!'”

VP of Kiwanis Club

While Parker County neighbors recalled Maxwell as creepy, in Corsicana he was often in the local newspaper for his work as vice president of the Kiwanis Club. His photo had appeared several times over the past few months, including in one noting he worked at the local food pantry. In another, he was listed as the club's president-elect.

Reflecting on his old case, Byington said he could never understand why Maxwell was never charged in connection with his wife's disappearance — or any other — until Saturday.

“It amazed me,” the retired detective said. “I guarantee you, that first case with the slit throat, I would have pursued that as far as I could.”

Martha Maxwell's family agreed.

The missing woman's sister-in-law, Carole Martinez, said she and her husband “cried on the phone” after learning of Maxwell's arrest. Like the retired detective, she said they had never doubted his guilt.

“This guy's bad,” she whispered. “He needs to go away.”

Staff researcher Erin Amburgey-Sood contributed to this report.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/headlines/20110314-parker-county-kidnapping-leads-investigators-to-look-at-cases-of-two-other-women-who-vanished-including-suspects-wife.ece

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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FEMA, NOAA and Partners Encourage U.S. Residents to Prepare For Springtime Flooding

March 14th through 18th Marks 2011 Flood Awareness Week

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With many communities throughout the nation facing threats of spring flooding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are once again joining forces to commemorate Flood Safety Awareness Week March 14 - 18.

FEMA and NOAA's National Weather Service are providing tips and information to help individuals and families prepare for flooding dangers during the week and throughout the spring season. The resources can be accessed at the Flood Safety Awareness Week landing page, located at www.ready.gov/floodawareness.

"As the nation's most common and expensive natural disaster, floods can strike virtually every community," said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. "We're encouraging individuals and families to take a few simple steps to protect themselves and their property. These include learning about their risk of flooding, having an emergency preparedness kit, storing important documents in a safe place and considering the purchase of flood insurance. Most homeowners insurance policies don't cover flooding, and most policies take 30 days to go into effect so it's important to act now."

Floods do more than damage property; they can also threaten lives if safety precautions are not followed. "Floods occur somewhere in the United States or its territories nearly every day of the year, killing nearly 100 people on average annually, and causing damage in the billions of dollars," said Jack Hayes, Ph.D., director of the National Weather Service. "Awareness, preparedness and action are the key ingredients to protecting lives and property when floods threaten. One essential safety tip is to never cross a road that is covered by water. Remember, Turn Around, Don't Drown."

According to the National Weather Service, more deaths occur due to flooding each year than from any other severe weather related hazard. The main reason is people underestimate the force and power of water. All areas of the country can be at risk for flooding and when such conditions are forecast, important information and life-saving alerts are available at www.weather.gov.

More than half of all flood-related deaths result from vehicles being swept downstream. Remember, flash flooding can take only a few minutes to a few hours to develop. Be prepared to take detours and adjust your route due to road closures if there is standing water. As little as six inches of water may cause you to lose control of your vehicle. Flood water may be much deeper than it appears as the roadbed may be washed out. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize flood dangers.

In most cases, standard homeowner's insurance policies don't cover flood damages. FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program makes flood insurance available to renters, homeowners and business owners through thousands of insurance agents located in nearly 21,000 communities around the nation. Flood coverage can be purchased for properties both in, and outside of, the highest risk areas but should be considered regardless of where you live since 20 percent of all flood insurance claims come from moderate-to-low-risk areas.

The average cost of a policy is $570 a year, and Preferred Risk Policies outside of Special Flood Hazard Areas can be as low as $129 a year. Individuals can learn more about seasonal flood risks and what to do to prepare by visiting FEMA's FloodSmart.gov website, or by calling 1-800-427-2419 .

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=53925

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Migrant Interdiction: Safety of life at sea

Monday, March 14, 2011

by LCDR Matt Moorlag, public affairs officer, 7th Coast Guard District

As the United States' primary maritime law enforcement agency, the Coast Guard is tasked with enforcing immigration law at sea. The Coast Guard conducts patrols and coordinates with other federal agencies and foreign countries to interdict undocumented migrants at sea, denying them entry via maritime routes to the United States, its territories and possessions. Thousands of people try to enter this country illegally every year using maritime routes, many via smuggling operations.

The Coast Guard and its partner agencies use a layered approach to maritime migrant interdiction operations. Cutters patrol offshore, effectively pushing America's borders outward. Aircraft and patrol boats add speed and agility to our patrol efforts, covering large areas and resulting in faster responses to intelligence reports or visual sightings of potential migrant vessels. In the nearshore areas, federal, state and local law enforcement boats conduct regular patrols and provide the last maritime line of defense against migrants reaching shore illegally.

Many attempts to illegally migrate to the U.S. involve some type of smuggling venture, which makes them inherently dangerous. Smugglers focus on maximizing profits, not the safety of their passengers. This frequently results in grossly overloaded vessels or vessels that aren't carrying the necessary safety equipment. Oftentimes smugglers go out of their way to avoid detection departing late at night and without lights; sometimes with deadly results. When vessels are detected by law enforcement authorities, brazen smugglers, who choose to refuse to comply with lawful orders to stop, force authorities to compel compliance through the skillful application of approved use of force techniques.

Over the past two weeks, Coast Guard crews took part in two interdictions made hundreds of miles away from each other and involving migrants of two different nationalities using two very different types of vessels in their attempt to reach the United States illegally.

On Thursday, the Coast Guard Cutter Bear repatriated 86 Haitian migrants to Cap Haitien, Haiti, after they were interdicted at sea in a grossly overloaded sail freighter. Although still well within normal migration levels for this time of year, this was the second repatriation of the week for units under District Seven tactical control.

Last Monday, 14 Cuban migrants were rescued by a good Samaritan after the 36-foot vessel they were allegedly being smuggled in became disabled and started sinking near the Bahamas. All 14 Cuban migrants were returned to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba, by the Coast Guard Cutter Ocracoke on March 7. The two suspected smugglers were transferred to authorities in Key West, Fla., March 6.

Migrant interdiction is just one of the many missions performed every day by the Coast Guard. Crews engage in law enforcement patrols aimed at preventing illegal fishing in U.S. waters, illegal immigration and drug trafficking as part of a multi-agency approach to protecting the security and sovereignty of our nation

http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/index.php/2011/03/migrant-interdiction-safety-of-life-at-sea/

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From the FBI

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Tips on Avoiding Fraudulent Charitable Contribution Schemes

Washington, D.C. March 14, 2011

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reminds the public to use caution when making donations in the aftermath of natural disasters. Unfortunately, criminals can exploit these tragedies for their own gain by sending fraudulent e-mails and creating phony websites designed to solicit contributions.

The FBI and the National Center for Disaster Fraud have an existing tip line to receive information from the public about suspected fraud associated with the earthquake and tsunami that affected Japan. Tips should be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud, (866) 720-5721 . The line is staffed by a live operator 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, e-mails can be sent to disaster@leo.gov, and information can be faxed to (225) 334-4707 .

The National Center for Disaster Fraud was created by the Department of Justice to investigate, prosecute, and deter fraud in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when billions of dollars in federal disaster relief poured into the Gulf Coast region. Now, its mission has expanded to include suspected fraud from any natural or man-made disaster. More than 20 federal agencies, including the FBI, participate in the NCDF, which allows the center to act as a centralized clearinghouse of information related to disaster relief fraud.

The FBI continues to remind the public to perform due diligence before giving contributions to anyone soliciting donations or individuals offering to provide assistance to the people of Japan. Solicitations can originate from e-mails, websites, door-to-door collections, flyers, mailings, telephone calls, and other similar methods.

Before making a donation of any kind, consumers should adhere to certain guidelines, including:

• Do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages because they may contain computer viruses.
  
  
• Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as members of charitable organizations or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.
  
  
• Beware of organizations with copy-cat names similar to but not exactly the same as those of reputable charities.
  
  
• Rather than follow a purported link to a website, verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group's existence and its nonprofit status.
  
  
• Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
  
  
• To ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes, make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf.
  
  
• Do not be pressured into making contributions; reputable charities do not use such tactics.
  
  
• Be aware of whom you are dealing with when providing your personal and financial information. Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.
  
  
• Avoid cash donations if possible. Pay by credit card or write a check directly to the charity. Do not make checks payable to individuals.
  
  
• Legitimate charities do not normally solicit donations via money transfer services. Most legitimate charities websites end in .org rather than .com.

Consumers can also report suspicious e-mail solicitations or fraudulent websites to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center: www.ic3.gov

Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List Turns 61

The Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list celebrates 61 years today. Since its inception, 494 fugitives have been on the "Top Ten" list, and 463 have been apprehended or located; 152 fugitives have been captured/located as a result of citizen cooperation.

At a minimum, a reward of up to $100,000 is offered by the FBI for information which leads directly to the arrest of a "Top Ten" fugitive. In some instances, the reward is more than $100,000.

Ten Most Wanted Fugitives | About the program

http://www.fbi.gov/news/news_blog/wanted_031411

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