Hundreds fall ill aboard cruise ship
More than 380 people aboard the world’s largest cruise ship were sickened by a virus during a seven-day Caribbean cruise, cruise officials said Sunday.
Norovirus sickened 338 passengers and 46 crew members aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas, and they were treated with over-the-counter medication, the Miami-based company said.
The ship, which had roughly 3,800 passengers and 1,300 crew members, returned Sunday as scheduled to the Port of Miami. Crew members sanitized frequently touched surfaces such as railings, door handles and elevator buttons after the short-lived outbreak began, officials said.
TRENTON, N.J.
E. coli outbreak sickens 15
An outbreak of E. coli bacteria has sickened at least 15 people, two seriously, in central New Jersey during the past two weeks, officials said Sunday.
Authorities had yet to determine how and where the victims, mostly children, became infected. Investigators focused on a Taco Bell restaurant in South Plainfield where 11 of the victims ate.
The restaurant, which has been closed voluntarily since Thursday, passed a health code inspection last week and tests were being performed on stool samples from 21 of its employees.
MOORPARK, Calif.
Fire prompts evacuations
A fire driven by strong Santa Ana winds Sunday destroyed five homes and a storage building and endangered hundreds of others in canyons and hillsides, authorities said.
The blaze burned about 4,100 acres, or 6 square miles, destroying five homes and damaging five others, Ventura County Fire Capt. Barry Parker said. Fire officials called for voluntary evacuations as hundreds of residents packed up valuables while dozens of trailers used to transport livestock were lined up on a road.
ST. LOUIS
City waits for power after storm
The temperature barely rose into the 20s Sunday as hundreds of thousands waited for their electricity to be restored after it was knocked out in a devastating ice and snow storm.
Thursday’s storm was blamed for at least 15 deaths as it spread ice and deep snow from Texas to Michigan and then blew through the Northeast late Friday and early Saturday.
By Sunday afternoon, about 350,000 customers of St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. had no electricity in a roughly 300-mile swath from Jackson, Mo., northeast to Pontiac, Ill. Spokeswoman Susan Gallagher said about 200,000 were in Missouri and about 150,000 in central and southern Illinois.
The utility said Sunday it would not estimate when power will be totally restored.