USA-Texas: Hospitals Overwhelmed by Another Surge of COVID-19 Patients, Financial Strain

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The latest surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., driven by the delta variant of the virus that causes the disease, has pushed up the seven-day average of COVID-19 hospitalizations from 19,123 on June 15 to 80,664 on Aug. 15 — an increase of 322%.

The hospitalizations tend to be higher in states with low vaccination rates, including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas tested positive for the coronavirus and said in a video uploaded to Twitter that he was “really not feeling any symptoms right now,” and has previously received the Covid-19 vaccine.

Read more at: Hospitals Overwhelmed by Another Surge of COVID-19 Patients, Financial Strain - Dallas Examiner

USA-Covid-19: Texas, Florida accounting for nearly 40% of new COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S.

During a briefing Thursday, the White House COVID-19 Response Team said the percentage of new daily COVID-19 cases is up 24% from the previous week, which is about 113,000 new cases per day.

Hospitalizations are up 31% over the same time period, some 9,700 new admissions daily.

Texas is considered a problem area.

"Florida and Texas, alone, have accounted for nearly 40% of new hospitalizations across the country," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients explained.

Read more at: Texas, Florida accounting for nearly 40% of new COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S.

USA - Economy: Thousands of cars form lines to collect food in Covid-hit Texas - by Melissa Alonso and Susannah Cullinane

North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) distributed more than 600,000 pounds of food for about 25,000 people on Saturday, according to spokeswoman Anna Kurian. There were 7,280 turkeys distributed to families, Kurian told CNN.

Read more at: Thousands of cars form lines to collect food in Covid-hit Texas - CNN

Hurricane Harvey Energy Crisis Could Be Nightmare For U.S. Economy- by Ellen R. Wald

On Tuesday, August 29, over 26 inches of rain fell in Port Arthur, Texas. The 50,000 residents of that city, north and east of Houston, are suffering severe flooding and personal loss. Port Arthur is also the home of the largest refinery in the United States, Motiva, which has been shut down due to massive flooding. In addition, the nearby Valero Energy VLO -0.45% and ExxonMobil XOM +0.30% refineries were shut and the Colonial Pipeline (distributing refined products across the Southeast and north to Tennessee) has been disrupted. About 22% of U.S. refining capacity is offline due to the natural disaster. All told, it now appears that the impact Harvey will have on the energy industry is worse than expected and could very well, in a worst case scenario, lead to a serious macro-economic problem.

Read mor: Hurricane Harvey Energy Crisis Could Be Nightmare For U.S. Economy

USA:Infrastructure neglect by Federal and State governments major cause of Texas flooding caused by hurricane Harvey

USA Infrastructure the root of all evil

Arcadis, the Dutch consultancy, recently released an analysis of the world’s built assets, aka the value of physical structures, buildings, and infrastructure.

Basically, it’s all the money a country spends publicly or privately on physical development, from “infrastructure investment, construction, investments in plant and machinery and improvements in ‘natural assets’ such as land reclamation.”

The study relies data from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and from individual countries’ statistics offices.

It’s an interesting snapshot since it deals only with the stuff that has tangible physical value, rather than investments in less tangible stuff like intellectual property or software. More money spent on improving a country’s built environment, from new subway systems to flood-proofing coastlines, means stronger and more productive cities, which contribute to a country’s overall growth.

All in all, the report pegs the value of those physical assets–computed for 32 of the top-spending countries–at a whopping $218 trillion worldwide. So how does the US stack up against other countries? In terms of straight value, we’ve been eclipsed by China over the past two years:

While Arcadis points out that Qatar bowls every other country over when you look at it per capita value, that’s pretty unsurprising for a small country investing massively in its cities and infrastructure.

By that metric, the US doesn’t even make this list.  The US is actually slipping down in the rankings in general.

Arcadis says that the problem in the US isn’t real estate–the US is doing “solid” in terms of private assets like buildings. But US is in a mess when it comes to infrastructure, especially in high-growth cities that contribute to the overall productivity of the country.

“There is increasing concern about the negative impact an underperforming built environment has on the economic prosperity of US cities,” Arcadis’ Julien Cayet writes, citing a survey by Politico that showed that many US mayors say better infrastructure is the biggest hurdle in their cities.

In other words, if cities don’t figure out a way to upgrade their roads, parks, and transit systems, their growth is going to stall out.

One other problem the US is facing? Severe weather. Arcadis continues:

"The situation in the US is further complicated by the consequences of severe weather. From drought in California to hurricanes in New Orleans and New York – there is an urgent need to build more resilient cities to protect the public and the economy from these devastating events. The economic impact of Hurricane Sandy alone is estimated at over $70 billion".

Sadly, accepting the existence of climate change doesn’t necessarily mean politicians will be ready to spend on resilient infrastructure, unless the number of Harvey type storms increase .

EU-Digest

USA - green energy from waste in Texas

Waste disposal system in Denton,Texas employing new technique to generate electricity for 1,600 homes in the city. http://aje.io/d5vz

European Wind Farms: Houston Texas based RigNet wins major contract for European wind farm infrastructure development

Off-Shore Wind-Parks development

The Houston, Texas's based RigNet TSI has been awarded a multi-million EURO contract to deliver communications systems and infrastructure for a high-voltage transmission platform in an offshore wind farm located in the German sector of the North Sea.
 
The award of this contract by a leading UK-based offshore contractor continues RigNet’s long-term success in the delivery of integrated telecommunications and operations support systems for a diverse range of applications and industries.

“As modern wind farms grow in scale and move farther offshore, they begin to resemble deepwater drilling operations in terms of complexity and technology requirements,” said Mark Slaughter, RigNet’s CEO and President. “Through our TSI business unit, RigNet applies its significant track record for offshore performance to help these renewable energy developments meet safety and production targets.”

RigNet TSI’s scope of work includes the integration and delivery of critical facility communications infrastructure, including Structured Cabling, Local Area Network (LAN), Wireless LAN (WLAN), Telephony, Public Address / General Alarm (PAGA), Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), Access Control (ACS), Meteorological Systems, Navigation and Lifeboat Radio support for the platforms.

RigNet TSI is a leading global Provider of managed remote communications, telecoms systems integration and collaborative applications dedicated to the oil and gas industry, focusing on offshore and onshore drilling rigs, energy production facilities and energy maritime vessels. RigNet is based in Houston, Texas.

Read more: RigNet wins Telecoms EPC contract for European wind farm infrastructure development