THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2021 A7
Israel mourns deaths of 45 in
stampede at religious festival
BY JOSEF FEDERMAN
AND ISAAC SCHARF
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM — The holi-
day of Lag BaOmer is one of
the happiest days on the cal-
endar for Israel’s ultra-Ortho-
dox community — a time of
mass celebrations in honor of
a revered sage. But in a split
second Friday, the festive gath-
ering in northern Israel turned
into one of the country’s worst-
ever tragedies, with at least 45
people crushed to death and
dozens injured in a stampede.
The disaster prompted a
national outpouring of grief
as devastated families rushed
to identify their dead relatives
and bury them ahead of the
Jewish Sabbath. There was also
anger toward authorities over
an accident that experts had
long feared, further clouding
Prime Minister Benjamin Ne-
tanyahu’s hopes of remaining
in office.
Netanyahu, who briefly vis-
ited Mount Meron at midday,
Sebastian Scheiner/AP
Ultra -Orthodox Jews mourn Friday at the scene where fatalities were
reported among the thousands of participants during Lag BaOmer fes-
tival at Mt. Meron in northern Israel.
offered his condolences. “In
these moments our people
unite and that is what we are
doing at this moment as well,”
he said.
The stampede erupted
around 1 a.m. as people be-
gan to leave and thronged a
narrow, tunnel-like passage.
According to witnesses, peo-
ple began to fall on a slippery
ramp, causing others to trip
and sparking panic.
Avigdor Hayut, who sur-
vived the stampede, described
slipping on the ramp and get-
ting trapped in the crowd with
his two sons, ages 10 and 13.
“My son screamed, ‘I’m dy-
ing,’” he told Israel’s public TV
station Kan. A policeman tried
to pull him and his younger
son out of the crowd but
couldn’t move them.
“The policeman threw up
and started crying, and I under-
stood what he was looking at,
what I couldn’t see,” said Hayut,
36, who suffered a broken ankle
and ribs. “I thought this was the
end.” He said he began to pray
and “simply waited.”
Hours later, in hospital with
Shmuel, his 10-year-old, they
learned that his other son, Ye-
didya, had died.
Lag BaOmer is very popu-
lar with Israel’s ultra-Orthodox
community. The main event
takes place each year at Mount
Meron. Tens of thousands,
mostly ultra-Orthodox, cele-
brate to honor Rabbi Shimon
Bar Yochai, a 2nd-century sage
and mystic who is believed to
be buried there. This year, au-
thorities said some 100,000
people attended.
WORLD BRIEFING
U.S. extends face-mask
requirement on planes
WASHINGTON — If
you’re traveling on a plane,
train or bus, don’t put that
face mask away yet.
The Transportation Secu-
rity Administration said Fri-
day it will extend its mask re-
quirement, which also applies
in airports and train stations,
through Sept. 13. The rule
took effect Feb. 1 and was set
to expire May 11.
The agency said that chil-
dren up to 2 and people with
certain disabilities will con-
tinue to be exempted from
the mask rule.
Violations can carry fines
of up to $1,500 for repeat of-
fenders.
Separately, a spokeswoman
for the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration said Friday that
the FAA will continue its ze-
ro-tolerance policy against
disruptive airline passengers
as long as the TSA mask rule
is in effect. The FAA is seek-
ing much larger civil penal-
ties — some topping $30,000
— against a small number of
passengers that it accuses of
interfering with airline crews.
U.S. to restrict travel
from India over COVID-19
WASHINGTON — The
U.S. will restrict travel from
India starting Tuesday, the
White House said Friday,
citing a devastating rise in
COVID-19 cases in the coun-
try and the emergence of po-
tentially dangerous variants
of the coronavirus.
Biden signed a proclama-
tion barring entry to most
foreigners who have been in
India in the past 14 days, with
exceptions for legal perma-
nent residents, spouses and
close family members of U.S.
citizens, and some others. He
cited the spread of the virus
and its variants.
With 386,452 new cases,
India now has reported more
than 18.7 million since the
pandemic began, second
only to the United States. The
Health Ministry on Friday
also reported 3,498 deaths in
the last 24 hours, bringing the
total to 208,330. Experts be-
lieve both figures are an un-
dercount.
Biden spoke Monday with
Indian Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi about the grow-
ing health crisis and pledged
to immediately send assis-
tance.
This week, the U.S. began
delivering therapeutics, rapid
virus tests and oxygen to In-
dia, along with some materi-
als needed for India to boost
its domestic production of
COVID-19 vaccines. Addi-
tionally, a U.S. team of public
health experts was expected
to be on the ground soon to
help Indian health officials
move to slow the spread of
the virus.
Number of Americans
vaccinated tops 100M
The number of Ameri-
cans fully vaccinated against
COVID-19 reached another
milestone Friday: 100 mil-
lion.
While the overall number
of lives lost to COVID-19 in
the U.S. has eclipsed 575,000,
deaths have plummeted to an
average of about 670 per day
from a peak of around 3,400
in mid-January.
Thirty-nine percent of the
nation’s adult population has
been fully vaccinated, ac-
cording to the Centers for
Disease Control and Preven-
tion. Over 55% of adults have
received at least one dose, up
from 30% a month ago.
However, about 8% of
those who have gotten one
dose of either the Pfizer or
Moderna vaccine have not
returned for their second
shot, officials said. Dr. An-
thony Fauci, the nation’s top
infectious disease expert, said
it is important to complete
the course to gain maximum
protection against the virus.
“Make sure you get that
second dose,” he said at a
White House briefing.
— Bulletin wire reports
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Andrew Ketsdever was named the new interim Vice President of OSU-Cascades.
Ketsdever
Continued from A1
Johnson, who has worked
with Ketsdever for about three
years, said the internal hire was
a smart move. Ketsdever is al-
ready familiar with OSU-Cas-
cades’ research and academic
programs, Johnson said.
“He’ll be able to keep our
momentum going and be re-
ally good for continuity,” John-
son said.
Before arriving in Bend,
Ketsdever was a civilian aero-
space engineer for two decades
with the U.S. Air Force. He also
spent 10 years in numerous
professorial and administrative
positions at the University of
Colorado in Colorado Springs.
Ketsdever said his long ca-
reer in engineering makes him
a natural problem-solver — a
good quality for a vice presi-
dent.
“We look at situations as in-
teresting problems for us to
solve, and that doesn’t go away
in this position,” he said. “In
fact, it may be even more im-
portant to have those prob-
lem-solving skills at my dis-
posal.”
Johnson agreed that Ketsde-
ver’s background would help
him lead OSU-Cascades, along
with his people skills.
“I think he’s a really good
listener and a good communi-
cator,” she said. “He’ll be a real
steady hand at the helm.”
Ketsdever’s main task as
interim vice president is to
continue the expansion and
growth of OSU-Cascades, he
said. This fall, a new academic
building — the campus’ fourth
building — will open, and it
will host a new doctorate phys-
ical therapy program.
“The goal for me is to really
keep the incredible momen-
tum that Becky Johnson has
built for us, and to continue to
build this university for Cen-
tral Oregon,” he said.
Acting OSU President Ed-
ward Feser chose Ketsdever to
be the interim vice president
because of his connections and
experience at the Cascades
campus.
“Andrew brings a broad un-
derstanding of the needs of
Nuclear waste tank may be leaking
SPOKANE, Wash. — An
underground nuclear waste
storage tank in Washington
state that dates to World War II
appears to be leaking contam-
inated liquid into the ground,
the U.S. Department of Energy
said Thursday.
It’s the second tank believed
to be leaking waste left from
the production of plutonium
for nuclear weapons at the
Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
The first was discovered in
2013. Many more of the 149
single-walled storage tanks at
the site are suspected of leak-
ing.
Tank B-109, the latest sus-
pected of leaking, holds
123,000 gallons of radioactive
waste. The giant tank was con-
structed during the Manhat-
tan Project that built the first
Reporter: 541-617-7854, jhogan@
bendbulletin.com
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541.480.8130
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“Catch My Drift”
Louie Hoffman, CCIM
Principal Broker, Licensed in Oregon
SRES, Senior Real Estate Specialist
Serving Central Oregon for 29 Years
%(1'_5('021'
Attention Parents of 2021 Grads!
WASHINGTON
BY NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
The Associated Press
OSU-Cascades, excellent ex-
perience and credentials,” he
wrote in an email. “Based on
my consultations with fac-
ulty, staff and students, he en-
joys the strong support of the
OSU-Cascades community.”
Feser will soon start a na-
tional search for a permanent
OSU-Cascades vice president,
according to a university press
release.
Ketsdever didn’t rule out
running for that permanent
vice president spot, but he’d
prefer to return to his previous
role next year, he said.
“A year from now, I hope to
be the dean of academic af-
fairs,” he said.
A multibillion dollar
environmental cleanup has
been underway for decades
at the sprawling Hanford
site.
atomic bombs and received
waste from Hanford operations
from 1946 to 1976.
The Hanford site near Rich-
land in the southeastern part
of the state produced about
two-thirds of the plutonium
for the nation’s nuclear arsenal,
including the bomb dropped
in 1945 on Nagasaki, Japan,
and now is the most contami-
nated radioactive waste site in
the nation.
A multibillion dollar envi-
ronmental cleanup has been
underway for decades at the
sprawling Hanford site.
The Washington state De-
partment of Ecology and the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency were notified Thurs-
day that the tank was likely
leaking.
“There is no increased
health or safety risk to the
Hanford workforce or the pub-
lic,” said Geoff Tyree, a spokes-
man for the Energy Depart-
ment. “Contamination in this
area is not new and mitigation
actions have been in place for
decades to protect workers, the
public and the environment.”
The tank had been previ-
ously emptied of pumpable liq-
uids, leaving a small amount of
liquid waste inside, the agency
said. Systems in the area cap-
ture and remove contaminants
that reach the groundwater
and ensure the protection of
the Columbia River, the agency
said.
Help make some
memories!
The Bulletin is publishing a special
Class of 2021 Graduation section
on May 30 to celebrate graduating
Central Oregon high school students.
Enter a congratulatory message or a short biography
along with a photo for just $25. Your messages will be
grouped together by school and published in full color.
Call The Bulletin Advertising Dept. for more information.
541-385-5809
Advertising deadline: Monday, May 17