Latest news with #RachelCarr
CBC
23-06-2025
- CBC
She waited 12 hours for Toronto police's non-emergency line. Then, she was disconnected
Toronto woman waited 12 hours for police's non-emergency line — but didn't get through 1 hour ago Duration 3:08 Social Sharing Rachel Carr started losing hope after she hit the five-hour mark on hold with Toronto police's non-emergency line, but couldn't bring herself to hang up since she'd already waited for so long. "I still had a glimmer of hope that maybe they would eventually pick up, but unfortunately it didn't happen," she said. Instead, right as the call entered the 12th hour, Carr was disconnected, meaning she didn't get to report that her and her husband's vehicles had been badly keyed outside their home, resulting in what she estimates is around $8,000 in damage. "I find it quite alarming," she said. "For me in my life, is it going to make a huge difference in this case? No. But another time, could it make a huge difference? Absolutely it could." CBC Toronto has reported extensively on long 911 wait times, sometimes for up to 10 minutes, answered in the same call centre as non-emergency calls and by the same people. Investigations by CBC Toronto have previously found 911 wait times have continually worsened in recent years amid staffing issues, but police have said they've been improving in recent months. This month, the call centre has come under scrutiny again as the city reviews a 911 call in which a caller waited on hold for nearly seven minutes while a teen was dying from a gunshot wound. Toronto police spokesperson Nadine Ramadan says the service recognizes no one should have to wait hours on the non-emergency line, and how frustrating it can be. "The reported situation and the wait time is not reflective of the usual average on our non-emergency line. We are reviewing this case to determine the cause and ensure every call in is addressed," Ramadan said of Carr's experience. 12-hour wait Carr says she first tried to report the incident online, but the Toronto police website says theft or vandalism over $5,000 must be reported by calling the non-emergency line. Carr first called the non-emergency line on June 16 and waited on hold for one hour and 22 minutes, according to call logs reviewed by CBC Toronto. She says she accidentally hung up, so she called right back and waited for just over an hour before she got disconnected. Carr called back and asked the person at the switchboard when it would be less busy, and was told to try in the morning. On June 17, Carr called at 8:41 a.m. and waited to speak with someone from the communications centre for 12 hours, call logs show. She says the line got disconnected and she never did speak to anyone. It wasn't until after CBC reached out to Toronto police to inquire about Carr's case that police contacted her and sent an officer to her home to take a vandalism report. A police spokesperson asked CBC Toronto to share Carr's phone number, saying it would help the call centre look into the situation, which Carr agreed to. While Carr says she's appreciative that police followed up, she's still concerned long wait times are deterring people from reporting crimes such as auto theft, vandalism and hate crimes, which could skew data used to make policing and political decisions. "If it's happening to me, there's no way it's not happening to other people and there really would be an impact in terms of statistics," Carr said. 'Just unbelievable' Max Arnold also faced a long wait when he called earlier this month to report a driving infraction he witnessed in downtown Toronto. Call logs show Arnold phoned the non-emergency line just before 6 p.m. on June 12 and waited for a little over 20 minutes. He called back a few hours later and waited for another 30 minutes. Arnold called the next morning and was on hold for two hours before he could speak with someone from the communications centre. Arnold says he was shocked with just the 20-minute wait time. "The idea of waiting 20 minutes to speak to the police was just unbelievable. It was unfathomable by the standards of when I previously reached out to non-emergency police under other circumstances," he said. "I can absolutely see why some people would say, 'You know what? If reporting something to the police takes at least two hours of my time, it isn't worth my time or effort.'" Police working to reduce wait times Toronto police didn't respond to a question about concerns that crimes are going unreported given long wait times. Ramadan reiterated the communications operators answer both 911 and non-emergency calls, and said the police service received 279,998 non-emergency calls so far this year and more than 30,000 this month alone. In all of 2024, there were 652,244 non-emergency calls, they say, according to TPS's annual report. The year-to-date average wait time for non-emergency calls in 2025 is four minutes and 53 seconds and June's average wait was six minutes and 26 seconds, according to Ramadan. "When there is a surge in emergency calls, resources are prioritized to ensure those calls are answered first, which can impact wait times on the non-emergency line," she said. Ramadan also said accidental 911 calls continue to place strain on the system, noting last year 27 per cent of 911 calls came from pocket dials and misdials. Toronto's auditor general released a report in 2022 making 26 recommendations to improve call answering times within the city's call centre, with a focus on boosting staffing levels. Ramadan says the service is hiring three classes of 90 new communications operators this year and also pointed to the implementation of a new 911 system aimed at improving response times in May. Still, John Sewell, a former Toronto mayor and coordinator of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, which works to make the police more accountable to the public, says more improvement is needed. "They had an [auditor general's] report on it three years ago saying you've got to fix up your act and here we are three years later and they haven't fixed the 911 system," he said. "They've allowed this non-emergency system to go into the same sort of situation and this is not good enough." TPS aims to meet a non-legislated national call answering time standard for 911 calls: that all 911 calls are answered within 15 seconds. The most recent available data from January to May of 2024 shows, on average, 62 per cent of 911 calls met the standard each month. Ramadan says there isn't a standard for non-emergency wait times, but the goal is to respond as quickly as possible. Sewell says the public deserves to have their call answered in a reasonable timeframe. "This is not a private business, where you've got your choices as to where else you can go. You've got the police and that's it," he said.
Japan Times
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Swiss glacier collapse is a lesson on climate disaster management
A Swiss mountain slope bursting and unleashing a cascade of rocks and ice over an idyllic Alpine village last week was a chilling image, but also the symbol of a well-managed climate crisis. The collapse of the Birch glacier in the Swiss Alps was an expected disaster. Authorities and scientists had been monitoring the area closely and when the first signs of instability started to appear, over a week before the event, they evacuated the town of Blatten, on the valley below the glacier. The landslide obliterated about 90% of the village and one person is missing, according to Swiss authorities. "It was the least worst scenario — any loss of property or homes is a tragedy, but they were prepared for it,' said Rachel Carr, a glaciologist at the University of Newcastle in the U.K. "We can at least manage the threat of the loss of life, we need to at least do that.' Yet not all countries are able to respond as effectively to such disasters. Billions of people globally live downstream from glaciers and at least 15 million are directly exposed to floods from glacial lakes bursting, according to a 2023 research paper co-authored by Carr. Glaciers have melted at the fastest pace on record this decade, leading to an increase of lakes that can burst any time, unleashing hundreds of tons of rocks and ice, together with landslides and floods that destroy everything on their path. "We see the highest risk in the Himalayas and the Andes, where people have a strong dependence on subsistence agriculture,' said Carr, speaking on the phone from Bhutan. A lake outburst or a glacier collapsing can "take out their yaks, their grazing land and their capacity to generate food and money for years to come.' Police control the entry to the village where a crumbling glacier partially collapsed and tumbled in Blatten, Switzerland on Monday. | REUTERS Human settlements in many high mountain areas are days away from the nearest road, so bringing in materials to rebuild can take years, said Carr, whose current research focuses on helping set up sensors to monitor glaciers in Bhutan, one of the world's few carbon negative countries, which also has some of the fastest-retreating glaciers in the world. Glaciers are a thick layer of ice that has eroded the mountain for centuries. They often act like a containment wall, holding rocks and mud together. When the glacier melts, it becomes thinner until eventually it can't hold the mountain anymore and it collapses. At the same time, permafrost, the frozen ground present in high mountain environments, is thawing fast, making terrains more unstable. These events are made worse by climate change, and they played a role in the collapse of the Birch glacier, said Jean-Baptiste Bosson, a glaciologist and the director of nature preservation non-profit Marge Sauvage. Establishing a direct link between the event and climate change is difficult, if not impossible, but it seems likely that it played a role in the event, Swiss researchers said in a note. When Birch collapsed, Bosson was in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, attending the first-ever United Nations-sponsored glacier conference. Suddenly, glaciologists there saw their field of study become front page news and felt like the calls for action they had been repeating for decades would be listened to. Debris and the rest of the village of Blatten, now submerged by the obstructed river Lonza, after the huge Birch Glacier collapsed and a massive landslide in the Swiss Alps on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI The conference ended with a final declaration highlighting the need to protect glaciers as climate change advances, and to monitor them to prepare for hazards. It also called on governments and finance institutions to fund these efforts and contribute to a glacier preservation fund coordinated by the U.N. Tajikistan made an initial contribution of $100,000 and no additional funding has been announced, although several countries have expressed interest, according to a spokesperson from the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization. "I'm a bit disappointed — there are no heads of state here' beyond Tajikistan's, Bosson said. "Glaciers are melting and we have to do something, but no one put on the table real, effective solutions.' Wealthy countries including France or Switzerland have their own programs and are watching dozens of glaciers with drones, satellites, sensors and measurements on the ground. Even with these advanced methods it's impossible to predict which glacier will collapse next, said Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. "I would pay a lot of money in order to be able to answer this question,' Farinotti said. "We don't know why this particular glacier happened to fall down at that particular moment in time.' The vast amounts of data and images from the collapse of the Birch glacier will allow researchers to reconstruct the event, he said. "But we are not able to predict one of these the same way we can predict meteorological conditions three days ahead because the conditions are so complex. We try hard, though.' Authorities can do more than monitoring. In France, the Tete-Rousse glacier is under watch since scientists discovered the equivalent of twenty Olympic swimming pools of water were held underneath the ice. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people in the Haute Savoie region could be affected if that glacier collapses, according to local media. Over the past 15 years, some water has been pumped from underneath the glacier, an alarm system has been set up across the valley and construction in vulnerable areas has been restricted. Swiss authorities were already thinking about next steps just hours after Blatten was engulfed in ice and rock. At a press conference with emergency authorities in the area last Wednesday, the mayor of Blatten, Matthias Bellwald, appeared moved as he addressed journalists and the community. "The village is under rubble, but we will rebuild it,' Bellwald said. "This will take a long, long time, we will require help and support, but the glacier can't collapse twice.'
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Block fan favourites return to TV for brand new renovation series: 'So excited'
Three years after competing on The Block, Rachel and Ryan Carr are returning to TV with a brand new renovation series. The fan favourite couple have set themselves a challenge to transform a tired property on the South Coast of New South Wales into their dream holiday home on Holiday Home Makeover with Rachel and Ryan. Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle ahead of the show's premiere on Sunday, Rachel and Ryan admit they're 'so excited' for Australia to see a different side to them following their tumultuous experience on The Block. Fans would remember that the couple famously replaced Elle Ferguson and Joel Patful after they quit the reality show on day two, and were only given 30 hours' notice before joining the cast. RELATED: The Block's Jess Eva and Norm Hogan announce shock split: 'Still family' MAFS' Dave Thomas Hand confirms appearance on The Block 2025: 'Super fun' Why The Block 'villain' turned down I'm A Celebrity at the last minute 'We had a very different Block experience than the majority of The Block contestants in that we got there late,' Rachel reflects. 'It was mayhem, and it took us a couple of weeks to really find our feet, so I don't think that the viewers got to see as much of the fun and the funny. 'So I feel like you're gonna see more of who we are and the fun that we like to have, and mix that in with the kind of renovation that we like to do, and you see our kids and the family. What you're seeing now is truly us.' Rachel and Ryan explain that they bought the property in 2023 shortly after they competed on The Block and quickly came up with the plan to transform it into an 'elevated reno' that's both a holiday home and a holiday rental. 'We were like, we want to take the best bits of luxury hotels and transform that with the best bits of a home and make this hybrid holiday rental that we can also have for our family too,' Rachel details. 'We were talking to the network about it, and we were like, 'Why don't we film it?'. And it just took off from there.' After filming took place and the renovation was completed, the series was then reworked by Channel Nine over the past year to become a primetime show. 'They took what we had and they have elevated it and made it this absolutely bells and whistles prime time show,' Rachel says, while Ryan adds, 'It was worth waiting around for'. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Block (@theblock) The couple admit the project was definitely 'a lot of work', and they couldn't have done it without their prior experience on The Block. 'Before going on The Block, there's no way we could have committed to a 14-week renovation that big,' Ryan shares. 'Coming off something like that, you realise what you're actually capable of,' Rachel agrees. 'We were in that momentum at that point. We were like, 'Let's just get in there and get it started and let's make it bigger'. We were riding that train.' SHOP: ☀️ Tax laws to burn Aussies on summer essential: 'Many of us struggle' 💅 Aussie company making beauty more accessible and less of a burden 💋 Rita Ora's new range that keeps selling out in Sephora: 'Effortless to use' Rachel and Ryan add that while they were happy to put pressure on themselves to complete the renovation in a 14-week timeframe, they wouldn't have enjoyed the experience as much if it were in a competition setting. 'This is something we've always wanted to do, so we just had enough pressure riding on that and thought, we've got to nail this,' Ryan says. 'We want people to see it, and we also want to impress ourselves on what we can do.' 'And we reveal to a few special people along the way,' Rachel teases. 'There are a few special people who come in there who really know and understand holiday homes and design, and they give their feedback. So it's really nice.'
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Yahoo
Shocked neighbour heard 'screaming' during 'attack' in property
A neighbour reported hearing "screaming" during an alleged attack in a property which led to a teenager being arrested on suspicion of murder. A "quiet" residential road in Brighton has been taken over by emergency services this morning following the death of a 57-year-old man. Police and paramedics were called to Hartfield Avenue before 7.30am today, April 1, following reports of a man attacking multiple people inside a property. Police found the man seriously injured inside. He died at the scene. A woman and a boy were also seriously injured and were taken to hospital. A cordon is in place in Hartfield Avenue (Image: NQ) Neighbours have shared their shock at the news, with one who lives in Woodbourne Avenue reporting hearing screaming. The man, who did not wish to be named, said: "I heard screaming at 7ish so I looked out of my window. "Then ten minutes later the police and ambulance arrived and then the armed police. An aerial shot of the scene (Image: Sussex News and Pictures) "I saw them bring the guy out who they've arrested. "It's so quiet here nothing ever happens. "The biggest thing that gets people talking [here] is some snow in the winter. "It's a big shock." READ MORE: Motorcyclist dies in crash with van Another man said: "It's so surprising. "It just goes to show it can happen anywhere." Others reported seeing ambulances arrive at the address. Several neighbours were also completely unaware of what had happened. He said: "It's really sad what happened, but I didn't know anything until I saw the news article." Officers at the scene (Image: Sussex News and Pictures) A 19-year-old man from Brighton has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Divisional commander chief superintendent Rachel Carr said: "Following an emergency call to police, an immediate response was sent to Hartfield Avenue, where sadly, a man was found deceased, and a woman and child were found seriously injured. "A suspect is in custody and a fast-moving investigation is underway to establish exactly what happened and why. "This is a tragic incident and we understand it will cause shock and alarm among the local community, however there is not believed to be a wider threat to the public at this time." Anyone who has information to report is asked to contact police online, or by calling 101 quoting Operation Catullus.
