Latest news with #Stenson
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
What SCEMD wants you to know about hurricane season
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – South Carolina residents are no strangers to hurricane season, and it officially started Sunday. Kim Stenson, director of the South Carolina Emergency Division, said it's crunch time. 'Prepare while you've got the time to prepare because doing the last-minute piece of it is probably not going to always work very well,' said Stenson. 'So certainly, need to take a look at those resources, build your plan and be ready to take action if you need to.' Stenson said the best time to prepare for a hurricane is before one forms. June 1 was the first day of hurricane season, and it runs through November 30. 'Stay in tune with what's going on. Listen to your trusted sources for information, especially at the local level or trusted local sources, and if you're encouraged to evacuate, or asked to evacuate, you should heed that warning,' Stenson said. There have been several natural disasters recently, like Hurricane Helene and wildfires. Stenson said those events shouldn't change people's preparation but, no matter where you live, coast or inland, you're not off the hook. Storms can bring flash flooding and strong winds. 'Well, we don't really expect any big changes in terms of that. I mean, we've known about these risks for a number of years,' said Stenson. 'For several years, we have encouraged people to be aware that a hurricane event is not just a coastal county event, but it can occur anywhere in South Carolina in terms of the effects of it; the wind and the rain, etc. ' Stenson added that communication with FEMA is still evolving. They have not heard anything about getting fewer resources this year. 'We don't have, you know, all the information in terms of what we think may end up in that particular sphere but, right now we're expecting to get the same level of support from FEMA that we get every year and, you know, that may change later on, but we're not expecting anything right now,' Stenson said. Stenson said one resource you could use is the SCEMD mobile app. It gives you access to evacuation routes, emergency alerts, and checklists for your family and pets. You can also head to their website for more information. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘I'm a savage': An exercise in human potential or self-harm?
Loading Yet, Goggins would also reveal he had pushed himself so hard he had blood in his urine, and left his body with so many health issues it had 'pretty much shut down on me'. A celebration of human potential, or self harm? Achieving what once seemed impossible stretches our perspective on life and by challenging our bodies, we challenge our beliefs about ourselves. Through suffering, the theory goes, we can cultivate gratitude and build tolerance for life's day-to-day stresses. But when are we celebrating human potential, and when are we elevating self-harm? What is the line between transcending our beliefs about what we're capable of and self-destruction? The answer depends on who you ask. Olympic marathon runner, Jess Stenson has an intimate relationship with suffering through her sport. 'Pain shows up in a lot of different ways,' says the 37-year-old Commonwealth Games gold medallist. 'It can be mental suffering – feeling overwhelmed or anxious, or I have self-doubt – or it can be physical pain.' She accepts that to achieve her potential, she has to push through mental pain and some physical pain, including blisters, chafing and cramps. Loading At the 37 kilometre mark of the 2018 Commonwealth Games marathon in the Gold Coast, however, Stenson started feeling dizzy, disorientated, and began shivering. 'This might be a bit dangerous,' the lululemon athlete recalls thinking. Nauseous and vague about where she was, Stenson, now a mother of two, finished the race in third place, but had taken her body to a place she won't go again: 'That was before becoming a parent, but now even more so, I have my health to think about so I can look after the people around me. You've got to know your risk versus your reward.' The 'risk versus reward' is different for Chris Turnbull, whose 2023 record for the fastest transcontinental run across Australia was broken by Goodge. Driven by curiosity about where different adventures take him in body and mind, he isn't averse to dizziness and disorientation. 'No, I love that too,' says the 41-year-old Sydneysider. 'That's another experience.' But, like Stenson, long-term health is a consideration. 'Whether there's going to be permanent physical or mental damage I think is a clear line,' says Turnbull, a civil engineer by trade and father of two. While he admits it can be difficult to tell in the midst of an extreme challenge if any harm is temporary or not, he believes we can do much more than we think without hurting ourselves permanently. His curiosity once motivated him to work for 24 hours, just to see if he could operate mentally for that long; to choose to run during peak rain so he can splash through puddles and see the dam levels near where he lives; to run for 31 hours continuously (and 208 kilometres) in the Backyard Ultra event last month; and, of course, to run across Australia. It took him six months to recover from his transcontinental run. During the recovery, he suffered exhaustion and nerve issues which caused dizziness and tingles to shoot up his legs when he tried to run, 'but it went away'. 'I feel almost like a collector of experiences now,' he says, adding that they override the 'small discomfort' of the pain. 'Today there is very, very little that we need to do that causes us discomfort in life,' says Turnbull. 'It's up to us then if we want to do anything hard, which will often come with personal growth and unlock some new perspective in your mind.' The line between transcendence and self-harm Loading Honorary professor Kieran Fallon, the former medical director of the Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon and head of sports medicine at the Australian Institute of Sport, largely agrees with Turnbull that it's challenging to cause permanent damage. 'Overall there's not a great deal of data on each bodily system, but there is some, and it indicates that it doesn't really cause that much trouble long-term,' says Fallon, now at Australian National University. Some endurance athletes are more likely to get cardiac fibrosis which can lead to cardiac rhythm disturbances, and there is an increased risk of malignant skin cancer from being out in the sun as well as osteoarthritis in the knees and hips. Issues with the nerves and tendons are common, but typically resolve if the person gives them time to recover. Female endurance athletes need to be wary of relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs), which can affect fertility and overall health and performance. Otherwise, Fallon says that unless a person has a specific, rare problem like rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle breakdown), and acute renal failure, most issues are temporary. Dr Zena Burgess, CEO of The Australian Psychological Society, says there is much to be celebrated in the kinds of endurance feats that also involve some suffering and that positive addictions are, well, positive. 'Building mental resilience, having pain tolerance, setting goals and having coping strategies – all of that is fantastic,' says Burgess, an ocean swimmer who has participated in triathlons. It becomes destructive, she says, if a person can't ever stop, when the relentless pursuit becomes more important than anything else in their life, when it defines their self-worth and when they no longer listen to their bodies. She doesn't revere someone running 400 kilometres on a broken foot, as one US ultra-runner spoke about in April. 'I'd be celebrating the person who stopped and actually got treatment and then went back to train and was motivated again,' she says. 'The resilience of being able to keep trying, not just causing damage to your body and dealing with suffering.' For Goodge, the lines between constructive and destructive are nebulous, perhaps because both can exist at the same time. 'I always played rugby and, honestly, when I was a kid I wasn't very good at it,' says the Cadence hydration-sponsored athlete over the phone. 'At one point my Dad just said, 'Do you want to go fishing instead?'' At some point, however, he realised that he might not be the most skilled player, but he could be the most dogged. It was a mindset that led to a semi-professional rugby career, something he never thought possible, and to pursue running in his grief after his mother died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2018. Loading The same bullish mentality is what propelled him towards 'powerful and profound experiences' including running across Australia. 'It is extreme, and it is self-destructive, but that's kind of why I lean in to it,' he says. If his body doesn't recover from brutal challenges he puts it through, he will turn his attention to the other pursuits he's passionate about, in fashion and business. 'When I lock in, I lock in hard but outside of that I'm just conscious of enjoying life to the max. Life is finite,' Goodge says.
The Age
5 days ago
- Health
- The Age
‘I'm a savage': An exercise in human potential or self-harm?
Loading Yet, Goggins would also reveal he had pushed himself so hard he had blood in his urine, and left his body with so many health issues it had 'pretty much shut down on me'. A celebration of human potential, or self harm? Achieving what once seemed impossible stretches our perspective on life and by challenging our bodies, we challenge our beliefs about ourselves. Through suffering, the theory goes, we can cultivate gratitude and build tolerance for life's day-to-day stresses. But when are we celebrating human potential, and when are we elevating self-harm? What is the line between transcending our beliefs about what we're capable of and self-destruction? The answer depends on who you ask. Olympic marathon runner, Jess Stenson has an intimate relationship with suffering through her sport. 'Pain shows up in a lot of different ways,' says the 37-year-old Commonwealth Games gold medallist. 'It can be mental suffering – feeling overwhelmed or anxious, or I have self-doubt – or it can be physical pain.' She accepts that to achieve her potential, she has to push through mental pain and some physical pain, including blisters, chafing and cramps. Loading At the 37 kilometre mark of the 2018 Commonwealth Games marathon in the Gold Coast, however, Stenson started feeling dizzy, disorientated, and began shivering. 'This might be a bit dangerous,' the lululemon athlete recalls thinking. Nauseous and vague about where she was, Stenson, now a mother of two, finished the race in third place, but had taken her body to a place she won't go again: 'That was before becoming a parent, but now even more so, I have my health to think about so I can look after the people around me. You've got to know your risk versus your reward.' The 'risk versus reward' is different for Chris Turnbull, whose 2023 record for the fastest transcontinental run across Australia was broken by Goodge. Driven by curiosity about where different adventures take him in body and mind, he isn't averse to dizziness and disorientation. 'No, I love that too,' says the 41-year-old Sydneysider. 'That's another experience.' But, like Stenson, long-term health is a consideration. 'Whether there's going to be permanent physical or mental damage I think is a clear line,' says Turnbull, a civil engineer by trade and father of two. While he admits it can be difficult to tell in the midst of an extreme challenge if any harm is temporary or not, he believes we can do much more than we think without hurting ourselves permanently. His curiosity once motivated him to work for 24 hours, just to see if he could operate mentally for that long; to choose to run during peak rain so he can splash through puddles and see the dam levels near where he lives; to run for 31 hours continuously (and 208 kilometres) in the Backyard Ultra event last month; and, of course, to run across Australia. It took him six months to recover from his transcontinental run. During the recovery, he suffered exhaustion and nerve issues which caused dizziness and tingles to shoot up his legs when he tried to run, 'but it went away'. 'I feel almost like a collector of experiences now,' he says, adding that they override the 'small discomfort' of the pain. 'Today there is very, very little that we need to do that causes us discomfort in life,' says Turnbull. 'It's up to us then if we want to do anything hard, which will often come with personal growth and unlock some new perspective in your mind.' The line between transcendence and self-harm Loading Honorary professor Kieran Fallon, the former medical director of the Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon and head of sports medicine at the Australian Institute of Sport, largely agrees with Turnbull that it's challenging to cause permanent damage. 'Overall there's not a great deal of data on each bodily system, but there is some, and it indicates that it doesn't really cause that much trouble long-term,' says Fallon, now at Australian National University. Some endurance athletes are more likely to get cardiac fibrosis which can lead to cardiac rhythm disturbances, and there is an increased risk of malignant skin cancer from being out in the sun as well as osteoarthritis in the knees and hips. Issues with the nerves and tendons are common, but typically resolve if the person gives them time to recover. Female endurance athletes need to be wary of relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs), which can affect fertility and overall health and performance. Otherwise, Fallon says that unless a person has a specific, rare problem like rhabdomyolysis (severe muscle breakdown), and acute renal failure, most issues are temporary. Dr Zena Burgess, CEO of The Australian Psychological Society, says there is much to be celebrated in the kinds of endurance feats that also involve some suffering and that positive addictions are, well, positive. 'Building mental resilience, having pain tolerance, setting goals and having coping strategies – all of that is fantastic,' says Burgess, an ocean swimmer who has participated in triathlons. It becomes destructive, she says, if a person can't ever stop, when the relentless pursuit becomes more important than anything else in their life, when it defines their self-worth and when they no longer listen to their bodies. She doesn't revere someone running 400 kilometres on a broken foot, as one US ultra-runner spoke about in April. 'I'd be celebrating the person who stopped and actually got treatment and then went back to train and was motivated again,' she says. 'The resilience of being able to keep trying, not just causing damage to your body and dealing with suffering.' For Goodge, the lines between constructive and destructive are nebulous, perhaps because both can exist at the same time. 'I always played rugby and, honestly, when I was a kid I wasn't very good at it,' says the Cadence hydration-sponsored athlete over the phone. 'At one point my Dad just said, 'Do you want to go fishing instead?'' At some point, however, he realised that he might not be the most skilled player, but he could be the most dogged. It was a mindset that led to a semi-professional rugby career, something he never thought possible, and to pursue running in his grief after his mother died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2018. Loading The same bullish mentality is what propelled him towards 'powerful and profound experiences' including running across Australia. 'It is extreme, and it is self-destructive, but that's kind of why I lean in to it,' he says. If his body doesn't recover from brutal challenges he puts it through, he will turn his attention to the other pursuits he's passionate about, in fashion and business. 'When I lock in, I lock in hard but outside of that I'm just conscious of enjoying life to the max. Life is finite,' Goodge says.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Gov. McMaster talks hurricane preparedness in the Lowcountry
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WSPA) — Governor Henry McMaster has declared the month of May as South Carolina Hurricane Preparedness Month.'Make the best of the time right now, we still have time, and that means taking the opportunity to, assess and finalize your long-term storm preparations,' said Kim Stenson, the director of the South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD). The agency's guidebook has the resources that residents can use to prepare for the season. Gov. McMaster walked around multiple information stands outside the SCEMD, that offered additional resources for state residents. The official Atlantic hurricane season, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), starts June 1 and ends November 30. 'Tropical cyclones sometimes form outside of these dates, mainlyin May and December,' a guide from SCDNR reads. 'South Carolina has been affected by 13 tropical cyclones during May, with seven of those impacts occurring since 2007. McMaster said during the 2025 hurricane season, every storm hitting the state will be a disaster, but the most important thing is to save lives. 'A disaster does not have to have a loss of life with preparation and understanding what's happening,' the governor said. 'We lost 49 people in Hurricane Helene — [that's] the most [people] we have ever lost in a hurricane. It was a mess and there's still people who don't have homes.' Stenson said the SCEMD has been in contact with FEMA; the federal agency indicated they will provide services during hurricane season to the state. 'There may be some modifications in the funding levels and some of the requirements that we have to, to go through to actually get the grant,' Stenson said. 'But it's as far as we know, they're still in existence.' When McMaster was asked about President Donald Trump's discussions regarding FEMA being pulled back, he said South Carolina officials have taken the lead. 'That's why our state and have his team has been recognized as the finest in the country,' McMaster remarked. Officials urged South Carolinians to 'know their zone' before the hurricanes hit, so residents can properly prepare for evacuation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
GOP Sen. Susan Collins urges Trump administration to reverse proposed medical research cuts
WASHINGTON — Emily Stenson's life changed forever when she learned that her daughter, Charlie, then 3, had stage four germ cell cancer. Charlie, now 5, is cancer-free. But the clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health that Stenson says saved her daughter's life are at risk, with the Trump administration weighing whether to slash billions more in funding and fire hundreds of scientists from the agency in an effort to downsize the federal government. 'Her life was saved from research,' Stenson told NBC News in an interview. 'The trials provided us with the drugs that were needed to save her life. Another trial provided us with an option to preserve her fertility if she wants to be a mom when she grows up.' Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee tasked with managing the federal budget, slammed the administration Wednesday as she gaveled in an oversight hearing on the subject. 'These actions put our leadership in biomedical innovation at real risk and must be reversed,' Collins said. Collins told NBC News in an interview before the hearing that the administration needs a 'surgical approach, not a sledgehammer' when it comes to the NIH. 'I think it's better that Congress make it really clear in our legislation, in our appropriations bills, that we want the funding to be there, that we don't want arbitrary caps, and that we want to be more efficient. There may be some savings that make a great deal of sense, but we've got to be careful,' Collins said. With Charlie in tow, Stenson flew across the country, from Washington state to the nation's capital, to testify before the bipartisan panel of senators. 'I'm hoping to put a face to childhood cancer and to show that we're real families, that it's not just kids on commercials to pull at heartstrings. We're real people, we are their constituents, and we rely on research. We cannot have them cutting things that are saving our kids' lives,' Stenson said, tearing up as she watched Charlie color beside her. Stenson began her remarks before the committee by saying: 'I sit before you not only as a mother, but as a witness to what federally supported research can make possible and what it would mean to lose it.' Earlier this year the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, fired more than 1,000 researchers, scientists and workers at the NIH, and issued a mandate to cut more than $2 billion in contracts. A leaked draft restructuring plan at the Department of Health and Human Services, run by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., proposed a 44% cut to the overall NIH budget, according to the document obtained by NBC News. Collins argued that Republicans, who are in full control of Washington, 'have a great deal of ability' to push back on the administration's policies. She has privately discussed the matter with Kennedy as well as others in the administration, but stressed the importance of holding public hearings, too. Collins suggested the administration has broken the law with some of its unilateral actions on funding at the NIH, including imposing a 15% cap on administrative and facility costs. 'I'm hoping that we can show what the impact is of arbitrarily reducing staff by thousands of people, by cutting grants all around the country and by causing clinical trials to be halted. When people realize, and when the administration more fully realizes that it acted too quickly, without looking at the devastating effects, I think we'll see a reversal of many of these policies,' Collins said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Appropriators in the Capitol anticipate an updated budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 as soon as Friday, according to three sources with knowledge of plans. It comes as a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 77% of Americans are opposed to reducing federal funding for medical research. Sen. Patty Murray, of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, invited her constituent, Stenson — who also advocates for other families battling childhood cancer — to testify before the panel. Asked if the administration understands the impacts these cuts could have, Murray said she believes 'they sit in an office someplace and have no idea that there are Charlies and Emilys out there that are counting on them.' Collins argued that 'President Trump has always wanted the United States to be the world leader in everything,' but that the cuts could actually 'cause the United States to be displaced by China or some other country.' Murray agreed. 'How can you say to a little girl at Children's Hospital in Seattle that 'we'd love to help you, but we can't, because China has the research and you don't?'' Murray said. 'We won't own the research. We don't have access to it unless China says that we have access to it.'This article was originally published on
