Don't Forget to Pack a Hazmat Suit in Your Hurricane Emergency Kit

This New York Times article covers the BL4 lab at the University of Texas branch in Galveston, an island that was pounded last month by Hurricane Ike. "How a laboratory where scientists plan to study viruses like Ebola and Marburg ended up on a barrier island where hurricanes regularly wreak havoc puzzles some environmentalists and community leaders," the story says. The lab is set to open November 11, and leaders say they have planned for every storm-related contingency; the building can withstand 140-mile-per-hour winds. The lab's deputy director says that when a hurricane approaches, scientists will be instructed to "stop their experiments and exterminate many of the viruses and bacteria they are studying."