Gov. Robert Bentley issued an executive order Thursday declaring a state of emergency in Alabama over concerns about fuel shortages in the wake of a gasoline pipeline spill that released about 250,000 gallons of gasoline south of Birmingham and shut down a major pipeline connecting refineries in Houston with the rest of the country.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal issued a similar executive order for his state on Tuesday.

The pipeline operator, Colonial Pipeline, released the following information Thursday afternoon:

A powerful drug that's normally used to tranquilize elephants is being blamed for a record spike in drug overdoses in the Midwest. Officials in Ohio have declared a public health emergency, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says communities everywhere should be on alert for carfentanil.

The synthetic opioid is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, the prescription painkiller that led to the death earlier this year of the pop star Prince. Fentanyl itself can be up to 50 times more deadly than heroin.

There are no global treaties to prevent a biological weapons attack, and the world is not adequately prepared to deal with one, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Tuesday.

Speaking to the Security Council in New York, Ban said that while multilateral agencies are in place to verify nations are not developing chemical and nuclear weapons, no such mechanism exists for biological agents.

"The impact and consequences of a biological attack on a civilian target could far exceed those of a chemical or radiological attack," Ban told the council.

The American Petroleum Institute released a new video designed to help first responders to accidents involving crude oil shipments by rail.

“The video gives first responders a look at specific tank car markings and other visual depictions of what to consider when responding to an incident, should one occur,” API Midstream Group Director Robin Rorick said on Aug. 25. “It is the latest in our industry’s efforts to promote safety and to achieve our goal of zero incidents by preventing and working to mitigate the impact of train derailments.”

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