Fire/EMS/ERs/disasters, etc.

[O Really]

Looks like Oceanside and coastal San Diego County are going to dodge a lot of wind and not nearly the water that's gonna dump inland. Now they're saying 1-2 inches along the coast, which is a lot for the area, but generally manageable. Mountains and desert, however, may get 1-2 years worth of rain in one day, on ground not able to absorb much. They've closed Joshua Tree and other desert parks because otherwise they'd have people trying to float or surf down the flooding washes. On that note, when did you ever hear before of Death Valley being closed for flooding? Good thing there's no climate change or we'd really be in a mess.

On the other half of our snowbirding life, we've go a little smoke today, but not awful. Hiding behind the Cascades seems to help.

[Vrede too]

Looks like Oceanside and coastal San Diego County are going to dodge a lot of wind and not nearly the water that's gonna dump inland. Now they're saying 1-2 inches along the coast, which is a lot for the area, but generally manageable. Mountains and desert, however, may get 1-2 years worth of rain in one day, on ground not able to absorb much. They've closed Joshua Tree and other desert parks because otherwise they'd have people trying to float or surf down the flooding washes. On that note, when did you ever hear before of Death Valley being closed for flooding? Good thing there's no climate change or we'd really be in a mess.

On the other half of our snowbirding life, we've go a little smoke today, but not awful. Hiding behind the Cascades seems to help.

Which side is "behind"?

I don't float flash floods, but I would have raced to an elevated patch in Death Valley to witness them.

[O Really]

Which side is "behind"?

I don't float flash floods, but I would have raced to an elevated patch in Death Valley to witness them.

"Behind" would be the side opposite of where the smoke, storm, rain is coming from. Unfortunately, the smoke has now made it over the mountains and we're in the high 100's and darkening. Lady O has a bit above average sensitivity to smoke, so we'll likely hunker down for the rest of the day inside.

[Vrede too]

"Behind" would be the side opposite of where the smoke, storm, rain is coming from. Unfortunately, the smoke has now made it over the mountains and we're in the high 100's and darkening. Lady O has a bit above average sensitivity to smoke, so we'll likely hunker down for the rest of the day inside.

Bummer. I haven't looked up the latest on BC fires. You're on the west side of the Cascades?

Looks like Joshua Tree will barely be on the "dirty side" of Hilary and Death Valley will take a direct hit.
https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/ ... orm-hilary

I car-camped on the floor of Death Valley. I wonder if the campground will flood?

[O Really]

"Behind" would be the side opposite of where the smoke, storm, rain is coming from. Unfortunately, the smoke has now made it over the mountains and we're in the high 100's and darkening. Lady O has a bit above average sensitivity to smoke, so we'll likely hunker down for the rest of the day inside.

Bummer. I haven't looked up the latest on BC fires. You're on the west side of the Cascades?

Looks like Joshua Tree will barely be on the "dirty side" of Hilary and Death Valley will take a direct hit.
https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/ ... orm-hilary

I car-camped on the floor of Death Valley. I wonder if the campground will flood?

There's no current fire close by. The smoke is drifting in from the East - Kelowna fire and eastern Washington, but it should mostly be gone by tomorrow afternoon, they say.

[Vrede too]

There's no current fire close by. The smoke is drifting in from the East - Kelowna fire and eastern Washington, but it should mostly be gone by tomorrow afternoon, they say.

Shocking aerial footage shows the scale of destruction in the town of Enterprise, in Canada's Northwest Territories.

The small community, which is home to 120 people, was burned to the ground by wildfires.

Canada wildfires: At least 30,000 households in British Columbia told to evacuate

About 30,000 households have been ordered to evacuate in Canada's British Columbia province, where nearly 400 wildfires are raging.

Two huge fires in the Shuswap region merged overnight, destroying blocks of houses and other buildings.

To the south, travel to the waterside city of Kelowna has been restricted, and smoke from nearby fires hangs over Lake Okanagan.

Fires have charred homes in West Kelowna, a nearby city of 36,000....

Hundreds of miles north, a huge fire continues to edge towards the city of Yellowknife.

An official deadline to evacuate the city - the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories - lapsed on Friday. A local official said later that day that nearly all residents had left, either by car or plane.

About 19,000 of the city's 20,000 inhabitants had evacuated. Authorities said 39 patients were moved out of a hospital to alternative facilities on Friday evening, making them the last people to be evacuated from the city.

... Another 36,000 homes are under evacuation alert....

Canada is having its worst wildfire season on record, with at least 1,000 fires burning across the country, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC)....

Although no deaths have been reported in the latest fires, at least four firefighters have lost their lives during this record-breaking season.

15M hectares = about 58,000 square miles

[Vrede too]

The Space Lasers Are Back
Conspiracy theories about wildfires were virtually unheard of five years ago. Now they’re everywhere.

"tens of millions of views"

We're screwed.

[billy.pilgrim]

The Space Lasers Are Back
Conspiracy theories about wildfires were virtually unheard of five years ago. Now they’re everywhere.

"tens of millions of views"

We're screwed.

Space lasers are like way cool.

https://explorersweb.com/natural-wonders-light-pillars/

[Vrede too]

North Africa is a tragic mess.

Flooding in Libya leaves 2,000 people feared dead and more missing after storm collapsed dams
TV news: 10,000 missing

Hope for survivors is fading after Morocco's strongest quake in more than a century
"More than 2,400 were killed ..."

Photos: See the aftermath of the earthquake in Morocco

[Vrede too]

Libya flooding deaths top 11,000 as thousands reported missing
Mediterranean storm Daniel is behind the widespread flooding.
Other articles still say "only" 6,000 dead so far. Either way, .



Rare video of Live with Regis and Kelly from September 11, 2001

The first impact was at 8:46 a.m, 14 minutes before airtime. Kelly: "This is the worst thing I've seen in my life," BEFORE the 2nd plane hit.
Entire 58 minutes of the show, looks like they cut away from Regis and Kelly after 15 minutes. They did their best, but they weren't tragedy newspeople.

[Vrede too]

Rush hour earthquake jolts San Francisco, second in region in 10 days

A surprising 3.7 magnitude earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay Area Friday night, startling rush hour commuters as the second such tremblor in Northern California in just over a week.

Ummm, all quakes are "surprising" and it's spelled 'trembler'.

... The tremblor appears to have been close to the San Andreas fault, with its epicenter documented in the town of Millbrae, near San Francisco International Airport, about 10 miles south of the city.

A San Andreas quake is "surprising"?

... Friday's quake in San Francisco was the second in less than nine days in Northern California.

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake rattled millions of residents in the region on Oct. 18, prompting an unexpected "ShakeAlert" on mobile devices.

Ummm, all quakes are "unexpected".

... The Isleton earthquake came a day before the annual Great ShakeOut, a global drill during which emergency systems were tested for earthquake preparedness, including thousands of MyShake app users.

That's a realistic "drill".

That quake also occurred one day after the 34th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake that rocked the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989, killing 63 people and injuring nearly 3,800 others. The devastation caused up to $10 billion in damage.

I rode that out in San Francisco.

... Two earthquakes occurring in the same region in a relatively short period is actually quite common, Christine Goulet, director of the USGS' Earthquake Science Center in Los Angeles, said Friday.

So, the second quake wasn't particularly "surprising". Opps.

What crappy writing. Have Elizabeth Weise and Terry Collins ever lived in quake country?

[Vrede too]

I mentioned elsewhere that it's been dry here, -10+ inches on the year last I heard. It's also unseasonably warm, 70s. About 11 miles from me, but still Henderson County.

Poplar Drive Fire: 2 homes lost, fire is now 431 acres, 5% contained

I'm in a developed enough area that it would take a catastrophic urban fire to ever touch me, but still . . .

Burn bans in Buncombe and Henderson counties and Great Smokies NP.

Also nearby:

Wildfire in Nantahala National Forest spreads: 677 acres, no containment

[Vrede too]

79 here today, a record
2023 precip deficit 11.47 inches

Fire map

Cherokee County, NC:

Collett Ridge Fire grows to nearly 3,000 acres
U.S. Forest Service - National Forests in North Carolina
Collett Ridge Fire 11/07/23

New:

DuPont State Recreational Forest fire spreads to 36 acres, forces some trail closures

Forest Service battles wildfire in Upstate South Carolina

Air quality will crash. I'm not really noticing it here yet.

[O Really]

"Police ID victims in Eloy hot air balloon crash that left 4 dead, 1 hurt"

https://www.azfamily.com/2024/01/14/4-d ... shed-eloy/

The smallish city of Eloy in Arizona is out in the desert about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. They've got a lot of skydiving there. Some years ago the city was a client of mine, largely to deal with their cops behaving badly and their cantankerous union and chief.

One theory (not official) of the cause of the accident is that when the 8 skydivers bailed, the balloon shot up quickly - so fast that it blew the air out of the balloon.

[Vrede too]

"Police ID victims in Eloy hot air balloon crash that left 4 dead, 1 hurt"

https://www.azfamily.com/2024/01/14/4-d ... shed-eloy/

The smallish city of Eloy in Arizona is out in the desert about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. They've got a lot of skydiving there. Some years ago the city was a client of mine, largely to deal with their cops behaving badly and their cantankerous union and chief.

One theory (not official) of the cause of the accident is that when the 8 skydivers bailed, the balloon shot up quickly - so fast that it blew the air out of the balloon.

Here's a dumb headlines entry:

What caused a hot air balloon carrying 13 people to crash? How many people died? What to know:

In fact, not even a theory is offered as to the cause. I'll rely on the O Really News Service, instead.

[Vrede too]

"Police ID victims in Eloy hot air balloon crash that left 4 dead, 1 hurt"

https://www.azfamily.com/2024/01/14/4-d ... shed-eloy/

The smallish city of Eloy in Arizona is out in the desert about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. They've got a lot of skydiving there. Some years ago the city was a client of mine, largely to deal with their cops behaving badly and their cantankerous union and chief.

One theory (not official) of the cause of the accident is that when the 8 skydivers bailed, the balloon shot up quickly - so fast that it blew the air out of the balloon.

One passenger texted "Goodbye" to his girlfriend Not "Luv U"? Does "Goodbye" have any meaning? Can you imagine being the girlfriend?



Article

You're screwed, but having tires under you must help absorb the shaking.
I'm yellow-adjacent, and had greater risk in Missoula.
What's up with Charleston, SC and the surrounding low country?
That Mississippi Valley fault is due.

[O Really]

Meh, motorcoaches endure the equivalent of earthquake shaking and hurricane wind every time they hit the road.

[GoCubsGo]

Meh, motorcoaches endure the equivalent of earthquake shaking and hurricane wind every time they hit the road.

I think it's the road itself you should be concerned about.

[O Really]

Meh, motorcoaches endure the equivalent of earthquake shaking and hurricane wind every time they hit the road.

I think it's the road itself you should be concerned about.

Well, there's that. Of course, depending on where you're driving you might not notice the difference. An earthquake somewhere like on the 99 from Fresno to Bakersfield might be an improvement.

[Vrede too]

Meh, motorcoaches endure the equivalent of earthquake shaking and hurricane wind every time they hit the road.

I think it's the road itself you should be concerned about.

Well, there's that. Of course, depending on where you're driving you might not notice the difference. An earthquake somewhere like on the 99 from Fresno to Bakersfield might be an improvement.

Keep your gas tank full so that you can escape whichever direction is not wrecked.