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GuitarGuy305
Alien Abductee
USA
2007 Posts |
 Posted - 06/12/2008 : 2:43:06 PM
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So my hometown of Cedar Rapids, IA is pretty much engulfed in flood waters at the moment. I made the decision to leave work today around noon due to one of the two remaining open roads that go over the river being closed to public traffic. The road I took has a bridge going over the river that had literally about a foot or two of space between the bottom of the bridge and the river. Cedar Rapids may be totally blocked off if we don't get a break from the rain soon.
My own street also has plenty of standing water on it nearly too deep to drive through without seriously messing up your car.
I don't believe in god or religion in general, so no prayers please. But please hope for a nice streak of sunny days for us!! |
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Fluffy
Administrator
USA
10739 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2008 : 3:09:02 PM
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We in OBX could really use that water/rain:
NC wildlife refuge fire grows, some evacuations
6 days ago
COLUMBIA, N.C. (AP) — A wildfire that started on a wildlife refuge in rural eastern North Carolina nearly tripled in size as it sent smoke and ash as far away as the Outer Banks and neighboring Virginia on Thursday.
A wildfire in western Texas burned out of control most of the day and wind gusts up to 40 mph were forecast overnight.
The North Carolina fire consumed more than 28,985 acres, or just over 45 square miles, of forest and fields at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. About half the fire was burning on the refuge and about half was on private land.
Officials have ordered the evacuation of 70 homes, including 40 on Thursday.
No homes have burned and nobody has been injured, although two firefighters suffered heat exhaustion earlier in the week, said North Carolina Forest Service spokesman Bill Swartley.
Swartley said Thursday night that firefighters had hoped to contain the fire at an access road in the refuge but that it jumped containment lines, giving it the potential to double in size again.
The fire was started by lightning Sunday at the wildlife refuge and gradually spread during the week because of dry conditions and flammable peat soil.
Earlier Thursday, smoke and ash filled the air in Manteo, about 45 miles east of the fire, as well as in Chesapeake, Va., some 75 miles north of the refuge, officials said.
The fire could last two months or more unless the area gets substantial rainfall, said Tony Spencer of Hyde County Emergency Management.
In Texas, forest officials said a wildfire that has burned more than 31,000 acres in two days is far from being contained. It started when a Union Pacific crew was working on railroad tracks west of Marfa in western Texas.
The Forest Service said about 60 homes were in danger but none had been damaged as of Thursday afternoon.
Union Pacific was working with state officials to make sure property owners were compensated for any losses, railroad spokesman Joe Arbona said.
"We truly regret this," he said. "It was clearly not intentional but we will definitely take care of folks out there."
UPDATED info:
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 12, 2008
By Ryan Hutchins
Beneath a massive smoke plume in a rural, three-county area 50 miles west of the Outer Banks, hundreds of firefighters worked from the air and on the ground to stop the migration of the North Carolina wildfire, which by Wednesday had covered 62 square miles.
A wind shift caused by a cold front pushed smoke away from Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks on Wednesday and kept the fire from growing, according to Dean McAlister, a spokesman at the incident command center.
Offensives against the fire, which is about the size of Richmond, have focused on containing it by digging, flooding and soaking lines around the edges.
Containment is a technique central to fighting wildfires.
On the West Coast, fire lines are made with hand-held tools by firefighters who hike on foot. Soil is scraped or dug and combustible debris is removed. The lines can be measured at a few feet wide, said McAlister, a retired U.S. Forest Service employee who arrived this week from Arizona to help.
Containing the North Carolina fire, however, requires more than personnel, hand tools and a few feet of dry soil.
Dozens of bulldozers, multiple helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, and high-volume water pumps have been employed to fight the blaze.
With those tools at hand, the firefighters build lines that average 50 to 100 feet wide, according to Bill Swartley and Hannah Thompson of the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources.
"That's what actually holds the fire," Thompson said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
The North Carolina wildfire has proved resilient.
On Tuesday, it, along with a second fire in the Great Dismal Swamp, sent such heavy smoke across Hampton Roads that 911 dispatchers were busy answering worried callers who feared fire in their neighborhoods.
The fire is fueled by peat, essentially highly flammable, decaying vegetation. Firefighters compare it to charcoal.
And that fuel runs deep - patches of peat can be found 8 feet beneath the surface, according to state and local firefighters. That's why the fire is expected to smolder for weeks or even months unless a significant rain-producer, such as a tropical storm, comes along.
The peat makes building containment lines a hard task, Thompson said. Much of the 20 miles of lines that still need to be built or improved will use existing fire and farm roads to provide drier, less flammable ground.
"It can still burn underneath, but we have a better chance of using the existing roads than building new ones," Thompson said.
With that as a base for the lines, firefighters use several side-by-side bulldozers with plows in the rear to build "potato patches," essentially parallel strips of turned soil.
"So it can't move as far, as fast," Thompson said.
Because of the peat, the potato patches aren't as effective as they would be in parts of the region where the soil is less incendiary. To improve the strength of the patches and existing lines, water is dropped or flooded across them.
From the sky, firefighters have used a plane called an air tanker that's capable of dropping 2,000 gallons of fire retardant. The tanker, flown up from Florida last week, belongs to the U.S. Forest Service.
Six helicopters and another plane also are being used. A third plane is used to "scout" the fire, helping to direct operations, plan future offensives and track the fire's movement.
Some of the equipment is privately owned, and other pieces belong to the Division of Forest Resources and the U.S. Forest Service.
In recent days, firefighters have started pumping water from nearby Lake Phelps and from canals that run through the land, much of which is in Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.
The pumping operations have involved water tenders - simple farm tractors with high-volume water pumps attached. These units sit on the edges of the lake or canals and pull the water out, irrigating it toward areas that need to be flooded.
In addition to containment operations, there are personnel using the 16 engines - large pickups equipped with retardant tanks - to patrol the edges of the blaze, watching for and helping to eliminate spot fires. There are also several track-driven military conversion vehicles.
The operation has grown in size and cost since last week, with nearly 450 personnel on hand Wednesday afternoon, McAlister said. The total cost at that time neared $1.74 million since the fire was started June 1 by a lightning strike.
Satellite photo:
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Peace & Keep the Faith
Fluffy         
"THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS A CRUEL AND SHALLOW MONEY TRENCH-- A LONG PLASTIC HALLWAY WHERE THIEVES AND PIMPS RUN FREE AND GOOD MEN DIE LIKE DOGS. THERE'S ALSO A NEGATIVE SIDE..." -Hunter S. Thompson |
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Zachmozach
Fluffy-Esque
USA
1534 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2008 : 8:20:38 PM
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| Welcome to global warming. |
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GuitarGuy305
Alien Abductee
USA
2007 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2008 : 9:22:39 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Zachmozach
Welcome to global warming.
My thoughts exactly.
I took some pictures of a creek that is usually barely trickling along that may now fill our garage and parking lot at our condo with water. There is also a golf course right out our back window that is slowly filling with water. They've evacuated large parts of our city and surrounding towns and my work is actually closing for the first time since I can remember other than absolutely essential personnel.
This is more water than anyone has ever seen here. Major flood stage for Cedar Rapids is 16 feet. We are currently at 29.62 feet with an estimated crest of 32 feet. The highest this river has ever gotten is 20 feet and even the flood of 1993 only got to about 18.
As I type this, another thunderstorm is dumping on us and there are tornado warnings all around the area.
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dan p.
Alien Abductee
Uganda
3776 Posts |
Posted - 06/13/2008 : 7:02:46 PM
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| do not attempt to ford the river. |
death to false metal. |
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Zachmozach
Fluffy-Esque
USA
1534 Posts |
Posted - 06/14/2008 : 03:30:57 AM
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| Depending on if you're a banker or a farmer you should either hire the ferry or caulk your wagon and float across. |
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Flooding
