Keep mmikeinsantarosa and his family in your thoughts

[tascoast]

In Australia, we have an alert system tied to location, arising from past devastating bushfires.
http://www.emergencyalert.gov.au/

[mmikeinsantarosa]

Towards the end, they began to let home owners in to get what they could and people like me in to go to work. You had to get your name on a list for the national guard to use and if your name was on the list, you got in. You also got checked out when you left.

one question...
what about people who lost their id, passport etc in the flames? how did they prove that they are who they say they are?

The city put up a one stop shopping center for everything any local might need. Blankets, food, water, Insurance center etc. I'm not sure how it worked but if you needed ze papers, that's where you went to get them. I don't know of any fraud there but human nature being what it is, I'd bet there was some of that. - mike

[xali]

thanks mike for the reply

@tascoast
very interesting thank you

[MX-16_fan]

@mikesantarosa: How are things going now that some time has passed? How you are well! Greetings, Joe

[mmikeinsantarosa]

@mikesantarosa: How are things going now that some time has passed? How you are well! Greetings, Joe

We're all OK. I tweaked my back during an evac. in Oct and it's still messed up. I'm going to a back surgeon Friday to see what my options are. A lot of town still looks like a war zone and we are just now beginning to see construction crews clear out lots where there used to be homes. A lot of doctors are leaving the area because there's no place for them to live close to the hospitals. Some that are staying are doing 80hr weeks to make up for it. Now is a good time to sell if you're looking to leave because there just aren't any homes available. It's going to take years for this place to come back. - mike

[MX-16_fan]

@mmikeinsantarosa:

@mikesantarosa: How are things going now that some time has passed? How you are well! Greetings, Joe

We're all OK. I tweaked my back during an evac. in Oct and it's still messed up. I'm going to a back surgeon Friday to see what my options are. A lot of town still looks like a war zone and we are just now beginning to see construction crews clear out lots where there used to be homes. A lot of doctors are leaving the area because there's no place for them to live close to the hospitals. Some that are staying are doing 80hr weeks to make up for it. Now is a good time to sell if you're looking to leave because there just aren't any homes available. It's going to take years for this place to come back. - mike

So sorry to hear all that. Glad that you are o.k., however. Prayers and best wishes, Joe

[mmikeinsantarosa]

@mmikeinsantarosa:

@mikesantarosa: How are things going now that some time has passed? How you are well! Greetings, Joe

We're all OK. I tweaked my back during an evac. in Oct and it's still messed up. I'm going to a back surgeon Friday to see what my options are. A lot of town still looks like a war zone and we are just now beginning to see construction crews clear out lots where there used to be homes. A lot of doctors are leaving the area because there's no place for them to live close to the hospitals. Some that are staying are doing 80hr weeks to make up for it. Now is a good time to sell if you're looking to leave because there just aren't any homes available. It's going to take years for this place to come back. - mike

So sorry to hear all that. Glad that you are o.k., however. Prayers and best wishes, Joe

Thanks Joe

[Stevo]

Apparently the cell phone alert system also failed to be timely in the Montecito flash floods/debris flows. Though I would think that all the storm warnings for days in advance, coupled with the unprecedented incredibly intense rainfall (half an inch in five minutes) that passed over Montecito from the south before it hit the burn area, waking most people up, would also have served as a big "get out now!" to those in the voluntary evacuation zone. But people's desire to stay in their homes is strong.

Montecito is Spanish for "little mountains", and the neighborhoods are made more picturesque by the huge boulders scattered everywhere. But those were brought there by prehistoric debris flows; in fact Montecito and much of Santa Barbara are built on top of debris flow deposits. That's akin to building on top of an active fault, dormant volcano, or in a river floodplain. Bad things are going to happen eventually.

Great read here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1988 ... ountains-i

[Gaer Boy]

Montecito is Spanish for "little mountains", and the neighborhoods are made more picturesque by the huge boulders scattered everywhere. But those were brought there by prehistoric debris flows; in fact Montecito and much of Santa Barbara are built on top of debris flow deposits. That's akin to building on top of an active fault, dormant volcano, or in a river floodplain. Bad things are going to happen eventually.

Too right, Stevo. It's as bad as building a church on an ancient landslip!

Cwmyoy.JPG

[tascoast]

Interesting read there. I sometimes enjoy a long New Yorker article, even though geography and media here are far apart. The majority of the Australian landscape is reputedly worn down over long ages, once soaring ranges now barely discernible, occasional rocky remains. Tasmania perhaps shows the most glacially shaped remnants of recent formation, with some dolomite boulder fields and expanses on nearby ranges, some including glacial formations like scattered lakes and debris structures. I gather parts of New Zealand are quite active and prone to shift, by contrast, the Ring of Fire and all being influential. Regarding fire, the traditional practices of regular burning to maintain grasslands, create mosaics and minimize wildfire potential seems to parallel some of the N American experience. Our flora and fauna are well adapted to regular burning, particularly cool burns that promote grasses, terrestrial orchids, lilies and varied herbage. European settlement has disrupted such close, widespread and persistent fire management, although in Northern Australia fire is still an important and regular seasonal feature of land management. Elsewhere it tends to be controlled fuel reduction burns by fire and parks crews, who can barely complete very modest targets, given the resources available, going by historical comparison.