Frosty Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Naw, the epicenter was at the south end of Iniskin "peninsula(?)" quite a distance 100+ miles? from Katmai and Novarupta. Katmai is on the mainland west of Kodiak Island. TV news got it wrong too, said Pedro Bay about 60? miles west. This is the link to the UofA earthquake site map showing exactly where the seismographs say the centers were. How are the fish doing, lose any? Makes me glad all ours are in the freezer. At least your dogs woke you up, ours slept through the whole thing. Not a peep out of any of them nor the cats. How'd your shop fare? I suppose I should go take a look at mine, though with my fine sense of organization and order I don't know if I could tell if anything's moved. Did you lose any China? That could be pretty darned expensive. Deb lost most of her ceramic Briar horse collection in the '71 Sylmar quake and our dishes were piled in the kitchen in pieces. We lived about 6 miles from that epicenter, it was a ride to remember. Anyway, I hope your damages are minimal. So far our worst effect is the well, it REALLY stirred up the fines, our well will be running dirty till it clears. Oh boy bottled water. I got a little excitement I ran the water out of an outside hose to clear the worst without running silt through the well tank and plumbing. After about 1 1/2 hours I shut it off but the well kept cycling on less than a minute cycle. Bad badness if we don't want to burn up our pump. I went into the basement and the pressure gauge was showing the pump starting at 30psi, shutting off at 50psi. as it should but it was falling right to 30psi. in under a minute! I tapped valves, well controls, well pressure tank valves and generally messed with everything I knew, to no avail so I shut off the power. Looked up the well service that set out pump and left a message. A couple hours later I had a thought turned the breaker back on watched the pressure climb to shut off and start cycling like before. When it hit 50 I closed the main valve between the well and house but before I could get it shut off the pump started again. I was watching the pressure gauge when I felt the pump start. This is a BAD thing having a pump pushing against a solid obstruction like a closed valve. The pressure wasn't falling though in the time it took me to get the valve open again. As it opened I got 3 hard water hammers almost hard enough to sting my hand. The pump shut off at 50psi. and stayed off. Woo HOO the water hammers dislodged whatever was keeping the pump check valve open. Lucked out big time! About an hour later the gal who runs the well service called, she's out of the state and had been doing nothing but returning calls about messed up wells just like ours since about 4:00am. In my own ham handed lucky way I did the right thing and knocked the obstruction out. She said give her a call if I have any more problems. Nice gal even if we did mess up her vacation. The folks on the Kenai really took it in the shorts. The gas explosions in the sub division were pretty bad, two housed destroyed by gas leak fed explosions. All the humans made it out alright but lost some pets and everything else in the house. Two more neighbor houses were fully involved by time the FD got there. Maybe 10 minutes. Man, this could've been so much worse. Gotta love living directly on major faults. I won't say anything about the active volcanoes visible from the house. I don't see how anybody can stand to live where the ground just lays there, how boring. Frosty The Lucky. Now all we have to do is wait for the orange . . . stuff to clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Hey I moved in right next to where the next volcanic incident in New Mexico is estimated to occur---and I'm still waiting (and taking flack from my wife over it.) The Rio Grande valley looks to be a rift valley and *may* be the start of a new spreading center; but the waiting is killing me; sheesh glaciers are faster than this stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 27, 2016 Author Share Posted January 27, 2016 I suppose you believe the weather forecasts too. Oh wait your weather is so uninteresting they CAN predict it! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 70 degF this weekend down here but I'm headed north to visit my wife and possible Jury Duty next week; mid 60's up there: Higher altitude; sea level will need to rise over 4000' to even get close; but we have plenty of (desert) sand for a beach! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 We're at about 450' elevation and don't go to our beaches. A person could get stuck in the mud and need a 30' snorkel. When the tide starts coming in the mud flats liquify and unless you know the tricks you're a goner. It wasn't until a few years ago the FD water rescue came up with a way to get people out. They made a stinger that goes on a fire hose, they poke it into the mud around the trapped person to loosen the mud so they can pull them out. Oh it's mounted on a hover craft too. IIRC it was the early or mid '70s the news got a shot of a fire fighter holding a trapped woman's head as high as he could while the tide came in and drowned her. He laid in the cold COLD water and held her as she died. He must still have nightmares. It was on the news but not live. There are a number of things that WILL kill you if you don't know better and some folk insist on doing it in spades on camera. I think some of these videos should be required viewing for anyone wanting to visit. Alaska isn't the only place with fatal mistakes awaiting the unwary or idjit. A good friend of mine is a darned good photographer and he was touring Florida. Saw a big old gator basking in the sun near the highway. Sooooo Gary thought it was a perfect picture he set up and just as he got the pic focused the gator ran for the culvert. Gary had set up ON the culvert and the gator evidently just didn't want a human aiming something at him from 30'. Gary said it covered that distance faster than he could take a breath to scream. Locals told him he shouldn't have set up on the culvert, gators hide in culverts and it felt trapped. Oh yeah, we don't have to worry about snakes, scorpions or killer bees! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 speaking of tide. just in Maine, my family camped out along water front. i was about 6 or so. i remember walking out on rocks and being surprised at the amount of muscles and stuff showing. while playing around of the rocks the tide came in and i remember looking back and i was far in the ocean with no path back. that was creepy to me. i pretty much had to swim back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 Oh man, getting stranded by the tide is seriously scary here. Seriously in Cook Inlet we have tides that average 30' and run up to 18mph in places, Bay of Fundy is the only place with greater. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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