LA County Fire Department search and rescue dogs and their firefighter handlers pose for one last picture at the LA County FD warehouse facility in Pacoima, Ca before boarding buses for the trip to March Air Force Base and then on to Haiti to help in the rescue of hundreds still trapped. The dogs are specially trained to locate victims buried in rubble. They are part of the LA County Task Force 2, Urban Search and Rescue Team who, along with counterparts in Fairfax, Va, are the first called to respond to any disaster worldwide.
Hunter, a very highly trained Border Collie, waits for his firefighter handler so they can board a bus for the trip to March Air Force Base and then on the Haiti. Hunter is part of LA County FD Task Force 2, Urban Search and Rescue Team. This team and another in Fairfax, Va are deployed to anywhere in the world when disaster strikes...
Portlight.org, the disaster-relief charity that has sprung up from the hard work and dedication of many members of the wunderground.com community, has successfully shipped medical equipment and a water filtration unit capable of supplying the needs of 3,800 people per day to the Dominican Republic, where it will be trucked to Haiti via road. Portlight is working through the local Catholic Church, which is probably best positioned to deliver private aid donations to those in need. Paul Timmons, leader of the Portlight relief efforts, wrote this to me today:
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Soooo, changing major again? LOL (actually, sounds like it could be a real interesting career to me)
Actually, I have only changed it once. :P from meteorology to PR
Saints are kickin it !
Yea, I knew that. Don't understand changing it from meteorology to Puerto Rico though. ;)
Looked like the Saints from the early pert of the season. They can win playing like that.
Puerto Rico has better women ;)
You have no idea
Going to college is fun here, its so impressive its ridiculous lol XD
its been awhile
now there is a stanger! how have you been? glad to see you on xD
Everything going nice...
I just stopped by considering its been awhile since I have been here
Vacations are nice, just sitting around doing nothing most days XD
how about you?
haha yeah I bet you are enjoying yourself :P
oh its going, just been cold and snowy, at one point we had 12 inches of snow on the ground with highs in the single digits. Makes walking to class quite miserable
O_O and here I was complaining about low 70s yesterday lol
yep, actually it gets funny when some guys just cant pretend and looks obvious they are looking XD
haha I will take some 70's :) and I can imagine LOL
(sorry, had to say it)
are the pacific storms coming in pretty much following the models, or are they changing things up a bit?
It's a damned shame that the Media is there in such numbers, utilizinfg resources that could really best be used elsewhere, though I will say this: they are doing a fair job, overall, making us all aware of the degree and extent of the devastation and the need for our immediate help.
SECURITY...we need the country to be as secure as possible and this is something our military and the UN's presence needs to assure. It does no good to send in aid if the people it is intended for are pushed aisde and the aid taken by those who don't need it
The first storm will arrive Monday and bring rain... possibly heavy by Monday evening. The snow level will be high Monday... around 7000
feet... so snow will be restricted to resort levels. Strong gusty winds will occur late Monday into Monday night. Subsequent storms
will impact the area Tuesday through Friday and bring more rain... heavy at times.
This all week long event has the potential to generate rainfall of 5 to 8 inches near the coast... and 15 to locally 25 inches on the
coastal mountain slopes. Even the desert locations are likely to receive between 2 and 4 inches of rain.
The strength of the jet stream driving these storms is over 200 mph and the storms themselves will be moving rapidly onshore in quick succession.
As a result there are likely to be strong winds through much of next week. Over the coastal waters gale force or higher winds are
expected. Over land... damaging winds are likely to precede the arrival of each storm. Wind gusts between 40 and 60 mph are possible
for the coasts and valleys... while the mountains and deserts may have gusts 60 mph or higher.
Folks in-bound have been told to be completely self-sufficient. Whether they are or not is, of course, a different question
Yes, 10km altitude plus or minus a few km
They are self-sufficient for the most part. But one way they are not is with fuel. Fuel cannot be flown in with them, so they ending getting it locally. From where exactly I don't know. Every generator they have uses fuel. Every charter jet they come in on needs fuel, not to mention talking up valuable air and tarmac space. Only real problem I have is with the big networks having so MANY people on the ground. I understand each one (including international) wanting so be there.
This all week long event has the potential to generate rainfall of 5 to 8 inches near the coast... and 15 to locally 25 inches on the
coastal mountain slopes...
Those coastal mtn slopes are notoriously unstable soils.
Beware mudslides.
LST is running Portlight's social medai efforts and she found this:
BRESMA orphanage
I'm with you; I can understand them wanting to be there and they serve the purpose of keeping this in front of us so that the notoriously forgetful American people are reminded of the great need, but using tarmac space that could be landing or unloading cargo planes is unconscionable...we won't talk about the fuel issue...
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Earle Jones
To: PVForum@yahoogroups.com; Ladera Issues2 ; Ladera List List ; Ladera Seniors
Sent: Fri, January 15, 2010 3:00:45 PM
Subject: [PVForum] Storms coming!
Folks: Here is an alert that I received through the State Park system yesterday:
***
Update
Currently, the strong El Nino is reaching its peak in the Eastern Pacific, and now finally appears to be exerting an influence on our weather. The strong jet has been apparent for quite some time out over the open water, but the persistent block had prevented it from reaching the coast. Now that the block has dissolved completely, a 200+ kt [this means approximately 230 miles per hour] jet is barreling towards us. Multiple large and powerful storm systems are expected to slam into CA from the west and northwest over the coming two weeks, all riding this extremely powerful jet stream directly into the state.
The jet will itself provide tremendous dynamic lift, in addition to directing numerous disturbances right at the state and supplying them with an ample oceanic moisture source. The jet will be at quite a low latitude over much of the Pacific, so these storms will be quite cold, at least initially. Very heavy rainfall and strong to potentially very strong winds will impact the lower elevations beginning late Sunday and continuing through at least the following Sunday... This will be the case for the entire state, from (and south of) the Mexican border all the way up to Oregon. Above 3000-4000 feet, precipitation will be all snow, and since temperatures will be unusually cold for a precipitation event of this magnitude, a truly prodigious amount of snowfall is likely to occur in the mountains, possibly measured in the tens of feet in the Sierra after it’s all said and done.
But there’s a big and rather threatening caveat to that (discussed below).Individual storm events are going to be hard to time for at least few more days, since this jet is just about as powerful as they come (on this planet, anyway). Between this Sunday and the following Sunday, I expect categorical statewide rainfall totals in excess of 3-4 inches. That is likely to be a huge underestimate for most areas. Much of NorCal is likely to see 5-10 inches in the lowlands, with 10-20 inches in orographically- favored areas. Most of SoCal will see 3-6 inches at lower elevations, with perhaps triple that amount in favored areas.
This is where things get even more interesting, though. The models are virtually unanimous in “reloading” the powerful jet stream and forming an additional persistent kink 2000-3000 miles to our southwest after next Sunday. This is a truly ominous pattern, because it implies the potential for a strong Pineapple-type connection to develop. Indeed, the 12z GFS now shows copious warm rains falling between days 12 and 16 across the entire state. Normally, such as scenario out beyond day seven would be dubious at best. Since the models are in such truly remarkable agreement, however, and because of the extremely high potential impact of such an event, it’s worth mentioning now. Since there will be a massive volume of freshly-fallen snow (even at relatively low elevations between 3000-5000 feet), even a moderately warm storm event would cause very serious flooding. This situation will have to monitored closely. Even if the tropical connection does not develop, expected rains in the coming 7-10 days will likely be sufficient to cause flooding in and of themselves (even in spite of dry antecedent conditions).
In addition to very heavy precipitation, powerful winds may result from very steep pressure gradients associated with the large and deep low pressure centers expect ed to begin approaching the coast by early next week. Though it’s not clear at the moment just how powerful these winds may be, there is certainly the potential for a widespread damaging wind event at some point, and the high Sierra peaks are likely to see gusts in the 100-200 mph range (since the 200kt jet at 200-300 mb will essentially run directly into the mountains at some point). The details of this will have to be hashed out as the event(s) draw closer.
In short, the next 2-3 weeks (at least) are likely to be more active across California than any other 2-3 week period in recent memory. The potential exists for a dangerous flood scenario to arise at some point during this interval, especially with the possibility of a heavy rain-on-snow event during late week 2. In some parts of Southern California, a whole season’s worth of rain could fall over the course of 5-10 days. This is likely to be a rather memorable event. Stay tuned.
***
Here's a picture of what's coming:
http://twitpic. com/y290d/ full
Good luck!
earle
*
____________ _________ ___
Earle Jones
501 Portola Road #8008
Portola Valley CA 94028
Home: 650-424-4362
Cell: 650-269-0035
earle.jones@ comcast.net
A friend with Angel Flight reports they are flying into the airport at Cap Haitien, offloading doctors and supplies, then popping over to Santo Domingo to refuel for the flight back to the mainland
TIA may receive Haitian evacuees
By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Jan 16, 2010 03:01 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAMPA — Tampa International Airport may receive evacuees from Haiti, and airport officials have held two emergency planning meetings today to discuss how to process evacuees without identification.
They are expecting that some of the evacuees could require medical attention, and some may have friends or relatives in the United State and may need flights to reach them. Others may need a place to stay, a press release from airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan stated.
In Haiti, a huge international relief effort is going on, and as U.S. military aircraft fly people out of Haiti, Florida airports are preparing to process them.
Airport officials anticipate getting only two hours notice before planes arrive.
The agencies involved in planning Tampa's response include airport operations, police, maintenance and support staff; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Transportation Security Administration; Tampa Fire Rescue and the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
Other agencies that will join include MacDill Air Force Base, air traffic control and other law enforcement agencies.
[Last modified: Jan 16, 2010 03:01 PM]
Its consistent with a NWS Special Weather Statement this afternoon link
A saw Windsat became "unreliable" on the 10th & still isn't fixed. May be an interesting season ahead..
Thanks for the Portlight update. How amazingly AWESOME that Portlight has already gotten the first round of supplies to its destination in Haiti! Looking forward to the continued updates.
Maddy in ND
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