OT: China earthquake
riverman
China with thousands killed. It hit about 60 miles outside of Chengdu
in central China at around 2:15 in the afternoon Monday, local time.
At that specific moment, SWMBO and I were on a plane on the tarmac at
Chengdu airport after a romantic 3-day birthday weekend that we spent
travelling with another couple, waiting to take off. I was napping,
and felt the plane shaking, but in my half conscious state, I thought
that they were pushing it back from the gate. SWMBO thought the pilot
was testing the brakes or something, because the plane kept shaking
and shaking. Eventually, after about 30 seconds, it stopped shaking
and the pilot announced that there had been a quake and the airport
had abandoned the control tower,and all ground crew and passengers in
the terminal building were being evacuated to a nearby stadium. We sat
on the plane for several hours with no additional info, then the pilot
came through the plane and told us that our best chance of getting out
of Shichuan was to stay on the plane and he would insist that we take
off as soon as it was safe, since we were all fueled and ready to go.
The ground crew wanted to offload the luggage and have us disembark,
but the pilot said if that happened, we might not get back to the
plane for a day or more, so he was refusing to open the doors and
insisting that we get the first clearance to take off once the runway
was inspected and the airport was reopened.
It took 9 hours, but eventually we got clearance. As we taxiied out,
there were no other planes on the ground...nothing landing and nothing
queued up to take off except us. I think we were the only flight in or
out, and were the guinea pigs to see if the runway was safe. We had a
VERY fast take off....the pilot obviously did not want to use up an
extra inch of tar if he could help it, and we got off the ground a
mere 9 hours late. Our two friends are still up there stuck at the
airport, as they had a later flight. Fortunately for them, there is no
significant ariport damage and they are probably spending the night on
some uncomfortable lounge chairs, but for tens of thousands quite
close nearby, its not as good.
--riverman
~^ beancounter ~^
trickeling in ( here in colorado ) on details ... there sure has
been lots of quake activity along the "ring of fire" in the past
month or two....
Frank Reid
Nothing snipped for insanity. Hmmm, may you live in interesting
times.
Frank Reid
jc...@cs.nmsu.edu
happens around you. If you and Frank ever meet, by all means DO NOT
shake hands. You'll annihilate one another...
Glad to hear y'all are ok. You're right, it's gonna be awful tough on
too many over there.
Jon.
Frank Reid
Hmm, last time we met, seems to me there was a flood on the Gunpowder
river.
Frank Reid
riverman
Yes, and they were out of size 10 bootfoot waders Bass Pro. Two very
serious disasters at once!
:-)
(and as the news come trickling in here, I realize what a brave and
foresightful move our pilot made in refusing to deplane
us...apparently we were the ONLY flight out in the aftermath of the
quake!)
--riverman
asadi
"riverman" <myro...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:aa70689d-274f-43a7...@a9g2000prl.googlegroups.com...
...the ground shakes...buildings tumble...should I leave the ground now?...
...I don't follow their logic...
john
fle...@highaltitudes.net
Thanks for the post
I am glad you are OK
Fred
Fred
riverman
>
> Thanks for the post
> I am glad you are OK
>
> Fred
>
As am I. The TV is saturated here with updates about the quake....
12000 dead, 15000 more buried (that they know of), etc. It was bad;
much worse than we realized. The real home-hitter was just now on CNN
International where they had a home video shot from inside the
terminal building at the Chengdu airport. In one shot, you can see our
plane parked out on the tarmac after being pushed back from the gate,
and then the camera pans around and people in the building are running
and shrieking, everything is heaving, and things are falling off of
shelves.
I guess an airplane is pretty much the ultimate earthquake-proof
house: we were inside, firmly strapped into padded chairs specially
made to absorb turbulence, inside a 'building' sitting solidly on
three points, each one designed to absorb a tremendous amount of
impact, far away from any tall structures. And just a hundred feet
away, people were running in terror from a monster earthquake, while I
dozed.
The news also talked about dozens of tourists stranded at the Panda
research centers in Wolong and Chengdu....and we had just been at the
Chengdu center a few hours earlier, chatting with some of those very
same tour groups that are now incommunicado. I'm sure they are fine,
as there were no tall structures or anything that could fall on them,
but that they are just stranded as the roads are closed or clogged,
and the cell phone network was down and now is pretty jammed.
Sobering.
-riverman
~^ beancounter ~^
holds they are now working on.......
riverman
wrote:
> a bad quake...and the news is getting worse...i hope the damm
> holds they are now working on.......
>
>
The dam in question (the Dujiangyan Irrigation System) is more of a
low-head water spillway, not a bonafide big wall gravity arch dam
thing. During low water, the main channel flows right through
unimpeded, but at high water, a secondary channel redirects the excess
water off to a catchment. The potential breach is in the redirection
wall, so even if it failed it would only increase the water already
flowing in the main channel, not create a catastrophic tidal wave.
Also, we hear here that the military has already gotten it under
control (according to chinese sources...take that as you will). Even
if they haven't, sandbags and pumps could probably contain the excess
water from invading rescue zones.
The real diaster is that they haven't even gotten rescue workers into
every affected location; look forward to more catastrophic locations
showing up like the schools in Dujiangyan and Beichuan with 900 and
1000 lost respectively. The current total of 13000 lost is based on
what they KNOW, and as the man once said: there are known knowns, and
there are known unknowns, but its the unknown unknowns that get you.
--riverman
W. D. Grey
<417ac0d4-2d5e-46df...@m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>,
Frank Reid <flyt...@gmail.com> writes
I am proud to be able to say I've met and spent some time fishing with
someone caught up in a world news event.
Glad to hear you're safe Myron
--
Bill Grey
riverman
> In article
> <417ac0d4-2d5e-46df-8588-3d845013c...@m44g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>,
> Frank Reid <flytye...@gmail.com> writes
>
> >On May 12, 2:46 pm, jc...@cs.nmsu.edu wrote:
> >> Myron, you are like the anti-Reid, emerging unscathed from whatever
> >> happens around you. If you and Frank ever meet, by all means DO NOT
> >> shake hands. You'll annihilate one another...
>
> >> Glad to hear y'all are ok. You're right, it's gonna be awful tough on
> >> too many over there.
>
> >> Jon.
>
> >Hmm, last time we met, seems to me there was a flood on the Gunpowder
> >river.
> >Frank Reid
>
> I am proud to be able to say I've met and spent some time fishing with
> someone caught up in a world news event.
>
> Glad to hear you're safe Myron
> --
> Bill Grey
Thanks Bill, but I'm not sure that low water on the Irfon really
qualifies as "world news". The fact that you managed to pull out some
browns probably does, though. :-)
--riverman
W. D. Grey
<1a22a009-7efb-4f52...@p25g2000pri.googlegroups.com>,
riverman <myro...@yahoo.com> writes
You flatter me Myron - even a decent Grayling doesn't qualify as a
couple of browns :-)
Keep well.
--
Bill Grey