Squiggler

BREAKING: Earthquakes and aftershocks shake, rattle and roll Hawaii -- UPDATED TO 6.6 MAGNITUDE -- Governor signs Disaster Declaration

Over twenty earthquakes have hit Hawaii today. The USGS has a map.

Click on a point or earthquake on the above map to zoom in.

Earthquake List for Map Hawaii

Update time = Sun Oct 15 18:00:13 UTC 2006

Fox is reporting quakes as high as 6.7. So far there are no tsunami risks. Guests at some of the hotels are reporting from parking lots because of damage to the structures. Reports are sketchy. There are reported landslides on the Kona highway and phone and power outages all over. Communication problems, structural problems and transportation problems being reported. Oahu shutoff from broadcasting and they are relying on people calling in to give them information. The lack of communications is being reported to be causing mass confusion. One of the evacuated hotel guests described a rumbling and being thrown to the floor.

USGS (Bruce Presgarve at National Earthquake Info Center) reporting 6.3 as the major shock at just after 7 AM and followed by a 5.8 magnitude shock 7 minutes later.

Magnitude 6.3 Quake, Aftershocks Rattle Hawaii

Sunday, October   15, 2006

HONOLULU — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck Hawaii early Sunday morning, waking up residents and knocking out power.    

The U.S. Geological Survey also reported several aftershocks, including one measuring a magnitude of 5.8. No damage reports were immediately available.

The quake occurred at 7:07 a.m. local time, 10 miles north-northwest of Kailua Kona, a town on the west coast of the Big Island, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Blakeman said researchers were still trying to ascertain how many aftershocks struck and how large.

Blakeman said there was no risk of a Pacific-wide tsunami, but a possibility of significant wave activity in Hawaii.

The quake occurred about 155 miles to the southeast of Honolulu, the state capital, in Oahu.

UPDATE 11:55 AM PDT:

--Reports of 95% of Oahu without power.
--Big Island of Hawaii also without power.
--Hawaii County police reporting several landslides including one blocking the road between Kona and Hilo.
--No reports of fatalities YET. Scattered reports of some injuries. Rural and outlying areas without communications.
--Ray Lovell, State Civil Defense, HI says no tsunami threat.

 

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The chart below represents the most recent 24 hours of seismic data from our seismograph.
The data at the very bottom of the chart is the most recent readings.
To understand how to read the chart click here.

Source

UPDATE: 12:30 PM PDT:

Gov. Linda Lingle said in a radio interview with KSSK from Hawaii Island that she had no report of any fatalities. She said boulders fell on highways, rock walls fell down and television had been knocked off of stands, she had no reports of building damage.

The quake occurred at 7:07 a.m. local time, 10 miles north-northwest of Kailua Kona, a town on the west coast of the Big Island, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.3, along with several aftershocks, including one measuring a magnitude of 5.8.

Blakeman said there was no risk of a Pacific-wide tsunami, but a possibility of significant wave activity in Hawaii.

On Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, there was some damage in Kailua-Kona and landslide along a major highway, said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Center.

Officials were concerned there may be "structural integrity" problems at the big hospital in Kona in the Big Island, Lingle said. New patients were being accepted, but kept outside.

Betsy Garties, who lives in North Kohala, on the northern tip of Hawaii Island said she was lying in bed with one of her two young children when the quake struck.

"First I heard a rumbling. Then the house started to shake. Then broken glass," Garties said. She first stood under a door frame as safety experts advise, then found that too wobbly for comfort and ran into the yard.

"It was strong enough that it was wobbling, so you almost lost your balance running out into the yard," Garties said. "The house was visibly rocking."

Peggy Cardoza, an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant in Hilo, said she was at work when the earthquake struck.

"We just felt the ground shaking," Cardoza said. "We just stood here and watched everything shake."

Power at least partially knocked out on every island, said Civil Defense spokesman Lani Goldman. On Oahu, 95 percent of customers were without power, he said.

Authorities said some of the power outages may have been due to heavy rainfall.

If there are earthquakes on this map, click on them for more info.

Earthquake list | Back to 10-degree map | Back to USA map

UPDATE 12:52 PM PDT:

--Hawaiian airports operating on auxilliary power.
--Bloggers providing many of the early reports. Go Bloggers!
--Major tourist hotels reporting their buildings swaying, rocking, and shaking. Books tumble from shelves, windows rattling and/or breaking.

UPDATE 1:37 PM PDT:

--Fred Hemmings, Hawaii State Senator, reports the earthquake has been upgraded to magnitued 6.6 or about ten nuclear bombs.

--Royal Kona Resort reports major damage, staff evacuated.

--Mayor asking people to stay off the roads. Communications problems making it hard to get damage assessments. Stay off the phones. Emergency call only.

--Main highway connecting west and central Maui closed.

--Residents comparing it to the Northridge, CA quake, one of the worst in California history.

--Kona Hospital reports major structural damage. Evacuations underway.

--Power outage on Oahu is Islandwide.

--Hamakua Coast, Highway 19, damaged.

--Kohala Hospital ceiling damage, patients being moved to the dining room.

--Honoapi'lani Highway closed from falling boulders.

UPDATE 2:00 PM PDT:

--Cruise ships being asked to keep passengers onboard. Airports are on auxilliary power and flights are delayed or cancelled.

--Governor Lingle signs Federal Disaster Declaration according to Ray Lovell, State Civil Defense.

UPDATE 2:36 PM PDT:

--Residents of Makakilo asked to conserve water.

--Customers limited to cash or check, no credit cards can be processed.

--Hotels are facing food preparation problems for their guests. Honolulu hotels and resorts have no electricity or gas.

--Outbound passengers discouraged from going to the airport.

--Safeway roof collapse cause injury. Evacuations.

--Hamakua Hospital evacuating patients due to fire main break and flooding.

--Honolulu Airport, no flights in or out.

--Major problems will be Hawaiian isolation with limited resources and no way to replenish supplies in less than four or five days.

First Day of Summer ...

Today is the first day of Summer according to the calendar and astronomy. When I was growing up, we always thought of the first day of Summer as Memorial Day, but that was more likely because Memorial Day signaled the last day of school and the start of the long-awaited Summer vacation.

We didn't know about the science:

In the northern hemisphere, the longest day of the year (near June 22) when the Sun is farthest north. In the southern hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are exchanged. The summer solstice marks the first day of the season of summer. The declination of the Sun on the (northern) summer solstice is known as the tropic of cancer (23° 27'). 

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a maximum for the year.  Of course, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours, but these human meddlings with the calendar and do not correspond to the actual number of daylight hours. In Chicago, there are 15:02 hours of daylight on the summer solstice of June 21, 1999.

Summer was the time of going off to camp or to our summer cottage at Conneaut Lake, of vaction travel. It was the time of playing outdoors, of bike riding, water skiing, of hanging out at the local pool or going to the drive-in (hopefully with a boyfriend who drove a convertible). It was the time of meeting friends at the Dairy Queen and neighborhood block parties. Summer meant fun. It was a time of picnics, slurping big slices of watermellon and then having seed spitting contests, it was hot dogs, corn on the cob, and wearing shorts.

Now I live in California, where it is Summer 11 months of the year. The kids barely differentiate between Summer and Winter. I love the modern age, the age of technology, but when it comes to Summer, I admit, I'm nostalgic for that gentler time in a small town in Pennsylvania.

Related:

Solstice sun clouded over at Stonehenge

SALISBURY, England, June 21 (UPI) --

About 17,000 people attended the summer solstice celebration at Stonehenge in Britain as bad weather kept additional thousands away from the annual gathering.

Wiltshire police prepared for at least 20,000 visitors for the nightlong party that leads into the sun rising on the longest day of the year. Only four people were arrested and police said it was a fairly quiet night.

The Mirror reports people flock to the ancient site for the optical illusions as the sun peeks over the Heel Stone of Stonehenge.

Although the rain stopped falling by sunrise, the clouds lingered and blocked the view.

© UPI, Headline News Powered by Bravenet.com        

       

   WARNING! Moonbat Alert!

   On First Day of Summer, ABC Asks Audience for Global Warming Anecdotes

How hot is it?

108 degrees. Yep! We are sweltering today.

Start your day with a laugh -- then you'll want to read this ...

We’re running out of oil! How do we know? Because Washington Post automotive columnist Warren Brown says so. Five times.

In an article entitled, “News Flash: We’re Running Out of Oil” (okay, six times), Warren Brown employs the highly persuasive rhetorical

technique

of repeating himself over and over again so as to better convince the listener that his argument is of sound reasoning. (Either that or it’s Tourette’s.)

CONTINUE READING HERE

Blue State bad air

So my question is .... why are "Blue States" the dirtiest? Aren't blue staters supposed to be the environmentalists and protectors of our health? Just asking.

            N.Y., Calif. Air Is Dirtiest, EPA Says
   

Mar 22 9:50 PM US/Eastern

LOS ANGELES
   

        New Yorkers and Californians breathe the dirtiest air in the nation and face higher cancer risks than the rest of the nation, according to the latest data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

New Yorkers' risk of developing cancer from air toxins is estimated to be 68 residents per million. In California, the risk is 66 residents per million.

The national average is 41.5 per million, according to the report, which was released in February and based on emissions of 177 chemicals in 1999, the most recent data available.

Oregon, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey had the third, fourth and fifth worst air in the nation, respectively, the EPA said. Rural residents of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana breathed the cleanest air.

The EPA assessment evaluated toxins including heavy metals, such as lead; volatile chemicals, such as benzene; combustion byproducts, such as acrolein; and solvents, including perchloroethylene and methylene chloride.

Benezene alone contributed a quarter of the individual cancer risk identified in this assessment, the primary source of it being vehicles, according to the study.

The National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) is a screening tool that estimates cancer and other health risks from exposure to air toxins. It provides a snapshot of air quality and the risks if 1999 emissions levels remained unchanged. It does not reflect reductions in air toxins that may have occurred since 1999.

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Environmentalism vs. Human Life & Health

As an outdoors person who grew up spending my Summers camping and backpacking in some of the most beautiful areas of our great country, I have a healthy respect for environmental issues. In Pennsylvania, where I spent my youth, we were encouraged to gather "dead & down" wood in order to curb some of the fuel available should fires break out. We also had a lot of spraying activity in order to try to keep the tent worms from destroying the natural beauty and habitat of the areas; and my home town is one of the only places in the country that found a way to save their Dutch Elm trees from total annihilation. Then as an adult, I came to my Mother's home state of California where I learned to love the places she had frequented in her youth such as Big Basin, Sequoia and Yosemite. I care about the environment and I care about saving such species as the Bald Eagle, and yes, even the California Condor. But, I also see the other side of this issue and when the decision comes to saving human life over some obscure insect, frog or even a majestic bird, I'd like to think that common sense and decency would play a role in decisions on protecting the environment. There needs to be a balance. The following two posts can be found over at Moonbattery and they detail some of the tugs and pulls those of us who worry about the lack of balance face.

Enviromoonbattery in the Courtroom

In yet another example of activist courts teaming up with moonbats in their onslaught against common sense, a federal court is forcing the Forest Service to suspend over 1,500 permits for a variety of activities that include fire prevention, Boy Scout meetings, and even the cutting of the Capitol's Christmas tree.

Projects determined to have minimal environmental impact used to be exempt from the requirement of spending $zillions on marathon legal battles against the well-heeled environmentalist lobby in order to get a permit. But the Earth Island Institute found a court willing to help them change that.

From The Washington Times:

Judge James K. Singleton of the Eastern District Court of California ruled in July against a project to remove charred and damaged trees, which could kindle a future fire, in the Sequoia National Forest.

The court said last month in a follow-up ruling that its decision in Earth Island Institute v. Ruthenbeck applies nationwide, rather than just to the local dispute.

As a result, the Forest Service immediately suspended all "categorical exclusions," which approved the Sequoia project and had been used since 2002 to allow permits of numerous other activities, including trail upkeep at ski resorts and issuing outdoor guide permits.

Among the projects to be hogtied in red tape:

• Hundreds of projects nationwide for fire prevention on tens of thousands of acres
• Nearly 100 guide permits for hunting, fishing, horseback riding, and fishing
• 150 wildlife habitat projects
• 165 permits to maintain camp grounds and trails
• 15 ski area projects that may shut down the upcoming ski season in some areas
• 40 permits for family reunions and Boy Scout and Girl Scout activities

Thanks to the new requirement of public notices, comment periods, and appeals, this year's Capitol Christmas tree should be arriving in Washington sometime around Valentine's Day.

On the bright side, employment prospects for lawyers are looking as sunny as ever.

Sorry Cindy Loo — The eco-Grinches are stealing it this year.

Posted by Van Helsing at 06:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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October 12, 2005

Environmentalism Kills Africans

Runaway environmentalism isn't just bad for the economy — it's bad for human health. Take the case of DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane). This wonder chemical has saved millions of lives by killing the one species that has given the human race the most trouble — the mosquito. According to a WaPo op ed, the National Academy of Sciences estimated in 1970 that DDT had prevented 500 million deaths.

It would be saving millions of lives still, if it hadn't fallen afoul of environmentalists.

DDT has proven highly effective against the spread of typhus, dengue, and yellow fever, but it's best known from combating malaria, which would make it highly useful in Uganda, which had 12 million cases of malaria out of a population of 27 million in 2003. But the European Union doesn't approve of DDT, and is threatening Ugandans with crippling import restrictions if they employ the chemical.

There's no solid evidence that DDT is harmful to people. But when it comes to moonbattery, you don't need evidence, you just need to believe. One million people a year still die from malaria. But the most effective weapon against it can't be used, in order to indulge elite bureaucrats in their fashionably kooky environmentalism.

Thanks to Byron for the tip.

Mankind's worst enemy, after moonbats

Posted by Van Helsing at 08:58 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

I admit that I'm thoroughly indoctrinated through 30 years of publicity to the destruction and dangers of DDT and I'd be hard pressed to support wholesale spraying with this chemical. But, again, I'm willing to listen because if the above report is valid, then saving millions of humans from death seems to be a reason to reconsider the spraying issue. What I don't understand is where all the millions and millions in research money has gone if after so much time we still don't have a viable alternative to DDT.