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Helicopters start rescue efforts after landslide traps hundreds on B.C. highway

And imagine the public order, looting, panic buying, and other similar 'tempers flaring' issues - on a mass scale - resulting from a massive earthquake or other major disaster e.g.,

OP: An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest.
 
One of the pilots was a female LCdr, on exchange from the States. She looked awesome!
Like USN Lieutenant-Commander? I know that there are USN folks in the MH and LRP fleets, but didn't know they were also in TH.
 

If you've heard of General Wayne Eyre, Canadian Army, it's probably because he's currently the acting chief of the defence staff — that's the top officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, in command of the army, navy and air force. He got the job after the last CDS got entangled in the sexual misconduct scandal now roiling the military. Gen. Erye stands a pretty good chance of being the next CDS on a full-time basis, assuming the government ever gets around to making a decision on that front. Given the attention the Liberals usually give the military, this is not a guarantee.

Rest at link
 

If you've heard of General Wayne Eyre, Canadian Army, it's probably because he's currently the acting chief of the defence staff — that's the top officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, in command of the army, navy and air force. He got the job after the last CDS got entangled in the sexual misconduct scandal now roiling the military. Gen. Erye stands a pretty good chance of being the next CDS on a full-time basis, assuming the government ever gets around to making a decision on that front. Given the attention the Liberals usually give the military, this is not a guarantee.

Rest at link
The better quote is this:

"Search-and-rescue makes an interesting example when considering Canada's appalling neglect of its military because search-and-rescue is the easiest cost to justify. It's not controversial. It's not inordinately expensive. There’s zero risk of accidentally bombing an orphanage or a particularly lively wedding reception. It's the one mission the military can launch that won't trigger protests in the streets. Basically everything else the military does is subject to criticism, and fair enough. We're a democracy, after all. But search-and-rescue is literally that — it's searching for lost people and rescuing them in an absolutely gigantic country that is increasingly prone to devastating disasters.

And we still skimp out. Because we're cheap."
 
Like everything else related to unusual emergencies, the CAF's domestic capability is a compromise short of "enough to handle anything that could possibly happen". Obviously some situations require bodies on shovels rather than expensive kit.
 
Like everything else related to unusual emergencies, the CAF's domestic capability is a compromise short of "enough to handle anything that could possibly happen". Obviously some situations require bodies on shovels rather than expensive kit.
The problem is these are not longer unusual - the effects of a warming climate.
*The ice age is ending...
 
We have less than 150 years of anything approximating good climate records at this end of the country. We don't know how often pine beetle infestations recur. We don't know how often the annual Jul/Aug heat trap pops up closer to summer solstice, when the days are longer and more heat energy is received from the sun. We don't know how often a severe local rainstorm like this occurs - keep in mind that clouds moving in from the Pacific are funneled and concentrated by the geography before they dump most of their precipitation, and almost all of the major events occurred in a region about 100 to 150 km in diameter.
 
I just attended a lunch and learn (today, but scheduled 3 weeks ago, so ironic) on Atmospheric rivers, which is what hit us, these have been occurring for a very long time and are driven by events in the Mid latitudes, even all the really smart people there knew that is not new or a result of climate change. It's is possible that there are more events like this due to climate change and the secondary effects might be greater, thanks to pine beetles and forest fires. The reality is that there is not enough data collected to say if we are getting more of them or not at present. Climate Change is a great excuse to whitewash failure to prepare for likely occasional events.

 
Yup. Heck, I'd horse-trade airframe/fleet numbers, and do a 1:1 of say 15 more 147Fs and give up some 146s. Base the second 147F Sqn in YED. I bet they even have a Sqn number in mind...or just make them a flight of 408 to be easier and keep things from over inflating structure.
If you put some in YED you gotta put some in YOY. I like the flight idea to start.
 
I just attended a lunch and learn (today, but scheduled 3 weeks ago, so ironic) on Atmospheric rivers, which is what hit us, these have been occurring for a very long time and are driven by events in the Mid latitudes, even all the really smart people there knew that is not new or a result of climate change. It's is possible that there are more events like this due to climate change and the secondary effects might be greater, thanks to pine beetles and forest fires. The reality is that there is not enough data collected to say if we are getting more of them or not at present. Climate Change is a great excuse to whitewash failure to prepare for likely occasional events.


angry homer simpson GIF
 
If you put some in YED you gotta put some in YOY. I like the flight idea to start.
Maybe a 450 Det in YOY, but Hooks can hit YCX on a single tank, let alone barely finish a post-takeoff check before they hit YOY. YOY barely gives time for a level-off check out of YWA. I used to dread the PITA YWA-YOY hops in a 135 or even a 146, but coffee in a Hook’s barely off piping hot letting down into Traz.

The West would still benefit from a permanent presence if Scrooge McDuck would let loose a few gold doubloons to pick up some more Hooks.
 
I just attended a lunch and learn (today, but scheduled 3 weeks ago, so ironic) on Atmospheric rivers, which is what hit us, these have been occurring for a very long time and are driven by events in the Mid latitudes, even all the really smart people there knew that is not new or a result of climate change. It's is possible that there are more events like this due to climate change and the secondary effects might be greater, thanks to pine beetles and forest fires. The reality is that there is not enough data collected to say if we are getting more of them or not at present. Climate Change is a great excuse to whitewash failure to prepare for likely occasional events.

Interesting links, I would have liked to have heard the presentations.

While I expect most people are relatively familiar with global circulation patterns, I expect most are not familiar enough to get much from some of the graphics in the second link. I struggled to get anything from them that is outside of the normal patterns.
 
Basically a whole crapload of water suspended in the air column 4km thick and maybe a 50-100km wide, travelling some 2,000 km. Generally the southern coastal mountain take most of it, but sometimes it gets in further.
 
Basically a whole crapload of water suspended in the air column 4km thick and maybe a 50-100km wide, travelling some 2,000 km. Generally the southern coastal mountain take most of it, but sometimes it gets in further.
A good breakdown in layman's terms, I was thinking more technically.

I'm a weather forecaster, so I want raw model data, combined with expert analysis...
 
Send it, Bob:

"I am a professional emergency manager with more than 20 years’ experience. The recent rainfall event has only confirmed the state of disaster unpreparedness in B.C.

This lack of preparedness exists at four levels.

First, individuals are responsible for their own emergency preparedness. Few make the effort to do so.

Second, while the B.C. Emergencies Act delegates the responsibility for emergency preparedness to local authorities, few municipalities and regional districts take emergency preparedness seriously and fund their emergency planning and preparedness programs adequately.

Third, the province continues to hide behind the Emergencies Act, holding local authorities responsible for emergency preparedness and response knowing full well most are unable or unwilling to meet the requirements of the act. We saw this shortfall to our horror during the heat dome of last summer, and we are seeing it again as B.C. reels from the effects of the destructive recent rainfall.

Finally, in terms of emergency preparedness, the federal government appears to have concluded that B.C. has already slid into the Pacific and ignores us.

The heat dome and heavy rainfall, dramatic as they were, pale in comparison to what we could expect from a major earthquake.

There are many dedicated professional and volunteer emergency managers across B.C. who struggle to manage poorly funded and supported emergency programs, but they have been let down by their various orders of government.

We are not prepared for a major disaster in B.C., and we ignore the warnings we have been given at our peril.

Bob Black
Saanichton"

Letters Nov. 18: The Malahat problem; we're not ready for a real disaster
 
OP: An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest.

Meanwhile, it looks like they're planning on building the biggest, newest hospital in BC in a liquefaction zone, but it's good for votes:

Danger of liquefaction at False Creek Flats site of new St. Paul’s Hospital flagged by City of Vancouver
A powerful and sustained earthquake could liquefy the soil on which a new St. Paul’s Hospital is going to be built.

Planners with the City of Vancouver are alive to this danger, and have imposed conditions to ensure the resilience of the health facility that will be developed at the False Creek Flats.

The risk was one of the items contained in a recent report to council by planner Karen Hoese.

“The site is situated on a former mud flat at the end of the False Creek Inlet,” Hoese related. “The portion of the flat east of Main Street was filled in the 1900s.”

According to Hoese, the site is “located in a flood plain between 4.0 and 5.0 m above sea level”.

“This filled land is susceptible to liquefaction and severe ground shaking during earthquakes, and is located adjacent to neighbourhoods with high concentrations of earthquake-prone buildings,” Hoese wrote.

Providence Health Care will replace the current St. Paul’s Hospital at 1081 Burrard Street.

The new hospital will be located at a 7.5-hectare property between Prior Street to the north, National Avenue to the south, Station Street to the west, and Trillium Park to the east.

Hoese noted in her report that hospitals are critical infrastructure “essential to the functioning of communities day-to-day, and vital during and after disasters”.

“This new hospital presents an important opportunity for a state-of-the art facility built to withstand inevitable hazards,” Hoese stated. “Given that the New St. Paul’s Hospital is located in a flood plain and high-risk seismic and liquefaction zone, staff have provided conditions requiring comprehensive all-hazard risk and vulnerability assessments be completed, and that climate and seismic resilience measures be incorporated into the design of the building.”

The conditions include the establishment of an expert panel that will “evaluate the resilience of the design, and report on the post-disaster functionality of the hospital”.

“Recommendations from the panel are not binding, but provide a high level of transparency to the project,” Hoese added

Danger of liquefaction at False Creek Flats site of new St. Paul’s Hospital flagged by City of Vancouver
 
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