Holy cow it's windy out here

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Date: 03 Dec 2006 11:37:57
From: brink
Subject: Holy cow it's windy out here

We're having our annual Santa Ana winds here in Southern California, and in
the town I'm in today (Rialto, 1 hr east of LA) the wind is gusting up to 60
MPH. I'm not a great estimator of wind speed, but I think it's easily
blowing steady at 30-40 MPH and the 60 MPH gusts are coming frequently... I
mean, this *crazy* wind...

Just for a challenge, I got on my bike on a very quiet residential street to
see if I could handle this... biking north (straight into the wind) feels
like trying to ascend a 20 percent grade. Biking east or west is a balance
challenge, needless to say... and biking south makes you feel superhuman...
;-)

brink

Date: 05 Dec 2006 07:26:26
From: nash
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

> I think power outages peaked in the low hundreds of thousands, with no
> > more than 60,000 without power for more than a day.

BC Hydro said 90,000 for Van. Is. and the lower mainland.
200,000 for all of BC. Some places more than 5 days powerless.
Where did you get 60,000? What section of BC

Date: 07 Dec 2006 08:05:11
From: Ryan Cousineau
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

In article <1165332386.713842.324440@j72g2000cwa.googlegroups.com >,
"nash" <SMNate@gmail.com > wrote:

> > I think power outages peaked in the low hundreds of thousands, with no
> > > more than 60,000 without power for more than a day.
>
> BC Hydro said 90,000 for Van. Is. and the lower mainland.
> 200,000 for all of BC. Some places more than 5 days powerless.
> Where did you get 60,000? What section of BC

Vaguely remembered figure, so I may be off, but I recall that as the
figure for the Lower Mainland (Vancouver).

--
Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Date: 04 Dec 2006 19:12:37
From: Tom Keats
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

In article <1165267016.852176.254710@j72g2000cwa.googlegroups.com >,
"nash" <SMNate@gmail.com > writes:

> I am glad it was not as bad as
> Quebec in 1998. Never want to see that here. Just shows you how
> unprepared we are here.

I just wish it would rain real hard and melt all the snow
off in one fell swoop. Where's the f$%!in' rain when
ya want it?

Here's an anecdote for ya: I was returning home from Mid-Main
(on foot) earlier this evening. There was about a 30 yard
stretch of minimally cleared sidewalk, about a foot wide,
ahead of me. A sidewalk cyclist was at the other end of this
half-assed sidewalk-clearing effort. I spotted him, and he
spotted me. He prepared to take to Main Street (going the
wrong way,) figuring I'd hog the narrowly cleared path.
But I stepped aside and waited patiently for him.

I could have been a prick and made a point about the
rudeness imposed on pedestrians by sidewalk cycling,
but I didn't want him to get clobbered by a car.

But I guilted him out, enough for him to thank me for giving
him a chance to ride through on the sidewalk. So maybe I
was passive-aggressive. OTOH, instead of becoming a
wrong-way rider, he could have taken a siding for me, just
as I did for him. I hope he got the message. At least
nobody got wound up in the hospital, re-living a scene from
Pink Floyd's The Wall movie (the scene with Pink on the
gurney, being rushed down the corridor, with all the ceiling
lights whizzing by.[*]) Not by my doing, anyways.

cheers,
Tom

[*] I've been there, myself. The worst part is when they
bring you to, just enough for the cop to ask you a
bunch of annoying questions before you pass out again.
At that point, just let them know you don't remember
what happened, and ask how (and where) your bike is.

--
Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

Date: 04 Dec 2006 15:09:38
From: nash
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here and dark

You can keep track of it here but it is by the minute not cumulative.
I expect if there was a people-days figure it would accurately be one
Mill (ie man-hours)
My outage was the week of the 19th so Nov.27 articles would not be the
right comparison BTW

http://www.bchydro.com/bch-cgi/outage/outage.cgi?selDistrict=Lower+Mainland&dispSurvey=Yes&refresh=off

Date: 04 Dec 2006 15:08:35
From: nash
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here and dark

You can keep track of it here but it is by the minute not cumulative.
I expect if there was a people-days figure it would accurately be one
Mill (ie man-hours)

http://www.bchydro.com/bch-cgi/outage/outage.cgi?selDistrict=Lower+Mainland&dispSurvey=Yes&refresh=off

Date: 04 Dec 2006 13:16:56
From: nash
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

carlfogel@comcast.net wrote:
> Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> > In article <1165177262.199198.275270@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com>,
> > "nash" <SMNate@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > brink wrote:
> > > > We're having our annual Santa Ana winds here in Southern California, and in
> > > > the town I'm in today (Rialto, 1 hr east of LA) the wind is gusting up to 60
> > > > MPH. I'm not a great estimator of wind speed, but I think it's easily
> > > > blowing steady at 30-40 MPH and the 60 MPH gusts are coming frequently... I
> > > > mean, this *crazy* wind...
> > > >
> > > > Just for a challenge, I got on my bike on a very quiet residential street to
> > > > see if I could handle this... biking north (straight into the wind) feels
> > > > like trying to ascend a 20 percent grade. Biking east or west is a balance
> > > > challenge, needless to say... and biking south makes you feel superhuman...
> > > > ;-)
> > > >
> > > > brink
> > >
> > > Here in the GVRD (Vancouver, BC) we get winds like that in the winter
> > > too.
> > > 1 million were without power for a week I think, water was non
> > > drinkable for more.
> > > The weather has been so bad I have not gone out for weeks.
> > > My challenge is in my kitchen and using up everything I got. You'd be
> > > amazed what makes a good soup around here.
> >
> > Nash, it was bad, but nowhere near 1M without power for a week. That
> > would have been a third of the metropolitan area.
> >
> > I think power outages peaked in the low hundreds of thousands, with no
> > more than 60,000 without power for more than a day.
> >
> > The water was under a boil-water advisory, almost certainly a prudent
> > precaution rather than a health disaster averted.
> >
> > --
> > Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
> > "I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
> > to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos
>
> Dear Ryan,
>
> You seem to think right.
>
> Some Canadian newspapers reported only 44,000 without power on
> Vancouver Island:
>
> "Published: Monday, November 27, 2006"
>
> "Downed trees and snapped snow-laden branches left about 30,000 homes
> on southern Vancouver Island without power for much of yesterday, with
> hydro crews having a difficult time accessing trouble spots because of
> the roads. Another 14,000 homes on the northern Island lost power.
> Hydro officials said many people would be without power overnight."
>
> http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=f1702cc9-4df5-4678-95fb-96270c4e5bc3&k=43414
>
> A less detailed article mentioned 200,000 for larger area, probably all
> of British Columbia:
>
> "Dec 03 2006"
>
> "It started with heavy rains that caused serious flooding in Chilliwack
> and some other parts of the region."
>
> "Then a major windstorm tore down trees and knocked out power to more
> than 200,000 people."
>
> "Accompanying heavy rains caused mudslides in local reservoirs,
> triggering a historic boil water advisory for Greater Vancouver."
>
> http://www.theprogress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=39&cat=23&id=784579&more=
>
> The population of British Columbia is only about 4 million, with
> Vancouver at about 600,00 and its general area around 2 million:
>
> http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/aboutvan.htm#population
>
> Cheers,
>
> Carl Fogel

Hi, I did a thorough search on CBC.ca. Cannot find the million that
they had posted on the TV so I called BC Hydro. They do not know the
max no. before power was being restored but she said 90,000 for The
island and Vancouver Lower Mainland would be her best guess but no way
of knowing how many. I saw and heard a million of the TV They made a
mistake obviously. At one point I saw 200,000 in the archives so I
guess that might have been for BC. The winds were 100kph. The worst
storm for many many years for BC so I would not play it down if I were
you. If I had known real pop no. I would have guessed they were wrong
too. Too late for this quick crowd. I am glad it was not as bad as
Quebec in 1998. Never want to see that here. Just shows you how
unprepared we are here.
They kept saying people were going in hyperbaric chambers from using
there BBQ and such inside where they shouldn't. So again, they did not
know how to handle it because it has never happened for decades.

Date: 04 Dec 2006 09:16:11
From:
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> In article <1165177262.199198.275270@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com>,
> "nash" <SMNate@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > brink wrote:
> > > We're having our annual Santa Ana winds here in Southern California, and in
> > > the town I'm in today (Rialto, 1 hr east of LA) the wind is gusting up to 60
> > > MPH. I'm not a great estimator of wind speed, but I think it's easily
> > > blowing steady at 30-40 MPH and the 60 MPH gusts are coming frequently... I
> > > mean, this *crazy* wind...
> > >
> > > Just for a challenge, I got on my bike on a very quiet residential street to
> > > see if I could handle this... biking north (straight into the wind) feels
> > > like trying to ascend a 20 percent grade. Biking east or west is a balance
> > > challenge, needless to say... and biking south makes you feel superhuman...
> > > ;-)
> > >
> > > brink
> >
> > Here in the GVRD (Vancouver, BC) we get winds like that in the winter
> > too.
> > 1 million were without power for a week I think, water was non
> > drinkable for more.
> > The weather has been so bad I have not gone out for weeks.
> > My challenge is in my kitchen and using up everything I got. You'd be
> > amazed what makes a good soup around here.
>
> Nash, it was bad, but nowhere near 1M without power for a week. That
> would have been a third of the metropolitan area.
>
> I think power outages peaked in the low hundreds of thousands, with no
> more than 60,000 without power for more than a day.
>
> The water was under a boil-water advisory, almost certainly a prudent
> precaution rather than a health disaster averted.
>
> --
> Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
> "I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
> to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Dear Ryan,

You seem to think right.

Some Canadian newspapers reported only 44,000 without power on
Vancouver Island:

"Published: Monday, November 27, 2006"

"Downed trees and snapped snow-laden branches left about 30,000 homes
on southern Vancouver Island without power for much of yesterday, with
hydro crews having a difficult time accessing trouble spots because of
the roads. Another 14,000 homes on the northern Island lost power.
Hydro officials said many people would be without power overnight."

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=f1702cc9-4df5-4678-95fb-96270c4e5bc3&k=43414

A less detailed article mentioned 200,000 for larger area, probably all
of British Columbia:

"Dec 03 2006"

"It started with heavy rains that caused serious flooding in Chilliwack
and some other parts of the region."

"Then a major windstorm tore down trees and knocked out power to more
than 200,000 people."

"Accompanying heavy rains caused mudslides in local reservoirs,
triggering a historic boil water advisory for Greater Vancouver."

http://www.theprogress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=39&cat=23&id=784579&more=

The population of British Columbia is only about 4 million, with
Vancouver at about 600,00 and its general area around 2 million:

http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/aboutvan.htm#population

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Date: 03 Dec 2006 18:02:24
From: Mike A Schwab
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

http://www.geocities.com/twoftup/wind.jpg

brink wrote:
> We're having our annual Santa Ana winds here in Southern California, and in
> the town I'm in today (Rialto, 1 hr east of LA) the wind is gusting up to 60
> MPH. I'm not a great estimator of wind speed, but I think it's easily
> blowing steady at 30-40 MPH and the 60 MPH gusts are coming frequently... I
> mean, this *crazy* wind...
>
> Just for a challenge, I got on my bike on a very quiet residential street to
> see if I could handle this... biking north (straight into the wind) feels
> like trying to ascend a 20 percent grade. Biking east or west is a balance
> challenge, needless to say... and biking south makes you feel superhuman...
> ;-)
>
> brink

Date: 04 Dec 2006 09:24:44
From: dgk
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

On 3 Dec 2006 18:02:24 -0800, "Mike A Schwab"
<mike.a.schwab@gmail.com > wrote:

>http://www.geocities.com/twoftup/wind.jpg
>

Great sign.

Date: 03 Dec 2006 15:44:34
From: nash
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

Date: 05 Dec 2006 08:02:24
From: Ryan Cousineau
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

In article <1165189474.302153.163980@l12g2000cwl.googlegroups.com >,
"nash" <SMNate@gmail.com > wrote:

> Ryan Cousineau wrote:
> > In article <1165177262.199198.275270@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com>,
> > "nash" <SMNate@gmail.com> wrote:

> > > Here in the GVRD (Vancouver, BC) we get winds like that in the winter
> > > too.
> > > 1 million were without power for a week I think, water was non
> > > drinkable for more.
> > > The weather has been so bad I have not gone out for weeks.
> > > My challenge is in my kitchen and using up everything I got. You'd be
> > > amazed what makes a good soup around here.
> >
> > Nash, it was bad, but nowhere near 1M without power for a week. That
> > would have been a third of the metropolitan area.
> >
> > I think power outages peaked in the low hundreds of thousands, with no
> > more than 60,000 without power for more than a day.

> No, I meant 1M for Vancouver Island, sorry Wind is around 80kmh For
> the Island. Where my folks live.
> I was out of power for 3 days. IN Surrey we had no water warning.
> Good to be inland.

I doubt there are 1M people on Vancouver Island.

--
Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

Date: 03 Dec 2006 21:31:48
From: Ron Hardin
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

Cross winds are the major challenge; you need more space to the side
the more gusty the wind, and the slower you're going.

Unfortunately a wind from the side slows you down as well.

Anyway, the finish is that you have to get the wheels over to the
downwide side very fast when a gust hits, and your bike may be off
the road by the time you get them there.

Or you can be ``blown'' into traffic, which is worse.

The erratic track is your steering, by the way, not the wind's blowing.

If you didn't steer, you'd blow over instead, but more or less in place.

--
Ron Hardin
rhhardin@mindspring.com

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Date: 03 Dec 2006 12:54:30
From: bdbafh
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

brink wrote:
> We're having our annual Santa Ana winds here in Southern California, and in
> the town I'm in today (Rialto, 1 hr east of LA) the wind is gusting up to 60
> MPH. I'm not a great estimator of wind speed, but I think it's easily
> blowing steady at 30-40 MPH and the 60 MPH gusts are coming frequently... I
> mean, this *crazy* wind...
>
> Just for a challenge, I got on my bike on a very quiet residential street to
> see if I could handle this... biking north (straight into the wind) feels
> like trying to ascend a 20 percent grade. Biking east or west is a balance
> challenge, needless to say... and biking south makes you feel superhuman...
> ;-)
>
> brink

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road.php?id=road/2006/jun06/RAAM06/RAAM069

"Tristen Grant was blown off her bike in the windstorms of Kansas"

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2006/newsarchive/20061606.htm

"Jonathan Boyer got blown off his bicycle late last night (June 15th)
and sustained some "road rash" and minor injuries."

How fast were you going downwind?

-bdbafh

Date: 03 Dec 2006 12:21:02
From: nash
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

brink wrote:
> We're having our annual Santa Ana winds here in Southern California, and in
> the town I'm in today (Rialto, 1 hr east of LA) the wind is gusting up to 60
> MPH. I'm not a great estimator of wind speed, but I think it's easily
> blowing steady at 30-40 MPH and the 60 MPH gusts are coming frequently... I
> mean, this *crazy* wind...
>
> Just for a challenge, I got on my bike on a very quiet residential street to
> see if I could handle this... biking north (straight into the wind) feels
> like trying to ascend a 20 percent grade. Biking east or west is a balance
> challenge, needless to say... and biking south makes you feel superhuman...
> ;-)
>
> brink

Here in the GVRD (Vancouver, BC) we get winds like that in the winter
too.
1 million were without power for a week I think, water was non
drinkable for more.
The weather has been so bad I have not gone out for weeks.
My challenge is in my kitchen and using up everything I got. You'd be
amazed what makes a good soup around here.

Date: 03 Dec 2006 22:07:29
From: Ryan Cousineau
Subject: Re: Holy cow it's windy out here

In article <1165177262.199198.275270@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com >,
"nash" <SMNate@gmail.com > wrote:

> brink wrote:
> > We're having our annual Santa Ana winds here in Southern California, and in
> > the town I'm in today (Rialto, 1 hr east of LA) the wind is gusting up to 60
> > MPH. I'm not a great estimator of wind speed, but I think it's easily
> > blowing steady at 30-40 MPH and the 60 MPH gusts are coming frequently... I
> > mean, this *crazy* wind...
> >
> > Just for a challenge, I got on my bike on a very quiet residential street to
> > see if I could handle this... biking north (straight into the wind) feels
> > like trying to ascend a 20 percent grade. Biking east or west is a balance
> > challenge, needless to say... and biking south makes you feel superhuman...
> > ;-)
> >
> > brink
>
> Here in the GVRD (Vancouver, BC) we get winds like that in the winter
> too.
> 1 million were without power for a week I think, water was non
> drinkable for more.
> The weather has been so bad I have not gone out for weeks.
> My challenge is in my kitchen and using up everything I got. You'd be
> amazed what makes a good soup around here.

Nash, it was bad, but nowhere near 1M without power for a week. That
would have been a third of the metropolitan area.

I think power outages peaked in the low hundreds of thousands, with no
more than 60,000 without power for more than a day.

The water was under a boil-water advisory, almost certainly a prudent
precaution rather than a health disaster averted.

--
Ryan Cousineau rcousine@sfu.ca http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos