[Sca-cooks] OT: Weather in Oertha

[Sharron Albert]

Bear asked:

>>  >Four hundred miles.  Where you at, Fairbanks?

And Morgana replied:

>>Yep. Since 1964 it's been my home town.
>>
>
>Before or after the quake?  As a kid, I always wanted to have a 
>drink at the Red Dog Saloon in Anchorage, but it went down the hill 
>in the '64 quake.

Actually, I've been in the state since 1963, but didn't get to 
Fairbanks until September of 1964. I spent my first year in Alaska 
exiled in rainy Kodiak. Which just happens to be at the other end of 
the fault line that started under Valdez. So I did indeed experience 
the Good Friday Earthquake. Very scary. The first set of three 
shockwaves were bad enough: not many people have been through 5.5 
minutes of a major quake. But the thousands of aftershocks for months 
and months after was almost worse. We slept in our clothes with 
survival gear at the door for the first week, then we'd have clothes 
available at the foot of the bed. The survival gear stayed at the 
door for months. I woke up several times a night for months for the 
stronger aftershocks.

And take a look at Kodiak sometime on a map. It's huge. And it tilted 
10 feet down on the east side and ten feet up on the west side. The 
road between the navy base (I was a military brat) and town was under 
water at high tide until they cut a new road. Terra firma as a 
concept disappeared. Interesting stories to tell, but I wouldn't want 
to go through another like that.

Anchorage, for all it's spectucular spillage was on a secondary fault 
and didn't have near as much actual shaking and rattling, nor as many 
aftershocks.

>
>>What we don't have are great muckin' thunderstorms with lightning 
>>(well, hardly never) and tornadoes. We do have floods, earthquakes, 
>>landslides, black ice on roads, snowed-in passes. And, of course, 
>>volcanoes, if you're flying to come visiting (G).
>>
>
>Not to mention deer, caribou, or the mating moose that decides your 
>auto is a rival and puts the engine block in you lap.

I had a disagreement with a moose one time driving through Denali 
park in the middle of a summer night (plenty light to see clearly). 
He obviously didn't want me to cross the small bridge. I'd start 
across and he'd move back onto the end of it. I'd back up, off the 
bridge. He'd wait a few minutes, they move off. I'd wait some more, 
then try again. He'd move back. This went on for about 45 minutes 
before he got bored and moved into the woods. I waited about 10 
minutes more and then eased across the bridge. He was bigger than my 
little Toyota and I was going to argue (G).

>Driving during or immediately after an ice rain is worse than most 
>of the winter driving in Alaska, but fortunately the effects last 
>only two or three days and we usually see only one or two a season.

I'll cap you glaciation (running water over ice on the road for the 
uninitiated).

>Floods and black ice we get.  Falling rock in the hilly parts.  The 
>last big earthquake was a couple hundred years ago at New Madrid.  I 
>really don't want to see an earthquake like that.  I was in the '57 
>earthquake in California, which at the time was the biggest since 
>the '06 quake.  That was scary enough.

About 18 months ago we had the 6.9 one that hit the Denali fault. I'd 
been feeling small shocks for months. I'd look them up on the Alaska 
Earthquake site. They were all close to and around Cantwell (about 
100 miles south of Fairbanks IIRC). I remember thinking -- there's 
something on down there. Then we had a little one, about 5 point I 
think. Followed a short time later (I'd have to look up the timeline) 
by the big one, which lasted about three minutes. It ripped the 
Denali fault sideways, breaking the road. Check out the site if 
you're curious. They're a whole series of shocks that follow the 
fault line as it re-settled. On aerial photos you can see where the 
ground ripped and shifted sideways. The seismologists up here went 
nuts: hardly any damage to people and a perfect earthquake to study.

Fairbanks is an ideal place to live. No major faults under us. Good 
ground -- no chance of slippage like what happened in Anchorage. We 
had minimal damage. A couple plates committed suicide by throwing 
themselves out of my cupboards. Did you know Corellware could break? 
Caught just right on it's side, it shatters into small glass-sharp 
shards. That was fun to clean up.

>>We have two coronet tourneys at year. They used to be held on a 
>>rotating basis between the Anchorage area, Fairbanks and Juneau. 
>>Now they are bid on. Two summers ago it was in Kenai, which was an 
>>additional 150 to go for us Fairbanksans. It's a toss-up: many 
>>hours on the road; lots of nasty traffic. On the other hand, the 
>>Kenai Peninsula is no fun on Friday night and Sunday afternoon 
>>during the summer. All the camping/vacationing land whales are 
>>heading for Homer or home.
>>
>
>Still two lane blacktop from Homer to Anchorage down around the Arm 
>with the wind blasting between the mountains and the sea down a 
>natural venturi?  I suspect the traffic has gotten worse since I did 
>the 40 MPH, bumper to bumper Sunday run home.

There are stretches now, finally, around the Arm (the road that 
follows the big inlet into Anchorage) that are four lane. But lots is 
still just two-lane. But that's better than driving back to college 
from Homer the summer of 1965. A whole year later than the Good 
Friday Quake and there were long stretches of roadway that were just 
mud. The Kenai had a lot of destroyed roadways to rebuild.

Morgana, thinking she created a monster, or everyone is just bored...
-- 

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Morgana yr Oerfa, OP
Winter's Gate/Oertha/West
Per saltire gules and sable, in pale two mullets and
in fess an increscent	 and a decrescent argent.