Giant 'dinosaur-looking' gator found on Florida golf course shocks natives

[Redrose]

Well, I realize $80 each 6 months is cheap which means the risk of you having a quake is super low. Here on a cheap house,they can expect to pay $100 per month. This tells me you could use the money on a good vacation and be better off. 600 miles from the New madrid means you are safe. very very safe. But it's your money.

I would survey how many in your area pay for such insurance trying to find out from the state?

I inherited my dad's "worry gene" and $160 per year gives me some peace of mind, my home would be replaced if destroyed. What concerns me is the height of our brick walls. We have a one story home, but the attic is 2.5 stories high, we have stairs up to the attic and then another flight of stairs to the second floor in the attic, it's massive, great storage. It's temperature controlled. The peaks on the sides are 40' high, with a very steep roof. A beautiful home. Even a good shake could cause severe brick damage that is expensive to repair.

[Bob]

I inherited my dad's "worry gene" and $160 per year gives me some peace of mind, my home would be replaced if destroyed. What concerns me is the height of our brick walls. We have a one story home, but the attic is 2.5 stories high, we have stairs up to the attic and then another flight of stairs to the second floor in the attic, it's massive, great storage. It's temperature controlled. The peaks on the sides are 40' high, with a very steep roof. A beautiful home. Even a good shake could cause severe brick damage that is expensive to repair.

Personally, I would use the same money and hire a local structural engineer and go by his recommendations.

HE might tell you you are blowing money and have nothing to fear. Were you close to St. Louis, I would keep my mouth shut. Just saying. I have in the past hired those sort of guys. Ten years of $160 per year is $1600.

Why do you fear an earthquake?

[Redrose]

Personally, I would use the same money and hire a local structural engineer and go by his recommendations.

HE might tell you you are blowing money and have nothing to fear. Were you close to St. Louis, I would keep my mouth shut. Just saying. I have in the past hired those sort of guys. Ten years of $160 per year is $1600.

Why do you fear an earthquake?

One of my dearest friends from NY has a twin sister in California. She's been there since the mid seventies. She lost a home to fire, lost a home to a quake, and had her pool slide into her living room with a mud slide twice. Of all those disasters, the quake was the most terrifying she said. That made an impression on me. We live about 20 miles from Maryville, TN and they get tremors occassionally, causing minor to moderate damage. If I live another 20 years, that will be $3200. I can deal with that. Then our kids can deal with it.

[Bob]

One of my dearest friends from NY has a twin sister in California. She's been there since the mid seventies. She lost a home to fire, lost a home to a quake, and had her pool slide into her living room with a mud slide twice. Of all those disasters, the quake was the most terrifying she said. That made an impression on me. We live about 20 miles from Maryville, TN and they get tremors occassionally, causing minor to moderate damage. If I live another 20 years, that will be $3200. I can deal with that. Then our kids can deal with it.

Some locations in CA are terrible.

You might find this interesting.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...ee/history.php

[Redrose]

I was surprised when I heard this mountainous area got earthquake tremors, some strong ones too.

What convinced me to get the insurance was my State Farm agent, he is my neighbor a few houses away and he has it. We have the exact same house.

Thank you for that link, it was very interesting.

[Peter1469]

Peter, was there much damage in that area? If I remember correctly, it was around a 6.

Not much damage. The Washington Monument got cracked and it took a long time to fix it.

[southwest88]

I've read about the New Madrid fault, and you are right it is worse than the San Andreas fault. We're about 600 miles east of it, and depending on the magnatude, we would have damage. I hope I don't live to see it.

One of my girls homes in Florida is going through sinkhole repair. She and her husband found a sinkhole under their house and pool. So, it's costing the insurance company $190,000 to fix it. They've been at her house 2 weeks, and plan to be there another month. I saw the pictures, what a mess.

Seems as if most areas have some sort of phenomenon to deal with.

Well, yah, true enough. In the case of FL, however, a lot of the sinkholes, environmental degradation, saltwater incursion, etc. is from attempts to extract money from swamp. FL, the land speculators & the Army Corps of Engineers have drained, dug canals, sunk considerable money into rearranging water flows - usually discarding drinkable water into canals running to the Atlantic or the Gulf. Now that drinkable water is becoming scarce (see above), the hunt is on to find & tap potable water. & all that pumping, dredging, digging canals, draining swamps, lagoons, removing overfill & changing drainage patterns @ random, has caused an impressive mushrooming of sinkholes.

Offhand, I'd say follow the Air Force's (?) lead, when Homestead AB got walloped by hurricane Andrew in 1992. The base was rebuilt, but as a reserve base - with fewer assets for any storm to destroy. I think FL would make a nice national park for the manatees. Or a nice submarine park - it seems to be headed that way in any event, no matter what language the current FL landlord/waterworks governor may moot.

[southwest88]

Dinosaurs evolved with different hip structure which eventually allowed for upright walking. The most obvious are dinosaurs with bird-like hips such as theropods, two-legged dinosaurs which are the ancestors of birds. Theropods include tyrannosaurs, raptors and such.

I know the dimetrodon aren't classified as dinosaurs, & they went extinct before the dinosaurs arose. But none of the dimetrodon line - looking like 'gators with sails on their spine - lived through the age of dinosaurs? (& these seem to have a 'gator-like leg articulation)


from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimetrodon

[silvereyes]

Great! This critter is big enough, can we train him (& his brethren) to go & find & eat all the monster pythons, boas, constrictors, etc. in southern FL?

& which tastes better anyway - the snakes or the 'gators? Or do they all taste like chicken?

Either way, I say the 'gator has right of precedence. So the 'gators should stay, & the alien snakes, etc. become 'gator chum.

Have you seen the pictures of the snake that exploded after it swallowed a gator?

[southwest88]

Have you seen the pictures of the snake that exploded after it swallowed a gator?

No, I haven't. It's alright though, I don't really need to see it. Or is this the lead-in to some turducken variant joke? (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken)

But I'll bite: Did the 'gator survive the incident? (Did he scuttle towards the light? Well, there really was light @ the end of the ... snake? But it wasn't the end of the snake, not literally, was it? Oh, dear ...)