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  1. #21
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    A 70-year-old woman died in her car along an evacuation route...

    First Fatality In Southern California Wildfires Confirmed
    December 9, 2017A 70-year-old woman died in her car along an evacuation route.
    Medical officials confirmed the first fire-related fatality in Southern California’s most recent spate of wildfires to HuffPost on Saturday.
    Virginia Pesola, 70, of Santa Paula was found in a car that had crashed along an evacuation route in Ventura County ― north of Los Angeles ― on Wednesday night, a representative for the county medical examiner’s office said. Her cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma along with terminal smoke inhalation and heat-related injuries. The blaze devouring Ventura County, known as the Thomas Fire, is currently the largest out of several wildfires raging in the region, burning through over 148,000 acres so far and requiring use of 575 fire engines to help contain it.




    A home is consumed by fire in Ojai, California

    Evacuation orders were lifted for portions of the area on Saturday, however, as the blaze reached 15 percent containment. More than 530 structures have been destroyed and 118 damaged. High winds and low humidity have sparked at least five other, smaller fires across Southern California this week that have continued to burn into the weekend. Shifting breezes have made it difficult to predict the direction of the blazes, which have produced images of apocalyptic landscapes torn apart by flames.




    The Thomas Fire burns near Ojai, California



    Firefighters continue to make progress. The Los Angeles Police Department announced Saturday afternoon that two of the region’s other blazes, the Creek and Skirball fires, were contained at 80 percent and 50 percent, respectively. This has been one of the worst years for California wildfires on record, with more than twice as many acres burned so far in 2017 than in 2016. More than 40 people lost their lives in October during a series of Northern California wildfires that are now the state’s deadliest in its history.

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ushpmg00000313
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    Firefighters Protect Coastal California Towns as Blaze Rages
    December 11, 2017 — Firefighters kept a wall of flames from descending mountains into coastal neighborhoods after a huge and destructive Southern California wildfire exploded in size, becoming the fifth largest in state history.
    Tens of thousands remained under evacuation orders Monday as the fire churned west through foothill areas of Carpinteria and Montecito, seaside Santa Barbara County towns about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. Much of the fire's rapid new growth occurred on the eastern and northern fronts into unoccupied areas of Los Padres National Forest, where the state's fourth largest fire burned a decade ago. The blaze, which had already destroyed more than 750 buildings, gutted six more in Carpinteria on Sunday, officials said. It's just 15 percent contained after charring nearly 360 square miles (930 square kilometers) of dry brush and timber. "We're still anxious. I'm not frightened yet," Carpinteria resident Roberta Lehtinen told KABC-TV. "I don't think it's going to come roaring down unless the winds kick up."


    Forecasters predicted that dry winds that fanned several fires across the region for a week would begin to lose their power Monday. Light gusts were pushing onshore, driving the flames back up hillsides and away from communities, Santa Barbara County Fire spokesman Mike Eliason said. But the possibility of "unpredictable" gusts would keep firefighters on edge for days, he said. Santa Ana winds have long contributed to some of the region's most disastrous wildfires. They blow from the inland toward the Pacific Ocean, speeding up as they squeeze through mountain passes and canyons. With the air thick with acrid smoke, even residents of areas not under evacuation orders took the opportunity to leave, fearing another shutdown of U.S. 101, a key coastal highway that was closed intermittently last week. Officials handed out masks to residents who stayed behind in Montecito, the wealthy hillside enclave that's home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bridges and Drew Barrymore.



    Firefighters working on structure protection while keeping a close eye on nearby flames atop Shepard Mesa Road in Carpinteria, Calif.



    Smoke shrouded Rob Lowe's home and the actor wore a mask as he livestreamed his family leaving on Sunday. "Praying for the people in my area," he said on Instagram. "Hope everybody's getting out safe like we are, and thanks for the prayers and thoughts. And good luck to the firefighters, we need you!" Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres tweeted that neighbors were helping each other and their animals get to safety. "I'm sending lots of love and gratitude to the fire department and sheriffs. Thank you all," she wrote. Meanwhile, containment increased on other major blazes in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties. Resources from those fires were diverted to the Santa Barbara foothills to combat the stubborn and enormous fire that started December 4. Fires are not typical in Southern California this time of year but can break out when dry vegetation and too little rain combine with the Santa Ana winds. Though the state emerged this spring from a yearslong drought, hardly any measurable rain has fallen in the region over the past six months. "This is the new normal," Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown warned Saturday after surveying damage from the deadly Ventura fire. Brown and experts said climate change is making wildfires a year-round threat.


    High fire risk is expected to last into January. The small mountain town of Ojai experienced hazardous levels of smoke at times, and officials warned of unhealthy air for large swaths of the region. The South Coast Air Quality Management District urged residents to stay indoors if possible and avoid vigorous outdoor activities. Despite the size and number of wildfires burning in the region, there has only been one confirmed death: The death of a 70-year-old woman, who crashed her car on an evacuation route, is attributed to the fire in Santa Paula, a small city where the Thomas Fire began. Most of last week's fires were in places that burned in the past, including one in the ritzy Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air that burned six homes and another in the city's rugged foothills above the community of Sylmar and in Santa Paula.


    https://www.voanews.com/a/firefighte...s/4158851.html

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    Could be fighting these fires till Christmas...

    California firefighters wary despite gains in unpredictable fire conditions
    Fri, Dec 15, 2017 - Southern California firefighters contained part of the fifth-largest fire in the state’s history, but on Wednesday warned coastal communities that they are still at risk if unpredictable winds whip up again and fan the flames.
    The US National Weather Service extended warnings through today of extreme fire danger conditions throughout much of Southern California due to lack of moisture along with a possible increase in wind gust speeds at the end of the week. Firefighters made some progress on Wednesday on corralling the so-called Thomas Fire, which has spread into national forest land northwest of Los Angeles. However, they warned that the fire would continue to spread west as it eats up parched brush. By Wednesday evening, state fire officials said the blaze was 30 percent contained, but it continued to threaten Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Summerland and Montecito — a wealthy area home to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey.

    Since the blaze broke out on Monday last week, it has burned more than 965km2 and destroyed 921 buildings — including at least 700 homes. It threatens 18,000 buildings and has prompted evacuations of about 100,000 people. Elsewhere, fire officials announced that a cooking fire at a homeless encampment last week sparked a blaze that destroyed six homes in the exclusive Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. Arson investigators determined that the so-called Skirball Fire near the world-famous J. Paul Getty Museum was started by an illegal fire at a camp near a freeway underpass, Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Erik Scott said, adding that the camp was empty when firefighters found it, but people apparently had been sleeping and cooking there for at least several days.

    The Fire Department was working on a plan to relocate such encampments at the start of fire season next year to avoid danger, Scott said. At the largest of the fires northwest of Los Angeles, firefighters protected foothill homes while the flames churned mostly into unoccupied forest land, Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason said. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Eric Burdon and his wife, Marianna, were among the people who fled the smoke in the small city of Ojai on Tuesday. Burdon, a member of the 1960s British Invasion band The Animals, wrote on Facebook last week about having to flee and returning temporarily to find his home still standing with ashes all around it. “A week like this gives you the perspective that life is what truly matters,” he wrote. A photograph accompanying the post showed his handprint and signature written in ashes.

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worl.../15/2003684021

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    California using inmates to fight wildfires...

    Inmates Make Up 1 in 5 On Thomas Fire Lines in California
    December 15, 2017 - For well over a week, hundreds of inmates have chain-sawed through relentless thickets of chaparral, cutting lines through the backcountry to thwart the fire’s sudden rushes at homes.
    On Thursday, they were deep in the Los Padres National Forest, covered in wood grit, soot and sweat, as the Thomas fire continued to grow — becoming the fourth-largest in modern California history. In the morning, commanders stressed the dangers of the work and urged them to be careful even while mopping up hot spots, cutting burned trees or striding though charred rubble. Hours later, a San Diego fire engineer, Cory Iverson, died on the fire lines. The loss rippled through the army of 8,000 fire personnel — both professionals and inmates — on the scene. Some lined the road as Iverson’s body was loaded into a hearse and taken from the fire zone. For 11 days, they’ve been fighting a sharply uneven battle against a devilish fusion of dry wind, fault-crumpled terrain and desiccated vegetation. Playing some of the hardest roles are the inmate hand crews, which make up about 20 percent of the firefighters here.

    On a ridge above Montecito on Thursday, they worked in crews of 15, leaders shouting orders, scarifying a ribbon of mountain too steep and craggy for any bulldozer. The winds had abated, as they had many times before, but the inmates were racing the clock, chopping away at ceanothus trunks and gnarled manzanita roots with specialized saws, picks, shovels, rakes and axes. Forecasters predicted Santa Barbara’s notorious sundowner winds, which howl down the mountain canyons to the coast, driving flames and embers with them, would return Friday night. Because the wildfire has sprawled so widely, the task of finding the critical points to cut it off had become profoundly difficult. “This thing is 60 miles long and 40 miles wide,” said Tim Chavez, a fire behavior analyst with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “There’s a lot of fire out there.”


    Inmates working on a fire crew rest at camp between shifts on the fire line as they work with California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) on the Thomas fire in Ventura, Calif.

    No day has been the same on the front lines. On Saturday, the winds had calmed. The heat rose in a column, carrying smoke and soot, mushrooming into a pyrocumulus cloud 30,000 feet high. On the ground, it was quiet and still. Gerardo Moran, 41, and his fellow convicts thought the worst was over. They were loading the truck about 2 a.m. Sunday to head back to camp and rest, as the temperature dropped. Then the weight of all that material in the atmosphere collapsed. A violent downdraft hit the ground and blew in every direction, fanning waves of flame. “Come on, tools out!” a Cal Fire captain shouted. “I never knew we were gonna be in the eye of the storm right there,” Moran recalled this week. “It’s pretty intense — the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve ever had, right there on the fire line.”

    The fire scorched another 50,000 acres during that bout. But Moran and the inmates were able to save a horse ranch off Highway 150, which he was happy about. Established in 1943, the inmate fire program employs roughly 3,800 prisoners across California, paying them $2 a day in the off-season — when they clear flood control channels and hiking trails — and $1 an hour when they’re fighting fires. “I’ve always been a fan of the program,” said Mark Brown, a deputy fire chief in Marin County and operations commander on the Thomas fire. “They work their butts off.” For the inmates, the danger is obvious — four have died since the program began, including two in the last two years. And some have manipulated the program — in October, an inmate escaped when he walked off the fire line while fighting a blaze in Orange County, only to be recaptured on Halloween in Los Angeles.

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    Thomas fire threatens Montecito...

    California wildfire 3rd largest in state history, threatening Montecito
    Dec. 16, 2017 -- The Thomas Fire, now the third largest fire in California's recorded history, is only 40 percent contained in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and is bearing down on mansions in Montecito.
    Firefighters are bracing for the blaze to strengthen because strong Santa Ana winds are pushing south from the mountains down to the coast, with forecasted gusts reaching up to 40 mph. The winds are removing moisture and no rain is forecast. Evacuation orders were expanded in and around Montecito and Summerland. The northbound 101 Freeway into Santa Barbara was closed to traffic. "When the sundowners surface in that area and the fire starts running down slopes, you are not going to stop it," Mark Brown, an operations section chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told reporters at a Saturday morning news briefing. "And we are not going to stand in front of it and put firefighters in untenable situations."

    The fire, which started on Dec. 4, has burned 256,000 square acres northwest of Los Angeles, according to Cal Fire, and has the potential to become the biggest fire ever in California since recording began in 1932. No. 1 is the 2003 Cedar Fire, which killed 15 people and burned just over 273,000 acres in San Diego. No. 2 in California is the Rush Fire in the northern portion of the state at 271,911 acres in 2012. But the fire also burned in Nevada for a total of 315,577 acres. A total of 8,370 firefighters, 32 helicopters and 77 bulldozers were working the blaze Saturday morning. Two people have been killed in the fire, which has also destroyed 1,009 structures, damaged 240 structures and threatens 18,000 more.


    The Thomas Fire had spread to 259,000 acres and was 40 percent contained, according to Cal Fire. Photo courtesy of Cal Fire on Twitter was near Highway 150 and Highway 126 north of Santa Paula in Ventura County.

    If the winds run south down the canyon toward Montecito, "we won't stop the spread," Brown said. Hundreds of homes are in the fire's potential path, and Brown said it too dangerous to put firefighters in front of it to stop it. They would instead watch it from designated "safety zones" and then attack it from behind. The enclave includes mansions of Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres and many other celebrities.

    Winfrey expressed her dismay on her Twitter account. "Still praying for our little town. Winds picked up this morning creating a perfect storm of bad for firefighters," Winfrey tweeted. It was not clear if Winfrey was in Montecito. Martin Johnson, a division chief with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, said "If you are in an evacuation order area, I am asking you to please heed that order. If you're in one of the warning areas ... be ready to go at a moment's notice. This is a significant event and we want everybody to be ready."

    https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017...p&utm_medium=5

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    Flooding aftermath of wildfires...

    At least 8 people dead after California mudslides
    Jan 9, 2018 - At least eight people are dead after powerful storms and mudslides swept parts of Southern California on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
    Firefighters rescued eight people in Montecito, and authorities say those numbers could rise as several people remain missing.


    Emergency personnel search through debris and damaged homes after a mudslide in Montecito, California on Jan. 9.

    On Monday, mandatory evacuations were issued by Santa Barbara County officials and warned that the regions that already scorched by the California wildfires would face a major rainstorm of the season. This storm dumped more than five inches of rainfall north of Ojai in the Thomas Fire burn area, the National Weather Service in Los Angeles reported.


    Emergency personnel inspect a damaged home on Hot Springs Road after a mudslide in Montecito, California on Jan. 9.

    Mud flowed “waist-high” 30 miles away in Montecito after heavy rainfall shortly after midnight, said Mike Eliason, a public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. The storm and mud littered roads with downed trees and powerlines in Montecito, and gas mains were reported broken, he said.


    A search dog looks for victims in damaged homes after a mudslide in Montecito on Jan. 9.

    Also according to Eliason, the emergency crews have received numerous calls to rescue people trapped in vehicles, homes and a child was among one of those who was injured. The severe storm is threatening the state with the heaviest rainfall in six years, according to Reuters.


    Emergency personnel rescue a man from flood waters and debris after a mudslide in Montecito, California, U.S. in this photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department January 9, 2018.

    Flooding and debris flows closed US 101 in the Thomas Fire burn area, located north of Ventura and south of Santa Barbara, according to California Department of Transportation. Several freeways and highways were also closed in Ventura and Los Angeles counties due to mudslides.

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/...rnia-mudslides
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    lifornia mudslides kill at least 13 people in area ravaged by wildfire
    January 9, 2018 - Mudslides, boulders and cascading debris killed at least 13 people on Tuesday in an area of Southern California’s Pacific Coast ravaged by a series of intense wildfires that burned off protective vegetation last month.
    Heavy downpours struck before dawn on Tuesday after thousands of residents in Santa Barbara County along the Pacific coast north of Los Angeles were ordered to evacuate or urged to do so voluntarily, some of them for a second time since December. But only 10 to 15 percent complied with mandatory orders, said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. Emergency workers, using search dogs and helicopters, have rescued dozens of people stranded in mud-coated rubble in the pristine area, sandwiched between the ocean and the sprawling Los Padres National Forest, about 110 miles north of Los Angeles. The upscale communities of Montecito and Carpenteria, just outside the city of Santa Barbara, were hardest hit.

    The mudslides toppled trees, demolished cars and covered blocks of quiet residential neighborhoods with a thick layer of mud, and blocked Highway 101, a major north-south route along the coast. “The best way I can describe it is, it looked like a World War One battlefield,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said at a news conference. The death toll could rise, with rescue workers still picking through dozens of damaged and demolished homes in the search for survivors, Brown said. At one point on Tuesday, at least two dozen people were missing, but Brown did not know how many were still missing. About 300 people were stranded in a canyon. Local officials, using borrowed helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard, were working to airlift them out, Brown said.

    THIGH-HIGH MUD

    The number of fatalities surpassed the death toll from a California mudslide on Jan. 10, 2005, when 10 people were killed as a hillside gave way in the town of La Conchita, less than 20 miles (32 km) south of the latest disaster. The threat of mudslides had prompted the county to order 7,000 residents to leave their homes ahead of a powerful rainstorm and to urge 23,000 others to evacuate voluntarily. The mudslides swept through both the mandatory evacuation zones and areas where people were urged to voluntarily leave, Brown said. Brown, in response to questions of why some places were part of the mandatory evacuation zone, said it was not possible “in a situation like this to define to the house or to the block or to the neighborhood” where a mudslide might occur.

    The county set up an evacuation shelter at Santa Barbara City College, where some people showed up drenched in mud, and also provided a place for people to take their animals. Last month’s wildfires, the largest in California history, left the area vulnerable to mudslides. The fires burned away grass and shrubs that hold the soil in place and also baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground. Some local residents had to flee their homes due to the fires last month and again this week because of the rains. Among them was Colin Funk, 42, who sat up watching mud and debris approaching his Montecito house overnight and fled on Tuesday morning with his wife and three young children as thigh-high mud approached the front doorway. “We started looking around and that’s when we saw parts of roofs and there was a body against our next door neighbor’s car,” Funk, who works as a financial adviser, said by telephone. “I feel lucky,” Funk said. “Some people lost their lives in my neighborhood.”

    Television personality Ellen DeGeneres, who is among a coterie of celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Rob Lowe who own homes in the upscale community of Montecito, posted a photo on Twitter of a roadway choked with mud and brown water. “This is not a river,” DeGeneres wrote on Twitter. “This is the 101 freeway in my neighborhood right now. Montecito needs your love and support.” Some areas of Santa Barbara County early on Tuesday were pounded with more than a half-inch of rain in five minutes, a rate that far exceeds the normal flash flood threshold, officials said. “Where are the frogs and locusts? We’re waiting for them,” Dominic Shiach, a restaurateur from Montecito who evacuated due to last month’s fire, said by telephone. He lives just outside the latest evacuation zone.

    https://in.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idINKBN1EY0OO
    Last edited by waltky; 01-09-2018 at 09:59 PM.

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    California mudslides death toll rises with 17 still missing...


    California mudslides death toll rises with 17 still missing
    11 Jan.`18 - Hundreds of rescuers are combing wreckage in Southern California for those missing after mudslides that have killed 17.
    Another 28 injuries have been reported in Santa Barbara County following the deluge that overwhelmed an area scorched by wildfires last month. More than 100 homes were destroyed, and another 300 have been damaged. One rescue worker tearfully described plucking a "muddy doll" of a toddler from under several feet of debris. Berkeley Johnson said the two-year-old girl was taken to hospital and suffered an injury to her hip. "I don't know how the baby survived," Mr Berkeley told the Santa Barbara Independent newspaper.



    Fire department workers rescued a 14-year-old girl from a collapsed house in Montecito


    He said of his own home in the community of Montecito: "This was an hour of rain, and the house was gone." Mr Johnson said he and his wife, Karen, heard a baby crying after the flooding had subsided and they managed to climb down from the roof of their swamped home. The pair joined a fireman to dig the toddler out, scooping mud from her mouth before she was taken to hospital. "Had we not gone over there, I don't think that kid would have [survived]," he added.



    Graphic showing mandatory evacuation zones east of Santa Barbara, and huge swath of land affected by Thomas wildfire


    Police say 17 people remain missing. The death toll rose on Wednesday afternoon after two more bodies were found. More than 50 people have been rescued already but many places were still inaccessible. Several roads were closed, including the major Highway 101 which authorities say will not be reopened until Monday. "We are still very much in active search-and-rescue mode," said Chris Elms, a spokesman for Cal Fire, warning that the death toll may still rise. "That's a fear. We are still very hopeful that we will locate people alive," he added.



    Boulders the size of cars rolled down hills and slammed into roadways


    Santa Barbara County spokesman Amber Anderson said: "We have no idea where they're at. We think somewhere in the debris field." The upmarket neighbourhood of Montecito is home to celebrities such as actor Rob Lowe, chat show host Ellen DeGeneres and media mogul Oprah Winfrey. On Instagram, Ms Winfrey said her property had escaped the worst as she toured the scene, but described the house next door as "devastated".


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    What a mess!...

    California Town Digs Out of the Mud as Deaths Reach 19
    January 14, 2018 — Recovery crews are slowly making progress digging away masses of mud, boulders and toppled trees in a California community that was ravaged by deadly mudslides. Officials said they’ve removed enough debris from creek canals to prevent another potential disaster when the next rainstorm hits.
    Workers were using backhoes, jackhammers and chain saws to clear the debris in Montecito, nearly a week after a powerful storm sent flash floods cascading through mountain slopes that were burned bare by a huge wildfire in December. At least 19 people have been killed and five others remain missing. In addition to trying to find those who are still missing after Tuesday morning’s storm, crews have made it a priority to clear debris from basins and creek canals before another rainstorm. Long-range forecasts gave the crews about a week before the next chance of rain — and potential new mudslides — although the precipitation was expected to be light. Another system was possible two days later. “If we don’t get those debris basins cleaned out, then we’re not going to be prepared for the storm, and we don’t know what that storm is going to look like,” said Robert Lewin, Santa Barbara County’s emergency management director.

    Hundreds of homes damaged, destroyed

    The mudslides ravaged the tony community, destroying at least 65 homes and damaging more than 460 others, officials said. Firefighters went door to door along several blocks, checking the structural integrity of the damaged homes. The rest of the community’s infrastructure was also damaged. Some streets were cracked in half, and authorities closed bridges and overpasses because they were unstable. “The bridges, the roads, they all need help,” Lewin said.


    Crews work on clearing Highway 101 in the aftermath of a mudslide, Jan. 13, 2018, in Montecito, Calif. Most of the people of the town, usually known for its serenity and luxury, were under orders to stay out as gas and power were to be shut off Saturday for repairs.

    Eight large excavators were being used to clear the debris from Montecito Creek, Tom Fayram, the deputy director of the county’s flood control district, said. “Two days ago I passed by an area where there was no creek, and today I went by and the creek was fully restored,” he said. “We are making great progress and we have several days before that next storm.”

    Search for the missing continues

    More than 2,000 searchers and recovery workers remained in the community late Saturday, carrying out backbreaking work in the summerlike weather that has made the stretch of Santa Barbara County coast about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles a haven for the wealthy, celebrities and tourists. Much of the community of about 9,000 remained under mandatory evacuation orders, even unscathed areas, as crews both removed debris and worked to restore water, sanitation, power and gas.

    https://www.voanews.com/a/montecito-...9/4207012.html

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    My oldest niece just went out on a research trip off the coast of Ca. on the vessel Sally Ride, originally the research was going to be research on plankton, but they squeezed another grant out to also research the effect of the ash on local ocean habitats...I'll see if I can get some data the next time we speak...She is so cool!

    BTW she's doing grad work out of UCSB.
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