Posted on 02/04/2008 4:42:28 AM PST by justa-hairyape
In Idahna, Ore., there is so much snow, residents' roofs are starting to collapse. The mayor has requested that Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski declare the area a state of emergency and send help.
Eighteen inches of snow fell in the last 24 hours on top to 6 feet of snow already there, Idahna Mayor Karen Clark said Sunday.
There is literally nowhere to put the snow.
"We have buildings with snow on them in danger of collapsing. Snow around doors in danger of bursting, some homes have already sustained damage," Clark said.
The town does not have the resources to deal with so much snow, according to the mayor.
Oregon State Corrections sent inmates in to help, but they need heavy equipment to get the snow off of road ways and homes.
“We are out of room and snow plowing money so are in danger of having to suspend snow plowing of the streets. Our citizens have now become in imminent danger as a result. We are also concerned about the citizens of Marion County that are out of our city limits and we are unable to help," Clark said.
"We are asking the Governor of Oregon for an immediate Declaration of State of Emergency and the National Guard to come in with heavy equipment.”
In 1996 downtown Kalispell had 14' of snow. They to do just that. Hauled it out of town and dumped it by the flathead river.
The Pacific Ocean is by far the largest body of water in the world. It is right off the west coast and La Nina typically means heavier then normal precipitation for the Pacific Northwest. This particular La Nina is so strong that even the Southwest has been getting some of the precipitation. Typically that only occurs during an El Nino. My guess is that the low sunspot number, which has been occurring for 4 years now, is causing greater water droplet formation in the lower atmosphere (new cosmic ray theory). That combination of factors, shows some incredible precipitation potential for the Pacific North West.
Yeah. Those mountain passes never seem to lose their snow. I was on Going to the Sun Road in Glacier in late May in ‘78 and there was a significant amount of snow.
It was near 80 degrees in the lower elevations.
Global climate change is amazing. (Suck it up, Algore.) LOL!
Hauling snow is pretty common. It happens all the time here in Michigan. Quite often, snow is trucked to lakes with lower than normal levels.
Down around Detroit we also used salt and up in the Upper Peninsula we also used sand. The problem in Oregon is that this area is full of mountains. Big ones. You need to also worry about avalanches. It is going to take a lot of work with a lot of long hauls bringing the snow down from the mountains. Dangerous driving to boot.
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And Tioga Pass into Yosemite Park usually doesn’t open till late June due to snow. Didn’t open till July 1st in 1998 and June 24 in 2005.
That was last Summer of a ten year cycle. Farmer's Almanac says it will be back to normal.
Sorry about that. We lose roofs to rain and our loose roofs get blown off by wind. Hey. I have been using the spell checker and even recently found my Websters College Dictionary. I knew it was around here somewhere.
At any rate, got to bail for awhile. Will check out the thread again later today.
I see know, the precip in not far from normal but the snowfall is quite high.
Thanks
I see now, the precip in not far from normal but the snowfall is quite high.
Thanks
We use snow blowers. Really really big snow blowers.
It snows there, but this is a very unusual year. The real concern has got to be with flooding, once this stuff melts -- because it will probably all melt within a few days, once the rain and Chinook winds come through.
LOL For a minute I thought you meant Dallas Oregon... I was thinking to myself, uh... no its about 28 here 40 miles away, thats not possible! LOL then it occured to me you meant TEXAS! Oh yeeeeeeea....THAT Dallas LOL
THe problem is that "when rains come" means not some easy, gentle sort of thing, but rather a heavy, warm rain accompanied by chinook winds, which will melt all of that snow in a couple of days.
Historical note: Idanha was pretty much washed away by flooding in 1964.
I’m from Oregon. We don’t usually get snow like this. Oregon is famous for its rain. Inches and inches of rain. Snow like this, except for the Cascades and sometimes the Coast range, is pretty rare. Detroit and Idahna are small towns out in the sticks.
I was grateful a neighbor of ours had one of those big guys in our Halloween storm in ‘91. We had 28” of the white stuff and he blew us out.
I can’t imagine what these people in Oregon are going through. We’re getting some pretty good snow here today. My big black dog just came in and was covered with snow after 5 minutes outside.
“The result is that rivers are flowing faster in the spring, raising the risk of flooding, and slower in the summer, increasing the risk of drought.”
This is why men and beavers build dams.
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