Misc chit-chat (WAS: Re: Available consultant Vijay for Unix System Admin with sun Solories Expireance.)

In article <slrng8pkgd.8p9.ibuprofin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
ibuprofin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Moe Trin) writes:
On Sun, 27 Jul 2008, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.unix.admin, in article
<irmdnTIn98A8lxHVnZ2dnUVZ_gWdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Robert Melson wrote:

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that a passenger in a sport utility
vehicle was killed when the vehicle hit a large puddle and rolled over.
The driver and two children were hospitalized.

Sigh... As mentioned, this is why we have the "Stupid Law".

Driver was going under the posted speed limit on an allegedly
all-weather highway (well crowned, drained, adequate shoulders,
diitchig), no alcohol involved. Problem, I suspect, is that it
was coming down faster than it could run off. Dunno if one can
reasonably fault the driver, tho' I suspect this'll be with him
the rest of his life. No need for application of the "stupid
law" here.


National Weather Service meteorologist says some areas of El Paso have
gotten as much as 3 inches of rain.

How much time? My logs show 2.95 inches in a 24 hour period (average of
three rain gauges) back in 1999, and several incidences of > 2.0 inches
as well.

Not certain. Since the rates/amounts are different for different
parts of the city, it'd be difficult even to guess.


The worst rainfall rates I've ever seen were when I was doing some
equipment testing for ACTIV (Army Concept Team In Vietnam) in the
late 1960s in Da Nang. We had set up the equipment on the grassy
area between the patio at the Navy O'club and the "river", and it was
coming down like no tomorrow (typhoon). I put a pair of tumblers out
on the table, and timed it for ten minutes - 1 3/16 inch, or about 7
inches/hour.

Yeah, I remember the monsoon rains in the Saigon countryside - like
a cow pee-ing in a stump. Typhoons in Japan also tened to dump a
LOT of water in a short period, tho' I was not particularly
interested at the time.


The city says it has received 17 reports of flooding in homes. There
are 10 reports of street flooding.

Street flooding is fairly common. In _most_ cases, the grading around
houses is enough to divert the water around the house.

Well, sorta. Problem here is that in years past home building
was permitted in arroyos, there are few storm drains and runoff
from the mountains take the easy path (can you say streets).

There's been a big stink lately about "storm water fees", which
are a part of the city's response to the "Great Flood of 2006".
Fee is tacked on to the water utility bill and is based on a home
or business' potential runoff. The question I've had, and have
asked the city government, is what the hell they've done with
the taxes paid for infrastructure over the last, say, 30 years.
We won't go into that, however.


The Texas Transportation Department says the Trans Mountain Highway is
closed due to rock slides caused by the rain and is expected to reopen
Saturday night.

(Trans Mountain Highway is a city arterial but not the major
through corridor.

State route 375 if Rand McNally is to be believed. Yeah, I can see why
you might have problems there.

Loop 375 or Woodrow Bean/Transmountain Drive.

The rock slides are, IMNSHO, due to poor engineering of the cuts
through which portions of the roadway run, failure to stabilize same.
Result == closure at least hint of inclement weather, precip.)

Well, it doesn't rain that often... We have similar problems, and

It's also closed when the wind blows and causes rock slides. Typical
spring winds can be > 60 mph sustained, and the highway cut is
a natural funnel for'em. As well, there's the down slope effect
on the "lee" side of the mountains (wind blows from west, becomes
stronger on east side, for example).

probably for the same reason. Areas up in the hill country seem to get

Most, but not all, Loop 375 is within city limits. The parts that
are not are on Federal land and on the lower eastern slopes closer to
built up areas.

it because they're skimping on maintenance because of more pressing
needs elsewhere. We're also running into problems where there have been
wild fires that burn off the ground cover that sorta stabilizes the
soil. We also run into the problem that when a highway outside of the
metro areas closes for any reason, detours are usually quite arduous
and lengthy because of the dearth of paved roads able to handle the
traffic.

Today set a rainfall record for the date - officially ~2.75 inches
at the official station, previous record ~2.6 in. Prior to June 30
we'd had 0.23 in since Jan 1. Since then we've had ~5 inches and
are now about 2 inches above 30 year average.

That certainly isn't helping matters. We were supposed to see some of
that moisture, but all I've seen are high clouds. There have been some
light shows, but little rainfall in the area.

The ground can soak up only so much water, then becomes saturated,
creating additional runoff. Tropical rains are not typical of the
usual thunderstorm patterms (rain here but not across the street),
but are generally more widespread. And so it goes. I thought
the piece interesting, if not earth shaking, particularly given
our earlier "conversation".


Soggy Ol' Bob

No problem - you'll dry out soon enough.

Already doing so.

Saturated Ol' Bob

--
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable
reason so few engage in it. -- Henry Ford

.

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