Trigger Mike Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 I know the fuel cost would be high but due to the need to release water to avoid a dam breakage and since we have forest fires in california why not fill fire fighting aircraft with water from Texas and if you didn't dump it on the forest fire why not out in the deserts of Texas? Wouldn't it at least relieve some pressure on the dams without flooding homes etc? maybe even fill fire fighting tanker trucks tanks with the water and release it well away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 10 minutes ago, Trigger Mike said: I know the fuel cost would be high but due to the need to release water to avoid a dam breakage and since we have forest fires in california why not fill fire fighting aircraft with water from Texas and if you didn't dump it on the forest fire why not out in the deserts of Texas? Wouldn't it at least relieve some pressure on the dams without flooding homes etc? maybe even fill fire fighting tanker trucks tanks with the water and release it well away. The amount of water that Harvey rained down on Texas is hard to comprehend. For example; 1 acre foot of water equals about 325870 gallons of water. The largest air tankers in service in California are DC-10 air tankers and they can carry about 12000 gallons of water per flight. The combined capacity of the two reservoirs (Addicks and Barker) near Houston causing a lot of the flooding along Buffalo Bayou is over 400,000 acre feet. To drop the level of these two reservoirs 1 foot would require over 10.8 million trips. Consider that 400,000 acre feet is chump change compared to the billions of acre feet of water that Harvey dropped as it moved across Texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigger Mike Posted September 3, 2017 Author Share Posted September 3, 2017 like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon . just trying to come up with something. maybe all coastal areas should install a pipeline to a remote area and use it to keep the water level lower in cases of pending storms but even that is really costly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 More like a eye dropper.these are rough numbers., not using a calculator. Consider one of the largest man made reservoirs in the country, the Quabbin, 412 billion cu ft, between 9 an 10 million acre feet. Its conduit (aqueduct) toward Boston is 11x12.75 feet. Transporting 400 cu ft/sec of water. Now that is gravity fed, but putting a pump to it for any length of time would gradually destroy the aquaduct, 7 years of labor, 400 cu ft is less than .01 acre ft. 100 such aquaducts would still be little more than garden hoses. And don't forget that the longer the hose (aquaduct) the slower the flow. In this case, the best available solution is time. In my career, I always hated the "we can't do it" answers, but this is one of them. The technology just does not exist yet. Fortunately I was in computers and the technology often moved faster than the problems and we solve things now that were inconceivable not so long ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 Imagine an Olympic size swimming pool and trying to empty it with a thimble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 3 hours ago, Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474 said: Imagine an Olympic size swimming pool and trying to empty it with a thimble. And you can put about 300 people shoulder to shoulder around that pool and give each of them a thimble… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted September 3, 2017 Share Posted September 3, 2017 And if you have added Infrastructure for Houston, you have to do it for Mobile, Tampa, Miami, New Orleans, charleston. … Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022 Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 The area that was flooded is about the same size as the state of South Carolina. Anywhere on that 30,000 square miles from a few inches to 20 feet of water. You also have cattle, horses, goats, sheep, alligators, deer, hogs, snakes, spiders, fireants and a whole host of other wildlife, not to mention the chemicals from the plants, sewage etc. Most of you can not comprehend the scope of this flooding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 We live in a forested area in the CA Gold Country foothills. We put in a pool last year. Last week, Hubby ordered a propane generator. (We already have two gas generators.) It will be located by the pool by the second of our propane tanks. He's planning on getting a pump (to get water out of the pool) and hose to fight potential fires. I'm feeling better already. It's better than 300 people with thimbles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorelei Longshot, SASS #44256 Life Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 Years ago I saw a sprinkler system that went on your roof and watered your house if there was fire. Appeared to work in the tests, but probably very expensive. What if you didn't have a water source? How would it work? Had a friend that put a sprinkler system on his roof that he could turn on to help cool his attic and therefore the house. Don't know if it really helped much. He thought so, his wife didn't. They don't have it on the new house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 2 hours ago, Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 said: We live in a forested area in the CA Gold Country foothills. We put in a pool last year. Last week, Hubby ordered a propane generator. (We already have two gas generators.) It will be located by the pool by the second of our propane tanks. He's planning on getting a pump (to get water out of the pool) and hose to fight potential fires. I'm feeling better already. It's better than 300 people with thimbles. If you're in a fire prone area, this will save your home. I've seen houses in Colorado and Montana that were unscathed after a firestorm decimated everything around them. http://www.firegel.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Hi Lorelei, Our roof is metal and the siding is hardi-board. We are doing our best to be safe in a fire-prone area. Regards, Allie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 1 hour ago, Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 said: Hi Lorelei, Our roof is metal and the siding is hardi-board. We are doing our best to be safe in a fire-prone area. Regards, Allie A lot of homes that burn during a wildfire do so because embers made it into the house via the attic and crawl space vents and not direct contact with the fire front. Homeowner's Wildfire Mitigation Guide Newly designed attic vent prevents wildfire embers from entering home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Hi Dave, Thanks for the post. Our attic vents are small rectangles, maybe 2" tall by 10" wide, and the mesh is very small.They are tucked up under the eaves. So, the chance of embers getting in is unlikely. Any debris small enough to get in would not be embers at that point. Regards, Allie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.