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posted by martyb on Saturday September 23 2017, @12:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the head-for-the-hills dept.

As if the onslaught of hurricanes Irma and Maria were not enough, the National Weather Service in San Juan is reporting that a major dam is failing in Puerto Rico and that 70,000 people are being evacuated by bus. From CBS:

The National Weather Service in San Juan said Friday that the northwestern municipalities of Isabela and Quebradillas, home to some 70,000 people, were being evacuated with buses because the nearby Guajataca Dam was failing after Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory.

Maria poured more than 15 inches of rain on the mountains surrounding the dam, swelling the reservoir behind it.

Details remained slim about the evacuation with communications hampered after the storm, but operators of the dam reported that the failure was causing flash-flooding downstream. The 345-yard dam holds back a man-made lake covering about 2 square miles and was built decades ago, U.S. government records show.

"Move to higher ground now," the weather service said in a statement. "This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation. Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order."

"Act quickly to protect your life," it added. "Buses will be evacuating people from these areas."

Wikipedia has a page about Guajataca Dam

NWS report on Twitter; also at Al Jazeera and BBC.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 23 2017, @01:50PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 23 2017, @01:50PM (#572097) Journal

    19 full fledged carrier battle groups? Citations? Please, citations. Maybe you've been reading some stupidity such as this http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/does-the-us-navy-have-10-or-19-aircraft-carriers/ [thediplomat.com]

    CLUE: An amphibious assault ship is not a carrier. It will most likely operate within the air control sphere of a real aircraft carrier - that is, it is one PART OF a carrier battle group. The same cruisers and destroyers that protect the carrier will be guarding the amphib ships.

    So, we have TEN active carriers, some of which have mission commitments half a world away, some of which are in drydock for refit, some of which are aging near-derelicts. And, of course, all of those statuses apply to the various amphib ships which you want to designate as carriers.

    So, what do you propose we do with all those ships, exactly? Please, get specific. I really want to see your plan in great detail. Maybe you'll be so kind as to name the names of the ships that you want to incorporate into this battle group.

    The ball is in your court - don't drop it!!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @05:25AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2017, @05:25AM (#572251)

    Who will be shooting at the ship normally used for amphibious assault?

    I didn't realize a hurricane was a war. If we were to approach it as a war, I'd recommend deploying Jaegers. "When you're in a Jaeger, suddenly, you can fight the hurricane."

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 24 2017, @07:42AM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 24 2017, @07:42AM (#572260) Journal

      Doesn't much matter who might be shooting at the Gator Navy - doctrine says they don't sail without an escort. If you want to change Navy doctrine, maybe you should become CNO.

      Is a hurricane a war? If you were a sailor, you might think that it was. The sea has killed more sailors than all wars combined. A complacent sailor is a dead sailor. As others have mentioned, it's almost as fast and easy to fly from CONUS to PR, and certainly much cheaper, as it is to station a huge ship in Puerto Rico. So, what is your preoccupation with the Navy? Maybe if you were using some other island, further from the continent, you might make some kind of point here.

      Let me ask you - how long do you think that it takes to load a ship with provisions? Naval ships aren't container ships, after all, nor are they bulk carriers, such as the famous Edmund Fitzgerald. By necessity, it is difficult to move around a warship. The hull is compartmentalized, to aid in the control of flooding. This means, people have to manually move all stores. I participated in a lot of replenishments, in port, and at sea. The operation is time consuming, always.

      You want to load out 20,000 tons of food and medical supplies? Someone already contributed to this discussion that it would take WEEKS to load out. Seriously - it would literally take WEEKS to load one of those huge-ass Gator ships, or an aircraft carrier. I just served aboard little destroyers, and it took a couple weeks of planning (including lead time on the requisition forms) plus about three days for us to load out for deployment. That didn't count the couple days it would take to load out ammunition. (loading and offloading nukes required two days alone, thanks to a myriad of restrictions and regulations)

      Now, you've had several reasons given why we aren't frantically loading supplies aboard our major ships of the line. Are you going to obsess further, or give it up?

      The Army, and especially the National Guard, are far better equipped to aid Puerto Rico than the Navy is. If any number of parameters were changed, you might find that the Navy is better equipped to deal with an emergency situation of this magnitude. In which case, it will still take weeks for the Navy to arrive on station with the required aid.

      Long story short - the Navy is happy to participate in humanitarian aid missions. But, the weak and the vulnerable are probably not going to last long enough for us to get there.