Giant Avalanches Attack Town aka Our Winter is Screwed (Valdez: houses, living)

[warptman]

Originally Posted by Rance

Very cool! Looks like a movie poster! Might make a good movie! Damalanche blocks the road, builds a lake, half the town refuses to evacuate, dam breaks, surge is headed for town, but at the last minute the hero of the movie drops out of a helicopter on ski's, races down a steep slope starting an avalanche that diverts the raging torrent of water to the other side of the bay and saves the town, whilst sacrificing himself of course. Oh and the hatchery too. But narrowly misses the Alyeska Pipeline terminal. The end. Roll credits...

Makes 30 days of night look like a "B" movie!

The villain, there has to be a villain in the movie. The two that got arrested to be them. They can be under the cat's spell or something, like following it's demands. The cat put chips in them to control them.

[tigre79]

I'd buy that kids from Copper Center could be controlled by cats with chips. How did they cause the avalanche though?


I think this movie has to be about HAARP. But why would it want to destroy Valdez? And maybe the mind-controlling cat is a DARPA project.

[Rance]

Fukushima Radiation caused Valdez warming and in turn a super damalanche! I guess some cute broad (always one of those in the movies) could counter divert with another avalanche from the other side of the bay on her snowmachine and save the hatchery and terminal. But the hero has to go and so do those two kids that refused to listen to authorities. The cat...having 9 lives manages to live by riding the wave of snow out into the bay. Only to be eaten by a sealion or orca.

[warptman]

Of course, the cat would have to be under drugs all the time. A Meth-cat that hates Valdez.

[Dakster]

I've heard of a meth lab, but not a meth cat. Could it be the Cat from outer space. (I am dating myself here)

Here is how to ID a meth lab:

[WyoNewk]

LMAO! I love, love, love the 'meth lab"!

[tigre79]

Wooo Hoooooooo!!! The road is slated to open tomorrow at 3pm!! I'm heading out there to see it then, and will probably hike the trail through the canyon (which "ends" at Snowslide Gulch a few hundred feet above the river) on Thursday.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by starlite9

Keystone Canyon when I lived in Valdez for three years always got avalanches dropping into it. Sometimes water would back up a bit, but it would blow out at some point, make a small flash flood and be done.

The fact that this time may have more snow isn't such a bad thing, it will get enough water behind it at some point it will blow out the snow and flash flood the rest of the canyon and then road crews can get about removing the snow, unless of course the roadway itself is washed out... Then do what we did a lot of the time, take the Ferry to Whitter and drive to Anchorage from there and have a great trip!

The National news is making this the end of the world for Valdez, but it will only last for a bit and be gone... Just like it had done over centuries past.

In Yakatat some years ago, the Glacier crossed the inlet and trapped the water on the land locked side, there were seals and other critters "Trapped" away from the Ocean, so some "Do gooders", decided to go catch the seals and take them back over to the ocean side and release them.... What they did do is find out the seals can bite really hard, and when they wanted to, they went accross the land to the ocean when they wanted to.... at some point enough freshwater melt blew out the ice and the world was back to normal.

Valdez is just getting a lot of free news feed and the tourist will come to see where this great disaster was at.... Sell T-shirts, "I survived the Valdez ice dam" and make a million bucks....

Or with both hands in the air, pivot in circle on one foot screaming the sky is falling, which in this case it is, it is called snowfall, about 30+ feet a year is normal, more in Thompson pass.

See, I told you so the world didn't end..... Get ready for the tourist...

[tigre79]

Originally Posted by starlite9

See, I told you so the world didn't end..... Get ready for the tourist...

Who said the world was going to end? Your post was so far from reality I hardly knew where to start. This winter is one the worst in recent memory around here. At least show a little respect for the road crews and be happy for us that our road is open again and wasn't damaged (aside from the guardrail, which is probably in the river somewhere.)

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by tigre79

Who said the world was going to end? Your post was so far from reality I hardly knew where to start. This winter is one the worst in recent memory around here. At least show a little respect for the road crews and be happy for us that our road is open again and wasn't damaged (aside from the guardrail, which is probably in the river somewhere.)

Valdez gets 30+ feet of snow a year annually on average, having 40 feet isn't much of a differance in the bigger picture, they simply use loaders to plow instead of pickups. The national news showed the town as a lost cause and the world was ending (persay).

My statement basically is, it was just a flash in the pan. That may be the first time you have ever seen the road closed (in recent memory) by snow since you moved there, but I have seen it over a number of years happen living there, just to the newer guys it is a big event. Did you know that Thompson Pass had/has the record for deep snowfall, some 110+ feet in the 1950's, which is a lot more than you've seen this year.

Nothing really changed there this year, some years there is less, some years there is more. I use to have to crawl out my second story window in Valdez to shovel the snow off the front porch to access it from inside. When we would open the door, they was nothing to see but the imprint of the door in the snow that had caved in onto the porch.

But I would bet you have had a kick butt snowmachine season as well!