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Famed Yosemite Ahwahnee Hotel Shovel ready stimuli Posted: 05 Mar 2009 09:31 PM PST Famed Ahwahnee Hotel may get massive seismic overhaul Yosemite National Park's historic Ahwahnee Hotel Photo credit: wikimedia.org - Link Yosemite National Park's historic Ahwahnee Hotel, a landmark destination with stunning views of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point, could be closed for up to two years under a proposal by park officials to ensure it will survive a major earthquake. With its towering ceilings, wood beams and massive stone fire places, the luxury hotel, built in 1927, is widely considered among the grandest of all lodges in America's national park system, and among the most famous hotels in California. It's also a major money maker for the park and the surrounding communities. On Wednesday, Yosemite officials requested $137 million in federal funding to overhaul the hotel as part of President Obama's stimulus program. The request was the largest item on a list of hundreds of Yosemite projects, said Scott Gediman, a spokesman for the park. "The seismic retrofit of the Ahwahnee Hotel is a project we have had on the books for years. It has to be done," said Gediman. It isn't clear where the Department of Interior, which oversees the national parks, will rank the Ahwahnee upgrade or whether they will fund it at all. Gediman said Yosemite leaders expect to find out by June if some, or all of the money will be approved. If the project does receive funding, it would take at least a year to begin construction, Gediman said, because of the time needed to obtain permits and allow people with existing room reservations to visit. Concerns over the hotel's safety were highlighted in 2002. That year, the National Park Service paid URS Consulting, a San Francisco firm, to complete a 250-page report looking at the hotel's structural integrity in an earthquake. How dangerous a big quake would be to the 81-year-old hotel is unclear, however. On Thursday, Acting Yosemite Superintendent Dave Uberuaga refused to release the seismic safety report to the Mercury News, calling it outdated. However, his spokesman could not cite any exemptions in the federal Freedom of Information Act that would allow the information to be kept from the public. "It is seven years old,'' said Gediman. "The information could have changed in terms of what the standards are for the retrofit. If we release it we'd have to take out some of the numbers." Any shutdown of the Ahwahnee would present a major change for Yosemite and the economics of the surrounding communities. The hotel employs 300 people. Each year thousands of tourists pay roughly $450 a night to stay there. Last year, the park concession company, Delaware North, reported total gross revenue of about $125 million. Although the company does not release sales figures for individual businesses in the park, the Ahwahnee and its 123 rooms could bring at least $20 million a year, given its rates and 97 percent occupancy. Officials at Delaware North said they want the public to understand the Ahwahnee remains open for business. "This is a hypothetical situation. It is a project on a proposed wish list. We don't know if it is going to be funded,'' said Kenny Karst, a spokesman for Delaware North. Closing the hotel could also shock the budget of surrounding counties. Mariposa County, where the hotel is located, last year derived $10 million of its $42 million general fund from the county's 11 percent hotel tax. "We'll be watching this,'' said Mary Hodson, deputy county administrator. "Closing it would have a significant impact. The Ahwahnee is such a major attraction, some people want to come up here just to say they stayed in the Ahwahnee Hotel." The hotel was built because Stephen Mather, the national parks director in the 1920s, wanted to lure business and government leaders to national parks to help raise their profile. It worked. Over the past 81 years, the guest list has been full of famous people, from heads of state like Queen Elizabeth, John F. Kennedy, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and the Shah of Iran, to movie stars ranging from Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo to Brad Pitt and Robert Redford. "Most national park visitors would consider the Ahwahnee to be the crown jewel of national park lodges," said David L. Scott, co-author of "The Complete Guide to National Park Lodges." But, eventually all buildings get old. "It's a huge draw for Yosemite National Park. At some point, though, a lot of these historic hotels need major surgery,'' Scott said. "It's hard to do major work and still keep them open. It's just a case where you have to bite the bullet." Like other federal agencies, the Obama administration asked the National Park Service to come up with lists of construction projects that could create jobs as part of the $787 billion stimulus bill that the president signed last month. Within that bill, the National Park Service received about $750 million. Yosemite is no stranger to earthquakes. In 1872, the Owens Valley earthquake, centered in Lone Pine about 100 miles away and estimated at a 7.4 magnitude, violently shook the park. Again in 1980, a 6.2 quake centered near Mammoth Lakes, about 40 miles away, frightened tourists, and caused rock slides that blocked park roads and injured two hikers. "The place has been shaken in the past,'' said David Oppenheimer, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park. "It's not as prone to earthquakes as the Bay Area, but it's not Kansas either." Source: Mercury News - Link Labels: Ahwahnee Hotel, earthquake, Owens Valley, Yosemite, Yosemite National Park Famed Yosemite Ahwahnee Hotel Shovel ready stimuli

SBCF: Fire Captain Creighton (Creig) Nece - Memorial services Posted: 05 Mar 2009 09:04 PM PST SAN BERNARDINO CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT MOURNS THE LOSS OF FIRE CAPTAIN It is with great sadness that the San Bernardino Fire Department announces the passing of Fire Captain Creighton (Creig) Nece. Creig was a 19 year veteran of the fire department and died during the morning hours on 3/2/09 while in the hospital recovering from back injuries sustained in an off-road vehicle accident last week. Creig leaves behind his wife and two adult children. He was so very well respected within the fire service community, but more importantly he was loved and respected as a great man with tremendous integrity and character by all who knew him Memorial services for Captain Nece are as follows: A "Viewing Ceremony" will be held at Bobbitt Memorial Chapel on March 9th, 2009 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. - located at 1299 E. Highland Ave, San Bernardino, CA 92404 - Google Map Link Memorial Services will be held at "The Packing House" on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 11:00 AM - located at 27165 San Bernardino, Ave Redlands, CA. 92404. - Google Map Link Immediately following there will be a procession to Monticeto Memorial Park, located at 24145 Barton Rd. Loma Linda, CA. 92354 - Google Map Link Please continue to check back for further updates here but the best official updates are at: http://www.sbcityfire.blogspot.com/ Source: SBCF Blog - Link Contact: PIO Eric Esquivel, Battalion Chief San Bernardino Fire Department 909.693.6493 esquivel_er@sbcity.org Official City Fire website: http://www.ci.san-bernardino.ca.us/depts/fire/default.asp Google map of services- Open Collaboration ------------ View Larger Map ----------- Previous related post: http://calfire.blogspot.com/2009/03/off-duty-death-san-bernardino-city-fire.html

New Google Earthquake search feature rocks! Posted: 05 Mar 2009 07:46 PM PST Earth shaking News from the Google Guy's: Great new near real time earthquake info via Google Earthquake search is the latest of Google's special search features... Google earthquake searches Google has tied into the US Geological Survey (USGS), feed - Earthquake data straight from the source and combined with Google Maps equals a very powerful information tool. When you click on a specific earthquake map link Google opens a map at the longitude and latitude as reported by the USGS. Now, when you search for "earthquakes" on Google, you'll get information on some of the most recent, significant earthquakes from around the world, right on the search results page. From there, you can click through to the USGS Earthquake Center for more information. To find earthquakes closer to home, you can add a location to your query, for example: "earthquakes California." More Google search tricks: If you'd like to know the local time where an earthquake occurred, search for "time" followed by the location (for example, "time Japan"). Let's say the epicenter was 50km from the coast and you want to know how far that is in miles. Type "50km in miles" into the search box. You can find out about these special features and many more on the Google Search Features page- Link. Info Source: Google Blog - Shaking up earthquake searches - Link http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/shaking-up-earthquake-searches.html Google Search: Earthquakes in California Recent earthquakes near California Magnitude Location Time 3.1 Northern California 4 hours ago Map 2.5 Northern California 4 hours ago Map 2.8 Offshore Northern California 9 hours ago Map earthquake.usgs.gov Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada - Index Map quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/ - 11k - Cached - Similar pages - Earthquake list Real-time Earthquake Maps Los Angeles 2-degree map Recent Earthquakes for 115-34 FAQs Disclaimer Big earthquake list More results from usgs.gov »

Witch, Guajito, and Rice fires lawsuit news Posted: 05 Mar 2009 06:58 PM PST SDG&E explains countersuit threat to establish rights The plans by San Diego Gas & Electric to counter-sue October 2007 fire victims serves the purpose of establishing the utility's legal rights and obligation limits in the event of a lawsuit against SDG&E. "We find ourselves in the middle of litigation, and it's our obligation to our customers as well as our shareholders to preserve our legal rights," said SDG&E spokesperson Stephanie Donovan. "If these cases go to trial we want to make sure all of the evidence is on the table." The preliminary assessment is that the Witch, Guajito, and Rice fires were caused by SDG&E power lines, and 15 class-action plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against SDG&E. "We certainly recognize that the October 2007 fires were devastating," Donovan said. SDG&E's response included a proposal to countersue those plaintiffs for failure to maintain proper vegetation clearance. "The proposal that we have made is to file countersuits only against those homeowners who have sued us," Donovan said. "We want to protect our legal rights." The countersuits would be intended to establish proportional liability for the damages. "That should at least be considered," Donovan said. "If these cases go to trial we think that all of that relevant information should be presented." The countersuit possibility was conveyed to the plaintiffs' attorneys. "We have not filed anything at this point," Donovan said. "Rather than calling us to discuss it, they simply went directly to the media." The October 2007 fires also included the Harris and Poomacha blazes, but those have not been attributed to power lines and no lawsuits against SDG&E have been filed related to those fires. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection believes that the Rice Fire started when heavy winds in Rainbow caused a tree branch to blow into power lines. The apparent cause of the Guajito Fire was high winds blowing a Cox Communications cable into an SDG&E power line, which caused arcking and ignited brush. CalFire also believes that arcking caused the Witch Fire when two power lines were blown together and dry vegetation was ignited. "They still have testing to run and all of that information has yet to come out," Donovan said. "A comprehensive determination of liability has not been established." Donovan indicated a possibility that SDG&E would have some liability for its own failure to maintain vegetation around power lines. "I think a reasonable person would understand that it's very difficult to keep 100 percent of your properties in compliance 100 percent of the time," she said. SDG&E is responsible for maintaining approximately 400,000 trees in its service territory. A regular maintenance schedule determines trimming evaluations of specific trees, and a customer request for trimming will generate an SDG&E review of whether such trimming is warranted. In some cases the trimming is complicated when property owners object to the removal of certain branches. Since the analysis of the fires might determine that the contact was from branches blown off during the high winds rather than branches close enough to the power lines to send wires to the ground and ignite brush, the high winds may also affect proportional liability. "You have to take into consideration what was going on at the time," Donovan said. "We believe that our trees were in compliance." Source: thevillagenews.com - Link

Earthquake: 3.1M - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - The Geysers Posted: 05 Mar 2009 03:35 PM PST Earthquake Details Magnitude 3.1 Date-Time Thursday, March 05, 2009 at 23:06:25 UTC Thursday, March 05, 2009 at 03:06:25 PM at epicenter Location 38.831°N, 122.785°W Depth 0.5 km (~0.3 mile) Region NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Distances 4 km (2 miles) NNE (27°) from The Geysers, CA 5 km (3 miles) W (265°) from Cobb, CA 10 km (6 miles) NW (307°) from Anderson Springs, CA 20 km (13 miles) E (80°) from Cloverdale, CA 43 km (27 miles) N (351°) from Santa Rosa, CA 118 km (74 miles) WNW (285°) from Sacramento, CA Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.1 km (0.1 miles); depth +/- 0.4 km (0.2 miles) Parameters NST= 92, Nph= 92, Dmin=4 km, Rmss=0.07 sec, Gp= 54°, M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=2 Source California Integrated Seismic Net: USGS Caltech CGS UCB UCSD UNR Event ID nc40232728

Strange rattling, shaking, and quaking in Orange County Posted: 05 Mar 2009 02:53 PM PST Black Air Force project probably source of pressure waves rattling nerves in Southern California. A mysterious strange rattling, shaking, and quaking in a huge area of Orange County during the evening of March 3rd caused numerous call to 911, reporting doors and windows rattling, this was not a USGS recorded earthquake or a sonic boom, and the cause is still officially unknown. Many people reporting two distinct pressure waves - Some people have described it as "like the pressure changed in the room". "The glass doors in the back of the house facing south, were pulsating like i had a chopper hovering in the backyard". Last night's phenomenon would probably best be explained by a an acoustic shock wave. The frequency was too low for humans to hear probably less than 20 Hz. Windows shook, nerves were rattled, dogs barked and everyone thought, maybe, we were getting ready for the big one. More than 70 calls were logged into 911 by frightened folks thinking someone was breaking into their homes. Many Police departments left chasing false intruder and alarm calls. 79 emergency phone call to Huntington Beach 911 at 9:15 - Citizens thinking someone was breaking into their homes. - Someone is coming in my window, someone tapping on my window, my door knob is being turned, Windows, Doors shaking and all dogs barking in neighborhood, Sounded like someone hammered on my front door.. Google Map of locations reporting Quake, Boom, Noise, Rattle event - Link View Larger MapReporting cities: Anaheim, Azusa, Balboa, Bellflower, Brea, Camp Pendleton, Chino Hills, , Costa Mesa, Cypress, Disneyland, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Idylwild, Irvine, Lake Forest, La Habra , La Mirada, Ladera Ranch, Laguna Beach, Long Laguna Niguel, Beach, Mission Veijo, Newport Beach, Placetina, Santa Ana, San Clemente, Santiago Canyon, San Juan Capistrano, Tustin, Temecula, Garden Grove. Some reported times Huntington Beach - windows rattled at 9:18PM… Mission Viejo - quakes at 9:21 and 9:24

WHERE’S THE PORK? NO MONEY FOR FIRE STATIONS OR FIRE PREVENTION IN SAN DIEGO’S PROPOSED STIMULUS PROJECTS Posted: 05 Mar 2009 09:50 AM PST "The City and County never asked the fire departments…We are very disappointed," – August Ghio, President, San Diego Fire Chiefs Association March 5, 2009 (San Diego)—Why didn't a city and county that have suffered through the worst wildfires in California history request funds through the federal stimulus program for any fire protection projects? The website www.stimuluswatch.org lists "shovel-ready" projects submitted by cities in the 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors Report. There are dozens of fire-related projects such as building new fire stations, remodeling older stations, and creating training facilities for firefights in cities across the country and elsewhere in California. But none in San Diego. San Diego has nearly $351 million in projects listed, ranging from the Rose Creek Bike Path to repairing streets and upgrading street lights. But not a single fire-related project is on the list. "The City and County never asked the fire departments," August Ghio, president of the San Diego County Fire Chiefs Association, told East County Magazine in an exclusive interview. "We are very disappointed that there was no outreach to fire districts." The County Fire Chiefs Association and Fire Districts Association will be meeting with SANDAG (San Diego Association of Governments) this week in hopes of identifying some crucial fire projects, he added. "We hope it's not too late." After the devastating 2007 wildfires, Senator Diane Feinstein chaired a Congressional hearing in San Diego to investigate wildfire prevention, including local officials actions. The Senator blasted San Diego officials for failing to provide adequate fire resources for the region. "People have to understand there will eventually be loss of life on a massive scale if nothing happens." San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarman testified that her department lacked resources needed for rapid response time to save more homes. In Rancho Bernardo, where over 350 homes burned, the city had just one fire station protecting 24 miles. The national standard for accreditation is one station for every nine miles. San Diego needed at least 22 more fire stations to meet that standard. Jarman's predecessor, Chief Jeff Bowman, told the panel he resigned in "abject frustration" because repeated recommendations were ignored, including pleas for more fire stations and engines. City and County leaders have faulted voters for failing to pass bond initiatives for more fire funding. But now, federal stimulus dollars are available—if only City and County leaders would ask. Ghio has this message for local officials. "If you're really looking to do something good for the public, let's take advantage now to improve fire service delivery, or at least improve dramatically our regional district training." Fire districts have shovel-ready projects, Ghio said, including proposed new fire stations, replacing dilapidated stations, and building regional training centers. "There's a perfect example," he said, citing a regional training facility proposed in partnership with the Otay Water District on land that is already available. "We will open it up to Cal Fire, the U.S. Forest Service, and all of the East County and South County Fire departments—full paid and volunteer," said Ghio. The facility would also include a mobile training program to bring live fire search-and-rescue trailers to train personnel in backcountry areas. "We have tons of these things going on," Chief Ghio concluded. "But nobody asked us." Source: East County Magazine - Link

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