REWahoo! said:
Nords, since you're in charge of the Pacific islands for the forum, how come you haven't kept up up to speed on this:
It's a good thing that all meteorologists aren't surfers. You haven't been keeping up with the
surfing thread, have you? Where the heck do you think we've been getting all these gnarly waves for the last week?
REWahoo! said:
"This is going to roll up a storm surge that will probably submerge the island and destroy everything that's not made of concrete," Powell said.
Here's a couple pictures of Hickam's brand-new C-17s justifying their existence:
http://starbulletin.com/2006/08/29/news/story01.html
It's interesting to note that Ioke's predicted to generate storm surge in excess of 18 feet, which is significant as the island's max elevation. A lot of bird families are going to be wiped out by this one. This is the biggest typhoon to hit the central Pacific since data collection started in the early 1960s.
REWahoo! said:
The evacuees, mostly American and Thai contractors, on Monday were flown to Hickam Air Force Base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu...
Were you expecting company?
We'll probably have a followup article tomorrow on impromptu family reunions, happy evacuees partying in Waikiki, and the INS trying to figure out who's supposed to be keeping tabs on all the visas. I think the Wake Island employees get one or two trips here per year for "morale leave", so it's not exactly unknown territory for them. Of course they're going to have to replace every personal possession they left behind that's not (1) buoyant & hydrodynamically shaped, (2) waterproof, and (3) strapped to a concrete bunker. I bet we'll see a big run on battery-operated entertainment electronics this week.
Wake Island and Kwajalein contracting jobs are supposed to be very financially rewarding-- in the sense that you get paid a decent wage, don't pay taxes, and have no place to spend it. Friends of ours (he's a retired Navy surface warfare officer, she's a Navy Reserve meteorologist) have spent the last three-four years on Kwaj pulling down the big six-figure salaries at the missile range. There are several Kwaj alumni on Oahu who absolutely loved the environment and the lifestyle and an old shipmate was raised there-- he feels the same way.
When she was on active duty, spouse used to fly to Wake Island every year or two to check out the meteorological equipment there. Much of it is automated but it occasionally needs repairs/maintenance, and the Navy used to hold the odd exercise in the area. She has an old t-shirt that says "Wake Island-- Where America's Day Begins".
http://media.maps101.com/SUB/ATLAS/Images/pacificoceanrap.gif
