From: NE1B (Bill) <n...@verizon.net> Date: Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 8:28 AM Subject: [YCCC] V73NS Damage
And we thought we had the only weather event affecting ham radio this month...scroll down to bottom of picture page to see the ham shack. http://www.pbase.com/alwayssomewhere/marshall_islands ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A strong tropical depression (not a typhoon) north of the atoll generated swells that were 2.5 - 3 meters in height and when we had our high tide (+1 meter) on the afternoon of 8 Dec around 0030Z the shore line could not hold back the water. Remember, the island of Roi-Namur sits just 2 meters above sea level. Typically all surf comes from the same direction as the trade winds, out of the NE. These waves came from the North and Northwest and that is the worst possible direction for them to come from. The outer edge of the reef protects us from the worst of the surf, causing it to break farther out, but all that water still has to go somewhere. You'll see a photo of the flooding of the building which the shack was located in. This was after the first overtopping event on Day 1. Power was still on and it was not safe to attempt to enter the building to rescue gear. I just held my breath and waited. Later that night (8 Dec 1200Z) the tide was +1.25 meters and the swell had increased to over 4 meters. The shoreline was no match for this and vast portions of the island flooded with seawater. The ham shack is one of the lowest buildings on the island and is located ~80 meters from the shore. The north exterior wall of the building was pushed in by the second event and the level of water rose to over 2 feet. (Bottom of the top desk drawer!) The south walls were pushed out by the force of the water too. The shack does not occupy the whole building, just a space on the south side of it. The shacks northern interior wall held, but at this point that's all moot anyway. It's still standing, but not for long. Waters went down today and I was able to recover my station equipment which remained above water. I did lose two 50Amp Astron's which were in the rack a foot off the ground. I also lost some books, manuals, cables, spare parts, 500' of RG-58, 500' of RG213 etc which were either in drawers or on the floor of the closet. The gear I recovered still needs to be tested and cleaned up. I don't look forward to the shipping cost of 50 Amp linear power supplies! The three Collins 30S1 amps all were filled with water to just below the RF decks. They are still in the shack and I hope to recover them before the building falls. I need help and a forklift to get them to a safe place. It will be a lot of work to restore them now. The housing area where the trailers are was hard hit, many off their foundations, by the second event and many will be condemned as a result. The amount, and size, of rocks carried far onto the island from the shore line is amazing. The first event brought many, the second filled the entire area with rocks! There are even fish on the middle of the golf course. ----------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe or subscribe to this list. Please send a message to imail...@njdxa.org In the message body put either unsubscribe dx-news or subscribe dx-news This is the DX-NEWS reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org -----------------------------------------------------------
