Cop Car's Beat

Helping victims of natural disaster

A couple of days ago, I was immensely impressed by friend Hattie of Hattie's Web. Although she is engaged in a fierce battle with cancer, she empathized with the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Further, she was thoughtful enough to enquire about the best means of helping those victims. Kudos!

In several of our local media outlets (TV, newspaper, radio), this morning, appeared a well-written answer to Hattie's question. The news release, from Kansas Division of Emergency Management (KDEM), gave an answer that was so much better than mine. I must share it (below). Although it specifically addresses Hurricane Harvey, the advice holds for nearly any natural disaster. I've worked with the KDEM folks on several Kansas disasters. They do great work!

TOPEKA, Kan. (Release) The Kansas Division of Emergency Management is urging Kansans who wish to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey on the Gulf Coast, to donate money to a reputable volunteer, charitable or faith-based organization rather than sending food, clothing or other goods.

“Too often, well-meaning people send clothing, diapers, and other items to disaster stricken areas, but their donations end up unused or even discarded,” said Angee Morgan, deputy KDEM director. “The reason is that these goods must be sorted, packaged and stored until they can be distributed, which diverts manpower from other tasks and requires a place to warehouse the items. In some areas, there may not be any place available to do this. Also, there is often a surplus of one thing and not enough of another.”

Transporting and distributing the goods also requires manpower that can be better used in other capacities. Food must also be stored until used. If there is no refrigeration available, perishable foods may become unusable before they can be distributed. Even nonperishable goods can be a problem; one can only use so many cans of green beans.

Donating money allows human services agencies to purchase exactly what is needed when it is needed and does not waste resources. It also puts money back into the local economy, helping local businesses recover faster.

Comparing tree shadows - without & with eclipse

I've been told that, without a "no eclipse" shadow photo for comparison, one can't interpret the degree of eclipse shown in the tree shadows of the previous posting. Here are the comparisons (had to wait an extra day to get some sun to shine at the appropriate hour).

Before anyone asks: Yes, each concrete surface is in focus in each photo. Small gaps among leaves act as "pin-hole cameras" projecting lune shapes that show the degree of coverage of the solar disk by the moon.

Cop Car, what did you do during the eclipse of 2017?

I stayed at home: 1) Hunky Husband and I had commitments keeping us here, 2) I had been ill for six days, and 3) NASA and others take much better photos than do I.

Let's start with a video that takes about as long as the totality portion of the Great American Eclipse 2017 lasted for those who saw it.

 

Next, photos that I took of the interesting shadows caused by the sunlight passing through tree leaf groupings. You can tell by the shapes that we achieved about 90% coverage of the solar disk by the lunar disk. Please click on each of the images to see the enlarged version.

 

 

 

Many local people drove up to Nebraska. Ross Janssen Chief Meteorologist for KWCH TV drove up with Millie, his constant companion. She is a favorite of Ross's TV viewers and was shown in a photo from Beatrice, Nebraska, sporting shadows similar to those in the above two photos. (I can't find a copy to post!) BTW: Ross and Millie are both just as nice as they look! (I stole the photo from Ross's twitter posting from Nebraska.)

 

About a mile south southwest of us is Park Hill Elementary School. The third-grade class got a science lesson, today!

As promised, NASA came through with a video showing the Great American Eclipse 2017 at several points along the path of totality. It runs 3:46+ so I'll give you the link: NASA Video. I've not watched the whole thing, but I did catch that they did some spectrographic work from a flying platform.

Me? Our neighbors, Jason and Tonya, had an extra pair of glasses that HH and I used for direct viewing of the event. Such glasses were in short supply (and I've not left the house for several days), so I was happy to use the borrowed pair. I'm told that, at the only place in Wichita to have glasses available within the last few days, people stood in line for up to three hours - until the supply gave out.

More tree work done

In late May, I posted about Progress in woods cleanup. Yesterday, I had the same crew come in - mostly to remove evergreens nearer our house (and even nearer to our neighbors' houses) that had overgrown their spots and had, with the increasing frequency of wildfires, posed too much fire hazard. (The fire hazard issue had also been part of my reason for starting a bit of cleanup in our woods.) In addition, the team removed a small brush pile that I had accumulated since their work in May - AND - a rather large brush pile that I had directed not be removed in May because Carolina wrens were nesting in it. (It is against Federal law to un-house nesting migratory birds - even had I not had a personal objection to such un-housing.)

Bogie has been setting such a good example for me that she should be happy to see that I am learning to take some "before" photos for comparison to "after" photos. Both, follow.

Note that, the 3 globular junipers (photos above) were removed, not as fire hazards, but as back-breaking labor for yours truly. I've gotten old enough that wielding hedge trimmers is no longer a trivial task. I'll get to partake of that task amply in keeping the foundation planting bushes under some sort of control

Apologies for my having done such a lousy job of matching POV in the above photo.

8/21/2017 10:58am Addition/Change:

I have replaced the bottom photo, above, with a more recent shot. The more recent photo not only provides a better match to the POV of the "before" photo but shows the results of neighbor Jason's having gotten out, yesterday, to cut out the chest-high weeds that had been growing between the greenery we had removed and his house.

Now, back to the last of the original posting, below.

The following photos are for Bogie - some of the masonry products that I had wished I could pass to her. Not pictured are the concrete blocks. Also, in the above photo, those concrete blocks and pavers will join their kin as soon as I feel up to it.

 

Lunch, anyone?

From xkcd: