We dont need to guess. There's a comprehensive study in the possession of seattle water, and both fire districts. 

Man, sorry you had to go through that! That must have been scary!

 

I understand the dam is about 16 miles from Carnation. Has anyone ever guessed how long the water would take to get there? I suppose it depends on how big of a failure.

 

Best,

 

Paul, W7PEZ

 

On Jul 29, 2020, at 2:08 PM, Rick Burns <kb7cin@...> wrote:



Boy…we sure know. Just a few comments on my experience. Traffic was bad in our quiet sleepy town. First thought was to grab my radio equipment but actually forgot to grab cell phone (lesson #1.5 learned). Headed out the door…wife said in 6 minutes. Went north but turned toward Carnation Farm, I didn’t want to be stuck in the lineup to get passed the slide area near Stillwater Store. At that point a very fast trip toward the farm then I pulled into the elevated spot by the truck scale. Seemed to have bad reception and transmission in that spot. Heard some activity about the incident from a 2m repeater on Cougar Mtn. By now many more cars pull in behind us. I heard the following information, it was a false alarm and there was no police presence in town. But I did see King Cty heading down Hwy 203 from the north so I think they were getting into place. This might be a lesson learned for King Cty to take action immediately to head to the main intersection when it happens again which we hope is never. Like a fire drill it was good practice as we now know what to expect…God forbid the real one hits. Lastly I was giving some status to people up on the rise…”it was a false alarm per ham radio operators out there”. I don’t think they were taking my information seriously because they all seemed to be more engaged sharing, back and forth, information they were getting from their smart phones. I guess that’s okay this time but they’ll be shocked then next time when their phone service is completely down.

 

Rick

Kb7cin

From: snovarc@snovarc.groups.io [mailto:snovarc@snovarc.groups.io] On Behalf Of Rowland
Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2020 1:01 PM
To: snovarc@snovarc.groups.io
Subject: [SnoVARC] Tolt Dam False Alarm

 

As some of you may know the Tolt Dam alarm went off this morning letting people know the dam had failed and to evacuate immediately. Luckily it was a false alarm but there was a lot of confusion of local Carnation residents on what was the alarm about and what were they suppose to do,  Hopefully the city of Carnation will arrange for some more info to be publish to the locals and this is also a golden opportunity for SnoVARC to talk about what our reaction should be to something like this.

 

This morning Paul, Shawn and myself were on the radio during this episode. We discussed it and I let them know it was a false alarm once I heard it from Kathy and SPU.

 

Hopefully this will turn into a great learning process for all concerned.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Rowland