Thank You
Dear Editor: Last Friday my wife and I were shopping at Sea Mart and when we got to the produce section at about 11:30 a.m., my legs played out and I just couldn’t stand anymore. While I leaned against a counter my wife asked Andrew Hames, who was working there, if he could help. He went and got a handicap carrier, helped me in it and then followed me to our car and made sure I got in safely. I just wanted to tell him THANK YOU very much. May the Lord bless you.
Frank E. Ockert, Chaplain,
Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital
Local Landslides
Dear Editor: The recent landslides were likely triggered by microbursts. Microbursts are small high wind events that hit an area with super high winds (recorded up to 150 mph). In our case because we live in a rainforest these high winds can push/pull huge amounts of water down with them. (Think of it as someone throwing a five gallon bucket of water onto a tray of newly sprouted tomato seedlings.)
Huge trees in a small area get blown over and broken off by these microbursts of high winds. These high winds can actually strip the trees bare of their limbs as they are knocked down. Generally these trees are all knocked down in the same direction in our local area.
If you look south of town at the mountainside above Sam Sing Cabin you can see a round bare patch where the timber was knocked over by one of these microbursts during a major storm several years ago. All the trees in this small patch are blown over in the same direction (uphill).
Clyde Bright, Sitka
