ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Disaster Precursors - 92-Year-Old Woman Dies Following Attack By Pack Of Dogs In Olympia, Washington?!

92-year-old Gladys Alexander dies after dog attack

March 9, 2016 - WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES - A woman who was the victim of a violent attack by dogs has died, according to the Harborview Medical Center.

Gladys Alexander, 92, walked across the street late Sunday to give her neighbor a newspaper when she was attacked by four pit bull mix dogs.

Thurston County Sheriff's investigators say the homeowner was running errands and returned home to find the dogs attacking Alexander. She stopped the attack.

Only a KIRO 7 camera was there as investigators for Thurston County Animal Services removed the dogs from the Scott Lake home near Olympia.

Their docile demeanor, a stark contrast to the way they behaved when a television crew showed up Monday.


WATCH: World War II veteran dies from injuries suffered in dog bite.

It was very likely the same way they seemed late Sunday afternoon when Gladys Alexander walked into the house while, unbeknownst to her, the homeowner was away. Those who saw Alexander after the attack said the dogs tore away nearly all the flesh from a leg and an arm.

She died at 11:55 a.m. Tuesday at Harborview Medical Center.

As word spread, those living in her tight-knit neighborhood began bringing flowers to her home. The authorities say that though Alexander was killed by the dogs, no crime was committed because they were confined to their home and she, in effect, trespassed.

It is a bitter pill, however, for those who knew her.

"I understand that," said Nancy Jenrette. "At the same time, it just feels so criminal that she had to have suffered so tragically and that she ended up having to die in this manner. It's just horrific."

The owner of the dogs has agreed to have one dog euthanized. The other three dogs belong to her daughter who is in jail.

They will all be quarantined for 10 days while a decision is made about their fate.

Law enforcement on dog attacks in Western Washington

After a 63-year-old woman was attacked by pitbulls in SeaTac in summer 2009, King County Sheriff John Urquhart - then a sergeant and department spokesman -- said deputies see more animal-related calls in the summer.

"People will say there are no bad dogs, just bad dog owners," he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at the time. "We don't agree with that."

Seattle Animal Shelter Don Jordan has said Seattle's approach is to "focus on the deed, not the breed." He has that take after that SeaTac attack and another in that city, and had the same response when there were calls to ban Rottweilers in Seattle in the 1990s.

In 2012, the last complete year for which KIRO 7 has complete data, there were 30 reports of pit bulls biting humans, more than any other dog breed.

There were 18 reports for Labrador retrievers and nine reports for Rottweilers that year. - KIRO7.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Continous Tremor Under Puget Sound - As Washington State Continues Rattling Since Magnitude 4.3 Earthquake Struck On December 30!

Recent tremors and earthquakes in Puget Sound, Washington.
© Pacific Northwest Seismic Network

January 27, 2016 - PACIFIC NORTHWEST - A continuous tremor has been shaking from Vancouver Island south toward Olympia. A lead seismologist at the University of Washington told KIRO 7 they are not alarmed, but that the tremor is likely tied to the biggest quake in the Puget Sound region.

Hundreds of tremors registered across the Pacific Northwest within a 25-hour span starting Monday.

The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network plotted 427 tremors on a map.

"What's happening is there's an episode where the deep plate boundary is kind of rumbling," said Dr. John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

The tremor can last three weeks and happens about once a year. It's been shaking 30 miles under Puget Sound since Dec. 22. Unlike an earthquake map, the dots on the tremor map show readings of the same tremor. You can see the map here.

Dr. Vidale believes the tremor is related to the 4.3 earthquake that shook under Victoria, British Columbia on Dec. 30. That quake was the largest in the Puget Sound region since the Nisqually quake of 2001. KIRO 7 Morning Anchor John Knicely asked Dr. Vidale if that indicates anything in particular.

Two weeks in, #tremor is still moving south. #PNSN Tremor Map: http://www.pnsn.org/tremor 
Twitter: PNSN

"No, as far as we can tell it's a regular tremor episode," said Dr. Vidale. "It's a little bigger than usual."

The tremor will keep moving south until it runs out of energy. It could end today or in two weeks. Dr. Vidale doesn't consider this alarming even though it was tied to the Victoria quake last week.

"We hope eventually we can see patterns here that tell us something about when earthquakes are coming," said Dr. Vidale. "But right now there's nothing in this that's diagnostic of what's coming in the future."

An online mapping tool lets Seattle residents search zoom in on the natural hazards that threaten their homes or workplaces.

Users can find out whether their office or apartment building sits on soil that will turn to goo in a major earthquake. Other overlays show areas vulnerable to flooding, landslides and quake-triggered tsunamis. - KIRO 7.

EXTREME WEATHER: Wind And Rain Storm Slams Oregon, Washington - Pacific Northwest Hit With Record And Severe Rainfall; One Of The Strongest September Windstorms On Record!

September 30, 2013 - UNITED STATES - A late September storm was bringing rains and high winds to parts of Oregon and Washington, with an urban flood advisory issued for the Portland area and forecasters predicting gusts of more than 50 mph across the greater Puget Sound region.

Joe Markovich with the Seattle Department of Transportation looks over a buckled sidewalk where a tree fell in
Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2013. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM

The National Weather Service issued high-wind warnings for Sunday night into Monday morning for a region that stretched from the Canadian border to south of Olympia, saying gusts could reach 60 mph. The cause was an area of low pressure moving ashore.

"This has the potential to be one of the strongest September windstorms on record," the weather service said in its advisory.

The gusty weather comes after record rainfalls in Western Washington. On Saturday 1.71 inches fell at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, more than double the old record of 0.83 of an inch set in 1948. A record rainfall of 2.93 inches was set in Olympia, breaking the old record of 0.82 set in 1971.


WATCH: Harsh winds and rain thrashed across the Pacific Northwest this weekend, shutting down roads, flooding streets, and downing power lines. NBC’s Miguel Almaguer reports from Seattle.

In Oregon the flood advisory was issued until Sunday night. Portland officials asked people to clear neighborhood drains to help curb flooding, and a wind advisory was set for the Willamette Valley into Sunday night. High wind gusts of up to 80 mph also expected on the Oregon Coast.

The Saturday storm in the Portland area knocked out power for thousands in the city and throughout the Willamette Valley. Steve Pierce, president of the Oregon Chapter of the American Meteorological Society, said daily rainfall records were set Saturday in the Oregon communities of Hillsboro, McMinnville, Troutville, Redmond and Salem.

In Washington, the weather service issued flood warnings for Pierce, Lewis and Mason counties. Flooding of the Puyallup River near Orting was a possibility through Monday. Heavy rain caused the Puyallup River to reach just above the flood level Saturday about midnight, and receded below that mark early Sunday. - Seattle PI.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Minor 3.6 Earthquake Rattles Puget Sound, On The Kitsap Peninsula, Washington - Seismologist Says The Tremor Raises The Chance Of Larger Earthquake Within The Next 48 Hours On The Tacoma Fault!

August 20, 2013 - UNITED STATES - A small earthquake west of Gig Harbor before noon Tuesday was felt by scattered residents across South Kitsap and northern Pierce County.

USGS earthquake location.

The earthquake, recorded at a 3.6 magnitude, occurred at 11:41 a.m., according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington. The epicenter was just west of Vaughn on the Key Peninsula, across Henderson Bay from Cutts Island State Park. The depth was initially reported as 3.5 miles, then updated to 7.3 miles.

The Pierce County sheriff's office says there are no reports of damage from a 3.6 magnitude earthquake that shook the Gig Harbor area.

USGS earthquake shakemap intensity.

People from Port Orchard to Burley in South Kitsap reported the quake on the Kitsap Sun’s Facebook page, along with residents of Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula.

“It was a nice little quake for feeling,” said Bill Steele a seismologist at the UW’s Seismology Lab. “We’re not surprised that it was felt over that area.”

The earthquake is considered a shallow quake, being less than 10 miles deep, he said. Had it been deeper, it might not have been felt across such a broad area.

The small earthquake is “not inconsistent” with a quake on the Tacoma fault, Steele said. The Tacoma fault has been associated with massive earthquakes in the distant past.

USGS earthquake shakemap intensity.

The 3.6-magnitude earthquake raises the chance that smaller aftershocks will follow, possible in the range of a magnitude 2, he said. The risk of a larger earthquake also increases, but only slightly, for about the next 48 hours, then the risk will return to background levels for the region.

Any earthquake serves as a reminder that Puget Sound lies in earthquake country, Steele said, and large earthquakes could occur anytime. People should be prepared to be without services — such as power, water and transportation — for at least five days. - Kitsap Sun.



 

FIRE IN THE SKY: Major Solar System Disturbance - Large Meteor Dances Across Wyoming Sky!

May 07, 2013 - UNITED STATES -  A large meteor exploded in the sky above southern Wyoming on Sunday night and was observed from as far as 400 miles away.

Jordan Dowers of Olympia, Wash., was driving along Interstate 80 near Laramie with his father when they spotted it about 10:45 p.m.

"The first thing we noticed is the sky lit up really bright," said Dowers, 23. "At first it was, 'Where did that lightning strike come from?' Then it was much, much brighter than lightning. From the south, it was neon blue. It looked like it was going to hit the ground. Then it just disappeared."

The red line is the estimated trajectory of the bolide, which is a meteor that explodes in the atmosphere. The green pins indicate where the trajectory started and the red pins indicate where it ended. The human-looking icons represent each of the eight reports that the American Meteor Society received of the event. The direction of the icon represents where each person was “standing” when the bolide was spotted. © American Meteor Society

Eight witnesses reported the event to the American Meteor Society, including people as far away as Idaho and Colorado.

Technically, the meteor is called a bolide, said society volunteer Mike Hankey, who lives in Baltimore.

Bolides tend to be blue in color.

A bolide is "the type of meteor that leaves meteorites" after exploding, Hankey said. "It's really bright. It gets everyone excited."

Hankey estimated the bolide's trajectory at 150 miles. It traveled from southeast to northwest and lasted just seconds.

"They blow up and that's when all that light happens," Hankey said. "Then the boulder turns into thousands of little pieces."

In fact, it's rare for stuff from outer space to stream through the atmosphere without burning up or exploding, he said.

"With movies and all this, we think it's, like, this burning mass that hits the ground and then there's this explosion and a crater on the ground. That happens only once every 100,000 years," he said.

About three bolides trail across the Earth's skies a day. But a person actually seeing a bolide is rare since most of the world is covered by oceans. Most people will only see a bolide once or twice in their lifetimes, Hankey said.

In Wyoming, the lack of light pollution from cities may increase someone's chances. At 5:45 a.m. on March 28, a meteor that traveled across the sky from the Big Horn Mountains to Montana's Medicine Rocks State Park was seen by people as far away as Canada. Numerous Casperites who were commuting for work saw it, too.
Hankey said that when he started working with the society in 2009, only a few bolides were reported.

"This year, it's crazy, man," he said. "They're happening left and right. [People] are more aware. They're more connected. They're using the Internet. They know about our site." - Star Tribune.