"Hey" P'wisers. I haven't posted much in the last few months... I've been having difficult times at work and at home. But, something came up recently that I just had to share with the group. Do you remember Hurricane Isabel from last Fall? Well, my hometown of Poquoson, VA got hit hard. Lots and lots of people still living in trailers, fighting insurance, and so forth. Clean-up and rebuilding continues. Anyway, the Chesapeake Bay is HUGE. We had hurricane winds from the east, and lots of surge. As all of us on this site know, that means that there were lots of hydrology in action (is that the correct word for various water dynamics?). Anyway, just recently, after > of a year, the Wildlife Refuge managers - did a hurricane damage assessment/inspection of the east side of Poquoson, which is Plum Tree Island NWR, and is accessible by water only. Decades ago, Plum Tree was a strafing and bombing range for nearby Langley Air Force Base, and perhaps the Nay Base in Norfolk. Guess what, in a single morning, they discovered over 40 unexploded ordinance in the shallows and/or the beach and marsh. Shallow here means mud flat at low tide, and only a few feet of water at high tide. Our tidal change is only about 3.5 feet. The area has obviously been changed by the hurricane, and lots of buried stuff has surfaced and been uncovered. Anyway, the entire area is closed until July of 2005 for "clearing of ordinance". Around here, that means expect it to be July of 2006 before they finish. First.... DAMN!!!! That's my back yard and usual paddling spot, and now I can't go there for a while! On the other hand, DAMN, do you know how many times I swam in the shallows, walked the beach, and drug my boat around over sand bars and stuff!!!!!!! I could have been blown up! Most locals know about Plum Tree being a bombing range. But, it's been generally accepted that decades ago, the place was cleared of unexploded ordinance. Come to find out today, they cleared it by visual inspection only. I had just assumed that they cleared it with metal detectors and the whole 9 yards. That was back in the 40's or 50's. Had I known it was visual inspection only, I wouldn't have been wondering around out there since my high school days back in the 70's. Okay - yes I would, but once I hit my 30's I probably would have wised up and stopped. The good news is that I'm forced to get out of my rut and go do some adventuring in other waters that I hardly ever visit. That will be a good thing. Silver lining in every cloud, I suppose. Here's a link to a local News Story. http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-46954sy0jul20,0,6031420.story?coll=dp -news-local-final Rick BTW - I suppose I really need to get a bombproof roll now..... sorry, I couldn't stop myself. :-) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On 20 Jul 2004 at 16:19, Rick.Sylvia_at_ferguson.com wrote: > unexploded ordinance. Come to find out today, they cleared it by > visual inspection only. I had just assumed that they cleared it with > metal detectors and the whole 9 yards. That was back in the 40's or > 50's. There are still mines from WWI under parts of France. One is a huge one - a gazzillion kilos of ordinance in an underground chamber - it was well documented in every way except location. They know roughly where it is, but are afraid to dig. At least your stuff isn't under the local pub! Someone was killed in Italy a couple of days ago when he showed a friend some ancient ordinance he found in his yard. Military is definitely better at war than at peace. When I sailed the Chesapeake in '77, we headed out one early morning into one of the thickest fogs I'd ever seen. We knew that there was a target area to the east of our course, but were only vaguely aware of where we were relative to it. After a bit, we heard a thump off the port beam and seconds later a whuump! to starboard. Somewhere inland they were firing shells and we hoped they were good at getting their range. Shelling continued for several minutes, but it seemed like a lot longer. That's one reason I prefer paddling Georgian Bay - the only bombing runs are from seagulls and Canada geese, and the results of that can be washed off. Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Similar stories here in NJ/NY and not just in the water... A few years ago a major recovery effort began in the Raritan River downstream of New Brunswick. They 'thought' they had cleaned up a lot of ordnance from an armory and depot that had been there during WW I. Turned out there are still lots of grenades, etc. in the estuarine mud nobody knew about.... Could still be ongoing for all I know... Some of the really good hiking trails above Harriman and Bear Mountain NY had to be closed a coupla years ago during drought conditions because of fire hazard. It was discovered at that time there was a lot of unexploded ordnance up there, too. At one the area was used for artillery target practice by West Pointers. They later did a sweep and cleared the area twenty feet away from all the trails. Now they've gone back to do the whole area... There was an area along the ocean at Sandy Hook we used to call Shell Beach because of what would occasionally be exposed along it. NPS has done a really good job of cleaning that up... (see the current issue of Archaeology Magazine for an article about that area). Joe P. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 04:19 PM 7/20/2004 -0400, Rick.Sylvia_at_ferguson.com wrote: >"Hey" P'wisers. I haven't posted much in the last few months... I've been >having difficult times at work and at home. But, something came up recently >that I just had to share with the group. >[snip] >First.... DAMN!!!! That's my back yard and usual paddling spot, and now I >can't go there for a while! On the other hand, DAMN, do you know how many >times I swam in the shallows, walked the beach, and drug my boat around over >sand bars and stuff!!!!!!! I could have been blown up! A couple of years ago I was vacationing a bit south of you in Duck, NC (Outer Banks). The oceanfront house we rented was just down the beach from a military installation. Apparently, prior to development in the area in the early 1970's the area was used as a bombing range. As you drive down the road past the military installation there are signs warning to stay out of the area because there are unexploded ordinances. That I knew about. I was sitting on the beach the first day I was there and noticed what appeared to be a small shack floating a few hundred feet off shore. I had a look through my telephoto lens on my camera and could see someone walking around a platform that surrounded the "shack". The next time I looked at it about 10 minutes later it appeared that it was getting closer to shore. I watched it for awhile and, because there was a pier just behind it, could see that it was definitely moving. When it got about 200' from shore I could see that the "shack" appeared to have metal "legs". As it got closer I could tell that it wasn't floating at all, but actually moving along the bottom. It eventually made it to shore and the "legs" were connected to large wheels and it just drove up onto the beach and onto the military installation. I found out later that this "shack" was actually a mine collector. The shoreline near the military installation was heavily protected with mines to keep submarines from coming close and they are still finding them. A day or so later I heard a couple of loud explosions coming from the military installation and a local said that it was actually fairly common for them to find a mine and explode it on land. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
John, Is what you saw shown on this link? http://www.frf.usace.army.mil/vehicles2.stm There is a research site at Duck run by the the Army Corp of Engineers. As far as I know they do research regarding the beach, ocean and atmosphere. Later, Dan McCarty *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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