Perhaps you’ve seen them while walking your neighborhood. A Little Free Library, each one a different color and size, all standing on people’s lawns and containing books. Though unique in style, these small boxes share the same vision: take a book, share a book.
Founded in 2009 by the late Todd H. Bol, he created the inaugural library in honor of his schoolteacher mother. Three years after the little library was placed in his front yard, a non-profit was launched. Bol died in 2018 at age 62 from complications of pancreatic cancer, but not before he saw his creation impact the world—more than 75,000 Little Free Libraries had been registered globally, across 88 countries.
His inspiring life story is one we should all take a page out of. “I really believe in a Little Free Library on every block and a book in every hand,” said Bol, who had hope for humanity coming together. “I believe people can learn from each other, and see that they have a better place on this planet to live.”
Mark Cuban has created a cure for avoiding inflated medication costs. The Billionaire investor’s Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (MCCPDC) launched an online pharmacy that will help provide more affordable pharmaceutical drugs to millions of Americans.
MCCPDC is a registered pharmaceutical wholesaler, meaning it is able to bypass the middleman—and the increased markup costs as a result. The first inventory included 100 generic meds, all sold at manufacturer prices in addition to a 15 percent margin and pharmacist fee. MCCPDC CEO Alex Oshmyansky said in a statement: “The markup on potentially lifesaving drugs that people depend on is a problem that can’t be ignored. It is imperative that we take action and help expand access to these medications for those who need them most.”
She may have done it alone, but Zara Rutherford now has the entire world cheering her on. At age 19, the Belgian-British pilot has set a world record: she’s the youngest woman to fly around the world solo. After 155 days traveling the globe in her small Shark microlight plane, she returned home to Belgium on Thursday.
Her arrival was months later than intended, but the memories made and sights seen across five continents will last a lifetime. The teen, whose parents are also pilots, is encouraging of other young women who have an interest in the aviation industry. “Go for it,” she said. “It takes a lot of time, patience, a lot of work, but it is incredible.” Her sights are now set on attending university this fall, and there’s no doubt she’ll soar at whatever she does.
A new discovery has been made that is out of this world. This month, it was announced that a gigantic gas planet has been discovered. The planet, called TOI-2180 b, is almost three times more massive than Jupiter—known to be the biggest planet in the solar system.
Found by a UC Riverside astronomer and group of scientists, the planet is considered a “rare” finding. Paul Dalba, a UCR astronomer, says “It hits the trifecta of 1) having a several-hundred-day orbit, 2) being relatively close to Earth (379 lightyears is considered close for an exoplanet), and 3) us being able to see it transit in front of its star.”
It’s a reminder that there is still galaxies-worth of information yet to be explored in space.
“Instacart worker Jessica Higgs was delivering an order of groceries for an elderly customer when she noticed something didn’t feel right. Because she listened to her gut and chose to speak up, Higgs saved two people from a potentially fatal propane leak.”
Quote of the day
“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.”
Bad as he is, there is someone worse who is making the rounds in DC trying to drum up support for a 2024 run.
Dementia Joe won’t be running as the Democratic nominee in ’24. You know you’re in trouble when a NYT-Sienna College poll shows that 94% of Dems under 30 prefer someone other than Joe to run.
Senate Majority Leader Schumer has begged his colleagues to appear to be unified and not criticize either Biden or his centrist bane Joe Manchin (D-WVa). But that hasn’t prevented them from refusing to promise to back Biden no matter what–though they obviously don’t want to say it in public.
So, who would be worse than Biden?
Here’s a hint: what state did Q tell us to watch to see the way the “progressives” would try to take the country?
Another hint: Who barely survived a recall vote in that above mentioned state?
If your answers were California and Gavin Newsom — congratulations!
One is just a puppet, the other wants to be puppet master.
Yes, Gonad Gruesome has been visiting senators in Washington, DC.
Per The Hill:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is positioning himself and his state as a national leader on climate issues amid speculation of a possible 2024 White House bid.
Newsom, even as the Biden administration is increasingly stymied by the Supreme Court and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), hopes to show how the Golden State can lead the way on tackling climate change while Washington is in a quagmire.
Newsom’s state budget package, unveiled in January, included $22.5 billion to combat climate change. In May, he revised the proposal to add another $9.5 billion.
Newsom also spearheaded the state’s strictest-in-the-nation tailpipe emissions standards through a legal standoff with the Trump administration, which attempted to repeal a federal waiver allowing the rules. The waiver was restored by Biden Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan in 2022.
California, a state where gas prices jumped to $6 and $7 per gallon in some locales earlier this summer, plans to phase out oil production in the state by 2045.
The state, which would have the world’s fifth-largest economy if it were a country, has also formed a number of international climate partnerships under Newsom, including collaborations with Canada, New Zealand, Japan and China.
Newsome aired an attack ad over the July 4 holidays against Fla governor Ron DeSantis, a likely Republican standard bearer. But he claimed that the ad “Don’t let them take our freedoms away…” was not the opening shot in a presidential campaign run. (“Them” being Trump and DeSantis.)
IMHO Newsom makes ex-gov Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown look like a thoughtful centrist.
The vote about operating a Planned Parenthood at John Glenn High School in Norwalk is scheduled to take place on Monday evening. (Glenn, an Ohio native, is spinning in his grave at supersonic speed. -TPR)
According to the proposal, the clinic will not be notifying parents about any students that they provide services to.
If he has California stopping oil production by 2045 and is okay with putting an abortion clinic in a High School, imagine what he’d do in the White House.
Remember when the Texas governor was sending the undocumented to DC so Biden and his gang could take care of them? Well the DC Mayor took her bitching to the MSM. “Not in my backyard” Mayor Bowser.
Democrat DC Mayor Muriel Bowser on Sunday said she wants the Biden Regime to stop illegal aliens from being bused into DC. So why is she being so unfriendly to the undocumented?
Democrat Bowser is angry that hordes of illegals are overwhelming the homeless shelters in DC and she wants the federal government to intervene.
Homeless shelters in Washington D.C. are filling up with asylum seekers from Texas and Arizona. Mayor Bowser says “I fear that they're being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America.” pic.twitter.com/7OOH6F2Dpl
Gershon Fuentes - believed to be an undocumented from Guatemala
Visits: 22
Somebody should have told this to the rapist.
It appears that Telemundo is the only national media outlet currently seeking to center the true victim of the awful Ohio rape case: not the abortionist, but the girl whose innocence was shattered by a member of her own household.
27-year-old Gershon Fuentes was taken into custody on Tuesday and booked into Franklin County jail.
Fuentes, who is believed to be an ILLEGAL ALIEN, was arraigned Wednesday morning and bond was set at $2 million, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
Fuentes was charged with first-degree felony rape of a child under the age of 13 years old.
The child rape victim traveled to Indiana for an abortion and DNA from the aborted fetus will be tested against samples from Gershon Fuentes.
Gershon Fuentes told police he raped the child on at least two occasions, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
Telemundo confirmed the domestic relationship after they confronted the mother of the victim on Thursday.
Telemundo confirmed the relationship with two people who know the mother.
One of the women, Daisy Torres, told Telemundo that the mother is currently pregnant with Gershon Fuentes’ child!
MARIA VARGAS PION: Hiding her face, this woman who opened for us the door of the home where the police confirm that Gerson Fuentes lives- charged with raping a 10-year-old girl, identified herself as the mother of the minor and stated that he is innocent.
VARGAS PION: Do you, as the girl’s mother, think that he is innocent?
MOTHER: Of course.
VARGAS PION: Then why is he incarcerated?
MOTHER: I don’t know, but I don’t really want to talk.
VARGAS PION: Telemundo News confirmed with two people who know her that she is indeed the girl’s mother; including Daisy Torres, who claims that they both frequent the same nightclub.
Upon seeing photos and video images recorded with our cameras, she said the following.
Is that her?
DAISY TORRES: It’s her. Yes. That’s right.
VARGAS PION: And you say that she is the mother of the 10-year-old girl who was raped.
TORRES: Yes, it is (REDACTED). The girl’s mother.
VARGAS PION: She also said that the woman is in a relationship with Gerson Fuentes.
TORRES:
He’s her partner. And he is the father of the child she is carrying in her womb right now.
VARGAS PION: So the woman is pregnant.
TORRES: Yes.
VARGAS PION: Throughout our exclusive interview with the woman who says that she is the girl’s mother, we pressed her on whether 27-year-old Gerson Fuentes was the minor’s rapist. She replied without hesitation.
MOTHER: Everything that they are saying against him is a lie.
A horrendous story just got more awful. As I [Vargas Pion] suspected, the victim’s mother is in a domestic relationship with the confessed rapist, there are two other children in the household and another on the way.
The child herself identified the rapist to law enforcement a week after the abortion and two weeks after the rape was reported to authorities.
The question has to be asked- why did the child remain in the household a full two weeks after the rape was reported?
What other horrors will we learn of by the time this story is fully told?
One more thing: why isn’t NBC reporting news broken by its Telemundo assets?
The girl reportedly celebrated her 10th birthday very recently. The revelation had led many to believe that she was only nine years old when she was raped and later became pregnant.
According to a report from The Columbus Dispatch, Detective Jeffrey Huhn, who testified at Fuentes’ arraignment Wednesday, claims the girl named Fuentes as her attacker and the father of her aborted child. He testified that DNA evidence from the abortion clinic in Indianapolis would be compared to samples taken from Fuentes.
Journalist Jorge Bonilla pointed out that the mother’s defense of the rapist may be due to the family’s immigration status or the alleged rapist being the family’s sole income earner. He also pointed out that there may be other children in the home, and the mother fears the removal of her children from the home.
Sources: Telemundo, MRC, [your] News, the Columbus Dispatch, and the Gateway Pundit
QUESTION #1: Why do Democrats continue to insist that election fraud does not exist — and that such “baseless claims” have been “debunked” — when prominent Democrats insisted (in 2017 and 2018 and 2019 and 2020) that election fraud does exist and it’s a very big problem?
Did they all forget that we live in the age of video playback?
Did they all suffer from simultaneous amnesia about the hearings they held, the expert witnesses they gathered, and the interviews they gave (for documentaries like HBO’s “Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Elections”) during the Trump Administration?
Thank you all for being election deniers before you became election fraud deniers!
QUESTION #2: Why were 78 million American votes from 800 counties in seven states sent overseas to be “handled” by a bankrupt Spanish company in Barcelona called SCYTL in 2020? Why is SCYTL’s biggest customer the Department of Defense? Why would the Department of Defense subcontract the “processing” of 78 million American votes to a foreign company?
For that matter, why is the Department of Defense involved in our elections at all?
Emerald Robinson’s The Right Way
America’s Elections Are Rigged (And Everybody Knows It)
If you want to unravel the mysterious results of the 2020 election, you must begin by asking a simple question: why were 78 million American votes from 800 counties in 7 states sent overseas to be “handled” by a bankrupt Spanish company in Barcelona…
QUESTION #3: Why did the Associated Press just publish an article that admitted Dominion voting machines are vulnerable to hacking — and must be fixed immediately with software patches in 16 states? Why did the federal government’s own cybersecurity agency (CISA) send out a bulletin to state election officials on June 3rd that warned them about nine security vulnerabilities that must be addressed?
From the AP article:
ATLANTA (AP) — Electronic voting machines from a leading vendor used in at least 16 states have software vulnerabilities that leave them susceptible to hacking if unaddressed, the nation’s leading cybersecurity agency says in an advisory sent to state election officials.
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, or CISA, said there is no evidence the flaws in the Dominion Voting Systems’ equipment have been exploited to alter election results. The advisory is based on testing by a prominent computer scientist and expert witness in a long-running lawsuit that is unrelated to false allegations of a stolen election pushed by former President Donald Trump after his 2020 election loss.
The advisory, obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its expected Friday release, details nine vulnerabilities and suggests protective measures to prevent or detect their exploitation. Amid a swirl of misinformation and disinformation about elections, CISA seems to be trying to walk a line between not alarming the public and stressing the need for election officials to take action.
Didn’t the Associated Press (and all the rest of the corrupt corporate media) spend the last 18 months telling the world that anyone who questioned the security of our elections was a conspiracy theorist?
Why is Judge Amy Totenberg opposed to the public release of J. Alex Halderman’s special report regarding the vulnerability of electronic voting machines?
Emerald Robinson’s The Right Way
The Federal Government Admits: Voting Machines Can Be Hacked!
President Trump blasted out my Substack article “Something Stinks in Georgia” (120,000 page views and climbing!) to his followers on TruthSocial yesterday — and it sent Biden’s unpaid staff in the media into a frenzy. Discredited media outlets for beta-males and aging hippies like…
a month ago · 251 likes · 32 comments · Emerald Robinson
Why has Judge Totenberg denied a request by the Louisiana secretary of state to review the special report? (Louisiana uses Dominion voting machines as well.) Why has Judge Totenberg denied access to the Halderman report to media outlets as well?
Media outlets such as Fox News and One America News (OAN) are currently being sued for defamation by Dominion — and a federal judge is refusing to release a report that reportedly shows the Dominion machines are not secure?
Looks like the “Golden State” is actually Iron Pyrite.
In a school discrimination case that could set a precedent for beleaguered parents across the country frustrated with Critical Race Theory-related issues in the classroom, a California woman is set to file suit against her child’s school district after her 7-year-old daughter was punished and humiliated for drawing a Black Lives Matter picture for her friendsthat also included the sentiment that “any lives” matter. In addition, the school never informed her about the incident or the punishment; she only learned about it after another parent mentioned it to her a year later.
At the time of the incident, Black Lives Matter rhetoric could be seen and heard everywhere, from the news to professional sports and even in the classroom. Jane, who is white, decided to draw a picture of her friends, who spanned the racial diaspora at the diverse elementary school that offers a unique “two-way language immersion” program in Spanish/English.
Chelsea Boyle’s daughter was a first-grader at Viejo Elementary School in Mission Viejo, CA, an Orange County suburb nestled about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. At the time of the incident, Black Lives Matter rhetoric could be seen and heard everywhere, from the news to professional sports and even in the classroom. Jane, who is white, decided to draw a picture of her friends, who spanned the racial diaspora at the diverse elementary school that offers a unique “two-way language immersion” program in Spanish/English.
The picture was meant to represent her closest friends of all different races, and in her uneven, first-grader scrawl, she wrote “Black Lives mater [sic]” at the top, followed by another sentiment, “any lives.” The picture went home with one of Jane’s friends.
The school never informed her about the incident or the punishment; she only learned about it after another parent mentioned it to her a year later.
Boyle said Jesus Becerra, the principal of Viejo Elementary School in Mission Viejo, forced the girl, then in the first grade, to make a public apology. She had to deliver the apology on the playground in front of her fellow students and school staff. To drive home the point that deviation from prescribed language about race is not allowed, the child was “benched” as punishment, meaning she had her recess time revoked and was forced to sit on a bench while her classmates played during their free time.
In an even more infuriating turn of events, Boyle says she wasn’t notified of the incident by school officials. It was not until nearly a year later, in March of 2022, that she heard about the issue from someone who was a mutual friend of both Boyle and the offended family.
All of this had happened without her knowledge, even though Boyle was heavily involved in school activities and volunteered hundreds of hours in the classroom and for school events. She had been kept in the dark, and her daughter, not fully understanding what had happened or what she had done wrong, had kept the incident to herself.
It wasn’t “all lives matter,” it was “any life.” It was something she came up on her own. She just didn’t understand it. It was completely innocent, and that broke my heart.
Boyle said she was shocked to learn what had happened.
My immediate reaction is just…I feel like I got hit by a bus, but I didn’t understand it. And I thought, oh, you know, my daughter has just been discriminated against. And I didn’t even want to contact a lawyer, but I just didn’t know what had happened to us.
When she talked to her daughter, it became clear that she had no idea why she had been punished for the picture. Boyle says her family does not engage in discussions about specific Black Lives Matter issues or other political topics at the moment because her family is still so young. She says her daughter came up with the picture and phrasing on her own, with perfectly innocent intentions, so not only did the punishment seem unwarranted to Boyle, it seemed cruel.
And then when I talked to my daughter — I think she said it was so sad. And and I said, “Well, what did the principal say to you?” and [she said] “I can’t draw pictures anymore. And I can’t write those words.” And I said, “Why did you write [those words]?”
I don’t teach [about] Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, [or] anything in my house because I think my children are too young [for politics]. My children see color as a color, as a description. I am trying to raise them the way the world should be, not the way it is. That’s how I’m trying to make my personal change. [H]er best friend is brown — not black, but brown — and she didn’t understand why she didn’t matter, why her friend didn’t matter. She has another friend that is Japanese; she doesn’t understand.
It wasn’t “all lives matter,” it was “any life.” It was something she came up on her own. She just didn’t understand it. It was completely innocent, and that broke my heart.
Boyle says the most concerning part of what she felt was an unwarranted punishment was its effect on Jane’s desire to draw. Jane is challenged with ADHD, and drawing has been her biggest and most therapeutic outlet. She had wondered why her artistic 7-year-old had suddenly stopped drawing when previously it was hard to find her without a marker or crayon in her hands. As it turned out, as a part of Jane’s punishment, Principal Becerra allegedly instructed Jane to refrain from drawing any more pictures for her friends at school.
Boyle was heartbroken and immediately reached out to Becerra and other district officials to register her disappointment and try to find some clarity. She says, admittedly she was a bit frenzied.
[I sent] my super angry, all caps email. Within 24 hours, nobody got back to me. So I sent another email, a lot more well-thought-out, took my time, and I said, “Listen, this is what I want. I want a formal apology to me, I want a formal apology to my daughter, and I want a formal apology to this other family, because they didn’t know that you guys didn’t contact me and you made it very uncomfortable for a lot of the parents and students at school, unbeknownst to me. And that’s all I want.”
Haberbush says they essentially told her to “take a hike” and what she was saying was not true.
The Orange County mother said she was hesitant to contact a lawyer but felt strongly that what happened to her daughter was wrong, and the insult was compounded by the terse response from Becerra and relative silence from her school board representatives. Boyle identified one board member, Gila Jones, as responsive and concerned, but in the end, Jones indicated there wasn’t much she or the school board could do in this case.
Interestingly, district disciplinary guidelines provide an apparatus for parents to escalate complaints about disciplinary actions. That apparatus ultimately ends with the authority of the school board.
Not only was Boyle denied the opportunity to lodge her complaints in the timely manner supposedly guaranteed by the official disciplinary procedural guidelines, the school board was not able to provide any resolution either.
Boyle had seen enough. She researched pro-bono civil rights attorneys and found herself connected with The Gavel Project, a Phoenix-based non-profit charity committed to representing civil rights in government overreach cases. From there, CEO and founder Ryan Heath helped her to secure in-state representation by Alexander Haberbush of the LexRex Institute, a “legal and public outreach organization that works to empower private individuals to hold government officials at every level accountable to their sworn oaths to uphold the Constitution of the United States and of their various states by informing, persuading, and advocating on behalf of those who have been denied its liberties.”
Haberbush says this is more than a case of one wronged child and her angry mother. It could set a legal precedent for other parents dealing with similar things, creating a legal ripple effect that could have drastic consequences for overreaching public school administrators and districts when it comes to compelled speech. And that is exactly how Haberbush identifies this case…one of compelled speech, which would place the burden of proof on Becerra and the school.
It’s a compelled speech issue; obviously compelled speech is one of the toughest tests that they have to meet, if they want to say that this is valid, “we can do it.” We be believe that there is no way that they can meet that standard and we believe this is an egregious deprivation of her rights and that Chelsea should be vindicated.
He added that he took on the case because he believes Boyle and her daughter were genuinely wronged, and he doesn’t want to see it happen again to anyone else.
She did not call Ryan and did not call my office because she was trying to make a buck. In fact, we will not take clients who are only out to make a buck. What she wanted from the school was an apology, [for them to recognize] they had done wrong, to apologize to her daughter and apologize to her.
Haberbush intimated that while money is not a motivator, his firm does occasionally seek damages and may choose to do so in this case. However, what they really want is a formal apology and a judgment.
Primarily what we want is a judicial determination and recognition that wrongdoing occurred, so that it won’t happen again because nobody should have to go through this.
Boyle hopes that the summer break has given the Viejo Elementary principal some time to relax and ponder the situation.
I’m serious. I don’t want this to happen to my kids. I don’t want it to happen to your kids.
Haberbush says the next step in the process is to file a lawsuit against the district. He feels it is necessary to force the school to respond to his client.
When asked if Boyle had plans to return her daughter to the same school in the fall, the small business owner admitted she did want to send her back but wondered what challenges her family may face as legal avenues are being pursued.
Jesus Becerra could not be reached for comment as of the publication of this article.
Reported first by RedState, as well as The Western Journal.
My advice to Mrs. Boyle would be NOT to send her daughter back to that school. These wokester elitists will increase their harassment of the daughter by several orders of magnitude in retaliation. This IS California, after all, home of Nasty Piglosi and Craven Newscum.
Let’s face it. The best we can hope for is containment of voter fraud. Not going to stop it completely. I know that one of the loons who stalks this web site has in the past claimed that there was only one case of voter fraud ever and it was a Republican. So sad.
So far this year Republicans have had some nice wins when it comes to stopping voter fraud. No ballot harvesting in Arizona, No mass spreading of drop boxes in Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania court strikes down no excuse absentee voting. Let’s keep it up.
The Seattle Fault goes east-west through downtown Seattle and Puget Sound.
The study noted that the last earthquake on the fault took place about 1,100 years ago. This is key, since a major (Magnitude 6.5 or more) earthquake has occurred on average every 584 years since 1500 BC. The fault is overdue.
Over the past 3,500 years, five additional earthquakes estimated to have a magnitude of 6.5 took place along the Seattle Fault.
For the sake of worst-case scenario planning, the study looked at the impact of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake.
Flooding from a tsunami would exceed 20 feet along the shoreline of the Seattle area and could generate waves as high as 42 feet tall, according to Fox News.
Maximilian Dixon, the hazards and outreach program supervisor for the Washington Emergency Management Division, said the department does not want to provoke panic, but urges individuals to be prepared.
“The ground shaking will be your warning that a tsunami may be on the way. Make sure you know where the closest high ground is and the quickest route to get there,” he said.
The study said that tsunami waves would hit the eastern side of Bainbridge Island, Elliott Bay and Alki Point, and could last for more than three hours.
The Port of Tacoma would face six feet of inundation with waves going as far as three miles inland, according to the study.
A long history of earthquakes on faults in the Puget Sound
“Most often, when we think of tsunamis, we think of our outer coast and communities along the Pacific Ocean. But there’s a long history of earthquakes on faults in the Puget Sound,” Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said.
“While the history of earthquakes and tsunamis along the Seattle Fault is less frequent than the Cascadia subduction zone, the impacts could be massive. That’s why it’s critical these communities have the information they need to prepare and respond.”
A 2001 earthquake caused $36 million worth of damage in Seattle from the impact on buildings, roads and other infrastructure, according to the city’s website.
The city noted that damage from an earthquake would also include landslides throughout the Seattle region. Further, the city estimated there are 1,100 un-reinforced buildings in Seattle that would be prone to extensive damage in an earthquake. About 15% of Seattle’s total area is soil that is prone to ground failure in earthquakes. The Duwamish Valley, Interbay, and Rainier Valley are vulnerable to ground failure and shaking because of the liquefiable soils in these areas.
And that is only one type of quake the area suffers from.
The second type would be a megathrust quake along the Cascadia fault line. Megathrust earthquakes are the greatest risk to the broader west coast region. A megathrust earthquake could reach M9.0+ and affect an area from Canada to northern California. A Cascadia megathrust earthquake could rank as one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, but because Seattle is several hundred miles from the source seismic waves would weaken slightly before they reach Seattle. Shaking would be violent and prolonged, but possibly not as intense as in a Seattle Fault quake.
Mount Rainier Will Erupt Again, Say Researchers Studying Volcano’s Magma Flows
Then there’s that 800-lb gorilla known as Mt. Rainier.
Mount Rainier last erupted in the 19th century. It is the tallest volcano and the fifth-highest peak in the contiguous U.S.. The volcano is about 14,410 feet tall and located about 58 miles southeast of Seattle.
The U.S. Geological Survey has described Mount Rainier as “an active volcano that will erupt again.” Sitting atop volcanic flows as much as 36 million years old, Rainier has erupted explosively dozens of times during the past 11,000 years, spewing ash and pumice.
There are FIVE active volcanoes in Washington State. The last one to erupt was Mt. St. Helen (1980.) If you’re not old enough to remember, you can see videos of it on YouTube and elsewhere. Seattle disaster planners claim it is ‘unlikely’ that a lahar would reach Seattle itself. Tell that to the people around St. Helens.
Envision that there would be solid blocks the size of Volkswagens and fine grain material being blasted into the atmosphere and then falling back on Rainier’s surface. It would be hot, and would melt the ice and snow on Rainier’s flanks And tumble over cliffs.
The lava flows encounter those very steep slopes and make avalanches of hot rocks and gas that are hurtling down the mountain maybe 100 miles per hour or so.
The lava would stop flowing near the boundaries of the national park.
But the snow water it melted would create a much bigger hazard: A flash flood that would look like concrete and chew up everything in its path.
It would pull down trees. Giant boulders would bounce on its surface, cracking as they collide with each other.
Scientists say Orting will probably have plenty of warning before an eruption. But just in case, there’s a backup plan, a siren that gives people in Orting roughly 40 minutes warning before the lahar hits.
There are several rivers running from Rainier straight towards Puget sound.
This nightmare mud flow is called a lahar. And it would sound like “a rocket launching. Or maybe a train barreling down a track where no railroad tracks exist.”
How would it affect Seattle-Tacoma?
An earthquake on the Seattle fault by itself would cause a massive catastrophe. So would a Seattle-facing Mt. St. Helen eruption. If they occurred at nearly the same time? Likely everything from Olympia north to Vancouver island would be in ruins with many thousands dead or injured.
On the upside, Redmond (and therefore Microsoft) would disappear.
Note: data for this story comes from investigative news reports and the Seattle and WA state government websites.
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