Where to Live to Avoid a Natural Disaster

Weather disasters and quakes: who’s most at risk? An attempt to assess a combination of those risks in 379 American metro areas.

Why did I move away from Spokane again? The city is ranked #6 for most likely to avoid natural disaster, according to The New York Times. 

It’s rather unlikely the residents will ever experience a tornado or hurricane threatening their city. Spokane will not crumble into a hot magma mess as theorized by that one volcano dude.

However, in New York City - we’re more likely to experience hurricanes. Flooding from Hurricane Sandy last year was quite the problem for lower elevation areas. My area of Brooklyn was not affected, I’m told. 

Hurricane season begins June 1 and is expected to go until Nov. 30.

A quick thunderstorm whipped through the region lashing rain, hail and gusts of wind through Spokane. Before the chaos erupted, I took a trip up to the roof to capture this shot of Our Lady of Lourdes church and last of the sunshine glimmering off the crosses. One of our photographers, meanwhile, ran outside to the street as the rain dumped. “I run to the flames, not away,” he said as he proudly marched back through the newsroom - drenched.
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A quick thunderstorm whipped through the region lashing rain, hail and gusts of wind through Spokane.

Before the chaos erupted, I took a trip up to the roof to capture this shot of Our Lady of Lourdes church and last of the sunshine glimmering off the crosses.

One of our photographers, meanwhile, ran outside to the street as the rain dumped.

“I run to the flames, not away,” he said as he proudly marched back through the newsroom - drenched.

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, but don’t worry. All is well. I started my new job at The Spokesman-Review as their breaking news and public safety reporter, but since my start date, I’ve covered a unique range of news.

Here’s some story samples:

Local weather station balloons aid nationwide data collection

Homeless man’s suitcase causes bridge bomb scare

Deputies stop stolen bus out for joyride

67: Longest field goal in history of Washington prep football turns Austin Rehkow into overnight sensation

Abandoned grocery draws complaints from neighbors

New chief takes oath

I’m starting to get comfortable with my new shift and work load so now I can begin thinking about dumping out my memory cards like I used to.

A recent fire left four residents without a home in the Logan neighborhood. The fire burned a hole through a roof, but they had time to evacuate with their belongings in laundry baskets. Firefighters put out the fire before the damage spread to other floors.

A group of firefighters walked by me and one said, “Take a picture of this guy! He put out the fire! All he did was throw his jacket on it and rolled around a bit.” - I doubt that’s how the fire was extinguished, but I appreciate the humor on scene of breaking news.

The fire was also a block or so away from Donut Parade. Om nom nom nom.

One foggy morning, I took the elevator to the 7th floor of the Spokesman-Review building to see the downtown view. I almost slipped on a patch of ice, but I survived. Saw the steam plant smoke stacks disappearing into low cloud cover.

Now These Are Flooding Photos

Downtown Spokane | KXLY

There has to be a correlation between spring cleaning and nostalgia. Digging up dusty boxes is sure to turn up forgotten treasures like photographs of Spokane flooding. Wayne Foreman emailed us a generous amount of the above photos he took on his 110 camera in either 1969 or 1970. Foreman says he was about 10 at the time these photos were taken.

Foreman says his mother took him around Spokane to take these photos on an “education day”. It was her way of introducing Foreman and his two siblings to “life’s little shows”. 

She would also take the kids on ambulance runs when she heard about incidents over the police scanner. 

Sounds like my kind of lady!



Spokane County | KXLY The record precipitation from last month left something to be desired by some. For Beck’s Harvest House in Green Bluff, the rain left a pile of mud. The region has been plagued with terrible weather lately. It’s so bad that I’ve lost all faith in humanity. To make it worse, our newsroom has no windows so when I walk into the office in the morning, that’s my lasting impression of the outside world.  When I left the station to work on the story at Beck’s Harvest House, I was delighted by the warm sunny weather. It was like driving through Toon Town.  It’s too bad I came to Green Bluff on such depressing circumstances. The farm’s Easter egg hunt had to be cancelled due to mud and standing water. Sure it was a nice day outside, but the next three days were not promising and would make their bowl-like farm even worse.  I guess that’s life on the farm. 
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Spokane County | KXLY

The record precipitation from last month left something to be desired by some. For Beck’s Harvest House in Green Bluff, the rain left a pile of mud.

The region has been plagued with terrible weather lately. It’s so bad that I’ve lost all faith in humanity. To make it worse, our newsroom has no windows so when I walk into the office in the morning, that’s my lasting impression of the outside world. 

When I left the station to work on the story at Beck’s Harvest House, I was delighted by the warm sunny weather. It was like driving through Toon Town. 

It’s too bad I came to Green Bluff on such depressing circumstances. The farm’s Easter egg hunt had to be cancelled due to mud and standing water. Sure it was a nice day outside, but the next three days were not promising and would make their bowl-like farm even worse. 

I guess that’s life on the farm. 

Seattle to Spokane with a little detour along the way. On our return trip from the SPJ conference, we got off the highway at Ellensburg to take the Vantage Highway. I highly recommend it if you have a hour or so to spare on your east or westbound trip across the state. 

If you’re heading eastbound, you pass through the edge of CWU campus to a long stretch of highway scattered with farms. We passed a group of non-Canadian geese hanging out along the edge of the road. 

Mike took an edgy photo and I made it edgier through an infamous process referred to by chef David Blaine as “to Hensley”. Don’t worry, there’s verbage for “to Kwak”. We’re still not sure what that means.

And then we reached our goal, the top of the Wild Horse Wind Farm. It’s worth it.

I drove into a wall of fog during my Monday evening commute. You’d never know it by this photo because I got a little photo-app happy. Instead, here’s an artsy commuting photo.  App: PictureShow Filter: Bleach Frame: Vintage Stain Light: Light Leak 4 Noise: Rust HDR: 2/10 Red: 2/10 Green: 6/10 Blue: 6/10 Brightness: 6/10 Contrast: 3/10
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I drove into a wall of fog during my Monday evening commute. You’d never know it by this photo because I got a little photo-app happy. Instead, here’s an artsy commuting photo. 

App: PictureShow

Filter: Bleach

Frame: Vintage Stain

Light: Light Leak 4

Noise: Rust

HDR: 2/10

Red: 2/10

Green: 6/10

Blue: 6/10

Brightness: 6/10

Contrast: 3/10

Not everything needs a fancy photo to remember a moment by. When you pull the car over to snap a edgy pic, what’s the point? To show off on Flickr and such? There’s an obvious answer. Yes.  Which is why I really wanted to pull over to snap a photo of the moon rising over the Central Washington area wind turbines above the Columbia River. Next time, if you want to be in control of your photo destiny, be the driver, not the passenger.  But look for a decent highway turn off first. Otherwise you’ll pull off on the shoulder which may not be safe. 
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Not everything needs a fancy photo to remember a moment by. When you pull the car over to snap a edgy pic, what’s the point? To show off on Flickr and such? There’s an obvious answer.

Yes. 

Which is why I really wanted to pull over to snap a photo of the moon rising over the Central Washington area wind turbines above the Columbia River.

Next time, if you want to be in control of your photo destiny, be the driver, not the passenger. 

But look for a decent highway turn off first. Otherwise you’ll pull off on the shoulder which may not be safe. 

We drove right into a dust storm of sorts. Not quite a haboob, but enough dust and wind to merit a thorough lens cleaning this week. 

We stopped at a rest area along I-90 to walk around and get some extra steps into our FitBit. I geared up in a hat and big jacket to block the wind.

To get the shot I wanted of an irrigation structure disappearing into the dust, I had to jump one unfortunate obstacle and cross a random road next to a field.

Mike shot the above photo from behind. He captioned it perfectly: “…And @blushresponse was never heard from again.”

Unfortunately for him, I returned with the above photo. 

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