Lab 8- Final

August and September are the driest and hottest months, in Los Angeles's Mediterranean climate. This makes several areas very vulnerable to fires which can be uncontrollable. This is what led to Los Angeles's largest fire and the nations 7th largest since 2000.

It started in the afternoon of August 27,  in the Angeles National Forest. The afternoon of August 26 is when the first account of a fire starting at a nearby fire station, Angeles Crest Fire Station. The fire affected approximately 160,500 acres and caused great alarm and evacuation of nearby residents. With effects of the wind and the Forest providing a great fuel for a wildfire, the fire spread North, North East and North West.

The recovery of this fire will take several years for the watershed to stabilize. Overall the animal species should be able to stabilize as well. The terrestrial area will of course take much longer, due to soil conditions.

There were over 1,000 firefighters helping with the spread of the Morris Fire. Unfortunately, two passed away due to an accident of going off road during the wildfire. Overall the, Angeles Forest did have up-to-date plans and protocol for fires, but it was unable to help the two that lost their lives. They made great progress the first few hours, unfortuanley the location of the fire department restricted their access to putting out the fire and made it difficult.

There were about 2,800 fire personnel , 12 helicopter and 8 air tankers trying to put out the fire.

The fire had made surrounding areas of Los Angles even hotter, with temperatures reaching triple digits. No civillians were reported dead but 29 total were injured (including fire personnel). 89 residences were destroyed and 18 residences damaged. 6,600 homes (10,000 people) were evacuated and 12,000 homes were threatened to be evacuated.

If the fire had gone West or South, it would have disturbed a greater number of people along with hospital and health care access. Fortunately no hospital was directly affected. Although due to the fire, roads and freeways close to the fire were shut down. That could have led to some logistical difficulties. Because 45% of the fire was put out by August 27th (Day 2). Overall, the fire did not have too large of an impact on hospitals because of their locations.

Bibliography

USDA, 11/13/2009. http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/station_fire_report.pdf 

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association), 01/08/10. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/fire/2009/13

Fish and Wildlife. 9/2009. Leslie Welch, Dan Teater, Robin Eliason. http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5167065.pdf

NASA Earth Observatory, 09/31/2009. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=40011

Media-

Pasadena Star News, 08/27/2009.  http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_13211554

Los Angeles Times, 08/31/2009. Genaro Molina. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/la-county-fire-doubles-in-size-more-homes-list-mt-wilson-threatened.html

Week 8- Lab 7- Census Data

 

This census map shows that the majority of the African American population lives in the South East continental US.  They live more inland than in along the coast. Also there is a significant scatter around the general eastern half of the country and by the South West- California, Arizona area. This makes sense, since historically these are the areas Blacks were originally brought during the 1700 -1800s.

 

This map shows the Asian population in the continental US. It shows that Asian populations are predominately in the West Coast of the nation. This makes sense because the West Coast is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, so logistically, this area was the most feasible. There are very few amounts spread through out the Midwest as well as in the South, except for the larger cities. There is also a decent population in the East coast- New England area. There are also pockets along Florida.

The Some Other Race population mostly lives in the West and South West areas of the nation. High populations live along the Mexico-America border. This can lead to the assumption that it is most likely a Hispanic population being shown. There is also a significant population in the southern tip of Florida as well as some scattered areas in the East Coast. The rest of the nation is mostly unpopulated by the Some Other Race, according to the 2000 Census.


Overall, ARC GIS has made data much more understandable. Before it was all in an excel sheet, which was hard to understand and imagine. Mapping it out, shows where the populations are mostly located in a viewer-friendly manner. The different options of shading effects also makes the information more digestible. ArcGIS is has also been helpful, because in one program I was able to convert file formats into graphable and map-able data. This was very helpful, because otherwise I would have to manually add all the information which would have been very time consuming and unproductive.