Flooding and Fires and Lightning: Oh My!

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.jasondunn.com/calgary-storm-410' target='_blank'>http://www.jasondunn.com/calgary-storm-410</a><br /><br /></div>This is completely off topic, but I had an eventful evening last night and I thought the readers of this site might get a kick out of reading about it. Here's part of the story...<br /><br /><i>"The thunder continued to boom, over and over, and the lightning strikes blazed in the sky. I started to notice the odour of smoke, but I didn’t think anything of it (idiot that I am). Ashley told me that there was a house on fire down the street from us, and I couldn’t believe it! I looked out my walk-out basement window and sure enough, amidst the sheets of falling rain there was thick black smoke rising from a house just a few homes down from us. When you see something like that, it’s a strange sensation. I thought “Ok, fire in the rain, this can’t last long, we’re not in any danger.” (Well, actually, I think my first thought was “HOLY CRAP, WHAT THE HELL?!?”). I grabbed my Canon SD800 digital camera, put on a jacket, and went outside with Ashley. There were already police and fire trucks on the street (why didn’t they turn on their sirens so we’d know there was something happening?) so that was a relief that help was already there. That meant though, of course, that the lightning strike that started the fire occurred at least 20 minutes prior. It’s a bit scary to think that there was a blazing fire a few hundred feet from my home and I had no clue. Since the fire was on the back side of the house, we walked to our back yard to get a better vantage point. Boy did we ever!"</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/fire-down-my-street-jasondunn-june6.jpg" /><br /><br />I need to point out right away that no one was hurt - the people in the house got out safely. From a technology stand point, I was impressed with my Canon SD800 and my Nikon D200. Both of them got very wet, and both functioned without any problem. I was more worried about my SD800 - because the Nikon D200 is weather sealed, while the Canon is not - but the SD800 digital camera came through like a champ. From a photography point of view, I wish I had a steadier hand, but I had to balance the desire to get a good picture with the desire to not get my equipment too soaked. ;-)<br /><br />Check out the <a href="http://www.jasondunn.com/calgary-storm-410">rest of the story</a>...

[Anando]

It was crazy here. I live in the north-west and there were ligtning strikes all around. This morning was pretty bad too to get to work ! I didnt know that you lived in Calgary too !

Anando
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

[burtcom]

Gee, thanks, Alberta, for sending your storm down to Montana...

:D

[DaleReeck]

The Nikon D200 is a great camera. I have it with the 18-200 VR lens and it's hard to take a blury picture with that. Or, a fast lense like the $100 Nikon 1.8D helps too ;)

[Jason Dunn]

It was crazy here. I live in the north-west and there were ligtning strikes all around.

Yup, I live in Tuscany. Howdy neighbour! ;-)

[Jason Dunn]

Gee, thanks, Alberta, for sending your storm down to Montana...

Well hopefully it used up some of its fury on our city, so it was less furious for you... ;-)

[Jason Dunn]

The Nikon D200 is a great camera. I have it with the 18-200 VR lens and it's hard to take a blury picture with that. Or, a fast lense like the $100 Nikon 1.8D helps too ;)

Well, I'm pretty skilled and taking blurry pictures. ;-) I have the 18-200 lens, and even with VR turned on and the camera at ISO 1600, shooting quickly in the near dark and in the rain, it was a struggle to get in-focus pictures. I have the Nikon prime 1.8 as well, but didn't use it because I'd have to get prety close to use it and that wasn't really an option. I tend not to use it much because even though it's a fast lens, without the VR I'll often get blurry photos with it under low light...but I keep meaning to try and adapt to using it better.

[stlbud]

Glad everyone there is safe. Sorry for your neighbour's loss.

[DaleReeck]

Well, I'm pretty skilled and taking blurry pictures. ;-) I have the 18-200 lens, and even with VR turned on and the camera at ISO 1600, shooting quickly in the near dark and in the rain, it was a struggle to get in-focus pictures.

I've always had a pretty steady hand, so I've been lucky at that. But I'm with you on the rain thing. Even though the D200 has a weather seal, I still get paranoid about it. Plus, the lenses don't usually have weather seals :)

***long quote trimmed by moderator JD***

[Anando]

It was crazy here. I live in the north-west and there were ligtning strikes all around.

Yup, I live in Tuscany. Howdy neighbour! ;-)

Oh, you are way North-west ! I am just about UofC on 24th Ave.

Anando
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

[gordonjohansen]

For once, my basement didn't flood in a major storm in Calgary but perhaps that's because I'm in Springbank now.

Of course, to balance this, my store flooded but fortunately damage was minimal. My tenants, who some of you may have as your ISP (Nucleus Information Services) got hit somewhat worse. The fountain in their storage room was two feet high at one point. No really costly damage but still a mess to clean up.

To tie this in to a Pocket PC, it was just one more thing stopping me from playing with my new HTC P4000.

Gord