by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 6/10/2012
Last week The Daily Times reported four small earthquakes in the East Tennessee Seismic Zone within six days.
Now four more have hit within four days. These were: a 2.1 magnitude tremor Wednesday near Maryville; two 2.0 earthquakes Friday near Ringgold, Ga.; and a 1.5 Saturday near Niota.
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UT Professor of Structural Geology And Tectonics Robert Hatcher told the Daily Times a week ago that recent studies have found this area is capable of bigger quakes but it can’t be determined when or how big. The U.S. Geological Survey rates this region as potentially capable of producing a magnitude 7.5 earthquake.
The four most recent quakes break down like this:
• Wednesday: magnitude 2.1, 5.4 miles deep 6 miles southwest of Maryville
• Friday: two quakes, each magnitude 2.0, 6.3 and 7.8 miles deep and 4 miles south of Ringgold, Ga.
• Saturday: magnitude 1.5, 4.7 miles deep and 4 miles northwest of Niota and 7 miles west southwest of Sweetwater.
• The East Tennessee seismic zone stretches from Northeast Alabama to Southwest Virginia and gets between 70 and 100 small earthquakes per year. Scientists say the zone is about half as active as the New Madrid seismic zone.
That zone includes West Tennessee and four other states.
by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 6/1/2012
East Tennessee has experienced four small earthquakes during the past week, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The USGS notes that on May 26 there was a
magnitude 1.8 near Tellico Plains; magnitude 2.4 near Dayton, May 29; magnitude 1.4 near Dayton, May 30; and one magnitude 1.8 near Tellico Plains, May 31. There was also a magnitude 1.7 on May 31 near Franklin, N.C., but that one, while nearby, is considered outside the East Tennessee seismic zone.
The depth of the quakes varied from 14.2 miles to 1.2 miles below the surface. So far, no damage has been reported from any of these latest quakes. However, there is concern this region hasn’t yet seen “the big one.”
Robert Hatcher, professor of Structural Geology & Tectonics with University of Tennessee’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the East Tennessee seismic zone “is the second most active in the Eastern U.S., behind New Madrid (Missouri-Arkansas), but we have not had an earthquake in historical times (over) 4.8, so this area gets little attention regarding the potential for large earthquakes.”
Hatcher adds the USGS rates these areas as potentially capable of producing a magnitude 7.5 earthquake.
The professor said he is involved in a research project right now supported by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and, so far, “we have found a number of small prehistoric faults that we have concluded were produced by earthquakes of at least magnitude 6.5-7.0, but we have not yet been able to delimit their recurrence interval.”
Other scientists have studied and written about the Eastern Tennessee seismic zone, but without coming to conclusions on the future. Many noted that the depth of most of the tremors — one to 15 miles beneath the surface SEmD hampers detailed study. But they agree that the East Tennessee zone is the second most active region of the continent east of the Rocky Mountains after the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 6/3/2-11
As East Tennessee and much of the South mourn the storm deaths and clean up the tornado damage, a new major problem is beginning. This one is a flood — a big flood that could reach historic proportions in some areas along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. It could be an even worse flood except for the work done by The Tennessee Valley Authority.
A combination of snow melt and ongoing heavy rain has worked to make the mighty Mississippi swell beyond its banks. Flooding is also a big problem on the Ohio and Arkansas Rivers, themselves major rivers that also happen to feed into the Mississippi. And it isn’t close to being over yet. Emergency officials in Shelby County estimated that 5,300 homes and businesses will likely be affected by flooding as the Mississippi River and its backed-up tributaries keep swelling. Properties include single-family homes, commercial and industrial properties, and apartments in at least 17 of the 41 zip codes in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.
The river gauge at Memphis is forecast to read 44.2 feet today. Flood stage is 34 feet, so today’s river level is forecast to be 10.2 feet above flood stage. The river at Memphis is forecasted to rise to 48 feet on the gauge by May 11, or 14 feet above flood stage.
TVA is currently holding back water to help somewhat. TVA’s series of dams was designed to help control flooding as well as make electricity and provide recreation. Draw downs of the string of TVA dams over the past few weeks have helped boost capacity thus allowing TVA’s system to hold back water from recent rains and keep it from entering the Ohio River and eventually the Mississippi.
Barbara Martucci, a spokeswoman in TVA’s Knoxville office, says the TVA series of dams has the capacity to hold back not only the rain from last week but expected rains for the coming weeks. She adds only Kentucky Lake, the huge lake near the mouth of the Tennessee River, is near capacity. Current forecasts indicate no flooding expected farther up the river. The ability of the many dams upstream to hold back water will continue to help the situation in Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Fringe benefits
TVA has been releasing impounded water from its dams for weeks in anticipation of the Mississippi River flood. Much of that release has been flowing through the turbines creating an abundance of electricity, enough that TVA’s coal and nuclear plants were able to hold back some on production.
TVA has already reported that extra hydroelectric output provided more “green days” of reduced air pollution. TVA officials say such draw downs also allow them to move the warmer top water, revealing the cooler water beneath which is welcome to swimmers and boaters as the recreation season gets under way in East Tennessee.
The flood along the Mississippi is already causing major problems. Homes have been evacuated and more evacuations are expected. Casinos in Tunica, Miss. are closed. Some roads are already closed in Memphis and rural areas along the river and side streams.
The Corps of Engineers had to blow a levee on the Mississippi not far from Cairo, Ill. to relieve pressure on flooding in that area, a controversial move that took some time in federal court to resolve. That operation is flooding what is called the Bird’s Point-New Madrid Floodway.
The big Memphis In May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest scheduled for Sunday along the Memphis riverfront has been moved to the old fairgrounds about three miles east of the river.
Down river in places like Natchez, Miss., the river is just now beginning to be a major problem. But the crest expected at Natchez on May 20 is forecast to be 17.5 feet above flood stage, the highest on record, and that includes the disastrous flood of 1927.
More rain is expected over parts of the already-flooded areas along the Mississippi River in the next 10 days and the National Weather Service flood advisories for such places as Memphis and Natchez use this term to describe how long the flood crest is expected to last: “UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.”
Maryville and much of East Tennessee can expect scattered thunderstorms again next week. But that rainfall, and last week’s heavier rain, is no match for the holding efforts of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Residents downstream on the Mississippi River can at least be thankful for that. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 6/12/2011
Why is there a gristmill in Cades Cove? Here’s what volunteer miller Gary Haaby says:
“You’d bring me your corn and your wheat and I’d turn them into flour so you could make your bread. No grocery stores in the good ol’ days. In summertime when it’s hot weather, I’d be seeing you down here two or three times a month. You just mill it as you need it. No refrigerator, freezer or Ziploc bags.”
One of Blount County’s most visited, most beloved, and most beautiful things is the John P. Cable Gristmill in Cades Cove. Well over 1 million people visit Cades Cove when enjoying The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s the Park’s most popular area.
Cable Mill sits about halfway around the one-way loop road that runs through the cove, part of a homestead fashioned from the mill, the nearby wood frame house, barn and other outbuildings.
Haaby is a retired school teacher. He lives in Townsend and volunteers as one of the millers in the cove where Cable Mill operates from April through October each year.
He works for the Great Smoky Mountains Association, which was called the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association when it was formed in 1953. They are the folks who provide volunteers and who operate the stores in the cove, Sugarlands Visitor Center, the Welcome Center on The Spur and elsewhere in the Park.
This is how Haaby talks about the mill:
“Back a hundred years ago you’d see six or seven of these mills. There were about 700 people living in the cove. The mill has been here for 143 years. It usually ran on Saturdays. And the miller’s gonna get paid. I’m gonna take an eighth of your corn and a sixth of your wheat. And you’ve got to tell me what you want to do with it. I can do it fine, coarse, cracked — whatever you want. In summertime you’d want it coarser because it keeps better that way.
“You’d bring your shelled corn in to me. I don’t shell corn. That’s something your kids’ll be doing at home. That’s why we had kids. I’m gonna drop it in the hopper. It’s all gravity fed. All mills are going to be tall buildings because they run on gravity.
“Inside there is a millstone called a runner stone. And below that is called a bed stone and that’s stationary. The corn is cut between the stones, which don’t touch. Corn goes between the stones and falls into grooves. Some of that corn is sticking up out of the grooves so the top stone shears it off. And the grooves get shallower toward the edges so the farther out it goes the finer it cuts.”
The miller says every four or five years the stones come out and are sharpened. These stones have been on the mill for its entire 143-year life. Outside are more millstones. They came from nearby mills.
Cable Mill is the only mill out of six or seven that were once in the cove. It was rebuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930’s. Now it operates for all to see.
Crazy questions
One visitor a few weeks ago, Gary Keasling from Illinois, said he has been bringing his family to The Smokies since 1998 but this was his first look at Cable Mill.
“I’ve been a welder for 23 years and to go back a hundred and 43 years ... the people were a lot more clever and resourceful than we give them credit,” he said.
Miller Haaby says he gets a lot of crazy questions. “They think the mill is a water treatment facility. The think it’s a way to clean water. But that’s fine. That’s why we’re here. Most folks that come in want to know how it works. But I try to make sure they know what it’s for before they know how it works because that’s the key to it.”
Milled lumber
He also points out that besides grinding corn and wheat, the mill was used to mill lumber. Haaby says the timbers in the nearby farmhouse were cut at Cable Mill.
The booklet, “Gristmills of the Smokies,” published by the association, states that the “Cable Mill’s power comes from Mill Creek, although Cable dug a connecting channel to Forge Creek so that when water levels were low he could tap both streams. A low dam channels water toward the head of the millrace where the first of several watergates allows the miller to regular the flow of the water. The last watergate, on the flume, can be operated by a long lever from within the mill.”
The big waterwheel is 11 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It is a classic overshot wheel used on fast mountain streams. Undershot wheels, used on slow flat water streams, turned as water flowed past the bottom of the wheel. Overshot wheels are much more energy efficient, so even 143 years ago Mr. Cable was thinking “green.”
Asked how he eats his cornmeal, Haaby says, “My wife uses it to make corn bread. She fries stuff. I had a heart attack and so I don’t eat a lot of that stuff. But she does. Right in front of me, she’ll eat it.”
by Dick Byrd, published in The Daily Times 4/2/2011
It is spring flower time in East Tennessee. And that means it is also blooming daffodil time along much of Pellissippi Parkway/Interstate 140 in Knox and Blount counties.
The woman behind the flowers says 1.7 million daffodil bulbs have been planted along the Parkway in the past 22 years. While most of the daffodils are along the three-quarters of the Parkway in Knox County, at least 3,000 daffodils are blooming in Blount County at the Topside Road interchange.
All of those daffodils and the nearby blooming redbud trees are the work of one driven woman, Maria Compere of Knoxville. She is involved with a group called the Knoxville Green Association and some years back also formed the Pellissippi Beautification Committee.
The Green Association provides daffodil bulbs, among many projects. The Pellissippi Committee has been directly involved in beautification along the Parkway now for more than 20 years.
Evidence of the committee’s work can be seen along Pellissippi Parkway from Oak Ridge South to Topside Road. It was just this winter that 3,000 daffodil bulbs were planted at Topside in Blount County. Compere sought and received cooperation from the city of Alcoa in the Blount effort. Alcoa paid for the bulbs, and Compere got correctional inmates to plant them.
Alcoa Assistant Planner Jeremy Pearson has been the point person so far in the early effort in Blount County. He says it is just a start — only a portion of an ongoing effort by the city to beautify the roadways.
Efforts have also been taken to beautify Hall Road, but current planning for road improvements along with the sputtering economy have slowed right-of-way planting, Pearson said. He added that any group or organization interested in taking up the challenge of helping make roadways in Blount County prettier should contact the Tennessee Department of Transportation for permission and assistance.
TDOT spares daffodils
TDOT Regional Transportation Director Steve Borden said he is delighted with Compere’s commitment to the Pellissippi Parkway. He and his staff are very particular to make sure, for instance, that their grass-mowing program doesn’t cut down the daffodils along the roadway during their blooming season, but only on the scheduled “second mowing” of late spring.
There was a dust-up of sorts two years ago when charges surfaced of possible mowing of all blooming daffodils, but Borden says his men only cut those blooming plants when they have migrated into the 10- to 15-foot “sight and safety” roadside.
He, too, said he loves the beauty the planting program has allowed, but added people should enjoy the beauty while actually driving along the road and not by stopping, parking, getting out of their cars and photographing the daffodils and redbud trees. He noted it is unsafe and against the law.
Daffodil thieves warned
Compere said she heard of someone recently stealing daffodil bulbs from along the exit ramp from the Parkway at Topside Road. She said anyone seeing that happening should “take the license tag number and notify” her so she can write them a “strong letter.”
The website of the American Daffodil Society notes that the flowering season for daffodils lasts from six weeks to six months, depending on location. Here in East Tennessee, the lifespan of such blooms is more on the six-week side of the ledger.
To see spring at its finest, consider a drive soon along Pellissippi Parkway, enjoying the view of the daffodils and those beautiful redbud trees — from inside your car, of course.
It was Friday, December 29th of 1967.It had been a quiet week after Christmas in the newsroom of WMC-TV in Memphis.It was so quiet someone in the newsroom broke the unwritten code of the news business aid said:"It's too quiet.What we need is a service station explosion killing 5 or 6 people."You just don't do that in the news business.You don't wish harm on anyone.You don't wish for bad news.
Three days later, on Monday, Memphis sanitation workers began a strike for better wages and better working conditions.That strike divided Memphis.That strike led to visits by Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior.One of those visits ended in his assassination.You just don't break the unwritten code. Dr. King's visits, his presence, his murder changed many things in many ways.It changed my outlook on my career in journalism.It changed my way of thinking about my hometown, my family, my friends, my community.But, as it turns out, it also changed my view on history. When Dr. King started coming to Memphis in support of the sanitation workers he would participate in what had become almost weekly marches on city hall.The first march he made turned into a riot.I was driving the station wagon rented by the NBC film crew.We were at the head of the march, escorted by two young men designated as parade marshals.As we neared Main Street on Beale Street the march came to an abrupt halt.Police had closed off the route at the turn onto Main Street.At that moment about a dozen young black men ran from a nearby alley between Main and Second Streets.They began breaking windows on shops along Beale.Police poured in and an all-out battle began.The NBC film crew got very busy very quickly.I remained inside the car. Suddenly 3 of the young men surrounded my station wagon.Two jumped on the roof and began jumping up and down.The third opened a door and got inside with me.I yelled for him to get out.He said he wanted a cigarette and pointed to several packs on the dash board.I said I'd give him one if he'd get out of the car.He did and I handed him 2 cigarettes through a tiny opening in my driver's side window.I then locked all 4 doors and waited for the NBC crew. In about 5 minutes they all rushed back to the car. The 2 parade marshals had never left the front of the car.They escorted us through the police lines and to safety a block away. Dr. King and his aides were rushed away to an unknown site.Bedlam ruled for many blocks in all directions.I drove the NBC crew back to the television station so they could get their film processed and edit their story for the evening news.When I went upstairs to the newsroom to begin my work shift editing news film and producing the 10 PM newscast it was discovered I was the only station staff member actually in the middle of the huge downtown event.I was ordered to begin writing "THE STORY' for the 6 O’clock News. I banged out the story on a typewriter and handed it to the news director.He instructed others to edit film to go with it.Then the entire story was rushed to the studio and presented on the newscast.NBC's story had been on the Huntley-Brinkley Report a half-hour earlier. The newsroom was a mess.Our entire small local staff was there.5 or 6 NBC people were there. It was a tiny room.Somehow the entire local news staff began working on the 10 PM newscast.I was assigned to edit film for the evening. In those days the film that was actually used on the newscasts was called the "Ins" and was kept.What wasn't used, the "Outs" was thrown away.There just wasn't enough storage room for all of the Outs.But I thought the sanitation workers strike was more important than any other news of the time so I had been saving the outs since January 2nd.Each day I'd put the outs on a film spool, label it with the date, and toss it in a cardboard box under my edit station.When that box filled I got another one, and another one. When the 10 PM newscast that fateful night finished I was assigned to work on more stories, this time for NBC's Today Show.About 2 AM my foot struck one of those boxes of "ins" under my edit station.Suddenly I realized what I had and yelled to the news staff:"Look what I've got!!!" From then on we kept everything we could on the on-going story.Dr. King continued his visits.The strike dragged on.The "outs" built up as did the "ins." On the afternoon of April 4th one of our local news staff members remarked he had just gotten a phone call from "a nut" who said he was in town to kill Dr. King.When he said that I lunged for a phone and called police.I was told one other television station and the newspapers had received similar calls.It wasn't many hours later that we heard Dr. King had been shot.To this day we believe that phone call was from James Earl Ray. History was made that day:bad history, but history none the less.And most of the documentaries you see about those days in Memphis, most of the history television pieces you see use those ins and those outs.They are kept in a special collection with material from NBC News and other sources for historians, producers and others to view and to use.And much of that material was kept on a hunch that "this just might be something important."
One New Year’s Day in the early 1970’s, I took my family on a little Sunday drive (one of the few things we could afford in those days.)
Wife Sandi was in the front seat with me.In the back were sons Brad and Bryan, 3 and 7, and daughter Susan, 11 (going on 20!).
We were just driving around the eastern part of our hometown, Memphis, Tennessee.This was “back in the day” when gasoline was under a dollar a gallon so a ride just for the fun of it was do-able.
One of the things I am proud that I have taught my kids is the art of observing what is going on around them.That came into play when suddenly Susan blurted out:“Hey, Daddy, there’s a man with a gun!”
I looked to my left and, sure enough, there were two men running between parked cars and both had pistols drawn.I drove away from the scene quickly, but carefully and found a pay phone (remember, this was the 70’s…no cell phones!)I dialed “0“ (this was also before 911!) and asked the operator for the police.
I told them what was happening on Winchester Blvd. just east of the airport. I then told my wife to take the kids home and make sure she drove AWAY from the scene of the action.
Immediately, I also called staff photographer Bernie Mintz, “Mr. spot news.” Then I waited for Bernie’s arrival, which I knew would be under 10 minutes since he lived 20 minutes away!
By the time he arrived police had found out that the owner of a nightclub in the shopping center had come in the day after all of the New Year’s Eve celebrating to clean up and had stumbled upon an armed burglar.
He then gave chase to the burglar outside in the parking lot.
Bernie was able to get film (before tape!) of the arrest being made and the handcuffed man being led to the patrol car.
As Bernie and I began wrapping up our information gathering and filming and just as police were leaving the scene, I looked toward the main runway of the nearby airport and saw a thick plume of black smoke.
Bernie and I drove to the airport quickly enough to find that a small plane had crashed jut short of the runway.Going “through channels” we were able to get film of the plane and details on how the pilot managed to get out of the wreckage with only minor injuries.
