imisscookie Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 As I just joined and am learning quite a few things here, and having personal experience with situations dealing with lack of safety aftermath, I'd like to contribute this even if it is already known by most. I made it part of my signature because it is very important where I live. Google earth is a free download which so far seems best with this; websites won't save info, although mapquest has a clearer more up to date image of my area. Finding a secluded spot out of noise/privacy concern isn't as challenging as a safe direction. For me the issue is bullets when target shooting or pest hunting (the few species which may hurt my cat), but could be used to give slight angling to high flying rockets so it will be more likely to start in a safe direction. The things you mark on GE are saved- I use the ruler-saving straight lines with marked distance to closest obstacles, and polygons to make a 360o sliced diagram of my selected area, radiating from a central point. Red for unsafe-close houses or busy roads, yellow for caution- close houses with elevation difference, roads and more distant houses under 1-2km, and green for clear- which has allowed me to find purely safe directions 5+km length. Carrying a printout of these polygons can be handy, especially if you wonder outside that chosen point; the directions may change slightly but with good polygons its easy to interpolate. I was a bit frustrated with the polygon feature until I found I could hold and drag for better control. Its good to click the historical map button to scroll to time closest present; by default it is on the highest resolution image. 5 year difference here, and if I had based my map off of 05, I'd have safe zones marked which should have been yellow or red. For more realistic safe zones, go near ground level and adjust angle, then elevation is distinguishable, in cool 3-d. If a huge hill blocks a straight path its probably not much to worry about. Any additional map info may be interesting to add. I have one more; there is a lightning detector map on wunderground.com and strikestar ; out of curiousity wondering if a big firework would fool it. I haven't read into how they work but if by the radio waves, I doubt it; although its likely fireworks would cause some EM field disturbance also. It is cool that the polarity can be shown; + lightning is infrequent but much more devastating.
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