Natural Events, Natural Disasters, Floods, Seismic Activity and Diver Safety

[Jont]

We all know that breaking the established rules of cave diving, gear maintenance, gas management and minimum standard of required education will greatly increase the likelihood of a catastrophic event and the overwhelming majority of deaths (in fact just about all) at the end of the day can be chalked up to stupidity.

BUT

What about the 1 or 2 known death that occurred when all of the rules were followed?

So the questions are as follows:

1) After Heavy rain, flood, hurricane, etc how much warning is there before caves develop life threatening conditions? and why?

2) Are they signals reliable and how much time do they take to manifest themselves?

3) Can these events happen "out of the blue" and therefore kill someone while diving?

Part 2:

Given the make up of the state of Florida, the fact that it's completely surrounded by salt water and at one point was a "reef", the fact that a respectable size of our country wealth is there, protecting Florida is in the interests of our entire country.

so, what threat does ground water contamination by salt water pose the the general public?

There's evidence to suggest that this could be a reality and its consequences would be devastating, how could a unified cave diving community assist with the identification of the issue? and ultimately assist with a solution....assuming of course there's a problem.

[Tegg]

I have had a cave entrance collapse behind my buddy and I with no warning signs visible on entry. We were stuck in zero visibility and zero flow in a cave that usually is "high flow". Eventually we dug and pushed our way out, but it was a heck of a "meet Jesus" event for both of us.

I also don't think there was anything that could have been done to prevent it. It is the luck of the draw.

These caves change shape as evidenced by what we see and find in them. It's part of the life cycle of the caves.

It took me awhile to "get back on the horse" after that incident while I learned and came to the simple conclusion that it is all part of the risk of this activity we choose to do.

[bpcfire1]

How did you get the stains out of your suit??

[Greenwood_60]

How did you get the stains out of your suit??

Sold it on the gear exchange...

[bpcfire1]

Lol, Has there been any cases where a collapse happened and caused a death?? (please say NO)

[Dsix36]

While the natural disasters that can occur and cause our deaths are real, it is something that we can not mitigate out of our lives. Yes, it can and does happen, but the chances are so low that I no longer even think about it. When my time is up, it is up no matter where or what I am doing.

This does not mean that I have to push my luck by crawling through an area that looks deadly. The deep section of the Crypt in Peacock comes to mind as being the only place I have been that just flat out scared me. It is ready to slide, fall, collapse at any time and looks very unstable. I will not go back.

[JamesK]

Lol, Has there been any cases where a collapse happened and caused a death?? (please say NO)

Yes. Parker Turner

[JamesK]

Yes. Parker Turner

I wasn't really a collapse, but a reversal brining everything in. Kind of a collapse.

[Greenwood_60]

I wasn't really a collapse, but a reversal brining everything in. Kind of a collapse.

There was also the double fatality at Madison Blue when half-hitch had a partial collapse.

[Kelly Jessop]

There was also the double fatality at Madison Blue when half-hitch had a partial collapse.

The shift in the half hitch was a few weeks old when these divers dove the system.