592 Cleanup
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Flight 592 Memorial Cleanup

On Saturday, September 21, 2001, a number of the active hams in Miami-Dade got together to do something really unrelated to ham radio or communication.   Through the e-mail list, we came up with a plan to clean up the memorial for Flight 592.   This is located about 11 miles East of Krome Ave on US41.   See the pictures of the site before we started here.

To learn more about the tragic Flight 592:   Welcome to the Flight 592 Memorial

Location of the site:  25 45.70N   080 40.30W

Many of us have memories of working this disaster.  Unfortunately there really wasn't much that we could do, other than provide communication support for the police officers and firefighters involved in the recovery.   As you might remember, recovery went on for weeks.   With all the loss of life in New York and Washington DC, we thought it would be nice to remember those who passed away here in Miami.

Participating in the clean up project:

Kevin K4PCS, Jason KE4KYY, Virg K4VSC, Ray KD4BBM, Jason N3PRZ, John KF4ACN, Matt KG4LGO, Wendy KG4OXT, Daniel KG4LYE, and Roger Swift, Jason KE4KYY's Dad.   40 Man-hours went into the cleaning of this memorial.

All photos by Kevin, K4PCS

The memorial.   People who visit this site often leave something behind for their loved ones.   Of course, we didn't touch this.

 

Now the work begins:

What we did:  Pulled weeds, killed ant piles, pulled out root balls from the larger weeds, applied weed killer, cut the grass around the memorial, swept the cement, refilled any missing sand, re-leveled some of the bricks that had been moved by the weed roots, piled up the trash.   There was very little man-made trash here.   Just natural weed growth.  This sort of project will need to be done at least twice a year.   If the weeds are allowed to grow any more than that, the bricks between the columns will be upset by the roots.   Would your group like to clean this site also?  Instructions on how we did it and advice here.

 

The weeds around the memorial were cut back also.   This will allow the mourners to park and visit the site without getting covered by weed seeds.   This should be done monthly during the rainy season.  Hopefully other groups will come by to help maintain this site.   While we were working, two families came to visit the memorial.  We stopped all noises so they could have some quiet time. 

 

A beautiful sunset over the Everglades.  Above this, we were getting a nice light show of cloud to cloud lightning.   The scheduled start time of 1600 for this project worked out perfectly.   The sun wasn't too oppressive, and the bugs weren't out yet.   We ran out of light at the same time we ran out work to do.

 

An unusual optic illusion.  These beams of light look like they're coming from the East.  But they're actually the beams coming from the sunset, converging in the distance.   A beautiful phenomenon.  

 

Jason KE4KYY's dad, Roger Swift, came out with a spare tire for Jason, and joined in on the work.

After we finished the hard work we went to dinner.  See those pictures here.

08/23/2003

    © South Florida FM Association, 2003   
   

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