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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Some volcanoes 'scream' at ever-higher pitches until they blow their tops

Public release date: 14-Jul-2013
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Contact: Vince Stricherz
vinces@uw.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington

It is not unusual for swarms of small earthquakes to precede a volcanic eruption. They can reach a point of such rapid succession that they create a signal called harmonic tremor that resembles sound made by various types of musical instruments, though at frequencies much lower than humans can hear.

A new analysis of an eruption sequence at Alaska's Redoubt Volcano in March 2009 shows that the harmonic tremor glided to substantially higher frequencies and then stopped abruptly just before six of the eruptions, five of them coming in succession.

"The frequency of this tremor is unusually high for a volcano, and it's not easily explained by many of the accepted theories," said Alicia Hotovec-Ellis, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences.

Documenting the activity gives clues to a volcano's pressurization right before an explosion. That could help refine models and allow scientists to better understand what happens during eruptive cycles in volcanoes like Redoubt, she said.

The source of the earthquakes and harmonic tremor isn't known precisely. Some volcanoes emit sound when magma a mixture of molten rock, suspended solids and gas bubbles resonates as it pushes up through thin cracks in the Earth's crust.

But Hotovec-Ellis believes in this case the earthquakes and harmonic tremor happen as magma is forced through a narrow conduit under great pressure into the heart of the mountain. The thick magma sticks to the rock surface inside the conduit until the pressure is enough to move it higher, where it sticks until the pressure moves it again.

Each of these sudden movements results in a small earthquake, ranging in magnitude from about 0.5 to 1.5, she said. As the pressure builds, the quakes get smaller and happen in such rapid succession that they blend into a continuous harmonic tremor.

"Because there's less time between each earthquake, there's not enough time to build up enough pressure for a bigger one," Hotovec-Ellis said. "After the frequency glides up to a ridiculously high frequency, it pauses and then it explodes."

She is the lead author of a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research that describes the research. Co-authors are John Vidale of the UW and Stephanie Prejean and Joan Gomberg of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Hotovec-Ellis is a co-author of a second paper, published online July 14 in Nature Geoscience, that introduces a new "frictional faulting" model as a tool to evaluate the tremor mechanism observed at Redoubt in 2009. The lead author of that paper is Ksenia Dmitrieva of Stanford University, and other co-authors are Prejean and Eric Dunham of Stanford.

The pause in the harmonic tremor frequency increase just before the volcanic explosion is the main focus of the Nature Geoscience paper. "We think the pause is when even the earthquakes can't keep up anymore and the two sides of the fault slide smoothly against each other," Hotovec-Ellis said.

She documented the rising tremor frequency, starting at about 1 hertz (or cycle per second) and gliding upward to about 30 hertz. In humans, the audible frequency range starts at about 20 hertz, but a person lying on the ground directly above the magma conduit might be able to hear the harmonic tremor when it reaches its highest point (it is not an activity she would advise, since the tremor is closely followed by an explosion).

Scientists at the USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory have dubbed the highest-frequency harmonic tremor at Redoubt Volcano "the screams" because they reach such high pitch compared with a 1-to-5 hertz starting point. Hotovec-Ellis created two recordings of the seismic activity. A 10-second recording covers about 10 minutes of seismic sound and harmonic tremor, sped up 60 times. A one-minute recording condenses about an hour of activity that includes more than 1,600 small earthquakes that preceded the first explosion with harmonic tremor.

Upward-gliding tremor immediately before a volcanic explosion also has been documented at the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica and Soufrire Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

"Redoubt is unique in that it is much clearer that that is what's going on," Hotovec-Ellis said. "I think the next step is understanding why the stresses are so high."

###

The work was funded in part by the USGS and the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Hotovec-Ellis at ahotovec@uw.edu.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Some volcanoes 'scream' at ever-higher pitches until they blow their tops Public release date: 14-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vince Stricherz
vinces@uw.edu
206-543-2580
University of Washington

It is not unusual for swarms of small earthquakes to precede a volcanic eruption. They can reach a point of such rapid succession that they create a signal called harmonic tremor that resembles sound made by various types of musical instruments, though at frequencies much lower than humans can hear.

A new analysis of an eruption sequence at Alaska's Redoubt Volcano in March 2009 shows that the harmonic tremor glided to substantially higher frequencies and then stopped abruptly just before six of the eruptions, five of them coming in succession.

"The frequency of this tremor is unusually high for a volcano, and it's not easily explained by many of the accepted theories," said Alicia Hotovec-Ellis, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences.

Documenting the activity gives clues to a volcano's pressurization right before an explosion. That could help refine models and allow scientists to better understand what happens during eruptive cycles in volcanoes like Redoubt, she said.

The source of the earthquakes and harmonic tremor isn't known precisely. Some volcanoes emit sound when magma a mixture of molten rock, suspended solids and gas bubbles resonates as it pushes up through thin cracks in the Earth's crust.

But Hotovec-Ellis believes in this case the earthquakes and harmonic tremor happen as magma is forced through a narrow conduit under great pressure into the heart of the mountain. The thick magma sticks to the rock surface inside the conduit until the pressure is enough to move it higher, where it sticks until the pressure moves it again.

Each of these sudden movements results in a small earthquake, ranging in magnitude from about 0.5 to 1.5, she said. As the pressure builds, the quakes get smaller and happen in such rapid succession that they blend into a continuous harmonic tremor.

"Because there's less time between each earthquake, there's not enough time to build up enough pressure for a bigger one," Hotovec-Ellis said. "After the frequency glides up to a ridiculously high frequency, it pauses and then it explodes."

She is the lead author of a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research that describes the research. Co-authors are John Vidale of the UW and Stephanie Prejean and Joan Gomberg of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Hotovec-Ellis is a co-author of a second paper, published online July 14 in Nature Geoscience, that introduces a new "frictional faulting" model as a tool to evaluate the tremor mechanism observed at Redoubt in 2009. The lead author of that paper is Ksenia Dmitrieva of Stanford University, and other co-authors are Prejean and Eric Dunham of Stanford.

The pause in the harmonic tremor frequency increase just before the volcanic explosion is the main focus of the Nature Geoscience paper. "We think the pause is when even the earthquakes can't keep up anymore and the two sides of the fault slide smoothly against each other," Hotovec-Ellis said.

She documented the rising tremor frequency, starting at about 1 hertz (or cycle per second) and gliding upward to about 30 hertz. In humans, the audible frequency range starts at about 20 hertz, but a person lying on the ground directly above the magma conduit might be able to hear the harmonic tremor when it reaches its highest point (it is not an activity she would advise, since the tremor is closely followed by an explosion).

Scientists at the USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory have dubbed the highest-frequency harmonic tremor at Redoubt Volcano "the screams" because they reach such high pitch compared with a 1-to-5 hertz starting point. Hotovec-Ellis created two recordings of the seismic activity. A 10-second recording covers about 10 minutes of seismic sound and harmonic tremor, sped up 60 times. A one-minute recording condenses about an hour of activity that includes more than 1,600 small earthquakes that preceded the first explosion with harmonic tremor.

Upward-gliding tremor immediately before a volcanic explosion also has been documented at the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica and Soufrire Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

"Redoubt is unique in that it is much clearer that that is what's going on," Hotovec-Ellis said. "I think the next step is understanding why the stresses are so high."

###

The work was funded in part by the USGS and the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Hotovec-Ellis at ahotovec@uw.edu.

[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/uow-sv071113.php
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In the night, train brings grief to Quebec town

Raymond Lafontaine, who lost his son and two daughters-in-law, receives a hug from Quebec Premier Pauline Marois during her visit to Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Thursday, July 11, 2013. Marois toured the site of Canada's worst railway catastrophe in almost 150 years, after a runaway oil train killed 50 people in a fiery explosion. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz)

In this July 10, 2013, photo, Gilles Fluet poses for a photo outside his home in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Fluet was in the Music-Cafe pub early July 6, but left moments before it was destroyed when a runaway oil train derailed and set off explosions that started a fire which destroyed the cafe and many other downtown buildings. (AP Photo/David Crary)

Charred tanker cars from the train crash scene remain in Lac-Megantic, Que., Friday, July 12, 2013. Transportation workers moved carefully Friday in and around the site of the nearly week-old derailment that incinerated the heart of this small Quebec town and killed 50 people, searching for evidence that would help explain what led to such massive destruction. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jacques Boissinot)

Crews work on the aftermath of the Lac-Megantic, Quebec, oil train derailment wreck on Friday, July 12, 2013. The bodies of less than half of the 50 people believed dead in a runaway oil train's explosive derailment have been recovered, nearly a week after the accident which demolished a large part of the Quebec town. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Ryan Remiorz)

LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (AP) ? It was surely the most festive spot in town as a Friday night turned into a Saturday morning at the Musi-Cafe - a full house, live music, plenty of beer and nachos to animate long-time friends.

Among the dozens enjoying themselves in the pub was a sizable contingent of the Lafontaine clan, celebrating the 40th birthday of a daughter of prominent local businessman Raymond Lafontaine.

Four days later - having lost a son and two daughters-in-law who were among the revelers - Lafontaine stood near a throng of reporters on a street near the town center, watching them pepper an American railroad executive with questions.

"I wanted to see my children's killer," Lafontaine said. "And I wanted to see the killer of other people from here who didn't ask to die."

Any possible culpability on the part of the railway remains to be determined; police say their criminal investigation will proceed slowly and carefully. But it is fact that an unmanned Montreal, Maine and Atlantic freight train with 72 cars carrying shale oil turned into a runaway death machine - rolling away from its overnight parking spot, barreling for miles down an incline in the dark of night, derailing in the heart of Lac-Megantic at 1:14 a.m. on July 6, and snuffing out 50 lives when a series of explosions set off a ferocious fire.

For some, it became known as "the train of death." For others in the close-knit, French-speaking town, it was "le train d'enfer" - or "the train from hell."

Gilles Fluet, a 65-year-old retiree who used to work at a door-making factory, left the Musi-Cafe just moments before the first explosion and saw the train go by.

"It was moving at a hellish speed ... no lights, no signals, nothing at all," he said. "There was no warning. It was a black blob that came out of nowhere."

"I realized they were oil tankers and they were going to blow up, so I yelled that to my friends and I got out of there," he said. "If we had stayed where we were, we would have been roasted."

Those who were still in the pub, he said, "had no chance."

___

It's daunting to ponder the toll exacted on Lac-Megantic. Fifty dead in a town of 6,000 represents nearly 1 percent of the population - a rate that high for a big city would verge on apocalyptic.

Some residents have suggested that the train disaster is comparable in its impact on their town to how the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks affected New York City. And indeed there are similarities - sudden, deadly conflagrations; victims whose virtually vaporized remains defied easy identification; the circulation of photos of the missing, posted by relatives clinging to faint hopes that somehow their loved ones might be seen alive somewhere.

In mid-week, those hopes were largely dashed when Quebec police informed families that the people still listed as missing were presumed dead.

The victims included Eliane Parenteau, vivacious and gregarious at 93, who lived in one of the homes ravaged by the blaze.

"She always said she would never go to an old people's home and she wanted to die in her house," her son, Michel Boulanger, told the Journal de Quebec.

At the other end of the age scale, the presumed dead include the two young daughters of Talitha Coumi Begnouche - all three died in their home near the crash site. A photo of the girls, released by the family, shows them embracing - 4-year-old Alyssa with a giggly grin and 8-year-old Bianka with a soft, radiant smile.

Another victim was Guy Bolduc, a father of two children who was one of a pair of musicians performing at the Musi-Cafe. The other performer, Yvan Ricard, had taken a cigarette break outdoors when the inferno broke out, and he escaped unharmed.

"The last words he said to me were, 'Yvan, I really like playing with you. We have so much fun together,'" Ricard told the television network TVA.

Among those spared by quirks of fate was the cafe's manager, Sophie L'Heureux. She told reporters she went home around 9:30 p.m. that Friday evening, planned to return after a nap but overslept. Three of her employees are among those presumed dead, along with many of her loyal customers.

Nathalie Royer and David Isabel could have been among those doomed regulars, had it not been for home repairs they planned for later Saturday morning. The couple, both 45, left the cafe shortly after 1 a.m., with Isabel telling Royer to forgo one more drink with their friends because they had to get up early.

They decided to leave their car parked outside the bar and started to make their way home on foot. They ran when they spotted the train; Royer lost a shoe, stumbled, and suffered a burn on her arm, according to her mother, Louisette Nadeau.

"The people that died there - it's a lot, because we're a little town," Nadeau said. "There's almost none of them that we don't know."

The explosions and fire destroyed 30 buildings in all, including the public library that housed irreplaceable historical archives. Roughly 2,000 people - a third of the populace - was ordered to evacuate their homes, and the town's central business district was cordoned off throughout the week, keeping out journalists and townspeople while scores of police officers and other emergency responders searched for remains of victims and sought clues to aid a criminal investigation of the crash.

Several hundred of the evacuees took shelter at the local high school, under the care of the Canadian Red Cross and other agencies.

Red Cross spokeswoman Myriam Marotte said some of the first volunteers who arrived in the middle of the night to help organize the shelter were local residents who themselves had been ordered to evacuate their homes.

"They are very dedicated," said Marotte.

Cots arrived around 10 a.m. - nine hours after the crash - followed by an array of other supplies and services, ranging from pet care to psychological counseling.

"The most important thing was to listen to people," Marotte said. "Not knowing what's coming in the next hours and days is very difficult."

Adding to the grief and shock for townspeople were the circumstances of the crash. The train was loaded with a potentially dangerous cargo, yet transport regulations allowed it be left unattended overnight in the town of Nantes, seven miles (11 kilometers) away on a stretch of track leading downhill to the center of Lac-Megantic. The CEO of the railway's parent company, Ed Burkhardt, compounded local frustrations by waiting four days to visit the town and in the meantime suggesting that firefighters in Nantes may somehow have contributed to the runaway while fighting a small fire on the train late on Friday, July 5.

During a chaotic outdoor news conference Wednesday in Lac-Megantic, Burkhardt apologized, said he was devastated by the town's calamity, and disclosed that the train's engineer was now suspected of failing to properly apply the train's brakes before leaving it unattended.

Raymond Lafontaine was there, watching - angry that Burkhardt hadn't visited the town sooner.

"If a team had come to see us and said, 'Yes, we're here for you and there was an accident, yes, there was human error, yes, this happened,' it seems like that would have hurt less," Lafontaine said. "I would have been able to get through that. But this is inconceivable. I can't accept it."

___

A lakeside town in a region of rivers and gently sloped mountains in the predominantly French-speaking province, Lac-Megantic has much in common with some communities in neighboring New Hampshire and Maine - its economy encompasses a range of blue-collar industries, but it relies heavily on tourism in the summer.

The three-term mayor, Colette Roy-Laroche, maintained a confident, forward-looking tone throughout the week, urging tourists not to cancel summer reservations, insisting that Lake Megantic was safe for swimming despite oil spillage into the river running out of it, and expressing thanks for the support extended to her town from near and far. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, French President Francois Hollande and Pope Francis were among the well-wishers.

"All the messages that we've received give us the strength and courage to remain standing," the mayor said.

In a signal of the town's resilience, city officials announced that the annual "Traversee Internationale" would be held on schedule in mid-August - a five-day spectacle that includes entertainment, carnival rides and a 10-kilometer swimming competition.

"The phones are ringing," Roy-Laroche said. "Lots of people are proposing to come visit us."

Before then, though, will be further ordeals. Only a few of the bodies recovered from the rubble had been formally identified as of this weekend. Relatives of the victims were asked to supply combs, toothbrushes and other personal items that might help experts at a Montreal laboratory make DNA matches.

"The work is long and arduous," said Genevieve Guilbault of the local coroner's office.

On Saturday, a week after the crash, the bells of Ste-Agnes, the Roman Catholic church on the very edge of the disaster zone, tolled 50 times at midday in honor of the dead, followed by a minute of silence observed by a solemn crowd filling the church steps.

Like others in town, Gilles Fluet, the retiree who left the Musi-Cafe just before the crash, was bracing for a series of funerals.

"They are my friends' children, they're former workmates, they're elderly people that I know. I knew them all," he said. "It's as if I lost brothers, sisters, uncles - the bonds are a bit like that."

___

Follow David Crary on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/craryap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-07-13-The%20Train%20from%20Hell/id-17d1c1a7ba6d4816b7b922500a3a43d3

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Saturday, July 13, 2013

St. Augustine marches over four opponents on day one of the NFL 7-on-7 National Championships

Julie Boudwin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, July 12, 2013 7:30 p.m.

St. Aug is representing the Saints organization at the NFL 7-on-7 Championships. - (Photo by Julie Boudwin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

St. Augustine is a team accustomed to winning. And win is just what the Purple Knights did on the first day of the NFL High School Player Development 7-on-7 National Championships in Cleveland on Friday.

Last month St. Aug. defeated McMain, Lusher, McDonogh 35 and West St. John to become the team to represent the Saints organization at the National Championships.

The Purple Knights played five games on day one and beat four teams who represented the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and the Houston Texans, who were considered the top ranked team in attendance.

The lone lost came from the team that represented the Indianapolis Colts.

Coach Cyril Crutchfield said when the playoffs begin tomorrow he believes his team will be the No. 1 or 2 seed in the NFC with the chance to take the championship home.

"I think the guys did a tremendous job holding their own today," Crutchfield said. "They have represented the New Orleans Saints and the whole organization real well and we want to bring that trophy back to New Orleans."

When you have the No. 1 recruit in the nation, Leonard Fournette, on your team, he takes most of the attention allowing other players to step up and secure the victory.

Enter Stanley Morgan.

"Stanley Morgan is the best receiver in the state for class of 2015. He's going up in the air and catching with one hand and it's like he's taking candy from a baby," Crutchfield said of Morgan's superb skills.

"He really brings something to the team and they can't play him one-on-one, so then they also try to take care of Leonard and it creates problems."

As good as Fournette and Morgan are, they need someone to feed them the ball and Crutchfield said quarterback Toi Jackson threw some really nice balls.

With a team stacked full of stars in the making, St. Augustine will start Saturday off on a high note, feeling confident about the rest of the tournament.

Said Crutchfeild: "We definitely match up with everybody that's here. We won the first three games and then just came out flat against the Colts team, but we came back and beat the Texans team by like twenty something points and that speaks volumes about the type of young men we have. We feel good about going into tomorrow."

**************

Julie Boudwin can be reached at prep@nola.com or 504.826.3405.

Source: http://highschoolsports.nola.com/news/article/-2252566552105066957/st-augustine-marches-over-four-opponents-on-day-one-of-the-nfl-7-on-7-national-championships/

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Friday, July 12, 2013

South American bloc repudiates U.S. on spying, Snowden

By Malena Castaldi

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - South American leaders had strong words for Washington on Friday over allegations of U.S. spying in the region and defended their right to offer asylum to fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Washington wants Snowden arrested on espionage charges after he divulged extensive, secret U.S. surveillance programs. Stuck in the transit area of Moscow's international airport since late June, he is seeking asylum in various countries.

Capping two weeks of strained North-South relations over the Snowden saga, presidents from the Mercosur bloc of nations met in Montevideo. Complaints against the United States were high on the agenda, as Washington warned the international community not to help the 30-year-old Snowden get away.

"We repudiate any action aimed at undermining the authority of countries to grant and fully implement the right of asylum," Mercosur said in a statement at the close of Friday's summit.

The statement called for "solidarity with the governments of Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, which have offered to grant asylum to Mr. Edward Snowden."

The Mercosur bloc comprises Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

"This global espionage case has shaken the conscience of the people of the United States and has upset the world," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said.

The meeting began as reports emerged that Snowden wants to travel eventually to Latin America after seeking temporary asylum in Russia.

The U.S.-Russian relationship would be troubled if Moscow were to accept an asylum request from Snowden, the U.S. State Department said. President Barack Obama raised U.S. concerns directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

SPYING ALLEGATIONS

Leaders throughout Latin America are also furious over reports the U.S. National Security Agency targeted most Latin American countries with spying programs that monitored Internet traffic, especially in Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico.

In its statement, Mercosur said, "We emphatically reject the interception of telecommunications and espionage activities in our countries, as they are a violation of human rights and citizens' right to privacy and information."

It also called for the spy scandal to be brought before the U.N. Security Council.

The espionage allegations were published by a leading Brazilian newspaper, O Globo, on Tuesday. The U.S. ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon, said this week the reports gave an incorrect picture of U.S. data gathering.

"This is the world we live in; a world with new forms of colonialism," Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said in her closing remarks in Montevideo. "It is more subtle than it was two centuries ago, when they came with armies to take our silver and gold."

Colombia, Washington's closest military ally in Latin America, and Mexico, its top business partner, have also joined the chorus of governments seeking answers.

"Any act of espionage that violates human rights, above all the basic right to privacy, and undermines the sovereignty of nations, deserves to be condemned by any country that calls itself democratic," Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff told reporters on arrival at the meeting.

Rousseff, who was imprisoned under military rule in Brazil in the early 1970s, said the rights issue was particularly important for South American countries that lived under dictatorships for years and are now democracies.

ASYLUM CONCERNS

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay made her first comment on the Snowden case on Friday, saying people needed to be sure their communications were not being unduly scrutinized and calling on all countries to respect the right to seek asylum.

Snowden said in a letter posted on Friday on the Facebook page of the New-York based Human Rights Watch that the United States had been pressuring countries not to accept him. Obama has warned of serious costs to any country that takes him in.

Despite their fiery rhetoric and public offers of asylum, few in Latin America seem particularly keen to welcome Snowden and risk damaging trade and economic ties with Washington.

Cuba and Venezuela are both in a cautious rapprochement with the United States that could be jeopardized if they helped Snowden.

Still, leaders recalled that many of their own citizens sought asylum abroad during the military dictatorships of the Cold War era.

South American leaders rallied in support of Bolivian President Evo Morales last week after he said he was denied access to the airspace of Portugal, France, Italy and Spain on suspicion Snowden might be on board his plane as Morales flew home from a visit to Russia.

Bolivia is an associate member of Mercosur, and Morales attended Friday's meeting. The Mercosur statement said bloc member countries would call their ambassadors in from the four European countries for consultations.

(Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle; Writing by Hugh Bronstein and Louise Egan; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-american-bloc-sends-tough-message-u-spying-182747657.html

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Pardee Homes' Green Designs Tip Scale For New Buyers At LivingSmart Homes Fair Oaks Ranch In Santa Clarita, California

LOS ANGELES, CA, July 11, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Location, design, price, neighborhood, community--Mark Barron and Amy Hizon found the complete new home package when they came to LivingSmart Homes at Fair Oaks Ranch in Santa Clarita. Yet when asked to identify "the one reason" they bought their new home here, they answered quickly: "Green."

"When we walked into the sales offices for the first time we did not understand the green part of the building, and we did not realize the level of achievement Pardee has accomplished with green building," said Mark. "As we were educated on this major aspect of the home, it became a major factor in our decision to purchase with Pardee.

"We are amazed at the energy--and cost--savings we are experiencing and the comfort level the house maintains," he added. "I have owned many homes and the homes Pardee builds are by far the best."

Mark and Amy are glad to tell others about their choice of new home with Pardee Homes. In fact, they just finished a video segment now on YouTube. You can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHztNT3XoBQ&feature=em-uploademail

The new home search began about a year ago for Mark and Amy as they made marriage and moving plans. In addition to creating one household, they each wanted something smaller, newer and easier to manage than the homes they were in at the time. "We each had a home of about 4,000 square feet, and downsizing was a priority," said Mark. "We were also feeling some urgency because we saw the market rising and thought the right time to buy had definitely come."

Finding the right home at the right price in the right place? That took awhile, as the couple searched widely through Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley. Career professionals who both commute to Van Nuys, they initially skipped over the Santa Clarita area. "We did not think to come here because I had remembered traffic hassles," Mark said. That was before all the improvements were made to the 14 Freeway."

Yet re-sale and bank-owned choices in their initial search areas were not desirable. "Fixer uppers just were not what we wanted to take on," said Mark. "And with the bank-owned properties, understanding what our real costs were could be difficult."

Realizing that what they really wanted was a new home, Mark and Amy circled back to Santa Clarita, where they found Pardee Homes, LivingSmart Homes and Fair Oaks Ranch.

Priced from the mid $400,000s, LivingSmart Homes offer approximately 1,846 to 2,432 square feet of living space. Mark and Amy liked the Plan 3 layout, its generous bed and bath count and all the features and finishes that were included with their move-in ready selection.

Pleased with the design and energy-savings of the home, Mark and Amy then looked at their prospective neighborhood, helped by sales representatives Ben Romzek and Lexie Perez. "We practically lived at the model home while we were completing the purchase process," said Amy. "Ben and Lexie are really good, down to earth people who are working to help you, not sell you."

"They took us to the rec center pool, and we began making friends instantly, even before we bought our home," said Mark. "The people here were so welcoming and friendly, and it was obviously such a great community that we knew this was going to be our home."

The setting at Fair Oaks Ranch has been a definite plus. "The view from our home to the mountains is absolutely gorgeous," said Mark. "When we go to the store, there's a beautiful view. Everywhere you go there is something inspirational to look at and everything here is open and fresh."

Fair Oaks Ranch location has also made commuting easier for Mark and Amy, who work at the same consumer electronics firm, he as chief financial officer and she as the company's finance manager. "It takes us about 30 minutes to get to work, really not a problem with the 14 Freeway so close," said Amy.

Just as important was the help they got as they completed purchase. "The customer service team is amazing," said Amy. "They respond to you, and they care. They solve problems instead of talking about solving problems!"

In their new home for about six months, Mark and Amy are delighted. "Our neighbors are great people, we're enjoying the park and we're looking forward to summer at The Ranch," said Mark. "We made the right decision when we came to Pardee Homes and Fair Oaks Ranch!"

And oh yes, back to green. "We just got our last SCE bill and it was for $9.14," said Mark. "On a recent 47-degree morning, in our cozy Pardee home the temperature was 71 degrees without the heater or air conditioner. I cannot emphasize enough how much we love saving money with our GREEN Pardee home!"

Pardee Homes helped Mark and Amy celebrate their choice of a new, green-built home by supplying particulars of just what the green features add up to for these new homeowners at LivingSmart Homes. See this from Pardee Homes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ENrFkEk7J8&feature=em-uploademail

Exit the 14 Freeway North at Via Princessa and turn right. Turn left at Lost Canyon Road and follow signs. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily except Wednesdays, when hours are 1 to 6 p.m. Call 661-299-5409. Also visit www.pardeehomes.com.

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Source: http://www.energydigital.com/press_releases/pardee-homes-green-designs-tip-scale-for-new-buyers-at-livingsmart-homes-fair-oaks-ranch-in-santa-cl

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