All About Natural Disasters

[inkman]

I'd postpone. With all the cost and effort associated with a trip, I'm sure you'd like as many things "open and vibrant" as possible. Fort Myers took a harder blow than I did. Think messy for weeks as opposed to devastated. Restaurants, putt putts, shopping, beach stores ... may not yet be open for business. We (Tampa) have some areas that may be without power for days. Fort Myers has more. Nothing starts to repair until there's power.

 

Call your host. He or she will know better than me!

My in laws own the condo. It's on the 4th floor of a very sturdy concrete building but the point about businesses needing recovery time is poignant. Now I nedd to figure out how long until it's good to reschedule.

[JJFIVEOH]

Life's funny. The eye of oneof history's most powerful Atlantic storms passed my house, 12 miles to the east, last night. I'm calling this a direct hit, category 2, hurricane event in terms of stories for grandkids.

 

Irma proved to be a non-event. Oh, it was a loud and nasty night. I lost power for 90 minutes and had another half dozen on/off flickers. My pool was breached, so to speak, and is a muddy green.

 

We are healthy. We are safe. Our home is intact. Wait for it ... I'm grateful to friends, family and God.

 

Now, I have some noodling to do. My mind is a counter clockwise swirl of words and ideas; apprehension, trepidation, preparation, control, stoicism, media, neighbors, etc. I have dozens of impressions needing to find a theme!

 

Now, my good fortune was not shared by all. People died and lost homes. Billions of dollars in property value is gone. People suffered. My roof intact, my attention turns to them.

 

Well wishers - thank you!

Glad you made out OK. Now that daylight has arrived I've seen the damage and it's not pretty. Nothing catastrophic at all, but a huge mess all around that needs cleaning up. What sucked over here was, we were getting hit by the northeast quadrant of the storm when she slowed down so we were getting winds from the same general direction for almost two days, strong winds for 18 hours. If the wind changed direction we might have had less trees down. But, trees can be replanted, you made out well, I made out well and I'm hoping everybody else did too. I don't envy you, however, you had to sit back and wait knowi go the eye was going to come near you and weren't sure what to expect. That is a helpless feeling that can't pass soon enough.

 

Lots of damage, but when looking back at the predictions of cat 4-5 strength hitting land, we could have had it a lot worse.

My in laws own the condo. It's on the 4th floor of a very sturdy concrete building but the point about businesses needing recovery time is poignant. Now I nedd to figure out how long until it's good to reschedule.

Neo's right, put it off as long as possible. I've got friends in Fort Myers and they say it's pretty messy right now. If you want to experience a fulfilling vacation, give them some time to get back on their feet. Edited September 11, 2017 by JJFIVEOH

[Neo]

JJ .. the eye passed over me, but your coast took a harder hit than I did. My friends in Naples, well, that's another story. A teammate's mom lives in the Keys. Another teammate in Naples. I've heard nothing from neither, yet. You're right about rate of speed, water and quadrants.

 

Memory - 70 to 80 mph sustained winds and watching property ... then the eye. Silence. Eerie silence. Then FROGS! Oh, the loud, confused, scared, frogs! A chorus of disoriented amphibeans at 1:15 am. I knew we were fine at that moment.

 

Memory - 11:15 pm to 1:15 am. Wind and listening to an untrimmed tree scraping back and forth on my roof ... breath held.

 

Wind, gust, scrape. Wind, Gust, scrape scrape. Wind GUST, BANG SCRAPE SCRAPE.

 

Hurricane preparedness - trim trees.

 

Memory - 11:15 pm to 1:15 am. Standing at the window, with a flashlight, watching the water pool on my lanai (back porch) and checking sandbags. I had markers on the outside wall. 1 inch, 2, 3 .... never higher, At 3 inches the water drained backwards, to the yard and street. Sandbags gave me 8". Water into the house through doors and sliding glass would've been bad. I'm not sure about P&C insurance, but think they do flood and wind. Water into the house that's not certified as officially flood may not be insured.

 

Oddity - hurricane insurance (wind) and flood insurance (rising rivers or ocean) leaves a gap for all the pooled and wind driven rainwater. Hurricane preparedness - call my agent and clarify!

 

Perspective - total rain for me: 4.85 inches. Total rain for Houston: 50 inches!

Edited September 11, 2017 by Neo

[Huckleberry]

I had to explain yesterday that because of Irma and Harvey our insurance rates in Europe and basically the rest of the world would go up.

 

But am glad Irma died down a bit , lets hope José does the same.

[JJFIVEOH]

JJ .. the eye passed over me, but your coast took a harder hit than I did. My friends in Naples, well, that's another story. A teammate's mom lives in the Keys. Another teammate in Naples. I've heard nothing from neither, yet. You're right about rate of speed, water and quadrants.

 

Memory - 70 to 80 mph sustained winds and watching property ... then the eye. Silence. Eerie silence. Then FROGS! Oh, the loud, confused, scared, frogs! A chorus of disoriented amphibeans at 1:15 am. I knew we were fine at that moment.

 

Memory - 11:15 pm to 1:15 am. Wind and listening to an untrimmed tree scraping back and forth on my roof ... breath held.

 

Wind, gust, scrape. Wind, Gust, scrape scrape. Wind GUST, BANG SCRAPE SCRAPE.

 

Hurricane preparedness - trim trees.

 

Memory - 11:15 pm to 1:15 am. Standing at the window, with a flashlight, watching the water pool on my lanai (back porch) and checking sandbags. I had markers on the outside wall. 1 inch, 2, 3 .... never higher, At 3 inches the water drained backwards, to the yard and street. Sandbags gave me 8". Water into the house through doors and sliding glass would've been bad. I'm not sure about P&C insurance, but think they do flood and wind. Water into the house that's not certified as officially flood may not be insured.

 

Oddity - hurricane insurance (wind) and flood insurance (rising rivers or ocean) leaves a gap for all the pooled and wind driven rainwater. Hurricane preparedness - call my agent and clarify!

 

Perspective - total rain for me: 4.85 inches. Total rain for Houston: 50 inches!

 

Naples took quite a hit, especially in the bay area. I've seen pictures of the flooding and it's not pretty. The local news was showing the first pics out of the middle keys and that's not looking good either. I hear Key West got spared, relatively speaking, because Irma came up through the middle keys. Outside of the Islands, the middle Keys and Naples took the hardest hits. 

 

I'm hoping for the best for your buddies south of you. It might be a difficult task for help to get to the Keys right now because parts of the road look impassable. But, the people of the Keys know how to survive on their own. I'm sure they'll be OK. 

[shrader]

Naples took quite a hit, especially in the bay area. I've seen pictures of the flooding and it's not pretty. The local news was showing the first pics out of the middle keys and that's not looking good either. I hear Key West got spared, relatively speaking, because Irma came up through the middle keys. Outside of the Islands, the middle Keys and Naples took the hardest hits. 

 

I'm hoping for the best for your buddies south of you. It might be a difficult task for help to get to the Keys right now because parts of the road look impassable. But, the people of the Keys know how to survive on their own. I'm sure they'll be OK. 

 

Are there any hints of damage to those bridges in the keys?  It would be so easy to cut off that whole area so quickly with just one little crack somewhere.

[French Collection]

Not sure if WNY power companies are sending help.

 

Hydro One from Ontario is sending 175 workers to help restore power. Employees were told to prepare for 4-6 weeks.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Has The President sent in the National Guard yet?

[JJFIVEOH]

Are there any hints of damage to those bridges in the keys?  It would be so easy to cut off that whole area so quickly with just one little crack somewhere.

 

I haven't heard anything about the bridges, those things are pretty stout. I do know some of the (THE only major road) was washed away in some spots simply because of the surge and the fact that most of the ground is just sand. But there is a big naval base on Key West, not to mention the countless people who own boats there. So if there are any dire situations, I'm sure they'll be on it. 

 

Might take a while to getting everything up to par though. 

[Scottysabres]

I rode out Hugo out to sea.

Was stationed on the Pegasus, a hydro plane in key west during Andrew.

Showed up as a support team member post Katrina.

Glad all are safe, but the Hurricanes are definitely growing more numerous in intensity. Not so much the amount of storms, but the landfall amounts.

[JJFIVEOH]

Finally found some video from the Keys. There are a bunch more on his Twitter page. 

 

https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu/status/907359180209737728

 

https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu/status/907327413633286147

 

https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu/status/907281777131229184

 

https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu/status/907279118500339712

 

https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu/status/906849685696020483

[biodork]

Holy cow. Glad our Florida posters are all safe!

[SwampD]

Holy cow. Glad our Florida posters are all safe!

Absolutely.

 

How did Georgia and SC make out with their storm surge? Doesn't 2forTripping have a Tybee Island connection? Hope you make out okay, as well.

[Taro T]

I rode out Hugo out to sea.

Was stationed on the Pegasus, a hydro plane in key west during Andrew.

Showed up as a support team member post Katrina.

Glad all are safe, but the Hurricanes are definitely growing more numerous in intensity. Not so much the amount of storms, but the landfall amounts.

How so do you mean?

 

This is the 1st year in the past 12 (IIRC) that the US has had any Cat 3 storms hit. Back in '05 (?), 3 hurricanes hit FLA alone.

[Scottysabres]

How so do you mean?

This is the 1st year in the past 12 (IIRC) that the US has had any Cat 3 storms hit. Back in '05 (?), 3 hurricanes hit FLA alone.

I'm looking at a longer timeline than just the past 17 years. There is a bit of a cycle time wise, but it just seems like more of them are seeing landfall.

[SwampD]

How so do you mean?

 

This is the 1st year in the past 12 (IIRC) that the US has had any Cat 3 storms hit. Back in '05 (?), 3 hurricanes hit FLA alone.

Well, two hurricanes did hit New York City. That's somethin'.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Well, two hurricanes did hit New York City. That's somethin'.

 

And Halifax and the tropical island of Newfoundland.

 

This global warming is a real thing, eh.

[korab rules]

How so do you mean?

 

This is the 1st year in the past 12 (IIRC) that the US has had any Cat 3 storms hit. Back in '05 (?), 3 hurricanes hit FLA alone.

where is the plus 1 feature on this site?  Need it back for posts like this.  

 

Man's problem in analyzing the weather is that we have been keeping track of it for less than 150 years.  It is hard for our puny minds to grasp a system that has been cycling hot to cold every 20,000 years or so for at least the last 100K.

 

The scientific community and the democratic party have monetized human caused global warning, so we are stuck with it.  Non-believers will be burned at the stake. 

[darksabre]

where is the plus 1 feature on this site?  Need it back for posts like this.  

 

Man's problem in analyzing the weather is that we have been keeping track of it for less than 150 years.  It is hard for our puny minds to grasp a system that has been cycling hot to cold every 20,000 years or so for at least the last 100K.

 

The scientific community and the democratic party have monetized human caused global warning, so we are stuck with it.  Non-believers will be burned at the stake. 

The GOP is just mad they didn't think of monetizing it first. 

[korab rules]

The GOP is just mad they didn't think of monetizing it first. 

they are mad that they weren't able to monetize acid rain as the cure for it.   

[Randall Flagg]

I was very hesitant to "believe in global warming" until I began having to read scientific papers, since I want to be a scientist. Finding the correct literature and analyzing its results and then comparing the way "deniers" present these things makes me shake with anger. The dishonesty and fundamental misunderstanding of the field and philosophy of science itself that is prevalent in the smug, shady explanations from right wing radio hosts and talking heads and the like makes me want to break things. 

 

And this is coming from someone that wants to blast the modern left wing SJW "science" into the sun. 

Edited September 12, 2017 by Randall Flagg

[korab rules]

I was very hesitant to "believe in global warming" until I began having to read scientific papers, since I want to be a scientist. Finding the correct literature and analyzing its results and then comparing the way "deniers" present these things makes me shake with anger. The dishonesty and fundamental misunderstanding of the field and philosophy of science itself that is prevalent in the smug, shady explanations from right wing radio hosts and talking heads and the like makes me want to break things. 

 

And this is coming from someone that wants to blast the modern left wing SJW "science" into the sun. 

When reading any "scientific papers" the first question you must always ask yourself is who is paying for it.  Much of the scientific world has gone the way of the media.  

 

Pursue your dream, spend 10 years begging for funds to conduct whatever research interests you, watch your classmates sell their soul to the highest bidder to conduct funded research for special interest groups, and then come talk to me about the sanctity of science.  

[SwampD]

Even Rush evacuated Florida.

[MattPie]

[Randall Flagg]

When reading any "scientific papers" the first question you must always ask yourself is who is paying for it.  Much of the scientific world has gone the way of the media.  

 

Pursue your dream, spend 10 years begging for funds to conduct whatever research interests you, watch your classmates sell their soul to the highest bidder to conduct funded research for special interest groups, and then come talk to me about the sanctity of science.  

The best part about legitimate scientific papers is that you are required to make clear where your funding comes from. The most popular "scientific papers" that are used by deniers have been caught not disclosing this information (and do hysterical things like invoke a peer review process that involves getting people who are sciency who agree with the conclusions of the paper to say that they agree with the conclusions of the paper, presented in list form, and not actual peer review). 

I've been begging for an excuse to put a project together on this topic actually, so I think I might get started. It's going to take a long time though because I ###### suck at physics and have a looooot of it to do this semester. And that's WITH me getting lucky on my TA assignment and waiting until spring to start my research lol

Edited September 12, 2017 by Randall Flagg