While I Was Out
I worry about hurricanes because I have to make decisions for a number of people based on what these storms do, and I want to get things done ahead of time. I’ve been dealing with these suckers for decades, so I don’t relax until they are truly dissipated, not just headed in a different direction.
While I’ve been watching the Caribbean, almost two dozen Americans had died as a result of the flooding in the Midwest. Michael at Musing’s musings is on the verge of cabin fever, and Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof got to his parents’ house in Ohio in time to watch their sump pump prove to be inadequate to the job of keeping the basement dry.
Rain storms don’t have the cachet of hurricanes, but truth be told it is the rain, not the winds that do the massive damage and take most of the lives even in a Cat 5 storm. With the exception of a few true PITAs like hurricane Georges in September of 1998, which hung around forever dumping over 3 feet on rain and two dozen tornadoes, hurricanes tend to move through and you can start the chain saws.
The Midwest has been under this cloudburst for most of the month. Rain, followed by rain, and then more rain. The noise, which at first lulls you to sleep, becomes pretty damn annoying after day three.
It’s time to stop fooling ourselves and get serious about dealing with climate change. In case you haven’t heard, nuclear isn’t the answer. They have had to shut down nuclear plants in the US and Europe because their water sources are getting too hot to cool the reactors. When they are turning off the power to your air conditioner during a heat wave, it is time to find something else, like solar, that provides extra energy when it gets hot.
7 comments
What parts of the United States will become unlivable with what amount of sea level rise?
Almost as bad is the relentless humidity. By midday yesterday, stepping outside and doing anything–even just walking a couple hundred yards–meant you’d wind up feeling like you’d just stepped out of the shower–except not as fresh.
We got socked again with a pretty strong storm last night/this morning. Lots of wind and thunder, and quite a bit of rain, but not nearly as much as from the last one. The really heavy stuff went north into Wisconsin. But we’re still under the gun pretty much every day for the rest of the week at least.
Whig, I wouldn’t buy any property along any coast that wasn’t 50 feet above sea level, which leaves out most of the Florida Peninsula. It’s not that the land will all be under water, it that you have to factor in 20 storm surge.
Too bad they can divert some of the water to California and Georgia, where it’s needed and wanted. we have been dealing with heat indexes of 108 and there’s no end in sight.
“so I don’t relax until they are truly dissipated,” – Bryan
Sometimes I don’t relax until I am truly dissipated…
Seriously, two things occur to me.
One, I do not plan to be able to live out my life in Houston, even though we’re officially about 50 miles inland. That coastal prairie just isn’t much protection, and Harris County lies too low for comfort… and is getting worse.
Two, for us, the rain is usually the worst aspect. Look up “Tropical Storm Allison” for a case study of a storm that never had much wind, but stalled over the city, flooding more than I could ever have imagined.
Michael, hang in there; any Houstonian would sympathize with your plight, both the rain and the relentless humidity. Whig, whatever you do, don’t buy a house in Houston or (heaven forfend) Galveston.
The quartz sand that provides us with sugar white beaches over here also sucks up the water. Flooding isn’t a problem in the south county, but if you go north you run into the red clay and that doesn’t shed water at all.
In time I will probably go looking for a mountain somewhere.
Santa Barbara is essentially 18-20 feet above sea level. There was a press “hell storm” over an art project called the LightBlueLine. It planned to paint a light blue line around town to show the “new coastline” from the projections of sea level rise. It was to encourage debate and thought in a civil matter.
The Developers and the local Newspaper went ballistic saying that it would destroy property values. They lawyered up. The project was pulled.
Ah, yes, let’s not deal with reality when we can outlaw it. I don’t remember King Knute being very successful when he ordered the tide not to come in.
People generally forget that Knute did that to prove to his court that there were limits on the power of government.