Editor’s Note: We have a full basket of authors this morning, including Tacitus o politics, Marlow and his Coastal Empire saga in the crosshairs of massive storm, and Vic’s perspective on the end of the weather event. We hope Arias will be joining us later on the site. – Vic
(Hurricane Matthew in all his strength and fury sweeping over Haiti on the way to Cuba. Photo Naval Research Labs from NOAA’s GOES-East Weather satellite).
You would think that a major Category 4 or 5 hurricane like Matthew would get people’s minds off the endless campaign that seems to be lurching toward some resolution. Please, let it be over soon, so that the weather is once more a safe topic of discussion. The amount of October Surprise crap from both candidates that I will not dignify with comment is quite remarkable- the ribald and boastful from the one, and the unvarnished text of what the other has been up to the last five years.
Me? I voted, so I was fully intending to shut off that part of my brain that deals with this stuff. And then Matthew’s horrific and inexorable passage across the Caribbean began to attract attention. When the storm swept over the island of Hispaniola, shared by basket-case Haiti and the lively Dominican Republic, 800 people died. There is no more stark a reminder of the power of nature. I have not seen reports detailing what happened in Cuba, nor the status of the naval facility at Guantanamo Bay.
I am presuming this wasn’t enough to justify closing it, but the crisis is not over, and it is a terrible thing in today’s political landscape to let a crisis go to waste.
One of the candidates was going to place a bunch of ads on the Weather Channel until someone demonstrated enough good sense to cancel them. The usual suspects have chimed in, though, reminding us that the non-treaty treaty hammered out in Paris will for sure prevent monster storms and possibly bunions.
For the record, bad as Matthew was, we appear to have dodged a major bullet. Examine everything you hear about the storm with a cautionary eye. Some will tell you that the costs of thee storms has exploded with their severity. They will not mention that the devaluation of our currency and the explosion in growth means there are more structures to be damaged- two million people have moved to Florida since the last hurricane.
Others will remind you that even if the number of hurricanes coming ashore in the US may have dwindled over the last decade, the ones that do are much more intense, and hence demonstrates that climate change is real, ongoing and a clear and present danger.
For the record, when Matthew came ashore- finally- in South Carolina, it was a Category 2 storm and weakening. That can still be devastating- Super Storm Sandy was barely a Category 1 storm when it smashed into New York. Based on the way development had occurred along the water, it was still the most expensive natural disaster since Katrina, though I would refer to the point mentioned above.
It is, this morning, 4,001 days since a Category 3 or higher storm has hit the contiguous US. So we ought to be grateful. Here in Virginia, it looks like we are going to get soaked over the afternoon, but that should be about it. Here is what Doppler Radar looked like for the rest of our day.
I have not heard from Marlow, who just took up residence in Savannah with his bride W.
I hope they are OK. By extension, I hope for the best for all the people who bore the brunt of this storm. Had things happened just a few miles further to the west, the devastation would have been something like what I saw in Coastal Mississippi and Louisiana after Katrina.
May it be another 4,000 days before we see it’s like again. Please.
(Depleted bands of the fury of Matthew will be passing overhead starting now. Screen Capture from Doppler radar).
Copyright 2016 Vic Socotra
www.vicocotra.com