Natural Disasters in North America 2017

[Ocram's Razr 964]

While Hurricane Harvey is wreaking havoc in the Gulf, especially Texas, forest fires are raging in the Pacific Northwest. British Columbia is finally seeing some improvement this week while Oregon and Idaho are seeing new, ferocious blazes.

 

It's almost as if this is divine punishment for electing The D'ump. What next, a rapture? More likely, this could be further proof of Climate Change. Either way, people must wake up and start voting for the best, most qualified candidates, not the most outrageous who don't care about the environment!

[Odainsaker 2,136]

I can't speak to Divine Punishment against Trump or proof of Climate Change, but I do know that we have overbuilt sprawl in places where perhaps we should not be building such.  Previous before-'n'-after satellite photos already show how former watersheds, natural creek drainage systems, and simple bayou have been turned into dense suburban subdivisions with retention reservoirs, and today's new satellite photos of the disaster areas show how they all be inundated.  New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina taught us that while historic French New Orleans is wisely built atop a hill, the surrounding modern New Orleans is build below sea level surrounded by levees, bayou, a swelling lake, and a muddy major river.  Consider Houston's Addicks Reservoir, built in the previously rural hinterlands to hold much of the excess floodwaters coming down the broader watershed from rushing downstream into downtown:  now that the reservoirs are filling up and spilling over, surrounding suburban communities are being inundated, but why was such housing allowed to be built around the very edges of the emergency reservoir in the first place?  It's not as if we didn't know where massive flooding would happen...its in the low areas of the greater sprawl.

It is not as if we also didn't know that powerful hurricanes will hit, as the Gulf Coast is rather infamous for its hurricanes.  Gosh, I did not even expect that while replying to one of @matias93's City Journal entries back in June with a reference to historic Texas hurricane strikes that I would actually be mentioning the site where Hurricane Harvey last weekend made its first landfall.  The mentioned Spanish port town of El Copano is now an abandoned ruin crumbling into the bay, with even its state historical marker falling in during a storm, after its former residents fled deeper inland to the aptly named Refugio.  Near Copano was also the later major German port town of Indianola, which was also abandoned after devastating hurricane strikes and now is actually under the sea.  Of last weekend's hurricane destroyed towns in the first landfall zone, Rockport leads opposite Copano Bay from the ruins of El Copano, while Victoria is preceded from the coast by the site of Indianola.  Meanwhile, Houston ironically owes its existence as a major port city because nearby Galveston, previously the premier port in Texas, was completely washed away by the Great Galveston Hurricane, still the deadliest natural disaster in the U.S. to date.  Today, the vast Houston metro area covers much of the southeast Texas region, including Galveston Island, making for a huge target for a record-breaking storm.

__________

At the last moment the hurricane veered east, taking it off its direct path towards San Antonio, and the storm pretty much stayed on my home city's eastern doorstep, bringing some rains and wind gusts, but, fortunately for me, no citywide catastrophe.  Panic buying here had preceded the hurricane's landfall, and now post-hurricane panic buying is starting up again as gas supplies fall after news reports that Houston's pipelines are shutdown and the gasoline refinery distribution networks are in disarray.  There are runs on gas stations today statewide, and I am glad I filled up last weekend before the hurricane.  Many people from along the Texas coast and from Houston had in preparation evacuated to San Antonio as the hurricane first drew near, but really many more should have been made to do so last week before the then-foreseen flooding disaster really began.  In the run up to the storm, Federal and State emergency resources were poured into San Antonio as the city has long been a logistical hub, and after protectively riding out the initial strike were they then dispersed out to the devastated coastal regions.  For me that made for my fist-ever sight of camouflaged military personnel carriers rolling down the suburban arterial roads.  The drive here now is to collect donations of bulk supplies to send to the ravaged coastal areas, but as many of those areas have no electricity, have no water, are facing new heat waves, and are now a mess of debris, contaminants, disease, and mosquitoes, those areas really are now simply uninhabitable.

 

[matias93 7,535]

What surprised me the most was the anticipation of the storm happening at the same time than a completely uncoordinated response from the authorities of all levels and the general populace, as if they didn't knew what was about to happen. 

What's the point of having radar and satellite forecast information available if no one will use that data to decide whom to evacuate, where to keep them safe, on which routes, how to resguard their property and to distribute goods?

An hurricane is not something that happens without previous warning, and even if it were, there are recognisable patterns, just like there are with earthquakes. Planning is completely possible but it seems that authorities are scared of appearing authoritarian by forcing evacuations, prohibiting price speculation of basic need goods or using the armed forces to deliver help and organise a collective and coherent response.

On the face of a natural disaster, politicians cannot put their sensibilities before the most basical well being of the people, and have to go over some freedoms to achieve that, in a way that's barely more than common sense applied to reality.

Maybe the first step is to stop believing that a huge hurricane, or a mega earthquake, or a months-long wild fire is something that only happens on disaster movies or documentaries, and to start recognising that the next one can hit tomorrow, or in five minutes more. And to learn to live with that without being paralysed: to know how to respond, to be always ready and internalise the needed training but to carry on with a rutinary life anyway, to normalise the disasters to be able to deal with them cool-headed.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Now we have Irma, expected to hit the East Coast as a Category 3 or 4. The climate has already changed and will continue to do so until 50 years after we as a global civilization become carbon neutral. If we never become carbon neutral, we will enter a permanant interglacial period that might eventually turn into a runaway greenhouse effect.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Now Hurricane Irma is Category 5

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-irma-united-states-hurricane-warning-puerto-rico-leeward-islands-0

Parts of the Caribbean should be considered a complete loss and climate refugees should move somewhere safer. Unfortunately, The D'ump wants to make that harder in what was once was "the land of opportunity" so Canada is a better option for now.

Also, wildfires are ravaging the North American West (from Alaska to Montana to California) after The D'ump has slashed funding to the very agencies that help prevent and predict forest fires: http://www.popsci.com/global-wildfire-maps

[Sabretooth78 808]

The climate refugees won't be from there but from places like the Maldives and various Pacific islands, which don't really have the populations to really cause a panic.  No, the places you're going to have to worry about are India and sub-saharan Africa, and well, Florida.

The Caribbean will take a wallop but will be just fine.  Especially the Leeward Islands - decent topographic relief and plenty of rich Europeans and the money that follows.  Heck, it won't stop me from vacationing there.  Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands (to some extent) and Hispaniola have elevation.  Florida, on the other hand...recall Andrew, Katrina and Harvey.

To be fair, I don't think the Harvey response has been nearly as bad (or at all) compared to Katrina.  Certainly lessons have been learned, and/or those who learned them haven't yet been purged.  The smoking gun in this case isn't the response but once again showing why you don't build in wetlands and coastal buffers.  But we'll never learn until some superstorm literally wipes one of those cities off the map.  Houston is probably too big to have to worry about that, but cities like Charleston and Daytona Beach aren't...

As for divine punishment, it's a nice quaint thought but I'll reserve any belief in such happenings until a "rogue" 8+ earthquake levels half of the Mexican border wall. 

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Hurricanes Katia and Jose have formed since the last update. This will seriously hurt the Caribbean. Cuba's main source of foreign money is tourism but its historic buildings are likely to be ruined by the hurricanes. It also bodes poorly for its domestic economy and Quality of Life. 

[Sabretooth78 808]

Evidently Cuba has been handling itself quite well despite the blow.  Much better than Britain, France and the Netherlands are handling their share.  And that's to say nothing about the US citizens in the equally-wrecked Virgin Islands.  I haven't heard a peep from Trump Don-Un on the matter.  Our response in aiding our own citizens and providing assistance to the European islands has been nothing short of embarrassing so far.  We'd rather be playing with our toys on desert sand.

[Haljackey 17,380]

I found this funny

[Alejandro24 575]

7.1 Richter earthquake in central region of Mexico, just 13 days after an 8.1 earthquake in the southwest and in the 32 anniversary of 1985 Mexico City Earthquake.

[RipRap 4,400]

Add insult to injury: We also have Hurricane Maria on its way to St. Croix and Puerto Rico. Bull's eye directly towards San Juan.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

The family of my deceased abuela lives in Mexico DF and I have penpals in Florida. I feel as if I jynxed them by complaining about my situation. I pray the casualities will be minimal.

[Larks2242 251]

You can add record bad wildfires in California and flooding in Vietnam to the list.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

The wildfires provide an opportunity to redevelop Northern California suburbs to be more sustainable. It will also allow Napa Valley to grow new varieties or use better root stocks, and possibly even increase overall production by expanding operations to what used to be housing. More likely, everything will be back to the status quo before long.

[Larks2242 251]

5 hours ago, OcramsRzr said:

The wildfires provide an opportunity to redevelop Northern California suburbs to be more sustainable. It will also allow Napa Valley to grow new varieties or use better root stocks, and possibly even increase overall production by expanding operations to what used to be housing. More likely, everything will be back to the status quo before long.

Yeah sure, Everything will return to normal for those that died and had their homes destroyed as well. 

[Ocram's Razr 964]

The effectiveness of evacuation routes and the spread of fires are both factors of land use, and thus planning, zoning, and infrastructure. This proves that the suburbs were designed poorly and absolutely should never be rebuilt the same way. Unfortunately, according to American culture and economics these problems will NOT be resolved. Greedy developers and aesthetic suburban planners love senseless suburban sprawl. I wish that these tragedies will wake people up to try to correct the problems caused by them but I have far more evidence to the contrary than to any meaningful changes for the better. Many people lost their homes, some lost everything, even their lives! However, it's up to politicians and businesses to decide whether to rebuild and how.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41627751

BBC reported that homeowners often didn't follow regulations for firebreaks, multiple news sources have reported hesitation/procrastination causing people to miss the opportunity to evacuate (thus perishing). This is a horrible tragedy that could have been prevented, or at least mitigated by proper land use regulation and enforcement.

  Edited October 15, 2017 by OcramsRzr  
BBC link