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In South GA now, right in the eye of the current path. Our local EMA directors suggests sustained winds of 60-80 with gusts over 100. This is not going to be a pleasant experience.
Stay safe, let me point out a very sobering fact.....Hurricane Katrina killed people in OHIO.
(and something like 10ish other states)
The gulf coast of FL is IMO not nearly as hurricane prepared as the south and eastern parts given they so rarely get hit.
The storms in both Texas and Florida as well as all the other recent climate anomalies should start changing many opinions on climate change and, hopefully, many red states to blue.
"Even with the inflation adjustment, a key reason we have more costly disasters is simply that the economy is much bigger today than it was in the 1980s.
When the economy was smaller, disasters caused less economic damage. There were fewer homes, factories and office buildings to destroy, so it was harder for a natural disaster to cause a billion dollars of damage.
Since 1980, the U.S. economy has more than doubled"
We haven't had a surge in natural disasters from global warming, we've had a surge in our economy. That's why they cause more damage, we simply have more to lose now.
So why would that change someone from red to blue? Are Dems becoming more fiscal? Otherwise, the rest is just garnishing ratings from weather hype.
In South GA now, right in the eye of the current path. Our local EMA directors suggests sustained winds of 60-80 with gusts over 100. This is not going to be a pleasant experience.
Good luck, we'll be thinking about ya. I hope it goes better than expected.
Miami 1925 vs 2017, hard to believe the changes. True all over Florida, very poor planning putting profits and growth over common sense. Andrew should have been a wake up call instead they just continues on the same path, better building codes does not excuse the continued development.
Quote:
WASHINGTON — The last time a Category 5 hurricane ripped through Florida, it was so destructive that meteorologists retired its name forever. That storm, Hurricane Andrew, made landfall southwest of Miami in 1992, killing 65 people, destroying 63,000 homes and inflicting $26.5 billion in economic losses.
But if a similar-sized hurricane were to strike Florida today in the same spot, it would be far more catastrophic — causing up to $100 billion in damage, according to a recent analysis by Swiss Re, the reinsurance firm. That’s even after accounting for the fact that South Florida has strengthened its building codes since Andrew.
Stay safe, let me point out a very sobering fact.....Hurricane Katrina killed people in OHIO.
(and something like 10ish other states)
The gulf coast of FL is IMO not nearly as hurricane prepared as the south and eastern parts given they so rarely get hit.
FIngers Crossed.
Irma is showing the problem with forecasting so far out. A shift 40 miles and a slow down from 18 mph to 9 changes the entire trajectory of the storm.
It went from barely touching Miami and curving back into the Atlantic to going down the spine of Florida and then curving back to the Atlantic, to going into the gulf and curving back , In the last 3 days the forcast had it doing the same thing in reverse, Gulf, spine than right off the coast near Miami, Now the curve has changed from to the Atlantic to into the inland US.
Now all the people who evacuated to Atlanta and Birmingham and the Panhandle are in the path of the storm. This storm could still be a category 3 when it makes it to Georgia/Bama depending on the path.
More and more of the models have it staying off shore , going through a pocket of water that is 90+ degrees and not making land fall until just south of Sarasota.
And to be clear, the Gulf is just as prepared as the Atlantic coast, the problem is that this wasnt supposed to be a gulf storm.
I think natural disasters can absolutely have a measurable effect on the political alignment of a region, and much of it depends on whether or not federal help arrives and how effective it is at reducing suffering, but what will happen in Florida if this hurricane does end up being as awful as predicted is still up in the air. We'll have to wait and see.
Federal help represents big government. I remember when George Bush senior promised to rebuild all the airbases in Florida after hurricane Andrew. We didn't really need that many, but that is politics. Republicans believe in big government when they need it and curse it when they don't.
The same people who believe in an activist government are the people who want a fully funded FEMA, and they also are the same people who tend to understand global warming and accept the climate science. Many people in Florida don't like that global warming talk, mostly (I suppose) because it would affect real estate values, and their own financial planning. People who try to publicize the dangers tend to get an angry reception in Florida, from what I have heard.
The Republicans were all full of big talk about slashing the budget of FEMA this past year, no surprise there. We won't hear much of that for a little while.
I accept a robust Federal government as necessary in the modern world, but a lot of people do not think too deeply on it.
The 'big' Federal government built all those levees intended to protect so much of our country from catastrophic floods. No one state could do that, it needed to be a huge Federal project. The Federal government electrified the Tennessee valley when no profit making business would take it on. That affected parts of four of five states as I recall.
Most of those places which received so much help in the past are red states today, and the folks decry big government, and the people probably don't think much about how their lives (or lack of life/shortening of life in some cases) would be so different without it.
Neither will I. Over humid, over crowded, over hot and over priced.
3-4 months a year - it's really nice (on the west coast). The rest of the time it sux.....sorta the poor mans Hawaii or Ca.....
No, Irma won't change the politics in FL - FLorida will trend moderate and slightly blue (purple) - which it actually already is, just the gerrymandering and the good ole boys in power have made it red at the state level...and then, as we saw in 2000, a Red State Elections Board knows how to swing an election their way.
I don't think it is overpriced. We bought a nice house in Sarasota for 250K - not big, but recently remodeled on a nice lot.
Florida, in general, has a lot more negatives than positives...but if you are like us and know how to find a quiet spot with everything close by - and use it Jan-April, then it can be worthwhile.
That is - until Irma hits us. Right now the center is shown about 5 miles from our house.....I think perhaps a big tree branch or something else will hit our flat roof. Bummer. But no one is there so at least we are safe.....
The OP is so ignorant (he/she is a liberal Trump hater so no surprise). Florida for as long as I remember (in my 40's) have traditionally been a red state and it's the (relatively) newcomers from the NE and Hispanic immigrants that have made it go more blue, not the other way around.
You're not supposed to call people names on the forum. Be nice now.
Federal help represents big government. I remember when George Bush senior promised to rebuild all the airbases in Florida after hurricane Andrew. We didn't really need that many, but that is politics. Republicans believe in big government when they need it and curse it when they don't.
The same people who believe in an activist government are the people who want a fully funded FEMA, and they also are the same people who tend to understand global warming and accept the climate science. Many people in Florida don't like that global warming talk, mostly (I suppose) because it would affect real estate values, and their own financial planning. People who try to publicize the dangers tend to get an angry reception in Florida, from what I have heard.
The Republicans were all full of big talk about slashing the budget of FEMA this past year, no surprise there. We won't hear much of that for a little while.
I accept a robust Federal government as necessary in the modern world, but a lot of people do not think too deeply on it.
The 'big' Federal government built all those levees intended to protect so much of our country from catastrophic floods. No one state could do that, it needed to be a huge Federal project. The Federal government electrified the Tennessee valley when no profit making business would take it on. That affected parts of four of five states as I recall.
Most of those places which received so much help in the past are red states today, and the folks decry big government, and the people probably don't think much about how their lives (or lack of life/shortening of life in some cases) would be so different without it.
Wow, lots of interesting points. Thanks for sharing.
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