When a hurricane is coming and you are in the swathe of uncertainty, you prepare. Then you wait & hope it doesn’t hit you directly, or that the storm surge doesn’t flood you out. It’s a mixed-emotional experience, because if your prayers are answered, then it’s someone else’s misery.
The problem of problems is that these storms are becoming stronger & more frequent, and we have no coordinated preparation or response. Too many people still deny global warming as its cause, so nothing is done about it. This is why the Amazon rainforest currently has wildfires burning out of control. It’s the hottest year on record, I’m told.
Turn on the local fake news, and it’s a bunch of media hype, telling you to stock up on more stuff you don’t need. That’s why these hurricanes turn into such catastrophes– most of it is man-made.
If you live in central Florida as of this publication (Friday, mid-afternoon), then you have a few more days to prepare for a hurricane. This is no joke, yet many people don’t really take it seriously. Plan A is to ride it out, and keep everybody safe, with everything intact & dry. That’s all anyone wants to think about.
What your home (and neighbor’s home) cost, goes a long way towards determining how hard you will be hit, your ability to withstand, and how long the response will be. If you live in a working class area, then you should always presume there’s going to be an extended power & water outage.
These “blackouts” tend to follow class lines, meaning richer residential areas will get power back sooner, or never lose it at all, while working class areas will suffer extended utility outages. These monopoly corporations have the power & technology to red line these outages, to appear to be the result of a natural disaster, when in fact it is exploitative class warfare.
Expect no FEMA response, as the Trump administration has raided that budget to build his wall at the Mexican border. This means that whatever inadequate responses you’ve seen in the past– including Hurricanes Katrina, Harvey, Irma, Maria & Michael– will be even less this time.
This basically means that Floridians are on their own. No evacuation order has yet been given, as no one is sure where landfall will be as of this time. Anywhere from the Keys to Jacksonville, with West Palm Beach being the current projection. That’s too big of a “cone of uncertainty” to be useful to most Floridians. When you don’t know, the best thing to do is stay put.
Meteorologists are estimating a Category 3 or 4 storm by landfall. I’ve noticed they typically underestimate the storm’s strength, which is crucial data. Less than a week ago they were predicting Cat 1 or 2 strength upon landfall.
You may live in a residence that can survive a Category 2, or weaker Cat 3 hurricane. But if it’s a Category 4, then you have to go. If you know that in advance, it really helps with evacuating. This is the margin that many Florida residents are living on right now.
Florida is a peninsula, and there’s only one way out by land– north. People in high-risk areas need as much warning as possible, and it usually comes too late, with people being trapped on the highways, running out of gas, or unable to get out of their homes.
If you aren’t hit directly by the hurricane eye, then it’s flooding that becomes the main concern. If you are flooded out, then you are homeless, and everything left in it is ruined. Do you own, or rent? I rent, and this is one reason why. The fact is, there is no safe permanent home in Florida anymore. I’ve been here long enough to figure that out.
Check out this sinkhole map above. Florida sits atop an underground shelf of limestone, which acts as a filter for the aquifers underneath. This supplies all the fresh water. When too many homes are built, and too much of the water is sucked out of the ground, the limestone begins to crumble & gives way, into what is called a sinkhole.
Consider sinkholes to be Florida’s version of miniature earthquakes. Entire buildings & homes can be dragged into the earth, never to be seen again. They have become endemic in the Sunshine State. Revolving cycles of intense drought, then flooding rains, makes even more sinkholes.
“Sinkhole alley” extends across much of central Florida, and everywhere swamps have been filled-in to build residential homes & gold courses, sinkholes pop up. The notorious & sprawling luxury retirement community known as the Villages, is a center for right-wing conservatism & is rabidly pro-Trump. Not coincidentally, the Villages daily newspaper, The Sun, is not allowed to mention sinkholes in any of their writings, even though they are a common local epidemic. Florida politics.
When a hurricane is coming, you must prepare for Plan B, which is evacuating your home. What are you going to take with you, if you have to quickly pack up & haul ass? Where are you going to go? Everyone’s situation is a bit different, but the same with a hurricane. Answering these hard questions BEFORE the storm hits, is how to prepare for real.
A hurricane is a serious natural phenomenon & force of nature, but the devastation it wreaks is fractional compared to that inflicted by the heavy-handed government, police & military response to come. This will be coupled with mass neglect & censorship for those stranded without power, water & internet during the aftermath– in the September heat & humidity.
The reality is that many people have to prepare themselves for a grim future, being made a refuge by this storm, knowing that every level of government will exploit this disaster to enrich themselves & inflict more hardship upon them.
The common response from the rest of the population will be relief that they were spared (this time), and a sense of sympathy & solidarity for those who suffer, knowing it could have been them instead. They key to solving this modern hurricane dilemma is uniting socially, for the benefit of all.
Update: Tue 03 Sep 2019 01:41 PM EDT
Hurricane Dorian stalled over the Bahama Islands unleashing sustained winds of 185 MPH– which is unheard of. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale measures a Category 5 beginning at sustained winds of 157 MPH. Winds at 185 breaks that scale, as this was a Category 6 hurricane which hit the Bahamas.
Storm surge of at least ten feet, meant the low-lying islands are entirely swamped by the rain & ocean. Hurricane Dorian still has the Bahamas in it’s outer bands, so relief efforts haven’t even really begun yet.
This is why Hurricane Dorian stalled, and I never saw this weather map on any network news– local, national or internet. The best data I received while tracking this super-hurricane, was from friends on Facebook. I have a few weather-freak, high school friends– so thank you (you know who you are) for posting these helpful & amazing images!
This map above is crucial data, as it’s the High pressure systems which squeezed this hurricane into stationary rotation at its maximum intensity.
The eye of Hurricane Dorian is is still 100+ miles out at sea, and finally about to pass Florida’s eastern coastline as a weakening Category 3. It’s been over a week of fear-of-the-unknown, and non-stop media hype here in Florida. Kinda like an election… and then what comes after.
This map above is what’s going on in the Western hemisphere, right now– big picture. As anyone can see, we are still in the middle of hurricane season, so there will be more to come. What are we going to do about it?
The closest mainland to the Bahamas is of course– Florida. Donald Trump’s immigration war is about to meet a hurricane refugee crisis. This is why Trump cancelled his trip to Poland, so he could play golf in Virginia. Any time Florida is in play, everyone in politics gets excited.
This is a humanitarian crisis to-be-exploited by the Trump cabal, with ICE repression. This is the high-level, closed-door scheming that is going on, as Dorian’s eye passes northward to the Georgia & Carolina coastlines.
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