Hurricane Florence

[Jarlaxle]

Looks BAD. Stay safe, everyone. I recall we have someone (Sue?) on the Chesapeake.

[BoSoxGal]

wesw - but he’s above the likely landfall projection; but still likely to get dumped on.

I have friends on the water just south of VA beach - hoping they’ll be ok.

[Lord Jim]

I saw a complete idiot who lives in a mandatory evac zone on the NC coast being interviewed on CNN yesterday...

He said he was staying because he didn't want the hassle of staying in a hotel, and he had made it through snow storms that dumped a couple of feet which he figured was worse than the hurricane would be...

He was interviewed in a shopping center parking lot after picking up a case of bottled water. He had a beautiful large parrot sitting on the rim of his shopping cart...

I feel a lot sorrier for the parrot than I do for the idiot...

[Big RR]

That parrot could be one of the reasons he chose to remain; many hotels do not accept pets and evacuation centers are not equipped for them either. If it came between leaving my pet to ride it out alone or riding it out with huim/her, I'd opt to stay.

[Lord Jim]

Well, he never mentioned that as a consideration. (I've seen other people with pets interviewed who did)

He just seemed completely clueless and lackadaisical about what he could be facing....

ETA:



Correction: The guy lives in Myrtle Beach SC, not NC.

[dales]

Another Trump voter heard from.

[Joe Guy]

Don't feel bad. They interviewed the parrot and it said exactly the same thing as its owner.

[Lord Jim]

That surprises me; parrots are usually pretty smart...

[Jarlaxle]

Some people wont leave because they don't want to be stranded and unable to return for a month or more. (Directly from one of them on another forum.)

[BoSoxGal]

After Katrina there were laws and regulations passed to address the issue of pet accommodation in shelters, but I don’t know how extensively or if they apply to motel lodgings during natural disasters. Lots of practicalities come into play beyond just whether you can bring your pet with you, anyway - like having food on hand for them and managing their behavior in a shelter setting around other pets and strange people.

There was a study out recently by Bankrate about how the majority of Americans (60%) don’t have enough money available on hand for a brake job (@ $400) - so imagine where the funds come from for fuel, lodging, meals and whatever else to evacuate from home for a few days for a hurricane? And what about the people who don’t even own a vehicle? Whatever shelter policy might be about pets, rental car and mass transit pet policy is something else altogether and often far pricier.

I have a lot of sympathy for the people who don’t evacuate for impending storms, because it’s about a lot more than having common sense. I’m sure a lot of the folks who stay behind are actually quite terrified, but don’t see any other real options.

Praying for those in the path, and still for the people devastated by last year’s hurricanes whose lives are still a mess because help doesn’t actually happen like it should.

[wesw]

I saw that interview, the guy was from boston.

he was pretty ignorant of what a hurricane was.

he said that he d been through nor easters too.......


not quite the same there, bunky.......

[BoSoxGal]

I saw that interview, the guy was from boston.

he was pretty ignorant of what a hurricane was.

he said that he d been through nor easters too.......


not quite the same there, bunky.......

You are seriously ignorant, wesw.

Nor’easters ARE hurricanes, much of the time - for instance, Hurricane Sandy, one of the worst Nor’easters in modern history, and the Perfect Storm of 1991, also one of the worst nor’easters in modern times.

[BoSoxGal]

Also this:

Nor’easters are now just as dangerous as hurricanes
By Eric Holthaus on Mar 2, 2018

On Friday and Saturday, the winter storm now moving up the East Coast will unleash hurricane-force winds on Washington, blizzard conditions across parts of New York and New England, and inflict the worst coastal flood in Boston’s history.

By all accounts, this storm is a monster. It’s also the latest sign that New England’s long-feared coastal flooding problem is already here — and it’s time to admit climate change is its primary cause.

The storm’s strongest winds will point squarely toward the shore, smashing huge waves the size of three-story apartment buildings into coastal defenses, and roiling the sea as far away as South America. To make matters worse, it’s arriving in conjunction with a full moon, when tides are normally highest. The system is predicted to stall out for more than 24 hours just off the New England coastline — for an astonishing three straight tide cycles.

Although the storm is getting little attention in the national news, the National Weather Service and meteorologists across the Northeast are screaming at a fever pitch. Boston-area municipalities have taken heed, issuing evacuations, preparing dive-team equipment for water rescues, and deploying a temporary flood barrier designed as a climate change-resilience measure. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has activated the National Guard to help with preparations.

Call it a nor’easter, a “bomb cyclone,” a superstorm — in an era of worsening extreme weather, fierce winter systems like this are arriving with startling frequency. And flooding is by far the most dangerous and destructive consequence. This week’s storm, like every weather event, is inseparable from the context of the warming climate. Nor’easters like this one are now a threat to public safety on par with hurricanes, and it’s time we start treating them that way.

This week’s storm is larger in size than Hurricane Sandy, with winds just as strong. National Weather Service in Boston called the storm’s gusts “about as extreme as it gets” and labeled the flooding it will spur a “life and death situation.” In a harrowing statement, the agency warns of massive power outages, the destruction of coastal homes, and some neighborhoods being “cut off for an extended time” from the rest of the metro area. It’s possible that sea walls and other semi-permanent coastal defenses could be breached, or beaches and dunes erased from the map — exposing vulnerable coastal communities and permanently altering the geography of New England.

Nor’easters draw their energy from clashing regions of warm and cold air, often producing massive circulations double the size of hurricanes. Hurricanes usually have much stronger winds at ground level, though, which is why they’re typically more destructive. But as seas have risen across the northeastern U.S. over the past century due to climate change, the flooding impact of what were once relatively routine winter storms has quickly grown.

While hurricanes are also expected to eventually grow stronger, there’s no convincing evidence they clearly have yet — although last year’s hurricane season is a worrying harbinger. Nor’easters are also expected to get worse due to climate change, as warmer air provides them with additional water vapor, fueling their ability to strengthen. Add to that, sea levels in Massachusetts have increased by about a foot over the past 100 years, and should rise by a further 3 to 9 feet by the end of this century.

Winter superstorms that bring high-level coastal flooding to northern locales like Boston are already occurring with alarming regularity. Only 34 hurricanes have passed within 200 miles of the city since 1851 — an average of one every five years. And only nine of these created a significant rise in the tides. Meanwhile more than 90 of the top 100 floods in Boston were spawned by nor’easters, and 13 of the top 20 have happened since 2000.

Though it’s one of the most severe examples in history, today’s storm is not the first one to hit the most densely populated part of the country with the power of a hurricane. It’s not even the first one this year — in January, another “bomb cyclone” floated rafts of ice into flooded Boston streets.

There are around three strong nor’easters every winter, 15 times as frequent as hurricanes — plenty of opportunity for repeat flooding disasters. A study earlier this year showed that record flooding could happen in New York City every five years starting just a few decades from now, largely because sea level rise has transformed nor’easters into coastline-devouring monsters.

Storms like these — technically called “extratropical cyclones,” because they form outside the tropics — don’t come with scary cone-shaped tracking maps like hurricanes or official names that can be blasted across social media. Still, they have quickly become the single biggest threat to coastal development across most of the northeast.

Coastal floods are one of the leading indicators that the world is warming. Given the path we’re on, the worst is yet to come.

Please note the key info, that while a hurricane hits the eastern seaboard about once every 5 years, nor’easters happen at least a few times EVERY SINGLE YEAR. The worst ones like Sandy and the Perfect Storm pack hurricane force winds, but even those that don’t often cause much more damage than hurricanes because they stall and hit the region longer and harder.

Laughing at nor’easters is very, very ignorant. Blizzard of ‘78 is just one of many examples to point to as to how very deadly these storms are that we New Englanders regularly endure, and which are becoming ever more deadly in the face of climate change and rising oceans.

So fuck you wesw - as usual.

[wesw]

no. I have been thru countless nor easters, in MD and in MA, and sandy was bad, but not the same as a hurricane.

I stayed in O.C. MD, one block from the boardwalk, in 1985, when Gloria almost hit.

we only saw 90 mph winds, as she turned away at the last moment....

90mph winds are bad. the destruction was horrible

hurricanes are tropical, nor easters are not.

[wesw]

and I didn t laugh at nor easters, just stated the simple fact that they are different than hurricanes.

[BoSoxGal]

Sandy WAS a hurricane, wesw - one of the deadliest and most destructive in history! AND she was a Nor’easter!

You are a FUCKING MORON!

[BoSoxGal]

Seriously, you are one of the stupidest, nastiest people I have ever had the displeasure to know in my entire life.

[wesw]

...and you on the other hand are just a bright little ray of sunshine....

[wesw]

.... a walking, talking, conniption......

[BoSoxGal]

You’re just like your buddy Trump - a liar, a nasty little prick, and desperate for an audience. Well, yours just shrunk by one - you can hang out with Joe Guy on my foes list - and I’m pretty certain I won’t miss either of you for one single moment.

Bye, Felicia!