Althouse: "Nature's nuke."

October 12, 2018

"Nature's nuke."

40 comments:

rhhardin said...: It's not nuked, just redistributed.; 10/12/18, 8:09 AM
stevew said...: Alliteration, always awesome.

-sw; 10/12/18, 8:16 AM
Qwinn said...: The Guardian's take: These people voted for "climate deniers", so they deserved it.; 10/12/18, 8:16 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Can't Care.; 10/12/18, 8:18 AM
Fernandinande said...: And nukes are human hurricanes!

I get a laff from Drudge's fake and stupid headlines.; 10/12/18, 8:21 AM
stevew said...: I would note that the media coverage of the lead up to the storm, the arrival of the storm, and the post storm circumstances was very light up here in the Boston area. I'm left to wonder why, especially as compared to the coverage of the storm that hit the Carolinas a few weeks ago which was 24/7 and hyperbolic. Is it because the Carolinas are populated by more upscale and liberal leaning folks? Is there a race angle?

-sw; 10/12/18, 8:26 AM
Fernandinande said...: Great picture, though - you can see the unleashed sharks on the shore!; 10/12/18, 8:26 AM
RMc said...: Another hurricane? That does it! IMPEACH!!; 10/12/18, 8:27 AM
Henry said...: @Unknown -- My observation as well. Odd.; 10/12/18, 8:32 AM
Fernandinande said...: Without the storm, the sharks would be unleashed in the shark park.; 10/12/18, 8:32 AM
Etienne said...: Bottom line: they should not allow construction within 60 miles of the shore.

The reason the hurricane was so destructive, is there was nothing to absorb the energy before it hit communities. Thus, the communities were used to absorb the energy.

This is a bad plan.; 10/12/18, 8:42 AM
stevew said...: Disagree Etienne. Build wherever you want, just don't expect me or our fellow citizens to pay for the repairs after the storm.

-sw; 10/12/18, 8:52 AM
Ralph L said...: Is it because the Carolinas are populated by more upscale and liberal leaning folks? Is there a race angle?
No, it was because a lot of Yankees drive to Myrtle/Wilmington beaches. There are plenty of black, poor, and deplorable people behind the coast line.; 10/12/18, 9:01 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Unknown" I would note that the media coverage of the lead up to the storm, the arrival of the storm, and the post storm circumstances was very light up here in the Boston area. I'm left to wonder why, especially as compared to the coverage of the storm that hit the Carolinas a few weeks ago which was 24/7 and hyperbolic. Is it because the Carolinas are populated by more upscale and liberal leaning folks? Is there a race angle?

The massive coverage for the first hurricane was because the media was hoping/wishing/praying for a huge disaster that they could blame on Trump. It was supposed to be Trump's Katrina moment.

Fortunately, or UNfortunately, depending on whether you are the people in the are or the media....Trump's governmental agencies were well prepared, the local agencies were on the ball and the hurricane didn't cooperate with the media's wishes and the disaster wasn't everything they wanted.

So...that ploy didn't pan out for them. They overplayed their hand, as usual. Still reeling from their Kavanaugh push to "kill" Trump, I suppose the media decided to play it down.

Plus that area is full of a bunch of deplorable, low rent rednecks who support Trump....and the media says who cares anyway....right?; 10/12/18, 9:06 AM
Ralph L said...: Under the fallen tree, I can see a hole in the back window of my dad's car and not much else. I reckon it's totaled, as that's the end away from the tree trunk. What's weird is the large limbs came together like an umbrella's bows, sparing the neighbor's truck.; 10/12/18, 9:07 AM
Etienne said...: ...just don't expect me or our fellow citizens to pay...

There is that hope. Washington told Puerto Rico to fuck off, so those people are smart and moving off the island.; 10/12/18, 9:08 AM
tcrosse said...: The Guardian's take: These people voted for "climate deniers", so they deserved it.

Pat Robertson said that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for Abortion. Religious nuts think alike.; 10/12/18, 9:12 AM
Wince said...: "Nature's Nuke."

The Guardian is essentially saying it's "Nurture's Nuke".; 10/12/18, 9:13 AM
Owen said...: Ralph L: the tree formed in a gravitational field: the tissue of the limbs had to carry a vertical downward load 24/7 to support themselves. When the tree falls over, the load is gone. The limbs react by closing “upward” to some extent.; 10/12/18, 9:15 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Hurricanes have been happening for thousands and THOUSANDS of years. They are a natural phenomenon that the natives in the Caribbean and on the coastal areas of the Americas were well aware of. They named a GOD after that phenomenon....Huracan.

The periodic inundations of the coastal areas and the flooding of the interior was well known by the natives, who often built their permanent structures on earthen mounds.

In other words....shit happens. Deal with it. If you are determined to build in an area where you are guaranteed to be wiped out periodically, then go for it.

As Unknown says....just don't expect others to pay for your stupidity or stubbornness. I live in California, earthquake country and feel the same way about it. Although, I'm more likely to be taken out by a volcano than an earthquake.; 10/12/18, 9:18 AM
Francisco D said...: They are a natural phenomenon that the natives in the Caribbean and on the coastal areas of the Americas were well aware of. They named a GOD after that phenomenon....Huracan.

Thanks DBQ,

One of the reasons I like this blog is that I often learn something new and useful.; 10/12/18, 9:33 AM
Nonapod said...: Hurricanes have been happening for thousands and THOUSANDS of years

They've been happening for hundreds of millions of years. I wonder what the hurricanes over Panthalassa were like. My guess is that since the climate was considerably warmer back then and with a much larger uninterupted mega ocean the tropical cyclones were probably an order of magnitude more severe. Dinosaurs didn't even have insurance either.; 10/12/18, 9:46 AM
Ralph L said...: That makes sense, Owen. I wonder how much they closed before hitting the ground and how much after. The wind was from the North, which doesn't often happen when the leaves are still up.; 10/12/18, 9:53 AM
MadisonMan said...: The devastation calls to mind Misquamicut Beach's disappearance during the 1938 Long Island Hurricane.; 10/12/18, 9:54 AM
Bill Peschel said...: It appeared to me that it was a Cat 1 for the longest time, until it hit an unknown patch of warm water, blew up to a 4 and hit the shore.; 10/12/18, 11:33 AM
Sheridan said...: Here's a thought! Build walls all around the East and West coasts with extensions toward the southeast and southwest. Call them Storm Stoppers (for hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, tornadoes, etc.) and insist that Congress allocate money to build the walls to protect lives. A corollary effect of the walls of course will be to restrain illegal aliens from entering the country unlawfully. And it's cheaper than giving Al Gore trillions of dollars to wave his water witch and cool the planet. Win, win, win!; 10/12/18, 11:36 AM
Darrell said...: I look at the damage and think that this is what Democrats want to do to the whole country.; 10/12/18, 11:41 AM
chuck said...: > blew up to a 4 and hit the shore.

Cat 4? No way, there would be nothing left. The measured ground winds were more like ~100 mph, and most damage seems to have been to older structures, mobile homes, and buildings near the beach that suffered from the surge. I've read it described as Cat 2, and that seems much more consistent with the damage.; 10/12/18, 11:41 AM
n.n said...: A low yield "nuke" that managed to pick low hanging fruit including temporary and poorly constructed structures.; 10/12/18, 11:58 AM
Fritz said...: After seeing what happened on the Gulf Coast, I don't want to complain, but last night we had 40-50 kt winds and 3 inches of rain. A big dead oak in our back woods came down and crushed our dog fence. It hit a fence post dead on and drove it 4 ft into the ground. I spent the last couple of hours clearing the tree out of the way and removing what was left of the old fence. Now we have to buy some new fencing and install it before we can let the dog out into the back.

Happiness is a sharp chain saw. Thank goodness I had it sharpened before tropical storm season.; 10/12/18, 12:04 PM
wildswan said...: Etienne said...
Bottom line: they should not allow construction within 60 miles of the shore.

That picture looks like the effects of Katrina on the Mississippi coast. All the shore cottages resting on concrete pads were washed or blown away for about 6 to eight blocks inland. Afterward, new rules were put in place for rebuilding on the Mississippi shore and most of the houses still standing in today's picture of the Florida shore follow those rules. The main rule is: houses close to the shore must stand on high concrete pillars - I think nine feet high. There are some rules about roofs too. As you can see, if you look closely, the free-standing houses which are still standing are built by those rules. These adapt designs used on the Gulf shores by the Cajuns for hundreds of years. So, no need to move everyone inland. Sigh, another good crisis proves useless for purposes of government control.; 10/12/18, 12:29 PM
Anonymous said...: @Chuck When Michael made landfall it was a category 4 storm with winds of 155mph. For those real sticklers say the winds only got measured at 130mph, with a whole bunch of caveats that it really might have been higher; 10/12/18, 1:40 PM
MadisonMan said...: It appeared to me that it was a Cat 1 for the longest time, until it hit an unknown patch of warm water, blew up to a 4 and hit the shore.

What nonsense. 'unknown patch of warm water' Satellite estimates of sea surface temperatures showed plenty of warm water in advance of the storm, because the first big cold front of the season has not yet moved offshore.

Every single forecast I saw worried about Rapid Intensification. The difficulty: Wind shear was pretty strong. Michael was very unusual in its intensification in spite of healthy wind shear. Lots of research to do to explain why that happened.; 10/12/18, 1:53 PM
chuck said...: > When Michael made landfall it was a category 4 storm with winds of 155mph.

The 155mph numbers were estimates derived from aircraft and were over water. I assure you that sustained winds of 155mph would have scoured the area flat.; 10/12/18, 2:33 PM
MadisonMan said...: I assure you that sustained winds of 155mph would have scoured the area flat.

No. Note that 155 mph is a high-end EF3 tornado -- and that tornadoes are actually rated by damage on the EF scale. Here's a picture of EF-3 damage (link). To get scouring, you really need EF-5 winds, which exceed 200 mph.

The damage imagery I've seen -- near the coast, neighborhoods obliterated -- all speak storm surge and pounding waves to me. I will trust the post-storm analysis more than I trust a commenter on althouse.; 10/12/18, 2:43 PM
Etienne said...: I've been through a lot of tornadoes. It's not the wind really, it's the stuff in the wind. It's like a brush hog or a grinding wheel. It will clean off everything.; 10/12/18, 4:12 PM
Etienne said...: The last tornado that went through here, missed me by 1/2 mile.

My yard was filled 6-inches with roof shingles, roof plywood, attic insulation, and Christmas decorations that were no bigger than an inch square. Like it went through a shredder.; 10/12/18, 4:15 PM
MadisonMan said...: It's not the wind really, it's the stuff in the wind.

Yes. Which is why that scene is Twister where Helen Hunt and ... oh, blanking on his name, but he's dead -- tie themselves to the metal pole while the tornado goes over them is so bad!; 10/12/18, 4:39 PM
chuck said...: > I will trust the post-storm analysis more than I trust a commenter on althouse.

#metoo, I just haven't seen much yet, and the pictures all seem to be storm surge damage, and the same few spots. I-10 was opened again, when, yesterday?; 10/12/18, 4:58 PM
Seeing Red said...: Bill Paxton; 10/12/18, 6:30 PM