Hurricane Irma

This is odd. I don't live anywhere near Florida but more than one of my high school classmates lives there now. I am friends with several of them on FB and they are feeling anxious about this one too. 

Ben0821, the best thing to do is follow your gut. Even if your wrong, you can return after the Hurricane passes. There is a evacuation order for The Florida Key.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/09/05/florida-declares-state-of-emergency-as-hurricane-irma-intensifies-to-a-category-5-storm/?utm_term=.4ad0ea19e5a8

Going north west is your best bet. Head toward OK, Missouri. Staying in Miami is not a good idea with this storm. She is a beast. Going straight up the East coast and hitting eastern parts of TN and Kentucky.  The weather channel said the eye is 50 miles wide and her entire width is over 300 miles.

Hi, re IRMA, get out, and do it before the storm hits. (It may not hit where you are, or just nudge by, but safety is the best option. 

Get across the state line into Georgia, and check into a motel. Take plenty of fuel and basic stuff like water, simple cold food, clothing. If you leave it too long, you will get stuck in a traffic jam, possibly. Or not. but it will make you feel better, as you are doing something practical. After the storm, you can go back. The whole thing is then an adventure.

 Someone in my local predictions group made a prediction for 2017 about three years ago that there would be "an epic storm"  in 2017, and 100,000 people dead.

 When we are projecting three years in advance we do not do it by month, so I only have it as a storm that would happen in 2017.

I pray that the death toll will not be anywhere close to correct, but so far Irma looks epic. It is already the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.

At the time that I got that prediction, I thought it would happen in a densely populated Caribbean nation.  But those afterthoughts can be very in accurate.

I'm going to look up the original handwritten prediction to see who made it, but that takes some effort going through papers.  Back then my students did not opt to be identified on the website.

Jeanne, I am getting, after the Houston storm,  "Two more storms" one of which, is obviously IRMA, but the other one is unclear. my betting i that the othr, at the moment un-named storm, (I shall call it "Juliet" might be very late in the season. I think 100,000 dead is very unlikely, but will buy into 1000 plus, and massive disruption. I am also thinking about the West coast, which i think will take a while, to emerge, I am even thinking some sort of Winter storm there, very big. plus another big ice storm, this winter, that goes right down to Texas. The main problem with these storms is the huge economic damage, and the effect on national morale. 

I searched through my five-inch paper file of old predictions and discovered that the epic storm prediction was mine.  I made it in 2014 and then changed the hundred thousand dead to "thousands" dead, only  because I couldn't believe  100,000 would die from a storm. Still don't believe that.  But I do remember seeing a crazy wild storm with palm trees blowing sideways.

Zoron I also foresee a big storm for Texas this winter. Unfortunately the era climate disasters are worsening, despite our warnings. 

I looked at the list of names and get an ominous feeling about Ophelia. She drowns herself in Hamlet...

Fran,

That is very interesting about Hamlet, and Ophelia. I got a quick flash pop up about that when pondering the big storm that I see later, late in the season, not the IRMA one. I got Julia, who was connected with someone called Henry, and it was all a Shakespeare reference. anybody got any idea who julia was?. 

Julia was the main protagonist in Two Gentlemen  of Verona, Shakespeare's first play that was the predessessor for all the rest. It's weaker than his other plays but it is a warm up to what became the greatest plays in western civilization.

  Irma is a warmup (no pun intended)-- a weaker preview of coming attractions.  

As the planet continues to warm up exponentially during the 2020's,  hurricane season will make living in Florida and to a certain extent, the eastern seaboard challenging. Flood insurance along the coastline for these parts will cease to exist. People will move away from what will become new flood zones.  And Florida will eventually become a watery playground for boating. 

Florida Governor Rick Scott will not be able to live down his climate denial.   The GOP is trying as I write this to seed rumors that the hurricanes are caused by supernatural forces, or even a conspiracy-- lol.  But people are only so gullible.

I get that Charleston  needs to get ready. 

Jeanne, Charleston is in "hairs on fire" panic mode.  We have lines at all the gas stations, people buying water, nonperishable foods and boarding up windows.  Everyone is looking out for neighbors and offering evacuation tips.  We have one major interstate for evacuation and all other routes are on secondary roads.  On the other hand, there are many people who haven't the means to leave and will hunker down for the duration.  Charleston and the lowcountry are surrounded by water, the ocean, the harbor, three major rivers, tidal creeks and marshes.  Much of the area is ten feet or less above sea level.  Some of our roads already flood during high tides and we have regular flooding in the town's historic district due to heavy rains.  It's so sad to see how vulnerable this beautiful, historic area is to the changes in weather.

Lorie, sending prayers for everyone's safe keeping.  What are your plans?  

Zoron, do you know where on the west coast the storm will be?

While climate change will be a big factor now  and into the future. Now we have Katie as a category 2, Jose category 4, Irma at category 4, and new disturbance forming on the five day map and also Mexico earthquake and tsunimi. I came across a article about HAARP. I am wondering if this program exist today and being used?

https://www.facebook.com/TheNextStageInHumanEvolution/videos/1654066721330486/

We are safe now as the storm is turning more westerly.   We were ready to leave and head up to family in the mountains, but have a reprieve until the next one....  Thank you for your kind thoughts.  The people of Florida are in our prayers.

All my reflection on the Lowcountry and the environment this week has included echoes from the past.  All the centuries and storms of the past and this place has endured.  It has endured wars, hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, reconstruction and Jim Crow.  However, beneath the beauty of this place, it is still haunted by the horrors and degradations of slavery.  Just as our country is still wrestling with racism, I'm reminded that Charleston is where this began as nearly 50% of slaves entered through this port.  Eighty percent of today's African Americans can trace their lineage to Charleston.  Charleston's great wealth was built by enslaved Africans in the rice fields  in hundreds of plantations on the Lowcountry rivers. 

Today we live in a community built on one of those plantations.  The original allee of oaks remains but the buildings have crumbled and burned.  There's a small cemetery near my house where previous plantation owners and their families lie buried.  There's only one chimney ruin left where the slave cabins were.  So we walk under the live oaks and Spanish moss and watch the ebb and flow of tidal creeks and all the while I am reminded of those who lived here before, who walked this same land and dreamed their dreams, whether they lived in the big house or in slave cabins.  I hear the whispers of the past and I know the future that climate change will bring to this place.  

I love Charleston, honeymooned there. But yes Charleston is in deep doo doo in the future. 

Also Zoron and Jeanne getting back to Shakespeare... Julia was the first daughter of Julius Caesar. She didn't come out too well.