The majority of the American eastern seacoast and the states that define it are waiting out the first major hurricane since 2005. Irene is coming with at deadly potential and certain damage.
2004-5 were horrible years for many homeowners and renters as a series of hurricanes pounded the Gulf Coast. Charlie, Frances, Jeanne, Rita, Katrina, and Wilma caused extensive loss of life and billions in property damage. New Orleans is still recovering from Katrina.
In 2004, we were brushed by Charlie and took damage from Frances and Jeanne. Like many others in Florida, our insurance company folded due to poor management of a company that was initially established with fraud as its final product.
In 2005, we took no damage but played tag with one storm or another for 4000 miles of travel. Our planned fishing days were mostly washed out by hurricane rains. Our efforts to avoid I-95 as the storms kept evacuation traffic crawling inland took us through the mountains where we now live. By the end of the 2005 hurricane season (actually ended in January 2006), we had our home protection action down to an art. We could and did install our storm panels and drop & lock our hurricane shutters in 30 minutes. That indicates practice.
We left Florida as the cost of homeowners insurance became unaffordable and property taxes spiraled upward driven by incessant speculation. Since then, we’ve dealt with snow, heavy rains, localize flooding, bank erosion, falling trees, hot summers cold summers, cold winters, and the largest tornado outbreak in U.S. history, which missed our home by 0.1 mile on the ground, less in the air.
We have not, however, worried about hurricanes. The forecast for the weekend calls for temperatures in the 80s, some thunderstorms – potentially including wind and hail.
We will not be putting up storm panels or boarding up and hoping that our property survives, as will so many to the east of us. It would be great to see Irene track further out to sea and miss the American mainland entirely. I shudder at the thought of trying to evacuate major N.E. cities. As with any other disaster, cities reach a point when given their population density and existing capacity to handle massive relocation of citizens, they may as well be written off as not capable of evacuation. The failure to protect and remove thousands of citizens during the Katrina storm and flood demonstrate all too well how poorly prepared this nation is to carry out timely and functional evacuations of cities threatened by natural disaster.
Chef-style salads should suffice for dinner tonight.
Shabbat Shalom, good luck to all in the storm’s path.
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