September 01, 2008

Whew!....Urp!

Well, it looks like the Weather Nerd was right...as usual, and Gustav did not become Katrina 2. There is still the possibility that some levees will fail after the storm (as happened in 2005) but it now appears that this is not a calamity. Thus far only a few Hurricane related deaths are reported in the Continental US, all traffic related.
Now attention turns to Hanna and Ike.

In addition to the possibility of a very rough landfall, Hanna looks like it could go up the spine of the Appalachians, storm systems drop moisture when they hit mountains which could cause it to dump a lot of rain between North Carolina and Pennsylvania. I have no idea what sort of rain potential this storm has but Appalachia by its nature is vulnerable to flash floods. Historically several Hurricanes have killed more people in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina via flooding than they did in coastal regions.

Ike appears poised to wreak havoc in the Caribbean, though it looks like most nations and all the US Territories will thankfully be in the happy quadrant of this one if it doesn't stray too far from the NOAA model (though the Bahamians are going to have a rough time with this one). The big question here again is rain, which has historically caused lots of damage in the area, particularly on Hispaniola due to deforestation.

Still, it looks like we dodged a big one.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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