Originally Posted by Frazod:
I was stationed in Norfolk during Gloria in 1985. It ended up changing course and heading north up the Atlantic coast, and we ended up only getting the fringes of it, but for two terrifying days Gloria was a growing category 4 monster that was forecasted to make a direct hit on us. The Navy sent every ship that could get underway to a secure anchorage way up in Chesapeake Bay, but my ship was in the shipyard, the engine was on the pier under a tarp, and there was an engine-sized hole in the side of the ship a few feet above the waterline. So we weren't going anywhere. They let most of the crew leave the ship to flee the area, but I was on the alpha personnel list, and alphas go down with the ship. I was 20, from the Midwest, completely sold on the certain doom and destruction being trumpeted by the weather pricks, and convinced I was going to die horribly in the next few hours and there wasn't a goddamn thing I could do about it. And I remember that day, and how I felt, like it happened last week, not 39 years ago. I have no desire to ever relive it.
And that's why I would never live in a hurricane zone.
HA! That was my first hurricane. It was a Cat 2 by the time it came up my way to New Jersey. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Holladay:
Point taken. The good with the bad. I don't have the kind of cash to live in that paradise with all the risks.
I bought at the bottom of the market in 2012. I payed the same thing for that place as I did for my Lees summit house. I couldn't afford to buy it now. Even before retiring. Just got lucky. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx:
HA! That was my first hurricane. It was a Cat 2 by the time it came up my way to New Jersey.
Depending on how it hit, there was probably more damage in New Jersey than Virginia. It took out some trees, caused some minor flooding, and destroyed half of a long pier in Virginia Beach. That was pretty much it. I always think about that when I see the "We will rebuild" meme with the toppled lawn chair. :-) [Reply]
OMG. We all had a collected gasp when we saw this from our reporter. The fabric on the roof of Tropicana Field is shredded. #StPete#Miltonpic.twitter.com/36UKLO9cK6
OMG. We all had a collected gasp when we saw this from our reporter. The fabric on the roof of Tropicana Field is shredded. #StPete#Miltonpic.twitter.com/36UKLO9cK6
Originally Posted by : Taylor Swift donates millions to US hurricane relief efforts
US superstar Taylor Swift has donated five million dollars (£3.8 million) to help victims “rebuild and recover” as hurricanes devastate the south-east region of the US.
Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida late on Wednesday night, amid warnings that a life-threatening storm surge could cause “extreme flooding”, according to the Met office.
The “dangerous and destructive” storm comes in the wake of devastation caused by Hurricane Helene just weeks ago.
“We’re incredibly grateful to Taylor Swift for her generous five million dollar donation to Hurricanes Helene and Milton relief efforts,” the chief executive of Feeding America, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, said in a statement on X.
“This contribution will help communities rebuild and recover, providing essential food, clean water, and supplies to people affected by these devastating storms.
“Together, we can make a real impact in supporting families as they navigate the challenges ahead.
“Thank you, Taylor, for standing with us in the movement to end hunger and for helping communities in need.”
The charity were urging others to “join Taylor if you’re able by donating”.
It comes after fellow US music star Dolly Parton also donated one million dollars (£765,000) to the Mountain Ways Foundation, providing immediate assistance to Hurricane Helene flood victims.
Swift is gearing up for her the final run of her Eras Tour, beginning next week in Miami before heading to New Orleans, and Indianapolis and closing out the tour in Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.
The 34-year-old has a history of supporting fundraisers, donating to 1,400 Trussell food banks in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London – the cities where she performed her record-breaking Eras Tour this summer.
The Anti-Hero singer also recently donated 100,000 dollars (£79,400) to a fundraiser for the family of a woman who died in the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebrations.
The US star shared her condolences with the family of Lisa Lopez-Galvan, 44, who was killed during the American football team’s victory parade at Union Station in Kansas City after they won the Super Bowl.
Swift had attended the Super Bowl to support her Kansas City Chiefs star boyfriend Travis Kelce.
Zoë Schlanger: “As Hurricane Milton exploded from a Category 1 storm into a Category 5 storm over the course of 12 hours yesterday, climate scientists and meteorologists were stunned. NBC6’s John Morales, a veteran TV meteorologist in South Florida, choked up on air while describing how quickly and dramatically the storm had intensified. To most people, a drop in pressure of 50 millibars means nothing; a weatherman understands, as Morales said mid-broadcast, that ‘this is just horrific.’ Florida is still cleaning up from Helene; this storm is spinning much faster, and it’s more compact and organized.
“In a way, Milton is exactly the type of storm that scientists have been warning could happen; Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, called it shocking but not surprising. ‘One of the things we know is that, in a warmer world, the most intense storms are more intense,’ he told me. Milton might have been a significant hurricane regardless, but every aspect of the storm that could have been dialed up has been.
“A hurricane forms from multiple variables, and in Milton, the variables have come together to form a nightmare. The storm is gaining considerable energy thanks to high sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, which is far hotter than usual. And that energy translates into higher wind speeds. Milton is also taking up moisture from the very humid atmosphere, which, as a rule, can hold 7 percent more water vapor for every degree-Celsius increase in temperature. Plus, the air is highly unstable and can therefore rise more easily, which allows the hurricane to form and maintain its shape. And thanks to La Niña, there isn’t much wind shear—the wind’s speed and direction are fairly uniform at different elevations—‘so the storm can stay nice and vertically stacked,’ Kim Wood, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Arizona, told me. ‘All of that combined is making the storm more efficient at using the energy available.’ In other words, the storm very efficiently became a major danger …”
“Milton is also a very compact storm with a highly symmetrical, circular core, Wood said. In contrast, Helene’s core took longer to coalesce, and the storm stayed more spread out. Wind speeds inside Milton picked up by about 90 miles an hour in a single day, intensifying faster than any other storm on record besides Hurricanes Wilma in 2005 and Felix in 2007. Climate scientists have worried for a while now that climate change could produce storms that intensify faster and reach higher peak intensities, given an extra boost by climate change. Milton is doing just that.”
When I moved here no hurricane had hit St. Pete in 125 years. we have been hit by 2 hurricanes within 3 weeks of each other. Climate change is real and its going to get worse. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
When I moved here no hurricane had hit St. Pete in 125 years. we have been hit by 2 hurricanes within 3 weeks of each other. Climate change is real and its going to get worse.
