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Friday, 30 September 2022

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Indeed, the scale and depth of Ian’s destruction is hard to fathom from afar. And the story’s far from finished as Ian heads back inland to the Carolinas as I write. Given the current climate patterns and water temperature shifts I just don’t see how south coastal Florida can remain habitable for long.

Back to the ostensible subject of this blog, once again bad weather can make for exceptional photography. Imagine you’ve been assigned to cover this mess. How do you convey the situation to the rest of the nation with your little camera? Try to separate yourself from the human misery for a moment to look at the best news photos from the NYT, AP, Reuters, Washington Post, et.al. Hilary Swift’s work is some of my favorite. She easily trombones between wide-angle situation establishment and close-in human image so vivid you can feel the pain of her subjects. But there are many very skilled snappers down there now presenting a clinic on how to take pictures that work.

With climate change, your friends could still
move to the highest capital city, Santa Fe, NM, at 7000 feet, almost one third higher than Denver. I spent 5 years there. Great black and white photo opportunities, too.

Makes me wonder how our friend Ned Bunnel is making out. Hopefully still up North.

I really dislike storms, but there's no escaping at least some variety. A hurricane would be my nightmare. Here in Duluth we get the occasional really strong straightline windstorm that knocks down trees everywhere, but they are over quickly.

Many years ago, I was a college student in coastal Florida on a campus with salt water on two sides. We looked forward to hurricane season hoping for a few days of excitement without classes. Thankfully we were annually disappointed.

My aunt lived in a water-front house on Florida's west coast and every few years she was flooded -- sometimes an inch or two, occasionally more. Once she escaped to a high school gymnasium while a foot of salt water invaded her house and ruined ... a lot of stuff. Finally, as much as she loved living on the water, she moved away. An expensive lesson. Her nephew was relieved.

We can learn from our mistakes. If we're smart, we learn from the mistakes of others. Keep an eye on Coastal Florida Real Estate prices to see how much we've learned from Ian.

Sanibel, Florida City Official Says Damage is 'Biblical,' Island Now Cut Off From Mainland
https://news.yahoo.com/sanibel-florida-city-official-says-150101103.html

Strange thing is these storms have different names in different parts of the world - hurricanes in the Americas, typhoons in East Asia and cyclones in northern Australia. They are all the same thing, a deep low originating over tropical seas. Perhaps these different names prevent us from seeing how significant and frequent these events can be.

I feel terrible for the people in the path of this storm.
We got hammered about a decade ago. A storm tore up the roof and blew apart the north end of the house.
Sitting out a storm in a house with no power and only half a roof is bad but what is happening down south in Ian is horrific.
It is going to take a decade or more to recover from this monster.

[I remember that well, Mike. Hail went right through the siding, right? And the Weber grill went cartwheeling down the deck.

https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2014/06/the-june-3rd-storm.html

And Mrs. Plews was without you for a while, but you made it home. Glad you have not had any reprise of that. --Mike]

Lest we forget, recently there were also the people of Puerto Rico. Everyone, including the news media, seems to have completely forgotten about the impact of Hurricane Fiona on them. And...it was like, what? About about week or so before Ian? And, did you see the temporary bridge that was completely washed away by Fiona that was put in place after the original bridge destroyed by...Hurricane Maria?

And, out West, I've personally had people who are dear to me lose virtually everything in they had in the world to the Camp Fire (which, lest we forget, completely destroyed the town of Paradise, CA) and the Glass Fire.

Then there was the Altas Fire, the Creek Fire, the Dixie Fire, the Thomas Fire, the Carr Fire, the Rush Fire, the August Complex Fire. I could go on, but you get my point...

In response to Chris - here is a map showing all tropical cyclones worldwide, color coded for intensity (it maybe a few years out of date).

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/7079/historic-tropical-cyclone-tracks

Tropical cyclone is the name for all such storms - local areas have their own names as chris mentioned. In meteorology a low pressure system is called a cyclone (winds rotating anti clockwise in the northern hemisphere, clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere). A high pressure is called an anticyclone.

The really sad thing about this is that these storms are only getting more frequent and stronger until humans make significant changes to the way they live. Not much hope of that happening anytime soon.

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