On September 9, 2005, with much of New Orleans submerged by the failure of fifty levees and flood walls after Hurricane Katrina (category 1 at landfall) dumped 8 to 10 inches of rain, former Vice President Al Gore told the Sierra Club's National Environmental Convention and Expo in San Francisco: Ladies and gentlemen, the warnings about global warming have been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate crisis. ... Last year we had a lot of hurricanes. ... The scientists … [Read more...]
Hurricane Matthew—A Grateful Retrospect
Two days ago, anticipating what government and media forecasters predicted could be a Category 3 or 4 hurricane's visit to my home in south Florida, just north of Miami and seventeen miles from the coast, I wrote a brief blog piece about my preparations. Immediately afterward, I left the keyboard and started the long, hot, laborious, and sometimes dangerous job of installing hurricane shutters. That took the remaining five or six daylight hours, during which I, with help from a young man who … [Read more...]
Preparing for Hurricane Matthew in South Florida
Hurricane Matthew has just passed over the east end of Cuba and is headed now for the Bahamas and then Florida. Depending on the track of the center of the storm, my family and I, living just north of Miami, could experience anything from tropical storm force winds (39 to 73 mph) to Category 4 hurricane winds (130 to 156 mph). I'm rather expecting something in the high Category 1 to low Category 3 range (90 to 115 mph). Whatever, it's likely to be dangerous. The winds and rains (likely 4 to 7 … [Read more...]
