Cape Karen
Can you believe it? Another big hurricane is here; this time bearing down on Cancun, Mexico. I loved my visit to Cancun in 1986 ~ long before the area was heavily over-populated with new construction. I probably wouldn't recognize it today. Tomorrow, it's possible that no one will recognize it.
I am not really surprised about another hurricane arriving this season, but I am surprised at how unpredictable these storms are becoming. To jump from an 80 mph tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane, in a matter of hours, is unprecented in our recorded history of such storms.
As one who grew up on the East Coast, I remember hurricanes being fun! Of course, I was a child for most of them, and it simply meant days off from school, seeing some sailboats up on the lawn at the Yacht Club the next day or swimming in bath-water-warm waves at the beach. My friend, Louise, and I were swimming at Estey Avenue beach at the start of one hurricane, and it was glorious! We were around 9 or 10 years old - so, that was centuries ago - but I still remember how warm the water was, and what fun it was to jump into the big, salty waves as they crashed up on the beach. (If our parents had known, they would have croaked!)
Hilton Hotel, Cancun, Mexico
These days, it's not fun to watch the power and destruction of hurricanes. We have jam-packed our shorelines with million-dollar homes and multi-million-dollar hotels. We are seeing the evacuation of record numbers of people ~ jamming the highways ~ trying to get out of harms way. Older homes along the shorelines really haven't got a chance; and as far as those who are living in boats, well, all I can say is . . . batten-down the hatches, and try to find a safe cove somewhere that you can flee into when a hurricane is heading your way.
Reports indicate that this year's storms have come at the tail-end of a dormant cycle of hurricane activity. The active cycle is not predicted to begin until next year, and then will continue for the next couple of decades. What can that possibly mean? If these storms are merely remnants of a dormant cycle, I can't even imagine how destructive a new, 'active' cycle will be along the coastlines of the US.
There are pockets of vulnerable areas that seem to take the biggest punch each hurricane season. All the coastlines along the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida coasts, the North Carolina coast and the upper Northeastern coastline. If I lived in any of those areas, I would be doing something major to protect myself from future storms; long before the next hurricane season begins. (A concrete bunker, perhaps?)
No one wants to think it could happen to them. No one wants to think they could be living in the next Mississippi or New Orleans. Cripes. . . the New Orlean's folks are already rebuilding in their under-sea-level soup bowl, as if everything was going to return to normal. I guess human nature just won't admit defeat. They will, in the words of our great leader, "stay the course," and take whatever comes.
But, at what expense? Is it really worth the risks to continue living in New Orleans, or along any coastline? How many more big hurricanes will it take before people realize how truly vulnerable they are in those locations, especially given what we are seeing these days?
And, the biggest question of all - if we really are experiencing the effects of fossil fuel induced global warming - what will next year bring?