...crossing land will diminish it's punch as it enters the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatan will receive a beating for the time it passes over the peninsula. The question is what will happen once "Dean" reenters water. With warmer waters it might accelerate again and then open water will allow it to expand it's diameter again. I want to say the system as it exists now will hold and "Dean" will cross over Central Mexico which will be devastating for those people. But, in all honesty, the air masse keeping "Dean" on it's current path is moving inland and with "Dean" reentering the Gulf; I think there is a margin of error I don't feel comfortable with to say for sure it won't move more north. It might.
There were deaths in the USA due to flooding in Minnesota and a lot of suffering in the middle of the nation due to "Erin." The NY Times has it on it's e-front page:
Floods soaked much of the midsection of the country from Texas to Minnesota today, causing at least 13 deaths as swirling waters washed out roads, triggered mudslides and forced evacuations of low-lying areas.
It is hard to accept this tragedy of a country that could have prevented this while it argues over oil right under melting sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. This isn't the USA I grew up in, it's foreign to me. There is no reason for these tragedies and Americans should be outraged in the year 2007 this is our reality.
My concern is the unpredictable nature of these systems and the 'split second' a difference in course could make. I would be taking all possibilities seriously.
This storm is serious and absolutely deadly. The storm surge will be significant and the winds are killers. Mexico and Central American will need help when this is over. Please take this seriously. The deaths to impoverished countries can be so terrible. They need to move inland and upland. Higher elevations are better than low and inland better than near shore. This storm is bigger than anyone can survive.
DO NOT RISK YOUR LIVES.
DO NOT RISK YOUR LIVES.
DO NOT RISK YOUR LIVES.
