1230.18z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)
Maria beat up the Outer Banks of North Carolina with a house or two being lost to the ocean.
Maria has been oscillating between a Cat. 1 and Tropical Storm. On the other hand Hurricane Lee has sustained as a Cat. 2 in the open ocean.
Maria
34.90 -72.90 09/27/00Z 60 975 TROPICAL STORM
35.10 -72.90 09/27/06Z 60 976 TROPICAL STORM
35.60 -72.60 09/27/12Z 65 978 HURRICANE-1
36.20 -72.10 09/27/18Z 65 979 HURRICANE-1
36.80 -71.50 09/28/00Z 65 979 HURRICANE-1
36.80 -71.00 09/28/06Z 60 982 TROPICAL STORM
Lee
30.00 -55.50 09/27/00Z 95 971 HURRICANE-2
30.20 -56.30 09/27/06Z 95 971 HURRICANE-2
30.60 -56.80 09/27/12Z 100 963 HURRICANE-3
31.20 -57.10 09/27/18Z 100 962 HURRICANE-3
31.70 -57.30 09/28/00Z 95 966 HURRICANE-2
32.50 -57.20 09/28/06Z 95 966 HURRICANE-2
The Virgin Islands have been devastated this year. After Irma destroyed infrastructure, along came Maria and completely flooded the islands. The human tragedy of Americans is unmatched to any other year. Between the Gulf storms and those from the Atlantic there are significant numbers of Americans left homeless and many believing life right now is hopeless.
By Jeremy W. Peters
The Caneel Bay resort on St. John was heavily damaged.
Cruz Bay, V.I. — Even before two Category 5 hurricanes (click here) struck the United States Virgin Islands with punishing fury this month, the notion of paradise here was already about as brittle as a sand dollar.
The local treasury had barely enough cash to keep the government funded for three days. Its debt had grown so large that Wall Street stopped lending it money. The unemployment rate was more than twice the national average.
The one-two punch of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria 14 days later was especially cruel. In many places across the three major islands of this American territory, the second storm drowned what the first couldn’t destroy, ravaging what was once one of the Caribbean’s most idyllic landscapes....
The American mainland has vastly neglected it's territories and it shows. The commercial investment was the primary income for the territories and it simply is not enough. The people don't have sustainable incomes, thus the governments do not have sustainable taxes or treasuries.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the U.S. Territories (click here)
There has been no recuperation since 2008 across the spectrum of USA Territories. That is true for Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa. There is no way the USA Congress or any other entity can hold these islands responsible for debt. It is not possible. The USA has to study and work the problem faced by these Americans.
Washington, D.C. (May 5, 2010) -- The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) (click here) released its first set of estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) for American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI).1
Objectively gauging changes in economic activity is difficult in the absence of comprehensive economic metrics, such as GDP. Until now, a framework did not exist to estimate the GDP of these four U.S. territories. The Statistical Improvement Program, funded by the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) of the U.S. Department of the Interior, has made it possible for BEA to develop formal methodologies for measuring the GDP of the territories.
The estimates released today for the four territories cover the period 2002 to 2007. The estimates show that real GDP -- GDP adjusted to remove price changes -- grew over this period in each of the territories except the CNMI. From 2002 to 2007, American Samoa’s GDP grew at an average annual rate of 0.4 percent, Guam’s GDP grew at an average annual rate of 1.8 percent, and the USVI’s GDP grew at an average annual rate of 2.9 percent; in contrast, the CNMI’s GDP decreased at an average annual rate of 4.2 percent. (For comparison, the average annual growth rate for the United States (excluding the territories) was 2.8 percent over this period.) More detailed information for each territory is presented on the following pages.
In constructing the estimates for the territories, BEA used methodologies consistent with the methods used to estimate U.S. GDP. Information from the Economic Census of Island Areas was used to establish levels of GDP for each territory for the years 2002 and 2007. Annual series were then developed and used to estimate GDP for the intervening years. Because the territories are not included in most of the major surveys used by BEA to estimate U.S. GDP, the support of government leaders in the territories and the assistance provided by the territorial statistical offices were critical to the successful production of these estimates.
Until President Obama came into office there was complete negligence of the economic VIABILITY or economic STABILITY of these territories. How can Congress ever hold the territories responsible for any type of GDP if they never held an interest in the quality of life of these people at all.
Now, with the climate crisis causing complete devastation of infrastructure of the Caribbean territories there needs to be a task force implemented to decide the viability at all of living on these islands. The Pacific territories could be as open to the same devastation as those in the Caribbean.
September 27, 2017
By Ed O'Keefe
The Trump administration (click here) is restricting lawmakers in both parties from visiting storm-ravaged Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands aboard military aircraft this weekend in order to keep focused on recovery missions there, according to multiple congressional aides.
The decision comes as the Pentagon is intensifying its relief efforts on the islands as the U.S. government struggles to respond to devastation caused last week by Hurricane Maria and earlier by Hurricane Irma.
Multiple attempts have been underway in recent days for members of both parties to travel to Puerto Rico aboard military aircraft. Once there, they would have met with officials with the military and Federal Emergency Management Agency responsible for ongoing missions on the ground....
The Congress members need to assess the damage and return with real plans for the future of the islands hit by two major hurricanes within two weeks. The plans have to include ways to return viability to these Americans and a timeline to have it happen.
I don't see tax cuts for anyone for some time actually. I see increases in taxes to Americans in the upper 10 percent of income earners in the country. I think Congress has a great deal of work ahead with these territories. The territories should be the focus of this Congress and the political agenda of rhetoric needs to be abandoned. There is real work to be done here.
