The southeast of the United States of America has received the wrath of the Climate Crisis in the way of a hurricane named Florence. Typical of these Climate Crisis storms it had varying winds, but, also typical it is full of water with incredible accumulations in one spot due to the lack of movement over land.
There are deaths and they are hard to swallow. Despite the states having plenty of warning leading into this Climate Crisis event, the deaths are adding up. This is a prime example, Texas with Harvey (click here) just last year is another of how denial of a very real Climate Crisis brings about ineffective policies with no funding to change the quality of life of Americans. If the USA had embraced the this Climate Crisis I am confident these storms would not even occur. IF is a very big word and with that continues the reality as it unfolds today.
I have a great deal of concern for these people. The southern states for their intractable politics are impoverished. Their infrastructure is impoverished and at a time when people will have incredible need, they will be locked out of social welfare, including food stamps. The USA Congress has been defunding social welfare programs for over eight years.
Also, the people of the south are tethered to their work. Now, there is infrastructure damage and the work once their lifeline will be unavailable to them for some time and in more cases than expected, these marginal businesses may not reopen for work. This storm reminds me more of Katrina than I expected. Movement of people out of Louisiana resulted in permanent relocation to other states and that will occur here because of the destroyed infrastructure.
I firmly believe the recovery in the affected states will be lengthy as there is little fiscal residual available to their state governments to absorb the enormous destruction of water. I am surprised to the amount of devastation in North Carolina because after Floyd hit there was a lot of work done to waterways to protect from extensive flooding and deaths ever happening again. Wilmington, North Carolina returned to it's island status during the flooding of Floyd and people unaware died from drowning. The difference between Floyd and Florence is the fact Floyd did not stall over the state. It was at a time when hurricanes acted like traditional hurricanes and not Climate Crisis storms. Floyd's destruction was focused on a smaller area than Florence. The people are even worried about mudslides in the mountains of North and South Carolina.
The truth is, a good third of North Carolina is a flood plain. From the coast all the way to a city called Fuquay-Varina (click here) is a flood plain. There will be standing water for a long time. The Cape Fear River will be strong and dangerous and will be pushing water from it's tributaries in the ocean with force so the river will be overwhelming near shore currents. The estuaries will be flushed out to the ocean as well.
So, tonight it is far more appropriate to focus on the southeast United States and it's people. They are in sincere trouble and they deserve respect. They are good people. They work hard and they simply don't deserve this so that a petroleum industry wins profitability as opposed to their lives being most important to their governments.
I will cover Monaco no later than next week. Thank you for your interest.
Also realize there are devastating outcomes in Asia.
September 16, 2018
By Sheena McKenzie
The world's strongest storm this year, (click here) Typhoon Mangkhut, continued its path of destruction across Southeast Asia over the weekend, reaching mainland China on Sunday afternoon after pummeling Hong Kong and killing dozens in the Philippines.
The storm has carved a deadly trail across the region, killing two people in southern China and at least 54 people in the Philippines. Many of the Philippines' deaths were caused by landslides, with dozens more still believed to be buried beneath the deluge, government officials said at a news conference Sunday.
More than 2.45 million people have been evacuated in China's Guangdong province as Mangkhut made landfall at 5 p.m. local time, according to Chinese state media.
Xinhua reported that 18,327 emergency shelters had been activated, and that 632 tourism and 29,611 construction sites had been shut down....
