Tampa still clover-shaped for now
So I wake up this morning (maybe closer to the afternoon - hey, it's a day off!) to some pretty fantastic weather. There was some strong rain overnight, but right now, just past noon, the skies are fairly clear, the wind is merely a stiff breeze, and most important, our temperature is sitting around the mid-60's.
The immediate impression from Wilma is that the Keys were hit pretty hard. The Dry Tortugas had some of the highest recorded gusts. Power outages span the entire Keys. Flooding was a pretty big issue. You hope that the slow pace of Wilma gave everyone ample time to get out of that area. And while I'm still not buying the idea that Katrina was a state and local issue alone, it was nice to hear this morning that Hillsborough County is already putting together a team of first responders to head to the hardest-hit areas.
Coming to the rescue has been a common role for our first responders. Although most forecasts had predicted landfall precisely where Wilma did strike, you can't help but think that the Tampa Bay area has dodged another one. Katrina, Rita, and Wilma all had the beginnings of the scenario that this area most fears. A storm gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico, which is pretty much crack for hurricanes, subjecting this area to a direct hit is an event for which area emergency response teams must be ready. The Tampa Tribune recently put together a pretty impressive story (that's right - the Trib did something), showing us what could happen if that scenario occured. Maybe we can start with moving Tampa General.
Ask any meteorologist that has been involved in the forecasting of this hurricane season, and they'll tell you that they were at a loss sometimes. Hugo and Andrew, the two worst storms to hit the U.S. before Katrina, both tracked the same way: small blob develops off the coast of Africa, slowly strengthens as it meanders across the Caribbean. Now we have Katrina, Rita and Wilma, which strengthened in a day or two what took Andrew about a week. Whether you blame global warming or simple, cyclical climate change, the rules of hurricanes are changing dramatically. The Gulf of Mexico will probably keep churning out several monsters every hurricane season. With that come more chances for the Bay Area to suffer that worst-case scenario. Hopefully all those that experienced the worst of poor planning this season won't have suffered in vain.
But for now I will leave the Chicken Little act and enjoy our good fortunes. And our cool weather. God bless the cool weather.
Posted by Joel at 10/24/2005 12:21:00 PM
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