Should have captured a photo the other day of the remarkable map that we could observe using satellite imagery and radar – oh. my. gosh.
There’s a thumbnail below of the storms – but, we’re not through the “season” yet… Last year, another Cat 5, Hurricane Michael, visited in October, chasing on the heels of Florence, involving some of the same damaged areas, still recovering from just under a month before – 16 storms in 2018 – 3 Cat 1’s, 3 Cat 2’s, 1 Cat 4, and 1 Cat 5, in addition to tropical depressions and tropical storms that fell into the total list before the season ended – the last one being the end of October, but not making landfall.
The prior year, 2017, was a “doosey” by all accounts, having 18 storms in the Atlantic – 2 incredibly damaging Cat 5’s, 2 incredibly damaging Cat 4’s – Harvey producing the historic record for total rainfall, doing incredible amounts of damage – still not completely determined, two years out – the recovery will continue for years.
With Irma, and Maria, Jose – all battering the USA and it’s territories, the costs are continuing to stress the economic resources – not to mention Mr. Crazy, whose influence as president and decider in chief, has altered the resource direction by his idiotic priorities. Let’s say that $282 billion and counting does a number on the resource pool. 2018, so far, is shaping up to be over $50 billion, and it’s only the first week in September.
Storm severity seems to trend higher in August-September and October for some reason, so the big numbers may be forthcoming, but let’s hope things calm down.
Multiple tropical storms churning in the worlds oceans. Powerful storms. Another “Category 5” storm rips apart – literally destroys – a vacation spot visited by many for decades – which reset everyone’s frame of reference and definitely created a paradigm shift.
This is not the stuff of disaster movies anymore. It’s real life.
Essentially a couple of islands on the the east side of The Bahamas are no more in terms of life as people knew it. Like bad yard work, just mowing without any tidying – it’s an awful thought that NOTHING exists much there that isn’t destroyed. No modern anything.
Giant piles of rubble, likely burying alive people who could not get out of the way – TBD on the fatality count. We know that the number can grow from these disasters – largely people who do not have a lot of money and fancy resources, living the island life, surviving day to day as they always have for as long as The Bahamas have existed as a place where people live.
Lots of dangerous messes. Not even a way to start from scratch without a whole lot of effort – and think of this: forklifts, and big dump trucks that would help – there is no place to off-load them without building a dock or a ramp – those were also destroyed. The mother-of-invention has arrived. Let’s see if human invention and innovation kick-in… Depends on how badly or whether it is reasonable to rebuild – before the next monster arrives…
Just do the Wikipedia thing and review in short the history of this group of islands.
I visited The Bahamas only once – in 1985. Fun trip, but strange… interesting. I never had much desire to return, but, it wasn’t the fault of The Bahamas. It was mostly that the company and the experience with the fellow travelers and tourists did not set well. Didn’t get to stay long.
It was an expensive place to visit. Why? Because everything is shipped in that feeds the economy.
Tourism IS the economy. Perhaps if you throw in illegal drug trade, that might be a hidden sub-economy… Financial Services (the proverbial “bank account in The Bahamas”) ranking second, and Agriculture (yes, they do grow and export “tropical things” as their third most prevailing economic money-generator.
Oh and did I mention the casinos? Yep. Vegas Baby – it’s like that. Every island has a casino or hundred… It’s a thing. Part of why people visit there – maybe pay for their trip expenses or accommodations or meals.
But on the pleasant and fun side of the tourism equation – aside from the potential for staying totally intoxicated throughout a visit, if you are so inclined, scuba diving, water-skiing, fishing for giant catch, every water sport you can imagine – anything related to coral reef activities and crystal turquoise (or deep blue) water – that’s where you go (at least one of the places) to experience that.
The people there, by and large, are a mixture of indigenous and migrants from nearby islands and other places, particularly Africa. The Bahamians generally do not refer to “dissolved” multi-cultural categorizations – you are either “black” or “white”. As with other nations that have inhabitants with various skin-tones, whereby the darker are the majority, the white folks generally get nicknames. In the case of The Bahamas, white people get called “Conchy Joe”, in much the same manner as white people get called “gringos”, or other somewhat potentially sarcastic labels.
The original people who first inhabited the islands were Lucayans, according to the most up to date research. The islands were first inhabited best-guess between 500-800 AD. Research shows that likely these folks came to the various islands, potentially from other islands, originating from somewhere in northern South America – probably the eastern areas. Fascinating history of how these island populations evolved.
The whole laid-back atmosphere of the culture has evolved over time. Generous, graceful, and athletic – by and large- but, at times “polluted” by western cultural influences and the chasing of the almighty dollar – plus issues related to the fast-food trends – just like other places across the planet – the norms and influences, and the takeovers of countries…
Back to today, now the situation on Mother Earth is changing at an accelerated rate, and we are witnessing what happens to fragile areas when the seas get angry and super-storms develop. Anyone want to wager on whether there will become a Category 6 sometime in the next few years, as storms trend to be Category 5’s more often and push the upper levels?
As we have been warned, the economic impacts will be significant during the “adjustment period” to the new normal generated by the changing climate trends.
You throw in the ever increasing wild fires destroying whole towns, well… let’s just say that Mother Earth’s anger at her human inhabitants is coming out in many forms. Remembering that old commercial “You can’t fool Mother Nature” – it’s true… She’s no fool – and Mother Earth is her favorite grand-baby.
Like the Game of Risk, these “machinations” continue to destroy unique cultures as the civilization of indigenous peoples is driven by “big religion” efforts, “big plantation” AKA “corporitization” efforts, technology, social engineering (another nice word for exploitation, which is just another form of human aggression, takeover, and control) – all of these forms have been doing this, in some evolutionary format, since the dawn of humans on the planet – humans are “born to take” – despite the internal “guilt” instilled by God only knows what, in some cases – each human being has more or less the drive to acquire something.
But that, dear readers, is an entirely different discussion… for a different day.
For now, this tragedy, added to the tragedies of Puerto Rico, and other “destructed places in paradise”, is still unfolding and yet to be understood fully – and will not be for a very long while…
Stay tuned here for more opinions and updates.
