Post 660 - October 9, 2024

Hurricane Milton is churning through the Gulf on its inexorable path into Tampa Bay. It’s already one of the most powerful storms in recorded history. Mathematically, it is reaching the highest point scientists believe is possible given the parameters of our planet’s atmosphere.

Other words for inexorable would be relentless, unstoppable, unavoidable, inescapable, and inevitable.

You can also use that word to describe people's actions. In that case, similar words for inexorable would be intransigent, unbending, unyielding, inflexible, and unswerving.

I have never seen so many people facing an oncoming storm with this much terror. Were people this scared in advance of Katrina? Newscasters are choking up while they are reporting on the storm and its progress. Its magnitude is almost beyond comprehension.

If Milton isn’t the perfect analogy for this coming election, I don’t know what is.

The hurricane has pushed all other news off our front pages and shoved everything else not directly connected to the weather further down into our feeds.

I’m aware that the Vice President has been giving interviews to outlets like 60 Minutes and, also to, of all people, Howard Stern. Beyond the fact that she seems to have come through each of them without having seriously misspoken, I haven’t paid much attention.

The former-President along with many other members of the Republican party have decided that the best they can do about the upcoming storm is to lie about it. They’ve shifted their disinformation machine into overdrive and are spewing out untruths about the Federal government’s response to the victims of last week’s hurricane faster than they can make them up. Those lies are hampering efforts to give victims the help they need, not helping them.

There is a long list of Republicans in Congress and in the Senate who voted against increasing FEMA’s funding. It doesn’t matter that the states directly impacted by these monster storms are largely their own right-leaning constituents. Mass death and destruction is a valuable political tool that the Republicans are looking forward to exploiting. They seem to be almost salivating at the prospect.

Milton feels different from past hurricanes. In the same way, this election feels different from past elections. Whatever happens after both events is likely going to be significant and probably surprising. How things will change remains to be seen. After all, nobody ever expected Asheville, North Carolina to become the poster child for the victims of Hurricane Helene.

The former president has said that nobody will ever need to vote again after this upcoming election if he wins. Should the Democrats win, however, something is going to have to change in our electoral process. We can’t go through this same thing every two years. It’s too exhausting and too stress-inducing. I’m not sure how much of this we are built to withstand.

We are all complicit in these disasters.

Hurricane Milton is feeding off the warmed-up water in the Gulf of Mexico. Our burning of fossil fuels is likely a major contributing factor in that temperature rise. The election? We’ve brought that upon ourselves. While I am sure we have been subjected to interference from outside agents, we need to look in the mirror before we assign blame for what we are seeing.

In Bob Woodward’s new book, he reveals that the former President secretly sent COVID tests and supplies to Vladimir Putin in Russia during the pandemic. This was at a time when American citizens were unable to get them ourselves. In the past, just that tiny revelation would have been enough to derail a candidacy. Today, nobody’s noticed.  Oh, there’s been a meme or two about it but it’s already become just another thing added to an ever-growing list that stretches so far off into the distance, its end will never be seen.

The waiting is interminable.

There is a remarkable book by Nevil Shute called On the Beach. It was written in 1957 and made into a movie in 1959.

In the story, World War III has wiped out most of the world, but Australia has survived. Even though they weren’t directly attacked, the radioactive fallout is moving south toward them. They know it’s coming, and they know there’s nothing they can do about it. All they can do is wait.

Where Milton comes ashore in Florida is going to determine which areas survive and which are decimated. Because of its clockwise rotation, the worst destruction is likely to be from the right side or to the area below it. While it was originally headed directly for Tampa, it now appears to have changed course slightly. Now it is heading a bit more to the south. It is impossible to tell until it hits land, but if it stays on this new course, Tampa may escape the full brunt. Sarasota, however, will then have to deal with it.

There are three major things to contend with in a storm this size: rain, wind, and storm surge. A foot of rain is expected to precede the storm which will cause flooding. I’ve been watching AI models of what the wind and the surge will do. It’s horrifying.

In one animated video, a person is standing in front of a house describing the effects of the wind in each category of destruction. In a category one storm, shingles get blown off. With a two, more of the same and windows can get blown in. It keeps escalating until roofs blow off. On top of that, all the debris on the ground from Hurricane Helene is going to become airborne projectiles.

Seeing it happen was far more impactful than just hearing about it. I’ve always thought it would be kind of cool to ride out a hurricane. After seeing these videos, I’ve changed my mind.

In another filmed simulation, the effects of storm surges at different levels are described. At three feet, water fills yards and renders vehicles inoperable. At six feet, entire lower levels of houses are flooded. At nine feet? Cars, trees, and other huge pieces of debris are carried along that slam into houses and destroy them. That’s at nine feet. With Milton, they are saying that there could be twelve to fifteen feet of surges in some areas.

Milton is going to do what Milton is going to do. I hope that most people have been able to evacuate, but I also know that plenty of people believe that they can hunker down and ride it out.

The election is also now going to be what the election is going to be.

It won’t be until the last moments of either that we will know what the outcome is going to be. Last-minute changes, even small ones are going to affect the final results.

We can’t stop Milton. He is on his way. The election, though? That we can still do something about. Maybe not much as individuals, but each small positive change adds up.

Stop reading the polls. Stop reading articles about who certain demographics of people are going to vote for. They are just being written to fire you up. Put the papers down and change the channel on your TV.

There are people in Milton’s path who are not going to be able to get out of his way. We can all get out of the way of this election by simply walking down to our nearest polling stations and casting a vote for the world we want to live in.

Vote.

Who knows what is going to happen afterward? Whatever it is that we are fixating on now, is probably not what we are going to be dealing with later. Asheville, North Carolina is a perfect illustration of that.

Let’s get ready to help the people who are going to be impacted by Hurricane Milton. Red or blue, they are all going to need assistance. Let’s not politicize the disaster any more than it already has been.

Up here on the Atlantic seaboard, it is another beautiful fall day. Let’s all get out into it and recharge our batteries. We should all be as healthy and calm as we can possibly be over these next few days and weeks.

Life will go on. There will be other disasters to face. That’s just inevitable. Let’s change the things we can and calmly deal with the things we can’t.

In the end, what else can we do?