Hurricane Florence Statistics and Facts

As of 11 am (MDT), Tropical Storm Florence is located at 33.6° N, 79.6° W, or 40 miles west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  Florence is currently moving to the west at 2 miles per hour, with winds at 45 miles per hour.  As she moves inland, 40 inches of rain are expected to fall within her path.
   Florence's diameter is 400 miles - she is larger than the country of Paraguay, smaller than Iraq, and about 4 times the size of the state of Ohio.
   River flooding is expected to hit at 17 feet above normal.
   About 2 million people live inside the current evacuation zones.
   About 5.5 million people live in areas that will be affected by Florence.
   Projected damage costs from Florence will probably exceed $30 billion.
   Insurance is hoped to cover $15 to $20 billion of those estimated damages.
   $10 million was recently diverted from FEMA funds to pay for ICE detention centers and deportation efforts against asylum seekers and their children by the current White House administration.
   1,000 commercial airline flights have been canceled, and quite a few more are expecting to be canceled due to the storm.
   Since 1950, four hurricanes of category 3 strength have made landfall on the Atlantic coast between Norfolk, Virginia and Savannah, Georgia.
   The deaths of five people have been confirmed due to Florence.  The storm's powerful winds were the cause of the confirmed deaths. In Wilmington, a tree was blown into a home; a woman and her infant child were killed, while the husband (and father) was transported to the hospital with injuries. The third death occurred in Pender County when a woman suffered a fatal heart attack and first responders could not reach her location due to storm debris in and on the roads.  Two deaths were confirmed in Kinston in Lenoir County, also, according to the County Emergency Services Director, Roger Dail.  A 78-year-old man was electrocuted while trying to connect extension cords outside in the storm.  A 77-year-old man's body was found by his family at 8 am on Friday; he had gone outside to check on his hunting dogs, and apparently was blown down by the wind.
  Additionally a fatality was reported at West Brunswick High School in Shallotte, North Carolina.  The school is being used as an evacuation shelter, and the cause of death and/or it's relationship to Florence is unknown.  A teenager was reported seriously injured when a tree limb fell on both him and his father in Laurinburg, NC on Friday.

    Friday night, the Carteret County Humane Society said floodwaters were entering the kennel area and its roof was collapsing.  The shelter was seeking help to evacuate 123 dogs and cats, according to shelter manager Cassandra Tupaj.  At 7:15 am (EDT) Friday, Florence made landfall at Wrightsville Beach with 90 mph winds, heavy surf, and torrential rain that triggered flooding and knocked down trees and power lines.  Tom Ballance, a New Bern resident and restaurant owner who rode out several previous hurricanes, says he desperately wishes he would've evacuated as he watched the waves crash on the Neuse River right outside his home.  "I feel like the dumbest human being who ever walked the face of the Earth, " Ballance told the Associated Press.
   Some 100 people were still awaiting rescue this morning in New Bern, but nearly 400 had already been rescued, according to a local official.  New Bern, which has a population of about 30,000, saw significant storm surge flooding after the Neuse River overflowed its banks and swept through the town.
   Officials in Harnett County issued a mandatory evacuation for areas along the Lower Little River.  Authorities went door-to-door this morning, telling residents to get out ahead of the river's expected rise, which could crest at 17 feet above flood stage.  It wasn't immediately clear how many residents this evacuation order impacted.
   In Wilmington, Interstate 40 was closed in both directions today because the road was impassable.  Police urged residents to stay away from areas under mandatory evacuations.
   Across the state, more than 800,000 homes and businesses were without power, North Carolina Emergency Management said.

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At home, on Chincoteague and Assateague Islands in Virginia and Maryland, it's 76 degrees with a 40% chance of rain.  Rip tides are occurring off the coast, and a coastal flood watch is in effect.

In Boulder, Colorado it's 84 degrees, with 18% humidity; bright and sunny with no cloud cover.  We're under a Red Flag warning for wildfire conditions.

This And That..... Miscellany

With the edges of Hurricane Florence beginning to whip up the waters of South Carolina, my thoughts are with the folks who will be on the front lines when the areas re-open.  Right now, South Carolina is taking the first hits, while the winds will soon impact North Carolina, Georgia, the southern parts of Virginia around the Chesapeake Bay, and possibly all the way down to Daytona beach in Florida.  Florence is a huge storm, and even though she's only a Category 2  at this time, she will probably cause trillions of dollars of damage.
   I was worried about my beloved islands of Chincoteague and Assateague on the Eastern Shore of Virginia (and Maryland) - but it looks like they'll just receive the effects of a really nasty and long-lasting nor'easter.  The folks along the coast lines of the Carolinas, however, are in for a beating from the winds, and a drowning from rains and storm surge.  I feel for those who had to leave their homes, but that is one of the downsides of coastal living.  (Having been in Florida for 38 years, I know what I'm talking/writing about.)

    Last year, Hurricane Maria crashed through the US Territory of Puerto Rico.  Immediately after the storm, the number of dead caused by Maria was listed at 64.  As time has passed, and people have been questioned about health care and the aftermath of Maria, it turned out that the number of deaths related to Maria came to a total of 2,975.  This included those who died from heat prostration, from dehydration, from starvation, from filthy and impure drinking water, from not receiving medical care, etc.  -  And one of the latest finds was 20,000 pallets full of bottled water that have been lost for over a year - laying under tarpaulins where they were deposited, and sitting there while people died.
  Yesterday, as Hurricane Florence approached the United States, the current President denied this had happened.  He tweeted, "3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000."
  The President is refuting studies done by the US government and US universities.

Here in Boulder, a resident can tell that it's fall.  The leaves are changing colors early this year; a lot of juvenile mountain lions are on the move, leaving mom and siblings, and staking out their own territories; and our local population of black bears are raiding garbage cans and cars that have food left inside them.  I live in what is considered "downtown" North Boulder - it's on US 36, the main road from Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park.  A couple of weeks ago, a young (but adult) mountain lion was tranquilized and moved to RMNP from beneath the deck of a house 1/8 mile from US 36, and a couple of blocks from our apartment.  Earlier this week, a friend called to say she had seen a black bear opening trash cans 10 blocks from my apartment, and 6 blocks from her house.  The bears need to consume 15,000 to 20,000 calories per day to hibernate successfully.  And two elementary schools were placed on lock-down due to  the presence of a mother bear and three cubs in there vicinity for a full school day.

Two days ago, Bob Woodward's new book, Fear, was released for sale.  In it, Woodward details a conversation between former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and the 45th President.  They were discussing rising interest rates, the deficit, and the national debt, to which the President offered an interesting solution: "We should just go borrow a lot of money, hold it, and then sell it to make money," the book quotes the President.  Cohn told Woodward that he was "astounded" at the President's "lack of basic understanding" about how the government works, and what borrowing would mean.  When Cohn told the President that wouldn't work, the President came up with an alternative resolution - "Just run the presses," the President told him.  "Print money."  Gary Cohn again tried to explain the basics of debt, inflation, the stock market, and the debt ceiling worked, but the President just kept saying that he should print more money.  Woodward wrote "it was clear that" the President "did not understand the way the US government debt cycle balance sheet worked."
   But this really isn't news.  In May 2016, when the President was running for office, he told CNN's Chris Cuomo, "People said I want to go and buy debt and default on debt, and I mean, these people are crazy. This is the United States government.  First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK?" 
   Yes, it has been announced that the US will have a $21 trillion national debt at then end of this fiscal year, and not 2020, as previously believed.  But the President believes we can just borrow our way out of debt and then just print more money when he needs it....
   And, with Hurricane Florence about to strike the shore, and with all those other lovely hurricanes lined up behind her, I can't wait to see what this man, who stated, "I, alone, can help you," will do.  Not much, I think.

    It seems that there might be a hold-up in Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court bid...  He has been, apparently, accused of unwanted sexual advances....  The FBI has been asked to investigate, and the voting on his SCOTUS seat has been postponed for a week.

   And it was also announced by ABC News that it appears that Paul Manafort has reached a plea deal with prosecutors in his second trial -  this one for 7 felony accounts including lobbying for a foreign country, not being registered as an agent for a foreign country and tampering with witnesses.  ABC stated that it is believed that the plea deal will be announced tomorrow in the Washington DC court.  At this time it is unknown whether he is just pleading guilty to the charges, or if he will assist Robert Mueller's Special Investigation to keep from spending so much time in jail.  (He is 69 years old.)