XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.survival, alt.politics.usa
XPost: alt.politics.republicans

Looks like the worst wind damage was not in
Florida but just across the border in
Valdosta GA - which took a direct hit.

Valdosta is a nice town with a long history.
Alas part of that history involves many
of those old 1930s+ un-reinforced brickwork
buildings. A number of those just CAVED IN
from the winds. Brickwork has good compression
strength but CANNOT withstand lateral forces.

Valdosta was NOT entirely prepared according to
some interviewed residents/officials. The storm
core was expected to pass a bit to the west,
but jogged east at the last minute. Even thus,
that doesn't make up for the construction NOT
set up for strong hurricanes.

Beyond Valdosta - IMPRESSIVE flooding from just
east of Atlanta and on up. Ashville NC is now
kinda unreachable - what few roads/bridges did
NOT wash out are now blocked. You'll likely
need a chopper to get there.

This picture repeated across both Carolinas and
even into areas of Tennessee. They were already
flooded and Helene dumped another foot+ on top
of that PLUS tropical-storm winds. The thing
moved SO fast it hung on kinda intact for hundreds
of miles inland. BIG storm.

Weather people suspect ANOTHER storm forming
in the exact same area just south of Mexico.
Florida again, LA, TX ???

As for Florida, the extreme WIND did a fair
amount of damage but the STORM SURGE along
the coast did even MORE. Record levels,
just washed-away/ruined most everything,
even houses on 10' stilts. No, you CAN'T
get/afford insurance in those areas.

The only GOOD thing for Florida, Valdosta
too, is that the storm was moving QUICKLY.
Slow-moving storms get to stress everything
for much LONGER. Even strong structures
eventually give in. I was IN one of those
slow - like ALL NIGHT EYE-WALL - big storms.
Unrooted everything, not even any leaves left
on the trees. Extreme.

Looks like cat-4/5 construction specs are gonna
be needed. We saw this after Andrew down south
of Miami. Gonna have to be the same for ALL
of Florida AND southern Georgia for sure.

NOT sure if LA/MS/AL/TX have implemented such
but they damned better SHOULD. New homes and
biz need to be kinda like pill-boxes - twice
the concrete and steel. Emergency drainage must
be improved. The trend for strong storms has
arrived again so we MUST cope.

THEN they'll kinda go away again for awhile and
BET standards will deteriorate ... human nature.
People kinda only remember the past 20 years at
best. The old "I remember ..." people will be
shit on.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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