Sandy's Aftermath... Do Not Tell Me I Can't Live Near The Water...

Nothing going on in the Tropics today, I know because I checked Mike's Weather Page and saw nothing going on tropically speaking... just the ongoing images of the quiet tropics and the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that affected a quarter of the country when all was said and done.. the NE quarter to be specific.

That's my routine every day during the Hurricane Season..

I check the models and the satellite loops

then I check the NHC...

sometimes I check the weather discussion boards

then I check Facebook and Twitter 

and then I do my email.. 

and today I put on the TWC rather than Morning Joe

bad decision.........

I am a little annoyed this morning about what I heard on TWC.. Okay, a lot annoyed. So, please bear with me as I take a pause from discussing the clean up and recovery after Sandy and talk a bit about my life growing up in Florida by the water and how much that life style meant to me and means to me today. It's heart breaking to see the loss of life and the utter devastation that Mother Nature can cause when she goes on a rampage. But, I understand why people lived on Breezy Point and on the Jersey Shore and the sanctimonious, judgemental comments I have heard about why they chose to live so close to the water really annoys me.. upsets me and I'm ranting a bit this morning so bear with me and in the process you'll learn a little bit about Miami Beach History..

TWC did a segment this morning with Michael Lowry their hurricane specialist talking about Global Warming and the effect Global Warming will have on Hurricanes. He seems an expert on this and is SURE that we will now have storms like Sandy EVERY year or almost every year and therefore we really need to rethink rebuilding on the water and possibly have government intervention to stop people from living on the water.

Nice... now he is the new Miss Cleo. And, based on his hypothesis ... we should not rebuild any city on the water that might be affected by floods.

Where was he after the Johnstown Flood?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnstown_Flood

I imagine if he was around years ago he would have outlawed building near Rivers because of the increased density of population along Rivers and potential disasters and well 1888 was a bad year weather wise so maybe it was the start of Global Warming?

Maybe we should have outlawed building in Oklahoma after the Dust Bowl in 1935?

Maybe we should have outlawed building in Miami after the 1926 Hurricane which was before Global Warming.

Really glad they didn't decide to outlaw rebuilding on Miami Beach after 1926, because I really liked growing up on Miami Beach. Especially since 1926 was a really bad, wicked year for landfalling hurricanes in those ancient days before Global Warning. Then again.. many bible thumpers did warn that it was the wrath of God for women wearing those skimpy bathing suits on South Beach ...

The A is approximately where I lived for many, many years and loved every minute of it. Even on bad, crummy, sucky days ...you could walk over to the water...stare out, smile and watch the waves. It is one of those places that is truly paradise on Earth. Don't tell me we shouldn't live by the water. Don't tell me how you to live...or where to live...  

Don't tell people in St. Pete and Tampa that they should not build near the water and give up watching the sunset on a walk for 365 days a year for years ... because one year or maybe two years because of GW in their lifetimes they may have a hurricane...

My great grandfather lived in a big house by the water with a water front porch where he sat every night, according to family legend and watched the sun set ....and I obviously inherited that love of sunset and sunrise from him and I'm not interested in giving it up because of government intervention on fears of Global Warming.

Before that he lived on Key West in the middle of the Ocean, just north of Cuba.

Look at the map above.. my family ALWAYS lived by the water for over 4 generations and I do not believe in the Global Warming that is being shoved down our throats with the need to tell me where I can live or my kids can live years from now. If places continually flood, God Forbid, people will stop living there and move inland or up the coast. That is the way the world works.. And, I doubt seriousy that we should move America's playground of the "Redneck Riviera" and the crazy world of Key West and Mixed up Miami to some place safe up north or out west ....if they can find a place that has no floods, no twisters and no forest fires. Get back to me when you can figure out where it is safe to live.

I know Atlantic City, my mother talked endlessly about it and her life there as a small child. My Aunt was glad to say goodbye and be in Miami, though she never liked the beach. Her husband, my uncle grew up fishing on the McArthur Causeway, playing basketball with friends on Miami Beach before he went back to the mainland. My cousin and I spent summers growing up at the hotels on summer specials, back before the South American's found Miami and made it there Winter Getaway during our Summer time. The Seville Hotel, Deauville and the arcade across the street and the Fountainblue were our private getaways. When we were bored and needed to go play pinball.. as if anyone NEEDS to play pinball we went over to the Fountainblue and scared the tourists away and took over the machines.

Life growing up in Miami Beach by the water was and is beautiful.. 

We didn't always live down south.. for a few brief years we lived "up north" but that didn't last long, but even then it was by the water.

My grandmother married someone and moved up to Atlantic City where they lived and had a cigar store on the Boardwalk for a while... she missed "Down South" and living where it was warm and sunny and she missed Florida so they packed up and moved back to South Florida where my grandfather worked his way through the building boom of the 1930s. A side note here to history... during the GREAT DEPRESSION when no one had jobs... people had jobs in Miami Beach, because there was a Mini-Boom on South Beach as hotels were being built and homes where being built because people LIKE living near the water.

And, then she was home and never left. She lived in the Roads Section of Miami, between the river and the Bay. When my grandfather build their home there were jack rabbits and colorful birds roaming around her yard. And, at the end of the day they would go walk or drive down 15th Road to the Bay and ....watch the sunset. My Aunt lived there for most of her life... over 60 years easy and I grew up there before  my mother moved around to the suburbs being built out in the Glades past Coral Gables before she moved us all to Miami Beach again where my grandfather first lived and had a job in construction.

These icons of South Beach were built while the rest of America was suffering through the depression.

Think about it... 

.... Less than 10 years after Miami Beach went through the 1926 Hurricane...

My grandfather was a carpenter by trade, his first job on Miami Beach was working on that dome. 

For years it was a small Jewish Synagogue... now it's a store.

It's less than 2 blocks from the ocean..low to the ground...

It has been there since the mid 1930s...

because people wanted to live near the water..

They did then...

.....they do now

and he went on to build homes and go into the construction business

on Palm Island, Miami Beach, Miami, North Miami ...all over Miami

People like living by the water.. do not take that away from them 

because of Hurricanes.. for every person who loves the water

others love the mountains or the rivers

each has it's own possible someday disaster..

I am a crazy mess of political beliefs.. I don't fit into any one party..

Okay.. I lived on South Beach and in LA for many years

(an ocean front city where I worried on Earthquakes and Santana Winds)

I believe in freedom and less government regulations.. 

such as telling me where I can or can't live..

I also believe the government should help the needy...

and, we should continue Space Exploration..

and people should have freedom of speech

of religion

and how and where to live our lives...

I'll choose the water view any time.. and if I be by a water view 

I'm not living there...

Global Warming or no Global Warming...

If we have to do anything we need as Stephanie Abrams said after his on air rant ..

we need to build better... stronger

more in concert with the needs of the times

Just as long as you don't tell me I can't live by the water...

Besos Bobbi

A writer who loves the water..

A good read on Miami Beach ...

http://djhuppatz.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

Ps.. Mike lives on the West Coast of Florida.. relatively near the water.. I don't think he wants to move to Idaho to escape a possible storm surge... best way to deal with living by the water is to stay informed and learn how to prepare for a hurricane. Unlike Earthquake and Twisters you have a bit more heads up.. more and more every day..