Flooding in NC, Sunshine in Miami

This excellently explains the flooding problem in Raleigh.

Many people have asked me if I am okay with regard to the flooding in the Raleigh area this week. Yes, actually I'm fine as it relates to the flooding as I am in Florida dealing with a family health crisis. My kids are fine, but my father-in-law and mother-in-law both require some up close and personal attention on different levels. So, if I am not around much and writing as much as I normally do that's why. I'm also visiting with my kids and some of my friends and working on a project on Miami History.

The truth is Raleigh, in particular, is a very screwed up city in many ways. I'd say numerous, but that would be redundant. It's a great place to get a lot of bang for your buck in that you can have a nice house for pennies on the dollar compared to other places to live. The winters are not as bad and if you like the seasons.......... it's a good place to live. It has an awful infrastructure. You get what you pay for........

Most neighborhoods do not have sidewalks, many big streets do not have street lights and in an area heavily wooded it gets really dark without street lights. It is one of the most heavily taxed cities in the South, yet you don't get much for what you give in to the bucket. Well, I'd say the money goes to the local colleges, sports teams perhaps... hard to say. When you pay city, state and federal taxes you'd think you could get sidewalks, streetlights and work on the drainage problem. Spoiler alert they blame the Yankees for coming to town for tech jobs and clogging up everything. Get a plunger seriously...........this is not rocket science.

The area has a topography that is problematic when it rains or snows or the roads ice over. It's the Piedmont, the area between the beautiful sea and the mountains where the land begins to rise depending on the street you live. There was once a vibrant river with towns that was damned up... flooded to make a lake and to control the floodplain, etc. They made the lakes yet they messed up with the "controlling the floodplain" area part.

Further inland you go the more complex the terrain is...

...especially messy when it rains.

When the drains are clogged messier.

I was told when I first went to Raleigh there is a battle between the people who want to keep it Mayberry and the people who want it to be a beacon of the New South. It's messy. On good days it's a great place to live if you want a nice house in a nice area with little crime (that's changing) and good jobs. Between the every other year or so flooding of Crabtree Creek and a possible hurricane or yearly battles with winter storms which is a problem when they advertise themselves that they don't get winter (they do) it's not that rare. It won't be solved until they figure out a way to solve it but like waiting for the snow to melt rather than plow the streets for a week, they just wait for the water to recede.

I'm in Miami. Blue skies, fresh air. 

Kind of ironic that when I'm in Raleigh they wax poetic about how stupid it is to live down by the coast because of global warming and remind me that Miami is going to be under water. Yet, Miami builds for rising water and storm surge and Raleigh (far inland) is always flooding. Hmnnn....

Purple dots come and go these days in the Atlantic and there is possible development down in the Caribbean or the EPAC in the beginning of May. I'll go long on discussion on the tropics in a day or two after the models battle it out and we see how it really is evolving.

For now... stay well, smile, laugh often and I'll be back when time permits.

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter