5 Year Anniversary Matthew in NC. 92L 30% Still. Hurricane History on Flooding and Various Other Related Issues. Miami & Miami Beach History, Then and Now
30% Yellow lumbers off the coastline....
...in Lumberton NUC today they remember Hurricane Matthew!
Water rescues, people driving into flooded roads and dying.
Matthew made landfall 5 year ago.
Floyd and Florence both flooded the same areas.
There's a long list of reasons flooding is worse now and it's an easy cop out to say "global warming" and dismisses the real problem of global warming with the way communities build, without rules or regulations that would help a bit during natural disasters.
Saying those towns in North Carolina are where poor people live is wrong and it's not an economic nor a ethnic issue as those poor people live in those towns because there is work, often in agriculture, as that part of North Carolina is rich fertile land. River basins, and that is what a good part of that part of Eastern North Carolina is because it is rich land, fertile and filled with the bounty of the land. But when those river valley's fill up with too much torrential rainfall, river levels rise and the water spills out onto the river basin ...a sort of small valley that runs along the river. In Elementary School or maybe Bible Class you learn about the Nile River and how it was the life of that part of Egypt. Early American history is filled with rivers and towns built along the Fall Lines. The article below explains this well and it's a part of history few understand today.
There is also an issue of infrastructure in towns both rich and poor where things such as dams are not properly maintained and where builders are allowed to build wherever they want ignoring the ecosystem and dangers that sort of over population on a barrier island or in a port city can cause down the road as people move into that area and the infrastructure is often stressed and not maintained. It's amazing that as much as we know today, it's as if they old timers knew more in that they lived in concert with the land and when they saw certain areas flooded they either moved away to nearby higher land or they simply picked up and moved away.
Bottom line with demographics is people lived where they could find work or a way to feed their family. Rivers provided transportation to get to the town and ship the produce down the river. Rivers provided fish and jobs; mills had energy and towns formed where there were mills. Small towns formed to provide services to the people near by and service industry jobs sprang up for those who would rather work in a small Dry Good Stores or as a blacksmith vs tilling the land.
Not enough rain brought drought, famine and crop failures. Too much rain brought sudden flooding, death and disaster. It's a not easy balance between the two and some areas can go 20 years before a hurricane brought floods, other cities such as New Bern were hit back to back and I'm sure that played into the decision to move the capital of North Carolina away from the beautiful coastal town that sits where two large rivers flow out towards the not so distant ocean. New Bern has a horrible flooding history mostly from hurricanes, yet the rest of the time it's one of the most beautiful places to live in North Carolina.
And this is why kids who grow up in North Carolina watch the tropics every year to see if a hurricane will spare them and curve out to sea or whether they could be under water from a Floyd, Fran, Florence or Matthew. Yes, the F named storms have been cruel to North Carolina, though Donna and Hazel also brought disaster. The history books, especially locally, are filled with ships that tore at the coast and smashed ships and crews that died watery deaths, towns over run by storm surge and mostly inland flooding along the river basins that fill up with the water coming down and along the gentle or not so gentle rise of the land especially up closer to the foothills. The mountains don't always get away easy on this one as many a hurricane has created damage from flooding from remants that got stuck over a place far inland exacerbated by the rise and fall of the beautiful rolling hills and mountains.
A good meteorologist needs to know geography as well as they need to know computer programming these days. Geography tells the story of what you most have to worry on, depending on where you live. From hurricanes to earthquakes to volcanoes and you can live far away from hurricane country in Iowa and have to worry on tornadoes that often happen there as well as Oklahoma. A hurricane comes and leaves and people rebuild, but the Dust Bowl went on for years and years bringing tears and people packing up to leave somewhere else where they could find work and make money.
I spoke to my son last night in Miami who lives at the foot of the Miami River where it meets the beautiful Biscayne Bay. Years ago my family moved to Miami Beach when I was 17 after growing up always in the suburbs. I had never once in those 17 years heard the term "King Tides" and when I did one weekend when Indian Creek flooded over it's banks and the ocean moved up 41st Street where we often sat staring out at the ocean and moved up towards Collins Avenue. My friends house on Monad Terrace moved all her things up on the tables as she had 3 feet of water in her house waiting for it to subside. Obviously this seemed historic and epic and the local kids all just said "yeah, happens when there's a King Tide" as if that was some football phrase, you know like the King Orange Jamboree Parade or the King of Mardi Gras. They simply would shrug and say "King Tides" as if I knew what they were talking about. Yes, I knew flooding was higher at the full moon and new moon and certain times of year but it was never talked about on the news other than just well "King Tides"
And, yes my son is right it is MUCH WORSE now, but in those days besides the canyon of small hotels that ran along Collins Avenue and a few that were on the bayside of the Beach ... Miami Beach was a small town in all ways the phrase implies. When my brothers got lost my father would run over to Central Hardware (THE hardware store) and the woman who watched the front door would literally come out and tell on my brothers which way they went. She also caught pretty much every kid who ever grew up on Miami Beach shopliftring some candy near the register or some cute screwdriver, and yes she told their parents.
Miami 1960
Miami 2021
1920 Miami Beach.
Cleared, plotted and ready to sell the island living.
Today a bit further UP the road on Miami Beach.
Global Warming, Climate Change are too important of a topic to become a bucket term to use for every flooding disaster from a hurricane or the failure of infrastructure because of often corrupt local government officials to build in concert with the lay of the land and an awareness of natural disasters.
Yes, to my architect son in Miami, now days many are taught about these problems, dangers and growing concerns so that homes are built not to flood, and the fancy project on Monad Terrace has good pumps that pump out the water (into the Bay) and we have gotten better at building and we have sliding glass doors and windows that are said to be strong enough for a Category 5 Hurricane. I know it's hard for me to open that door early in the morning for me to go outside and sip my Nespresso and watch the sunrise over Biscayne Bay.
So that's my rant today on the problem with poorly maintained dams and density and well if you live in a River Valley, a Flood Basin in the Carolinas or Virginia you may have to deal with a flood from a hurricane like Matthew or Florence or Floyd.
Today there is no Category 3 or 5 hurricane headed into any area on our side of the world, though the Pacific where a nuclear submarine recently hit something underground is trying to make it's way towards Guam for repairs. It's a busy Pacific and a generally quiet Atlantic, though that may change as we move deeper into October if Mother Nature has a Trick not a Treat for Halloween.
Turn the world around......
.....storms in the Pacific....
Mother Nature always partying somewhere!
Thanks for reading, if you are still reading.
Excuse me for not spell checking carefully, trying to rest my eyes today and just write and go with the flow.
Hopefully my challah dough rose as I'm baking challah this week for Shabbos. Enjoying the cooler temperatures from the overcast skies and rain is on the way.
Learn about the history of where you live, the good, the bad and the ugly. Know how to prepare for it and enjoy it when it's a beautiful day in your neighborhood.
Knowledge is power!
Besos BobbiStorn
@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram
Ps... if Invest 92L does something today unexpected I'll update the blog. Again the Atlantic may produce a tropical wave that may develop into a hurricane in a week or less as we move towards the mid part of next week. The SW Caribbean could produce a hurricane trying to find it's way North. Enjoy the quiet while you got it and I'll take a cloudy, rainy day if it keeps the temperatures down and allows the leaves to slowly turn one by one various shades of color in the Carolinas.
A good video as it reminds you it's not about just one hurricane, but patterns and problems that repeat when you live in hurricane country.
Floyd, Matthew, Florence and the list goes on and on when you research hurricane history.
posted by BobbiStorm @ 8:20 AM
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