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takyon: Florence is currently expected to make landfall in North Carolina during the early morning or afternoon on Friday. There have been mandatory evacuation orders, but they may be widely ignored.
A category 2 (formerly category 4) hurricane named "Florence" is heading for the eastern coast of the US. This being around the midpoint of the hurricane season, that's not unusual. This hurricane is, however, expected to make landfall much further north than is usual: near the border between the states of North Carolina and South Carolina. As you may recall, Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, Texas last year with many areas receiving over 40 inches of rain (peak total was 60 inches) over a four-day period. Florence is similar in that there is a high pressure ridge just north of the point of landfall. It is anticipated that this will keep Florence part way over the ocean (picking up additional moisture) and part way over land (dumping copious amounts of rain).
Hurricanes cause damage in three ways: wind damage, storm surge, and rain (flooding).
Let's start with the wind. Recent readings (according to Wikipedia): sustained winds 110 knots (120 mph; 205 km/h) (1-min mean) gusting to 140 knots (150 mph; 250 km/h). (Aerodynamic drag is proportional to the square of the wind velocity. Stick your arm straight out the window of a vehicle travelling at 60 mph. Now take that force and double it. And then double it again. Now imagine that force being applied against something the size of a building. Widespread structural damage is likely.
Next, there's the Storm Surge which "is produced by water being pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds moving cyclonically around the storm." This would be above and beyond the normal tides for the area. For this storm, Scientists say Hurricane Florence could produce historic storm surge of up to 20 feet (~12 meters). To provide some perspective, tides around Myrtle Beach (near the northern-most part of South Carolina) usually has tides of up to 2.5 feet (0.75 meters). In short, flooding at the coast will be of historic proportions.
And then on to the rain. Expected rainfall totals over a period of four days generally range up to 20 inches — with 30 inches being possible in isolated locations. The general area has already had steady rains over recent weeks saturating the soil. Most of the rainfall will, therefore, not be absorbed by the soil but will instead just run downstream. In the mountains and hills away from the coast are a great many valleys which will further funnel the water and produce major flooding. It gets worse. Tree roots in waterlogged soil will likely give way under the onslaught of the rain and wind; many of which will fall on power lines. Power outages of several days or even over a week can be expected. Temperatures in the area vary around 70-90°F (21-32°C) so expect much food spoilage when refrigerators stop running.
Further complicating things, Hurricane Florence's risks include toxic sludge and lagoons of pig manure. In 2014, about 39,000 tons of coal ash spilled in from a pond near Eden, North Carolina. As of August 2017, Duke Energy had 31 coal ash basins in North Carolina which contained about 111 million tons of coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal to generate electricity. It contains metals including arsenic, chromium, and mercury. The extreme rainfall could cause some ash ponds to overflow and send their toxic waste downstream.
North Carolina is a top producer of turkey, chicken, and hogs. More than 10 billion pounds of wet animal waste is produced annually in the state and is held in lagoons because it's generally considered a safe way to store the manure before it's used to aid crops. Though most lagoons will likely survive the storm intact, there will certainly be some which overflow sending their "aromatic essence" downstream.
Links:
National Hurricane Center
NYT: Hurricane Florence's Path: Category 2 Storm Closes In on Carolina Coast
Ars Technica 2018-09-13: Florence is now “only” a Category 2 hurricane. That won’t matter much
Ars Technica 2018-09-12: The Hurricane Florence forecast has gone from bad to worse
Ars Technica 2018-09-10: Hurricane Florence represents a grave threat to the East Coast
CBS News: Hurricane Florence closes in on Carolinas, Virginia – live updates
Washington Post Hurricane Florence charges toward Carolinas with ‘potential for unbelievable damage’
Wikipedia entry on Hurricane Florence
GOES-East Satellite Loop
Earth.nullschool.net: earth :: a global map of wind, weather, and ocean conditions
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 13 2018, @06:11PM (7 children)
Calling it "whataboutism" glibly dismisses the markedly different coverage of two comparable events, natural disasters, despite similar levels of dysfunction and ham-fisted photo ops.
Meanwhile, the relief supplies did reach Puerto Rico. The federal government did its part. The stuff was sitting on the docks. What more do the feds do then, wave a magic wand and un-damage the roads and right the power lines? That never happens anywhere. The feds release disaster funds, and the locals are then to use them to get things back to rights. Are there none in Puerto Rico who know how to do that?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @07:11PM (2 children)
When the left do it it's "inconvenient truths" or "speaking the truth to power" or "uncovering corruption and hypocrisy".
When anyone tells them inconvenient truths, or lends perspectives, or illustrates hypocrisy, it's "whataboutism".
Anyone slinging that term about can be pretty much as safely ignored as anybody who talks about their god hating fags. It's a sign of angry fringe mentality.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 13 2018, @07:22PM (1 child)
When anyone tells them inconvenient truths, or lends perspectives, or illustrates hypocrisy, it's "whataboutism".
No, it's whatboutism when you compare, say, something a federal agency does under the direction of a sitting President. To, say, something a citizen does as part of his own private charity.
Which, for the record, is what just happened.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 14 2018, @01:09AM
No, it's actually not what just happened. We're not talking about a random private citizen, but a former president of the US. In fact we're talking about two former presidents of the US, because Bill Clinton did the Haiti gig in tandem with George W. Bush. Furthermore, those two are not random, disinterested former presidents of the US, either, because Bill's wife Hillary was Secretary of State of the US at the time, in the administration of a president whom they were deeply meshed with as former primary rivals and fellow leaders of the Democratic party.
I can tell you for a fact that Obama was not a presence in that disaster in Haiti, and Bill Clinton was effectively president of the US with respect to it. That is, FEMA, the State Department, and all the rest were taking their lead from him.
So your distinction is only technically true, but not effectively so.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 13 2018, @07:18PM (3 children)
What more do the feds do then, wave a magic wand and un-damage the roads and right the power lines?
I think the feds, as an agency are supposed to manage the emergency. But who knows, I'm just spitballing here...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @07:56PM
Well yeah but where are we gonna get the funding for the ICE concentration camps?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @09:05PM
Public Policy. She was telling me about fema and Katrina. I had/have little knowledge on the subject, but it appears in these discussions often.
Anyway, she said katrina happened in the middle of a giant reorgaization after 9/11 and there were so many different agencies involved that no one could figure out who was in charge of what as people's roles were not solidly defined at that point (kinda like when you have 8 bosses). Perhaps something similar. Logistics is hard.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 13 2018, @11:53PM
They did, though. Getting supplies there and releasing disaster relief is the feds' piece of the puzzle. Distributing the supplies is on the state (or commonwealth in this case) to do. Local crews clear the roads and restore power under contracts funded by the federal disaster relief money, and managed by the state. That's how it was in NYC after hurricane sandy, because i bid on a couple.
In america, immediate disaster supplies and evacuations are done by first responders and national guard. All that is under the state and local jurisdiction. If they didn't do that in puerto rico, that's on them.
Washington DC delenda est.