General Chat

Apparently a huge hurricane is heading for the east coast of the USA.

Aptly named after me...lol Well I don't do things by halves, head strong and straight in at the deep end .Always make an entrance and once seen never forgotten. Yep that's me....


More seriously though, this is a big one as thousands are being evacuated. Think its gonna be a Cat 5...so loss of life imminent.
Hope they manage to get to places of safety in time. must be really scary to experience it.

Florence in the hebrides

Sad to say some will not leave no matter what. Thank goodness there are better warnings now can you imagine a hundred years or so ago it would pretty much just hit them no warning.

It's due to land on Thursday somewhere along the coast of South or North Carolina.

There's 2 more forming out in the Atlantic, one looks as though it will curve towards Africa, the other could be heading for Florida/Gulf of Mexico area.

Trumpoid has already tweeted several times that residents of the Carolinas should heed all the warnings.

Much much more than he did for Puerto Rico last year. Twit that he is!

It must be so frightening to know that such devastation is on it's way. I hope everyone gets to somewhere safe.

Lizx

Noah's Ark.

Oops Liz 9 posts

I hope none of the cats have gone hunting when their owners leave! It must be a worry whether you leave or stay. Risk your life if you stay, looting of your house if you don't. Of course your life is more important, but you must wonder what you will come back to, or if there will be anything left. :-S

Scavengers abound.

I can never understand why they don't use more robust construction methods.
A properly constructed building can easily withstand 130mph winds without more than superficial damage.

Most houses don't get blown away, I think the main problem with this and similar storms will be the storm surges, maybe as much as 20 feet this time and then the rainfall. Windows are the main structural problem then roofs, windows get boarded up.

Rollo ...................

come off it!

You know why they don't build more robust structures


MONEY!!!!!!!!

Most people won't/can't pay the cost of such a house, and more importantly, developers wouldn't get sufficient profit.

Most of the people living along the coast are not extremely wealthy, amny of them are seniors who have retired there, or the people who originally lived along the coast, such as fishermen.

Again though how high up would you build them?!!

One of my rellies, a female and US citizen, died in N.C.
The place did not come over to me as impoverished, far from it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/12/north-carolina-didnt-like-science-on-sea-levels-so-passed-a-law-against-it

Caroline ...............

everyone want live at sea level, and they have been allowed to build at or below sea level for years.


Rollo ..............

I didn't say it was impoverished, although there are many areas of the Carolinas and of Virginia plus all southern states that are indeed impoverished ........ mainly of course the coloured people and the poor whites.

I said people would not, and most probably could not, pay the amount needed to buy a truly hurricane proof house ................ if indeed such a thing is possible ................. and the developers would not make the profit they WANT if they tried it.


I'll add here that driving around several US states, especially in the south, over the last 50 years, I have seen poverty that I would only expect to see in a third country. I never expected to see tar paper shacks, for example. Or signs at the entrance to a village or small town stating that the water was not fit for drinking. Or kiddies with no shoes, and dirty beyond belief.

In the United States of America!

Sylvia

I know you can't build any house to totally miss all weather, my point was Rollo was saying the only problem was the high winds and how easy it was to build stronger to stand up against them :-)

Storm surges if they reach 20 feet will travel far inland so I hate to think of the possible devastation this will bring, add into that all the expected rain.

Literally, batten down the hatches and man the pumps.

Caroline, I was only pointing out that you said how high could you go ................ thinking you meant high above sea level.

Although it is true that lots of houses have been built in the last 50 or years at or below sea level, and at ground level, instead of on higher ground or on stilts as they used to be.

The rest of my comments were for Rollo.

Now estimated at Cat.2, but slow moving and could last for days.

I didn't say it was easy or cheap just that a well constructed building can withstand winds of 130mph without significant damage. There has not been a storm surge of 20ft penetrating miles inland during the last 2000 years.

Throughout the southern US the norm is wooden frame building with plasterboard panels. There may be a decorative brick/stone skin. They offer no resistance to any kind of serious storm. The price in most realtors is far from cheap.

Yes, the USA has some really bad problems for very poor people with Canada not far behind. I didn't post about the life of Jim Crow.

No Rollo obviously time it goes inland it's not 20 feet of water, but it doesn't take 20 feet of water to damage a house. 20 feet drowns people hence people leaving the coastal areas.

Meanwhile, the storm has changed but I still wouldn't want to be there in it.

According to the National Hurricane centre site whilst wind damage will still be a major issue the flooding and surge will be the main issues both inland and on the shore.