First, the good news.
Folks in Florida knew that another major hurricane was heading their way. That, and some out-of-the-box thinking, helped them get ready.
Now, the bad news.
Folks in Florida were still cleaning up after Hurricane Helene, when Hurricane Milton hit.
Cleaning up after this double-header disaster won’t be easy. But there are a few bright spots, which I’ll eventually get around to.
- Topical Twaddle
- Tenants of Tampa Bay
- This May Be the End of Civilization As We Know It
- Wednesday Evening: Hurricane Milton Arrives
- Milton in Context: Numbers and a Little History
- Now What?
Topical Twaddle
There’s still an election looming, so I’ve been seeing more twaddle than I like.
But that’s nothing new. Election season or not, a few of us can be counted on for declarations of doom and gloom. Like this selection, from about a decade back:
- “Jennifer Lawrence calls hurricanes ‘Mother Nature’s rage and wrath’” The actress discussed connections between her new film ‘mother!’ and current chaos Christian Holub, Entertainment Weekly (September 8, 2017)
- “Forget ‘saving the Earth’ – it’s an angry beast that we’ve awoken ” Clive Hamilton, The Conversation (May 27, 2014)
- “Katrina: God’s Judgment on America” Anonymous, Restore America, via beliefnet (2005)
The Usual Doom, Gloom, and Politics
About that last item — “…God’s Judgment on America” — sure enough, someone’s making the usual claims about God’s wrath and the current calamitous crisis. This one’s coming from a different quarter, but the sentiment is all too familiar:
- “Hurricane Helene brings God’s Wrath on America, affecting 11 states and killing dozens”
Anisah Muhammad, The Final Call (September 30, 2024)
Hurricane Milton wasn’t more than a “disturbance” when that op-ed popped up, so I can’t fault the author for missing the ‘double feature’ angle.
The headline’s “killing dozens” may either be masterful understatement, journalistic caution, or something completely different.
Helene’s death toll is much worse: well upwards of 200, with at least that many folks still missing as I write this.
Many of Helene’s victims weren’t in Florida.
North Carolina got hit hard, mostly in the state’s western Appalachian region.
Some of the twaddle I mentioned earlier involves where Helene’s rain fell. Apparently the storm’s involved in some sort of conspiracy. Allegedly.1
Now, about God’s alleged wrath.
I’m a Christian. But I’m not the sort of Christian who sees God’s wrath — directed at ‘those sinners over there’ — in every storm. I’ve spent the bulk of my life in the Upper Midwest, and that’s almost another topic.
Basically, I think God does not have anger management issues. I also think storms happen: and that part of our job is dealing with them. Maybe even planning ahead.
“Up, Up and Away”: Weather Modification and the Montgolfier Brothers
Helene MIGHT be the tool of some mysteriously malevolent campaigning conspiracy — but I seriously doubt it.
Weather modification is real; and has been possible, in a limited way, since around the mid-20th century.
But diabolical masterminds, aiming a storm at America’s Last Hope? That’s more what I’d expect from Ming the Merciless, malevolent monarch of Mongo.
On the other hand, there was a time when it looked like we were on the threshold of a world with no storms, gentle rains coming at exactly the right time, with blue skies and buttercups every summer weekend.
Then researchers modified a storm, which destroyed more than 1,335 homes and killed 238 people.
That was in the summer of 1972. As I recall, the courts eventually decided that there wasn’t enough evidence linking the experiment to the deaths and destruction.
But I very strongly suspect that the 1972 Black Hills flood, and memories of the 1947 Cape Sable Hurricane, put a severe crimp in those shining hopes for large-scale and reliable weather modification.
Comparing weather modification’s current status to aviation technology, I’d say we’re a little past the Montgolfier brothers’ balloon: but not by all that much.2
Tenants of Tampa Bay
Folks were living around what we call Tampa Bay at least as far back as the days when other folks were installing those huge sarsen blocks at Stonehenge.
Tampa Bay background, briefly:
- Several as-yet-unlabeled cultures
ca. 7000 B.C. – ca. 500 B.C. - Manasota culture
500 B.C. – ca. 900 A.D. - Weeden Island culture
500 – 1000 A.D. - Safety Harbor culture
ca. 900 – 1700 A.D.
About a half-millennium back now, the folks living around Tampa Bay convinced explorers that they had no gold (true), but that there was lots of gold north of them (unlikely).
The explorers left, and we think the Tampa Bay residents got sick. Possibly caught something from the explorers. At any rate, there’s a two-century gap when pretty much nobody called Tampa Bay home.
Before 1824, there had been a mound — built by someone, we’re not sure who — with a big hickory tree growing on it, at the mouth of the Hillsborough River. It was on the north side of Hillsborough Bay, where the Tampa Convention Center is now.
The tree, and the mound, are long gone. So are many or most of the other earthwork mounds folks had been building and maintaining in those parts.
The mounds that remain range from maybe a dozen feet to more than 20 feet in height.
Interestingly enough, storm surges in the 1848 Tampa Bay hurricane were about 15 feet high at the mouth of the Hillsborough River. That’s the area’s highest recorded storm surge: the highest since we started keeping such records.
I won’t insist on this, but I suspect that the folks who built those mounds did so partly because they wanted to survive the next big storm.3
This May Be the End of Civilization As We Know It
Leveling those mounds probably made sense during the Florida land boom of the 1920s.
Economic good times seemed like they’d never end, the 1848 storm was history. Folks who hadn’t experienced the 1921 Tampa Bay hurricane were eagerly spending money on their very own tropical paradise.
The 1926 Miami hurricane served as a reality check, and so did the 1929 Wall Street crash.
But when good times rolled around again, folks with tropical dreams came back, and now we’ve got whole neighborhoods built on barrier islands.
Barrier islands are good at absorbing storm-driven waves. And, although they’ll shift around as wind and wave work on them, they’re very durable.
They’re basically sand dunes with the occasional coral reef. And since a barrier island may not be in exactly the same spot it had been before a storm, they’re really bad places to build neighborhoods.
That hasn’t kept folks from building neighborhoods on barrier islands. I can see their appeal: gorgeous views, lovely sand beaches, and maybe the risks aren’t obvious. I hope folks living in municipalities like Venice, Florida, got out in time.4 Or found shelter.
Customary Protocols, Private Citizens, and Pinellas County
I figure just about everyone who understands English and has an Internet connection knows that another hurricane has been heading toward Florida. And that its projected course would bring it very close to Tampa Bay.
That brings me to Pinellas County, part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area. It’s west of Tampa, on the Florida coast, and home to just shy of one million folks.
I can see why the people running Pinellas County need to be perhaps a bit more regimented than we are, out here in central Minnesota.
However, with a major hurricane bearing down on them, folks scrambling to clear debris from Helene, and Florida’s governor signing off on an order to keep landfills open5 — I’d have hoped that whoever was in charge would have shown more good sense.
Even if the some of those who were hauling debris were not the usual persons.
“… ‘When we did the executive order, we said 24/7 debris pickup and being able to have these landfills be open. We did the executive order on Saturday and what happened over the night? It was closed. So what did we do? We cut the locks and we let people bring the debris. Overnight yesterday, what did we have? We had hundreds of cars, not just state vehicles, not just private contractors, we had private citizens loading up their F250s with debris to bring it — that’s helping, that’s a public service for them to do that and the gate was closed and there was no one [redacted] it. So we opened it.’
“DeSantis said they need all hands on deck and that the state has helped to make a huge dent in the debris. But there’s still more work to do.
“‘No bureaucracy, no more red tape, no more excuses about this debris,’ DeSantis said….”
(“‘No bureaucracy, no more red tape, no more excuses’: Governor orders county landfills to open for storm debris” , Kylie McGivern, ABC Action News (October 7, 2024)) (emphasis mine)
Under normal circumstances, I can see how locking a landfill’s gate at the appointed hour makes sense.
But folks in the Tampa Bay area have not been experiencing normal circumstances.
So my sympathies are more for those private citizens who ignored the ‘normal circumstances’ rules, and helped their neighbors anyway. As well as the private contractors, city employees, and everyone else who was lending a hand.
Flamingos and Being Human
An ‘up’ side I’ve seen this week is how many — most, I’m guessing — folks in positions of responsibility have been behaving responsibly.
Take zoos, for example. I gather that most in Florida include metal and concrete ‘bedrooms’ for their critters. The bunkers are part of their enclosure, the animals use them every day, so going inside during a storm isn’t more than a slight break in routine.
Others, like flamingos, normally stay outside.
Folks at Zoo Miami kept their flock safe in a men’s restroom during Hurricane Andrew (1992), Hurricane George (1998), and Hurricane Floyd (1999).
I figure it was a good choice: no windows; tile floor and walls, so cleanup wasn’t a huge problem; and — gross, but practical — after a thorough cleaning, the toilets gave them a water source.
Getting flamingos into a restroom with minimal fuss and stress takes planning.
“… Similarly, the animals need prepping. Flamingos, for instance, live outside and must be moved to hurricane shelters during storms, so several times a year, zookeepers at Palm Beach Zoo, Florida, train the birds to follow them to shelter.
“‘We’re not sure if the flamingos think they are shorter humans or they think that we’re really pale flamingos, but because of that relationship, they want to hang out with us, and so we just ask them to walk with us,’ says Mike Terrell, the zoo’s curator of animal experiences. They practice this regularly by strolling around the zoo on clear days, so when the emergency time comes ‘it’s just part of their day’, he adds. …”
(“‘We’ve used hallways, we’ve used bathrooms’: How zoos protect animals when hurricanes hit” , Sofia Quaglia, BBC Future (October 9, 2024))
Sometimes even the best planning doesn’t keep bad things from happening. That’s been the case before, and it’s a near-certainty that this year’s hurricanes won’t be an exception.
But I see what Florida zookeepers have been doing as an example of folks acting like humans — the way we should behave.6
Making Sense: It’s an Option
Getting back to a Pinellas County landfill, chaos running rampant and anarchy unleashed — I do not see a problem with folks who haven’t received formal authorization through proper channels lending a hand when there’s an imminent disaster bearing down on the county.
Double negative there, but I’ll let it stand.
And I have noticed what could be considered a disturbing trend, regarding unofficial and unsanctioned responses to recent natural disasters.
In many cases, the hoi polloi have been extracting victims from dangerous situations, clearing streets, and aiding their neighbors — without permission, and before the proper authorities and functionaries arrived on the scene.
Some even had the temerity to start hauling supplies to stricken regions.
Now, I realize that well-intentioned folks can cause trouble: slowing or blocking traffic on already-damaged roads, bringing material that can’t be used or stored, maybe even ‘rescuing’ folks who’d have been safer where they were.
But I think folks doing what we can, before the proper authorities can get around to us, is a good idea.
Even if does disturb others, who may sincerely believe that we should sit on our hands until someone comes to make decisions for us.
I’ve talked about making sense when things go wrong before.
“…I figure that whatever happens to me, pleasant or otherwise, what matters most is what I do about the experience. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1704-1707, 1730, 1852-1869) …
“… If I take my faith seriously, I’ll at least try to love my neighbors — and see everyone as a neighbor, no matter who or where they are. (Matthew 5:43–44, 22:36–40, Mark 12:28–31; Luke 10:25–37; Catechism, 1706, 1776, 1825, 1849-1851, 1955)
“I should be promoting truth and justice, contributing to the common good and getting involved as best I can. Acting as if mercy matters is another good idea. (Catechism, 1915, 2239, 2447, 2472, 2475-2487)
“I can use suffering, joy, any experience, as a reason to pray and rejoice. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18; Catechism, 2648)
“None of that is easy. But it’s still a good idea. …
“… I don’t see calamities as ‘God’s judgment on those sinners over there.’ On the other hand, I don’t think they’re meaningless. They’re opportunities to practice charity: which is a virtue. (Catechism, 1813, 1822-1829) …”
(“Disasters, Deaths, Decisions” (September 17, 2018))
Wednesday Evening: Hurricane Milton Arrives
There’s going to be a lot of news like this, coming from Florida:
“Hurricane Milton live updates: Category 3 storm makes landfall in Siesta Key, Florida”
The Associated Press (October 9, 2024 (03:23 UTC, October 10, 2024))“Hurricane Milton crashed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, pounding the coast with ferocious winds of over 100 mph (160 kph), heavy rain and producing a series of tornadoes around the state. Tampa avoided a direct hit.
“The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) as it made landfall at 8:30 p.m. near Siesta Key, the National Hurricane Center said. Siesta Key is a prosperous strip of white-sand beaches home to 5,500 people about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa.
“More than 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power Wednesday night in Florida, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. The highest number of outages were in Hardee County, as well as neighboring Sarasota and Manatee counties….”
Bad as the situation is, it could have been worse. Looks like Milton’s center is missing the heavily urbanized part of Tampa Bay.7 Which is cold comfort to those who are losing loved ones and homes.
But people work in downtown Tampa, and if that area comes through the storm more-or-less intact, many survivors may at least have jobs. And therefore be able to keep paying bills: which, I’ve found, is a good thing.
It’s late Wednesday night now, I need sleep, and I still haven’t talked about the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Milton in Context: Numbers and a Little History
Hurricane Milton had been a Category 5 storm during its approach to Florida, and was Category 3 when it hit Siesta Key.
I’ve talked about hurricanes before, but not the Saffir-Simpson scale: which is where those Categories came from.
A Handy Hurricane Wind Scale
Depending on who’s talking, the Saffir-Simpson scale is the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS), Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale (SSHS): or just plain Saffir-Simpson scale.
There are other systems for describing hurricanes/typhoons/tropical cyclones, but it’s the one used by the US National Hurricane Center / Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
Back in 1969, the United Nations had civil engineer Herbert Saffir study low-cost housing in hurricane-prone areas.
The idea was to give folks in areas without hurricane building codes a fairly simple and practical system for thinking about hurricane strengths.
By 1971, Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson had developed a scale that combined objective wind speeds with somewhat-subjective damage estimates. The general public heard about it in 1973, or maybe 1975, and the Saffir-Simpson scale got traction in 1974.
Anyway, it’s been in use since then. Some experts aren’t satisfied with it: because it’s too simplistic, or because it should be like the Richter scale.
They’re probably right, at least partly so, and I’m pretty sure the Saffir-Simpson scale isn’t the last ‘how bad is that hurricane’ system we’ll use.
But for now, I think it’s a good-enough system.
Here are those categories, leaving out TS (tropical storm) and TD (tropical depression:
- Category 1 — 74-95 mph
Very dangerous winds will produce some damage - Category 2 — 96-110 mph
Extremely dangerous winds will cause extensive damage - Category 3 — 111-129 mph
Devastating damage will occur (including no power or water for several days to weeks) - Category 4 — 130-156 mph
Catastrophic damage will occur (including no power for weeks, maybe months) - Category 5 — 157 mph or greater
Catastrophic damage will occur (including no power for months) (Affected area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months)
The National Hurricane Center gives more detail about ‘very dangerous’, ‘extremely dangerous’, ‘devastating’, and worse, winds.8
Just How Bad Was It?
By Thursday evening, Hurricane Milton had crossed Florida, and I started learning how bad the storm had been.
“Although Milton has moved on, at least 8 are dead and millions remain in the dark”
Julio Cortez, Kate Payne, Haven Daley; AP (Updated 9:11 PM CDT, October 10, 2024)
“…Arriving just two weeks after the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene, the system also knocked out power to more than 3 million customers, flooded barrier islands, tore the roof off a baseball stadium and toppled a construction crane.…”
(emphasis mine)“Three million still without power in Florida, DeSantis says”
BBC News live coverage (13:41 British Summer Time, October 10, 2024)
“DeSantis continues by saying there are still 3.1 million accounts without power in the state, with 635,000 restorations completed since Hurricane Milton hit.”
(emphasis mine)
Friday morning, no surprises here, the number of known dead had gone up.
“Hurricane Milton leaves path of destruction across Florida, at least 16 dead”
Alex Sundby, Faris Tanyos, Emily Mae Czachor, Cara Tabachnick, Jordan Freiman; CBS News (Updated 7:58 a.m. EDT, October 11, 2024)“What to know about Hurricane Milton
- “Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm.
- “At least 16 people died from the storm, officials confirmed to CBS News.
- “Milton moved across the Florida peninsula Thursday and over the Atlantic Ocean.
- “Nearly 2.5 million customers were without power in Florida on Friday morning, according to utility tracker Find Energy….”
(emphasis mine)
Part of the good news is that Hurricane Milton is still heading east. And it’s not as strong as it was.
More than three million customers/accounts without power isn’t good news. But having 635,000 restored a day after the hurricane hit — that’s not bad.
And three million without power becoming two and a half million the day after that: also not bad. Technicians and engineers working on Florida’s power grid have been busy.
Sadly, I’m pretty sure that the number of known dead from Hurricane Milton will keep going up. There’s a lot of wreckage in Florida that’ll take time to search and clear.
(photos: E. Hasert, T. Wheelock)
But there’s been good news. Or ‘on the whole good news’, at any rate. Like that AP article’s “toppled a construction crane”.
The thing was on a construction site near the Tampa Bay Times building. Although the crane cut a divot out of the Times building, nobody got hurt. Seems that Milton blew down other construction cranes, too.9
With several days of weather forecasts showing that Milton was coming, I have no idea why those construction cranes were still standing Wednesday night.
How long it takes to disassemble the things, what they cost, and how much damage they can cause when they collapse — are questions I don’t have answers for. I’m just glad nobody got hurt when one sliced a corner off the Times building.
Memorable Hurricanes
Superlatives, like “strongest”, “most intense”, or “worst”, can be tricky.
Or, rather, they involve picking some particular aspect of an event or entity as the part that’s most important.
For example, the “Hurricane Milton” Wikipedia page has a table of the top 10 “Most intense Atlantic hurricanes”. Milton is in fifth place: between Rita (2005) and Allen (1980). Helene doesn’t appear on that list.
The “Hurricane Helene” Wikipedia page’s “Strongest landfalling tropical cyclones in the U.S. State of Florida” is another ‘top 10’ list. It ranks “strongest” by wind speed at landfall. “Fourth” and “seventh” rank storms each had the same recorded wind speed.
| Strongest landfalling tropical cyclones in the U.S. state of Florida† as of October 8, 2024 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Hurricane | Season | Wind speed | ||
| mph | km/h | ||||
| 1 | “Labor Day” | 1935 | 185 | 295 | |
| 2 | Andrew | 1992 | 165 | 270 | |
| 3 | Michael | 2018 | 160 | 260 | |
| 4 | “Florida Keys” | 1919 | 150 | 240 | |
| Charley | 2004 | ||||
| Ian | 2022 | ||||
| 7 | “Miami” | 1926 | 145 | 230 | |
| “Okeechobee” | 1928 | ||||
| Donna | 1960 | ||||
| 10 | Helene | 2024 | 140 | 225 | |
| Source: HURDAT, Hurricane Research Division, NHC; via Hurricane Helene, Wikipedia (October 7, 2024) | |||||
| †Strength refers to maximum sustained wind speed upon striking land. | |||||
Helene is on the ‘wind speed’ list, since the storm had sustained wind speeds of 140 miles an hour on September 26, 2024, when it hit Florida. But its lowest air pressure was 938: not low enough for the ‘intense’ pressure list.
Milton had sustained winds of 180 miles an hour on October 8, but didn’t reach Florida until the next day. By then, its winds were down to 120 miles an hour: again, not enough to make that list.
The 1935 “Labor Day” hurricane was arguably worse than either of 2024’s famous storms, killing at least 485 folks.10
Now What?
Meanwhile, up here in Minnesota:
“First snow of the season, widespread frost coming to Minnesota”
Meteorologist Sven Sundgaard, Bring Me The News (October 11, 2024)“Here comes the first round of what the National Weather Service describes as ‘conversational snow’ in Minnesota this fall.
“What is conversational snow, you may ask? The NWS Duluth didn’t provide a definition, but it’s easy to surmise that it’s not that serious, but it’s fun to talk about anyway….”
The “conversational snow” won’t be much: maybe a quarter-inch in far northeastern Minnesota, what I call arrowhead country. The nickname comes from my state’s shape on the map, not actual arrowheads, and I’m drifting off-topic.
Our climate is very different, but Minnesota’s lake country looks like much of Florida: at least on maps. We’ve both got an overabundance of lakes, ponds, marshes: seriously damp land, that is.
More seriously, Florida is still at the top of my news feed: which is seldom if ever a good thing for the folks involved.
I did, however, find a bright spot or two.
Looks like many folks have been getting their part of the world back in good working order, which won’t be easy.
Folks running Legoland Florida had the good sense to close down during the storm, along with other theme parks in the area. Since they reopened Friday, I figure there hasn’t been overly much damage there. Which I see as a good thing.
I was also glad to see that Cypress Gardens, a theme park that’d been where Legoland is now, is still there: in a sense. A Cypress Gardens is just southwest of the Lego Wave Pool, Joker Soaker, and Splash Safari.11
None of which I’ll be talking about this week: or, probably, next. But I was happy to see that Cypress Gardens is still (literally) on the map: as a small botanical park.
I’ve never been to Cypress Gardens, and won’t visit Legoland. This household, economically, is on the upper end of lower class or low end of middle class; and we haven’t prioritized visiting theme parks.
But they can be fun for families and individuals: and that’s yet another topic.
Something I Can Do
I can’t offer much help, in what my culture calls practical terms, for the folks recovering from Helene and Milton.
Something I can do, however, is pray.
Some time back, I signed up for my parish’s intercessory prayer chain.
(Intercessory prayer: that’s one of the main categories of prayer: blessing or adoration, intercession, petition, praise, and thanksgiving. (Catechism, 2623-2643))
Anyway, my daily routine now includes a quick prayer for folks whose situations have been brought to my attention — usually with a level of anonymity that’s culturally-appropriate.
Thursday, I added an intercessory intention of my own: on behalf of folks who weathered the recent storms, and will be dealing with varying degrees of loss. I don’t see that as a big deal: but like I said, praying is something I can do.
I’ve talked about disasters and making sense before, and probably will again:
- “Hurricane Beryl: Sort-of-Good News, and Taking the Long View”
(July 13, 2024) - “Climate, Neighbors, Bogeymen and Responsibility”
(November 5, 2022) - “Cyclone Tauktae, COVID-19 and the Siloam Lesson”
(May 22, 2021) - “Disasters, Deaths, Decisions”
(September 17, 2018) - “Floods, Harvey, and Climate”
(September 1, 2017)
1 Mountains, storms, and politics (you can’t make this stuff up):
- Wikipedia
- “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says ‘they can control the weather’; it’s not clear who she means”
Ryan Chatelain, Spectrum News NY1 (October 4, 2024)
2 Meteorology, getting a grip, a famous balloon, and Ming the Merciless:
- Wikipedia
- 1947 Florida-Georgia hurricane (AKA 1947 Cape Sable hurricane)
- 1972 Black Hills flood
- Hurricane Helene
- Ming the Merciless
- Project Stormfury (Projects Cirrus, BATON)
- Ranunculus (AKA buttercups, spearworts, water crowfoots)
- Weather modification
- “No, Hurricane Milton was not ‘engineered’”
Mark Poynting, Marco Silva; BBC Verify (October 9, 2024) - “Flight of François Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes in their Montgolfier Brothers balloon”
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian - My take on being human and taking God seriously
- “Climate, Neighbors, Bogeymen and Responsibility” (November 5, 2022)
- “Wheat, Tares, Fear of the Lord and Working on Wisdom” (December 19, 2020)
- Wikipedia
- 1848 Tampa Bay hurricane
- Earthworks (archaeology)
- History of Tampa, Florida
- Indigenous peoples of Florida
- Jungle Prada Site
- Madira Bickel Mound State Archaeological Site
- Manasota culture
- Pinellas Point Mound
- Safety Harbor culture
- Safety Harbor site
- Safety Harbor, Florida (A city Tampa Bay’s west shore.)
- Sarsen (The stone that was made into sarsen blocks for Stonehenge and other
- Stonehenge
- Tampa Bay
- Tampa Bay area
- Tampa Convention Center
- Tampa, Florida
- Stonehenge
- Sarsen (The stone that was made into sarsen blocks for Stonehenge and other installations.)
- Tocobaga (The main town of what we call the Safety Harbor culture.)
- Weeden Island culture
4 Hurricanes and beachfront property:
- Wikipedia
- “Barrier islands are natural coast guards that absorb impacts from hurricanes and storms”
The Conversation, The World from PRX (October 10, 2018)
- Wikipedia
- Hurricane Helene
- Hurricane Milton
- Pinellas County, Florida (Part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, west of Tampa.)
- “‘No bureaucracy, no more red tape, no more excuses’: Governor orders county landfills to open for storm debris”
Kylie McGivern, ABC Action News (October 7, 2024)
6 21st century zoos aren’t 17th century menageries:
- Wikipedia
- “‘We’ve used hallways, we’ve used bathrooms’: How zoos protect animals when hurricanes hit” Sofia Quaglia, BBC Future (October 9, 2024)
- “Former NEW Zoo director prepares for Hurricane Milton at Florida zoo” (Wonder Gardens Zoo in Bonita Springs, Florida)
WLUK, FOX 11 News (October 8, 2024) - “Tampa zoo and aquarium staff to ride out Milton”
Ben Brasch, The Washington Post (October 8, 2024) - Remembering that we’re human
- Wikipedia
- Hurricane Milton
- Siesta Key, Florida (A barrier island south of Tampa Bay, home to about 5,500 folks, and near Hurricane Milton’s landfall. (October 9, 2024))
- “Hurricane Milton live updates: Category 3 storm makes landfall in Siesta Key, Florida”
The Associated Press (October 9, 2024 (03:23 UTC, October 10, 2024) - “More than 1.5 million without power as Hurricane Milton slams Florida, causes deaths and flooding”
Terry Spencer, Kate Payneap; AP (October 9, 2024 (03:23 UTC, October 10, 2024) - “Hurricane Milton makes landfall as Category 3 storm near Siesta Key, Florida”
NBC News (October 9, 2024 (03:23 UTC, October 10, 2024)
8 Categories, numbers, and a very little history:
- Wikipedia
- Moment magnitude scale (Like the Richter scale.)
- National Hurricane Center
- Richter scale (AKA Richter magnitude scale, Richter’s magnitude scale, Gutenberg–Richter scale.)
- Saffir-Simpson scale (AKA Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS), Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale (SSHS).)
- Tropical cyclone (If a strong one is in the northern Atlantic Ocean or northeastern Pacific Ocean, it’s called a hurricane.)
- Typhoon (A tropical cyclone that’s in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.)
- United Nations
- National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center, United States Department of Commerce
- Wikipedia
- “Crane collapses into Times’ office building amid thrashing Milton winds”
Zachary T. Sampson, Chris Urso, Colleen Wright; Tampa Bay Times (October 10, 2024)
10 Storms, including a few really bad ones:
- Wikipedia
- Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory, NOAA, U. S. Dept. of Commerce
- “Detailed List of Continental United States Hurricane Impacts/Landfalls 1851-1970, 1983-2023” (Starts with 1851: maybe that’s why the “Strongest landfalling tropical cyclones in the U.S. state of Florida” Wikipedia list didn’t include the 1848 Tampa Bay hurricane!)
- “80th Anniversary of the Labor Day Hurricane and first hurricane reconnaissance” (September 2, 2015)
- “Labor Day 1935 Hurricane Monthly Weather Review Article” (“The hurricane of August 31 to September 6, 1935”, Mon. Wea. Rev., 63, 269-271.), W. F. McDonald, Excerpts courtesy of the Monthly Weather Review (September 1935)
- “Tropical Disturbance of August 18-25, 1935” , W. F. McDonald, Monthly Weather Review (September 1935)
- “1935 Hurricane Sweeps South Florida” Fact Sheet
NOAA and the Preserve America Initiative - Rescue Train Swept off the Tracks by the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane.
Photo, Library of Congress - “Anniversary of the Labor Day hurricane of 1935”
Pam Knox, Climate and Agriculture in the Southeast, UGA (University of Georgia Athens) Cooperative Extension(September 2, 2015)
- Wikipedia
- LEGOLAND Florida Theme Park and Water Park
legoland.com - LEGOLAND® Florida Resort
Google Maps - “Disney, Universal and more Florida parks to reopen after Hurricane Milton”
blooloop (October 11, 2024) - “Some Florida theme parks to close ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall”
Leah Sudhir, WESH 2, Orlando, Florida (October 9, 2024)
As funny as the Only In Florida trope is, I also like being reminded of the state and its citizens’ whole humanity. And again, I enjoy your reflective reports on your own country alongside your faith even though I’m from an archipelago on the other side of the world. So again, thank you very much, Mr. Gill.
You’re quite welcome, and glad to hear that you enjoy these things. And, yeah: my experience has been that people are people – and have been, since long before we started keeping written records.
The folks in Florida: it’s not exactly good news, but they do seem to be going about the business of recovering from these two hurricanes.