xtyphooncyclonex wrote:SuperMarioBros99thx wrote:I don't know where i want to post this, but i want to tell you that this season had a possibility to be the costliest ever Atlantic hurricane season in the history, (showing worst-case scenarios): with Harvey making more than $100B+ (even maybe to $200B+), Irma hitting Miami (and further) costing more than $50B to $200B's, Possibility of Katia and/or Nate hitting New Orleans as MH (in case of Nate, Cat. 2) costing $100B+ dollars, Jose (based on Euro run) makes a Hurricane Phoenix scenario costing $100B+ dollars, Maria making a Sandy re-run (primarily New York/New Jersey) and costing $70B+, and further storms. What should we do now? Ugh...
this post may be half true, but the season is now considered (through Harvey, Irma and Maria damage estimates) the
costliest Atlantic hurricane season in recorded history. Three $50 billion hurricanes is unprecedented after a break from no major hurricanes for over a decade, to all these striking the US as cat 4's (PR is a US territory).
I can't even begin to wrap my head around what the final damage estimates will end up for Puerto Rico alone. I mean, imagine an entire state like West Virginia (well, meaning any smaller state in general with an approx. similar population density), nearly completely decimated?? I can't help but wonder "if", or whether there's some level of diminished horror or detached astonishment by many Americans simply out of the fact that Puerto Rico is "an Island" and geographically separated from the CONUS itself (such as Hawaii). Furthermore, I sense that there's always been a largely perceived general separation of unity that has existed between "us and them". Whether that perception is primarily a fault of our educational system, a result of lessoned cultural familiarity and assimilation into our broader collective national identity, political distinction (non-statehood vs. statehood), or just endemic of an overall lesser interaction/association between the greater CONUS American population and those from Puerto Rico itself. Anyhow, i'm sorry & didn't mean to alter the direction of this thread nor am I attempting to make any type of political statement. On the contrary, my observation is just out of the awe of so much damage and an empathy toward an entire population and their infrastructure. It's not necessarily relevant whether such an event directly impacted a part of the U.S., or Dominica, or Mexico (earthquake). Sadly though, there are a number of Americans that do feel that our own level of "American" focus towards a faster better aid response, is feeling so much like Katrina's aftermath. Kinda like Katrina redux.... possibly worse. And maybe just maybe, it's simply a matter of our society having grandiose expectation yet limited capacity, resulting in another sober realization of our societies' logistical shortcomings in the face of a random & horrifically devastating impact by nature itself. A force so much bigger then ourselves that many of us just can't help be fascinated by it's science; a force so much bigger then ourselves that at times make its aftermath, death, and destruction difficult for us to rationalize & absorb, and ultimately a helplessness and isolation even harder for those having to cope with and survive.