Another disaster pic.....

[charleston_hugo_veteran]

Man, this is terrible!

[Wolfman21]

she seems to have done a lil more damage than the local TV's are trying to tell......

[Toni - 574]

Ouch guys, that hurts to see stuff like that! I hope this type of destruction is limited.

[Lindaloo]

I saw some damage earlier on my local news of the same type pic. When you live on the beachfront, you can almost expect that type of damage.

[Josephine96]

Isabel was a powerful storm.. Probably more powerful then some wanted to admit or acknowledge.. Mother nature should always be respected..

[jabber]

Thats too bad, but thats what happens when you build so close to the coast.

[vbhoutex]

It is indeed unfortunate that the damage has occured. However, I will post my usual post storm rant.

WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK GOD PUT BARRRIER ISLANDS ALL UP AND DOWN THE COASTS FOR? NOT TO BUILD ON I DON'T THINK!!!! THEY ARE MEANT TO BE BARRIERS TO NATURES WRATH FROM THE SEA NOT HOMESITES!

I am sorry if this offends anyone, but that is how I feel. I have seen countless millions of dollars of homes and infrastructure destroyed over the years, as well as the islands themselves being destroyed or totally alterd by man. And what do they do? They build in harms way again and use up more of my tax dollars after another disaster. Again, I mean to offend no one, but this is how I feel.

[shaner]

I agree with you vbhoutex. personally, I think those people who do build there should have to provide their own supplemental storm insurance before they're allowed to build or buy.

[janswizard]

Not to mention that MY insurance rates are going to go up because of all the claims that people are going to put in. I'm near the coast - but not ON the coast.

[GalvestonDuck]

Insurance rates, your tax dollars, that's what you get for living there....and so on and so forth. I hear it year after year.

And I'll post my usual reply - The same thinking should apply for those who build their homes in tornado alley, along a fault line, on the flood plains, near a river, near a dam, in a forest, on a hill, on a mountain. Twisters and floods almost certainly hit more often than hurricanes. Forest fires can rage out of control for weeks. Not sure when the latest earthquake hit.

Furthermore, Allison's flooding was reported to be worse in Houston and other inland towns than it was here on the island. Sure, we had to wade through water in the streets and it rained continuously for a while. But since our homes are build up, we didn't have as much trouble as those up on the mainland. Check the rainfall totals.

There were probably more insurance claims due to inland damage from Allison than from coastal damage. Not sure how it will be for Isabel. But it balances out and you get my drift...no pun intended.

If we all moved to some safe area of the US where
there were never any natural disasters like those above, then we'd be overpopulated, disease-stricken, and hungry. The crime rate would be high. And we'd make the perfect target for a mass casualty attack by al-Qaeda.

[GalvestonDuck]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/968884.asp?vts=091920030654

Excerpt:

“A storm like this is so powerful,” he says, “that it will push massive amounts of sand and water across the island and you’ll have large areas of open sand without vegetation, and those are the areas where next summer the shore birds will breed.”
A hurricane is like a forest fire, Maddock says: It causes a lot of destruction but it also “plays an important role in protecting the habitat.”
Orrin Pilkey agrees. A retired Duke University professor of coastal geology and the author of “A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Islands,” Pilkey says hurricanes are good for barrier islands, like Assateague Island in Maryland and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
“Barrier islands are formed by hurricanes and big storms,” he says. “Every grain of sand that’s on a barrier island came from the beach in a storm ... These islands require these big storms for their survival. If there were no big storms, there would be no barrier islands. They’d disappear or they’d be teeny little bars of sand.”
Think about it. No hurricanes, no barrier islands, no Outer Banks, no vacation trip back when you were young and you met that cute kid and you slipped off into the twilight and you watched the waves roll in and you started smooching and one thing led to another and ... well, surely the hassle of a hurricane is worth those magic memories.

[vbhoutex]

Duck, you and I will never agree on this. Your argument about tornado alley or even California, just doesn't hold up IMO. Barrier Islands are indeed built and taken down by hurricanes, but they are not meant to be inhabited, imo. They are built and they are taken down by hurricanes or tropical cyclones washing across them UNIMPEDED, not by destroying manmade structures placed in the path of the normal flow of the waters generated by a storm. As far as those that live in floodways or NORMALLY flood prone areas, I say the same thing, DON 'T BUILD THERE AND THEN COMPLAIN WHEN YOUR HOMES ARE DESTROYED. And as far as Allison goes-GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!-YOU ARE REALLY REACHING DUCK AND YOU KNOW IT!!!!! THAT IMO IS A TOTALLY UNFAIR JAB AT PEOPLE WHO HAD NO IDEA THAT THERE WOULD BE 35" OF RAIN IN 8 HOURS FLOODING PLACES THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN FLOODED BEFORE!! This will be my last post on this. I agree to disagree with you.

[opera ghost]

My only comment on the topic it hand will be this (Not going to get sucked into a debate)

In 1900- Galveston island was, for all intents and purposes, wiped clean. Underneath the big bustling city that it was- it was a natural sandbar protecting the natural harbour of Houston. Like other barrier islands- they are formed form the sea- and are cleaned by the sea. New continents and massive islands are never formed from the leavings of the ocean- only small strip islands. These islands have been periodically stripped down to sand and a hanful of very stubborn vegetation since they day they were created.

Hurricanes have a tendancy to ravish these barrier islands particularily badly... hurricanes naturally redesign some of our coastline. Humans object strenuously to this rearrangement- especially when it encroaches on thier vacation places, homes, and bussinesses.

Some places should just not be lived in or on unless the human takes utter responsibility for the damages incurred in the wrath of mother nature. The side of a volcano... on top of a major fault line... barrier islands the the typical path of typhoons or hurricanes... the true desert (where sand dunes move like barrier islands)

And yet people live in all of these places- where it's to be *expected* that a natural disaster is going to taken them out eventually. People build on the coold lava in Hawaii- build freeways on fault lines in California- try to tame the deserts in the far east... and on the barrier islands of the north atlantic continent. And when disaster happens again and again it's all rebuilt. Sometimes places go the extra step to insure the safety of those places. Engineering marvels allow the safety of people in earthquakes most of the time- bringing Galveston off the sea nullified a large chunk of the tidal surge that wiped the island clean in the past.

But some places don't. I'm under the understanding that the barrier islands off north carolina are, for the most part, in the same disaster prone condition of galveston before the sea wall was built. The sea wall is the ONLY think that makes Galveston inhabitable.... otherwise I'd vote to mark it off as a wildlife park and keep the people off it- no one should have to pay for the stupidity of people who build on sandbars in the ocean and DON'T expect to be washed away.

I certainly don't want to have to pay for the willful destruction of property -building normal every day homes in a place where the ground shakes- or the ocean comes up to claim you... or the mountain spits up molten rock. I'm smart enough to know that as long as I live in Houston- anything I own could be destroyed by a hurricane. When I go out of my way to buy property and build a nice little home in the suburbs- it's going to be somewhere where my worst worry is a nasty blizzard. I pick my poisons- blizzards don't claim all your stuff and drag it out to sea. Blizzards don't wash away your home and tear your roof off. Blizzards are #1 in ~my~ book of most livable disasters.

But building homes in a place where mother nature regularily wipes the surface clean and starts over isn't my idea of smart... Smart are the people who understand that they're probably going to lose thier homes in the event of a hurricane. I heard a guy interviewed in a past hurricane- who lost his home laugh and say that he'd finally gotten tired of that floorplan. He'd just been waiting for a hurricane to clear it before he bought the house he now wanted.... but he didn't want to move. That's one way to look at it.

My opinions are my own though *grins* and I'm on mainland... where I BELONG since my opinions are what they are. You won't FIND someone with my opinions living on a barrier island *grins*

[ColdWaterConch]

Duck, you and I will never agree on this. Your argument about tornado alley or even California, just doesn't hold up IMO. Barrier Islands are indeed built and taken down by hurricanes, but they are not meant to be inhabited, imo. They are built and they are taken down by hurricanes or tropical cyclones washing across them UNIMPEDED, not by destroying manmade structures placed in the path of the normal flow of the waters generated by a storm. As far as those that live in floodways or NORMALLY flood prone areas, I say the same thing, DON 'T BUILD THERE AND THEN COMPLAIN WHEN YOUR HOMES ARE DESTROYED. And as far as Allison goes-GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!-YOU ARE REALLY REACHING DUCK AND YOU KNOW IT!!!!! THAT IMO IS A TOTALLY UNFAIR JAB AT PEOPLE WHO HAD NO IDEA THAT THERE WOULD BE 35" OF RAIN IN 8 HOURS FLOODING PLACES THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN FLOODED BEFORE!! This will be my last post on this. I agree to disagree with you.

Ditto. All these people complaining about the terrible damage and posting the pics of houses washing away...well, y'know what, when you build on the beach...a beach created by a storm...you have to expect that.

Same goes for the "death toll" this storm took...at least one of the dead went swimming in RI during the storm's advance...he knew what was going on, and was an idiot. Hard to blame his death on the storm, instead of his idiocy.

[GalvestonDuck]

I simply don't see a difference between living here and living anywhere else. Basically, every mountain, valley, canyon, and forest was created by nature and nature can take it away. Stuff happens everywhere -- regardless of where you live. So...just live and let live.

But that's fine. We don't see eye to eye. I'm sure we'll go at it again around the same time next year, VB.

You do know that I appreciate your support and friendship here on the board, as well as everyone else's, right? So we have one minor disagreement?

Take care!

[Lindaloo]

The guy you mentioned Coldwatercrunch is not true. He did not go swimming. He and his wife were watching the water when he was swept out by a wave.

I am in total agreement with you David!! Just like in Biloxi MS... there is casino after casino, high rise hotel after high rise hotel being built right on the beach. Knowing that we are an easy target for canes. But they build anyway. Some of them suffered extensive damage from Georges and extensive damage from TS Isidore. It is only a matter of time until the MS Gulf Coast sees the big one again which will result in a total wipe out.

And it is true that all the people who build inland are paying the price for people to build on the beaches and barrier islands. I worked for Allstate for 12 years and have seen premiums skyrocket for people well inland. Another thing is all those people down in Florida that were hit by Andrew suffered billions of dollars worth of damage but yet failed to have the proper building codes in place for such an event. The people are not at fault, it is the state of Florida that is at fault. But, the people and the insurance industry suffered. Alot of insurance companies have since quit writing in Florida.

[ColdWaterConch]

The guy you mentioned Coldwatercrunch is not true. He did not go swimming. He and his wife were watching the water when he was swept out by a wave.

I am in total agreement with you David!! Just like in Biloxi MS... there is casino after casino, high rise hotel after high rise hotel being built right on the beach. Knowing that we are an easy target for canes. But they build anyway. Some of them suffered extensive damage from Georges and extensive damage from TS Isidore. It is only a matter of time until the MS Gulf Coast sees the big one again which will result in a total wipe out.

And it is true that all the people who build inland are paying the price for people to build on the beaches and barrier islands. I worked for Allstate for 12 years and have seen premiums skyrocket for people well inland. Another thing is all those people down in Florida that were hit by Andrew suffered billions of dollars worth of damage but yet failed to have the proper building codes in place for such an event. The people are not at fault, it is the state of Florida that is at fault. But, the people and the insurance industry suffered. Alot of insurance companies have since quit writing in Florida.

Regardless, the guy is still an idiot and the storm did not kill him, his lack of brains killed him.

[Lindaloo]

Regardless, the guy is still an idiot and the storm did not kill him, his lack of brains killed him.

Not a very nice thing to say. I am sure the victim's family would disagree with you!

[ColdWaterConch]

Regardless, the guy is still an idiot and the storm did not kill him, his lack of brains killed him.

Not a very nice thing to say. I am sure the victim's family would disagree with you!

Whaaaa.

Storm kills Uxbridge man at R.I. coast

By Thomas Caywood / Boston Herald and Associated Press
Friday, September 19, 2003

NARRAGANSETT, R.I. -- An Uxbridge man died after he was pulled from the storm-tossed sea by a Coast Guard rescue swimmer yesterday.

Robert Howell, 67, of Uxbridge, was killed at Narragansett's Black Point. The circumstances that led to his death are still unclear.

Witnesses said he was walking with his wife on the rocks when he was swept into the ocean by a giant wave, but others said he was swimming.

"The information I have is that he was swimming at the time," said Coast Guard Petty Officer Amy Thomas, who said the man's wife called 911 when she lost sight of him in the waves.

[themusk]

Regardless, the guy is still an idiot and the storm did not kill him, his lack of brains killed him.

The statistical fact is that most people are of average or below average intelligence. Storm warnings (and every other bit of urgent information the public needs to know) have to be comprehensible to that unintelligent majority. Intellectual elitism just doesn't cut it in matters of public safety.

Somehow the message the man needed to hear ("the surf is very dangerous today") didn't get through.

Why? It could be that he was an intelligent man too busy with work to have heard the news (should this kind of alert be posted more widely on the beach?). It could be that he was among the not-very-intelligent majority and he didn't understand the news (should the warning have been phrased differently?). Unless we know the man was deliberately reckless or suicidal, we have to put the blame at least as much on a failure by emergency management officials to get the message out effectively.

And, finally-- in my experience, it's usually safe to sit at the shore and watch the waves come in. Isabel turned the surf lethal, and, yes, the storm killed him.