Hurricane Patricia

Quote: Fleastiff

thieves stealing a bottle of drinking water by slicing a tourist's hand off

Now there's someone who is just a little too impatient.

I mean that just as pundits and newsreaders have to make predictions about who will win the nomination next year, they also need to predict how bad the current hurricane will be.

So, anyone has any idea how bad the damage actually was?

One good thing about hyping these things is that more people get scared and so they're willing to leave the danger area for safer grounds. The hysteria concerning the swine flu, I'm sure, kept infections from spreading too widely, and the availability of Tamiflu kept fatalities down.

Quote: Nareed

I mean that just as pundits and newsreaders have to make predictions about who will win the nomination next year, they also need to predict how bad the current hurricane will be.

So, anyone has any idea how bad the damage actually was?

One good thing about hyping these things is that more people get scared and so they're willing to leave the danger area for safer grounds. The hysteria concerning the swine flu, I'm sure, kept infections from spreading too widely, and the availability of Tamiflu kept fatalities down.

Truthfully, I didn't know the mountains were going to break it up so quickly.

On the other hand, given the choice, I can't call winds measured at 200mph hype. I'm definitely going to take that seriously.

My friend in South Florida has all these photos when he went out as volunteer for the hurricane (Andrew I think). Anyway. Some of the photos he took look like aftermath of Hiroshima a day after the A-bomb. Just mostly flat and rubble.

So, basically, to battle big hurricanes, you just need some mountains in the way. Hmm.

Quote: rxwine

So, basically, to battle big hurricanes, you just need some mountains in the way. Hmm.

The Sierra Madres are some big mountains.

Quote: rxwine

Truthfully, I didn't know the mountains were going to break it up so quickly.

It's not a guarantee. In rare cases, hurricanes, though diminished, have hit as far inland from the Gulf as Monterrey, which is in a mountain valley.

While it was the most powerful Pacific hurricane in recorded history, it went from a tropical depression to Category 5 in a little over 24 hours, made landfall then dissipated in only 30 hours (reminiscent of my honeymoon). I think this "Live Fast, Die Young" storm, didn't provide a lot of time for an extended storm surge or torrential rain to wipe out other coastal towns. It seems the flooding from the remnants of the system did more damage in Texas and Louisiana.