Real Talk!

The island of Galveston was almost destroyed on September 8th, 1900 by a hurricane that killed some 8000 people and left $30-$40 million in damages.

This is still considered one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history.

In July of 1909, Velasco was walloped, killing 41 people and causing some $12 million dollars of damage. August 1915, a hurricane hit Galveston , killing 375 people, destroying crops and leaving $56 million dollars in damages.

In August of 1916, a hurricane hit Corpus Christie, killing 20 and leaving $1.6 million dollars of damage.On September 14, 1919, a hurricane hit just south of Corpus Christie, it left 284 dead and $20.3 million in damage.

August 13, 1932, Velasco was hit again, 40 were killed and damage was about $7.5 million.
In September of 1933, a hurricane lashed Brownsville, killing 40 and causing $16.9 million in damages.

In September of 1961, Hurricane Carla smacked Port-O’Connor/Galveston/Houston killing 34 and causing a whopping $300 million in damage.

In August of 1983, Hurricane Alicia slammed Galveston/Houston killing 21 and leaving $2 billion in damage.

Hurricane Rita smashed the Texas/Louisiana border in September of 2005, killing 100 (many during evacuation) and damage was estimated at $4.7 billion.

This morning, the U.S. National Weather Service warned residents of Galveston Island (off the Texas coast) that they faced “certain death” from flooding if they remained in their small homes.

Hurricane Ike is expected to cause flooding from 15-22 feet above sea level and this will completely cover most buildings on the island.

Right now, Ike is about 500 miles across and rated a Category 2, with winds about 105 miles per hour at the center. Warnings have also been issued for the coastline areas from Corpus Christi to Morgan City, Louisiana.

Ike is expected to make landfall late today and will likely be a Category 3 hurricane, with winds up to 130 miles per hour. Tornados are possible.

We need to say a prayer for Texas.

& for the fully loaded 584-foot-long petroleum coke carrier, with 22 crewmembers on board, that’s stranded without power near the path of Hurricane Ike, because it’s too dangerous for the U.S. Coast Guard to respond right now.

Closer to home, yesterday, the city of Ottawa admitted to dumping nearly a billion litres of raw sewage into the Ottawa River in 2006. YUCK… they said it was caused by faulty equipment…

but I do believe there are smaller centers who dump waste, knowingly, into watercourses.

Oh… I must make an LHC update:
Hackers broke into the systems during the start-up of the experiment! Claiming to be an organization of some 2600, they identified themselves as the Greek Security Team and warned scientists “don’t mess with us”.

Ummm, scientists at CERN said the hackers were one step away from being able to mess with their systems… but everything is great now and they’re moving rapidly ahead with their atom smashing technology.

This sounds like some kind of comic book story… but it isn’t, kids… it’s happening NOW.

& something else….

Is it me or does the name of Palestinian President “Mahmoud Abbas” remind you of Nostradamus' Third Anti-Christ: Mabus ? Some people thought Mabus might be Suddam Hussein: Mabus (sudaM). I just love puzzles and riddles.

Which reminds me… now both Canada and the U.S. are in the throes of election…

I’m glad I live in the forest.