Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Ouch!

Okay so my post yesterday was from a dark place and I divulged that tale for the purpose of consciousness raising. I'm not physically homeless, I have a roof over my head and I have a lease in my name. So in physical terms, you can come visit me, sit on my couch, and I can make you margaritas or mojitos and chill out. But as I mentioned, this time of year is rough for me and I tend to get emotional and boo-hooey and yada yada...but I'm not wanting pity or sympathy or anything like that. I'm a ridiculously strong and resilient person and that is not the only thing I've gone through in my life, and it's not the worst. In addition, I am not the only one that has experienced shit, and by far my shit is no comparison to other people's shit. So with that said, I want to make a point that I feel takes some balls.

I have been told, since 2005 (and a few times before), that my experience in Hurricane Andrew is rendered obsolete because of the devastation that Hurricane Katrina brought on New Orleans. Now, I know people that were in Katrina and I know people that live in LA that were affected by Katrina(plus I saw the horrific pictures on CNN) and it was hell. No doubt about that. And the government exasperated the already devastating conditions. I think comparing natural disasters to somehow render one "worse" than the other, is unthinkable. Trauma is trauma. Death is death. Devastation is devastation, no matter how it arises. It's like comparing the attacks of 9/11 to Pearl Harbor, or Slavery to the Holocaust, or the genocide in Sudan to the genocide in Rwanda. It somehow can't really be done without rendering someone's experience as somehow invalid and that they should just "get over it".

To those individuals that are thinking that I'm exaggerating an old experience, let me clarify some facts. Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Katrina both were devastating Cat. 5 storms. But there are some key differences in how scientifically, financially and experientially these storms are looked at. Scientifically, Hurricane Katrina takes the cake. It is the costliest storm in U.S. history in 2008 dollars, twice that of Hurricane Andrew. To date, it is the deadliest storm since 1928, with a death count of 1,836 lives lost. It also has the sixth lowest pressure(902 mbars) of any measured Hurricane to form in the Atlantic and based on pressure, it also makes it the sixth "strongest" Hurricane recorded.

Now, Hurricane Katrina was a Cat.5 storm and strong as hell, but didn't make landfall as a Cat. 5. This measurement was taken after it passed over FL as a Cat. 1 and reemerged in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Katrina rapidly intensified in the Gulf, but almost dropped by 2 Categories before it made  landfall. Katrina was a Cat. 3 storm at landfall. I should also note that most building codes for the Gulf and Atlantic coasts have requirements that all homes built must be up to code and withstand up to a Cat 3 storm. That's why you rarely see homes made of wood in Miami, and if they are, they're reinforced with concrete. As such, the devastation that resulted in Katrina was due to breaches of the levees that caused extensive flooding and water damage. Most that lost their lives and property can blame the extensive surge of water that resulted due to old infrastructure. That was the biggest human error I think we have had in the 2000's, that almost 2,000 people died because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers F-ed up big time. Then to add insult to injury, they took forever to figure out how to get in aid, due to the massive flooding that they knew could have resulted by a hurricane, years in advance.

Now Hurricane Andrew was a Cat. 5 storm as well. In terms of intensity, Andrew beats Katrina, scientifically speaking. In measures of strength which is based on pressure, Andrew was 922 mbars compared to Katrina's 902mbars (lower pressure=stronger storm). But landfall intensity is based on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and only 13 known storms have been recorded in U.S. to make landfall as a Cat. 5 storm. Katrina is not one of them. Hurricane Andrew from my recollection and reports, made landfall around Homestead, FL as a Cat. 5 storm( windspeed= 156 or higher). Windspeed to Andrew was what was water was to Katrina. The highest reported surface gusts were 212mph, reported from a home in Perrine, before it was destroyed. In fact, almost all facilities reporting windspeed either had their instruments destroyed in the process of measurement, which led to the windspeeds being underreported, or had to stop measuring windspeeds to preserve equipment.

Also, let me provide a timeline that is mindbaffling. Hurricane Andrew was declared a Hurricane on the morning of August 22. Six  hours later is was tracked to make landfall in Jupiter, FL with winds of 105mph. By August 23( the following day), it was a Cat. 5 monster storm. It weaken over the Bahamas slightly, but strengthened and continued to do so before and slightly after landfall. It made landfall around Homestead on the morning of August 24th, with measured winds of about 150mphs(who really knows?). The eyewall continued to strengthen after surfacing and passed over the southern tip of FL in 4 hours! It emerged in the Gulf at 135mph (what Katrina was at by landfall). From August 22-August 24 is two days (Andrew hit overnight on the 24th, so we woke up to desvation the same morning of the 24th). That means people had little or no time to leave, pack or prepare unless you had done so in anticipation of a Cat.5 storm. In general, in S. Fl, we don't run from a Cat.1 storm and Andrew literally moved from 1-5 in ONE day. So now, if you live here currently, you get the sensationalized news reports to prepare for anything. Now you know why...

My point is, as I made a few days ago, you cannot invalidate someone else's experience because you don't acknowledge it or the facts surrounding it...as long I experienced it, it exists for me.

Peace*

1 comment:

LT said...

Totally agree. They are both devastating storms, however, New Orleans had PLENTY of warning and still did not do as many evacuations as they could have. Too many lives were lost due to poor infrastructure and poor planning. The government knew the hurricane was coming and did not force MANDATORY evacuations in many places. I thought Wilma was bad (as my first REAL hurricane down here, besides Katrina) but I cannot imagine ever being hit with such a strong hurricane. If there was a hurricane stronger than Wilma that was going to hit Florida and I had more than 2 days notice, I would hightail it out of here! That's where people screwed up in Louisiana.