Out with Kyle, in With...?

Would you believe Tropical Storm Laura? Oh, the irony. I wonder how far she will go? She's forming way out in the Atlantic Ocean and seems to be far enough north not to be a potential threat to us. I don't think she will come here. But there is a tiny chance. It is a teeny possibility.

Ike certainly did a number on Kentucky. The others have hit other areas, ones more prone to this kind of damage - Houston, Florida, New Orleans. Amazing. I wonder what makes people want to live there - any of those theres, although I get the feeling that Houston is not as bad as New Orleans and almost any part of Florida. Strangely, the Carolinas have not been hit in a long time, and that is good. They are a popular landing site for really terrible hurricanes.

I suppose all locations have their natural Achilles heel, so to speak, but I cannot think why you would pick a location with, say, more than one, or one that happens often enough that your chances are that much more probably of experiencing this phenomena. How badly do you want to feel earthquakes? (I will freely admit that I did want that and thrice it has happened - and not in California, not once. Richter Scale Magnitude 2.2, 2.5 (both under northern New Jersey and 5.5, epicenter in Platsburg, NY) Or have a hurricane descend upon your house? You really don't. I lived through a minor hurricane (1979 0r 1980, Hurricane Gloria, Safford-Simpson scale of Category 2). I don't recommend it. A tornado roared down the road not 500 feet from our house on the other side of Parsippany, sounded like a freight train roaring through (1999, May 31, Fujita Scale F-2).

Do you really want that? Flooding we have as our regular disaster. It happens all the time. The last truly devastating flood was 1999, from Tropical Storm Floyd, who in mid-September dumped a ton of rain on the Meadowlands and other areas and flooded most of mid- and northern New Jersey. It put a lot of people on the streets.

I could see where this is not too bad a place to live. All the things I listed, except for floods, are freak things here, not the norm. We are good for 3 tornadoes a year, but all are weak and not usually fatal. Beats the odds in Olahoma, which averages over 350 a year. We are usually good for one hurricane a decade, but again, on the weak side (a hurricane has to really, really want to come here; late season is manageable, but only if the ocean is warm enough and it doesn't come inland until it gets a lot farther north than is typical). An earthquake... well, we do have a very old and (compared to California or Peru or Argentina) stable fault line system here, and it is constantly active, but earthquakes that are felt by us are few and far between. The two that were 2.0 and 2.5 magnitude were minor indeed and it was freak circumstances that allowed me to know about them. I had access to the observatory on Garrett Mountain, which also has a seismometer and it recorded those. The other one, the 5.5 one out of Plattsburg, NY I felt while sitting at my computer on the morning of 20 April 2002. And it was weird. In a word.

I would not flock to any of the Gulf areas, California along the more southern and active parts of the San Andreas fault, the base of Mount Saint Helen's or Popocatepetl in Mexico City. I would not consider Florida for retirement. India doesn't come high on my list for a multitude of reasons, but tsunamis and bad weather creating severe flooding (not to be confused by tsunamis which are tidal waves with the sole cause of undersea earthquakes). No, thanks.

So why do people flock to some of these places? I guess it is the human condition to have blinders on and have the attitude of this can't happen to me, and also because overpopulation (a favoured pet peeve of mine) has forced us to eke out livings and digs in places less than ideal inhabitable. But still... I have options, and mine is not to live in those places frequented by disasters!