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Post by pitbulllady on Sept 22, 2005 11:04:11 GMT -5
Yet ANOTHER friggin' hurricane is on its way through the Gulf of Mexico, destined for either Texas or...Louisiana...AGAIN. This one is "Rita", and she's a Catagory 5 at this time, the strongest possible, with sustained winds of 165 mph. Keep in mind that "Katrina" had winds of 145 when she it, so this one's bigger, and stronger, at least at this point. The path seems to be taking it a bit west of New Orleans, more towards the border between Texas and Louisiana, but that still puts New Orleans on the strongest and most dangerous side of the storm, which in a storm this size, will be catastrophic. The forecasters keep shifting the projected path further and further to the east, though, closer to New Orleans each time. Earlier this morning it did not include any of Louisiana, and now it includes almost the whole western half of that state. My "adopted" Cajun family lives in St. Martinville, just outside of Lafayette, so they're right in the past, after dodging the bullet with Katrina for the most part. Now, a close friend of mine from near where I live is down there in extreme southwestern Mississippi on a reconstruction crew. For all of us, the few remaining Gulf oil rigs and refineries are right in the path of Rita, so gasoline prices have shot up once again.
pitbulllady
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Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 22, 2005 13:58:42 GMT -5
Heh.
Heard about that.
Faintly enough...Rita was a name given to a calf I saw born at our Fair.
Hmph....seems like the man upstairs is mad at someone.
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Post by pitbulllady on Sept 22, 2005 16:13:27 GMT -5
Heh. Heard about that. Faintly enough...Rita was a name given to a calf I saw born at our Fair. Hmph....seems like the man upstairs is mad at someone. First of all, I do not believe that God punishes people by sending hurricanes, floods, etc. If he did, then the act of His Son dying on a cross was rather pointless, was it not? Hurricanes, and changes in weather patterns that can either increase their numbers and intensities, or decrease them, are natural events that have been impacting these shores long before any humans settled there. It's a chance we take, just like tornadoes have been scouring the Great Plains of the Midwest, and earthquakes have been rocking the West Coast, and volcanoes have been blowing their tops in the Upper Northwest, all long before humans even set foot on this continent. When humans decide to live there, and build cities, etc., we take a chance that eventually we'll get affected. I can't think, right offhand, of any part of North America which is totally free of natural disasters. If you move from the Gulf or Atlantic coasts to avoid hurricanes, you just end up somewhere being impacted by some other force of nature that was in place long before any of our ancestors got here. That doesn't make these events' effects on human lives any less tragic, but it does not mean that we are being punished by God, either. pitbulllady |
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Beboots
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a plague in Equatorial Guinea that I have to attend.
Posts: 646
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Post by Beboots on Sept 22, 2005 17:23:21 GMT -5
I heard about Rita (in the morning paper). I also read that they're evacuating people early this time (the article I read was accompanied by a picture of two young children (evacuees) with some luggage). So, with any luck, the disaster relief people will have gotten their act together.
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Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 23, 2005 9:59:02 GMT -5
Oh sorry...
Not God.
More like Pesidon or someone...
Anyway.
I don't know. Doesn't it seem a bit...well...harsh that TWO hurricanes appear together at one time, in a figure of speech.
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Post by pitbulllady on Sept 23, 2005 10:18:32 GMT -5
Actually, meteorologists have been warning for years that this sort of thing has been long overdue. Decades ago, in the 50's and 60's especially, it was common-place for the Atlantic and Gulf states to be hit by several major hurricanes in a season, due to the fact that at that time, the Atlantic Ocean was in a period of peak warming. Then, the ocean's temperatures began to cool, as part of its normal cycle of warming and cooling(the same cycle, in the much-larger Pacific, is the infamous "El Nino" and "La Nina" effects). Right now, it's in peak warming again, and as a result, we're having more hurricanes in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Yeah, it's harsh-but only due to the fact that there are humans here now. This cycle has been going on for millions of years, but it's only since it began affecting humans that it has really made itself noticeable. Very often things that WE consider "natural disasters" aren't disasterous to nature at all.
pitbulllady
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Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 23, 2005 10:29:05 GMT -5
Well...uuhh...I wasn't alive then so...heh...
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Post by lizardgirl on Sept 23, 2005 11:39:30 GMT -5
Yeah, when I was finding out about Katrina and, eventually, Rita, and I came across so many experts saying that something like this had been long due.
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Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 23, 2005 11:55:01 GMT -5
.....Hmph....
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Beboots
Randall's Head Servant (300-799)
Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a plague in Equatorial Guinea that I have to attend.
Posts: 646
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Post by Beboots on Sept 23, 2005 15:09:37 GMT -5
Yeah, when I was finding out about Katrina and, eventually, Rita, and I came across so many experts saying that something like this had been long due. Just like we're long overdue for a world plague. Historically, they've come around in waves every forty or so years, but the last really nasty outbreak was the influenza one just before WWI. Part of the reason may be due to advances in medical technology, but sooner or later some contageous illness is going to come along that we can't cure right away, and then we're going to be screwed. It would spread all the way across the world in less than three days, too (can you say airplanes?). Just a matter of time...  |
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Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 24, 2005 13:17:58 GMT -5
Hmph...
Next up will be a Military bio-engineered virus that's accidentaly released, like something like the T-Virus. Hmph.
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Post by lizardgirl on Sept 27, 2005 12:21:00 GMT -5
And these kinds of things are things that us 'little people' really can't do anything about.
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Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 27, 2005 13:36:12 GMT -5
Us "little people"?
Oh! You mean you guys ^_^
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Post by lizardgirl on Sept 29, 2005 10:37:08 GMT -5
It's so annoying when things happen to people but because they don't have enough 'power', they can't do anything about it.
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Post by RandallBoggs on Sept 29, 2005 15:02:14 GMT -5
You guys should see my book when I publish it.
The first line involves Cities being born on three things (Power, Corruption, Greed)
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