Hurricane Season

A Storm Surge in Cuba before hurricane Ike even arrives

Haitians fleeing the port city of Gonaives which has been devastated

My friends know that I love to say I told you so. This time however it's not so sweet. I arrived in Miami just in time for the 2 worst hurricane seasons on record, then it was nice and calm for two years. I knew they were coming back... and how. Lucky for south Florida it has not been hit badly this year yet. The Caribbean has been getting murderized though. Haiti and Cuba have taken quite the hits. With death tolls already in the hundreds in both countries and more storms likely.

Tropical Storms are named after people in alphabetical order alternating between male and female names. Right now Ike is on it's way to Cuba after killing at least 60 people in Haiti. Hanna who just passed through Haiti took at least 500 lives. Cuba and Haiti are more prone to catastrophic damage due to the poor conditions of the construction. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and Cuba is full of old decaying buildings... Haiti has been in terrible shape for...ever (it seems like, though it does have a rich history) and Cuba has um... diplomatic issues with the rich country closest to it.
What can be done about this?

What do EWE think?

...Not So Bad

Now a days something like this doesn't really count. 7 people were killed by midwest tornadoes on sunday. 6 people in Iowa and a toddler in Minnesota. But this aint too bad right.

I mean only 7 people, thats nothing compared to China or Burma or New Orleans... Really? Ask somebody who knew one of those 7 victims. Ask the owner of the home in that picture. What is the measure of storm severity? 

The strength of the storm would be pretty accurate, but then if the strongest hurricane in the world spins around the Atlantic, never breaking shore it doesn't matter. 

So then maybe it's the number of people affected, but then a weaker storm hitting in a heavily populated area would be "worse" than a much stronger storm where say "only" 7 people die.

So maybe it should be damage in dollars, but then a place like Miami or L.A. will always have the worst storms cause of how expensive the houses, cars, stores and business lost and all that shit is. A Terrible storm can hit an impoverished nation and "not be so bad" cause those people didn't have much to loose anyway.

Now-a-days I think it's really all about exposure (of course relativity too, but more exposure). If the TV decides that this disaster is good for business than they report on it. Good for business means they have a lot of pictures, somebody famous is involved, the numbers are outrageous, it scares us, and a lot of other shit like that. Good for business does not necessarily mean you need to hear it, or you can do something about it, or unfortunately that it's accurate. 

WHAT DO EWE THINK?

Please comment!

Disaster

Death tolls are a tricky thing. Everyday or every so many hours the death toll for the number of people confirmed dead or missing jumps. I realize this is a tragic reflection of the devastation, but how is it that 20,000 can be confirmed dead, than in an hour 30,000 are confirmed dead? Who is counting the bodies? I'm not trying to make light of this, it's really weird to me. 

 

My main concern with these numbers is how this storm or that tragedy is considered the worst of all time based on some estimated number. Everything is a competition, all of a sudden Burma is out of the news and China is in. 

 

China's death toll is expected to top 50,000 while Burma's state media have raised the official death toll to 43,318 with 27,838 missing, how do they get these numbers? How can 100,000 people all just die within such a short time frame? So close to each other too. 

 

I am curious as to what happens next on a personal level. If your whole city is just ruined, you obviously loose some if not all friends and family members. How do you go on when everything is gone? 

WHAT DO EWE THINK?

Please comment!