Day: October 19, 2005

So, let’s recap: This year, two major hurricanes that with barometric pressures that put them in the top five of recorded major hurricanes, and a third one that is — from initial readings anyway — the all-time most intense storm in the Atlantic. I think this is a perfect time to break out the "what the hell?" face. Also note that we’re already on "W" in the naming scheme for hurricanes, and there’s still six weeks to go until the end of the 2005 hurricane season. We go to the Greek alphabet from here; I’m putting money on hitting a storm named Gamma before I clear off the dishes at Thanksgiving dinner.

This new storm seems to be targeting Florida, which makes it the fourth or fifth time in the last year or so that it’s been whacked by hurricanes, and for that they have my sympathy. I do wonder, if we are indeed entering an era of increased hurricane activity in the Atlantic, if we’ll reach some sort of bend in the curve, where there’s a net drain of people leaving Florida and other Gulf states because they’ve gotten tired of rebuilding after getting flattened twice or three times in a decade. I suppose that might be good news for Kansas and other plains states, who could use a few new warm bodies.

"Kansas: Hurricane free or your money back!" They do have tornadoes, mind you. But the destruction cone there is so much smaller. The odds are in one’s favor, really.

All this disaster stuff does make me increasingly glad I live in Ohio, where the major natural catastrophe one has to worry about is boredom. And you never hear about massive storms of boredom knocking houses off their foundation. At least not since the advent of cable TV and the Internet, anyway.