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Hurricane Rita: estimated 4-5 billion.
Hurricane Irene: estimated 7-10 billion.
Hurricane Sandy: To Be Determined.
We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Carl Sagan
We've received a lot of calls: my sister and best friend from NC; my mother-in-law; my oldest son and my daughter-in-law from Oklahoma and Texas respectively. I've answered more than my share of thoughtful and appreciated Facebook updates. We're OK.
My youngest son called at 3:15 EST, which prompted me to ask why he was UP (2:15 CST). The news disturbed him and he was concerned about his parents. A price he has already paid, and now I pay as his concerns kept me awake.
My youngest son called at 3:15 EST, which prompted me to ask why he was UP (2:15 CST). The news disturbed him and he was concerned about his parents. A price he has already paid, and now I pay as his concerns kept me awake.
As I blog this, 7.1 million people are without power on the east coast, 2.2 million in New Jersey. An explosion and fire at ConEdison has left downtown Manhattan dark. Sixteen people have lost their lives. Schools are closed all over NY state. The NYU Medical Center is being evacuated after backup generators failed. The Metro Transit Authority is saying this is the worst disaster in the 108 year history of the New York City subway system. Seven tunnels are flooded and the New York Stock Exchange remains closed for a second day.
We must be cunning, discerning on our choice in one week of Head of State. I have my opinion and my vote already decided. It has not been decided by dogma, prejudice or melanin: I self-identify politically as a logician, a proud member of the reality-based community.
The Venn diagram intersecting set between prophecy and predictive modeling is both are warnings: given for the listeners to take heed and change their course of action before probable disaster becomes all the more real and credible.
However, denial of reality has an associated cost as I've listed above. We cannot long afford this cost. We cannot on the one hand want to compete toe-to-toe with countries that don't have our internal struggles, our inane politics, our sound bite attention spans; dogma and sloganeering, and expect in the end to be successful for very long. Empires after all, have lifespans.
Science, to further quote Carl Sagan "is a way of thinking," and so is believing the earth is 9,000 years old while holding a position in the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. One works towards a solution to real-world problems; the other an associated, ever-inflating cost.
Whatever your choice next Tuesday, we'll all live in the real aftermath (and price) of that choice.
"What's past is prologue." Shakespeare, Tempest, Act 2 Scene I
Site: Ready.gov
The Nation John Nichols: Disaster Relief
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