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What a month of disasters: Hurricane Harvey, Mexico earthquake (8.1), Hurricane Irma, Mexico earthquake (7.1) and now Hurricane Maria.
Maria hit St Croix and Puerto Rico on Wednesday, September 20, 2017, one day after the second earthquake took place.
Summary
Bob Henson of Weather Underground posted ‘Maria Slams St. Croix, Rips Across Puerto Rico’ early Wednesday morning.
Maria hit St Croix in the early morning hours (emphases mine below):
Maria raked the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix (population 50,000) with its outer eyewall on the strong (right front) side of the eye, between about 1 – 3 am EDT Wednesday morning, but the island missed seeing the Category 5 winds of the inner eyewall, which remained just offshore to the south. The highest winds officially observed on the island were at Cotton Valley RAWS, located on the east end of St. Croix: sustained at 99 mph, gusting to 136 mph, at 2:13 am EDT. A WeatherFlow station at Sandy Point, on the island’s southwest tip, observed sustained winds of 100-104 mph, gusting to 137 mph. Even stronger winds likely occurred somewhere across the island’s west end, but we don’t know how strong, since the wind measuring equipment at the St. Croix airport and the Lime Tree Bay Buoy failed.
According to the Quicklook page at NOAA’s Tides and Currents, Christiansted Harbor on the north side of St. Croix observed a storm surge of two feet. The pressure at a personal weather station on the southwest tip of St. Croix fell to 954 mb at 1:48 am, when the eye made its closest pass to the island.
Maria roared on to Puerto Rico, arriving a few hours later:
Ferocious Hurricane Maria made landfall around 6:15 am EDT Wednesday near Yabucoa in far southeast Puerto Rico as a top-end Category 4 storm, with peak sustained winds estimated at 155 mph …
Maria did not hit Puerto Rico as a Category 5 hurricane, thanks to an eyewall replacement cycle (ERC) that began on Tuesday night. The storm’s “pinhole” eye, less than 10 miles wide, was supplemented by an outer eyewall that contracted around the smaller one. The process helped lead to the slight weakening of Maria’s top winds, but it also likely broadened its core of winds topping 100 mph.
Dr Jeff Masters provided an update, ‘Maria Back Over Water After Devastating Hit to Puerto Rico’. Excerpts follow:
After making landfall in southeast Puerto Rico near 6:15 am Wednesday as a top-end Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds, Hurricane Maria finished a devastating pummeling of the island near 1:30 pm, when its eye emerged over the ocean off the northwest coast. An Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft found that Maria’s 70-mile traverse of Puerto Rico had knocked the top winds of the storm down to 110 mph by 5 pm Wednesday, making it a high-end Category 2 hurricane. Satellite images show the hurricane is still well-organized, though, and the Hurricane Hunters found that Maria’s pressure was falling again late Wednesday afternoon: 957 mb at 5 pm, compared to a 961 mb reading at 2 pm. Maria will continue to bring dangerous torrential rains and powerful winds to Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic into Thursday.
Maria brought extreme rainfall amounts to large portions of Puerto Rico that caused record or near-record flash flooding. Numerous stations in Puerto Rico recorded rainfall amounts in excess of ten inches. Rainfall amounts in excess of 47 inches in 24 hours were recorded at three stations on the southwest side of El Yunque, the high mountainous area in the northeast corner of Puerto Rico; these are so extreme as to be unbelievable, and the gauges may have been impacted by flash flooding, or by a calibration problem at extreme precipitaion rates …
The storm’s powerful winds caused catastrophic damage to the island’s power grid, knocking out power to 100% of Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million residents. In the Virgin Islands, there was also heavy damage on St. Croix, and serious flooding has been reported on St. Thomas …
Maria stayed over Puerto Rico for several hours:
After making landfall in southeast Puerto Rico near 6:15 am Wednesday as a top-end Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds, Hurricane Maria finished a devastating pummeling of the island near 1:30 pm, when its eye emerged over the ocean off the northwest coast. An Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft found that Maria’s 70-mile traverse of Puerto Rico had knocked the top winds of the storm down to 110 mph by 5 pm Wednesday, making it a high-end Category 2 hurricane. Satellite images show the hurricane is still well-organized, though, and the Hurricane Hunters found that Maria’s pressure was falling again late Wednesday afternoon: 957 mb at 5 pm, compared to a 961 mb reading at 2 pm. Maria will continue to bring dangerous torrential rains and powerful winds to Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic into Thursday.
Maria previously ravaged other Caribbean islands. A picture caption at the top of Masters’s article reads:
Damage on the Lesser Antilles island of Dominica, after Hurricane Maria hit as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds. Maria killed at least 7 people on Dominica, and 2 on neighboring Guadeloupe. Image from a video by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.
Zero Hedge has a good article, with part of the title being a quote, ‘We’ve Never Seen Anything Like This’ (emphasis in the original below):
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosello indicated this was life-changing:
We have not experienced an event of this magnitude in our modern history.
Earlier, on Dominica and Guadeloupe (emphases mine):
“It is devastating, indeed, mind boggling,” Roosevelt Skerrit, Dominica’s prime minister, said in a statement. The eastern Caribbean nation with a population of 75,000 has “lost all what money can buy and replace,” he said. Skerrit said he was rescued after the roof of his house was torn off by the storm.
At least six people have died on the island of Dominica, according to a spokeswoman for the government in London. “Damage is extensive throughout the island,” she said, “and people are walking the streets in a delirious state of mind.” With all lines of communication down, the government was relying on amateur radio, or ham radio, operators for updates, according to Bloomberg. In addition, at least two have been confirmed dead on the island of Guadeloupe.
Tell me there isn’t some sort of message in all this destruction.
Those of us living far away should pay attention and mend our ways, because this wrath is directed at all of mankind. I rarely write about storms, but the past few weeks have been phenomenal.
Maria in the record books
Henson reported that Maria is the record books:
Maria was the second strongest hurricane ever recorded to hit Puerto Rico, behind only the 1928 San Felipe Segundo hurricane, which killed 328 people on the island and caused catastrophic damage. Puerto Rico’s main island has also been hit by two other Category 4 hurricanes, the 1932 San Ciprian Hurricane, and the 1899 San Ciriaco Hurricane.
- In terms of top sustained wind, Maria is the fifth strongest hurricane on record to hit the U.S. behind only the four Cat 5s to hit the country (Hurricane Andrew of 1992 in South Florida, Hurricane Camille of 1969 in Mississippi, the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 in the Florida Keys, and the 1928 hurricane in Puerto Rico.)
- In terms of lowest atmospheric pressure at landfall, Maria (917 mb) ranks third in U.S. records behind only the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and Camille.
- Maria’s landfall at Category 4 strength gives the U.S. a record three Category 4+ landfalls this year (Maria, Harvey, and Irma). The previous record was two such landfalls, set in 1992 (Cat 5 Andrew in Florida, and Cat 4 Iniki in Hawaii.)
Masters’s article added:
Maria is almost assured to be the most expensive hurricane in Puerto Rico history, and may challenge Hurricane Hugo (1989) and Irma (2 weeks ago) as the most expensive hurricane on record for the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This was how the 1928 San Felipe Segundo hurricane was reported by a Nebraska newspaper. Note ‘God’s Fury!’ above the map:
The hurricane wreaked havoc — tornadoes and severe rain — from South Dakota eastward to New York.
For anyone wondering, Puerto Rico was spelled that way in those days. The United States did not use ‘ue’ until 1948.
Financially devastating
The cost of clean-up, restoration and rebuilding of parts of Texas, Florida, the Caribbean — and Mexico — will be massive, crippling in some cases.
The Zero Hedge article said:
Maria could cause $30 billion in damage to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, according to Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler for Enki Research. The island, which filed for bankruptcy in May after years of economic decline while a series of defaults, has been effectively shut out of capital markets, which could slow the recovery process, Bloomberg reports. Its aging government-owned electric utility operates under court protection from creditors and its emergency fund stood at about $32 million before Irma knocked out electricity access for hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans.
Although President Donald Trump has been busy at the UN for the past two days, he has been keeping a close eye on developments:
Below, he says that what has happened in Puerto Rico is ‘very, very sad’ and that Maria has made it a very different island:
The mayor of San Juan agrees:
The Trump administration will get relief work started as soon as practicable. He will also be visiting the island, probably the first president to do so after a disaster:
Images of Maria and Puerto Rico
Near the end of this moving GIF, Maria’s eye looks just like the hurricane symbol. Now I understand why the symbol has that shape:
The wild gyration, Stu Ostro says, is unusual.
There was also low pressure in a new location:
This short video shows Maria as she moved through parts of Puerto Rico:
Much of the island has been hit by flooding, which continues — said to be ‘catastrophic’ on Thursday:
Maria is still a strong hurricane:
In fact:
And:
This is a photo of the ocean:
Power is out for everyone in Puerto Rico:
Power will be out for some time:
Wow:
The man interviewed below said that he has lived through hurricanes before, but nothing like Maria. He said that his friends felt the same way:
A curfew is in effect for the entire island for the next few days:
El Nuevo Dia has news on the devastation.
The forecast
Something out of this world is going on here, because:
On Thursday:
This is a possible path:
Here is a timeline:
In closing
(I think ‘chela’ above was meant to be ‘heal’.)
Incredibly, on Tuesday, September 19, 2017, Mexico was shattered by a second horrible earthquake in less than two weeks.
Earthquakes occur all the time. Most are small and go unnoticed. However, Mexico has suffered badly this month.
The first quake occurred on Thursday, September 8, and measured 8.2 on the Richter scale. Ninety people died, mostly in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Tabasco. Several hundred homes were severely damaged or destroyed.
September 8 was the day when Irma was classified as a Category 5 hurricane storming through the Caribbean.
The New York Times reported (emphases mine):
Over all, the earthquake — the most powerful to hit the country in a century — killed at least 61 people in Mexico, all of them in the southern part of the country that was closer to the quake’s epicenter off the Pacific Coast.
The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 8.2 and struck shortly before midnight on Thursday, was felt by tens of millions of people in Mexico and in Guatemala, where at least one person died as well.
Also:
In Mexico City, the capital, which still bears the physical and psychological scars of a devastating earthquake in 1985 that killed as many as 10,000 people, alarms sounding over loudspeakers spurred residents to flee into the streets in their pajamas.
The city seemed to convulse in terrifying waves, making street lamps and the Angel of Independence monument, the capital’s signature landmark, sway like a metronome’s pendulum.
But this time, the megalopolis emerged largely unscathed, with minor structural damage and only two of its nearly nine million people reporting injuries, neither serious, officials said.
Mexico City’s residents no doubt breathed a collective sigh of relief.
However, they felt a deadly earthquake on Tuesday, which, ominously, was:
the 32nd anniversary of the tremor that killed thousands and came just two hours after earthquake drills were held across Mexico to mark the date.
Talk about a come-to-Jesus moment.
Today, the Telegraph reported that at least 217 people have died in the earthquake, which measured 7.1:
The death toll was slightly reduced, after it climbed throughout the night as rescue workers continued digging through rubble, with 21 children at a collapsed primary school among those killed …
The epicentre was Atencingo in Puebla state, around 75 miles south-east of Mexico City, and struck at a depth of 32 miles, according to the US Geological Survey, at 1.14pm local time …
President Enrique Pena Nieto urged people to stay in their homes if it was safe to do so and keep the streets free of congestion to allow emergency vehicles to pass.
Much of Mexico City is built on former lake bed, and the soil can amplify the effects of earthquakes centred hundreds of miles away.
The power is still out in many areas. Families are desperately trying to contact loved ones.
What follows is a selection of terrifying videos from Tuesday. I was surprised to see the number of passersby on the street watching to see what would happen. I realise that some buildings were evacuated, but a number of other people are just walking around amidst power lines lying in the street.
This video gets scary at the 5:08 point:
Here is another compilation:
This office building collapses in seconds:
This was the first tweet I saw:
No, it certainly was not:
This one shows a building swaying and a window or two popping out onto the street:
Look at the dust from the collapsing buildings:
Detail of all-enveloping dust:
This entire building — block of flats? — collapsed:
This was the scene on the 38th floor of one building:
It will take some time to get certain roads fixed:
Good grief:
The airport has been damaged:
This is a great animal rescue video:
Animals can sense an earthquake before people do. However, research shows that this is only seconds, rather than days, beforehand.
Earthquake watcher Dutchsinse is accurate in his predictions. I don’t follow him but saw him mentioned elsewhere. He saw this earthquake coming and warned about it. He thinks a volcano could erupt next:
Dutch explains that Mexico was ‘quiet’. Then, a few weeks ago, pressure started changing in Guatemala, travelling northward — the opposite direction seen in pressure movement — to Mexico. Now, Dutch thinks this movement will continue — possibly to southern California or eastward into the Caribbean.
He thinks something could happen on a 6.1 scale. The first Mexican earthquake was 8.1 or 8.2 (sources vary). This second one was 7.1. So, the next will be one point down on the scale.
This brings me to Wired‘s ‘Can Hurricanes Trigger Earthquakes?’ It seems so, but not in the same year. So far, research has shown a lag time of two years. There needs to be deforestation in order for that to occur and likely to be on a Caribbean island. Haiti has had the most research done. Many more studies would need to be conducted.
Here is a map of the area that Tuesday’s earthquake affected. It’s a large area, extending beyond Mexico City.
Dutchsinse warns his viewers living in a sensitive area in this part of the world to ‘be prepared’ and ‘have a plan’ for 11 days’ time.
I agree.
Whilst prepping, for those who haven’t already done so: get right with God.
The recent weather and tectonic movement have been so dramatic and unusual that I will repeat that this is a divine message. Who controls our planet? God, our Creator.
In the meantime, prayers for Mexico and condolences to the families who lost loved ones over the past two weeks.
Please note: this post deals with a sensitive subject.
On Monday, September 18, 2017, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) gave a press conference to discuss the Democrats’ plan to work with President Donald J Trump on amnesty for illegal aliens.
She no doubt thought it would go well, but she did not plan for an angry mob of people without US citizenship to shout her down. She is visibly shaking in the video below. I almost felt sorry for her:
This is Pelosi’s hoped-for voting bloc. Actually, some non-citizens vote already and did so in last year’s general election:
But I digress.
Back to Pelosi’s press conference. The optics are bad.
Here is another view:
Breitbart reported that the group of protesters, the Immigration Liberation Movement, employed classic radical techniques used during the Occupy protests in 2011:
The group shouted down Rep. Pelosi, who struggled to maintain control of the meeting, and unfurled a large banner calling for all illegal aliens to be legalized.
Others held up signs, including: “Fight 4 All 11 Million,” referring to the estimated total of all illegal aliens in the U.S.
Pelosi regained her composure afterwards, but one cannot help but wonder what she was thinking:
Breitbart explains the purpose of the press conference in more detail:
Earlier, Pelosi had spoken at the podium with community leaders and fellow members of Congress from the Bay Area in support of her legislative push for a bill that would legalize the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
President Donald Trump canceled DACA earlier this month, but left Congress a six-month window in which to find a legislative solution for the roughly 800,000 DACA beneficiaries. Pelosi said that she wanted the “DREAM Act,” a long-dormant Democratic Party bill that goes much further than DACA, “to be the basis of how we go forward.”
“We’re not giving up our fight to protect America’s dreamers,” she said.
However, she could not speak over the protests. “It’s clear you don’t want any answers,” she said.
Obama created DACA by executive order. That was wrong. It should have been a bill created in Congress that went through the usual legislative process. This is why Trump got rid of it.
Obama was a genius (in all the wrong ways), because this is a political hot potato. He was great at creating chaos.
The Free Beacon reported on Pelosi’s press conference:
Pelosi and Democrats have held the position that Dreamers should be legalized because only their parents are guilty of illegally immigrating to the United States. The protesters did not agree with such an approach.
“Congresswoman Pelosi, you called this press conference in our name to defend the so-called ‘Dream Act,'” they chanted. “But you’ve already traded in our parents in our name.”
They also attacked Pelosi for reaching out to make deals with Trump.
“Last week you announced that you had agreed with President Trump, and I quote you, ‘to work out a passage of border security,'” they chanted.
The article says that the radicals are even upset with Obama, claiming that, during his time in office, nearly three million illegals were deported.
Trump voters, hoping for better border and immigration security, are more upset than ever. Trending heavily on Twitter are #NoDACA and #NoAmnesty:
However, this could be part of a master plan from the American president. A Breitbart reader offers this candid analysis:
Actually, it is a stroke of genius on Trump’s part. If he does not get the wall, there will be no deal. And all of the illegals will turn on the Dems and blame them. Then, the Dems will finally admit that the DACA are caca and throw them under the bus while they look for a way to get new voters. So Trump has put the Dems in the hot spot, & they will get the blame for conceding the wall in order to let the DACA’s stay on work permits. Except the Dems will never allow the wall to be built. They have “compromised” in the past, but the wall has never been built because they lie through their teeth. So, since the Dems cannot compromise, the DACA’s deport as soon as their permits expire, & we get the wall. Along with a huge host of other goodies. Like less immigration & H series visas. Grab the popcorn, it is going to get good!
Information about DACA
Until a few days ago, I was under the mistaken impression that those enrolled in DACA — Dreamers — are children.
The Daily Caller says this is exactly what the media want people to believe (emphases mine below):
CNN and MSNBC are repeating the false claim that DACA recipients are “children” or “kids,” while actually most are adults.
While DACA recipients were illegally brought to the United States by their parents when they were children, the minimum age to apply for the program is 15 years old. In fact, the majority of the applicants were over the age of 20 based on 2014 data from the US government. Some have estimated that the average age of dreamers is 25 or 26 years old–hardly children.
The Daily Wire tells us more about Obama’s brilliance — calling off any serious screening for DACA applicants:
With all the hype surrounding President Trump’s decision to end DACA, it’s important to remember a 2013 report from Judicial Watch revealing that under Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), background checks were scrapped for those applying to be covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Documents from 2012 obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that memos were circulated about circumventing extensive background checks for those applying for DACA protection. For instance, memos from September 14 ordered the National Benefits Center (NBC) to provide “lean and lite” background checks to DACA applicants without a specified end date to stop the practice. Another email thread showed that DACA applicants couldn’t be denied protection if they were unable to produce some form of identification.
But there is more:
DACA also opened the door for family members of illegals protected under DACA to receive amnesty, as a directive allowed for “immediate relatives” of DACA illegals to receive protection for deportation. Therein lies the problem with DACA and efforts to provide legalization and citizenship to so-called Dreamers: it’s the first step toward broader amnesty.
The article concludes:
A country cannot adequately protect its citizens and uphold its sovereignty if it doesn’t know who is entering the country; by conducting only “light and lean” background checks and not requiring identification in applying for DACA, then extending protection to immediate family members of illegals protected by DACA, it’s very easy for people with criminal records to get through. Especially since so many of the DACA Dreamers aren’t actually children.
Trump cancelled DACA on September 5. New applications are no longer accepted.
Dreamers have to renew their paperwork for permits to remain in the United States. A permit is valid for two years. Anyone in the programme whose permit expires between now and March 5, 2018 must apply for a new permit before October 5, 2017.
After March 5, deportation efforts are likely to focus on criminals and not law-abiding Dreamers.
On September 5, The Daily Wire reported:
Trump is already promising not to implement immigration law in six months. That means this whole strategy is designed as a bluff to get Congress to legitimize DACA, and throw in funding for the wall as a sop to Trump’s immigration hawk base. In fact, as Politico is reporting, White House sources are saying Trump might leave DACA in place in six months if Congress doesn’t act.
The article concluded:
The odd thing about Trump’s policy here is that he had a far easier one available, as Byron York of The Washington Examiner points out: he could have simply pulled the Obama strategy on same-sex marriage by waiting for attorney generals to sue over DACA, then refuse to defend DACA. That would have avoided this brinksmanship while ending up with the same policy. Then Trump could bargain in good faith with Congress over DACA if he wanted to, without any bluff at all; even Democrats would see that DACA wasn’t long for the world and be forced to the negotiations table.
Lawsuits are being filed, including this one:
Why people are upset
DACA forces taxpayers to foot the bill for Dreamers and their families:
On the other hand:
Then there is the perspective from this legal immigrant — a Marine — who came to the US from Italy when he was two years old. He says — rightly — that every immigrant should follow the lawful process to enter the United States:
Amnesty has not worked in the past. Ronald Reagan gave amnesty at one point during his tenure in a bargain with the Democrats. The Democrats did not fulfil their part of the deal regarding workplace enforcement and border security. Bush II also gave an amnesty. Now here we are with DACA.
On September 8, Breitbart reported that the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was working out possible deals with Democrats earlier this year, as an Illinois senator explained:
Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democratic Senator, spilled the beans in an interview with Reuters, where he described how he worked with Jared Kushner and liberal Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to promote the DACA amnesty in April and July …
Kushner also arranged phone calls between Durbin and then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who now serves as Trump’s chief of staff.
On September 6, Trump took questions from the media about his meetings with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer (D-NY):
Q Mr. President, what do you say to those who say there are mixed signals coming from the White House over DACA?
THE PRESIDENT: No mixed signal at all. Congress, I really believe, wants to take care of this situation. I really believe it — even very conservative members of Congress. I’ve seen it firsthand. If they don’t, we’re going to see what we’re going to do.
But I will tell you, I really believe Congress wants to take care of it. We discussed that also today, and Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I. And I said if we can get something to happen, we’re going to sign it and we’re going to make a lot of happy people.
Q Do you want a pathway to citizenship for those DACA recipients?
THE PRESIDENT: That’s going to be discussed later, but we want to talk about legal right now. We haven’t discussed that.
Q What did you mean when you said you wanted to revisit the issue in six months?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re going to see what happens. I want to see what happens in Congress. I have a feeling that’s not going to be necessary. I think they’re going to make a deal. I think Congress really wants to do this.
Q And what would you like to see, Mr. President, in legislation?
THE PRESIDENT: I’d like to see something where we have good border security, and we have a great DACA transaction where everybody is happy and now they don’t have to worry about it anymore because, obviously, as you know, before, it was not a legal deal. It was a deal that wouldn’t have held up and didn’t hold up. And even President Obama when he did it, when he signed it, he said this is obviously not something that’s — he called it short-term.
I’d like to see a permanent deal, and I think it’s going to happen. I think we’re going to have great support from both sides of Congress, and I really believe that Congress is going to work very hard on the DACA agreement and come up with something.
In the early part of the 20th century, immigration was also a hot topic. In fact, immigration slowed to a trickle between 1921 and 1965, when, under Lyndon B Johnson, it resumed in earnest with the amended Immigration and Nationality Act.
All the belligerent immigration demands being made now in the United States would not be tolerated in other countries — especially south of the border.
I wonder what Nancy Pelosi is thinking today.
Sunday, September 17, 2017 was Constitution Day in the United States.
Some states and universities are holding special events this week to celebrate and educate Americans on the finest written work in the world other than the Bible.
I had not heard of Constitution Day until I saw someone tweet about it on a conservative site, but it has been around since 1911, starting in Iowa. Before 2004, it was also known as Citizenship Day.
It is disappointing to see that the late Senator Robert Byrd, a former KKK higher-up and Hillary Clinton hero, was responsible for this great celebration of freedom. Even broken clocks are right twice a day:
The law establishing the present holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd to the Omnibus spending bill of 2004.[3] Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known as “Citizenship Day”. In addition to renaming the holiday “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day,” the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions, and all federal agencies, provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.[4] In May 2005, the United States Department of Education announced the enactment of this law and that it would apply to any school receiving federal funds of any kind.[2]
It is celebrated by those on the Left:
As well as the Right:
Events are being held around the country, including Mississippi, Illinois and North Carolina.
Educating America’s youth about the Constitution is required by law:
The Constitution was carefully put together over several months. There were quarrels, but, through the grace of God, America’s Founding Fathers arrived at a work of genius:
This is what the Founding Fathers devised for the new Great Republic:
These are some of the best-known Amendments:
Upholding the Constitution relies on the support of the American populace:
Yet, over the past few decades, many Americans have become distracted by bread and circuses:
The Daily Signal, referenced by the Heritage Foundation, points out:
our textbook description of American government conceals the reality of the administrative state. Most of the rules that govern our behavior are made by administrative agencies, not by Congress. Administrative agencies also investigate, prosecute, and enforce violations of these rules …
For several years, Congress has taken a closer look at reforming this administrative state that has grown up around the Constitution and threatens its core principles. But thus far, very little has been completed.
The path back to constitutional government will be long and difficult from this Constitution Day, but many good ideas have been offered for bringing our administrative behemoth back into the constitutional framework.
It is the responsibility of Congress to rein in the administrative state and begin the slow, arduous task of rebuilding constitutional government.
This man is correct:
This student understands:
However, too few care.
In many quarters, ‘patriot’ has become a dirty word:
Some think the Constitution is sexist or racist, however, nothing could be further from the truth. This short video is excellent at explaining what various amendments actually say:
It is vital that the US Constitution be upheld in all three branches of government — executive, legislative and judicial:
For more information on the US Constitution and Constitution Day, see #ConstitutionDay, Presidential Trivia and the National Archives.
Earlier this year, the British mothers’ site Mumsnet and grandmother’s site Gransnet each took a survey of grandparents’ attitudes towards babies’ names.
Mumsnet‘s and Gransnet‘s results are now in. The two groups worked together on the surveys.
Generally speaking, 81% (Gransnet) to 85% (Mumsnet) of grandparents have no problem with their grandchildren’s names.
However, Gransnet says that, for the small majority that do:
44% of grandparents said that the disagreement was with their daughter, 22% with their son, 17% with their daughter-in-law and only 6% with their son-in-law. In order to avoid using the hated name, 17% said they avoid mentioning the child’s name when talking to other people about them, another 17% admit to using the child’s name begrudgingly and 6% said they avoid saying the name at all. 39%, however, have found that they’ve come to terms with the name now that they’ve got used to it.
Mumsnet says that grandmothers are more likely to object to names than grandfathers:
Forty-four percent of parents said the complaints came from their own mother and 42% said they came from their mother-in-law. Only 14% said their dad objected and the figure was the same for objections from father-in-laws.
That should be fathers-in-law.
Anyway, on September 13, The Telegraph had an article about the survey and included a list of popular baby names over the past 100 years, which makes for interesting reading.
I don’t know what the situation is in the US, but British names have changed over the past 20 years (emphases mine):
Among the reasons given for such grand parental distaste is that – like Muireann – the name is too hard to pronounce. This does not explain, however, why names loathed by grandparents include Charlotte, Jack, Sally and Finn, my own son’s name. (His grandparents love it, by the way. Or at least, they claim to.)
Other objections raised by grandparents include the name being too odd, too “made-up” or too old-fashioned; annoyance that their suggested name hadn’t been used; and annoyance that a family name hadn’t been used. For some, the name is just too ugly. Aurora, Elijah and Tabitha were cited among the offensive choices.
With regard to Tabitha, one wonders why people don’t use Dorcas instead.
Jack and Finn sound like nicknames. Yet, Jack is perfectly acceptable as a name on its own, apparently:
Derived from Jackin (earlier Jankin), a medieval diminutive of JOHN. It is often regarded as an independent name. During the Middle Ages it was very common, and it became a slang word meaning “man”. It was frequently used in fairy tales and nursery rhymes, such as ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, ‘Little Jack Horner’, and ‘Jack Sprat’.
Anyone naming their baby daughter Sally should put the full name on the birth certificate. Sally is a diminutive of Sarah.
The boys’ names from 1944 through to 1984 included (among others) John, James, Matthew, Michael, Richard and Robert.
Girls’ names between 1944 and 1974 were straightforward: Ann, Barbara, Jean, Mary, Sarah and Susan, to name but a few.
These are the most popular names for boys and girls as of 2015. I omitted the few conventional ones:
Oliver, Jack, Harry, George, Jacob, Charlie, Noah, William, Oscar
Amelia, Olivia, Emily, Isla, Ava, Ella, Isabella, Mia, Poppy
Charlie? Charles, surely. Harry is short for Henry. Parents, please take note.
Poppy? Hmm.
What a parent thinks is cute is something the child will have to endure for a lifetime. Perhaps the solution is a more conventional middle name that can be used if necessary.
The three-year Lectionary that many Catholics and Protestants hear in public worship gives us a great variety of Holy Scripture.
Yet, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
My series Forbidden Bible Verses — ones the Lectionary editors and their clergy omit — examines the passages we do not hear in church. These missing verses are also Essential Bible Verses, ones we should study with care and attention. Often, we find that they carry difficult messages and warnings.
Today’s reading is from the English Standard Version with commentary by Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.
24 And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. 28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without objection. I ask then why you sent for me.”
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Last week’s entry was about Peter pondering the vision he was given about all foods being clean when Cornelius’s men arrived to take him to Caesarea. Peter, a guest in Simon the tanner’s house in Joppa, provided the men with hospitality before setting off with them the next day.
I wrote last week that it was interesting that men from Joppa, converts, accompanied Peter and the Gentiles — Cornelius’s emissaries — on the journey (verse 23).
There is much significance behind that. Jews were not allowed to mix with Gentiles other than in the street or in commerce. Therefore, not only was it a big deal that Peter invited the Gentiles into Simon’s house for refreshment and sleep, but this commingling in travel would also further the mixing of the two groups.
Peter’s vision was now making sense to him, and he followed its instruction.
Both Matthew Henry and John MacArthur point out that this division between Jew and Gentile was never part of Mosaic law.
Henry tells us more and adds that there was similar animosity on the part of Gentiles (emphases mine):
It was not made so by the law of God, but by the decree of their wise men, which they looked upon to be no less binding. They did not forbid them to converse or traffic with Gentiles in the street or shop, or upon the exchange, but to eat with them. Even in Joseph’s time, the Egyptians and Hebrews could not eat together, Genesis 43:32. The three children would not defile themselves with the king’s meat, Daniel 1:8. They might not come into the house of a Gentile, for they looked upon it to be ceremonially polluted. Thus scornfully did the Jews look upon the Gentiles, who were not behindhand with them in contempt, as appears by many passages in the Latin poets.
We see this in verse 28, when Peter refers to his vision and rightly extends it from food to people, in this case, the Gentiles. Peter used the term ‘unlawful’.
MacArthur explains ‘unlawful’ and discusses ‘anathema’:
Notice the term unlawful. “You know that it is an unlawful thing.” Athematas, it means taboo. The Old Testament ceremonial law, of course, didn’t say that, but the rabbis added that. In fact, the rabbis said that defilement by going into a Gentile home was a seven-day defilement. Now the only seven-day defilement were contact…was contact with a dead body, but the Jews believed that the Gentiles put their aborted children down the drains. That when a Gentile woman had an abortion, she put the…the dead fetus down the drain, and so any contact with a Gentile home was contact with a defilement of a dead body. Therefore, that was a seven-day defilement; and because of the seriousness of such a defilement, Jews would not enter Gentile homes.
As for the the converts accompanying Peter and the Gentiles from Joppa to Caesarea, Henry said it was common. St Luke, the author of Acts, did not say whether Peter invited them or whether they invited themselves, however, everyone had good intentions:
Either Peter desired their company, that they might be witnesses of his proceeding cautiously with reference to the Gentiles, and of the good ground on which he went, and therefore he invited them (Acts 11:12), or they offered their service to attend him, and desired they might have the honour and happiness of being his fellow travellers. This was one way in which the primitive Christians very much showed their respect to their ministers: they accompanied them in their journeys, to keep them in countenance, to be their guard, and, as there was occasion, to minister to them; with a further prospect not only of doing them service, but of being edified by their converse.
Acts 11:12 says that six men from Joppa went. Whatever the circumstances were surrounding their decision to go, MacArthur says this was highly significant for the development of the Church. MacArthur thinks that Peter probably invited the men. We see God’s grace at work in giving them good and holy desires:
In fact, they became the key to the unifying of Jew and Gentile. You say, “What are you saying that for?” Just to say this. God not only led Peter through the direct voice of that… of the vision, through the very direct communication medium, but God led Peter through Peter’s own desires and Peter’s own ideas. God didn’t say, “Peter, take along six guys.” No, He didn’t do that at all. You say “Well, Peter just wanted to take ’em along?” Yeah, but where do you think he got that desire? God gave it to him, because God knew it was crucial to have them there.
Now, believe me, people, this is a great introduction as to how God works in the life of a believer. You and I don’t hear voices anymore. If we do, you come to see me. We don’t hear voices, and we don’t see visions, and God doesn’t do great, you know, skywriting…and give us all certain visions like in the old days. But how does God lead? He leads through our desires, and here we see exactly that. And mark it, people, it was just as important to have those guys there as it was for Peter to see that vision; but one of those came by God’s direct media. The other came by His indirect media, which is as He works in our hearts by His Holy Spirit to bring what He wants to do…
It was critical that those Jewish Christians go, but there wasn’t any command. That’s how God works in us today. We…we don’t have the first half anymore. We just have that part. Philippians 2:13, “For it is God…I like this…who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Don’t you like that? God is working in me to will and to do of His good pleasure …
And I think that’s how He works if you’re the right vessel. Now, if your desires are all clogged up with your own self-desires, you got problems filtering it out.
Verse 24 describes the men arriving in Caesarea ‘the following day’. Most probably, everyone was on foot, including the Gentiles. We will see next week that verse 30 says Cornelius talked about having his vision four days before. He sent his men to Joppa to fetch Peter immediately afterwards. From this we can deduce that it was a two-day trip each way. Henry says:
It seems, it was above a day’s journey, nearly two, from Joppa to Cesarea; for it was the day after they set out that they entered into Cesarea (Acts 10:24), and the afternoon of that day, Acts 10:30. It is probable that they travelled on foot; the apostles generally did so.
Note also in verse 24 that Cornelius had gathered his relatives and close friends with him. He knew something spiritually life-changing was going to happen. Henry emphasises Cornelius’s generosity in wanting to share this special time with others whom he loved and trusted:
Note, We should not covet to eat our spiritual morsels alone, Job 31:17. It ought to be both given and taken as a piece of kindness and respect to our kindred and friends to invite them to join with us in religious exercises, to go with us to hear a sermon. What Cornelius ought to do he thought his kinsmen and friends ought to do too; and therefore let them come and hear it at the first hand, that it may be no surprise to them to see him change upon it.
Whether Cornelius was overly excited or completely overcome by Peter’s presence, we do not know. However, his instinct was to fall down before Peter and worship him (verse 25).
Peter immediately lifted Cornelius up and disabused him of such a notion (verse 26): ‘Stand up; I, too, am a man’.
Given Peter’s humility, then, it is amazing that the Catholic Church came up with the idea of considering him as the first pope and that he was to have successors. MacArthur goes into all of that, citing a German book on Catholic doctrine, and concludes:
But Peter wants no worship. It is wrong to worship Peter. He is no pope. He is nothing to be worshiped. He is a man. Get up off your feet. Quit kissing his toe. He’s a man…He disallowed it at the very start, and no Christian is ever to be worshipped. No saint…at all. In Acts 14:14, they started to worship Paul and Barnabas…They were all calling ’em Jupiter and Mercury and thinking they were gods, and Paul says in verse 15, “What are you doing? We are men of like passions with you. Get up. What’s all this nonsense?”
You wanna hear what Isaiah said? Isaiah 42:8, he said this, “I am the Lord. That is My name, and My glory will I not give to another.” Did you hear that? “I am the Lord. That is My name. I am the Lord. That is My name. I will not give My glory to another.”…There’s only one in the Bible who ever accepted worship. You know who that was? God. There’s only one in the New Testament who ever accepted worship. Who is that? Jesus Christ. Then who is He? God. Peter didn’t want the worship of anybody.
Peter, post-vision, willingly entered Cornelius’s house. The former observant Jew goes into a Gentile’s house. This is highly significant.
There he sees many people (verse 27) and tells them of his vision that he is not to consider anyone unclean (verse 28).
Peter added that he came willingly, ‘without objection’, and asked why he was summoned (verse 29).
Note Peter’s discernment. He asked why he should be there. He did not work on assumptions or suppositions.
The story continues next week, but the three recent posts below explain how the first Pentecost transformed Peter from being foolish and rashly spoken into a true spiritual leader and fisher of men:
John MacArthur on Peter’s leadership qualities
More from John MacArthur on Peter’s leadership journey
Next time — Acts 10:30-33
Hillary Clinton’s new book, What Happened, is one of those tomes that will appeal only to her fans.
I heard Boston’s Howie Carr discussing it this week on his radio show. He said she blames everyone but herself for her loss. He also suspects it was probably ghost-written.
Carr picked up heavily on her paternalistic accusations of male Trump supporters forcing women — daughters, employees, etc. — to vote for the Donald. Howie said he did not tell his daughters how to vote. They had already made up their minds to vote for Trump. He added that he did not tell his sidekick Grace Curley how to vote, either, which she duly confirmed. However, Grace did say that Howie put the frighteners on one of her female friends in the run-up to election day, predicting all sorts of terrible things with a Hillary victory.
Rob Crilly reviewed the book in The Telegraph on September 13. Excerpts follow (emphases mine below):
What happened, it turns out, was not that Mrs Clinton was a flawed candidate with an uninspiring campaign, but that she was the victim of a world that wasn’t ready for her. And fake news, Rupert Murdoch, Vladimir Putin, Julian Assange, the New York Times and above all James Comey, the then FBI director, were “what happened”.
Mr Comey, you remember, was in charge of probing the homebrew email server that Mrs Clinton had used as Secretary of State. Just 11 days before the election, he announced he was reopening the investigation ensuring a slew of negative headlines at a crucial moment. “Even if Comey caused just 0.6 percent of Election Day voters to change their votes, and even if that swing only occurred in the Rust Belt, it would have been enough to shift the Electoral College from me to Trump,” writes Mrs Clinton.
We’ll never know the impact but I’m happy to imagine the intervention would have caused a 0 percent shift if she and her media team had got out ahead of the controversy, instead of going into a defensive crouch for months beforehand and avoiding legitimate questions.
It all smacks of the entitled status that so turned off voters. Throughout the book are reminders of the Clintons’ world: the hobnobbing in the Hamptons and the billionaire friends from the dotcom world.
Just so.
That is a big reason why a lot of Democrats turned to Trump.
Which reminds me:
And let’s not forget:
The Telegraph has resumed allowing comments on some of their articles. Greatly appreciated. The one dated 13 Sep 2017 1:03PM is excellent:
Bill and Hillary signed up as a double act years ago to fleece the world and hoover up whatever power, influence and money they could obtain together.
So Bill’s infidelities were just grist to the mill as long as the devious money making schemes from Whitewater to the Clinton Foundation continued to provide the lifestyle and influence which they felt was justly due to them AND they stayed together.
The only surprising aspect is that they both thought they could go on pulling the same strings and stunts for ever and the public would continue to be mesmerised by their ‘charm’ and political know how.
As they now know all good things must come to an end.
Exactly. Why it took so many decades for Americans to see that still mystifies me. And those who saw it during the 2008 election campaign — when she rolled over for Obama in order to get a place in his cabinet — dumped the Clintons for good. More realised how awful she was during the subsequent eight years.
This dissatisfaction with the Democrats is one of the reasons the US has had a significant increase in independent voters during the past few election cycles.
On the Trump side of the equation, the bright sparks at The_Donald are banding together to buy Trump’s Great Again (formerly Crippled America) in order to topple Hillary from the No. 1 spot on Amazon. Trump’s book was 16th on Tuesday, September 12 but No. 1 in the Movers and Shakers category.
One of The_Donald’s commenters is going to send a copy of Great Again to Hillary at the Hillary for America address in New York.
The Daily Caller picked up on this:
Their article provides the excerpt:
“It was like quicksand: the more you struggle, the deeper you sink. At times, I thought I must be going crazy. Other times I was sure it was the world that had gone nuts,” Clinton wrote. “Sometimes I snapped at my staff. I was tempted to make voodoo dolls of certain members of the press and Congress and stick them full of pins. Mostly, I was furious at myself.”
And that was where the fury should have stayed. There should not have been a book, either, because Hillary has enough money.
And, in closing, to show how greedy she is, she is actually charging people to attend her book signings. Who does that? High-profile authors, it seems.
As if that weren’t bad enough, she’s charging in Canada as well.
On August 31, Fox News reported:
For $2,375.95 (or $3,000 in Canadian dollars), Clinton fans in Toronto can obtain a “VIP platinum ticket” for her Sept. 28 talk. That ticket includes two front-row seats, a photo with Clinton backstage and a signed book.
For the same price, VIP tickets are also available during Clinton’s upcoming appearances in Montreal and Vancouver.
The steep ticket prices have not gone unnoticed in the publishing industry.
“It is standard for high profile authors to do book tours that sell tickets to events, but Clinton’s tour takes it to a new level of greed,” an industry source told Fox News.
I hope we get an update in a few months’ time. It would be marvellous to discover that few people attended.
Watching children with their parents in southern France fascinates me.
Even toddlers there are well behaved.
Families walk along the beach together late at night, and it’s a beautiful sight to behold.
The children are also good in restaurants. They eat an amazing variety of seafood and know how to use their utensils properly.
So I was fascinated to read an article in The Telegraph, ‘No kids allowed: is Britain becoming an anti-child society?’
Excerpts follow:
Eileen Potter, owner of Treacle’s Tea Shop in Winchmore Hill, north London, recently found herself in hot water when she banned pre-schoolers, to the fury of many parents. In response, she explained: ‘We can not continually afford to replace crockery. We are not a family establishment’ …
Italy is famed for being especially family-friendly, but Marco Magliozzi of Rome fish restaurant, La Fraschetta del Pesce, imposed the same restriction. ‘Children throw olive oil on the floor, they send the salt cellar flying across the room and, above all, they hate fish,’ he complained.
Well, I have not seen that in the south of France.
Part of the problem perhaps is letting children rule the roost at home. Another is not eating at the kitchen or dining room table every night. I can remember pretty far back and recall eating with my parents at table from the time I was three. I had my dad’s children’s cutlery set so I could eat properly. No special meals. I ate what my parents ate. Mom did have to cut my pork chops up for a while, but other than that I never had a problem.
However, there is another difficulty here with children since the smoking bans came in force across much of Europe. Every adult establishment now seems to be child-friendly. Pubs and continental cafés are no longer for adults.
The Telegraph points this out:
Several of my London friends (in their 40s and 50s, with no kids) complain that their long-held ritual of a quiet, lazy weekend pub lunch is now impossible.
‘Every decent pub in my neighbourhood is full of children running wild, and that’s if you can get through the door, which is invariably barricaded by buggies,’ says one who wants to remain anonymous. She now eats out only in the evening: ‘But even at 8pm or 9pm, there are often loads of children. Is nowhere sacred?’
Another seethed her way through a recent restaurant outing: ‘There was a toddler on his scooter, whizzing around the dining room, weaving between the tables, tripping up the staff. His parents ignored him and carried on drinking their wine.’
Those ladies would be fine in Cannes, where, somehow, even in the most cramped restaurant, no one notices buggies since they are always thoughtfully placed. Children also look forward to the restaurant experience there. It seems to make them feel more grown up.
The solution is for parents to bring up their children from infancy to be as quiet and calm as possible so as not to be a nuisance to others.
Unfortunately, most parents think of their children as entertaining little darlings when many certainly are not.
The Telegraph gave several examples of places in Britain and Italy that are going child-free. It is regrettable that well-behaved children will have to wait several years before they can enjoy such places themselves, but indulgent parents have only themselves to blame for this inevitable outcome.
After Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Britain’s Storm Aileen pales by comparison.
Yes, I feel for people who have no power and had structural damage to their homes, but there was quite a bit of hype — panic stations — at a time when cooler heads should have prevailed.
Aileen blew in overnight between September 12 and 13. It’s a bit early for storms like these in the UK, which normally arrive in October or November. Aileen was finished by the time everyone woke up in the west and mid-morning in the east:
Like many others, I’m not sure why the storm even deserved a name. Surely, it was a strong gale. But, the Met Office knows more than we do and perhaps the forecasted gusts were high enough to warrant one. Even so, it strikes me as overkill:
The photos look remarkably like the ones from Irma with uprooted trees, wrecked outbuildings, some flooding and power outages.
BT.com reported:
The M48 Severn Crossing in south Gloucestershire and the Ouse Bridge on the M62 in East Yorkshire were closed due to high winds but have since been reopened.
Network Rail said some railway lines in the south of England and Midlands may still face disruption due to “fallen trees and large branches” on the tracks.
The Telegraph has several photos and reported that Aileen is unrelated to Irma and Jose.
It would be an idea if people here and in other storm-prone areas took preventive action. Keeping taller trees near power lines and railways trimmed would be a sensible start. The homeowners in our street do that. Why can’t everyone else?
On Monday, September 11, 2017, I listened to the Howie Carr Show, broadcast from Boston.
Howie’s poll question was about media coverage of Irma. Fifty-nine per cent of his listeners thought it was overkill. Forty-one per cent thought it was just right.
Howie, whose property in West Palm Beach is fine, lamented that the 41% who were interested in Irma either a) had homes in Florida, b) visited the state or c) knew people there. I fit two out of three categories — not a), I hasten to add.
I very much appreciate getting updates, so please feel free to comment. Thank you to my two readers who have sent in reports!
If this had been the worst case scenario, the US would have had an historic humanitarian disaster on its hands. As it is, there is still much clean up and restoration to be done.
I have heard and read that there is much criticism for the ‘lack of response’ in the Caribbean by the British and French governments in British territories and Saint Martin, respectively.
Amazingly, one of the lefty panellists on RMC (talk radio) yesterday said he was sick and tired of hearing about it. He said that the French government was doing what it could to help. This man blamed naive people visiting the island during hurricane season. He also said that French people who moved there have a responsibility to know how to deal with hurricanes. He was annoyed that people expected the government to do everything for them.
South central Florida
I have been reading Sundance’s updates on The Conservative Treehouse. He has lived in southwest Florida for many years and goes out to help with aid and rescue after hurricanes. The media are covering only the west coast cities and Keys. Less has been said about the east coast, which suffered worse damage, and central Florida, parts of which are also flooded.
Sundance said that Lake Okeechobee (the big ‘O’ lake visible in the southern end of the state) burst its banks and is flowing into the Peace River near Arcadia. This is part of his ground report:
En route to the coast we got a ham radio call, well, more of a desperate plea for help on U.S. 17 for a group of families stuck between Wachula and Arcadia. By the time we got there… yikes, desperate homeowners and families trying to salvage anything amid chest high water actually flowing on US 17.
We were able to get about 5 families and their pets, and a few belongings, relocated about 2 miles away and called for the United Way to get there and help. It was like something out of a farm movie. These people are suffering, and they didn’t have much to start with; and they are so thankful …
The center of Florida is rural, farming, working class, and also lots of poor people. The coasts are more well-off. I think all the attention is going to the coasts. The center of the state is of Florida is FUBAR. Truth. Really bad. Those fine God-loving people didn’t have much and now they have less.
As he wrote last week, getting any kind of fuel continues to be a major problem. He thinks he will probably be restricted to helping in local cleanups for now.
This is more of what he saw yesterday near the Peace River after rescuing the families:
By the time we got them to safety, we couldn’t get back to where we came from. We had to drive 20 miles north; to head West toward I-75 near Bradenton; to head South. On the way across SR64 there were people stuck with the Peace River flowing down the streets and driveways. We helped who we could amid widespread downed power lines; broken power poles snapped like twigs (East to West wind); and trees as thick as cars that were blown over (North to South wind).
It took us 4 hours to cut through the trees blocking the road just to clear enough roadway to get to I-75 (West coast). There’s massive power outages all over; made worse by flooding, that, as far as I can tell, the radio news media seemed to be overlooking.
Cell phone service is poor to non-existent. Out of frustration our team split up to check on our own situations before we lost light …
I’m writing this from a phone hotspot, which is the only source of internet access (probably because cables are down all over) and using the fuel remaining in the generator. to power up the drained laptop. I haven’t seen a second of TV (and don’t care to) and have no idea what media is saying about storm. However, if radio talk is any indicator, these pontificating doofuses are stuck in their Vichy boxes not looking past the coastal metropolitan areas.
If the media are covering only certain Irma stories round the clock, it is no wonder Americans are tired of hearing about it. Why can’t these news channels come up with additional reporting, which, surely, they could get from other networks’ local affiliates?
What follows are more videos and images I did not have the space to post yesterday. I will also give an update on Irma’s aftermath as experienced in other southern states on Monday.
Current forecast
This was the forecast late on September 11:
Later:
The NHC Atlantic Ops attention is now on Jose’s path.
Here is a map of Florida to help with the updates below. By the way:
Orlando
Dangerous creatures are lurking, even inland:
Disney World and Universal Studios reopened on Tuesday.
East coast
In the north, Jacksonville was hit in a major way:
A Pizza Hut manager in the city is in trouble for telling employees they could not evacuate early:
“We absolutely do not have a policy that dictates when team members can leave or return from a disaster, and the manager who posted this letter did not follow company guidelines,” the company said in a statement.
The company added that all stores in Irma’s path had been shuttered and wouldn’t reopen “until local authorities deem the area safe.”
These pictures were taken near St Augustine:
Going south, here’s Daytona Beach:
There was also flooding:
Going further south towards Palm Beach, here are the cities of Stuart:
And Fort Pierce:
Jupiter residents were advised to stay off the roads:
Moving south past Palm Beach, this was the scene in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, September 9 (another view of the tornado here):
On Sunday, Irma uprooted at least one tree:
Three huge construction cranes fell. The first two were in Miami and the third was in Fort Lauderdale. Fortunately, no one was injured.
Not far south from Fort Lauderdale lie Miami and Biscayne Bay.
This is what it was like on Saturday night:
The flooding from storm surge is unbelievable:
Biscayne Bay flooding:
The Keys
The Keys lie south of the Florida peninsula.
As was forecast, Irma ravaged large parts of this area, from Key Largo westward to Key West:
Residents who evacuated and want to return will have a long wait (another photo here):
Key Largo is now open. Another two opened on Tuesday:
This man says that he saw a lot of mobile homes tipped over:
Marco Island
Irma hit the mainland on Marco Island on Sunday, September 10:
How awful:
Animal rescues
Many animals were rescued during and after Irma:
South Carolina
Irma reached South Carolina as a tropical storm on Monday:
There were also tornado warnings.
North Carolina
As forecasted, Irma made it to the western part of North Carolina:
Georgia
Irma also went north from Florida into neighbouring Georgia:
Atlanta felt Irma’s wrath:
Uber suspended service Monday afternoon. Air transport posed a similar problem in tropical storm force winds.
There were also tornado warnings.
Alabama
Much of Alabama was cool on Monday. Irma brought heavy rain.
There were also strong winds in places:
There were 20,000 power outages.
Yet, other parts of the state near the Gulf were warm and sunny.
Mobile Bay had the phenomenon of its water being sucked out:
Anyone interested in tracking Irma’s final gasps can follow the NOAA satellite image which, as I write in the afternoon UK time, is showing the storm moving into Louisiana and Oklahoma and as far north as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Conus (Continental US) image from the National Weather Service is a great Doppler image worth checking out.
In other news, as Mexico is cleaning up and rescuing people after its earthquake, it will discontinue helping Texas post-Harvey:
And finally, September 11 is the anniversary of another severe hurricane — Iniki, which struck the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i in 1992.
Wow. What a time of acts of God, from Harvey to Mexico’s earthquake to Irma. We will remember 2017 for some time to come.
