starcrafttom":10qe667i said:
Jim, How do these storms affect the ticky fricky dolphins??? it's all just pay back for those winter pictures you are so fond of. :wink: Looking at the forecast you are going to get hit again. I heard a news caster describe your area as "Having more cattle then people and good place for the storm to hit" man that was cold.
Hi Tom,
The dolphins seem to do OK... not sure where they go to hide, but there were seagulls seen 100 miles inland when Dolly hit. While the coast is not densely populated, there are over 1 million people in the Rio Grande Valley (and at least that many just south of the border)... and there were many thousands of people inland who were impacted by the flooding caused by 20+ inches of rain. There were still communities with a couple feet of standing water when we left, 5 weeks after Dolly hit. The media used that "more cattle than people" line when a hurricane went between us and Corpus several years ago. It seems that the media likes to focus on the Category of the storm and the number of people who will suffer... as though it's a contest.
The current predictions are showing a landfall in the vicinity of Corpus Christi (population somewhere around 250,000). Odds are pretty good that prediction is going to change over the next couple days.
While our part of the coast isn't as populated (South Padre Island - 2,500, Port Isabel - 5,000, Brownsville - 200,000), Dolly was an economic kick in the guts to our local businesses; those that didn't suffer a lot of damage still saw their customer base go away. Personally, we got off pretty easy; a lot of our neighbors are still not back in their homes. Once the storm goes away, so does the national news coverage. Most folks in the rest of the country have no idea how much damage was done... after all, it was "only" a Category 2. :disgust And all the high rise hotels and condos were still standing... nevermind that many of them had to be gutted.
There was a lot of complacency in our area - the last serious hurricane to hit there was in 1980.
So, is it a bad place because of the weather? Depends on your tolerance. You build to hurricane specs so you can get insurance. You prepare your home for it, then get out when you are in the crosshairs. Most years, it's a non-issue. Unlike winter in the north where it is a guarantee there will be cold and snow for months at a time... or the Rocky Mountain area and California where forest fires are a fact of life... or the river areas in the midwest who are going to see floods. I've even heard about places that have months of no sunshine and it gets so cold your mustache will freeze from the sn... well, you know.
To get back to your question about the dolphins... there was so much rain that it changed the salinity of the Laguna Madre; fishing was pretty awful for a while, so I can only assume that the dolphins had some problems with their food source. But when we put Wild Blue back in the water, our dolphin buddies were out there... evidence that life goes on. :wink:
I have the national news on right now... looks like Ike intends to slap our house around then come chase us around Missouri or Arkansas!
:shock:
Wish us and the dolphins luck.
Jim
