Showing posts with label hurricane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hurricane. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Puerto Rico Necesita Nuestra Ayuda


We don't have much Latino population compared to most American cities but what's around is active. There is a modest annual Hispanic festival that took place last weekend.

These men were raising money for relief of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Texas and Florida need our help, too, but Puerto Rico is as American as either of them and in far worse shape. There's nowhere to go inland. The whole island lost electric power and, except for the few places with generators, it may be months before it is completely restored. One end to another is running out of food and water. All of the Isla del Encanto, the enchanted island, is devastated.

I chatted with these men briefly about our one trip there. Mrs. C and I went for our anniversary some years ago. We remember the charms of Old San Juan, the point on the spine of the island where you can see both the Atlantic and Caribbean and the fascinating Arecibo radio telescope. (I'm a long-time participant in SETI At Home, in which people donate their unused computer capacity to analyze Arecibo data for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.) It took heavy damage. Lots of people in the U.S., Caribbean and Mexico have suffered greatly in this season of disasters.          




Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Gasses And Liquids But Not Solids

.
This post reflects what Hurricane Ike did through the central US from the Gulf coast to Michigan and up into Ontario, Canada. There was a lot of fluid. Galveston, Texas got wiped out. Houston got soaked like it was Noah's flood. We got enough to cause some significant local flooding in low-lying areas but Chicago got more than twice as much as rain as we did. No place is safe (including Wall Street). Incidentally, this building is a block away from the nailed books of recent posts.

Where could you live in your country that is relatively free of the risk of natural disaster?


WHAT THAT TICKING SOUND SIGNIFIES: we get on a plane to Tokyo four weeks from today. Nihon-e ikkimas. Honto desu. (Quoted from Really, Really Basic Japanese for Foreign Devils by S. Tastes, Bloggy Press, St. Louis, 2008.)

TOMORROW: cheap helicopter rides. Does that idea bother you?