Turtlebees
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2020
Sigh.
Living in Florida, where hurricanes are part of the local weather, is not better or worse than living elsewhere.
Seasonally recurring fires are not easily contained. Fire season is when dozens to hundreds of separate fires occur, sending smoke over the entire region and surrounding communities with potential disasters that can sweep in quickly. If you think fires are no big deal, you've never evacuated through one, watching everything around you burn.
Earthquake-prone sections of coastal areas are ticking time bombs. Not only is the quake capable of causing damage, the ocean may come to finish everything off. And they're harder to predict with enough time to evacuate than a visible storm system is.
Tornados are natural wind monsters that will carve up anything in their path. They can pop up with warning or without, and can leave you with no time to flee. These beasts are expanding their territory too; they aren't limited to the traditional Tornado Alley and have been seen all over North America this year. Nothing roars like a tornado; once heard, it's a sound never forgotten.
Blizzards and ice storms (which are not hail but inches of ice coating everything because rain fell and then froze) seem innocent until you realize losing power for an extended period in freezing cold weather can be deadly. When there's a thick layer of ice covering everything - and I do mean everything - and it's freezing outside it's much harder to repair downed wires and blown transformers than you might think. Being trapped inside by extreme weather that can go on not for hours but for days causes deaths due to lack of access to emergency services. And because this is the local normal, people still have to get to and from work on snow-packed roads while wind-blown snow has reduced visibility to maybe 20%. Tell me ice storms and blizzards are no big deal after you've broken bones trying to climb down ice-coated stairs or been trapped on the side of a deserted highway in a flipped car for three hours while the snow piles up around you, covering your vehicle before the plows arrive to finish the job.
Rain is innocent, right? Living where monsoon rain, or regular afternoon drenchings of any sort, are the norm should be good, right? Nope. Water-soaked land can only absorb so much. Once it's soggy, and the lakes and rivers communities rely on as water and power sources overflow, you get flooding that, at best, ruins buildings and drowns crops or, at worst, drowns everything in its path. And rain spawns other issues too, like hail and mudslides.
Mudslides are one of the cruellest natural disasters. They explode out of nowhere. All it takes is too much rain too quickly and suddenly that beautiful ridge bordering the town is sending death to your streets. Communities that do, or did, rely on farming and mining or any other activity that destabilizes or changes the topography are at higher risk but mountainside sends things tumbling down whenever and wherever they want.
Heat waves, like extended cold periods, are deadly. Not everyone has access to temperature-controlled interior spaces day and night. The cost is prohibitive for many, many people, including low-wage earners and those on fixed incomes such as small pensions. I know people like to ignore whatever doesn't directly affect them but the reality is that people and animals die where you live because they had no escape from hours of heat or cold exposure.
There is no Perfect Climate on Earth. In an ideal situation, you settle where the local seasons best suit you. However, in most cases, you take what you get and make peace with it, even learning to love it for what it is.
Living in Florida, where hurricanes are part of the local weather, is not better or worse than living elsewhere.
Seasonally recurring fires are not easily contained. Fire season is when dozens to hundreds of separate fires occur, sending smoke over the entire region and surrounding communities with potential disasters that can sweep in quickly. If you think fires are no big deal, you've never evacuated through one, watching everything around you burn.
Earthquake-prone sections of coastal areas are ticking time bombs. Not only is the quake capable of causing damage, the ocean may come to finish everything off. And they're harder to predict with enough time to evacuate than a visible storm system is.
Tornados are natural wind monsters that will carve up anything in their path. They can pop up with warning or without, and can leave you with no time to flee. These beasts are expanding their territory too; they aren't limited to the traditional Tornado Alley and have been seen all over North America this year. Nothing roars like a tornado; once heard, it's a sound never forgotten.
Blizzards and ice storms (which are not hail but inches of ice coating everything because rain fell and then froze) seem innocent until you realize losing power for an extended period in freezing cold weather can be deadly. When there's a thick layer of ice covering everything - and I do mean everything - and it's freezing outside it's much harder to repair downed wires and blown transformers than you might think. Being trapped inside by extreme weather that can go on not for hours but for days causes deaths due to lack of access to emergency services. And because this is the local normal, people still have to get to and from work on snow-packed roads while wind-blown snow has reduced visibility to maybe 20%. Tell me ice storms and blizzards are no big deal after you've broken bones trying to climb down ice-coated stairs or been trapped on the side of a deserted highway in a flipped car for three hours while the snow piles up around you, covering your vehicle before the plows arrive to finish the job.
Rain is innocent, right? Living where monsoon rain, or regular afternoon drenchings of any sort, are the norm should be good, right? Nope. Water-soaked land can only absorb so much. Once it's soggy, and the lakes and rivers communities rely on as water and power sources overflow, you get flooding that, at best, ruins buildings and drowns crops or, at worst, drowns everything in its path. And rain spawns other issues too, like hail and mudslides.
Mudslides are one of the cruellest natural disasters. They explode out of nowhere. All it takes is too much rain too quickly and suddenly that beautiful ridge bordering the town is sending death to your streets. Communities that do, or did, rely on farming and mining or any other activity that destabilizes or changes the topography are at higher risk but mountainside sends things tumbling down whenever and wherever they want.
Heat waves, like extended cold periods, are deadly. Not everyone has access to temperature-controlled interior spaces day and night. The cost is prohibitive for many, many people, including low-wage earners and those on fixed incomes such as small pensions. I know people like to ignore whatever doesn't directly affect them but the reality is that people and animals die where you live because they had no escape from hours of heat or cold exposure.
There is no Perfect Climate on Earth. In an ideal situation, you settle where the local seasons best suit you. However, in most cases, you take what you get and make peace with it, even learning to love it for what it is.
