Sunday, October 6, 2024

Buildings made of cement and metal over 5 to 10 stories tall might be survivable in Hurricanes

However, as we have seen in Hurricane Helene, two story buildings often are washed away with the people inside them or completely crushed into a pulp by the 20 foot ocean surges from a Hurricane.

However, 5 to 10 plus story buildings made of metal and cement more aren't going to wash away completely (at least for now) in the storms we are presently seeing.

However, you might not have water or power in these buildings so you likely would either be too hot or cold without running water or lights or anything in these buildings too. But, at least you still would be alive even if you don't have running water, food, electricity or anything else really but a bed to sleep on when you are tired and too high for water to wash you away (at least in the present storms).

However, I have a feeling that Florida (at least as we presently know it) won't exist in the same way it does now.

For example, I sense that some large hurricane is going to start separating parts of Florida from the mainland turning it more into an island each year now. When this happens hopefully they build a bridge from the mainland out to the new Island or Islands that Florida used to be.

So, we might be calling this area "The Florida Island" one day which could be attached by a bridge of some sort to the mainland (at least at first). I think as long as people can DRIVE to Florida that it will continue to sort of be what it presently is. But, over time I think most of Florida is going to be under the waves that is above the waves now that is less than 25 feet high at present. I think this is inevitable given all present weather predictions by Climate Scientists. 

Though I have never been to Florida, I travel to the Hawaiian island partly because I have lived there in Hilo on the big Island in 1974 and on Maui in 1989 and 1990. So, since I visit there usually now at least once a year for about two weeks to Maui and Kauai where friends of ours live, I know what is happening there as the waters rise in the oceans of the world. Even here in California waters are starting to engulf Palm Trees too close to the ocean and the same thing is happening at various sites in Hawaii too.

As far back as 2019 I visited Lahaina and Kaanapali which are next to each other on Maui and driving back to the airport in Kahului I realized waves were sometimes washing across the road as we drove towards Kihei and Kahului to fly home to San Francisco and the mainland. Since then more roads have been built higher up in case the waves are inundating the roads there. Also, on the lower roads they have up up the cement barriers you often see on freeways in California which can be moved with a large enough foklift in order to keep more of the waves from knocking cars off the road or causing accidents there and this works most of the time on the lower roads now too between what was once Lahaina and Kihei. But, Lahaina I'm not sure will ever return to what is was for many different reasons.

The first problem regarding Lahaina is that it is in the middle of the ocean so building materials will be incredibly expensive to ship there on top of how much they cost presently even on the mainland. The 2nd problem is most people in Lahaina didn't have fire insurance on their homes and so they have no money to rebuild even though they still own their properties mostly now too. Also, most boats burned up in the harbor there in Lahaina that were tourist vessels except for a few that the owners and operators were able to take out to see quickly in the fire.

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