Quote:Hurricanes are getting increasingly destructive
Through the fog of presidential politics that has enveloped the media, news of this storm is beginning to reach people and disrupt lives and plans. I for one was at the airport, ready to board a flight to Florida to participate in a climate conference, when I received the news that the conference was likely going to be canceled, and that I should not travel. This is how fast this storm developed.
Matthew turned from a tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane in just 36 hours, mainly fueled by warmer than average waters. According to Climate Signals, as of October 3, Matthew was the longest-lived Category 4-5 hurricane and had generated the most Accumulated Cyclone Energy (or ACE, a measurement that expresses the activity and destructive potential of individual tropical cyclones and entire tropical cyclone seasons) in the eastern Caribbean of any Atlantic hurricane on record.

Quote:Impacts of disasters fall disproportionately on the world’s poor and vulnerable communities

This is particularly true of disasters with climate connections.
Matthew may end up dumping as much as 40 inches of rain in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, whipping the country with sustained winds of 145 mph (the average annual rainfall in Port-au-Prince is 33.68 inches). Already reports are coming in of the devastation it is bringing to those nations.
Cuba is also in high alert, and a 10 to 15-foot storm surge is expected in the Bahamas, where the average elevation appears to be less than 15 feet.

The impacts from Matthew will be felt by wealthy and poor communities alike, but the latter usually are not well prepared and lack the resources to rebound and get back on their feet in a timely or comprehensive manner. And this is not true only of foreign nations: many communities along the US coast find themselves in the same situation.

Quote:Tropical storm conditions are expected to reach parts of the Florida coast by early Thursday, intensifying to hurricane conditions in some areas later that day, the National Hurricane Center warned. Matthew had top sustained winds of 115 mph, a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Wednesday evening and is forecast to strengthen in coming days, the center said.

"People have less than 24 hours to prepare," Scott said. "Having a plan could be the difference between life and death."

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina declared states of emergency ahead of the most powerful storm to rock the Atlantic basin since Hurricane Felix killed more than 100 people, most in Nicaragua, in 2007.

“Residents and visitors should take evacuation orders seriously,” Federal Emergency Management Agency chief W. Craig Fugate said.

“This is a major hurricane that has the potential to cause significant harm to life and property.”

Wednesday evening the storm was about 325 miles southeast of West Palm Beach heading northwest at 10 mph. The storm had weakened but was expected to strengthen later Wednesday and on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

(10-07-2016, 12:44 AM)DuckforcoveR Wrote: Scary indeed  

As crazy as it sounds I almost think this monster would do less damage with a direct hit. For the place it hits of course, that would be bad. But this thing is going to grind and carve out half of the eastern seaboard. 

Quote:On Wednesday, officials said the hurricane’s damage had forced them to postpone an already-delayed presidential election set for Sunday in the country of 11 million, poorest in the Western Hemisphere.


The current government is an interim administration that was to be replaced in the Sunday election. There is no word on when that vote will be rescheduled.