After Hurricane Alpha was blown away by Hurricane Wilma, I thought maybe we would have a reprieve. NOT.
A Public Advisory from NOAA on Tropical Storm Beta states that this new storm should turn into a hurricane by this evening. Computer models from Weather Underground show Beta moving into Nicaragua and bringing 10-20 inches of rain, along with floods, landslides, and devastation. Only one prediction in the models has it coming up into the Gulf of Mexico, but the odds are more likely to attack Central America.
This is the 23 named storm of the year for the Tropics, and according to Jeff Masters in his Weather Underground Blog:
There are no provisions for what to do in the event we have to retire Beta’s name and replace it on the list of hurricane names. One possibility is that the storm will be dubbed Beta-2005 and the name Beta will be reused. Another possibilty is that Beta will be skipped over next time the Greek alphabet comes into use.
Think about that. If a storm causes enough devastation, the name is retired. And the Greek alphabet names are there “just in case” they run out of “normal” names. So what would happen if one of the Greek backup alphabet names had to be retired.
Ah, the struggles of dealing with weather is so complicated.
On a personal note, two more houses I thought were “okay” from the flooding of the Dog River from Hurricane Kartrina near the campground just got condemned notices on their doors.
Many people who thought they lucked out from the damage of the hurricane are now finding huge water leak stains on their ceilings as the water with mildew and mold, showing that damage was done to the roof that wasn’t obvious immediately after the storm. Some are just putting mold resistant primer over it and painting, but there is more damage there than they want to deal with. For them, it’s easier to do than trying to prove now, two months after the hurricane, that the water damage is from the hurricane, though it has barely rained here for the past two months. They’ll wait until the next hurricane and report it after that.
Along with Allstate and other insurance companies deciding to stop home and business insurance offerings for those living all along the Lousiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coast, putting the burden for recovery on the government and charities, making life here even more miserable.
UPDATE: Less we forget, Hurricane Alpha killed 26 people while most US citizens were paying more attention to Hurricane Wilma, which killed more than 20, most of those in Mexico.