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David Mitchell

Dilemma:

Do I sue The Weather Channel for hooking me into wasted days of watching?

Do I hold a fire sale on cans of Smoked Oysters, Sardines, and Vienna Sausage?

Or just thank God for dodging a bullet? 

Either way, I have just been scammed by a guy named Dorian! After seeing the devastaion in the Bahamas, we really thought this one could be IT.

Just slept through a moderately windy night with gentle wind noise and no loss of power - (read: A/C stayed on all night). Not much more than palm frond branches scattered around the yard. Further testimony to the history of our lack of hurricanes in the immediate area. This false alarm has happened many dozens of times in our neck of the woods over the last hundred years. It's one of the reasons so many poeple choose to move here as opposed to Florida or further north on the coast. 

Funny;

We have a local TV station that broadcasts a 24-hour screen with 4 different camera views of local highways and key intersections. It rotates every few seconds through about 20 or more different shots of 4 different views at a time.

Right now all the local weather broadcasts are about rescue, power line repair, and recovery in general. As the Governor keeps saying "We're here to help". That highway camera channel just switched on some background music and played Joe Cocker's "A Little Help From My Friends", followed by "Splish Splash", and then some version of "Nothing Could Be Finer Than to be in Carolina".  

David Mitchell

This keeps getting funnier. Now they are playing this song.

I love the second verse..... "What Happend Last Night"

David Mitchell

So gratified to learn tonight that we are taking several billion dollars from the Pentagon to build new sections of the "Wall". That cancells several hundred other high priority projects. I realize we didn't need that new cyber security facility. I mean, let those crazy Chinese get further ahead of us than they already are.             Details, details!

But I am a bit queasy about cancelling that new middle school for the kids at Fort Cambell Kentucky. Maybe by the time the current class graduates they will have a new bunch of kids who don't even give a damn about an education. D'ya think?

And those guilible Puerto Ricans actually beleived they would get the entire $400 million we "promised" for their ongoing rebuild.  Health conditions be damned.  It's only a "territory". Did they think we really meant it?

Suckers!

If you read the details, there are only a few hundred other "unimportant" projects being scrapped. 

---------------

BTW, I did have a weather map on which I added Utah and Alberta to the path of Dorian, but the guys at the Weather Channel said they would get back to me. 

----------------

Meanwhile - on a serious note - Berkermer is at it again with more great Photgraphs on Faceboop.

David Mitchell

Okay, so I broke the Forum.

But I just have to comment on the nighmare going on in the Bahamas. I'm sure you are following it too.

I'm trying to comprehend the logistaical problems of this mess. Death toll now at 30 and expected to go much higher. How many wounded people still trapped inside collapsed buidings?  A number of Haitian refugess in a low lying (Yes, it's all "low-lying") shanty town. The high priorities of medicine, food, and rescue are completely thwarted by the scatterd debris - I mean BIG debris.

They need to begin clearing the mess immediately. They need to open streets and pathways through the rubble in order to actually get to people.

But how do you get the neccessary large demolition and removal equipment onto the islands? Getting to some of the islands is not even possible. Several airports are out. Many of the marinas and boat docks re ruined. 

 And once there, where do you begin? To get to it all, the removal of all that rubble wil be a immense task. And then, once they get ot the debris, where do they haul it? 

Here is a gut wrenchcing excerpt from today's USA Today - an account repeated from a few days ago:

Meanwhile, horrific stories have emerged from Dorian's terror. Adrian Farrington, 38, told the The Nassau Guardian, that his 5-year-old son, Adrian Farrington Jr., was swept away from a storm surge that hit their home on Aboco Island. 

The father, battling a fractured leg, said he had been treading water with his son, who had been clinging on for about an hour amid the rising water. He moved his son to the rooftop of their home, he said, after noticing some fins in the water that posed danger. 

Farrington said he told his son to stop crying, close his mouth and keep breathing. But before he could get on the roof to join his son, a gust from the hurricane dragged him back into the water. 

“I still could remember him reaching for me and calling me, ‘Daddy.’”

And so far all they have landed is a few medical volunteer teams (one from Seattle... Seattle!                                     With medicine, 2 dogs, and a handful of dirt bikes.

This is going to become an enormous humanitarian nightmare if we and other nations don't jump in with both feet. And to think, we just pulled the (promised) funds from Puerto Rico's recovery efforts. 

And then here come the California fires. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave, 

This is where the military is needed - medical units, corps of engineers, hospital ships, airlift supplies, etc. These units have been used in the past (Haiti) and the soldiers loved such assignments. The medical problems that follow such disasters need mass preventive/public health measures, even simple things like tetanus shots.

Jim 

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

Happy Birthday to Barb Jaquay!! Sept.6, 2019 .! Kathy Wintering

David Mitchell

Jim,

Roger that.

But I see a specific situation here where it wiil take Navy carriers off shore with nothing but decks full of Chinook and Sikorsky "Flying Crane" helicopters - the heavy lifters. But also large demolition and hauling equipement, ready to be lifted onto the islands. Otherwise there will be little use for medical teams, who cannot get anywhere beyond the spot where they are dropped in. No fixed wing here until airports are cleared. Besides, those would come over directly from Florida/Georgia/So. Carolina anyway.

And as I look at a map, this is quite a bunch of Islands in the entire chain. That calls for lots of ships, lots of helicopters, and lots of heavy equipment.

This will be one heck of an interesting project to watch. And this country better get on the stick right now.

And someone help me here - aren't these islands members of the British Commonwealth? I would think the Queen and Royal Family would have some role in this. Coincidentally, there are I think, two helicopter pilots in the Royal family - Andrew* and young Harry**. But neither are Chinook or "Crane" qualified. The project will take years, but these next few days and weeks will be critical.

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* I seem to recall that Andrew flew helicpoters in the Falklands War, with the dubious task of hovering above and a bit away from the carrier decks, so as to draw heat seeking missiles if they came towards the ships. (Why does that remind me of another helicopter mission from somewhere else?) 

** Harry flew Apache gunships in Afghanistan. He refused to be left out of service in Afghanistan, so they let him join his combat squadron under the name of Lieutenant "Windsor" and did not make his unit or location known to the public. But some idiot news caster from a British TV or magazine outed him and they decided they had to bring him home for security reasons. 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Dave, you might want to check out this link:

https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article234805447.html

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave, 

The Bahamas are an independent country since 1973.

​​​​​Jim

Michael McLeod

Jim:

You really would have been a star on a copy desk.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave, 

Addendum: they are independent of Britain, but are a member of the British Commonwealth which is, basically, a group of countries that share values and ideals.

Mike, 

​​​​Copy desk? Nah, more like one of those old time newspaper photographers (think: Jimmy Olsen) carrying a large, vintage camera with a flashbulb and a dish-sized reflector! 

Jim 

David Mitchell

Reading Mary Margaret's article gives me even more questions. I am curious as to why we did not announce this military assistance until Friday - a full day, or maybe two, later than it should have taken place. The storm was mostly past there by about late Wednesday. I realize it's a huge task to coordinate, especialy since these islands are so many and separated from one aother. But each day is critical now. 

It's good to hear they are clearing the airport at Abaco, but the same needs to be done to a couple of other airports. And, although it's nice to see "Ospreys" involved, which have greater capacity than those Coast Guard medical supply "Blackhawks". But Ospreys and Blackhawks will only be "pin pricks" in this huge mess.

What's needed immediately is lots of heavy equipment - big "shovels", bull dozers, and those huge quadruple sized dump trucks (like the kind that descened on us here after Matthew from all over the U.S.) - with a swiveling long arm and massive jaws for grabbbing and pickup. And they can only get ashore with much larger fixed wing (C-130-types and much bigger C5a Galaxies).

Or,

What can be done more quicky would take dozens of the rotary-wing "big boys" -  "Hooks" and "Cranes" (Chinooks and Flying Cranes.) making short haul sorties off the decks of close anchored carriers with the heavy clearing equipment on board. We've done this before. Let's hope we can do it again.

And chain saws - thousands of chain saws and cans of gas!

The priority now is to clear roadways as soon as possible, which will allow rescue teams to get to the people - or vice versa. Otherwise, the death toll will rise even faster. And don't forget, it's still very hot and humid down there (mid-90s here - and they are well south of us).

Again, it will be interesting to watch how they pull this off.  

Thinking back during the fire at Notre Dame in Paris, and how several of France's billionaires (and some of ours too) pledged money. I wonder where Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and "Mr. Trustworthy" himself, Mark Zuckerberg are while this plays out?   Davos? Aspen?  - having coffee with Al Gore? 

And maybe that darling of the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos. She's down to her last $5 billion, but she does have a helicopter  (only one, mind you) and TEN yachts! (one, a 163 foot luxury floating mansion - Seaquest).  Maybe she could spare us a dingy. Oh, I forgot, she's busy renigging on the U.S. Educatiion Department's "guarantee" to forgive teachers education loans, so they can spend (what they thought was) their retirement in cash-strapped humiliation. After all, they didn't really do much. They just gave a few million kids the gift of literacy - for pay that was a fraction of their local Congressmen.

What this country reallly needs is "winners".

David Mitchell

Ahoy Betsy!

I give you "Seaquest" 

$40,000,000 - 163 feet - sleeps 12 in 6 cabins - full time crew and master chef.

Nice huh?

I wonder what her other 9 "small boats" are like. 

David Mitchell

GO ARMY!   GO! 

Darn. Missed it by that much.

John Maxwell

Michael McLeod

Dave: Don't be such a snowflake. All extraneous military assets need to go towards building The Wall. And tell people to shut up already with the sharpie jokes.

David Mitchell

Funny MIke,

I Just read where this Joe Walsh is selling sharpies with the imprint - "Dont' Lie". To raise campaign funds -seriously.

I might even buy a few.

I know he's kind of a loose canon with a less than perfect track reord, but it was so refreshing to watch his inerview with George Stephanopoulis last week - a Conservative actually apologizing to Obama (and sincerely at that) for spreading lies about his birth records, and calling what's-his-name a liar and unfit, over and over about a dozen times. The best part was hearing him calling out (my own) Republican party for its widespread cowardice. (They're all afraid to speak out aginst him.") he claimed. Duh!

I thougth maybe my hearing was going bad. Cataracts yes - but hearing problems? Not yet. 

NOTICE:

After severely hogging the Forum lately I may be able to show some restraint going forward (sure Don) as we enter the holiest season on the liturgical calendar - NFL football ! The season will extend to approximately July of 2023, so I will be somewhat distracted for a while.

(believe that and I have some salvaged boats form a recent storm for sale - cheap) 

The season is already off to a great start. What with Anotino Brown vying to steal the "craziest human alive" headlines from the Chumpster. And today we get to laugh out loud at Cleveland Brown's own Big-Mouth Mayfield. He's been bragging for weeks about Super Bowl, and just last week we learned,  "My recievers should be licking their chops."  But alas, he must have meant his opponents defensive backs. 

Hey Baker, it's supposed to go to those guys wearing the same jerseys as you are. I know it must be confusing for you kids from Oooooo - kla - homa, where the wind comes sweepin' cross the plains.

Golly, where is Gordon McCrae when we need him?

David Mitchell

Have we lost Tim?

Or was there a riding mower's anonymous rally in downtown Mossy Rock?

David Barbour

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our Watterson1966 website.

And THANK GOD for JANIE and HELPERS.

DB

John Jackson

DB, I’ll second that and then some.  But, Janie, I’ve always wondered – the daily  “New Message Forum Posts” email is sent to us right around 6 AM each day.  Do you do that manually?  If so, your dedication in rising daily at that early bird hour should net you at the very least a plenary indulgence!

Michael McLeod

two heroes

https://www.facebook.com/thesun/videos/2148340121859082/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDE0NzYyMjgyMzoyODYyMDg5NTg3MTM5MjY3/

David Mitchell

Ohhhhh Mike,

I'm in love with a "five and a haaalf" year old from Darlington!!!!!!!

Janie Albright (Blank)

John, ha, it’s completely automated! If you were relying on me for that and a lot of other things the site does you’d be pretty disappointed! 

David Mitchell

HONK

if you absolutely cannot stand that condescending smirk on (Oakland Raida's ) John Gruden's face. 

Jim,

Could you please take a drive up "25" and see if they need a Doctor in the House?

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave M.,  

Diagnosed the problem in Denver: pot and psychedelic mushrooms 🍄! 

Jim