Dorian

With the current track, the Cape is in the bulls eye. If it hits as a Cat 5, it could (finally) take out the VAB, which is only designed for a Cat 3. It might be a sign from God about SLS.

[Update a few minutes later]

I have to confess to being relieved, for the first time in a decade and a half, to not owning any property in Florida in hurricane season. Before we sold the house earlier this year, we did upgrade the siding, doors, and added a new window for impact, but the new owners will still have to decide if and how to shutter the old windows.

8 thoughts on “Dorian”

  1. A major hit would also take out the Starship in Florida, which are prone to tipping over in high winds. Fortunately they can be fixed right back up with a hammer and some Bondo, which is just extra TPS. ^_^

    One unappreciated element of SpaceX’s philosophy is that they’ll soon treat rockets like we’ve always treated aircraft. If a major hurricane is on the way they’ll just fly them to different airport.

  2. Never having lived in a hurricane zone, I’ve always wondered how homeowners prepare their houses for a big one. My assumption is that newer homes would normally have ballistic film on the glass, but for older homes is it normal to have plywood pre-cut for covering the windows as needed? Or is it more common to see a mad rush to Home Depot because few planned ahead? The national news stories always seem to show huge quantities of new looking plywood covering windows whenever a big storm is coming.

    1. It depends. They always show plywood going up on the news because that’s more dramatic. New homes have impact glass (and the windows are heavy as hell). Older ones either screw in plywood or, if they have the gutters for them, install hurricane shutters that slide in from the bottom, and are mounted there with wingnuts. Or they have accordion shutters that just close from the sides. When we bought our house in Boca in 2004, we replaced the windows, but didn’t get impact (it was a lot more expensive at the time), instead getting gutters installed. My first act upon arriving there from California in September was putting up the shutters, and going to Home Depot to get plywood to cover the glass doors of the patio. We later installed accordion shutters for those, which made the house easier to later sell. If you have the most modern systems, it’s not that big a deal to prepare, but if you don’t, it’s a pain in the ass.

      The worst thing about hurricanes is that you get warnings, but don’t know whether or not they’ll be accurate, so you have to prepare whether it actually hits you or not. I dread the day they can predict earthquakes, but not sufficiently accurately. As it is, earthquakes are basically come as you are.

      1. Thanks. One of those things I’d wondered about. I think just about everywhere has their regional natural disasters to prepare for. Here in the Pacific Northwest ours are forest fires, major earthquakes, and the occasional volcanic eruption. Fortunately those last two aren’t too frequent.

        1. Our regional disaster scenario in Kentucky, just like in Tennessee, is two or three inches of snow. The first ominous forecast sends us racing to the store, hoping the shelves aren’t empty when we get there. If we didn’t, and got snowed in for an entire school day, we’d probably resort to cannibalism just like the Donner party.

          Yeah. We make the most of what we have.

  3. In the Texas Panhandle, it’s tornadoes. All of the things you do for hurricanes would work for tornadoes, but you only get about a half hour warning. Either have a shelter or hope your bathtub doesn’t go airborne.

    They happen anywhere, the first recorded death was in colonial times in Connecticut.

  4. In Minnesota last winter we had a high one day at -19F and a low of -30F. Wind chills done in the -60’s. Then a blizzard that dumped over a foot of snow with sustained 30mph winds that lasted a couple of day. One train got stuck in the middle of nowhere with its ‘rescue’ getting stuck as well.

  5. The year I moved away from the mountains in southern Colorado, One December day it was 65°, the next, -37° and when it stopped snowing more than 2 feet.

    It was common during January-February to have a week or two where the high was -15° and the lowest while I was there was -48°, -30 to -35° more common.

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