We already know only the dumbest of the dumb would correlate a natural disaster to political views someone didn't agree with.

Only scum of the earth would do that.

Yea, why do you think Siberia is so cold?

Stalin

I suppose this is good news. My sister reports the Army moved tanks into the neighborhood near her because all other areas were flood zones.

Texas is getting punished for decades of refusing to have building codes to have some standards that would allow homes to survive a hurricane and/or flooding. It's not like this is the first time they've been hit.

Insurance companies should refuse flood coverage unless the building meets some standard like in Florida or another area with similar storm problems.

I wanna say that Irma could have been much worse. Its now a Category 2 and I THINK, that it may be dying finally. Its still been one of the more sigificant and frightening natural disaster events in my life. I dont think anyone has been able to stop talking about it the last week. As far as death toll its not been even as bad as the mexico earthquake. As far as damage, it probably wont go down as worse than harvey. I think we really did get lucky. Im just glad its downgrading. A category 2 is a lot better odds of survival.

It did not come in as strong as it could have, but the damage is bad. Don't downplay it yet. That said, hopefully the damage to the Caribbean Islands comes back into the spotlight because they need it most.

I think its weird that the eyewall went over key west but storm surge was only 3 feet. Thats insanely lucky. Probably will be alot less to rebuild in key west than anticipated

Storm surge is a lot more complicated than the winds themselves. Key West looked quite devastated on the streams I saw earlier.

I haven't seen anything, but the big break is having Irma drop to cat 2 before hitting Tampa. That will save a lot of damage. Still, restoring power to 3 million people is going to be expensive.

(I only mention hat because I work in the energy sector so that's something that comes to mind. Flooded and damaged buildings are going to be a long time coming back too

Key West, Naples, and Miami aren't going to be habitable when people wake up tomorrow morning. I guess it's a break that it didn't do worse, but it did a lot.

Wonderful to see God's wrath against America in such glory.

I think we should thank God for this hurricane.

Who here is against God?

me?

Sure. I can be against god. Kind of like being against sauron or Voldemort. Or Bugs Bunny. Though Bugs Bunny is at least funny

I don't like to be against myself

I can report my sister is fine. Not only that they were able to sleep through it.

Glad to hear your sister is fine and got a good nights sleep!

Sorry that she lives in a state that people with a political agenda and limited view of tolerance feel should be "punished"

I guess maybe since the storm wasn't as bad as it could have been that the stereotyped political views of the state aren't nearly as bad as some claim :)

@Ogion Climate Change has little to no effect on Irma
As I said earlier a very strong Bermuda high made Irma very powerful

I have no idea what you are talking about Kansas. Florida is a very diverse swing state. My sister is adopted and Native American. Shes definetely not a Republican. What the hell does politics have to do with this. I actually think florida did the right thing making mandatory evacuations. I thought they did a great job of being prepared. It couldve been an extinction event for South Fla if it had gone differently.

People stupidly posted that the hurricane was political karma for a conservative state.

Perhaps you have those morons muted.

Zach, the Bermuda high had absolutely nothing to do with the strengthening or growth of Irma. It allowed the storm to sustain itself, because hurricanes need high pressure above the storm to limit vertical shear, and drastically affected the track of the storm as it made its approach toward Florida, but it had zero to do with Irma setting records in the Atlantic.

Quit talking if you're just going to be an idiot.

Hell, you can't even credit the Bermuda high pressure system for contributing in sustaining Irma because the strengthening of the high pressure system is what effectively destroyed it and forced it to undergo eyewall reconstruction as it neared landfall.

So, Zach, you're claiming that high water temperatures have no effect on hurricanes? I'd hurry and write that up for Nature or Science or something, because that's a truly shocking finding!

Welcome to my world, Bo. Say anything is related to climate change, and you need to be prepared to be buried in bullshit from idiots. It's the Michael Mann effect.

So, BB, your sister's ok, I take it? Good news. Generally that was a lot less bad than it could have been. No doubt this means everyone goes back to burning coal and driving stinking gas cars that fart everywhere.

You think I'm not part of that world, Ogion? Hell, a few of the storm chasers down south of the Mason-Dixon don't even recognize it.

I dont think Florida is a conservative state merely because they voted trump.

They voted obama twice...

No
Irma's strength near the Cape Verde islands is normal and usually an upper level low whisps away early strong hurricanes out to sea, however the strength of the Bermuda high quashed it and allowed Irma to stay in those low latitudes, comparable to Luis, Isabel, Igor, and Hugo. All of those were strong Cat 5 or on the verge of Cat 5 Hurricanes east of the Antilles due to a strong Bermuda high. Irma was the strongest but it really wasn't that strong compared to Allen, Wilma, Ivan, or Gilbert. Its minimum pressure was 913, doesn't even crack the top 10 and barely beats Isabel, the other really strong Cat 5 east of the Antilles. Its wind speeds were high but the pressure and Dvorak scales really measure the strength of a hurricane and Irma was at its highest, a 7.3. Haiyan was an 8.1(It broke the scale) Wilma an 8, Patricia an 8. We can blame the Bermuda high and slightly above average waters and lack of vertical wind shear due to the North Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation(Unrelated to Climate Change) which also happened in 2005 and 2010, really active years.

BB, I am not arguing against you, just repeating what people stupidly stated.