Thankfully, Rita didn't get a chance to stall over Texarkana as originally forecast. A front from the west scattered it into a north-south line to be pushed off the east coast. So, it appears we dodged the Mississippi and Ohio valley flooding for now.

I'm still watching the climate and geologic factors. I wouldn't be surprised to see another major hurricane develop before the season ends officially in November.

Some potentiality is still brewing for around October 8th. I'm still not sure what, but part of me feels like I am 'bracing' for it (though not for me personally). The rest of me is simply sure that there will be (Earth) work to do at that time, and frankly, it's exciting to help with it.

Three independent sources have brought a new report to my attention concerning statistics on melting polar ice. In reference to the amount of ice: "In 2005, it's the lowest on record. We've watched it retreat year after year." "New satellite photos show that the ice pack has shrunk by 30% since 1978 ((when we started satellite monitoring)) and the melting is speeding up causing the warmest summer in 400 years." "With studies showing increasing hurricane intensity over the past 30 years linked to rising sea temperatures, and recent record heat waves in North America, a growing number of scientists say it's all interconnected." phht Yes, of course it's all connected.

"[The melting] has the potential for raising sea level very significantly. We're not talking about sea level rise just in the Arctic. We're talking about sea level rise around the globe, so everybody is going to experience it, particularly regions that have low lying areas."

Their predictions on when we might see significant rise vary from 25 to 100 yrs, but I'm thinking it will become consistently problematic much sooner. I hate to jump on the 2012 bandwagon, but the marker is somewhere between here and there, imo. I would expect big changes in the shape of North America to occur -by- 2012. The Earth is rebalancing and that means a lot of moving and shaking to get there.

It's a sign. Katrina and Rita are saying, "Don't live in the delta of the Mississippi." It has always been a hazard waiting to happen... well... it is now happening. So, move, permanently. The hurricane season lasts through November. Katrina and Rita may not be the end of the message. Listen. Hear. Act.

Rita's legacy does not end with landfall. The storm is expected to sit for a while over Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Besides the tornado activity that area will see, the rivers in that region feed the Mississippi River. Gulf waters and lakes have been instrumental in the flooding so far, but when all that rain falls over those states and flows into the Mississippi, there will be river flooding too. And, when the southern section of the Mississippi floods, it backs up to the north, flooding that area, even up into the Ohio River.

Water. We are going to see more water and it isn't going to just drain away anymore. The shape of the Mississippi River Valley is changing. It will broaden from the delta northward almost to St Louis. The Mississippi Embayment will eventually be a northern extension of the Gulf of Mexico. People who stubbornly choose to stay in that area, or move back there, will ultimately be lost. The messages are clear already but they will get louder and stronger until there is no longer a choice. This is what I see.

I'm not the only one who sees the water rising. Although the EPA and IPCC want to blame it all on global warming, and I don't, they are at least looking at the impact. Regardless of why it happens, it is going to happen, it IS happening.



"Melting of polar ice and land-based glaciers is expected to contribute to a 1/2 ft to 3ft sea level rise within this century. Shrinking ice caps also cause changes in ocean circulation and storm tracks. To be sure, not all of the melting currently occurring is due to global warming." (Correct, it's just adding to a natural cycle.)

Incidentally, I think that map and the guesstimates on sea level rise are very conservative.

People who choose to live in those red zones are choosing to be flooded out, year after year, until they move or drown. That's just how it is. I guess we should reserve some posthumous Darwin awards for them.

Things I am watching:
~ solar activity, ie, flares and CMEs
~ the 'slow slip' of the Juan de Fuca plate in a reverse direction from its usual creep
~ other seismic activity worldwide, esp So Cal and the NMSZ, plus events in unusual places
~ a curious 100 sq mi bulge beneath Oregon near South Sister mountain in the Cascades
~ Mount St Helens activity
~ in fact, the whole Cascade range
~ the magma bubble beneath Yellowstone Lake
~ the unfolding of the rest of the hurricane season

Thank you. All my questions aren't answered yet, but I did get a lot more puzzle pieces and I appreciate that.
With Gratitude, Griffen
PS - Keep it comin' ;) You know I am mortally curious.

Dear Universe,
Clues are very interesting. Now how about some reasons, some explanations, some clearly detailed messages? I know I'm generally allergic to reading the directions, but honestly, I'd make an effort on this stuff. :) So like, so like, so like... just exactly what's supposed to be on my agenda for October, hm?
Thank You
Your pal, Griffen

Rant Mode ON
Rumors are very often lies. I saw an interview today with an NOPD officer who was in the Superdome for the duration. He said they had officers and troops roaming the place continually, even sleeping with one eye open, when they slept at all, and they kept the criminal activity pretty well in check. He is ordinarily in charge of rape crisis reports in New Orleans and he said the rumors about murders, rapes and whatever going on in the Superdome were wrong. He was aware of two attempted rapes and the offenders were soon arrested and detained away from the rest of the population. Yeah, he could have been lying to cover his ass, but I think I read people pretty well and the man seemed sincere, truthful, and justifiably a little annoyed that wild stories were circulating when he and his comrades had worked damned hard to make sure none of that shit happened. Not only that, but he was rather proud of the 25,000 or so citizens who were in horrible circumstances but managed to behave.

There are apparently true horror stories being relayed about the Convention Center in New Orleans, but as far as I know that was not a designated shelter like the Superdome. So, assumptions were made, erroneous assumptions. People went there on their own and had to wait for help that was very slow in coming, leaving them without police support and so on. Maybe FEMA etc should have realized people would go there, but I don't think that oversight is justification for condemning the agencies. It's something they need to look at in future, ie, not only where they tell people to go, but likely locations where people may take refuge. Seems to me that most of the people who ended up at the Convention Center are the ones who slip through the cracks even under ordinary circumstances. This event just took that to a new level. Even so, if 20,000 or 15,000 or even 10,000 people ended up at the Convention Center and they can only find a few really gruesome stories, that's a pretty impressive percentage, especially without official support.

It's rather aggravating to me that people seem to be ignoring the fact that about 350,000, more than 75% of folks in New Orleans, followed the evacuation order. There's an estimated 100,000 who couldn't or wouldn't. The good does outweigh the bad, 3 to 1. Also, the media doesn't seem to have time to report the progress being made in Mississippi and Alabama. But hey, it's not as dramatic. Bad news makes news.

I saw a program on Arkansas Educational Television, Arkansans KARE (Katrina Assistance and Relief Effort). They interviewed some of the evacuees and two men in particular, a couple of middle aged black men, expressed their thanks for Arkansans' support and relocation opportunities. They were asked if they wanted to go back to New Orleans. They said no, that honestly they had not lived well there, and knew that this day would eventually come, but in the 40 or so years of their lives, they just never could afford to get out. They plan to be citizens of Arkansas now, pulling their own weight, not wanting to burden anyone. They plan to build a small business, apparently lawncare, because they said a fellow had already helped them by offering the loan of a truck, trailer, and needed equipment until they could afford their own.

These fellows are not the only ones who plan to leave the disaster zone for good.
The Australian "Evacuees vow not to return to broken city"

Truly, the majority of those who have been hit the hardest are, yes, black, and yes, poor. This disaster isn't how anyone would've wanted to help them out, but it WILL help them... out of a hazard zone, out of generations of poverty, and hopefully out of some remaining racial stigmas. Yes, dammit, I believe they will be better off.

Oh, and I caught Paula Zahn on CNN trying to get reporters and other interviewees to say things were and are dramatically nasty, how authories failed, how citizens were being criminal, how cops plan to go in and run people out of New Orleans at gun point.... She was surely unsatisfied. She had to keep re-spinning her spiel (Yeah, but isn't it so that... Not really... But aren't there reports of... Not so many....). The reporters just kept telling her, No, it's just not that way. The police, troops, and other helpers are trying to do their jobs. The citizens are trying to make the best of a bad situation. Sorry, Paula, hate to disappoint you and all the other media ghouls who seem unable to recognize that humans, especially Americans, are basically good, and even better in a crisis.

Incidentally, NOPD officials insisted today, compassionately, that they would use absolute minimal force necessary to remove the remaining citizens from New Orleans. Why must they leave, you say? I finally heard why. We already know the water is toxic, but the toxins are getting more concentrated and more deadly as the water is being pumped out or evaporating. Plus, the chemicals they will have to use for cleaning up the toxins are, in many cases, also poisonous until they've done their job, ie, the initial combination may be even more toxic. The water and the air may be deadly to anyone not properly outfitted. In addition, all repairs to infrastructure will be unnecessarily slowed if the crews have to be concerned with the welfare of stragglers. (Not to mention the waste of manpower if they had to make sure the stubborn continued to get clean water and food delivered.) There's a massive amount of debris that has to be removed and workers must pick through it now for survivors and bodies. The bulldozers sure won't be able to do it. While gas and electricity are being repaired or demolished, all those firefighters from NYC and other places as well as locals are going to be plenty busy. They should not have to risk their lives to save stupid people.

Assumptions are just as bad as rumors. People assume we should have been able to handle this because we have handled other hurricanes, other floods, other natural and unnatural disasters. That is bullshit. We have never had to deal with anything on this scale. We're talking about 450,000 people in New Orleans alone. We're talking about 90,000 square miles of damage from Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf coast. 90,000 square freakin miles. That's an area about the size of New England. It's not going to be repaired in weeks, or even months, if ever. The population is not going to be able to move back in and carry on, not for months, if ever. And why would they want to? So they can continue to duck and cover every year when this could happen again?

Rant Mode... I think I'll just leave it idling for a bit.

Hurricane Katrina: Best and worst. Fortunately, most people show their best side when such events occur. Unfortunately, some show their worst (looters and snipers?!? sheesh) and the media loves to focus on the ugly dramas. Still, I will give the media credit for helping with infomation when few other communication options were available. There have been many cases in which only the news people seemed to know about stranded folks, and while they were not equipped to rescue them, they've alerted the rescue crews.

There has been a lot of criticism about the way this thing has been handled, but I think the nature and scope of it is just something we haven't faced before. The affected area is not one or two counties in Florida, it's a huge chunk of the Gulf coast. While the usual recovery might have worked for affected areas, individually, there's just too much area to be dealt with all at once. Also, when monster hurricanes have hit in the past, the water usually receded immediately and made it possible to get help in there right away. Of course this is just not true in New Orleans especially.

Thumbs Up: Major kudos to the folks who accurately predicted the hurricane's path, got the warning out in time, and seriously enough, to save hundreds of thousands of people. It's wonderful that neighboring regions (especially Houston TX) have stepped up to offer unprecedented assistance with relocation, etc. It's terrific to see other countries actually offering aid to the US (seeing as how we seem to bail out everyone else when they need it). I also applaud the decision to cut off water and food drops to people who are still refusing to be evacuated from the cesspool that still exists in New Orleans. Cheers to those people who have wisely realized they should relocate permanently.

Thumbs Down: I have no pity for people who could have evacuated but chose not to. I have no pity for people who still won't leave when rescuers have gone through so much trouble to find them. I have absolutely no pity or tolerance for the criminals who have jeopardized the relief effort by taking pot shots at rescue workers. IMO, the authorities should be allowed to kill them on sight because they jeopardize many innocent lives with their idiocy.

We will learn a lot from this event and, as I've stated, I think we will need that knowledge. I'm sure there will be endless debates about what could have or should have been done. However, the powers seem to have had their priorities fairly well in order: save lives, then deal with the rest. That's the best thing we can do.