Barack Obama and Natural Disaster Preparedness 8/7/09 August 7, 2009

So far this year Barack Obama has been very lucky.  In his first year he is fortunate to be in an El Nino season.

El Nino description from NOAA.

And no you are wrong Al Gore. Global warming does not influence El Nino and La Nina conditions. It is a natural occurring event that has been going on for centuries.

“El Nino is first recorded in the early 1500s, and it happens every four years at that time. It usually lasts for a few weeks, but major events lasts for a little longer than a year. Recent events occur in 1957, 1965, 1972, 1976, 1982, 1983, and 1997. A powerful El Nino in 1982 and 1983 caused severe droughts in Australia and Indonesia. On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, it brought an unusually large number of storms in California, USA. There were also violent rains and destructive floods in Ecuador and Peru.”

What this means is that the Atlantic Ocean is cool (Reduced fuel for hurricanes) thus far at this time there have been no named hurricane systems in the Atlantic to threaten the Southern States.

However when there is an EL Nino in effect then there is a history of torrential rains for the West Coast of the US when El Nino is active. Also at this time there is a possibility of Hurricane Felicia (8-7-09) affecting Hawaii. However the prognosis is that this hurricane will be reduced to tropical storm Felicia by the time it gets to Hawaii

So here is the point of my writings:

Barack Obama is concentrating on spending trillions of dollars for his Pork Barrel projects like Nationalized Heath Care and there will be no money available to help the people in the near future for what could possibly be a very bad flood and series of heavy rain events that may plague the Western Pacific States.  Recently it has been very hot and dry in the Pacific Northwest. That means that the jet stream has dropped further south.

http://www.intellicast.com/National/Wind/JetStream.aspx

More importantly when the El Nino subsides and La Nina returns, the number of named Hurricanes will increase again in the Atlantic. These storms as you know have caused the most severe damage to largely populated areas.

Here are the questions that I have:

1. Where is the money going to come from to help people recover from potentially devastating hurricanes in the future?

2. Where is the money going to come from to repair any damage from the “Pineapple Express” if it occurs again in the West Coast of the United States.

3. How will Barack Obama respond to these natural disasters in a timely manor?

4. How much experience does he have with dealing with a natural disaster like Katrina?

5. Will Barack Obama blame his shortfalls in FEMA’s response on George W. Bush?

6. Who will Barack Obama choose as the “Hurricane Czar” to be in charge of managing and directing hurricanes and being the official PIO for the hurricanes that may come ashore in the future?

Hopefully FEMA has learned a lot about Hurricane Response.  Maybe it will be better this time around if there is another Katrina. It is always possible that a CAT 5 storm could hit the continental US again in the future.

It seems that Barack Obama is taking the “Out of Sight Out of Mind” approach to the future on this topic.  Oh I know. Barack Obama will deal with that when and if necessary.

Just food for thought.

STMARIE