Icebound wrote:

Here we have a "weak" hurricane, well advertised for a week... track and
landfall intensity pretty accurately forecast.... and yet we have 15
deaths (http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003...197314-cp.html)
and a whole lot of close calls.

It may be bust as compared to category 5 at landfall, but still hardly a
"bust" for those affected.


The question is: Why were they affected?

Fabian delivered wind gusts over 130mph to Bermuda, yet there was little
damage. Isabel's peak wind gusts ashore was barely over 100mph, yet
according to the news, 75% of the property in northeastern North
Carolina suffered "major property damage". Figuring that coastal
flooding can only represent a small portion of that, that means that
most of this was wind damage.

What we have here is not a storm problem but an idiot problem:

* Idiots who don't prune the 120ft trees on their property.
* Idiots who don't pick up their yard.
* Idiots who build elevated slap-board porches enclosed by screen mesh.
* Idiots who living in plywood houses with aluminum siding that a
cross-eyed stare could destroy.

.....so in even a weak storm, the air is filled with flying crap.

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