I just don't get it - or "There but for God"...

I have said for years - for many events and situations "I just don't get it" and that seems to be my usual reaction to things that fall into the "how did they let that happen," otherwise known as "stupid tricks" catagory.

Florida residents know Hurricanes, so do the Gulf Coastal residents of Mississippi and Alabama - especially after 2004 when we were collectively battered by more than three hurricanes passing over Florida alone. Louisiana residents that I know remember Camille - but they weren't ready for Katrina.

Last year our fate was to have Charley cutting in from Punta Gorda - taking a surprising turn two hours before it was supposed to take Tampa to task. Francis coming in on the eastern side and slapping the state at an angle with a slow moving, rain generating cruise over the central portion of Florida - happily, of course - winding down to a Tropical Storm by the time it got to the midsection. And of course, there was Ivan who took a run up the Gulf and went into the panhandle. Jeanne - almost in Frances' path, alittle faster and again dropping down to TS level, however to again drench the midstate swamps, some of which came up into my property.

2005 Déjà vu

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2005/index.shtml. This site provided by NOAA is interesting to visit occasionally. Selecting a name of a specific storm - then clicking on the "graphics archive" will replay in a loop the track of that storm.

Dennis was a fair replay of Ivan.

Not that I can forget, but what do I remember of Katrina's march?

I watched via the Internet Weather Channel, videos of it going into the 'Gold Coast' of Florida; of watching Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel get slapped around in what should have been the calm eye of a weak Cat 1 hurricane [for the record: weak and hurricane don't go together].

Once it crossed over, praying for a continued drive to the west and going through our own personal hell worrying that it would turn. When when it was nearly level with Tampa and we were getting the squalls... I got a phone call from my sister who lives about three miles away saying, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling."

Watching it ramp up to an intensify of Cat 5 with 175 mile per hour winds, well... you didn't have to be a rocket scientist - all you had to do was watch the Weather Channel and NOAA and know that it was going to go pay a visit to the Gulf Coastal states that remember Ivan all too well. A jog one way or another is really moot... there was going to be catastrophic damage no matter where it hit. So where was the prep?

So... if a common Internet surfer could see that - mind, at work my desk is next to the weather guru so I am sensitive to the way things work - you would think that FEMA would have seen what was happening. The graphic above is brutally clear.

I was flat-out shocked by the Emergency Management guru for New Orleans talking about what he couldn't help if it did score a direct hit on NOLA.

I watched with horrified facination the non-changing storm track over the entire weekend... I even got up on Monday morning at 4 a.m. hoping that it would have turned more to the west, dropped in velocity, something. Not to be. And then, pouring insult on injury weeks later, Rita came to dinner...

I guess will never get to see the NOLA that I have always heard about... it will be rebuilt, but never be the one.