Stealth Journeys with the Steam Mapper

Chapter 28: Florida and Other Risky Concerns

"Yeah I know.   My grandfather was a traveling veterinarian who visited most large cattle ranches in Florida and treated all kinds of livestock.   Raising land animals for large scale food consumption is bad for the environment in countless ways.  It causes an enormous influx of greenhouse gases.  Did you know that to produce one pound of ground beef, the water requirement is 2,400 gallons?  And the excrement you mentioned from animals raised for food is greater than all of that produced by U.S. residents.   My parents have chosen to limit their meat consumption, mainly relying on seafood raised following good aquaculture practices, and choosing to buy goat cheeses and eggs from small farms, sparingly.   It is very hard to go to tofu and almond milk.   The only way to change agriculture is for the consumers to change eating habits.   That is a very big challenge.  But if storms threaten our survival by creating more health problems in their aftermath, I suppose we'll adapt.    Mom began campaigning for Grandpa to address these issues, but now he's gone.   He did teach some innovative small farming practices at the University of Florida in his last years as an adjunct professor."

"Many people who have chosen to ride out past destructive hurricanes have been interviewed and their stories are shared.  And, most say, "Never again".  Their testimonies seem to fall on deaf ears.   Everything the meteorologists and emergency management teams forecasted came true, in bucket loads.  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."   Mom and Dad were always quoting "Poor Richard's Almanac", to make a point."

"And, Harvey was followed by Irma and we knew we were in for a bumpy ride of a storm season. And what could we do about Maria?   Millions living along coastlines were disasters waiting to happen.  Living on islands in the Florida Keys or in the Caribbean Sea made evacuations all the harder.  Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic took an awful hit from Maria.   And, this was after Irma roared through less than two weeks before.   The mass exodus of people on the mainland may spare lives but at great hardship.   The people on islands without any bridges to evacuate the way the Florida Keys could chose to do, were sitting ducks."

"Mom thought island governments, should have great barges offshore on all sides of the island. The barges would have watertight containers holding generators and fuel, water and nonperishable food, and emergency equipment and radio/satellite communications to keep everyone in touch as soon as a storm or other disaster passed."

"Armed guards of the military would protect each barge from piracy, and inventory inspections would be done regularly by commanders coming aboard unexpectedly to deter internal theft. When the goods needed to be delivered to the battered shores, amphibious tractors and other transports that had been onboard would be at the ready to do the job."

MYKA cut in, "There is a terrible flaw to this plan.   Remember the El Faro?   Back in October 2015, this cargo ship went down with all thirty-three lives lost as it encountered Hurricane Joaquin and fifty- foot waves.   The ship was on its way to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The ship was seven hundred ninety feet in length and it was no match for this storm that went from tropical to a Cat 3 or 4 in no time.   The cargo ship was moving at 22 knots, trying to arrive to port ahead of the storm.    It was larger and faster than the barges your mother described and it lost all of its huge load of cargo containers."

"Sorry, but storing supplies offshore sounds dumb.   Better idea: big storage sites built into the highest mountainous parts of Puerto Rico, underground- away from the wind and ready with all- terrain vehicles to move out as soon as the storm has abated.   Of course, the infrastructure needs to be improved with big roadways and bridges that cannot be washed away to handle the big equipment being stored there.  Some big storage tanks filled with gasoline ought to be up there, too.   I'm sure that lots of ideas have been put to use as Puerto Rico rebuilds each year between hurricane seasons.    Hopefully, changes in leadership after all of that corruption came to light and the governor resigned will speed up the process.  Yeah it is too bad that rebuilding has moved at a crawl.  Good thing for private benefactors, or they would still be in the dark ages.  I'm glad that new products such as instant water purification and solar lights powered by human heat as energy have been provided to the citizens.    But the government should be better prepared for all emergencies."

"Yeah, you're right", admitted StLF.   "And, governments could beef up their reserves as the hurricane season approached but some supplies would always be at hand, because an earthquake, possibly followed by a tsunami, would always be a possibility."

"The earthquakes of Haiti and Mexico were foremost on Mom's mind, but of course California was fortunate to have the whole continent of North America ready to assist when the big one came.   Having every mainland state ready to send assistance by plane, train, and truck, saved countless lives, and rich Californians, including those in the entertainment industry were quick to arrange and host fundraisers.   Everyone wanted to do his or her part.   And, the immense fires along the west coast that have followed all of those seasons of drought sure did a number on home insurance and FEMA, too."

MYKA  concurred.  "The 2017 hurricane storm season was record-setting, but meteorologists could see it was only the beginning of a long spiral of climate change.   And, unfortunately, they were totally right.    And the fourth largest city in the United States, Houston, Texas, was a disaster waiting to happen with many inadequacies in design to deal with massive amounts of water.   The city planned to begin to rectify those problems, but it required years of rebuilding and improving the infrastructure. "

"Yeah, improving infrastructure is a very big deal.  I read that the "Tampa Bay Times" did a report in June 2019, stating that a private consulting team estimated that Florida would need to spend $76 billion  just to put in seawalls around the state for communities that would be greatly impacted by 2040.   I wonder how inland residents will feel about bailing out the coastal communities who have been forewarned so long.   The developers building all of those pricey high rises  aren't helping the average Floridian.   Mom calls them carpetbaggers.   The whole state has out -of-control growth happening.   In 1959, the state had a population under four million, and it increased five-fold in fifty years.   Now, some politicians are bragging that it's growing at a rate of a thousand new residents every day!"