Dear friends,
My family and I are incredibly lucky. Just 24 hours ago we were looking at a CAT4 hurricane making landfall just south of us and then slowly moving its eyewall over our county. Remember Punta Gorda in 2004 or Homestead with Hurricane Andrew? Something like that was a definite possibility. Instead, we got a CAT3 whose eye never moved over land (at least not near us) and which at the last moment moved just slightly to the east. That made a huge difference for us. I am not sure about that, but my feeling is that we only got CAT1 hurricane force winds. That is not trivial, I assure you, but it is a sneeze compared to what a major hurricane (CAT3 and higher) can do. So not only did we survive, but our house survived too. The storm surge came within 2 inches of flooding us, but 2 inches is all we needed to remain dry.
Tomorrow we plan to return home!
I am, however, totally exhausted. Only somebody who has lived through the nerve-wrecking countdown of an approaching hurricane followed by the hurricane itself and then followed by the question “do I still have a house?” knows how bad this can be. So with somebody like me, with major anxiety issues, it is even worse. I am totally and completely exhausted and I will need some time to recuperate.
So please give me a break until, say, Wednesday, okay? I just need time to sleep, rest and stare at a ceiling for a few days :-)
Thanks for all your kind words of support and patience with me,
The Saker
PS: for those worried about Syria, I recommend the recent analyses of Alexander Mercouris in the Duran, with whom I completely agree.
Worry seems to be a human weakness. Not sure why we have it because it generally achieves nothing.
Good to see your family, yourself and hopefully your house are all ok.
While ‘Worrying is praying for what you don’t want’, Saker on the other hand was proactive and protective in the face of a threat and danger to his family, another thing entirely.
However, ‘Hope springs eternal’ as it’s a form of faith in the face of adversity, without it we just surrender to fate over our destiny and perish.
The Saker’s fate and destiny profoundly affect’s the prospects for world peace, so may God continue to Bless him.
Amen.
I was thinking of the period of waiting after everything possible has been done.
Excellent news!!!
Huge hugs to you all from all here – and get some sleep! :-)
Good that your “hurricane party” was a flop. Recover from the hangover and return when you’re ready!
You are a good man Saker – God bless you and your family.
From one who understands anxiety & depression….take some time out, be surrounded by those who love you, and remember you have the Saker Community around you who also cares and loves you.
S Bogom friend.
Glad to hear you were spared the worst of the storm, Saker. Rest up and get yourself back to normal. I guess it’s the infrequent occurrences of actual hits from hurricanes on the east coast, especially the southeast coast, of the US that has people still building wood houses and crossing their fingers. Here in southern Taiwan, where we have been bashed in the last month by a CAT 5 and CAT 4 typhoon, the housing is all built of steel and concrete, minimizing the damage. I guess the main reason for that is that we get hit regularly, every year, by significant typhoons. Best of luck.
Frankie P
@EVERYBODY: thanks for your kind words!!
@Frankie P: you are exactly correct. The only reason why these hurricanes are such a big deal is that the houses here are built of woodframe houses and that, believe it or not, all the powerlines are like in the early 20th century: above air with old fashioned transformers. This is absolutely crazy. If the buildings were built normally, a hurricane would be a minor annoyance, but here it is a catastrophe every time. Yet another shining example of the total dysfunction of capitalism. And then there is the “just in time” or whatever it’s called”: no stocks of anything anywhere. So when the proverbial bovine excreta hits the fan, there is no gas, no food, no water, no nothing until the system slowly kicks back in again. At least one corporation, Publix, learned the lessons correctly and this time had all Publix stores fully powered by generators. 12 years after the 4 hurricanes in 6 weeks of 2004 that is definitely progress. But the power grid here is terrible. Same thing for telecoms: the Internet is spotty, telephone lines mostly down so VOIP is better than cellphone.
But since nobody wants to spend the money to build intelligently, they continue to build is a dumb way, including mobile home (trailer) parks…
One a good note: the cops did a good job preventing looting. But it is sad to think that the only thing which works more or less okay are the cops and that the rest is basically in various states of disrepair.
Just like the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Cheers!
The Saker
l have lots of family in SW FL and it’s both weird and somehow normal and obvious to hear that Publix is making sense out of this mess, better than the US govt., Wal Mart, and many others. Publix, so far as I know, is not a publically traded company. Very happy to hear your house is OK. I’ve smoked cigarettes in the parking lot of Publix more times than I care to mention; their attitude seems tolerant for Florida (which is saying something, tobacco-wise); they also seem to have slightly more common sense awareness than most strip mall supermarkets. I may be wrong. So happy to hear your house is most likely OK! Cheers, Saker, God bless you.
Thank God You and Your family are safe.
Cheers!
M.@CZ
Good news. Glad that you (you and family) and the house is safe. Get some rest.
That’s great news your family and house are OK, Saker.
Ditto!
Glory to God, what great news! Wishing you as relaxing a time in the near future as possible with your family. Don’t worry about this place — Scott and Auslander and others are stirring the pot very well indeed with excellent material.
Glad to hear things went well. Rest is good. Having a house to rest in is better.
Enjoy.
Dear Saker,
Glad to hear you and your family are okay. Take care
“Only somebody who has lived through the nerve-wrecking countdown of an approaching hurricane followed by the hurricane itself and then followed by the question “do I still have a house?” knows how bad this can be. ”
I can appreciate your exhaustion, having been through a hurricane. It seems to last forever. I remember thinking in the middle of it “I wonder if I’ll still have a house when this finally ends”. I was in that house at the time, too :-( The noises that old house made were unbelievable. But we made it through with minimal damage. Lost a lot of beautiful old trees though…
Wonderful news, Saker! Time to take a breather and be grateful. But … what about your dogs? Were you able to take them with you?
Also I agree on the way houses are “stick built” here. Don’t they learn from the cartoon about the 3 little pigs and the big bad wolf? ;)
Great to hear you stayed safe! Hope you received as much financial support as needed to carry on with your very thoughtful analysis – missing them to some degree in the last months. Without them we would be completly lost in Mordor. Many hugs from Germany !
Delighted to read you and family well. We need you.
Relax and thanks for all you have given us
Once, my mum had to travel at night, by foot, on her own, through a storm on unfamiliar territory. I sent many intercessory prayers to her, (it was all I could do at the time.) In the morning she phoned me, very elated, she had found her way safely!
She did not know about the prayers, and even if she had, being cool and undemonstrative with words and feelings, she would have said nothing.
Thanks, Saker, for the report. Take a break and enjoy it!
Thanks for the update and all is well. We’ll be here when you feel able to return;)
Take care of your family and yourself.
Praying for all the good people spread around the world, sometimes we forget they are there.
Excuse me for posting this here but…[To preserve the integrity of this comment thread, please repost under title “Syrians are dying for Hillary Clinton”. Thank you, The Moderators.]
Greets Saker! May Russian spirit be with you and defeat all hurricanes!!
It seems Guantanamo province, Cuba has been hard hit. There have been no deaths thanks to defensive measures taken prior to the storm. Winds were 260 to 300 km per hour. Entire roofs have been ripped off. Wooden buildings, forests have been flattened.
In Haiti, under UN management, the death toll has past 842 and is likely to pass a thousand in the near future. 28,000 homes have been damaged, 350’000 people need assistance.
Phone and electricity are knocked out.
Saint Domingue will likely have similar damage as Haiti as they share the same island.
Who and where will foreign aid be offered… will it be Syria or Cuba, Haiti, St. Domingue?
Recover well…….can you hire a dozer and build an earth dam around your house maybe…..
I have experienced a hurricane and I understand your need to rest. That’s one reason we moved to the mountains !
“Only somebody who has lived through the nerve-wrecking countdown of an approaching hurricane followed by the hurricane itself and then followed by the question “do I still have a house?” knows how bad this can be.”
Truth spoken. For the fist time in the history of weather recording in Hawai’i, two Hurricanes were aiming at lower Puna, where I live. The first was a CAT4 when it approached, the second one only days later was a CAT5. When the tracking was available, it showed that the eye will go over our house. Following the track of Hurricane Iselle from 2014, the first Hurricane ‘Darby’ was to hit us with 120mph, plus higher gusts. There are no buildings in Hawai’i that will survive that kind of wind speed, or at least not enough. Not enough shelters as well.
We evacuated to the North side of the island where the sun was shining and a strong trade wind like breeze was blowing. Perfect. Then the news from friends in Puna came in that ‘Darby’ was a non-event – at least wind wise. We received 2.5 inch per hour rain and that is a lot even for us on the East coast of the BI. Now though, Hurricane Lester packed 150mph winds and was heading towards the Hamakua Coast – where we had evacuated to. The decision was made that we will head back to see how the house survived – we don’t have a conventional building, but one that consists of glass walls all around partially with no glass, but mosquito screens. We were following ‘Darby’ on her heel, feeling Lester coming closer. When the pressure in the ears is changing rapidly. Never before have I seen the Big Island East side quasi depopulated. Everything was closed and not a many folks were driving around. When we arrived the house, it showed no whatsoever damages from the torrential rains.
Since we had evacuated with the most important papers, computer and such, I had to set up everything again to go online. It was then that we found out that Lester won’t hit the North shore directly, but cause extensive precipitation.
That was a bit much for us, as well. Especially, because there is another wonderful force on the Island – or better, the Island IS a wonderful force. Lava is swishing around in the big chamber, fluctuating heavily in level and intensity. While it was short of overflowing last week, the level has receded again and in place of the lava, we received tons of earthquakes. One 3.8 Mag this morning was close to us ESE of Kapoho.
Nerve wrecking times these are. But as other said here as well, at one point we all have to concede that we are not in control of our lives. Not more than we can influence our heartbeat, or generate it. Short of fatalism which has its followers obviously, it dawned that all we can ever do is to follow our instincts, our gut feelings, because there won’t be an outside source that will do it for us.
In quintessence, I can very well relate to the latest scenario You had to go through, but am also very well aware, that I have seen nothing yet, I don’t live in Haiti, North Carolina, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, or Iraq. Sitting in the early Sunday afternoon sun and enjoying breathing. Take a break to recover, approaching events will require You’re being in shape. :-)
Aloha from the Big Island!
Peace to you and your loved ones. Blessings in every sphere…
In Christ!
Wow :O Hope you get well soon and the clear up is not too bad a deal. Keep up the good work and hope the anxiety is npot too bad. Over here in France the only weather issue is – it was a bit chilly this morning and the sun got in my eyes in the car….Be well!
How good Our Lord is! Thank God you and your loved ones are safe, and so is your house. Take your time to recover and enjoy now some good time with your family! God bless you all.
Thanks God!!! :)
Good to know you are well. Good luck with your house.
Glad to hear you’re safe – I honestly don’t envy those who have to deal every year with such beasts
Take your time and be welcome anytime, Saker !
a friend just referred me to yr site, love it, love it, LOVE IT! Thanks so much, eager to devour more :-) PS Also very much love and appreciate Catherine Austin Fitts, Eager to see and hear more of you once you recover from your recent Hurricane Drama, so glad you somehow survived intact!
Joanna Beresford
Saker, I hope you feel a lot better now with Trump’s yesterday’s performance. I am surprise there is no new thread for that.
Unreal. All MSM must watching a different debate. They rig the poll and narrative now, rig the election later. Some one really need to start a new thread for this.
Warm greetings from France and always a great pleasure to read your interesting writing.