The Oppenheimer Report 9/11/17

Somehow, this date always seems to sneak up on me. With all the hurricane reporting that dominated the news today, it did not even cross my mind today marks an ominous anniversary. I remember that Shauna and I were in our apartment in Toronto when the first jet crashed into the World Trade Center, and I remember our shock as we gradually realized that this was a planned attack. Then, I remember the eerie emptiness in the usually crowded Toronto skies as all planes were grounded, and the strange feeling of vulnerability as we watched the news unfold from our high-rise apartment. Sixteen years has passed, and while I always thought that it would be man that eliminates mankind, it looks like Mother Nature is a much larger threat.

It’s Sunday, and as I start this report, Hurricane Irma is creeping up the west coast of Florida, having already hammered the keys and Naples. Over twice the size of Hurricane Andrew, about which I spoke last week, Irma is wide enough to impact both coasts, and CNN reporters are all over the state covering the storm live. It looks right now as if Florida will be spared the high winds that tore through the Caribbean, but it’s still too early to assess the damage from storm surges. We anxiously followed the journey of one of our friends, James Solecki, as he struggled to get out of Turks and Caicos shortly before Irma walloped that island. It was fascinating to read about his harrowing experience unfolding in real time. I spoke to my buddy Gil Walker last Wednesday, a former high school class mate and one of my twelve loyal readers. Gil lives in Vero Beach, and when we spoke, Irma was predicted to hit the east coast of Florida with Cat Four or Cat Five force winds. Gil was going to ride it out at home as he and many other Floridians have done so many times before, but how is one to know if the next one is The One? Two “Cat Four” hurricanes have now made landfall in the U.S. in less than two weeks, and I believe this is a record.

I’m a bit of a storm junkie, so of course I had CNN on all weekend. There were interviews with people holed up in their upper floor condos in Key West, which took a direct hit when Irma was close to or at Cat 5 force. There was remarkable storm footage from Miami and the southern west coast, showing the results of storm surges. As always, there are stories of people who showed bad judgment, and the one story that stood out as the ultimate stupid move involved the people who decided to ride the storm out by motoring out to sea in their relatively small sloop. They of course had to be rescued, or they would have surely perished. I doubt they even considered that they’d be endangering the first responders who saved their lives. What were they thinking, sailing into a Cat 4 hurricane, when cruise ships were changing course to avoid it?!

I wonder about our disaster preparedness here in Katrine. I think we have addressed the increased volume of water, and our new sump pump seems to be keeping the basement dry, but what about a winter storm? Our plow guy is in his mid to late seventies and I’m not sure how much longer he’s going to be working. I’ve half considered buying some heavy duty snow removal equipment. My 27” snow blower is not going to cut it for a 500 meter driveway on a regular basis. Wildfires in the west, hurricanes to the south, the weather was definitely strange up here in the near north this summer, and to top it off Donald Trump is the President of the United States of America. I think it’s the end of days. To all the lost souls in last week’s hurricanes and to the victims of 9-11, my thoughts are with you today.

      

     - Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED