When I mention moving back to Virginia/North Carolina I frequently hear "How will you stand those red necks?"

Well, sometimes those red necks get it so right!

My southern ancestors played Brahms, and I have never particularly favored country music, I was charmed by "We're American made and won't be swayed, or blown by the winds of change".

For those who will shortly mention the excesses of the last Republican majority, well, we'll just kick their a-ses out too. Maybe both parties have outlived their usefulness.

I think I have mentioned this before. I am not so old and can remember buying .22 ammo at the hardware store at 12, or 13. I did need a note from my mother. A few street lights did suffer, but no one was murdered and the thought did not occur. What has happened in the last 40 odd years?

For those who don't recognize the background, it is Capitol Hill in Nashville.

Justin,

The music video….interesting.

However, RI does not know how lucky it was with Earl. It all depended on how close Earl came to NC and how tight the turn northward would be. 10 miles closer and a change of 1-2 degrees in the turn would have made a tremendous difference in the outcome for State of RI.

I was tracking Earl via US Naval Research Labs and University of Hawaii Tropical Meteorology web sites 5 days before RI EMA and the RI news started to pick up on the danger and report it.

Every year I hosted the National Weather Service Hurricane Awareness Seminar for RIEMA and local city and town EMAs before I retired. I gained a new perspective and respect for hurricanes and also learned if a CAT-4 or CAT-5 hurricane was off the coast near Charleston, SC it would be in RI in less than 30 hours. It takes an estimated 36 hours to evacuate Newport, RI totally. Just remember this one little fact for the next time a hurricane is off the SC coast.

I was on the Island of Kauai and saw residual damage 1 year 3 months after CAT-4 Hurricane Iniki scored a direct hit on the island on September 11, 1992 with sustained winds of 145 mph and recorded gusts of 227 mph. 1,221 home were completely destroyed and 5,152 homes greatly damaged while 7,178 received minor damage. Most all homes, business and hotels lost part or all of their roofs. Forests and bushes were stripped of foliage by the wind which was still evident over a year later. Trees, telephone poles and transmission line towers were toppled over like bowling pins. Storm tide was 4-6 ft. with high water mark of 18 ft. and waves of 35 ft. creating a debris line of more than 800 feet inland.

Surprisingly only 6 people lost their life to Hurricane Iniki which caused $1.8 billion in damages.

Right now there is TS Gaston tracking almost the same track as Earl in the Atlantic and TS Hermine forming right behind it.

Also there are four more tropical waves lined up like jet planes coming in for landings at an airport crossing Africa. September looks like a busy month in the Atlantic!

"However, RI does not know how lucky it was with Earl. It all depended on how close Earl came to NC and how tight the turn northward would be. 10 miles closer and a change of 1-2 degrees in the turn would have made a tremendous difference in the outcome for State of RI."

No disrespect intended Ken, but "miss by an inch, miss by a mile". Ever since reading Michael Chrichton's State of Fear, I notice how anxiety seems to be manufactured. For instance, I noticed coverage of Earl on the Drudge Report. There is a radar picture of Earl, not described as a large storm, but labled "Monster". This seems to be part of a pattern. When the number of "handgun deaths" are mentioned, no one mentions that 50% are suicides, and probably not preventable. There is a palpable fear of "violent crime", although violent crime is at its lowest level since the 1970's.

I wonder about the need to evacuate the Outer Banks and the Sea Islands. Miami is hit by 3-4 Hurricanes a year, who ever hears of evacuating Miami? For all of that, I have to admit that Galveston disappeared.

"Forests and bushes were stripped of foliage by the wind which was still evident over a year later."

From the air, you could see Sherman's March to the Sea well into the 1960's.