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Published on the Doomstead Diner on October 14, 2018
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We've been tracking the progress of Michael Inside the Diner in our Strafing Run of Mother Nature thread since before he ever made it to Cuba, as we do with most cyclones that are either exceptionally huge and potentially destructive or which look like they have the potential to impact the FSoA in some location. We also watch the storms in the Pacific that generally hit the Asian continent also, but since most of the Diners live in the FSoA, these storms get more attention.
At the beginning, Michael didn't look like much, a Cat 1 bound for Cuba, but the track projected by the Supercomputer Models took it through the gap betwen Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico. The projected track made a beeline for the Panhandle of Florida, and thus it became a Hurricane worth watching, despite the fact it was only Cat 1 at the time.
Once into the "abnormally" warm waters of the Gulf, Michael went through not one, but 3 cycles of rapid intensification, or "Bombogenesis". In the matter of 3 days, he went from a pipsqueak Cat 1 Hurricane to a devastating Cat 4 on the Landfall between Panama City and Mexico Beach in the Panhandle of Florida, getting stronger all the time, even through two eyewall replacement cycles. On landfall where the eyewall hit, the devastation is so complete it looks like a Nuclear Bomb was detonated.
You can Google many more pics or find Slideshows of the aftermath on other websites to see a zillion like the above, I'm not going to drop a whole bunch more of those here. Suffice it to say that these Beachfront Resort Communities are going to be quite some time in returning to BAU, if they ever do. Also similarly devastated was Mexico Beach, Apalachicola and Tyndall Air Force Base. On the latter, all to the good there.
What we will look at in this article is the development and Path of Total Destruction that Michael took from the time he passed Cuba and entered the Gulf of Mexico until he exited the shores of the FSoA into the Atlantic, now predicted to make a beeline as a post tropical storm across the pond and headed for Europe. The images you will see here come from the marvels of modern technology courtesy of the NOAA, the NHC and the NWS. The satellites shoot in various wavelengths, Visible, Infrared, and Short Wave Infrared. Also a new color composite with simulated day/night layers. Also, Doppler Radar which gives a Techs-on-the-Ground look at the ground level precipitation coming down. This technology, along with the supercomputers and weather models that have been developed has totally revolutionized the prediction of Hurricane landfalls. The accuracy of this technology is really only about 5-10 years old. The track for Michael was right on, basically from the moment it became a named storm right up until it left the FSoA. It remains to be seen if the track prediction holds true for a projected journey across the Atlantic as a post-tropical storm to possibly also threaten Europe.
This technology dramatically reduces the loss of life, giving people the time to prepare or to GTFO of Dodge. The 2nd choice there for Michael if you lived along the Panhandle coastline being the only intelligent choice. Further inland, you might try to ride it out if you live in a well built structure like a Monolithic Dome, but on the Coast a Cat 4 (nearly a Cat 5) positively FLATTENS everything.
Anyhow, that's enough words for today on Michael, now the story will be the aftermath and the cleanup which will take a while to play out. Michael cut such a huge swath over such a long distance in a highly populated zone that it's going to be a very long and difficult cleanup, along with the restoration of power. About the only thing you can be sure of is it will get done faster than the cleanup got done (it still isn't) in Puerto Rico. For now, lets just follow Michael as he makes his way in to do a Strafing Run on the Southeast Coast of the FSoA, starting with when he grazed Cuba to make it into the GoM.
Michael runs the gap between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula as a Cat 1
Michael crosses the Gulf of Mexico rapidly intensifying from a Cat 1 to a Cat 4 in the matter of 3 days.
Michael makes his approach on the Panhandle of Florida to begin his Strafing Run
Michael makes First Contact betwen Panama City and Mexico Beach, dropping the equivalent of a Nuclear Bomb across the Beachfront resort communities of the Florida Panhandle.
Michael traverses Florida to move into Georgia, still at Hurricane Strength
Michael strafes Georgia and moves on for a Strafing Run on South Carolina and North Carolina, recently innundated and devastated by Hurricane Florence.
Michael finishes with the Carolinas to bring misery to Virginia and Maryland
Michael makes his final Strafing Run on the FSoA East Coast exiting out of New York to head back into the open waters of the Atlantic, traveling at a high rate of speed.
…and now for his next act, Michael is predicted to make a Trans-Atlantic crossing of the Pond as a Post-Tropical storm, headed for Europe for another Strafing Run before he is done.
By the time Michael makes it over to Europe, he won't be packing anywhere near the power he had on arrival in Florida in terms of wind speeds and destructive capacity, but still probably will be carrying with him a prodigious amount of rainfall which can also be quite devastating. We will see what effect Michael has on the European continent.
For next week here in the FSoA, the cleanup and recovery operations begin, but typically the MSM is already leaving this story for the other ongoing disasters endemic to the Collapse of Industrial Civilization, that they are also blissfully unaware is underway. How many will still be without power in week from now, will we ever know or hear about it? Probably not. Attantion spans are very short on these things, particularly when you have so many of them come in such a short interval of time.