The unfortunate grass fires in Central Florida are setting the State of Florida up for some pretty rough times in the future as the 2006 Atlantic Tropical Hurricane Season. As the fires burn through the water sheds that would normally soak up the torrential rains that Large Size Hurricanes often bring as they drop up to 15 inches of rain in 10-18 hours or less. Often the Category or strength of the Hurricane are not as damaging to the torrential flooding as the absolute size of the storm. In fact a very slow moving Category One can cause much more damage thru flooding than a faster moving Category III which breaks apart as it hits land only to reform once it crosses the state and ends up either in the Gulf or the Atlantic Ocean for another go at human civilizations. How bad are these fires? Well they have burned thousands of acres and as Florida heats up things are pretty dry. Without that shrubbery the folks living on the giant sandbar are in severe risk from the flooding, which could cost Insurers, residents and the US Government Billions. When does Hurricane Season start, well some say within week, but officially the first named storm is not suppose to occur before June 1, yet the last two Hurricane Seasons started early by at least one week and meteorologists are expecting the same this year and FEMA is ready just in case. Consider this in 2006. |
