Free Republic

They might have been talking about the missile test in the pacific off the CG-class ship that did not go well.

Found a website that gives local information for Pascagoula, MS, one of the towns that sections washed through. They had a "price watch" section to look for high and low gas prices. Yesterday, the HIGHEST was $2.79/gallon. Bless those people...with all they have going on, they haven't been taking advantage of their neighbors.

Once the locals figured out they could be eaten, the nutria's numbers began to decline. However, the damage to the levees was already done. Last time we were down there, the workers had their own version of a nutria "soft-taco" they shared with us. It was Ok, but I sure didn't ask for seconds. Great people down there. Sure wish I could find out something about the Avondale shipyard and those folks.

Down in Westwego (southwest NO) a couple of years ago, the shipyard workers told me the nutria (think of a rat crossed with a rabbit) were digging burrows into the earther levees, weakening them. This may have contributed.

When Hugo hit here in '89, my wife (not then though) had 3' of water go through her house on the Isle of Palms. The government shut down the island and wouldn't let her (or anyone else) back on for two weeks, so a lot of stuff got ruined or stolen. To make matters worse, Senator Hollings got air lifted to his house to secure his things while the National Guard had troops on the island with orders to shoot people on the island, homeowners or not. Now, every time a storm nears, I pack up the dogs and bird and head out, leaving her there. She vows she'd rather swim from the roof than go through that again.

Once a hurricane or typhoon reaches land, it tends to gravitate toward the first thing it hits. Try this: put the end of your vacuum's hose just above the floor and turn it on. Then, place you finger on the floor near the nozzle. The nozzle pulls toward your finger since the air can't rush in around your finger as easily as it would otherwise and a higher vacuum is created near your finger. The eye of the storm is just a huge vacuum, pulling everything in toward it and flinging it out in bands as it circulates. The trees, buildings, etc..cause friction for the wind headed into the eye and often steer the storm toward the first land mass it hits. That, and its counter-clockwise motion, usually make these things jog to the east. Once it hits friction from all sides over land, it starts to lose its power as the air can't get into the eye as easily and its major heat source is gone.