Cyclone Sidr: Nature's waterboard

Our SciBlings at The Intersection, Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, remind us that pandemics aren't the only natural disaster. I'm kidding, of course. You knew there were others, right? Like Cyclone Sidr, practically on top of the people of Bangladesh. First story on CNN, right? I'm kidding of course. They have to wait for the bodies to wash up first. Anyway, Chris says the latest from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) has this hurricane bearing down on that poor country at almost Cat 5 levels and it may still be intensifying. Chris is the author of the excellent book, Storm Warning, so when he speaks we listen:

This is a nightmare unfolding. The official landfall prediction from JTWC--like we trust them--is 115 knots, or weak Category 4. This is a storm that needs to be evacuated from, but I have no idea whether that is taking place on the ground. And as for weakening--yeah, that may well happen before landfall, but we're talking about a landfall 24 hours from now. And this storm is whipping up waves of 40 feet or more right now.

This looks bad. Really bad.

And I note that the US Embassy in Bangladesh doesn't even have a press release up on its website about the storm. (Chris Mooney, The Intersection)

Go to Chris and Sheril's blog for status reports.

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But why would we Revere? Its a Bangladeshi and Indian problem until they call for help. Our embassy is likely evacuated. Sidr has been a known for a week and yes CNN and Fox both will be waiting on the bodies to wash out to sea. Within 15 of the eye there is likely going to be a storm surge of at least 25 feet with another 25 feet worth of waves on that. Not unlike Katrina when the SLOSH program showed 32 feet on the buoys out at sea two days before land fall on a city that had 25 foot levee's.

They are too poor to move inland so they are going to weather it out just as their families have for thousands of years. Another disaster checking in for yet another human cull ...

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 14 Nov 2007 #permalink

Well they got off light... 150 mph winds, 25 foot surge, thousands displaced. But as usual, the US has sent enough MRE's, transformers, wire and satcom phones to bring them back up within a month. No starvation will occur. The UK, India, China, Japan also are all kicking in. Germany gave 731,000 straight off. The Deshi govt is allocating 5.3 million for rebuilding of homes. Feel free to donate at

http://www.bdcgny.org/archive/instructions_flood_donations.html

I want everyone to remember that they ponied up 25,000 bucks for the fund for the families of the WTC's. It was likely all they had, but gave they did. That is an astronomical amount of money in their terms.

1730? and counting but not the massive kill we all expected. But even one is too many but for a people who are living only 4 feet above sea level for almost 100 miles, a good rain can cause big problems.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 17 Nov 2007 #permalink

Now its disclosed that 15,000 are dead.... Not so light after all.

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 19 Nov 2007 #permalink