Thread: Virgin Islands Allows National Guard To Seize Guns, Ammo Ahead Of Hurricane Irma

Virgin Islands Allows National Guard To Seize Guns, Ammo Ahead Of Hurricane Irma


MICHAEL BASTASCH
11:33 AM 09/05/2017

U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp signed an emergency order allowing the seizure of private guns, ammunition, explosives and property the National Guard may need to respond to Hurricane Irma.

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Mapp signed the order Monday in preparation for Hurricane Irma. The order allows the Adjutant General of the Virgin Islands to seize private property they believe necessary to protect the islands, subject to approval by the territory’s Justice Department.

Mapp issued an emergency declaration Tuesday and mobilized National Guard units to prepare for the massive storm.

“This is not an opportunity to go outside and try to have fun with a hurricane,” Mapps aid. “It’s not time to get on a surfboard.”

Irma strengthened to a Category 5 storm Tuesday, with wind gusts hitting 175 miles an hour. Irma’s eye is expected to pass just north of the heart of the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday and bring four to eight inches or rain and 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts.

The National Hurricane Center is calling the storm “extremely dangerous.” Weather forecasters say Irma is headed towards the Florida coastline, and should bring devastating conditions to the region in the next four or five days.

GOP Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló both declared states of emergencies in anticipation of Irma.

Scott said President Donald Trump “offered the full resources of the federal government as Floridians prepare for Hurricane Irma.”

Irma comes more than one week after Hurricane Harvey brought devastating floods to the greater Houston area.

Click below to read a copy of the order:
Virgin Islands Emergency Order


http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/05/vi...urricane-irma/http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/05/vi...urricane-irma/

trump is so wrong @ removing regulations for fossil fuel industries - profits, profits, profits - sickening! Pipelines, eminent domain, loss of habitat for creatures ALL FOR EXPORTS!

It would be ludicrous, not applicable to "funny" to appoint non scientists & unbelievers of the dangers of pesticides to his positions, EPA, USDA etc. See Trump Nominates Sam Clovis, a Dude Who Is Not a Scientist, to Be Department of Agriculture's Top Scientist

Slaughter our wild horses so the rich can profit off their "designated lands" pruitt, epa - and now wants to appoint 'heart attack waiting to happen' clovis to usda ?????? Paleeze - give us a break!


It's a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly

Michael E Mann We can’t say that Hurricane Harvey was caused by climate change. But it was certainly worsened by it.

Monday 28 August 2017 10.07 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 29 August 2017 07.27 EDT

What can we say about the role of climate change in the unprecedented disaster that is unfolding in Houston with Hurricane Harvey? There are certain climate change-related factors that we can, with great confidence, say worsened the flooding.

What we know so far about tropical storm Harvey

Sea level rise attributable to climate change – some of which is due to coastal subsidence caused by human disturbance such as oil drilling – is more than half a foot (15cm) over the past few decades (see here for a decent discussion). That means the storm surge was half a foot higher than it would have been just decades ago, meaning far more flooding and destruction.

In addition to that, sea surface temperatures in the region have risen about 0.5C (close to 1F) over the past few decades from roughly 30C (86F) to 30.5C (87F), which contributed to the very warm sea surface temperatures (30.5-31C, or 87-88F).

There is a simple thermodynamic relationship known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation that tells us there is a roughly 3% increase in average atmospheric moisture content for each 0.5C of warming. Sea surface temperatures in the area where Harvey intensified were 0.5-1C warmer than current-day average temperatures, which translates to 1-1.5C warmer than “average” temperatures a few decades ago. That means 3-5% more moisture in the atmosphere.

That large amount of moisture creates the potential for much greater rainfalls and greater flooding. The combination of coastal flooding and heavy rainfall is responsible for the devastating flooding that Houston is experiencing.

Not only are the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico unusually warm right now, but there is a deep layer of warm water that Harvey was able to feed upon when it intensified at near record pace as it neared the coast. Human-caused warming is penetrating down into the ocean. It’s creating deeper layers of warm water in the Gulf and elsewhere.

Sea surface temperatures in the region have risen about 0.5C (close to 1F) over the past few decades

Harvey was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming, which means stronger winds, more wind damage and a larger storm surge. (As an example of how this works, we have shown that climate change has led to a dramatic increase in storm surge risk in New York City, making devastating events like Hurricane Sandy more likely.)

Finally, the more tenuous but potentially relevant climate factors: part of what has made Harvey such a devastating storm is the way it has stalled near the coast. It continues to pummel Houston and surrounding regions with a seemingly endless deluge, which will likely top out at nearly 4ft (1.22m) of rainfall over a days-long period before it is done.

The stalling is due to very weak prevailing winds, which are failing to steer the storm off to sea, allowing it to spin around and wobble back and forth. This pattern, in turn, is associated with a greatly expanded subtropical high pressure system over much of the US at the moment, with the jet stream pushed well to the north. This pattern of subtropical expansion is predicted in model simulations of human-caused climate change.

More tenuous, but possibly relevant still, is the fact that very persistent, nearly “stationary” summer weather patterns of this sort, where weather anomalies (both high-pressure dry hot regions and low-pressure stormy/rainy regions) stay locked in place for many days at a time, appears to be favoured by human-caused climate change. We recently published a paper in the academic journal Scientific Reports on this phenomenon.

In conclusion, while we cannot say climate change “caused” Hurricane Harvey (that is an ill-posed question), we can say is that it exacerbated several characteristics of the storm in a way that greatly increased the risk of damage and loss of life. Climate change worsened the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

• Michael E Mann is distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center and author of three books, including The Hockey Stick and The Climate Wars, Dire Predictions, and The Madhouse Effect.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ey-more-deadly