>>>>>I hear they're also working on a pandemic?
>>>>>http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=112881&catid=14
>>>>>
>>>>>Yeah- but this time it'll have to be Medicaid at fault because it affects younger people.
>>>>>
>>>>>Or is that a panicdemic? ;)
>>>>>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/26/AR2009082603759.html
>>>>>
>>>>>Strange- in that article there is a picture of a helicopter dropping water (no doubt removed by the Feds from California lakes to cause the drought you describe) as well as a reference to Tropical Storm Danny which I assume was named after Dan Quayle because he caused it.
>>>>>
>>>>>You're right, all these things do link together. The only proper response is to attend a town hall meeting to call for Benjamin Franklin to be released by the CIA and to pitch a tent outside Obama's house to force him to allow world peace.
>>>>
>>>>This year's hurricanes just don't sound ferocious enough to scare anyone. Tropical Storm Danny? Hurricane Bill? Fred, Grace, Kate, Mindy, and Rose are waiting in the wings. Who the heck is going to evacuate to avoid Hurricane Mindy? Now Katrina (a name now retired), that sounded like a weather system to scare the bejesus out of anyone. I nominate Hurricane Thor, Hurricane Bathsheba, stuff like that. Those will get people hoarding water and toilet paper, placing packed bags by the front door.
>>>>
>>>>Here is a list of the pre-approved names for this year. Compare to 2004, for example. Someone is softening these names up.
>>>>
>>>>http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/2009names.htm
>>>
>>>Fran is a nice friendly name and it rained destruction on my area... :o) And remember Hazel? :o) Sheesh!
>>
>>Hmph! You're way too young to remember Hazel. I remember Hazel and I was just a kid. I remember thinking at the time how exciting it all was. Of couse, looking back on her and the complete disappearance of at least 2 Toronto neighbourhoods down by the Humber river, I feel a bit differently about her now.
>
>You are right of course :o) Although the destruction was visible for many years. An interesting look back on it here:
>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1014_041014_hurricane_hazel.html
>
>There is a nice chart here:
>http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/climate/hurricane.php
>
>I've experienced too many hurricanes as far as I'm concerned :o) I've had a tree come down on my house, one through a living room window. I've had a tree fall and crush my car (got a new car out of that one) and a fence down and a huge 100 year old Oak that had to be removed (very costly) because it was leaning towards my neighbor's house. Lots of cleanup after everyone that doesn't cause real damage but takes days and sometimes weeks to remove. One time I got a call to come in to work (I was working for the government then on their network) and fix the connectivity issues and I couldn't get out of my driveway because too many trees had come down on my street. Actually what bothers me the most is the loss of power. We can go days without power after a hurricane and down here it is hot and muggy and there are so many bugs after hurricanes!
>
>I wasn't in South Carolina for Hurricane Hugo, but in 1991 I drove to the beach area down there and the entire way the destruction was still visible and unbelievable. Francis Marion National Forest looked like every tree had been mowed down and they were just laying flat. The hurricane spawned almost 3000 tornadoes.

We've been lucky here in Toronto, Hurricanes are extremely rare. In fact, Hazel is now over 50 years ago, and we haven't had one since. We had a couple of tornadoes recently that left a trail of destruction, but again, those are rare in Toronto.