I think that we've been getting more "named" storms over the past few years. It used to be a rare year that got as far as N or M but lately that seems to be about their stopping place.

What happens in the USA though, is that beachfront property is at a premium. Not just in the SE either --- I've just sold a house with very little land, but a beachfront view, in Quincy, MA for double what I paid for it in 1990. Quite a nice return on investment. Shame I had to give half the proceeds to my exhusband :-(

So people build luxury homes, hotels, resorts, etc. on beachfronts, put expensive yachts in marinas and when they all get blown away by a force of nature, the $ cost is huge. Look at a population density map of the USA --- most people live on the edges of the continent, with stripes of increased density around the major rivers..... People like living by water and up until the second half of this century water was the best means of moving cargo. Harbors and navigable rivers have always attracted settlement.

A category 5 hurricane that comes ashore and dies in a deserted area (assuming it can find one) will do little damage. Does that make it a "less severe" storm than a category 2 one which takes out a downtown urban center?? Technically not. But the cat.2 storm will get all the press and headlines because of the damage it causes.

What has happened over the past few years is that the amount and $ value of the damage caused has gone up dramatically. Both the number of structures and their $value has increased so that a smaller storm can cause more $damage than a bigger one a decade or so ago, or in a less-developed area. Mitch wiped out Honduras and Nicaragua and killed large numbers of people and was probably the most devastating in terms of lost lives. It did a lot less $damage than Andrew.


All of this is pretty academic right now... Good luck to all you guys out there in Floyd country. If you're sitting it out, stay safe. If you've voted with your feet, may you find your stuff when you get back.

Jen

p.s. FWIW --- I saw Roger Waters "in the Flesh" this summer, terrific show. I've been a Floyd fan for 32+ years (pre-Arnold Lane). I still wonder what they'd have been like if Syd hadn't lost it......