[National Hurricane Center Data]  As of 11:00am ET Tuesday, Hurricane Ian has maximum sustained winds of 115 mph [Category 3].  Ian is anticipated to continue strengthening in the next 24 hours as it enters the Gulf of Mexico as a major hurricane [Cat 3+].  All west coast Florida residents from Bonita Springs to Tampa should use Today to finalize their hurricane preparations.

Today is the last good weather day to finish your preparations and secure your property.  Do not be alarmed but do take this hurricane seriously. This is not a ‘wait and see’ type storm.  All reasonable precautions should be completed today, and all coastal residents are urged to pay close attention to local officials for evacuation orders.  Each locality is different, each coastal locality has a zone of potential flooding and storm surge.  As a general rule, hunker down from wind – but evacuate from water.

[NHC] At 1100 AM EDT (1500 UTC), the center of Hurricane Ian was located near latitude 23.0 North, longitude 83.5 West. Ian is moving toward the north near 10 mph (17 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue today. A turn toward the north-northeast with a reduction in forward speed is forecast tonight and Wednesday. On the forecast track, the center of Ian is expected to move over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico in a couple of hours, pass west of the Florida Keys later today, and approach the west coast of Florida within the hurricane warning area on Wednesday and Wednesday night. (more)

Official projections now put the storm further east and slightly south, just off the Florida southwest coast on Wednesday night, with the potential for a 24-hour duration cycle. That is an alarming amount of time for a major hurricane to be centered near or on the coast.  That is a minimum of two tidal cycles, which will make a big difference from prior hurricanes in terms of flooding and the potential for a historic storm surge into inland waterways.

(more…)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pointed out the difference between Hurricane Charley (’04) and the current Hurricane Ian, with both of them projected to follow a similar path, yet both delivering a different threat.  Charley was a fast-moving category 4 storm carrying lots of wind damage.  Ian is anticipated to be a slow-moving Category 4 storm pushing a lot of water damage and dangerous storm surge.

Additional information provided in the briefing, including 28,000 pre-staged power and utility workers.  WATCH:

.

(more…)

With the forecasted path of Hurricane Ian anticipated to bring high water and winds to the west coast of Florida there is the potential for major storm surge in specific regions. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference from Pinellas County to outline the latest information. WATCH: 

 ~ Florida Disaster Website as Outlined ~

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — This morning, Governor Ron DeSantis issued updates on Hurricane Ian at the State Emergency Operations Center with Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie. Full remarks from this morning’s press conference are available here.

(more…)

National Hurricane Center Data Here – After two years of relatively uneventful hurricane activity, and with two years of massive migration into the state since the COVID pandemic, there are millions of people potentially going to experience their first hurricane.  Thus, Florida emergency officials are being proactive in their alerts.

There is no cause for alarm, but the unspoken motive for officials to more firmly emphasize preparation is related to this ‘new resident’ dynamic. In the background several FL Civilian Emergency Response Teams (CERT) are now preparing.  Due to the confluence of events, all are is taking this storm seriously.

TD #9 is now Tropical Storm Ian, soon to be Hurricane Ian. – “At 1100 AM EDT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Ian was located near latitude 14.4 North, longitude 75.2 West. Ian is moving toward the west near 15 mph (24 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue through tonight. A turn toward the northwest is forecast on Sunday, followed by a north-northwestward turn on Monday and a northward motion on Tuesday. On the forecast track, the center of Ian is forecast to move across the central Caribbean Sea today, pass southwest of Jamaica on Sunday, and pass near or over the Cayman Islands Sunday night and early Monday. Ian will then approach western Cuba late Monday and emerge over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.” (link)

The general forecast path has not changed much in the past 12 hours, but the timeline has slowed as the storm slowly gathers strength.  We are now likely looking at a Wednesday night landfall (projected).  There is a very wide cone of uncertainty and also more time to prepare.

(more…)

Tropical Depression #9 has Florida officials paying attention as the storm is forecast to become a major hurricane early next week (Monday/Tuesday) in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida’s west coast.   [National Hurricane Center Advisory] In the background several Civilian Emergency Response Teams (CERT) have been activated.  Due to the confluence of events, everyone is taking this storm very seriously.

After two years of relatively uneventful hurricane activity, and with two years of massive migration into the state since the COVID pandemic, there are millions of people potentially going to experience their first hurricane.  Thus, Florida emergency officials are being proactive in their alerts.

(NHC) – At 500 PM EDT (2100 UTC), the center of Tropical Depression Nine was located near latitude 14.7 North, longitude 71.3 West. The depression is moving toward the west-northwest near 15 mph (24 km/h). A westward motion is expected to begin tonight and continue through Saturday night, followed by a turn toward the northwest and north-northwest on Sunday and Monday. On the forecast track, the center of the cyclone is forecast to move across the central Caribbean Sea through Saturday, pass south of Jamaica on Saturday night and Sunday, and approach the Cayman Islands on Sunday night and early Monday. (more)

With this much advanced notice residents along the west coast of Florida should begin reviewing their prior supplies and updating their hurricane preparations.  Much could change over the next 72-hours, but a review of supplies and locating stored material is a prudent approach.

Check your hurricane supplies of shelf-stable food, water, medicine and don’t forget pets.  Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.  Everything is replaceable, except you and your family.  We have a lot of Treepers in the path of this storm. If you need assistance, use the comments section of any ‘Update thread’ to reach out, or use the email address in the upper right of the site.

(more…)

Keeping with historic trends in Puerto Rico, another corrupt governor has been arrested and indicted on corruption, bribery and fraud charges.  Wanda Vazquez Garced replaced Ricardo Rosselló after he was accused of racism and having a homophobic cabinet.

During her term in office, millions of dollars’ worth of Hurricane Maria aid was discovered being stored and sold on the black market from various warehouses. [Go Deep]

The hurricane supplies provided by U.S. taxpayers were never given to citizens and were instead being used by government officials and sold to retailers. The Housing Secretary (Fernando Gil), the Department of Family Secretary (Glorimar Andújar) and the director of Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency were all fired as part of the scandal.

Governor Wanda Vazquez lost her primary reelection bid in August 2020, and today was indicted for corruption, bribery and wire fraud.

(Via DOJ) -A former governor of Puerto Rico was arrested today on bribery charges related to the financing of her 2020 campaign.

Relatedly, a political consultant for the former governor and the president of the international bank have also pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme.

(more…)

Comrades, the Ministry of Citizen Privacy cares about your on-line freedoms, accesses and privacy.

Dear Leader cares about your ability to connect efficiently to the government monitoring, surveillance and geolocation tracking services.

(Tweet Thread Link) – (White House LINK)

There is nothing nefarious about the U.S. surveillance state wanting to make surveillance more efficient. Nothing nefarious at all {GO DEEP}.

Do not be discouraged by those extremist voices outlining the benefits to government that are provided by a wider, more inclusive, national broadband internet system; that connects to a more efficient 5G internet system; that permits you to experience a new world of telecommunications benefits tailored to your individual needs.

The new network of all things interconnected will make life far more convenient, perhaps allowing you to eliminate the worry of finding gasoline in rural areas when it becomes scarce.  Our new national networks will help ease your mind as the internet proximity services work seamlessly with your portable transponder unit (cell phone) to facilitate your needs.

The convenience of finding stuff you need; intersecting with voting and data-connections with your social media network; helping the government track you; all of it.  The opportunities are endless my friends.  Smiles, everyone, smiles.

(more…)

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear gave a terrible update about the devastation in the aftermath of the horrific tornadoes that hit overnight Friday into Saturday morning.  According to the Governor, more than 70 are dead in a candle factory alone in Mayfield, and the death toll is expected to continue climbing as the list of missing people throughout the state is too long to fathom.

An official death count has not been released, but Beshear, appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, said at least 80 Kentuckians were feared dead with that number expected to rise. “I know we’ve lost more than 80 Kentuckians. That number is going to exceed more than 100,” he said. “This is the deadliest tornado event we’ve ever had.” WATCH:

Additional deaths have been reported outside of Kentucky including six at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, four in Tennessee, two in Arkansas and two in Missouri.  More drone footage of the devastation was released earlier today. [See Below]

(more…)

Hundreds of requests for details on the specifics of the container shipping backlog.  So, I spent 3 days calling sources, digging for details and gathering information on the substantive issue at hand.  The epicenter of the problem is not what is being outlined by financial media, corporate media and politicians who have a specific interest in distracting from the issues at hand.  This has nothing to do with COVID-19.

The issues being discussed today relate to events that happened a long time ago.  As a matter of fact, it was so predictable that Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx, Samsung, The Home Depot and Target all had taken actions years ago -long before COVID- because they knew this day would come.  It was not accidental that those companies showed up at the White House to discuss the issue, because there’s now a full court press to hide it.

There is one very specific regional issue driving the problem.  Read on:

The trucking issue with California LA ports, ie the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB), is that all semi tractors have to be current with new California emissions standards.  As a consequence, that mean trucks cannot be older than 3 years if they are to pick up or deliver containers at those ports.  This issue wipes out approximately half of the fleet trucks used to move containers in/out of the port.  Operating the port 24/7 will not cure the issue, because all it does is pile up more containers that sit idle as they await a limited number of trucks to pick them up.  THIS is the central issue.

On October 16, 2020, the EPA reached a settlement agreement [DATA HERE] with California Air Resource Board (CARB) to shut down semi tractor rigs that were non-compliant with new California emission standards:

2020 SAN FRANCISCO – “Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced settlements with three interstate trucking companies imposing $417,000 in penalties for violating the California Air Resources Board’s federally enforceable Truck and Bus Regulation, Drayage Truck Regulation and Transport Refrigeration Unit Regulation.

“As trucks are one of the largest sources of air pollution in California, EPA will continue to ensure these heavy-duty vehicles have the needed pollution-control equipment and operate in compliance with the rules,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator John Busterud. “These companies have agreed to bring their trucks into compliance and operate more cleanly in all communities they serve.”

(more…)

Attempting to reassure the nation of the federal government’s competence in the aftermath of a devastating Hurricane Ida, Joe Biden introduces the woke FEMA officials who will be coordinating the recovery effort.   The outcome was, unfortunately, exactly what you would expect.

Within the confidence building effort, Biden introduces “his boy” Senior Advisor and Director of Public Engagement, Cedric Richmond.  Things go downhill from there:

.

(more…)