Looking at the videos the damage of Acapulco is bad but many of those buildings might still be recoverable. It looks like many of their structures are still standing and most of the damage is windows. For comparison here is what a Cat. 5 storm can do to an area much poorer than Acapulco. This is from Tacloban Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan
Again, most of the images we have are from the resort part of Acapulco. The places where most of the one million residents live hasn't shown up much.
Here's a great NYTimes guest opinion piece about the state of disaster recovery in the US. Full disclosure: it's written by a friend of mine and we've done some joint projects in the past. I think this is a gift link, so you should be able to click and read even though the NYTimes is paywalled. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/28/...e_code=1.6Ew.WTx_.6mtNrAIBW9sX&smid=url-share
Also, in many buildings it looks like more than windows to me--windows, walls, doors, electrical systems, fixtures, appliances, furniture, etc. Again, the debris removal before you can even start rebuilding will be a massive problem.
Yes the interiors will need to be gutted but if they aren’t structurally damaged the buildings can be recovered
Meanwhile, they are easing into summer down in Australia and the fires are expected to be a problem this year. In the center of the country, the vegetation is like West Texas/high desert scrub, which burns well when a little wind gets aligned with a drought and hot temps.
That's incredible, seeing a catastrophe take place in that way. From what I can recall, Australia has had an unusual number of very dry seasons the last few years, leading to extensive fires across broad areas, like you showed us here. Not just in Australia, but in other parts of the world, as I'm sure you know all too well.
Australia has he last ten years has had a lot of dry seasons punctuated by super wet seasons. It also seems Like the US West might be following that pattern.
More on Australian fires. The recent years (all two of them) where the fire year has been less intense in the Western continental US (and more usually intense in Canada and Alaska) have been because the jet stream did wacky and unpredictable things in the spring and early summer. The reason it is becoming unpredictable is because of the warming in the northern latitudes contrasts less with the warm tropics and weakens the jet stream, causing it to meander and loop dramatically allowing cold and wet air to drop south and warm, dry air to push north. If the jet stream behaves in a traditional way, we'll be hot and dry and have lots of fires. (Well, maybe. It's dependent on ignitions and most of our ignitions in the summer months come from lightning which needs moisture to get going--I can see us having a horribly hot and dry year with little lightning because there's not enough moisture to create t-storms.) Australia has some similar dynamics, but they, like the Western US and Canada, are getting hotter and drier faster than other parts of the world (even though the world is, on average, getting hotter and drier, in some places it's happening faster--models suggest the accelerated warming we're seeing in the northern latitudes will soon make it's way down to the mid latitudes). So, here, the seasonal predictor is changing from the traditional winter snowpack levels and early spring rains to late spring/early summer jet stream meanders and oxbows. I'm also worried that this El Nino winter will not follow previous patterns. If there's one theme of this thread, it should be that we are now in a world where predictability and expertise are all in decline because the conditions that built our previous experiences are changing so rapidly. That goes for natural and human systems and all the brittle and unnoticed places where they interact. So, have a plan people. And then build some contingencies on top of that plan.
Absolutely agree. Just pointing out that steady predictable rainfall is unlikely in these places. Last year in the US west were massive rain and snow events then with long periods of drought. From what I’ve seen of Australia they are experiencing the same things. Either the country is on fire or parts of it are inaccessible from flooding. FYI I was in Sydney last year in December and it was unusually cool and rainy then which they said was odd for that time of year.
Wildfires are breaking out in Eastern KY and VA. In November. https://www.wlky.com/article/eastern-kentucky-wildfires-beshear-state-of-emergency/45795609
This is the time of year for large non-Okefenokee/Everglades fires in the SE. Leaves have fallen and it doesn't take much to dry things by sun or frost. Add to that a bunch of knuckleheads burning leaf piles and barrels full of trash and, well, you get an uptick in human-caused starts. Throw a little wind on everything and there you go. The vast majority of human-caused starts are in the SE.
