Irma, one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded.

[Peter_S]

Irma is now one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic

Irma is now an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 hurricane with wind speeds up to 175 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. That makes it the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean outside of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

[theverge.com...]

[keyplyr]

Bad news for those in its path.

[not2easy]

Irma is a small, concentrated, fierce little storm. Winds are now at 185 MPH or 295 KM/H. The eye is tiny and wind force extends only about 60 miles from its core but because it is a powerful storm, the coastal damage and storm surge flooding will be extreme. It should be arriving somewhere on the US mainland this weekend.

The less organized, weaker storm following Irma is called Jose and traveling in Irma's wake toward the east coast. It may develop or amble out to sea and dissipate, we hope.

[Peter_S]

And not to forget about the archipelago of the Antilles, this is them being hit the stronger, and they do not have the resources that the USA has to handle such situations.

[keyplyr]

Where I live we get earthquakes. Seems like there's some menacing threat anywhere one lives.

[martinibuster]

I used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area and am familiar with earthquakes!

I live in inland New England, in the safety of a valley. Storms hitting the east coast dissipate into a beautiful but not destructive display of force of nature by the time they get to us. We're also surrounded by mountains that tend to give a punch and a kick to any blizzards and thunderstorms, slowing them down as well. Our area is forested with lots of wildlife. But we're not in danger of forest fires because it's too humid and the local lumber company is out there responsibly thinning it down. I suspect there are other communities like ours that live without threat of natural disaster.

[RhinoFish]

Wind gusts within Irma as high as 225 mph. Whoa!

[lawman]

>> I suspect there are other communities like ours that live without threat of natural disaster.

Look up. The sky might fall.

[lucy24]

Seems like there's some menacing threat anywhere one lives.

Yes, and every region shrugs off its own natural disasters while being terrified of all others. (There's a canonical article on the subject, but I can't remember the provenance. Or title. Or author.)
“How can you live in Kansas? They get tornadoes!”
“We know how to deal with tornadoes. But how can you live in California? They get earthquakes!”
“We’ve learned to deal with earthquakes. But how can you live in Florida? They get hurricanes!”
and so on. Now pause for a moment of awe at Japan, which gets earthquakes and tsunamis and typhoons and vocanoes and ... et cetera.

The less organized, weaker storm following Irma is called Jose

There's another one? We only just got through Harvey; even Irma is too soon.

[LifeinAsia]

We only just got through Harvey; even Irma is too soon.

Sounds like a bad, protracted family reunion, with long-lost relatives that the rest of the family wishes had stayed lost.

[keyplyr]

Or one of those 70s folk songs... Harvey, Irma and Jose.

Has anybody seen, that storm Harvey...

[Peter_S]

Islands of the region are being hit hard, very hard, and in the upcoming hours, it's Haiti which is going to be hit, and you know, it's the poorest country in the world, they didn't even yet recovered from previous natural disasters.

[graeme_p]

Look up. The sky might fall.

Or there might be a large solar flare. Its not unlikely and could destroy civilisation.