MY ADVENTURES WITH HURRICANES

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa

June      9     1093    4732        1185      246         82

July       1       676    4857        1057      438         92
             2       687    5155         1277      377         95
             3       616    5170         1264      444       108
             4       254    4494         1111       610         74
             5       251    3572          535       421       173
             6       378    3573          656       474       111
             7       993    5504        1312       479       192
             8       890    5507        1187       491       100
             9       960    5411        1199       479       118
           10       849    5416        1270       521       140
           11       731    4995          968       543       111
           12       380    4118          659       500       108
           13       465    3729          770       540         93
           14       935    5414        1341       586       174
           15     1001    5760        1261       614       107
           16       963    5742        1299       680       216
           17       946    5559        1100       676       135
           18       813    5011          885       543       144
           19       412    4606          715       675         85
           20       545    4040          718       596       140

           21     1119    5669        1346       671        195
           22     1205    7128        1293     1120        572
           23     1166    6318        1317       755        153

Summary:  a little better, but not much.

From the New York Times daily briefing:

• Desperate leaders in Latin America are turning to dubious virus remedies. In Bolivia, the authorities have promoted chlorine dioxide, a bleach used to disinfect swimming pools.
• People across the U.S. are still waiting days, or even weeks, to get test results. The delays have made the tests relatively useless in stopping the virus’s spread.
• The Times’s Lauren Leatherby charted the countries with the worst known coronavirus outbreaks now. The top five: Oman, Bahrain, Panama, South Africa and the U.S.
• More congressional news: 100 days out from the election, Senate Republicans are starting to distance themselves, gingerly, from the president, Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent, writes. The latest example: Rejecting his calls for a payroll-tax cut.

Dr. Anthony Fauci finally embarrassed himself yesterday.  His ceremonial first pitch did not travel too far, and worse, headed towards the first base dugout.  His explanation was that he played shortstop and was, actually, throwing to first base.  See his performance.

I was close to using the following as the title for this posting:  IS KIMCHI WHY SOUTH KOREA OVERCAME COVID-19?

• If you don't know what kimchi is, click on THIS.  I'm not exaggerating by saying that this is a vile, foul-smelling fermented vegetable concoction people in South Korea consume, many at every meal, even breakfast.

• According to a French study led by Dr. Jean Bousquet (right), countries where fermented cabbage forms a key part of their diet have had lower fatalities from this coronavirus.
• Kimchi certainly.
• Sauerkraut in Germany.
• Death rate:
• South Korea  2%
• Germany  5%
• Italy  14%
• Spain  9%
• UK  15%

• Of course, the more you test, the lower is this mortality rate, which is 4% in the USA, where almost no kimchi is eaten.
• Then again, the mortality rate for the World--where the testing rate is quite low--is only 0.8%, so, maybe, this theory is totally flawed.  Thus, I decided to add the following hurricane anecdotes.

I lived for 3.5 years in Louisiana and a lot of my life in Hawaii.  Both states are threatened regularly by hurricanes.  I've also widely and frequently traveled the Orient where there are seasonal typhoons.






I remember one time a typhoon made landfall over Japan, and I was in a regular (not bullet) train heading from Tokyo to Mie Peninsula to give a talk to an association of pearl growers about colored pearls.  A lot of wind, rain and concern, but by the time I made it to Ago Bay, where Mikimoto did his first experiments, the storm had passed over, and I saw no serious damage anywhere.

1992 was a particularly traumatic experience, as Pearl, my brother Dan with his wife, and I were on a football drive from Eugene, Oregon to the Air Force Academy in Colorado.  We stopped for the night in Utah.  I turned on the TV and saw for the first time that Hurricane Iniki had made that critical right turn and seemed headed for Honolulu.  Couldn't get in contact with anyone in Hawaii.  Iniki stayed left and decimated Kauai.  Hawaii did beat Oregon and AFA.

Eleven years ago I was on the Big Island for Pearl's first ash scattering, and both Hurricanes Enrique and Felicia were approaching:

I debated whether to return home to shore up my apartment, but ended up hoping for the best.  Well, Felicia did weaken into a tropical depression, and the eye went right over my apartment.

Then in 2013 Hurricane Flossie petered out and, again, the eye passed close to my apartment.

In 2014 Hurricanes Iselle went south and Julio took a northerly path:

However, around this time, Super Typhoon Genevieve at 160 MPH had previously passed south, then took that northerly swing, missing Hawaii:

People have already forgotten that just about a year ago an unusual storm, another Hurricane Flossie, was born off Africa, crossed the Atlantic, found her way into the Pacific, and made it all the way to Oahu:

The fear about this Flossie was that Hurricane Iniki did just the same thing in 1992 and became a monster.

Growing up in Honolulu, I don't remember any hurricane problems.  Here are the major hurricanes near Hawaii since 1950:

With the rare example of a hurricane forming below Hawaii, all others approach from the east.  However, something about the orographic pattern, yet now and then, a few suddenly make a right turn, but late enough that only the island of Kauai is affected.  Even more remarkable, no hurricane has made landfall over the Big Island of Hawaii, Maui and Oahu.  At least not since 1950, and maybe even recorded history.  The main reason is the wind shear at elevation that are hurricane-destroyers.  Then, those volcanoes must also be protective.

This time, however, the wind shear region has moved west, and Hawaii thus could be a little more vulnerable:

Hurricane Douglas was a Category 4 when crossing into the Central Pacific.  However, he just weakened into a 3.  Note that there is still an H shown next to the Big Island.  S means tropical storm.  The path of the eye the past 48 hours has wavered from just south of my apartment to barely north of the Oahu, where Honolulu is located.  I'm thus just about midway of all the projections.   As this storm is picking up speed, my best guess is that I will view or feel something from my apartment late Sunday night.

You might have noticed that the term "adventures" I used was far from it.  Aside from the typhoon I whizzed through on a train in Japan, I have yet to experience a real hurricane.  They all somehow missed me.  I hope I won't need to use this sign.  The particular worry this time is that Hawaii just suffered it's highest number of new COVID-19 cases yesterday.

Otherwise in other parts of the world, Tropical Storm Gonzalo could well become the first Atlantic hurricane this year:

Also, Tropical Storm Hanna will bring some wind and more rain to Texas:

Totally changing subjects for the weekend, here is what you need to enhance your lifestyle:

I checked with Amazon.com, and each two-piece set sells for $17.  Wanna guess which country makes this mirrored porcelain ware?  The same one that features kimchi.  South Korea.

Here is some spooky art of cats.  Equal time for a dog and child:

-