IS FLORIDA AGAIN THREATENED BY A MEGA TSUNAMI FROM LA PALMA?

 From the morning New York Times:

• Here is a graph comparing average daily COVID-19 deaths/100,000 people, and the USA is doing something really wrong:

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  The difference between our country and Europe is that we have flubbed the availability of cheap and ubiquitous at-home RAPID testing.  They have covered this base.
• There are two obvious problems:
• The FDA is much too bureaucratic about quickly approving anything related to this pandemic, including testing.
• We seem stuck with the test that takes one to several days to get your result.
• The good news is that the Biden administration has finally realized this problem and through executive order hope to soon flood the market with take home testing that at first will be subsidized to make it affordable.
• Now, on to getting everyone vaccinated, especially 5-11 years olds (and we are close to getting to making this happen), the undereducated and Republicans.  What to do about the latter two?
• The other concern is whether we are prematurely opening up our economy and entertainment sectors.
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  With rapid testing and a higher vaccination rate, soon to come will be the end of this pandemic in the U.S.  But when?  Oh, maybe sometime next year.  Unless the Zeta variant sneaks in to again take us by surprise.

There was an article in the local paper this morning that COVID's death toll in America now equals that of 1918-19 Spanish Flu.  Two ways of looking at this:

• Terrible to have matched that figure.
• However, the U.S. population in 1918 was 103 million.  Today, 333 million.  Thus, on a per capita basis, even if the current number of deaths, approaching 700,000, triples, and this shouldn't occur, we will still fall short of the Spanish Flu mortality rate.
• The World experienced 50 million deaths in that 1918-1920 period with 1.8 billion people.  Today, 4.7 million deaths when the world population is 7.9 billion.  Total deaths need to reach 219 million to equal the death rate of the Spanish Flu.  Thus, the 4.7 million deaths need to increase by a factor of 122 to equal the mortality rate of the 1918-1920 pandemic.
• Under any circumstance, something is terribly unfortunate about how serious this pandemic has affected the USA, for we only need to increase our total deaths by a factor of 3.3, while the world needs to increase by a factor of more than a 100, to reach the death rate of the Spanish Flu.
• One more time, what is the U.S. doing wrong?

Otherwise, President Biden will address the UN General Assembly today.  Tough act to follow, for yesterday BTS was on center stage.  They performed Permission to Dance, and also addressed the pandemic, poverty and Planet Earth.

The Four Guardsmen trees seem to have withstood that wildfire that is threatening Sequoia National Park.

The following was sent to me about that $3.5 trillion Democratic package expected to pass through reconciliation if Senator Joe Manchin  agrees:

The price tag on the new measure is currently around $3.5 trillion. As E. J. Dionne points out in the Washington Post, that number covers 10 years of spending, a period of time in which the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of production, is expected to be $288 trillion. So that $3.5 trillion makes up around just 1.2 percent of the economy. It’s a big number, but not a large percentage for an investment in childcare, elder care, education, and addressing climate change.

The above will be complemented by a bi-partisan American Jobs Plan of $1.2 trillion also expected to pass.  This is the one to  mostly rebuild our infrastructure.  Democrats want to pass both this month, for there is the matter of increasing the debt ceiling that will become a weapon for Republicans in October.

There was a small blurb in the paper today indicating that the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands experienced a volcanic eruption.  Means nothing to most, unless you live there, but rang a bell in my head, for I recall using La Palma as an example of a mega-tsunami that could wipe out Florida and East coast of the USA.  Mind you much of this matter is scientific hype.

I remain interested in writing a book entitled Six Hours to Seattle, where a portion of the Big Island of Hawaii drops into the sea, causing a mega-tsunami heading for Seattle.  The plot is that a commercial flight just takes off from Hilo heading for Seattle when this happens.  Both the tsunami and plane move along at around the same speed.  Imagine the dialogue and what happens at the end.  Would make for a great film.

So to quote from my posting of this subject:

Chapter 6 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth is all about mega-tsunamis, and compares La Palma in the Canary Islands to the Big Island.  You can buy the book, but this blog site serializes that publication.  The bottom line is that any earthquake at ocean depths will only induce a 30-foot high tsunami in the far field (thousands of miles away).  However, a massive landfall into the ocean can trigger mega tsunamis hundreds of feet high.

Last year some seismic activity around La Palma sparked yet another article about mega-tsunamis.  This links back to Simon Day's contention Cumbre Vieja from the Canaries could send an 80-foot tsunami to New York City.  How would Florida be affected?

So should my friends in Florida be concerned?  Nah.  I just like to now and then catch their attention.

I should mention that three years ago I actually took an Alaskan Airline flight to Seattle from Hawaii, where I was hoping I could see Hilo fall into the sea and be on that plane for my book.  Alas, nothing memorable occurred.  For 14 days in a row I explored these prospects, and came to a conclusion that Seattle was well protected.  So what about Anchorage?  This city is even better shielded.  My book title is now Five Hours to Los Angeles, appreciating the fact that there is the Continental Shelf that could be a dampening factor.   Don't want the Kohala area to fall into the sea to write about Seven Hours to Tokyo, for the near shore mega-tsunami could be 1000 feet high, wiping out the state of Hawaii.

Why the Bloody Mary photo?  Click on this.

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