On Hurricanes

I have been slow of late, and for this I apologize. However, without further adieu...

So, my job is pretty cool because at different times in my career, I have been called upon to become an expert (or at least knowledgeable) on baseball stadiums, video games and...hurricanes. Hurricanes, you say, but why Tom?

A couple of reasons really. First, hurricanes have a significant impact on the insurance industry - particularly those that do a significant amount of property and casualty insurance in the gulf coast. Thus, a bad hurricane season can affect reinsurance companies (like Arch) or home insurance companies (like Allstate) or casualty companies (like Zurich) - depending on their exposure and the impact of the hit. Second, hurricanes are widespread disasters, a la Katrina - where large swaths of land and area lose electricity, gas service and internet service. Thus, locating certain types of projects in hurricane zones can be risky. So, identifying both the projects and the areas that are most at risk and which companies are most exposed is part of my job. So, I spent some good old fashion time studying hurricanes.

Here's what I found. First, there is a company that specializes in predicting via risk assessment and analyze odd events - wind storms, terrorist attacks, and hurricanes. The company is called AIR-Worldwide. And it has more PhDs than not PhDs as employees. The website is http://www.air-worldwide.com/. Here is a link to their 2009 tropical storm study.

In addition, I stumbled upon the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Hurricane Center. At this center, they have great information that is up to date on hurricanes - and they utilize up to fifteen models to guess where a hurricane is going. There is always one that says this maybe may look like its headed for Texas - but it will actually hit South Carolina or Newfoundland or something simply insane due to a hard right turn. So, the simple lesson is that if you life to the right (or north of a hurricane) someone always says that your day is coming.

My real experience with hurricanes was in North Carolina in 1999 following a string of bad hurricane years for the Carolinas. There was devastation two months after Hurricane Floyd and its ridiculous rainfall. In addition, I lived in Houston during Hurricane Allison. I went to find a good picture for Hurricane Allison to give you neo-Houstonians an idea of what type of rain fell. According to the NHC of the NOAA - the Port of Houston had 36.99 inches of rain from this storm (in about 36 hours). It was literally like there were zillions of water faucets on above the city for two days and nights.

For those of you in Houston freaked out by hurricanes, I strongly advise you to look at Allison photos. Even today, looking at them seems simply unreal. For example, in the one that I posted, that white building in the center of the picture is about one full block from the bayou and its whole first floor is under water. That was not supposed to happen.

However, my favorite picture is the kayaker on I-59...There are semis literally underneath and not visible. As my wife and I sat at home on June 9 and 10 (because that was our highway), we watched the water slowly recede and discovered over time the top of semis and their trailers under all of that water. Amazing. Check out this site for more non-photo shopped photos.