1517 Ophelia and Floyd

Five months ago when we were planning our trip to Germany we needed to decide our airport for the international flight. Remembering that September is hurricane season, and recalling the devastation of Floyd that changed our vacation plans in September 1999, I voted for Chicago O'Hare instead of Charlotte. It's a lovely airport and is a much easier place to be making a transfer, but not during hurricane season.

Floyd caused such devastation in 1999, particularly to the agricultural areas of North Carolina. I still remember seeing lagoons of dead pigs, cattle and chickens. Those of us on the Veterinary Medicine listserv were dashing messages back and forth trying to locate colleagues. Many people were killed and displaced, and two years later there was still controversy about how the recovery money was being spent. President Clinton preempted the governors of several states causing a lot of political wrangling. Over 2 million people were evacuated and there was general chaos, much of it blamed on FEMA. Again, it was the rain and the flooding not the hurricane that caused the worst economic damage, and people all up and down the coast suffered. I see that a number of conservative bloggers are now bringing up the Clinton Administration's poor response to that storm. Just Google "Floyd Clinton FEMA" if you are interested. I'm just thankful I will be flying out of O'Hare, my least favorite airport in the country.