Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   Helene and Milton Date:   10/10/2024 10:17:30 AM

I grew up on the Eastern Seaboard… Atlantic Coast.  My father was a sea-captain.  We had a healthy respect for hurricanes.  There was no hype – only understanding about what would happen and what could happen.  We did not have the internet to get us all spun up (pardon the pun).

Devastating hurricanes had occurred and were well recorded (though not with such modern mathematical precision and better accuracy).

The behavior of severe low-pressure systems was, even then, well understood.   Tropical, maritime air feeds the hurricane.  Land masses starve hurricanes and adds friction to surface wind velocity.

Witness the behavior of both Helene and Milton while over warm Gulf water.  As the hurricanes “felt” the effects of approaching land they began to weaken.  Indeed, by the time Milton reached Kissimmee it had down-graded to a (current) category 1 hurricane.  It is now wandering off into the cold Atlantic (as compared to the Gulf of Mexico).

With respect to what happened in mountainous GA-SC-NC-TN.  You must understand that dissected terrain concentrates extremely heavy rainfall into deeply imbedded rivers. If you have ever driven from Knoxville to Ashville along the French Broad River you intuitively know what happened in those mountainous regions.  Indeed, the interstate from Knoxville to Ashville was impassable.  (For those of you who are scientifically inclined this will seem simplistic).

With respect to AGW.  Here we have had two examples of why AGW cannot – has not – will not be demonstrated experimentally.  Especially because AGW theory violates the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics.