The destruction of Wake Island will not be televised

[tagryn]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/08/29/wake.island.evac.ap/index.html

HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- The U.S. military has evacuated 200 people from Wake Island before the arrival of Typhoon Ioke, the strongest Central Pacific hurricane in more than decade.

Classified as a Category 5 "super typhoon," Ioke is expected to extensively damage the U.S. territory when it hits Wednesday with 155-mph winds, said Jeff Powell, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

"This is going to roll up a storm surge that will probably submerge the island and destroy everything that's not made of concrete," Powell said.

Comments

[erikred.livejournal.com]

!!!

[tagryn]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,211297,00.html

"The typhoon is expected to reach Wake Island at 1100 GMT Thursday with winds of up to 161 mph and gusts of up to 195 mph."

That's around 7 AM EST, or 4 AM PST. According to the article Ioke is supposed to head afterwards in a general NW direction towards Japan, but is not an immediate threat to any inhabited areas.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Yes, they're suggesting that it will be weakening sharply by the end of the weekend.

Sidenote: every time I hear something about the Census Bureau, my ears perk up.

[tagryn]

There's an interesting cycle I've been only on the edges of so far, being a newbie: the day that the Census Bureau releases a new report, the branch in charge of that report usually gets quite a few calls from the national media: AP, Reuters, NY Times, etc., all wanting confirmation or clarifications. Then the *next* day after the report's release is when the stories hit the papers - "IMMIGRATION DOWN SLIGHTLY ACCORDING TO CENSUS BUREAU REPORT!" - which sets off another cycle of media calls, etc. It usually calms down after a couple of days, at least until the next report is released (by a separate branch usually, though, which provides some breathing space).

Welcome to doing work everybody is interested in knowing about, I suppose.

[donnafair.livejournal.com]

Too bad the island isn't made from concrete. Hoowee!