Once again, I managed to lose a couple of days without posting due to multiple commitments and unfortunately was not able to dive during my “birthday window”. Ah well,  maybe I’ll squeeze a day in even though I have the two trips scheduled for Sept.

On the good news side, my brother and sister-in-law in Louisiana do have power back as of last night and they didn’t suffer any serious damage to their property or flooding. They were just far enough north to be hit with lesser winds. Being without power for almost five days is difficult, but the destruction for those severely impacted is always tragic.

When it comes to living in hurricane zones as we, and both my siblings do, I remember a few years ago in talking with someone who had moved from California. His view was at least with hurricanes, you have warning. He couldn’t adapt to the idea of earthquakes. Then there are the various “tornado alleys” around the country; another destructive force that comes with little warning. When we were hit by Hurricane Irma, much of that wind damage was from tornadoes spinning off rather than the actual storm winds. And speaking of annoying rather than hectic – wind insurance has jumped up again this year by right about 12%. According to our agent, that’s on the low side of the increases. There aren’t many options though. And also like most newcomers, when we moved here we were startled to learn that wind storm was a completely separate coverage from hazard insurance. I already knew hazard insurance did not cover flooding due to an unfortunate experience when I was in Texas. The fact is blizzards plague the cold parts of the country and other areas are prone to flooding. And even though we don’t have many, there is the volcano danger and that is very real for Hawaii.