Katrina & NBBT

So we had NBBT {Next Big Bad Thing} with Hurricane Katrina and this time it was the real thing. I'd meant to begin a whole series of posts on the modern investment world and what I believe it will take to succeed in this current environment but current events have put this somewhat on the backburner. Having been through the Rhode Island visit of Hurricane Bob in 1991 (A category 1-2 storm) I shudder at what Katrina must have been like. You only have to go through one of these storms to know that you never want to be close to one again. One thing that Katrina shows is that the aftermath is often more terrible than the storm itself. Once the electricity goes you are transported back in time by at least 100 years.

We gave an example in a June 7th post about NBBT in regards to the New Madrid Fault between St. Louis and Memphis. Here briefly is the devil's list of other natural or medical disasters that are well known to both experts and politicians but where there does not seem to be any apparent political will to make much adequate preparation: Anything along the San Andreas Fault {probably the best studied and best planned for disaster in the country}, a massive world wide outbreak of a particular virulent strain of influenza-read Avian Flu, category 4-5 hurricanes striking southeast Florida or southern New England, tsunami flooding along the west coast, particularly off the coasts of Hawaii and Alaska and finally for something way out there Mount Ranier blowing its top {most people don't actually know that it is a dormant volcano) and burying the Seattle-Tacoma area ala Pompeii under a wave of molten ash.

It is not a question when one or more of these events will occur but when. New England suffered a devastating hurricane that submerged most of Long Island in 1938. New Madrid had 8+ Richter Scale readings in 1811-12.

The San Andreas fault has hundreds of mini-earthquakes every year. Mount Rainer may have had a large eruption in the early 1800's. The flu epidemic of 1919 may have killed as many as 20 million people worldwide. NBBT will continue as long as men occupy this planet and most of the planning will either not survive the first contact with these events or be almost non-existent when it occurs.

I hope to be back to a regular posting schedule later in the week.

Chris