Pirate's Cove

Hurricanes happen. Tropical systems happen. They pretty much always have, at least during the time of Mankind and our memory. There’s no reason to assign motives of witchcraft, er, carbon pollution to it. But, then, this is a cult

Waste from Hurricane Florence continues to overwhelm landfills

More than four months after Hurricane Florence battered the state, rivers of waste are still flowing to landfills in eastern North Carolina in volumes that their managers say they have never before seen.

Uprooted trees, broken furniture, sodden carpets, soggy sheet rock, smashed fencing, crushed carports and moldy clothing make up the mix of items destroyed by the September storm and subsequent flooding.

The trash piling up at some sites may not be disposed of until summer — or perhaps not until next year. Caravans of trucks are bringing new waste daily, and solid waste workers are logging major overtime to keep up with the load. (snip)

Landfills are built to last for decades, with capacity for expansion by digging new crypts, or “cells,” as old dumping areas fill up and max out. A single hurricane that knocks off a year from a landfill’s life expectancy is not generally a cause for concern, said Morton Barlaz, a N.C. State University landfill expert and head of the university’s Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering.

But as global warming increases the intensity and frequency of hurricanes, and as population increases every year, some landfills are going to fill up earlier than planned. Officials will be forced to either build more landfills or truck the waste away — a costly and sometimes difficult endeavor.

North Carolina has barely been touched by tropical system since the big 2005 season. We’ve gotten some brushes on the Outer Banks, but not much else. I guess the Cult of Climastrology is back to their “bigger and stronger and more frequent” prognostication. And this may happen for the next 10-15 years, as the cycle of more systems starts, after the cycle of not much since 2005 ends. There’s nothing man-caused about it.