Tallahassee to Mother Nature: No Hurricanes Allowed This Year

Seen in the Orlando Sentinel:

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet had told the state’s risk managers to find potential buyers for as much as $11 billion in bonds that would be needed to pay claims if the state is racked by a Katrina-sized hurricane.  But with financial markets in tatters, state money managers say they’ve struck out.

"The terms that we are getting are just outrageously expensive," said Jack Nicholson, director of the state’s hurricane catastrophe fund.

Translation: The state now will hope for the best.

[If a massive storm were to strike Tampa or Miami] Florida would have to sell bonds to help insurers pay claims. But with about $8 billion in cash and the expectation the state could sell a maximum of $10 billion in bonds, officials fear a possible $11 billion shortfall.

Mother Nature has responded via the National Hurricane Center thusly:

A STRONG TROPICAL WAVE IS LOCATED OVER THE EXTREME EASTERN ATLANTIC
OCEAN NEAR THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA...AND IS ACCOMPANIED BY A BROAD
AREA OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS AND PERHAPS A WEAK SURFACE LOW.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS COULD ALLOW FOR SOME SLOW DEVELOPMENT OF
THIS SYSTEM DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS AS IT MOVES WESTWARD AT
ABOUT 15 TO 20 MPH.

I know.  It’s not that impressive a tropical outlook…but it’s somewhat ironic that the first hiccup in the Atlantic in about a month would come just as Florida decides to cross its fingers again this year.