A clash of the titans…

According to news and weather reports, it is looking very much like a large part of central Florida, including the Tampa Bay, will be hit by a category four or five hurricane. Luckily with this sort of impending disaster people usually have time to escape the area, should they choose to do so. Hopefully everyone who wants to leave will be able to do so. It is monstrous storm slung by winds and currents across the waters of the gulf, on track to assail a monster of another kind in its path. One which must face the scouring maelstrom, and try to remain standing. Yes I am speaking of Florida’s monster bridge, it seems that it (and a large area surrounding it) is right in the cross hairs of that killer storm. It will be the clash of the titans, Godzilla verses Rodan or some other monster that the iconic atom bomb mutated dinosaur took on. I do not believe that part of Florida has taken a direct hit from a storm of that strength since the metal and concrete monster was erected almost forty years ago. Therefore it might just meet its match, unless of course the storm is downgraded. Much in the way that the Key Bridge met its match and then some when struck by that enormous cargo ship.

I remember seeing this Dracula movie on TV when I was a kid, staying up late one Saturday night. Well, in that film Dracula (played by Vincent Price) met his end when he fell into a fast flowing river. This was from the folklore that vampires cannot cross running water, which likely has to do with the cleansing properties of flowing water. Pounding, scouring rain and howling winds might damage the evil structure, but I can’t see any amount of flowing water washing away the darkness of that demonic bridge. Its bloody past will never fade, and probably can never be cleansed. If the storm hits the Tampa area as a category five I think the monster might suffer some damage, as it was built years ago and is surely not up to modern standards. The main focus with the design of that bridge was keeping drifting ships away from its piers. Therefore likely no one knows what might happen if it is hit by such a powerful storm. What sustained wind speed would it take to slay that monster? I’d be betting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge would hold up better (at least the newer span) to such an assault. This is because it is a truss and suspension bridge with a very open structure (including the piers) and the wind would more easily just pass thru it. Suspension bridges have been known to handle some pretty high winds. Older bridges of the Skyway’s kind, not so much. Of course, I don’t wish on the people of the Tampa area what has been foisted upon the Baltimore area. Being without a bridge has totally sucked for so many people. At least the original Skyway still had one operational span until the new one was completed. This is something I might have to look into (storms vs bridges), just for the heck of it. Thankfully we don’t get such powerful storms up this far, or at least they are very rare. Usually by the time one comes up the coast, it is mostly petered out by the time it gets here. Well, at least as far as winds go, but they can bring quite a lot of rain and flooding.