"And the weatherman says something’s on the move…."

The climate is what you expect; the weather is what you get.

Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Texas is currently dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which made its landfall late on Friday with winds of 130 miles an hour and torrential rains. So far eight fatalities have been reported, and the region has been devastated by the combination of wind, rain and flooding.*

This kind of catastrophe seems to be the new normal of climate and weather in the new millennium, and it may well be that as time goes on, unchecked global climate change will continue to worsen the situation.  Hurricanes could become stronger, and the gaps between them shorter, until ultimately an constant stormfront gnawed sullenly at the Eastern coast of the United States.

What option would the future United States have when faced with an opponent of this magnitude? 

Retreat.

In that future, the United States finally abandons the East Coast, moving everything and everyone 100 miles inland.  However, the US economy depends on a ceaseless flow of seaborne cargo, so the waterfront must remain open.  The result:  Festung America - its ports bunkered emplacements of concrete and steel, like a Maginot line around a beleaguered country. And, like the Maginot Line, ultimately a futile gesture, outflanked as tornadoes brutally march across the American Midwest, and temperatures in California continue to climb above this year's record high of 125° F.

Remember when this sort of thing was more like science fiction?

- Sid

P.S. For some excellent reading in which weather conditions are part of the plot rather than the background to the story, I strongly recommend that you pick up Heavy Weather, by Bruce Sterling, and The Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

* It's getting harder and harder to say anything that doesn't sound trite in terms of support and sympathy, there have been so many disasters in the past few years that it feels like everything has been said. I guess the simplest things are still the most true: good luck.  You are all in everyone's thoughts.