Could this be our answer to rising sea levels?

1,500 ft. would give us more than a couple of years use of the new building at the beach. Imagine the view from the new "rotating" casino ballroom? How about it Commissioners Jennings and Golden??

By the way, this isn't to be taken seriously. Let's learn to laugh at ourselves once in a while.

Received: Anonymous Letter

Did anyone else get a package that looked like this in the mail this week? It's meant to look like a grass-roots, home-spun sort of effort however the highlighting and the writing is clearly mass printed upon close inspection. Looks like someone is igniting an organized effort to draw attention to Karen Marcus' dealings related to Palm Beach Aggregates and a $40,000 donation to the sea turtle sanctuary in her district. I guess she is the next target on the County Commission.

The other thing that gives it away as being a well-financed effort is a nice little turtle lapel pin with the international "no" symbol over "Pay-to-Play". It was affixed to the corner of the card with the "STOP PAY TO PLAY" printed on it.

I wonder what list I am on? Anonymous letters are creepy - no strange white powder, thank goodness!

Contents appear below:

Examples of Transit Oriented Development Projects

Rail-Volution Conference - Coming to Lake Worth on 10/31!

This is part of a program for a conference scheduled for Miami. This national conference will take place for four days at the end of October through the first part of November. There is a special "charette" (a word meaning intensive, short-term planning effort) scheduled for Lake Worth on October 31, 2007. If you would like more information regarding the conference program, let me know and I will forward you a copy.

The focus of the session in Lake Worth will be on transit oriented development around the existing Tri-rail station - which is part of our master plan and Comprehensive Plan changes coming later this year.

Fun at Friday on the Avenues - Cultural Plaza - 7/20

A good time was had by all last Friday night at Evening on the Avenues. We took up space in the cultural plaza and did our part to help promote the Lake Worth Talk.com website. Above is a picture from early in the evening with Dan Winkel (who works at Ed Morse Honda and had some great tote bags to give away) and Jim Stafford, owner of the website behind the table.


Here's Walter B. and Jim Stafford, hosts of the popular Lunch Box show, in front of the booth later on. In the background you can see frequent poster and mayoral candidate Mary Lindsey posting on the board in real time. Jim rigged a projector so that we could display the board as people passed by. In the far corner of the table, to the left, are Colleen Rinaldi's Snicker-doodles from the Sabal Palm Bed and Breakfast. Thanks Colleen! Those FLEW off the table. A lot of board users dropped by including Lynn Anderson. When Lynn picked up her cookie she asked if it was laced. Well, Lynn, yes it was laced - with love and kisses! Hope you enjoyed it.


Here's kind of broad shot of the Cultural Plaza. This vendor was about in the middle of the Plaza, at the western edge. There were selling lots of incense and in the thick July evening air, their incense perfumed the air.


Above is Matt Falvey who is the Fish Doctor on the show of the same name. He even brought his pole for demonstration purposes. The fist weren't really biting at the Plaza though. Here he is finishing up some original art. Matt's a nice guy and joined us on our ocean fishing adventure a couple of months ago.


Introducing one of Lake Worth's more colorful personalities and a fixture around the Cultural Plaza. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Rat Lady. She has a new one now - the older ones were home resting. I've known her for quite a while now from various Karaoke venues. I'm proud to report that she voted for me both times. You go girl!


Here is the plaza a little later in the evening. I am still experimenting with my camera and the different settings. I got some neat effects without using the flash.


Here is the bandstand and the band was unanimously thought to be great - kind of a rock-a -billy, country-ish sound. I'll get the name this week and let you know. They are local and I bet they do the wedding circuit.


This is one of the brighter lit booths that gave an interesting effect through the lens.


Nice to see the Cultural Plaza being used for this kind of activity. The lighting gives things a festive glow.

Here is a view of the "working" side of the booth. Still a nice size crowd which lasted through the entire evening.


One of Lake Worth's own shamen attended the event. Here caught on the move in trend setting attire.

Population Growth in Palm Beach County vs. Hurricane Strikes

Notice that most of the indirect and direct storm strikes occurred before the great majority of population arrived in the area.

Path of BIG Un-named Storm from 1928

Windspeed 130 miles per hour, 929 millibars of pressure, category 4. Pictures below show the local Lake Worth aftermath. This is the storm that killed thousands near Lake Okeechobee.

CLICK Here for video/film of damage - fascinating!

As related by Wikipedia:

Coastal damage in Florida near the point of landfall was catastrophic. Miami, well south of the point of landfall, escaped with very little damage; Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale suffered only slight damages. Northward, from Pompano Beach to Jupiter, buildings suffered serious damage from the heavy winds and 10 ft (3 meter) storm surge, which was heaviest in the vicinity of Palm Beach; total coastal damages were estimated as "several million" dollars. Because of well-issued hurricane warnings, residents were prepared for the storm, and the loss of life in the coastal Palm Beach area was only 26.^[1]

Aftermath of the hurricane in southern Florida

Inland, the hurricane wreaked much more widespread destruction along the more heavily populated coast of Lake Okeechobee. Residents had been warned to evacuate the low ground earlier in the day, but after the hurricane did not arrive on schedule, many thought it had missed and returned to their homes. When the worst of the storm crossed the lake — with winds measured on the ground at around 140 mph (225 km/h) — the south-blowing wind caused a storm surge to overflow the small dike that had been built at the south end of the lake. The resulting flood covered an area of hundreds of square miles with water that in some places was over 20 ft (6 m) deep. Houses were floated off of their foundations and dashed to pieces against any obstacle they encountered.^[10] Most survivors and bodies were washed out into the Everglades where many of the bodies were never found. As the rear eyewall passed over the area, the flood reversed itself, breaking the dikes along the northern coast of the lake and causing a similar but smaller flood.

Approximate area of the flood

Floodwaters persisted for several weeks, greatly impeding attempts to clean up the devastation. Burial services were quickly overwhelmed, and many of the bodies were placed into mass graves. Around 75% of the fatalities were migrant farm workers, making identification of both dead and missing bodies very difficult; as a result of this, the count of the dead is not very accurate. The Red Cross estimated the number of fatalities as 1,836, which was taken as the official count by the National Weather Service for many years; older sources usually list 3,411 as the hurricane's total count of fatalities, including the Caribbean. However, in 2003 the U.S. death count was revised as "at least" 2,500, making the Okeechobee hurricane the second-deadliest natural disaster in United States history behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.

Thousands of people were left homeless in Florida; property damage was estimated at $25 million ($200 million in 2005 US dollars). It is estimated that if a storm like this were to strike in modern times (the year 2003), it would cause $18.7 billion in damages. However, a levee breach of this kind is unlikely to occur again because of the much larger Herbert Hoover Dike that now contains the waters of Lake Okeechobee.^[10]

Record of All Storm Paths within 25 miles of Lake Worth

Not all of these are hurricanes - some are tropical storms and depressions - but scary none-the-less.

Hurricane History 1945 through 1950

In answer to my question in the previous post, I did a search on the NOAA website (click here). The above storm tracks are those that came within 65 miles of Lake Worth during the 1945 through 1950 period. Looks like a real barrage over that period of time. That is a real cool site, by the way. I encourage you to check it out.

Some of these storms were in the Category 4 range, but hard to determine if they were at that strength when they affected this area.

Mid-Century Beach - Casino Building Pictures

I am guessing that this is from the early 1950s. Look at the filled area behind the casino building which is now a paved parking lot. State Road A-1A looks like it has been relocated to its current location, in a two lane configuration. Notice how the proportion of beach to road to building is about the same as it is today.

This is probably taken about the same time. Notice that the western extension of the building is still here. Can't miss the filled area to the north along the Lake Worth Lagoon. Still looks pretty fresh. The "update" that made the building look the way it does today dates from 1949. The picture below shows how badly the building was damaged from Hurricanes in '46 and '47. Portions of A-1A were washed out which led to the relocation of the road along with western edge of the barrier island.

Anyone know the strength and the dates of the hurricane's that caused this damage? (This picture is of demolition of the second floor in process - not the damage from the hurricane itself. The hurricane took off most of the southern half of the roof.)

This one is dated 1981 - before the addition to the south side of the building. From this distance, it still looks intact - 25+ years ago now.

By the way, these pictures come from a State of Florida website called "The Florida Memory Project". I managed to lose myself in it while retrieving these images. You can check it out yourself by clicking here.

From 1955 Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce Poster...

Below are elements to a poster that dates from 1955. The poster appears minimized here, with the elements enlarged. Funny how the messages are eerily appropriate for today. Let me know if you know any of the names or recognize anyone in the pictures.

Especially interesting are the "Star Features" that include community goals reflecting a 1955 reality. With the exception of a few, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Hope you get a kick out of these. Thanks to Nadine Burns for providing the copy!!

The "skyline" that never came to be.