This
morning there was a weather warning out for Nova Scotia, but according to weather experts, the warning had nothing to do with hurricane Isaac (or rather tropical storm). Point is, later this day, meteorologists from the Weatheroffice significantly downgraded the warnings, something you wouldn’t say if you look at the photo. And so, Isaac will hobble forth, on to Europe most likely as part of a significant cold front.
Last Saturday, an overpass in Quebec collapsed, killing 5 and (critically) injuring 6 others. Apparantly, there were signals that the bridge was about to give up: police officers reported chunks of concrete being dropped earlier that day. I’m not sure what is needed to close a highway or bridge in Canada, but when concrete starts to give in, even in small amounts, it’s generally time to do something serious about it. As someone who has a background in Civil Engineering, the following quote struck me, since I brought it up a couple of times during informal discussions with others:
An increase in the volume and size of large trucks contributes to the wear and tear of infrastructure built decades ago, when design specifications were different, he said.
It’ll be interesting to see what the public inquiry finds out.