All storms are a part of nature and are by their very nature dangerous. What is so bad about Gus is that it seemed to be hitting earlier storms where because of government neglicence people hadn't yet recovered.

This time however, the response while absolutedly necessary is so politicized and being hyped to demonstrate McCain's leadership competency - that people seem to forget that he is not in charge.

McCain is not the presidentand, hopefully, never will be. He is trying to overshadow Bush - not that that's so difficult since his shadow is so small. But spare us the hype and politics!

You can get the source data for Gustav tracks and predictions to display in Google Earth or a GIS file format here:

http://finder.geocommons.com/tags/2696

You can see examples of maps made with the data here:

http://blog.fortiusone.com/2008/08/31/geodata-for-gustav-why-effective-information-sharing-is-critical-during-disasters/

Sometimes it is useful to have access to the source data instead of just the picture or interactive map.

best,
sean

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