Wake Island farewell

A small U.S. territory, Wake Island, in the Pacific Ocean, is about to disappear under supertyphoon Ioke.

Wake Island was, until two days ago, home to about 200 people. They have been relocated to Hawaii. (I don't know about pets.)

Supertyphoon Ioke is a category 5 hurricane with waves over 50 feet in height.

The highest point on Wake Island is twenty feet above sea level.

The math's not that hard to do. A direct hit has a fair chance of removing Wake Island, which was once important enough to be invaded and occupied by the Japanese, then invaded and occupied again by the Americans (including George Herbert Walker Bush-- the fightin' Bush!)-- removing it, I say, from the map.

Granted, it's not much of an island. But it was home to somebody. Other insignificant-seeming low-lying lands-- Tuvalu, say, and Florida-- will follow over the next few years.

Cheers for the evacuation of Wake Island... let's hope all the future evacuations are as successful.