How much of Florida was left?

[Emberchyld]

Hi everyone.

I've been trying to figure out locations for another fic and came across a big question:

What parts of Florida were destroyed by the Xindi probe?

Any help that y'all can give me will be great.

Thanks!

[Rigil Kent]

Honestly, a whole lot. Based on the damage as seen on the show, the mini-Death Star really didn't do that much damage. Unless you factor in something like massive tidal waves as a result of tectonic shift or something, there's frankly very little way that 7 million people are going to have died because of this beam. The FX simply don't match up with what the dialog states. As we can clearly see in the image below, Venezuela was not hit. That's Panama that got zotted, not Venezuela.

Based on the image, it appears that the beam begins a little north of Lake Okeechobee, probably between Winter Haven and Sebring. Here's a good Florida Map for your perusal if you don't already have one.



So as it stands, it's simply unfeasible for this beam to have killed 7 million. Where it did strike (as seen below) it totally FUBARed the area, so I acknowledge that the beam was pretty destructive.



In my own fics, I've pretty much discarded the FX and moved the origin point of the beam up around Gainesville (my old home town), so it slices down through the entire length of Florida, destroying Ocala, Orlando and so forth. The resulting environmental damage rendered major cities such as Tampa and Miami unsurvivable, so those cities were abandoned. Given the relatively low water table of Florida, I can't explain why that big ass trench was already full of water when Trip & Mal view it ... unless disaster relief teams had already sealed it off and siphoned the water out to retrieve bodies. I can barely wrap my brain around the scope of that job...

Does that help?

[CoffeeCat]

I've wondered why nothing was said about tsunamis hitting other continents because of it and I'm also wondering why the hole that the probe dug didn't fill with ocean water.

[Rigil Kent]

Tsunamis are really the only way I'm able to buy the number 7 million based on the location of the beam. As to the trench filling with water, it took ENT a while to get back to Earth, right? I don't remember exactly how long but the number 2 months seems to be in my head for some reason, so by the time ENT got home, some relief efforts were working. Couldn't they have blocked up the trench down near the Gulf and then begun disaster relief? Like maybe the Vulcans gave them some super forcefield things or something...

[CoffeeCat]

Maybe. It'd be a helluva interesting story if someone were to tamper with said forcefield tho.

[Rigil Kent]

Well, I figure the forcefield thing would be a stopgap measure that would allow EarthGov's relief teams to block up the trench with more tradition methods (ferrocrete, perhaps, or maybe just a really big metal wall.)

That does bring up an interesting story idea, though... hmmm...

A question I have is do they ever fill that trench in? I'd be tempted to say no, that it remains there as a testament to those lost in the Xindi attack, but then, Starfleet & the Federation have rarely done things that made sense to me, so I can see them covering it up in twenty to fifty years...

[CoffeeCat]

Ya' think? I was toying with the idea of having someone (probably Barclay and/or Kalegra) visit the trench in my own story so I'm glad you brought this up.

[Emberchyld]

Thanks tons, Rigil-- that definitely clears things up for me. I thought the beam had taken out much more (at least to the Georgia border)

I agree with the Tsunami theory. And I can just imagine the incredibly painful deaths just from the steam coming off of all of that water evaporating, from the everglades to the gulf-- that probably took out a few of the cities surrounding the trench, a few island nations, northern south america, parts of central america. The resulting storms must have been massive, too.

And if this was "snowbird" season in FL, that adds to the numbers of people, too. Hmm... and probably a few cruise ships full of people...

[Mitchell]

That sure would take a lot of dirt to fill that ditch back in.

An its not just the Water table, fillin that thing in Rigil.
But wouldnt it of filled right up in less then a day with Salt Water.

[Rigil Kent]

Exactly. The whole thing should have been flooded ... but then we wouldn't have been able to have that nifty shot of the super!trench (which, admittedly, was a very good visual effect even if you could tell that Mal and Trip were cgi.

Glad I could help, Ember. As a native of Florida (even though I don't live there anymore), it amazed me at the high number of casualties they mentioned in relation to the actual location of the destruction. I'm sure you have those sort of reactions when you see Hollywood do something in your area of expertise (skating), or if they set something near a place that you know intimately, and then do it wrong...

It's sort of like Drive a couple months back (before those idiots at FOX canceled it); they said that the current episode was set in Florida on I-75, an interstate that I am quite familiar with. In my many years of living in Florida, though, I never saw the mountains that were in the background...

In regards to the deaths from the steam, I doubt it would actually be that painful. We're talking superheated, flash-fried, IMO. Once you get farther away from the trench (ala Tampa or Miami), then you're going to have the equivalent of nuclear winter, I'd think.

Ya' think? I was toying with the idea of having someone (probably Barclay and/or Kalegra) visit the trench in my own story so I'm glad you brought this up.

It really depends on how responsible and sentimental you think Earth is by that point. Personally, I'd argue for leaving the trench there as a reminder that Earth needs to be ever vigilant, but they never seem to have any ships defending the capital of the Federation, so that argument goes out the window...

[CoffeeCat]

In my many years of living in Florida, though, I never saw the mountains that were in the background...

OMFG. You're kidding.

[Rigil Kent]

Dead serious. It cracked me up, and I called a buddy of mine who still lives in Ye Olde Hoggetown (Gainesville). He answered the phone with "MOUNTAINS?!"

[CoffeeCat]

If I had seen it, I would have fallen out of my chair.

And if it had been on StarTrek - I'd make sure TPTB would never ever live it down. "Frakking Vulcans beamed em in, I swear!" and then I would have written a dead serious fanfic all about it.

[Mitchell]

Common sence in Trek!?! Or even tryin to actualy learn from their past misstakes?
Yer kiddin right!
This is the Franchise, where the founder thought it was a brilliant idea for Security personel to walk around in Bright Red shirts, an for Captains to go into dangerous situations away from the ship, in just about every other episode.

Common sence for humanity seems to have been KIA during WWIII in the Trek Verse.



Moutains!?!?! Ok what the hell was wrong with these people!?

[CoffeeCat]

Oh no no no...

I said "if it had been Star Trek. Not "it was".