[sdeyerle]

I'm trying to figure out where 539 hurricanes is coming from? That's over an order of magnitude more than there's ever been in a single season...

[js2]

It's likely a joke, but it sure stands out. Could also be transcription error. The letter itself contains a typo ("if you will privide") which is fixed in the transcription. (It should have been transcribed as is with "[sic]" added to note the original typo.) Too bad there's not an image of the reply.

BTW, the letter was shared to reddit 7 years ago and a redditor replied that it was his uncle Andy:

https://old.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/5a95b8/til_i...

A photo of Andy:

https://imgur.com/gallery/tsWkg

The story has been circulating the Internet at least since 2004:

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2004/spring/c...

[OJFord]

> A photo of Andy

What kind of amazing self-parody is 'Irmo man wrote letter'! That's brilliant

[Thorrez]

There's an image of the reply in that imgur gallery you linked. The image says 539.

[knute]

I'm thinking it must be tornadoes. There were 907 tornadoes across all of 1984.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tornado_events_by_year

[re]

Also curious that the letter was from May, before the start of the 1984 hurricane season. Per Wikipedia, 1984 did go on to have the highest activity since 1971, while 1983 the lowest since 1930. But 1983 caused more damage with Hurricane Alicia crossing Texas.

The Texas drought reference does appear to be accurate. https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/16/us/crushing-drought-in-te...

[tasuki]

Isn't all of the letter a joke?

[Detrytus]

It being a joke does not justify POTUS lying to US citizens :P

[IncRnd]

It's good to keep things in perspective. After all, there are 16,384 misunderstood comments each minute on this very website.

[fancyfredbot]

I misunderstood this comment initially, thinking that there can't be so many comments on HN. But then I realised each comment can be misunderstood more than once. Seems plausible. Pleased to have done my part.

[_carbyau_]

And that number immediately triggers my "Nice neat power of 2 answer? Seems unlikely..." suspicions. :-)

[aspenmayer]

If your comment is sarcasm, does my comment affect your calculations?

If my comment is sarcasm, does my comment affect your calculations?

[IncRnd]

I like your comment! Though, I dislike sarcasm, which your post seems to be.

[aspenmayer]

I like your comment! Though, we may be in a liar and/or barber paradox.

Artists tell the truth using a lie. I dislike lying and yet love art.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar_paradox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_paradox

[hedora]

The letter looks like pretty typical republican playbook:

It implausibly overestimates the scope of problems, then claims that the private sector / volunteer organizations have more capabilities / funding than the federal government.

I’m hoping it was self-parody and not just a canned form letter response.

[m463]

maybe from a list of funding requests? :)