Don't listen to the negative reviews

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

I remember watching this and recording it when I was 14. It was the first real hint of "global warming" in mainstream media that I remember. I now work in the climate change field, and every time we see a new natural disaster I am brought back to this movie. The one thing we all need to remember is that even though the press has dubbed the current climate change event "global warming", the climate will become cooler and wetter in some parts of the US, drier and hotter and others, and warmer and wetter in still others. Seasonal information doesn't give us any more information than the obvious, its really cold or really hot, or damn its dry this year. What gives us information is to look at the trends over the last 20, 100, 1000, 10000, and even million years.This movie is fair in acting and plot, but for 1993 it did take some good thinking to predict what natural disasters would be hitting the US in the next 20 years. I enjoy watching my old tape because of this, even if the movie is mediocre. Here are some of the more interesting plot lines: The year is 2005, and the plot follows a family on the gulf coast, before and after the aftermath of a category 5 hurricane. Previous to the hurricane, it is evident that there is a gas crisis, and fuel prices are so high that rationing has become the norm. There is some very interesting dialog between townsfolk and officials that claim the levees are up to par when the townsfolk know they are not. Needless to say the hurricane devastates the region. The family is forced to migrate north, and in the midst of this the father has to travel to California to find his son who is staying with the uncle. In California, water shortages are everywhere, and over 300 hundred fires are ravaging the state (which is happening now in northern Ca and last year happened with less fires in the southern Ca). The boy and his father have a falling out which leads the boy out to the southwest into water feuds and the immigration problems from Mexico. The mighty Colorado has dried up to a stream because of the over-contracting of water supplies to southern California. The plot then changes to more socio-political aspects of a non growth "green" town in New York state, and how the family will get across the border to Canada because the problems of the US has led them to close the borders much as we have between the US and Mexico.

Let's see...Droughts in the Midwest...check. Higher temps in the South..check. Multiple Category 3 or better storms, check. Unaffordable insurance rates...check. Although I know this stuff goes in cycles, this movie seems to have hit quite a few nails on the head, although I hope that it got a few wrong. Although the acting is somewhat stilted and could use help, it is a made-for-TV film from early in most of these actors' careers. If you have never lived in the sauna known as the South, they did get this part right. This seems to be very prophetic, especially since it was written in one of the lull periods in hurricanes. At the writing of this comment, we only had 3 names left for the year, which has not happened in a very long time. This is a nice way to spend a few hours.

A recent poster commented that "it's 2005 and nothing has come to pass like predicted in this film." That's hardly true anymore. The beginning shows a major hurricane decimating the city of New Orleans (my original home town, necessitating its evacuation. This, as we all know, has come to pass with the advent of Hurricane "Katrina." And the images we are seeing come out of the gulf coast on the news are far more horrific than anything in this movie.Aside from this prophecy now come true and then some, the movie was otherwise a little too Orwellian for my tastes. I should also note that the recent hurricane activity is not necessary global warming. There's a cycle to these things. We saw hurricane activity of this magnitude in the 1940s, the 1960s (Camille), the 1990s (Andrew) and in this decade (Charley and Katrina).

This was one of the better TV mini series that has been shown on TV this decade. I was mesmerized while watching it and still remember vividly how I thought this could really happen. Given recent weather, I don't believe I was far wrong. It is awesome how many things in this movie have already come to pass. If there is any way of viewing it by any means I would really like to hear about them. I'm also trying to find out if there was a book published on this title. I wish all TV was as entertaining and as lasting as this movie was.