Fifty Plus (50+) - Here we go again? Let's hope not!

Isaac (http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201209_5day.html)

Something about late August and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. :twitchy:

The forecast track isn't pointed directly where I live (yet?), but there are more than a few of us in the Gulf region who are looking down Isaac's gunsights right about now to some degree or another. Bill, John, Kurt, Tom, el segundo ... off the top of my head, and I'm sure I'm leaving out many - Who else? Let's all stay safe and hopefully powered-up for the next few days. In 15 years of working for an electric utility, I've developed a different attitude about weather. I'm not a lineman, but I look at weather differently than I used to.

To get this marginally on-topic, the weather in and of itself won't interfere with my cycling plans for the Labor Day weekend, since I have none. We're (still?) planning on a weekend away which doesn't include any bike rides (unbelievable, I know :eek:). Hopefully the weather won't cancel those plans...

Hurricanes and tropical storms are natural disasters you can see coming ahead of time, if only a week or 10 days in advance. Then there are earthquakes, volcanoes and forest fires that strike suddenly with devastating effect. Use the time wisely, and I hope your basement stays dry and your lights on through the next week or so.

Good luck

Use the time wisely, and I hope your basement stays dry and your lights on through the next week or so.

Good luck

Thanks - Actually, I'm not as worried for myself as for those closer to the coast and nearer the centerline of the track. Then again, if Louisiana keeps eroding away like it has been, I could be near the coast before long. :)

My son called in tonight. He is in the Gulf on a floating drilling rig. They have disconnected and are headed west.

I live in Central Florida. So far so good. It looks to be rainy today and maybe tomorrow which is a good thing. We are still "behind" on our rainfall. We seem to be getting more here then the people on the west coast. A bunch of feeder bands have come out and gotten us.

I grew up in Ohio and hurricanes really are not that big of a deal except for losing power. They are nothing like a tornado which is really, really scary.

My wife is getting out of New Orleans just in time - this afternoon. She has been there visiting her Mom. My wife's immediate family lost 4 homes to Katrina, with only 1 being rebuilt. As a child, Hurricane Betsy had her family being rescued from a hilltop, and thunder still freaks her out. With this week being the anniversary of Katrina, everyone is especially nervous.

I grew up in Ohio and hurricanes really are not that big of a deal except for losing power. They are nothing like a tornado which is really, really scary.

Tell that to the people of New Orleans, the Mississippi / Alabama Gulf coast and the Florida panhandle after Katrina. :notamused: Seven years later, the after effects are still clearly seen all around. Or ask SW Louisiana / east Texas about Rita. Or Mississippi about Camille ... or Audrey, for that matter.

Agreed, tornados can certainly be terribly devastating (one passed along the road by our house once), but dismissing hurricanes as "not that big of a deal" trivializes their impact more than I feel is fair. Even Gustav in 2008 had a huge impact in our area and we "just" lost power for days.

A hurricane that has been travelling over land for a good distance is an entirely different animal than a hurricance just making landfall, especially if it is coming off very warm water, like the Gulf. Your Ohio experience wasn't "the real deal" when it comes to hurricances. 1,800 lives lost certainly qualifies as being a big deal in my book.

Those that think you have a week or so to get ready (usually about 24-48 hours if we are lucky, do not go by the Weather Channel's crap) and that the power being off for a bit is the worst part haven't been through a Hurricane. Look at the dollar amounts and deaths from the hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S., not other countries just here. then come to our area when one hits and drive around (if it is possible for a few weeks, possibly) and look at the destruction. I pray you never have to go through one, or a tornado or earthquake, either. I have lost friends in hurricanes and been through 6 landfalls here since 1979, (we are close enough that we could count the Mississippi and Louisiana storms too probably, it it mattered, say Cat 5 Camille or Katrina or Andrew's 2nd landfall.)

Bill

I thought we were immune being in the center of the state til the summer we got 4 (Charlie, Jean, Frances and Wilma) I'm glad Isaac passed us by and I hope you guys are not harmed and none of us ever see a Katrina or Andrew again. I've been in the center of 5 hurricanes and none of them were expected to come near me 24 hours before they hit

I am in the northern part of Alabama so most of what we get from the hurricanes is a lot of rain. A week after Katrina I went to Pascagoula MS with a team from our church to help with the recovery process. The news media can not begin to show all the misery these storms inflict on communities.

You guys/gals in the target area keep safe.

Charlie

Actually, I'm not as worried for myself as for those closer to the coast and nearer the centerline of the track.


Well, duhhh.... so much for that idea!

269776

I'm located near the red/white circle. :notamused:

Hopefully a bit of north wind, a little rain and move on. Of course, nothing like NOLA and others south will experience. :twitchy:

I've mostly lived where we are waiting for "the big one", as in earthquake. We make our preparations, or not, and hope we are out of town when it finally hits. I think if I lived in hurricane country, I would arrange for annual late August vacations. In the immortal words of King Arthur (Monty Python version), "Run away, run away!"

I hope this one ends up as a mere nuisance. Stay safe down there.

Yeah, tropical weather is one reason not to live in the deep south. I've grown to like the (semi) desert southwest, but of course they have a little thing called wildfire ...not that we don't ever, but almost never on the same scale. There's not a lot of absolute defense against either, although it's somewhat possible to mount a slight defense against fire: water, trenching, etc. Sometimes. Then again, if the fire is big enough, it's like tropical weather in that it just keeps on comin' ...

I've cleaned my gutters/downspouts and we'll batten down tomorrow what could get blown around. All in all, I really still don't expect severe wind where I live. Maybe some TS force, but it should be reasonable. However, working for the electric company I could end up having to cancel next weekend's plans even if the weather is nice by that time. We'll see.

Thanks.

I grew up in Ohio and hurricanes really are not that big of a deal except for losing power. They are nothing like a tornado which is really, really scary.

Not dissing, hurricanes spawn tornadoes...

How are the coastal members doing tonight? Any first person reports?

The son called tonight. His rig and a number of others made it safely, at a blistering pace of 4 knots, to the western Gulf of Mexico. He said there a quite a few rigs from his company and others floating in the area waiting for the storm to pass. Family in central Louisiana (a little south of LPhilpot) have finished preparations and are awaiting wind and rain. What is left outside is secured to keep it from becoming a missile. They will not get hurricane force winds. Most likely, they will get TS winds in gusts, a bunch of rain, and lose utilities for a while, hopefully no twisters.

A week after Katrina I went to Pascagoula MS with a team from our church to help with the recovery process. The news media can not begin to show all the misery these storms inflict on communities.

I served as the ham radio operator on a feeding crew for the Louisiana Baptist Men. We got into Franklin, LA the day after Andrew left. The place looked like it had been bombed. It was eery.

Yeah.... after Katrina, there were stories of linemen in my company burning their workclothes at the end of the day since the toxicity levels were so high around New Orleans (something 40,000x normal in places, what I was told). More than a few spent the day chest-deep basically in sewage. My boss said the smell was noticable over Slidell even from a helicopter. I was in Covington briefly in Sept '05 and while everyone was working busily, nothing was "normal" at all. Really devastating.

Here we just had heavy rains and moderate winds, so far. Tornado hit south of us mid-afternoon, uprooting a few trees. I received an alert on my cellular about 0300, this morning, for a tornado in our area, watch until 0515. Now it is sideways rain and wind, we have some minor coastal flooding, a few isolated inland flooding instances and very minor wind damage. South of New Orleans is taking the brunt of this up until now, and the HHC/NWS said it will take about 36 hours to finally move through. Hope the one levee breach in Plaquamines Parrish is the only place that breaches. Everyone in Louisiana and south Mississippi is in my prayers and thoughts for their safety.

Oh, gasoline prices went up 25 cents, to 3.84 last night at most stations, Found a convenience store with $3.59 and filled up as a precaution. This was just as NPR had a business piece that said the oil prices overnight actually went down as there was minimal disruption of the production and refinery capacity. Glad I left the oil industry and off shore engineering in the 80's, not for me.

Bill

Oh, gasoline prices went up 25 cents, to 3.84 last night at most stations, Found a convenience store with $3.59 and filled up as a precaution. This was just as NPR had a business piece that said the oil prices overnight actually went down as there was minimal disruption of the production and refinery capacity. Glad I left the oil industry and off shore engineering in the 80's, not for me.

Bill

Oil prices may have gone down, but clearly greed has gone up. I guess any excuse is good enough when looking for a 'reason' to raise profits...

Trying to follow the events on the news, looks like huge amount of rain down there.

This morning in north Alabama is clear skies, bright sunshine, tomorrow morning is our turn to get the storms as Isaac moves on inland. Hoping this thing does not spawn any more tornadoes in the area, we are still recovering from the tornado outbreak of 2011.

Stay safe down there.

Charlie

I lived in Biloxi for about 12 years and left for New England just before Katrina made landfall. Looking at that part of the Gulf Coast on Google Earth, I was amazed at the amount of destruction visible from satellite images. Even today there is much still missing that will never be replaced.

I'm on the opposite side of the continent from the hurricane area but am watching it on CNN and my thoughts and prayers are with all in the danger zone.....we get strong winds here on Vancouver Island but nothing like you are experiencing. Take care and be safe....Karen

I guess Isaac is a Republican because he left us alone while the convention is going on. :D It rained some on Sunday and a little more on Monday with some winds around 30-40 mph. Yesterday, it rained twice and so far no rain today but the winds are starting to pick up. Most of the damage that we have in this area is from flooding; a lot of it started by TS Debbie back in June. There has been some wind damage along the beaches, but nothing like we normally get. The daily, summer thunderstorms haven't done anything to help the water recede, so with every rain, we get more and more standing water. Tampa has been very lucky since we haven't had a direct hit hurricane since the mid 60's with Hurricane Donna. The next closest was Hurricane Frances, part of the four-in-a-row group that came at us one week apart of each other.

Is it nearly there yet?

It's little more than drifting now. Latest movement was NW at 5 mph. But apparently it will start picking up speed somewhat, at some point, which is fairly typical once tropical systems get inland.

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201209_5day.html

The eye is apparently forecast to be over my house by tomorrow at 8 am. :) Latest forecasts have it downgraded (at least for us) to a tropical depression by tomorrow, but there's still a very significant flood threat. And even a TD can knock out power.

I heard on CBC radio this morning that there's a new phenomenon called "disaster tourism," where people actually book flights and hotels to be in disaster zones when the disaster strikes. For those already living in these areas, I'm curious to know your take.

I like to spend a week in Seaside, OR during the winter, as part of the charm is watching the storms come in off the ocean. Speaking with the hotel staff, you learn that the resorts there get lots of Storm Chasers coming in to fill in the low season. But this is nowhere near being in a wild hurricane!

On the one hand, you've got people putting money into the local economy. But then on the other, you've got one or more people needing to be rescued, or taking up additional resources, or maybe even getting in the way of the disaster relief folks. Has anyone actually seen "disaster tourists?"

Luis

My take is they need to stay out of the way and stay home. The out of area responders and residents that lost their homes need every motel room they can get, usually have to stay many miles away from where the work is according to my Gulf Power Cable splicer/ HV lineman neighbor. They are in the way and cause problems for the first responders. We have had some rubberneckers travel here and they generally get run off by the authorities. All the resources are stretched badly in a hurricane's landfall target area, gas, electricity, housing are all non-existant. The idea of encouraging this type of "tourism" is repugnant to me. Sorry if this offends, it is just too much of a problem creator to ignore.

The storm left Northwest Florida alone save some minor localized and coastal flooding and a few small tornadoes. Lots of rain in Isaac, the Plaqmines parish Levee overtopping is scary. 12' of water in homes there so far. This is one slow moving, wet storm and these cause a lot of flooding damage every time. Little wind problems but the water has to go somewhere.

Praying for the people in coastal Mississippi and Louisiana to be safe and that they have no loss of life.

Bill

Each time we get a hurricane or strong tropical storm headed our way, it seems like the beaches get a lot of surfers and thrill speakers. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but I rather stay indoors.

Isaac has weakened in terms of wind, but the eastern side continues to dump massive rainfall on SE Louisiana and Missisippi. His pace has picked up to a blistering 8 MPH NW. Hopefully he'll just move on through, keep on going. So far (and it could go before I finish this, but...) the power has bumped only once that I know of.

How is this for being impacted by Isaac? I have two daughters; one lives in Key West, the other in Metairie. The one in Key West is married to a Navy pilot; they evacuated to Orlando when Isaac came a calling. The one in Metairie works at Tulane and evacuated to here, Beaumont Tx. area. I'm really surprised Isaac didn't decide to slide on over here to southeast Texas.

My Mother-In-Law had recently moved into a nursing facility in Slidell. The big concern was that a power outage would leave them with without lights and A/C. She called yesterday, and one of the sons in the area picked her up and drove her home in Pacayune (MS) to ride out the rest of the storm.

The slow movement is just dumping water on Mississippi and South Louisiana. I just pulled up the NWS Mobile, Al composite radar page and the bands are flowing steadily into the area west of the Alabama/Florida state lines. Heavy rain and many tornado warning and watch blocks right now. At least the levees in Louisiana are holding so far, only topping in Plaquemines Parish so far, but that is really bad, 10'-12' of water standing around the river area. Glad your MIL is okay ATR, the elder care homes in NOLA took a beating in Katrina and that scares me. I have an uncle in one in Mississippi, near Tupelo, safe so far.

Bill

We dodged the bullet here in Cenla apparently, thank God. There were virtually no problemmatic winds and rain has been pretty light. Grey and dreary, but so far so good. Far better than some others have fared...

I heard on CBC radio this morning that there's a new phenomenon called "disaster tourism," where people actually book flights and hotels to be in disaster zones when the disaster strikes. For those already living in these areas, I'm curious to know your take.

I like to spend a week in Seaside, OR during the winter, as part of the charm is watching the storms come in off the ocean. Speaking with the hotel staff, you learn that the resorts there get lots of Storm Chasers coming in to fill in the low season. But this is nowhere near being in a wild hurricane!

On the one hand, you've got people putting money into the local economy. But then on the other, you've got one or more people needing to be rescued, or taking up additional resources, or maybe even getting in the way of the disaster relief folks. Has anyone actually seen "disaster tourists?"

Luis

Disaster tourism also refers to folks visiting a devastated area AFTER the damage is done. There was a big flap about it down in Joplin, MO awhile back when people started to book bus tours to drive around and view the wreckage. Apparently the locals did not buy in and the operation was shut down pretty quickly due to their resentment.

Take care everyone living around there.

I guess Isaac is a Republican because he left us alone while the convention is going on. :D It rained some on Sunday and a little more on Monday with some winds around 30-40 mph. Yesterday, it rained twice and so far no rain today but the winds are starting to pick up. Most of the damage that we have in this area is from flooding; a lot of it started by TS Debbie back in June. There has been some wind damage along the beaches, but nothing like we normally get. The daily, summer thunderstorms haven't done anything to help the water recede, so with every rain, we get more and more standing water. Tampa has been very lucky since we haven't had a direct hit hurricane since the mid 60's with Hurricane Donna. The next closest was Hurricane Frances, part of the four-in-a-row group that came at us one week apart of each other.

Yep, we finally found a use for George Bush's weather machine. Remember the one that steered Katrina directly into New Orleans.

I'm in the library now as Isaac interrupted the power at home, 4 blocks away. Arkansas got rain that it badly needed. There's flooding.

PatW, I grew up in the Tampa Bay area. Hurricanes are that big a deal. Tornados may have higher wind speeds, but Hurricanes play with the tides as well as blasting with wind. So they can pump a lot of water through your neighborhood, wreck homes and pull down huge trees. And they are enormous compared to Tornados.

Isaac (http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201209_5day.html)

Something about late August and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. :twitchy:

I guess that's why they call it hurricane season. ;)

I just heard that, in true NOLA fashion, when my brother-in-law showed up to rescue his mom, she met him at the nursing home door with a drink in her hand. You don't need power to party.

I guess Isaac is a Republican because he left us alone while the convention is going on. :D

Yeah, Opposites attract. Likes repel.


Tampa has been very lucky since we haven't had a direct hit hurricane since the mid 60's with Hurricane Donna.

I remember Donna. After closing up our house on Davis Island, we stayed with my cousin who lived out near the university. It was the first time I ever saw a TV station stay on all night long..

I guess that's why they call it hurricane season. ;)

I had a college roomate who thought every trip to Pat O'brien's was hurricane season...!

Isaac's tour is taking him to Illinois, now . Much needed rain . Lots and lots of it .I'm a co-operative weather observer, so I have to monitor rainfall through the day .

I am in SE LA. Just got power back last night. Went out Tuesday morning at 5 AM....lots of rain, winds maybe 70 at most, but lots of rain.
Rivers are flooding, when tidal surge pushed into the lake, no place for the swollen rivers to dump so they went over the banks. Lots and lots of people losing everything they own and many businesses are destroyed. Yes, they are resilient, but I really feel for the older ones. They lose everything they have worked for their entire lives in about 20 minutes and nothing they can do or save. No power down here is tough at this time of year. After storm passes, temps go into 90's with humidity in the mid to high 90's percent.

I am blessed, as I still have my house, my family, my job. God is good, even in times that don't seem so good.