How sad… how sad, indeed… last week, I was kinda joking, as we saw Hurricane Katrina approach Florida: “Katrina and the Waves!” Remember that 80′s band? They were a one-hit wonder, that became popular with “Walking on Sunshine”. How ironic…

Today, it’s been a few days and I cannot believe my eyes, watching the total devastation in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It’s completely unreal. Today, after the storm had passed through the area, a levee (muro) in New Orleans broke, starting to let water in from a lake toward the north of the city. A mandatory evacuation was ordered, and almost 80% of the city is now under water. It’s worse than a Hollywood movie.

I thought I’d share this, that a Show Production student from school posted on our discussion boards:
“I Just lost a family member and their animals to Katrina… And my house back home, looks like it never existed… there isnt even shingles, splintered wood, let alone a concrete foundation… NOTHING remains… nothing… 20 feet of treeline blocked the gulf from my home… all those trees alongs with im guessing parts of neighbors and my home litter the street over 100 yards from where the tree and my home was…. my neighbors house is also gone, but their foundation and steps up to their house remain..”

Tags: weather

These guys are on the ball. Reading some more about them, they’re pro Meteorologists. This one in particular just posted ahead of the 11 pm Advisory from the NHC, that the storm is now Cat 4…

Tags: weather

A community of weather hobbists has gathered around this blog. Seems like a nice source of additional details and analysis around the weather data we get from the National Hurricane Center.

Also, while digging into this blog, I found these additional links of interest:
-Hurricane City: very ugly site, but packed with tons of links and detailed “coverage” by enthusiast, Jim Williams. In his “About…” section, he claims “The idea of this site is that it allows the visitor to feel close to the storm without feeling the affects,unless you are in the path of the storm.” :S
-Instituto de Meterologia de la Republica de Cuba (Cuban Meteorological Institute) – not the best site, but considering they are undergoing the worst of the hurricane in the coming hours, a site to check out, nevertheless.

Last year it was four hurricanes. This year, it’s not even mid-July and we got our first one.

“Good” ole Dennis (the Menace, as some jokingly baptized him). Seems like the weather journalists (forecasters and Weather channel folks alike) get some sort of a kick out of these things. Yesterday I was watching the Weather Channel, and it was almost unbelievable the look in some of their faces. They were having a blast! It’s like “Cool! We’re going to have another Category 3 to cover this year!” I mean: WHAT IS UP WITH THAT??

Granted that there are folks who cover these things (mostly the local ones, who are likely to have to deal with it in person) in a way that’s a little less “excited”, but… come on!

Anyway. According to the latest Advisory by the Hurricane Center, issued at 5 pm EST (some 40 minutes ago), it’s turned into a category 3 and it’s heading into Cuba by tomorrow. There doesn’t seem to be much in sight to stop it, so if it maintains its current course, it’s going to hit an area that still has lots of structures that haven’t recovered from Ivan, last year. PLUS, they just got the rain and tropical storm-force winds from Cindy…

Check out this not-so-trivial piece of “trivia”, courtesy of the Weather Channel:
Four Atlantic weather systems — Arlene, Bret, Cindy and Dennis — reached Tropical Storm status by July 5, the earliest for so many named storms in recorded history. Only three major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher) have hit the U.S. coast in July in the past 100 years.
:S

Well… let’s hope for the best!

I will leave you with a great quote from a Zen book I read recently, called ZBA:
“Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace within the storm.”

Peace to all…

Tags: weather, spirit

It really doesn’t matter if you are not… Dennis seems to be picking up steam through the Caribbean. At this point it’s anyone’s guess as to where it will land, but we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

Trivia: did you know Dennis was the name of a hurricane back in 1999? I thought they “retired” names of storms if they ever turned into hurricanes… maybe they just do it with devastating ones. Here’s a picture of 1999′s Dennis “smiling” in front of the Florida/Georgia coastine.

Tags: weather

Granted these are not pictures of Jeanne (I mean, who wants to see her face, anyway!), they are pretty impressive shots of Ivan from the International Space Station. Check them out!

If you are into the hurricane, here are two video feeds, directly from two local channels:

-Local6: my favorite choice to stay updated, with Tom the Chief Meteorologist (now celebrity, almost!)

-Eyewitness News 9: another good one that doesn’t sound too sensationalist when it comes to reporting.

We just woke up. We’re doing good (Santiago is on a very playful mood), and we obviously still have power. The storm has continued on an almost 100% westerly path, instead of -as of yet- the expected turn to the north we’ve been getting ready for. Now Tampa is bracing for a direct hit.

Not that we’re out of the woods, though. The infamous outer bands are going right through us as I write, so we’re getting sustained winds of 50-60 MPH, with gusts getting into the 70-80 MPH range. The good things (for everyone) are that:

1) It’s continued to move fairly quickly: 13 MPH

2) It’s lost some strength: now it’s a category 2 hurricane (110 sustained winds) and further weakening to cat. 1 is expected in the next few hours, as it continues to move through the peninsula.

There is continued coverage about the events in the Orlando Sentinel blog. The OrlandoWeather.com blog reports over a million people without power by now.