Picked up all the junk in my yard
Tied my canoe up about 15 feet above sea level
Filled coolers and pots with drinking water.
Filled trash can, buckets and bathtub with water for toilets (joy of a well pump w/ no power)
Filled generator with gas
Bought more gas
Bought milk, bread, water, soda, chips, and eggs.
Mowed the lawn and put down new seed (free rain)
Here are some pics on the Bay and of my water factory.
Hurricane Ike is the one we’ll probably be talking about for a few days. It’s a pretty major storm that will be off the coast of Miami on Monday, probably. It’s track is going in many different directions, but right now it is a category 4 (though it will weaken a bit tonight).
Where it goes > 5 days from now is a million dollar question. Will it slice across Florida or will it turn north and threaten most of the East Coast. Unfortunately we don’t have an idea. The models have just started to show a curve (though some still have it as a line drive straight into the Gulf of Mexico.
We’ll be watching this one.
Confused, to say the least.
I’ve let the lawn grow out this week. It was one of the lessons I had from Isabel–the longer the grass and other foliage, the more water that will be trapped / kept out of the soil when these big storms come (and thus, the less change of landslides).
I’ve also got the generator set up in the garage. 5,000 watts of power for the house when (if) the power goes out.
But for Hanna, it looks like it won’t be passing over us. But Ike and Josephine are coming soon enough.
These wind speed projections show it’s going to basically suck in a few days over the house. We’ve had four power outages this year > 6 hours and I’m fed up (one was 36 hours). I suspect this weekend is going to mega-suck which means it is time for a generator.
Now I just have to figure a way to get it home from the hardware store.
It’s going to be a crazy week for Hurricane hunters. While Gustav is turning into rain clouds, Hanna is spinning around and will be quickly followed by Hurricane Ike and then what is currently known as Tropical Depression 10. We could see some machine gun hurricanes striking the US over the next few weeks.
It's going to be busy.
The National Hurricane Center has created a podcast for updates of the Hurricane Gustav. You can find the links at Trumix.com – Hurricane Gustav Podcast.
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Mayor Nagin has decided that anyone caught looting will be sent to the Louisiana State Penitentary in Angola, one of the most notorious prisons in the country.
“You will not get a pass this time. Anyone caught looting in New Orleans will go directly to the Big House in the general population. You will go directly to Angola Prison and God bless you if you go there.”
Waiting for the ACLU to go bonkers on that.
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There are some scenarios that are indicating that is possible.
Katrina had a footprint of about 400 miles, he said. Gustav is about 900 miles and growing, Nagin said.
“This is worse than a Betsy, worse than a Katrina,” Nagin said.
The mayor speculated that Gustav is so fierce Baton Rouge likely will experience 100 mph winds.
“You need to be scared and you need to get your butts out of New Orleans right now,” Nagin said.
Nagin said he expects Gustav to “punch holes in the Harvey Canal,” which will cause the West Bank to become a bath tub.
Evacuations are now mandatory.
While the map shows Gustav not making a direct ‘hit’ on New Orleans, you have to remember the counterclockwise spin of the hurricane will result in some of the heaviest winds and rains going right into New Orleans. The storm surge there could be WORSE than Katrina causing even more flooding than last time.
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Interestingly the computer models are showing more and more of a western drift for Hurricane Gustav with a potential landfall in Texas, some even showing Houston directly in its path. Computer models are still wildly divergent, but I expect we might see the NHC official forecast shift a bit away from New Orleans and toward Texas over the next 24-36 hours.
