(The title is jokey but I am dead serious, peeps. Those of you who have been through a hurricane should skip ahead. )
And she's bigger than this right now, filling almost the entire gulf. Folks, if you have any loved ones, friends, even enemies anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to Galveston Island, please, please call them and tell them to get the hell out. Drive and keep on driving, don't worry about hotels. I'll tell you why.
Some of you may not know that this storm was supposed to hit around Ft.Lauderdale, Florida, about 60 miles north of Miami, and go due west across the state. Instead it turned abruptly 90 degrees south and went right over Miami, right over my house in Coconut Grove, on south to Homestead then southwest out over the water, narrowly missing Key West. Since it was to be barely a Category 1 storm, and since it wasn't supposed to hit us, neither I nor anyone I know even bothered to put up hurricane shutters. And I KNOW better. Ack. I am ok, my house is ok, missing an awning and looking like a plucked chicken but intact. We were so very, very lucky. We still don't have power and our houses, clothes and selves are slowly becoming covered with mildew but other than that, all is well. If you don't count the houses with 3 ft. of water in them. and the cars crushed by trees (3 on my street alone). And the 7 dead people.
You see, Katrina turned south AFTER we lost power at 7 pm so none of us even knew it happened. I started getting scared when something hit the roof so hard the entire house shook. This was about 9 pm when the eyewall was hitting us. This is the area with the highest winds.
The City of Miami didn't bother to even open shelters.
Back to your friends and loved ones. Katrina is 5 orders of magnitude stronger. If you could see the damage such a storm does you would not believe that anyone could live through it. And many won't. And that's just the wind. The latest report is 25 ft. of water and sustained winds of 170 mph. That means gusts over 200 mph and the strong likelihood of F1 to F3 tornados spawned by the hurricane. It infuriates me that the politicians and weather channel people talk so rationally about this. They should be screaming at the cameras, DON'T SIT THERE WATCHING ME, GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE BEFORE YOU'RE BLOWN TO KINGDOM COME. NOW! MOVE!
Because until you live through one, you just can't possibly get it. Someone has to scare the shit out of you or drag you out of your house by the scruff of your neck. So go. Make those phone calls. Anyone who isn't scared is too stupid to live.
Unfortunately, I think it's going to take a Cat 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans to underline the point that wetlands have a purpose and should be preserved.
If the storm continues as it is now, New Orleans could wind up the biggest toxic waste site on the planet - a giant bowl of chemical soup and rotting bodies.
This Rust-belter will take a blizzard any day!
Posted by: Account Deleted | August 28, 2005 at 02:01 PM
Very frightening. Glad I don't know anyone in harm's way. And very glad you're ok.
Posted by: Liz | August 28, 2005 at 02:01 PM
It seems not many people worried about Katrina as a cat 1. It's so good to hear you came through fairly unscathed. I'm sorry you won't be heading our way but it is just good to hear you're ok.
Posted by: margene | August 28, 2005 at 04:32 PM
A relief to see you're o.k. I was worried about you. Nature can be so very fierce. We all forget.
Posted by: Emma. | August 28, 2005 at 04:57 PM
Glad you checked in! My frequent commenter Geogrrl is up in LA, haven't heard from her so I hope she's safely hunkered down on high ground. Katrina is proof that there is no such thing as a predictable little hurricane. The geography of New Orleans makes this utterly devastating - the levees that hold the water back will also hold the storm surge IN. And a lot of places are just not going to be there this time tomorrow. There is no "riding out" a 5 there, it's suicidal.
Posted by: Catherine | August 28, 2005 at 05:44 PM
Oh, and to his credit, Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel was preaching the "This is not a drill, go and go NOW" gospel with great passion this morning. I hope everybody listened.
Posted by: Catherine | August 28, 2005 at 05:46 PM
So glad you're relatively unscathed!
It's just like the movies. If the haunted house has voices that say "GET OUT" and you don't get out? Then you're beyond help.
Seriously, though, I hope people listen.
Posted by: Michelle | August 28, 2005 at 06:07 PM
So glad you're alright. I saw footage on TV, it was horrible.
Posted by: Siow Chin | August 28, 2005 at 10:07 PM
Yikes! It's good to hear form you.
Posted by: Melanie | August 29, 2005 at 12:06 AM
Oh man!! So glad you're O.K.!
Posted by: Neena | August 29, 2005 at 11:04 AM
So glad to see this post and that you are safe if without power and a little mildewed.
I know what you mean about the almost nonchalant way that Katrina was being referred to. I was so pleased when I watched the chief of police I think in New Orleans really get stroppy and tell people to get their asses into gear, a man pasionate about his job and the safety of the people he serves me thinks.
Be safe and careful, much love.
Posted by: Daisy-Winifred | August 30, 2005 at 01:23 AM
Yikes, YES unpredictable. I hope you're not too rattled.
Yes, the weatherchannel on-air talents are vulgar. Standing there in their stupid raincoats flapping in the breeze.... cameras on the drunken idiots always wading in the Gulf. I'm thinking, the whole time, what about the Bayou? The indigenous people, no? Not the tourist asshole.
We're so "evolved" we have lost touch with the impartial fury of mother nature. So soon after the tsunami, too. We were in Sarasota for Gabrielle, just a tropical storm, and I have got to say that I didn't know what it was at 2am, it was the day after 9/11, and nature, she will always make our human destructive rage look like a child's sandbox fit.
Posted by: mari | September 01, 2005 at 10:39 PM
I'm so glad you made it through in one piece. I did too, and was scared out of my wits! It's always fun to hear that the eye of the storm is right over your house, when you thought the most you were going to get were tropical storm forced winds. Yes, I turned on the radio to hear that the eye of the storm was over FIU, and I was staying at my boyfriends house a couple of miles South of FIU, and there was dead calm when I heard this.
I must admit, I'm glad it hit us at a cat 1 then what NO got. I would hate an Andrew repeat, and from the looks of it, this storm was one million times worse then Andrew.
Posted by: Lissette | September 12, 2005 at 03:08 PM