Monthly Archives: August 2005

Katrina’s Tail End

Posted on by
Reply

We are still under Tornado Watch and possible flash flood watch … but that seems to be one that affects those more by creeks and rivers, pond, streams, lakes, etc. We don’t have one that close. It’s not that we won’t ever be flooded, but it’s less likely where we are. We have had lots of rain this summer, we are quite filled up, so just a little extra rain can cause low level flooding, soppy yards, etc.

Last night it rained fairly steady and harder for awhile. I had to put towels around the bedroom A/C unit, water was leaking in pretty fast at times. Just the side-ways tropical rain. So often tropical storms around here do there deed at nighttime. Daylight rain was light. The sounds of the rain were light. Darkness fell, bigger storms rolled through and over us and flashed and banged, but little rain more than the light stuff fell. It wasn’t until after 11pm that the bigger rain came.

The yard this morning was wet, soggy but not soppy wet like some of the 2004 storms produced for us. But I will say that this storm, Katrina, afforded us more excitement overall. Little wind. Little rain, but great thunderous flashyness. I am comparing this all to the 2004 storms and how they acted over us. They dumped rain. Very few crackly fireworks if any. Katrina is definitely fiestier, fiesiest. Yes it did rain, indeed it did, but not in comparision to the rains of 2004 hurricane/tropical-degrades.

All the stories coming out of the sticken areas of The South are so sad. There is one that is the saddest. The older black man who lost his wife in the flood waters, their house split apart, they climbed to the roof and she couldn’t hold on, she said something like “I can’t hold on, take care of the children and grandchildren”. They haven’t found her yet. (I haven’t searched the net for this story, I heard it on TWC, interview with the man, Mr. Jackson in Biloxi, MS.)

That’s just one story out there. Cell phones are all out of service, other utilities are out. So information is sketchy to get at. This is an example of what techonology is: sensitive and not anything to be relied upon. :rolleyes:

I heard one TvCaster on TWC refer to New Orleans as “a cesspool” …hmmmm. maybe so, maybe it has been for awhile (please understand I speak of protestant faith issues! and the TWC was speaking to the water issues from broken levees and all the mess going on there.)

Well the weather today is: Clouds that are low and gray to black racing from the sw to the ne sort of. Breezes that are heavier than a “normal” day to light gustiness (which is delightful). The sun is out behind the clouds and peeks through now and then. Ah, that’s the power source for the tropical moisture to flare up into tornadical behaviour.

So the skies lightened at sunrise, and since then get darker, then lighter, darker, darker, lighter, darker … as the last fringes of Katrina stream overhead to the NE.

A Tribute to Katrina

Posted on by
Reply

I made up a new poem-ic phrase while IM’ing with Frankie last night:

Rumble, rumble, boil and crumble.

You know — the witchy brew chanting of literary edges … it’s a play on that. Offshoot tornadoes, awesome power in storms such as Katrina.

If you watch the news [about Katrina] you’ll see some things from Georgia, perhaps. Roofs gone, buildings crushed, fear struck into the hearts of many. Worse stories are starting to filter out of the coastal Gulf area.

God is so very powerful. So very much The Creator of all things wondrous. Storms like Katrina are a testimony to God’s power. Atheisticly minded folks won’t think so, but that doesn’t make it not true. Katrina was a massive Cat 5 hurricane as she steered towards the coastal area of the Gulf of Mexico. She slowly degraded, and is now a Tropical Storm, but something to watch out for still. She’s still a powerful Trop. Storm. She’s holding on.

Floods, mud, houses falling apart, tornadoes spawning off and ripping of rooves … it will continue today and Katrina’s remnants will meet up with another flow in the NE to dump upon the already wet and being rained on NE.

May God be Praised.

Turn your heart to God, let Him heal your wounds. Rebuilding, moving away to somewhere else, mourning losses, these things are temporal. The soul is not.

Under Tornado Warnings

Posted on by
Reply

We are under particular Tornado Warnings/Watches this evening. Just a while ago, oh about an hour ago already, I heard a bunch of rumblings to the South, and sure enough it was dark out that way, and lighting could be seen cloud to cloud. It then started to be the more dangerous type, ground to cloud. So I looked online and found there and on TV as well that Walton county had Tornado Warning on, and there was an immensely red and yellow cell from the most outer feeder band of Katrina there … and that county is not far away, in fact just below us.

Lightening action was intense for awhile, then seemed to pass by to the North. The TV radar is still showing very active cells below us though. So we’ll see what happens locally IRL. I turned the computer off and the network and phone stuff for awhile, but turned it on again to see what’s happening and to post this.

Frank is in Florida and can’t call me anyhow, so I wanted to get this online so he might see it. Our phone service is not working. DSL is though. We have vonage through DSL too, but that’s not working either. We only have one phone, so I can’t tell what’s up. Well, actually we do have another, the fax machine. I just went down and plugged it in, but it gives me the same “open” connection sound. I haven’t tried it in another jack, all jacks are connected daisy-chained anyhow. It’s weird though, that the modem can connect to the internet via the phone jack, but that vonage box isn’t connecting to vonage and neither is dial tone for local service that the DSL is through. Weird, weird, weird. It all started sometime this afternoon, I’m not sure when, there was no lightening around at all then.

The rain has been light since it started when I last posted. Steady at times, but never heavy. Just a light tropical rain. Before all the lightening was getting intense I was out looking at the clouds in the front of the house and had my camera, snapping a few things, and a Ruby-Throat Hummingbird came by. So I went in and made up some sugar water for them and filled the one feeder I have out there. I had filled it last week, but never saw them drink from it. I saw a hummer and so did Frank, but never did we see it feed. The feeder dripped dry. So I watched tonight after I put it out and there were two hummers that came back and were playing and flew to the feeder many times, back and forth here and there in the trees, across the street, zipping back and forth between all these and other things.

I got a few pictures, but they were blurry, and then I might have gotten a few better ones with the Hosta’s, but I have to check that out still. My hostas have some that bloom earlier and some that bloom later. The white blossoms are out now. The hummers fed on a few and that’s the time I snapped what might be croppable to blow up a bit.

It was lightly raining at that time, a time that hummers love to play in, I’ve noticed in past years. This is the first interaction I’ve had with hummers in a long time. Last year wasn’t heavy hummer time for us, and this year not at all until today. It was refreshing to see the hummers play in front of me. :)

The lightening we had was refreshing too. Many cracks and booms and rumbles, and daggers and forks of lightening. Ah!

So being under Tornado Warnings is about actual spotted Tornadoes tonight, as well as weather being primed massively by the tropical system to just expect sudden tornadoes in the weather, often maybe diguised in heavy rain and not noticeable until it’s too late if you aren’t in a safe spot … then you are toast. So of course I was out on the porch watching. I wasn’t standing in the open, but I guess it’s a spot that’s not recommended in any case. I saw nothing but nice clouds, gentle rain, and massive lightinging here and there. There were notices on TV of spotted tornadoes, but in directions not exactly affecting us, so I was just watching carefully, enjoying the weather phenoms.

I’ll have some photos to post later, if any of the hummers or night cloud photos turned out.

Tropical rain begins

Posted on by
Reply

We have sprinkles starting, the sky is dark grey and blackish clouds … and it’s a large area of such. The radar for our state shows rain over us and growing.

The county next to us to the west has/had tornado warnings. So … the evening rainy thundersomeness of tropical moisture has begun for us.

Doggy is in his crate. I do hope we don’t lose power for any reason, I don’t have any “eat without heating up” sort of foods on hand really.

We do have a propane gas outdoor stove, but Frank never set it up for me since we got it … :( He’s not here, it’s too heavy for me to do anything with, so I hope I have no use for it in particular today or tomorrow.