Hurricane Watch 2008

[KJ3]

i've got an aunt/uncle in galveston who called us all crazy for even getting worried. if the first line of defense isn't sweating it, i'm certainly not going to but i still see people hording food, all the blinky highway signs saying fill up gas tanks and such and every news channel beeping in "up-to-the-minute" scrolls......for a tropical storm. it's like we went from not giving a crap about a hurricane of any power less than alicia to this ultra-scared group of sillynannies. did edouard even make it to the coast before downgrading to tropical storm?

speaking of alicia, category 5's and how much it would take for a hurricane to make it to houston.....wasn't alicia close to that? i was born right around the same time so i only hear how bad it was....

one more thing-i don't know about you guys, but i think i'm absolutely disgusted with the "naming" of hurricanes. especially names like...dolly...eduoard...even katrina sounds kind of wussy for such an awesome spectacle of nature. i'm sure there is a reason, and other than just counting 1, 2, 3 like anything else that comes in multiples i don't have a better suggestion, but c'mon....hurricane dolly sounds like a female pro wrestler or a crazy drink more than a 50 mile wide hella-storm.

[painekiller]

Originally Posted by KJ3

speaking of alicia, category 5's and how much it would take for a hurricane to make it to houston.....wasn't alicia close to that? i was born right around the same time so i only hear how bad it was....

Alicia was a cat 3 when it struck Galveston. I was in College Station that night, and the next morning while driving down Hwy 6 in CS, a US Postal mailbox went tumbling by me on the street, not a little home box, but the big mettle ones in front of Post Offices. That when I decided to get back in doors.

Downtown Houston had lost a lot of glass from the buildings, most houses had lost electric due to the downed limbs and trees. Our ranch in Hempstead had a large amount of damage due to downed trees, no buildings where hurt but 2 miles of fence had to be restrung.

A Cat 5 hitting here has me nervous, but not panicked. Last night at the grocery store people where panicking. It was funny.

[Mike]

My crib is 8 years old, and according to the windstorm engineer it should withstand 150 mph winds. I'd stay for a cat 3, but not a 4 or 5. I have all my wood cut for the 24 windows and 100 plylocks to secure it in place.

I think my next purchase will be for a generator, or have one hooked into the natural gas line to run the house in case of a long outage.

[HPF Bob]

I lived in Texas City during Hurricane Alicia. I went across the street and spent the night at Danforth Hospital, thinking it was the safest spot to be. It was safe for me but not for my brand new car which had two windows kicked in by flying gravel.

My sister in Alabama had the eye of Hurricane Ivan (a Cat 4) pass right over her house, toppling her chimney and poking a few holes in the roof.

As to the names of the storms, the pilots who flew into storms began naming them after their wives and girlfriends and the practice stuck. Then the feminists demanded that the hurricanes have male names too so we have alternating hurricanes and himmacanes (and this year a johnmacane too).

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston) even expressed displeasure that not enough hurricanes had black-sounding names. I, for one, would love to see a Hurricane LaShaniqua someday - in the interest of equality, of course.

In my experience, the girl hurricanes like to dawdle offshore like they can't make up their minds where to make landfall while the boy hurricanes just stampede right on through like a carjacker running through a spike strip. If you don't think hurricanes have personalities, consider that one of the first male-named hurricanes was Hurricane David. And where did David go? Miami Beach! So obviously, David was our country's first Jewish hurricane!

Frankly, I'm glad hurricanes were given female names. It's wonderful imagery to see headlines like "Dolly Gives Texas A Blow".

[Keith]

Gustav might be one to check out here in the next day or so. This could be a strong one heading into the Gulf.

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical.../at200807.html

It's almost a Cat 1 now as it moves around Haiti, Cuba.

[KJ3]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

(and this year a johnmacane too).

not many remarks off a message board actually make me laugh. this is one of those!!!

black people want hurricanes now? we already gave up february... it would be funny (to me anyway) to see names of hurricanes reflecting ethnical stereotypes...not just blacks but get 'em all in. hurricane goldstein, hurricane mohammed, hurricane billy bob, hurricane jackie chan....

[Arky]

I was in an apartment in Clear Lake during Alicia. Don't ask me how, but we never lost power. Very lucky. I watched the local weather guys on TV the whole time. Alicia came right up the Gulf Freeway from Galveston. Roofers had a field day with repairs in the aftermath. Lots of peeled up shingles.

I'm up here in New Caney now, so I stayed for Rita. Lost power for 38 hours - hot & muggy with no AC. Couldn't find a loaf of bread for a week. I now have a little Honda generator to run necessities like a fan and my computer. Looking back, Rita was a bit of an overreaction from city officials (the mass exodus) but it probably opened some eyes about the whole evacuation process... Hopefully, they learned something...

Gustav doesn't look good.....

[HPF Bob]

During Alicia, my home lost electricity but not telephone. My friends lost telephone but not electricity. We struck a deal where they could come over and use our phone as much as they wanted if we could bring some sleeping bags and sleep over at their place until we got our power back on. That lasted 3-4 days if I recall.