Prior to the Hurricane of 1900, Galveston was considered to be a beautiful and prestigious city and was known as "the New York of the South." Many people say that had it not been for the hurricane, Galveston would today be one of the nation's largest and most beautiful cities. However, development shifted north to Houston, which was enjoying the benefits of the oil boom. The dredging of the Houston Ship Channel in 1909 and 1914 ended Galveston's hopes of returning to its former state as a major commercial center.
In 1900, Houston was like... Gainesville. Lake City. It was a podunk crossroads town where farmers came to sell stuff. The storm re-engineered the region.
NHC/NOAA thinks it will weaken, maybe all the way to a Cat 3, based on the lack of warm water currents ahead of it and, well, apparently the fact that hurricanes just don't usually stay at peak strength longer than twelve hours. That's not a reason to relax, necessarily, but if you were looking for something reassuring to think about, it's something.
Your friend is among several I've talked to who escaped Katrina to the coast of Texas. It really sucks. I'm thinking about everyone and hoping they all stay safe.
we have had jets flying over, every 15-20 minutes, since about 8am [it's 2pm now]. apparently they are relocating to jacksonville. my brother, his wife, & their 3 kids live in katy, texas just outside of houston. their subdivision floods in heavy rainstorms. they have evacuated to dallas, except for my brother, who is in a gur in mongolia, touring the ivanhoe mines.
rita has been downgraded to a cat 4 according to cnn.
BTW, anyone getting news out of Cuba about what this year's been like? I hear *nothing*, which is a little weird. They've been hit by a whole lot of these storms, and I know they've got 1. Mountains and 2. Overfarming, which means 3. Plenty of Mudslides.
I keep looking outside, where it's cloudy for the first time in weeks, and thinking "uh-oh— oh, never mind, I'm on the other coast now. And my family and friends aren't. Shit!"
Although it is not expected to take a direct hit from Wilma, Cuba has been evacuating some 500,000 residents from the western part of the island since Wednesday. By Saturday, more than 300,000 had been moved. (See video on Cuba's preparedness -- 2:09 )
Parts of western Cuba could receive 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain, and some areas could get 40 inches (1 meter) forecasters said.
The provinces of La Habana and Pinar del Rio were under a hurricane warning, and the Isle of Youth was under a tropical storm warning Saturday night. Matanzas province was under a hurricane watch.
Looks like Wilma is coming towards my house from the W (which is weird) and a little stronger than I'd anticipated. I'll probably be offline for a couple days as a result, unfortunately. Hopefully, it won't matter too much that there's no wood on the windows that don't have awnings (should be OK).
Who wants to see TS Alpha collide with H Wilma as she departs Florida?
not me! i'm actually afraid that alpha will somehow push wilma back to florida but over the northern part. my roof was supposed to be fixed last week and i am running out of buckets to put in the attic.
My porch is gone and there's an oak tree lying over the phone & power lines leading into my house.
I'm now at work where generators are running the show. No telling for how long.
Man on the radio said it could be 4 weeks for many of us before power is restored -- substations hit harder than last year (and I know my house was hit harder).
I heard they think it may have been a weak Category 3 by the time it hit us, which is quite remarkable. I guess traveling over the Everglades doesn't really count as traveling across land. It didn't get knocked down. I have no idea what Wilma is doing now -- no net at home, and this is my first stop on the net here.
So. Alive, well, some house damage (I'll have to put plastic over the hole where the porch roof was joined), and a long go without power at home. Lots of debris.
Heheh -- and all the businesses had just gotten new shiny signs from the last couple storms.....
On the bright side, the weather's lovely and cool.
Bloody hell. Were you in the house when all this was happening? Is there somewhere you can go until power is restored, or will you have to muddle along?
See, Grant, you need to move someplace sensibly inland, like Colorado.
Seriously, I'm glad to hear that you're all right, and I have good friends in Orlando if you need someplace inland to stay while services get put back together. I had opened up the paper this morning to read that Ft. Lauderdale has been hit harder than at any time since 1950, and was worried.
I've got some friends in Orlando and points north myself. I'm not sure what's going on, yet, though - work is going to be weird for a while yet, so once the dust settles here I'll know more about what my immediate future will be. Might spend a couple nights in Gainesville.
From the CNN maps I just looked at, it seems like we were the very center of the eye.
Yes, we were inside the house for it -- and I hadn't boarded up all the windows, so we had a spectacular view.
Of the coconut palm. Right outside the back window. Once the porch roof blew away.
During the eye, I went out and moved the chickens (we have two new chickens, although one's turned out to be a rooster - no good in suburbia) from the hen house to the workshop. That was before the porch roof went away, I think.
