Hurricane Dennis

[Rick Murchison]

There is a book called "A weekend in September" that's about the Galveston storm of 1900, the United States' worst natural disaster ever (minimum 8,000 - best guess 10,000 - estimates as high as 12,000 dead). I think it's from Texas A&M press, and if you live in 'cane country I highly recommend you get a copy and read it. There are a lot of eye-witness accounts in that little book.
Whenever anyone says they're going to "ride out" a Hurricane, and you ask them why, they will (unknowingly) quote someone who died while "riding out" the Galveston storm. Best guess is the Galveston storm was a Category 4. Ivan was a 3; Dennis is a 4.
Run away... run away...
Rick

 

[Maya]

Looks like Tampa Bay will be spared...but our best wishes and many prayers for all our fellow gulf coast residents. Please take this storm seriously. Good luck!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Looks like I may be heading to Tuscaloosa, possibly taking a little excussion to Huntsville for a quarry dive if time/weather allows.

As for today, another full day at work, heading to Ft. Walton to measure for countertops in a house that very well may not exist past the weekend!

 

[simbrooks]

Dont know, something isnt looking right with the tracks, with the high not being as strong as they thought, moving more eastward (towards Bermuda) and the front being pulled south and east as it got caught up in the remanants of Cindy, unless they think the hurricane is going to get pushed behind the front or something - i see it heading more northeast when it gets into the north Gulf waters, but that is only my guesswork based on what i am seeing on the plots of weather systems going on in the SE, i may not be privy to a bunch more info they are using in their modelling that may not be available online for me to use as an armchair meteorology buff - guess we'll just have to wait and see. For those on the predicted path if i were there/you i'd get out of Dodge real soon, for those up to 150 miles either side i would think about it or board yourselves up really well as i dont have full faith in the model forecasts yet (and last year showed they werent 100%).

 

[Trisha]

On the road again....
It's been fun, but we're headed back home before this thing takes out the bridge over Pensacola Bay. I'm so glad our hotel has cable 'cause I was up until 2:30 am packing scuba gear and watching the Weather Channel.
About hysterical weathermen... we were glued to our TV during May 3, 1999, when a category 5 (6?) tornado hit Chickasha, Moore, Midwest City and south Oklahoma City. We had some anxious weather forecasters that day and night, too, and God bless them!
Good luck and play it safe!

 

[Rick Murchison]

Dont know, something isnt looking right with the tracks, with the high not being as strong as they thought, moving more eastward (towards Bermuda) and the front being pulled south and east as it got caught up in the remanants of Cindy, unless they think the hurricane is going to get pushed behind the front or something - i see it heading more northeast when it gets into the north Gulf waters,

My Gulf shrimper contacts agree with you and are insisting it's headed for Appalachicola, even though all the computer models are now shifting west.
Unfortunately I don't see anything that has a reasonable chance of weakening this bad boy before it strikes somewhere along the northern Gulf coast... somebody's gonna get kicked hard. And it's looking more and more like Alabama's going to get its fourth tropical storm/hurricane in less than a year. Ridiculous.
Rick

 

[CBulla]

I've got the feeling that its not going as far west as is believed either. We've been debating here (my wife and I) about how things went Charley style last year..."Its going north of Tampa" they say.. then it falls over and rolls right into us! Dunno about yawl, but until it hits land and makes its way north through GA, it can go anywhere.

 

[simbrooks]

I am wondering if people all the way to St Marks and towards the big bend shouldnt be planning ahead to get out quickly, not sure its going to go as west as the track says. I dont have the training of these guys, nor am i needing to know on a daily basis like i used to in my teens and early 20's when i was sailing all the time and kept up with weather patterns, of course also only being in one of the hurricane magnet areas for the last few years - but something in my gut is saying its not quite what the models or official track say. I dont think it is coming here with a wild NE turn, but if i lived anywhere west of Live Oak or out to New Orleans (and the coast below) i would be very concerned more so on the eastern side as IMO i think that is where it is going. I am also of the opinion that it might stay offshore past the SW FL area and curve back in towards shore as it goes north towards the big bend-Apalachicola area, but i am not saying dont take precautions/actions and particularly i am saying to those areas close, but still in the cone of uncertainty - a lot of us got fooled last year of following the "forecast track" line....

 

[FredT]

Im typing this from my key largo hotel room. Afte spending about $1200 in air fares and suffering 2 weeks of orlandos wettest ever june i spent 7 hours ffdriving here for the last week of my holiday. Arrived at 7pm snf told have to evacuate at 10am. As i only have 7 days here and it looks like i cant return until sunday/monday this could be the nost expensive non diving dive-trip ive ever had. At best i may get 2 days in. Im being forced to ft. launderdale in the morning. I must say im not amused by this storm!!

Time to make lemonade.

The diving off Ft Laluderdale to WPB is MUCH better than most of the Keys tourist areas. The Boynton beach area is especially well reccomended. Diving on the east coast should be good after noon on Saturday. It may take until next Wednsday or Thursday for the water to clear off the Keys.

FT

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

My Gulf shrimper contacts agree with you and are insisting it's headed for Appalachicola

I'm totally not opposed to that(sorry Jon, Chris, Tom)! Still heading to Tuscaloosa just in case though...

I dont think it is coming here with a wild NE turn, but if i lived anywhere west of Live Oak or out to New Orleans (and the coast below)

870AM can be picked up throughout quite a bit of FL, lower AL, lower MS, and its a LA station. They're saying there is a voluntary evac of alot of Jefferson Parish(New Orleans area). So it appears as though they aren't taking this thing lightly. They shouldn't, TS Cindy put alot of them out of power and knocked alot of trees down while soaking the ground. It would suck if Cindy was just a warm-up for em.