Friday, September 12, 2008

Staying Frosty

Hurricane Ike is heading for our region and some of you have expressed concern for our well being. Living on the gulf coast has turned us into weather nerds so we're probably much less worried than those of you living elsewhere. The two concerns with these events are water and wind.

Water: Our house is 50-odd miles inland and therefore not at risk from storm surge and, though we live near a bayou, our street is slightly higher than those surrounding it and according to our long-time resident neighbours did not flood during Carla, Alicia or Allison. With the speed Ike is moving at, it won't drop anywhere near as much water as Allison did on our area.

Wind: The house is also a good solid home that's stood up to a lot of wind in it's 50-odd years. As far inland as we are, the winds from Ike will probably be beneath Hurricane strength by the time it reaches us. Winds in the 60's or 70's are no picnic of course, but will not do any real damage to building structures. Trees in our neighbourhood are mature and our neighbours have done a great job of securing any loose debris.

All in all, we're pretty confident. We've set the nursery up as our shelter, it's in the middle of the house, we've boarded the window and we're ready to go. We've got loads of food, plenty of booze (and water) and the cars are full of gas. If the power goes out and looks like it's going to stay out for a while then for Alasdair's sake, we're evacuating to Jen's house after the storm passes, but until then, we're here and we're in good shape.

Sadly, Nikki's drinking ability has not returned and she needs to feed Alasdair, so we won't be playing the Hurricane reporter drinking game this time around. I'm going to have to keep an eye on her though as I suspect she's planning on putting the patio window in so that the ugly sofa gets trashed.

I'll keep the blog updated as long as we have power and comms, but I'm not expecting to have much to report.

The best source for information on tropical weather in our area is the Houston Chronicle's SciGuy. You might also want to check out the pretty cool StormPulse and of course, the source for all of the info everyone else uses, the National Hurricane Center. All the information from NHC is good, but the discussion is where you'll get the most info about what it's doing and where it's going.

Most of all, remember that reporters on the telly have been sitting around watching not much happening for hours on end. They get bored and tired of repeating the same stuff too and sometimes fill the hours with outrageous statements. Don't let them stress you out. We'll catch you all on the other side.

11 comments:

Fi said...

Ok, OK I can take a hint! I've got to stop moaning about the UK weather!
Take care y'all!
Fi...xxx

Vikki said...

Oooh it's so exciting! You certainly get more interesting weather than us. It's on our news so I'll be watching.
Look after your family :-)
Vxx

Jen said...

As mentioned earlier, the room/house is ready and waiting. . . Hope it's safe down there.

Hugs!

Ian said...

Actually, I'm pretty bored, and, I suppose, hope to remain so. I went for a walk earlier and am now feeling a bit cooped up. I've been shouting at the telly for a while now since the reporters are morons as are the people who ignored the mandatory evacuations or those who heeded them, but tied their animals to a tree in the backyard. Anyway...wind's picking up a bit now, but we're still fine.

Lizzie Stephenson said...

tied their animals to trees??!?!?!?!?

Ian said...

So the news said...

Jen said...

Don't even get me started about that - it's illegal here to chain any animal in a yard, but that's not to say people don't do it or somehow get around it. The people next door to us got another dog after we already rescued Dixie. He's following in the same fate as she was until we got her. I can't take in anymore animals. We just can't. But it saddens me terribly. . .

Jen said...

Oh. Right! I'm glad you 3 are still good and safe!

Anonymous said...

still fine. Power dipped a couple of times, but the wind was barely blowing, maybe a gust in the 30's. Just that the infrastructure is so crap. Ian

Bruce Lenorf said...

Please do not tie Tim to a tree. He is an apartment bunny who has never put a paw on real grass, and the possums would get him.
I am relieved you decided to ride through the hurricane, if only for Tim. 3 years ago, when Rita came, we evacuated and Tim had a hard time with the heat. As we were heading towards Dallas, I took him on my lap so he could get the AC blowing on him, but then I fell asleep and he chewed my shirt as an act of retaliation.
Alasdair should be fine.

shanksi said...

Stay safe, guys.