Another one!

[S.A. Boggs]

Another big wind churning in the South Atlantic.
Sam

[Allen]

Yep, expected to be a category 4 before nearing Puerto Rico. Then it has a lot of distance and time to strengthen. Way over here in Alabama today we had wind gust to about 40mph or so and at least one on ground tornado spawned from what is left of tropical storm Harvey just to give you some idea how massive these storms are.

https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/2017/hurricane-irma

[Allen]

Finally after 8 months we got a whole day w/o rain. I guess that category 5 storm that has us in it's sights might be pulling the clouds toward it.

[S.A. Boggs]

And another one forming up behind that one...this one called Jose! Figures, another danged foreigner!
Sam

[Allen]

Living here along the Gulf Coast is like playing Russian Roulette with these hurricanes. At least the last couple of decades the weather cycle has had most of them hook to the East back into the Atlantic w/o hitting land. When I was young it seemed like we got hit with every one that developed. Looks like the good 'ol days may be returning. Some of our trees are just now re-growing from Frederick (1979). We've had countless others but Camille (1969), Frederick, Ivan (2004) and even Katrina did a lot of damage here.

What you hear very little about are the title surge tsunami's. Georges (1998) pushed 28' seas for instance. It flooded our refinery and it was down for 2 months or more. All the pump motors had to be replaced whether they were electric or steam driven that got flooded along with all affected compressors, control valves, analyzers and various other equipment. Wire pulls had to be done too. Many hundreds of motors and many thousands of control valves were damaged. The problem with a sea surge is it is salt water and it's like getting cat pee on everything---it is very corrosive.

Katrina was much worse. After the damage from Georges the refinery built a high dike facing the Gulf. It helped a lot but we still got a lot of repeat damage. We and other refinery's were down so long that supply the pipelines that feed the Northern States that we got a visit from George W who was the prez at that time. One of my co-workers in Pascagoula saw the tsunami coming down the street. It hit his house and when the water got several feet up he could hear the windows creaking, about to give way, so he opened one to relieve the pressure. Now whether this was the right thing to do or not I don't know but he had to rescue his wife and kids and swim out of the house.
All you hear about is all the whinning from New Orleans because they got flooded and didn't have insurance. The strongest winds hit Mississippi and completely leveled towns like Waveland. This storm too drove a title surge that did damage all the way over to Pensacola FL. About 6 months after the storm me and my wife wanted to go to a restaurant we had heard about on the Mobile side of Mobile Bay. We found it but there wasn't much of it left standing and it wasn't sitting where it was supposed to be. After driving around the perimeter of the bay we noticed probably hundreds of homes and buildings had been demolished due to the storms surge including some old WW2 warehouses that were built exceptionally heavy. One of these buildings (about 5 acres or more) I was very familiar with leased by The Howard Miller clock company was now nothing but a slab. I live here but the local news only talked 24/7 about those poor, poor folks in NO who were shooting at the Coast Guard helicoptors. The surge was so huge and widespread that it tilted the USS Alabama battleship which was sitting in sand and shallow water at the museum. It was uprighted to about 5 degrees off, the best they could do and now is set in cement. Sorry for the long rant but this is our way of life here. Mostly good but you have to pay the price every so often.

[S.A. Boggs]

I understand, here in Southern Ohio we have had to put up with floods , 36" of snow, -42 below zero. Welcome to planet Earth, don't like the weather give it a minute. I have seen it raining heavy on one side of our street and sunny on the other just feet away. One side of the hill pouring rain, the other side heavy snow. God never said that life would be boring!:icon_salut:
Sam

[aintright]

I haven't been on any sizable storm restorations in a few years , can't take those 16 hour days seven days a week , for weeks on in anymore . Have seen some pretty widespread damage and lots of heart broken people , it is truly sad . So far it sounds like the incoming storm is going to wreak havoc if they aren't hamming it up .
A lot of our guys are supposed to be heading south this weekend , will pray for all envolved .
looting and other crimes against people at a time like this should carry serious cosequences , that muck in the streets can get pretty slippery , a fellow could take a nasty fall you know .
Don't remember which storm it was but they brought us out canned water by Anhouser Busch , white cans , looked pretty cool in the six packs , but was so nasty you could not drink it , I kept a six pack unopened , as a shelf trinket , that was about all it was good for .
Kenneth

[Allen]

Don't remember which storm it was but they brought us out canned water by Anhouser Busch , white cans , looked pretty cool in the six packs , but was so nasty you could not drink it , I kept a six pack unopened , as a shelf trinket , that was about all it was good for .

Sounds like their beer to me.

[Allen]

FOX news is now stating that Irma is packing twice the power of all bombs used in WW11. Looks like Florida may be dodging the bullet this time. Hopefully so but they'll still get plenty of rain and wind though.