What's with hurricane season?

[casimira]

Yes, that was the same year. The 15 year anniversary of Katrina will be on the 28th. That year there were 31 storms, 27 named. They went from K to R real fast. Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Phillipe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince, Wilma, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta.
(Why they couldn't come up with a Q and a U, Y or Z beats me).
Like baseball, it's a long season and we are only at the peak right now.
We'll be ok for this one, and thanks for the well wishes but, there's always more to come.
It's been gusting up as I post and the air is thick with humidity.
The pets are acting stranger by the minute so we'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

Oh, and I believe Sabine is a river not a lake.

[kerouac2]

You'd think that they could have a storm called Questa.

[casimira]

Indeed!!
And, because our last name begins with a Q it's another irritant. You would think these guys would have a little more imagination. Like the pharmaceutical, car and catalogue people who come up with all those names for new drugs, cars and clothing etc. many of them very annoying but, at least some degree of imagination being put into it.

[mickthecactus]

Are there no storms called Bixa?

[bixaorellana]

Aug 26, 2020 17:30:33 GMT casimira said:

Oh, and I believe Sabine is a river not a lake.

Correct!

Aug 26, 2020 18:41:46 GMT mickthecactus said:

Are there no storms called Bixa?

You could send it in. I haven't bothered to look this up in order to confirm, but it seems I remember hearing years ago that people sent in suggestions for storm names. That was how you got old-fashioned names like Bertha -- because apparently many mother-in-laws' names were submitted. Then they had to go and start using male names, too, which is all wrong.

[casimira]

Yeah, you can write to the hurricane center in Miami and if they get enough requests for one name they will take it under consideration.
When a huge catastrophic storm hits they "retire" the name. That will surely be the case with 'Laura'.
I went to bed really early because I was tapped out from all the phone calls from everywhere. 
It gusted all thru the night and intermittent rain showers. Same this morning. I was sure that we would lose power but, miraculously we didn't. My morning walk earlier I didn't see any evidence of downed limbs etc.

'Laura' made landfall around Cameron, LA. The same place as where 'Rita' hit 15 years ago. The eye went over Lake Charles. It's now travelling inland and ironically when you look at the tracking images it's tail end goes right into Long Island, NY where I am from and my brother et al live.
I heard that there were about 150 people who refused to evacuate. Not unheard of but, WTF were they thinking?
As the day unfolds there will be more and more stories and videos etc. released.

[lagatta]

Bixa, why are male names (alternating with female names) wrong? At least in all the Latin languages I'm familiar with, "hurricane" is a masculine noun. In English, neutral of course, but familiarly such events can be a "she" (thar she blows). I like using both.

Yes, I've been quite concerned about this one. Up here, we usually only get the end of such storms (heavy rain and high winds). 15 years ago I was working in Amsterdam and the Dutch couldn't grasp how another wealthy country could be so negligent about their dikes (levees) and other polder measures. Amsterdam is below sea level, like NOLA. Some of the Dutch engineers speaking about the situation had worked in Bangladesh, another very low-lying country, but also a very poor one.

Laura and Marco sound like a couple, but in this case a very malevolent one.

[bixaorellana]

I come here fresh from the national and Louisiana news, so knew that Casimira would be okay. I just shake my head at the people who won't evacuate. Some of those refusing were in RVs!

LaGatta, I guess it's not wrong, per se, but I was used to hurricanes having women's names & was fine with that.

Here is the poop on storm names: www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml

[lugg]

Aug 27, 2020 16:53:35 GMT bixaorellana said:

I come here fresh from the national and Louisiana news, so knew that Casimira would be okay.

That's good to read re Casimira.

Aug 27, 2020 14:02:15 GMT casimira said:

heard that there were about 150 people who refused to evacuate. Not unheard of but, WTF were they thinking?
As the day unfolds there will be more and more stories and videos etc. released.

hard to imagine - scared of looting, losing their belongings rather than thinking of their safety ? I am sure it is not so simple.

[casimira]

It really puts an added strain on the people involved in the search and rescue crews. As if they didn't have enough work to do to begin with.
It rained all day today and most of it is over here. Maybe some more tonight into tomorrow. Thanks Lugg. And, where have you been dear lady?

[kerouac2]

Nana and Omar are on the scene. Nana is planning to vacation in Honduras, Belize and Guatemala. Omar is just cruising the mid Atlantic.

[kerouac2]

Paulette and René don't look like they'll be doing anybody any harm, but it is a bit too soon to be sure.

[kerouac2]

At the moment, the NHC map looks like a naval battle game.

[casimira]

Just saw that update. One way or another somewhere along the Gulf will get swacked. The odds aren't looking too good.

[kerouac2]

Uh-oh, here comes Sally.

[casimira]

Yeah, we're keeping our eyes peeled on this one. A lot of rain to be sure. The rest we'll just have to wait and see.

[casimira]

Not looking too good for us folks here according to the latest...

[kerouac2]

It doesn't seem to be a very strong storm, but I think we have all learned that the category numbers do not always match up to the possible damage or flooding.

[casimira]

It's the rain and flooding that are my main concern. Sandbags at the ready.

[Kimby]

Casi, wishing you good luck in this and future storms.

Sanibel Island tried to do its share by taking 4.25” of rain out of this storm. Standing water everywhere.

[kerouac2]

Teddy and Vicky have joined the queue. We are clearly headed to another name extension year with Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.

[casimira]

It appears as though Sally is veering more and more NE according to the latest models. Mississippi, Alabama, Florida Panhandle.
Not that we won't get some serious rainfall. Sandbags are in place.
As for the others, I'm not "going there" yet.

We were preparing to take a trip to NY on the 28th of this month for 2 weeks but, with all this kerfuffle in the waters, COVID etc. we decided not to go. I don't want to saddle our trusted and loyal house sitter with all the hassle of storm prep. And, who knows, we could get swacked up on Long Island while visiting.
As much as I would like to say "goodbye" to the home of my birth one more time, well, I have plenty of memories.
I don't want the stress of travel, possible quarantine etc.
While my brother is disappointed, he understands.

[bixaorellana]

Good for you, Casimira! It really is hard giving up these family &/or sentimental visits, but better to live to go another day.

[kerouac2]

Sally is having trouble making up her mind. But it looks like she has decided not to visit New Orleans at all but Mobile, Alabama instead. Even Biloxi, Mississippi is breathing a sigh of relief, but it's still too soon to be sure about anything.

[Kimby]

Sally dumped 12 inches of rain in 36 hours on Sanibel’s already saturated soils, and it’s still coming down.

There is standing water everywhere, according to our neighbors who sent us a photo of the water creeping under our house on stilts, and folks are being warned about wildlife taking refuge wherever they can find a dry place, so snakes, lizards, rats, raccoons and fire ants may be encountered.

I’m guessing the mosquitos will be horrible in a couple weeks. Fortunately it will have dried out by the time we arrive in mid-November. I hope!

[casimira]

Sally made landfall in the wee hours of the a.m. in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a powerful Cat2. This was one of the slowest moving storms on record. This caused it to really inundate the whole surrounding area with major rainfall and flooding.
Mobile, Alabama got quite a bit of it and friends of mine are without power.
The panhandle of Florida, Pensacola got pretty hard hit and it's still not over yet.
She is still moving inland, likely to go into Georgia and then the Carolinas.
I sure am glad we dodged this one.
Sixteen years ago Hurricane Ivan made landfall in the exact same place on the same date, and, at the exact same hour.
I remember that storm because it wiped out an area, Santa Rosa Island where we used to go camping this time of year at a beautiful campground with the gulf on one side and Pensacola Bay on the other.
The monarch butterflies were staring to migrate and the dunes were covered with them fueling up for their annual flight.

[casimira]

We have been having a cool front for the past week and thank goodness for it. Otherwise, Tropical Storm Beta who has been sitting in the Gulf for 2 days now moving ever so slowly West of us would be inundating us with flooding rain.
It's been light rain on and off all weekend and the temperatures are pleasant in the upper 70F's.
I feel badly for the folks west of us. They really don't need this at all. Many are still without power from Hurricane Laura which swacked them on August 27!

[Kimby]

Sally was a real soaker. Sanibel Island got 20 1/2 inches over 9 days, and it wasn’t even in Sally’s path.

[casimira]

Tropical Storm #25 is currently brewing in the Caribbean.

[Kimby]

Would that be the one they’re calling “Gamma”?