As hurricane Florence barrels towards the coustal regions of the eastern United States, and typhoons of deadly strength have battered parts of Asia, I would just like to give a shout out to any of our members who have been or will be affected by these storms.
Best of luck, I hope you are as prepared as possible, whether you are hunkered down and waiting to ride things out, or have been evacuated. Check in and let us know how you are doing, if at all possible.
May you and yours be safe and sound.
Thanks Gypsy. My son and his wife are in Ocean Isle, NC. No power. Running on generator.
All the best to them, I hope they are fine. I know how worriesome this is, and hope you are weathering the storm of worry in your own way, my friend.
I have friends who live on the east coast and along the Gulf Coast. They did call me and let me know they were safe and evacuated instead of riding out the storms.
I have family and friends all over Florida, and virtually every state up to Maine. We are all affected in various degrees and in various ways by water originated "storms." Up in New England, we are getting not just hurricanes, but tornadoes (which was once very rare here), and strange kinds of "twisters" in the harbors and other coastal places, that come out of nowhere.
A twisting wind suddenly rises up in a given area over water, and then makes a dart straight to the land. They can cause some serious damage. No they are not hurricanes or tornadoes, but something similar to both, and with no pattern. These are more powerful than what us seamen used to call "squalls."
The men I know that still work in the fishing industry have it rough because they never really know what they are going to see every day. Every vessel has specifications on how far out to sea they can go. "Smaller" vessels are told they have a 3 or 6 miles limit. Those smaller craft have to be really careful now.
I live in a small town on a chain of barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico on the west coast of Florida. Sometimes we get a lot of wind and rain from Hurricanes. Sometimes it gets bad enough that we batten down the hatches, and on a rare occasion, we have to evacuate to the mainland.
I've been fortunate that a lot of the worst of the hurricane weather seems to skirt around me. It's probably because I am so well prepared with 8 cases of water, 2 weeks worth of non-perishable food, and flashlights/batteries up the ying-yang! I even have a portable generator!
Hurricane Sally dumped a ton of water on my daughter's yard in Alabama. Mostly heavy rains where she is at, but she is safe.
Lot of rain in the Georgia marsh.
We are getting warmer waters in New England and a lot of sharks around our beaches. We are almost afraid to go into the water. Then of course, lots of wind and rain.
Finally we do get hurricanes most years, and a new phenomenon: a kind of tornado at sea!
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has been so intense. Hurricane season is typically considered to be June 1-November 30. This year the first storm came early on May 17th. Now, the list of names has been exhausted and they are being labeled with Greek letters, with Beta currently causing trouble for Texas and Louisiana. Beta is one month (34 days actually) earlier than in 2005, which is the only other year on record with so many named storms.
Just another crazy example of why 2020 is a bizarre year.
