Category: Hurricane Ike

Hurricane hunters are some of our homefolks

If you’re reading this, you’re following Ike and depending in some fashion on the data Hurricane Hunters provide – but did you know the place they call home is none other than Keesler Air Force Base here on the Coast of Mississippi?

I’m certain I knew that and equally certain that for some reason, it did not fully register until Ike – the big one they say that’s going to get bigger.

“It’s a big one, and it’s going to get bigger,” said Lt. Col. Mark Carter, 54, a pilot who has chased storms for 31 years. “It’s off land now, and feeding on the warm water down there while it gets itself back together.”

…Carter, and his fellow Hurricane Hunters of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, were finishing a fourth trip across Ike, during a 10-hour, 3,000-mile trek to monitor the storm taking aim at the Texas coast.

The aircraft carved a 210-mile giant “X” pattern through Ike and its eye, just off the western tip of Cuba…

Using high tech equipment aboard the $72 million plane, the crew gathers data on wind speed, barometric pressure and other information for the National Hurricane Center.

Think about it.  If you lived on the Coast, the person ahead of you in the checkout line could be a hurricane hunter stopping to pick up a few groceries after a hard day in the sky

I’m going to keep doing this until I get too old or my hearing goes…then I’ll just sit up in Picayune (Miss.) and drink beer and eat barbecue and dream about it.

These guys love their job – and some of these guys are gals, although the term seems inappropriate when the gal is also a Major in the Air Force. Continue reading “Hurricane hunters are some of our homefolks”

Take a hike Ike – power outages and flooding on the Coast

Once again, a reminder that we’re all in this together.  Even those in inland states who think they’re high and dry will be hoping Ike takes a hike before this one is over.

The Sun Herald has putting up stories faster than I can type – try this link to their site.  As I understand it, the flooding is limited to low lying areas.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of them.

Power outages are scattered and could occur throughout the day as Ike passes by.  Although what we’re experiencing is nothing like what’s yet to come further west, at least one shelter has already opened on the Coast.

The maps put up at 1pm CST show Ike taking a sharp right turn after landfall.  The 5-day tracking map explains how we’re all in this together as 16 states in addition to Texas are in Ike’s track: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

If you look at the map of the various models (below), Continue reading “Take a hike Ike – power outages and flooding on the Coast”

Julia Reed on NOLA's disaster response

I borrowed Julia Reed’s update on post Gustav NOLA from the Ladder – great catch Editilla and you’re right about the title.  Dodging the bullet is distateful as both a title and an attitude considering the magnitude of the damage elsewhere in Louisiana – most of it covered by the news about what didn’t happen in New Orleans.

Reed, as usual, dishes up more of her excellent writing and, once again, reminds us that in NOLA there’s not just the southern tradition of funeral food but disaster food as well – and her take on Nagin alone makes this article a must read.

Three years ago, in preparation for Hurricane Katrina, Bob Rue, owner of The Sarouk Shop, an Oriental rug emporium on New Orleans‘s grand St. Charles Avenue, boarded up his windows with plywood and painted on a warning: “Don’t Even Try. I am Sleeping Inside with a Big Dog, an Ugly Woman, Two Shotguns and a Claw Hammer.” It worked. Almost every business lining the Avenue, from Smoothie King to the Please-U Restaurant, was trashed and looted-except for those within viewing distance of Rue’s sign. Continue reading “Julia Reed on NOLA's disaster response”

Hurricane Ike hits Cuba – US plays politics with aid

Google took me to this news from India

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrapping up a trip to North Africa, told reporters that Bush consistently has said the U.S. would be responsive “to a cuban regime that is prepared to release political prisoners (and) has a process to get to free and fair elections.” But, she added, “we can see nothing that suggests that has come about.’

– YouTube provided the pictures suggesting it might not be a convenient time to for policy discussion and the Miami Herald this quote from Senator Obama  who…took pains to emphasize that he wasn’t calling for lifting the embargo.”

This is a time when the Cuban people – not Castro – need and deserve American compassion and assistance,” he said. “The Cuban American community stands ready to directly assist their family members in this time of need. A failed Bush administration policy, however, stands in the way of moral and necessary aid.”