Wednesday, August 26, 2020

As Hurricane Laura Approaches


 This quick post is just a heads-up of sorts that I, along with numerous other bloggers, am likely to disappear for a bit when Hurricane Laura finally lands somewhere around the Texas-Louisiana border late tonight or early in the morning. Even as close to land as the storm is now (maybe 150 miles out and moving about 15 mph), no one is quite sure yet exactly where it will make shore. It is expected to first impact land with winds between 145 and 150 mph, so wherever it hits, it will be bad news.

The best guess seems to be that it will strike somewhere near the Texas-Louisiana line, placing the Houston area on the west side of the storm system. That's the "dry" side, so we would not be subjected to most of the heavy rainfall. But it doesn't take much wind to knock out the power in this area, and sometimes it takes days - not hours - to restore power after something this massive. About eleven years ago, for instance, a hurricane (I've lost track of all their names now) knocked out power in my neighborhood for 14 days.

Houston has a decent shot at getting off lightly this time around, but just 100 miles southeast of us over 100,000 people are still in the process of evacuating their homes. That area includes the little town I grew up in, and I have numerous friends and relatives there still.

So for now, millions of people up and down the Gulf Coast are in the process of holding their breaths until Laura finally decides who is to be punished this time around. Here we go again.

13 comments:

  1. This is a really scary storm, Sam. The descriptions of possible storm surges are frightening. Hoping Houston doesn't take another bad hit!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's looking more and more that the two counties directly east and southeast of us are going to catch the brunt of this one. They got clobbered last time along with us, so I know they are sick about this. Just got a note from a friend telling me they will be passing through my part of Houston on their way further northwest.

      Delete
    2. Jen, I'm seeing now that you guys might get 5-8 inches of rain way up where you are. Stay safe.

      Delete
  2. Stay safe. Hope it passes you by- although then of course that means your neighbors get the worst of it . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jeane. You're right; it's unfortunate, but somebody is going to get clobbered by this one because the winds are really high. The one we got in 2017 was mostly water, this one is the opposite, looks like. Everything from outside is put away as of an hour ago, so now we wait.

      Delete
  3. Fingers crossed you don't get hit too hard with this one. Good luck and stay safe!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Laura wobbled away from us in the last few hours, Lark, giving us a free pass. Still hard to believe we didn't even get one drop of rain.

      Delete
  4. Oh crikey, that's all you need! You take care, Sam, will be thinking of you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm still shaking my head about how we lucked out on Hurricane Laura, Cath. I'm thinking of all my friends and family who were not so fortunate, but with the virus, I don't dare go down there to help with the clean-up.

      Delete

I always love hearing from you guys...that's what keeps me book-blogging. Thanks for stopping by.