Hurricane Watch 2008
Since Hurricane Ike died on Monday September 15th there has been a lull in tropical activity. However a tropical wave did appear in the eastern Caribbean in the vicinity of the Lesser Antilles on Friday September 19th generating thunderstorms and rain showers. And since then the system has moved around the area paying visits to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the British Virgin Islands.
Since Ike hit Galveston, Texas hardest, I thought you might like to read some of the local news about the aftereffects. For the Galveston County Daily News take on some of their problems: Click Here.
Back to 1945 and Hurricane IXA Category 4 heading for southeast Florida.
Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
(Continued)
‘If that notice on the chow hall door hadn’t made the emergency warning clear, the deterioration of weather throughout the morning certainly did. For once work details were organized and tools issued, it seemed that everyone on the base became an instant carpenter. Every piece of plywood or scrap lumber was put to use in boarding up windows and glass-paneled doors.
By noon high gusting winds and rain began to rip the plywood right out of our hands. It finally became obvious that we were about twenty-four hours late in reacting to our own warnings and getting the base ready for a storm. Work details generally have a couple of goof offs, but not today. All hands worked at a furious pace and by the time we were ordered inside the administration building, our designated hurricane shelter, most of the essential work had been completed.
The outer lobby of our shelter was the only part of the building that was off limits – too much glass. However all interior waiting rooms, conference rooms and hallways were pressed into service. Someone in charge of the galley had provided hot coffee and sandwiches. The operations office had an entrance into the building and provided us with whatever limited information they received concerning the oncoming storm.
Primrose and I found a place in the inner lobby. We couldn’t see past the covered windows and could only see outside if we walked to a window and peeked through a crack. Of course we could hear the howling winds and wondered what it would sound like if, or more likely when, the hurricane arrived as a Category 3 or 4.
Primrose turned to me and said; “When the storm passed Bimini they reported winds up to 138 mph, think it’ll maintain that speed?”
“There is no obstruction between there and here that could diminish it,” I said worriedly.
“Do you think this building will stand up to a Category 4 hurricane?”
“I’m told it was built to withstand 165 miles per hour winds. There is one thing we can count on though. Sometime within the next few hours we’re gonna find out”
At 4:45 pm we heard a short-wave broadcast stating that the hurricane was battering Miami Beach with winds up to 135 mph accompanied by an eight foot storm surge and heading due west.
At 5:00 o’clock we didn’t need a radio report to tell us, the hurricane announced its arrival with the sounds of high keening winds, broken glass and objects blown off one building then tumbling through the air and smashing into another obstacle. The shrill winds continued relentlessly unabated and the building stood strong, the scary part was the sharp cutting wind accompanied by the buildings harsh grating noises that settled into long creaks and rattles leaving all of us inside to wonder if the next moment the thing would collapse and fall in on us. The wind got on a kind of never ending high and it seemed that the storm would never end. Windowpanes rattled in the upper part of the building, then a sharp whistling wind found its way through the cracks, then a crack and a crash as a window blew out and suddenly a gust of wind surged into the building…
At first light the doors were opened and we spilled out of the building. No one was surprised by what we saw since operations had given us the latest word that an area from Homestead to Ft. Lauderdale had caught the brunt of the storm and of course Miami was right in the middle. Grim reports of wind damage came in from all around the area. Downed trees and power lines obstructing streets made it impossible to assess all the area damage. Roofs were blown off some houses and other houses simply collapsed leaving nothing but a pile of debris. But the greatest damage to life and property along the coastline was not done by the wind, but the strong storm surge. That large dome of water can range from fifty to a hundred miles across as it sweeps in overwhelming the shoreline and flooding beach and other low-lying areas. The surge is capable of carrying boats and small yachts several miles inland.
The Category 4 hurricane wreaked havoc in the Miami area, but spared Central Florida that same fate as its ferocity diminished when it moved over the Everglades and dropped down to a Category 1 storm…’
Writers Notebook:
I was at a writer’s conference a few years ago when I heard this statement pronounced by one of the speakers. ‘A writer must turn out a thousand words a day – day after day to have any chance at success.’
My muffled retort was, ‘What a stupid statement.’ Well, stupid might be a little harsh, I suspect ignorant would fit better.
I’ve heard similar statements and they don’t serve any good purpose. We are all different in our approach to writing and I have no idea what Hemingway’s rejoinder to that statement would have been – he struggled to turn out 500 words a day.
But here’s a portion of a Gustave Flaubert letter to Louise Colet on the subject.
(He’s referring to his novel Madame Bovary)
Croisset
January 2, 1854
‘Bouilhet was satisfied with my love scene. However, before said passage I have a transition of eight lines, which took me three days; it doesn’t contain a superfluous word, yet I must do it over once again because it is too slow. It is a piece of direct discourse, which has to be changed to indirect, and in which I haven’t room to say everything that should be said. It all has to be swift and casual since it must remain inconspicuous in the ensemble…’
There’s nothing wrong with turning out a thousand words a day – but when you don’t meet that goal, don’t beat up on yourself. Just think of it this way you’re joining some pretty good company.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Hurricane Ike Hits Texas Coast
2008 Hurricane Watch
Ike’s 110 mph winds and 14-foot storm surge thundered over Galveston Island at about 2:00 O’clock on the morning of September 13, 2008. It was bad, devastating in fact but not the catastrophe that hit the Texas coast in 1900. That monster storm claimed between six and eight thousand lives, a tragedy still in the hearts and minds of many Texans.
There’s plenty of hard work ahead for the folks hit by Hurricane Ike, but they might take some solace from the past. Heading one of the many articles written about the earlier storm: ‘Rebuilding was ‘Galveston’s finest hour.’ The story of the 1900 Storm is one about the fate of people at the hands of nature…
Those hearty Texans took up the challenge and turned it into their ‘Finest Hour.’ And I suspect that this generation, along with the help of others generous Americans, will do the same.
For more details on the storm and damage reports Click Here.
Back to September of 1945
Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
‘The eighth event of the season was a bit iffy. It is believed the tropical depression originated On September 10th somewhere between St. Croix and St. Martins before starting its trek north. In any event it was reported as a Tropical Storm and passing the Virgin Islands on the 11th with winds of 40 mph and gusting up to 50.
We had a Privateer in the area on routine hurricane patrol and when they were made aware of the new storm they were just north of San Juan, Puerto Rico and in perfect position to intercept the storm.
Headquarters ordered the flight to break off his routine patrol and intercept the tropical storm, which he did. They made contact about an hour later and their preliminary report gave the storms heading as north-by-north northwest and showing forward motion of approximately 14 miles per hour with wind gusts as high as 50 miles per hour.
Tropical Storm VIII continued its trek north into the Atlantic. Fortunately the storm didn’t make landfall and eventually petered out somewhere west of Bermuda.
Editor’s note: Having studied hurricane patterns since my encounter with them as one of the original Hurricane Hunters I suspect that Tropical Storm VIII actually originated somewhere off the African coast and we simply didn’t spot the storm until St. Croix reported it on September 10th.
The ninth event of the season appeared on September 12th in the South Atlantic east of the Leeward Islands and was designated Tropical Storm Number IX.
By the time the weather station at Martinique reported its presence late that same day the storm had already achieved full-blown hurricane status with sustained winds of 75 miles per hour and was moving in the direction of Dominica and Guadeloupe…
Florida 0500 EST Saturday September 15, 1945:
Category 4 hurricane with current winds clocked at 135 MPH is presently covering an area that includes Nassau, New Providence, Adelaide and North Andros Island.
Immediate hurricane warning is being issued for Nichols Town, the Berry Islands and Bimini. All the aforementioned are in imminent danger. Hurricane threat warning is also issued to the entire state of Florida from Key West and extending north to Cape Hatters, North Carolina.
Anyone living or traveling in those areas should closely monitor the progress of this dangerous storm. We expect the hurricane to make landfall somewhere in south Florida within the next 12 to 14 hours.
Preparations to protect life and property should be completed as soon as possible. Coastal communities should expect high winds as well as storm surge and tall wave activity. You should also expect heavy rains and flooding.
Primrose and I immediately walked to the chow hall to catch up on the latest scuttlebutt. But before we got inside the place a large notice on the door stopped us. It said following morning chow all enlisted personnel report to your duty officer for hurricane related work and detail assignments.
All liberty passes have been cancelled and no one is excused from the work details and assignments.’
(To be continued.)
Writers Notebook:
Something to think about.
Houston Smith has taught philosophy at MIT and Washington University, and religion at Syracuse University. He has written extensively on both subjects and in his book ‘The purpose of higher education Smith writes: ‘The aim of all writing is the transfer of some thought or feeling from one’s own mind to someone else. Effective communication needs two things: clarity in the ideas to be conveyed, and words that serve as good conductors. Whether these two – the ideas and the words that express them – are really separable is a moot point… The point is only that in writing the sole object is communication.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
Ike’s 110 mph winds and 14-foot storm surge thundered over Galveston Island at about 2:00 O’clock on the morning of September 13, 2008. It was bad, devastating in fact but not the catastrophe that hit the Texas coast in 1900. That monster storm claimed between six and eight thousand lives, a tragedy still in the hearts and minds of many Texans.
There’s plenty of hard work ahead for the folks hit by Hurricane Ike, but they might take some solace from the past. Heading one of the many articles written about the earlier storm: ‘Rebuilding was ‘Galveston’s finest hour.’ The story of the 1900 Storm is one about the fate of people at the hands of nature…
Those hearty Texans took up the challenge and turned it into their ‘Finest Hour.’ And I suspect that this generation, along with the help of others generous Americans, will do the same.
For more details on the storm and damage reports Click Here.
Back to September of 1945
Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
‘The eighth event of the season was a bit iffy. It is believed the tropical depression originated On September 10th somewhere between St. Croix and St. Martins before starting its trek north. In any event it was reported as a Tropical Storm and passing the Virgin Islands on the 11th with winds of 40 mph and gusting up to 50.
We had a Privateer in the area on routine hurricane patrol and when they were made aware of the new storm they were just north of San Juan, Puerto Rico and in perfect position to intercept the storm.
Headquarters ordered the flight to break off his routine patrol and intercept the tropical storm, which he did. They made contact about an hour later and their preliminary report gave the storms heading as north-by-north northwest and showing forward motion of approximately 14 miles per hour with wind gusts as high as 50 miles per hour.
Tropical Storm VIII continued its trek north into the Atlantic. Fortunately the storm didn’t make landfall and eventually petered out somewhere west of Bermuda.
Editor’s note: Having studied hurricane patterns since my encounter with them as one of the original Hurricane Hunters I suspect that Tropical Storm VIII actually originated somewhere off the African coast and we simply didn’t spot the storm until St. Croix reported it on September 10th.
The ninth event of the season appeared on September 12th in the South Atlantic east of the Leeward Islands and was designated Tropical Storm Number IX.
By the time the weather station at Martinique reported its presence late that same day the storm had already achieved full-blown hurricane status with sustained winds of 75 miles per hour and was moving in the direction of Dominica and Guadeloupe…
Florida 0500 EST Saturday September 15, 1945:
Category 4 hurricane with current winds clocked at 135 MPH is presently covering an area that includes Nassau, New Providence, Adelaide and North Andros Island.
Immediate hurricane warning is being issued for Nichols Town, the Berry Islands and Bimini. All the aforementioned are in imminent danger. Hurricane threat warning is also issued to the entire state of Florida from Key West and extending north to Cape Hatters, North Carolina.
Anyone living or traveling in those areas should closely monitor the progress of this dangerous storm. We expect the hurricane to make landfall somewhere in south Florida within the next 12 to 14 hours.
Preparations to protect life and property should be completed as soon as possible. Coastal communities should expect high winds as well as storm surge and tall wave activity. You should also expect heavy rains and flooding.
Primrose and I immediately walked to the chow hall to catch up on the latest scuttlebutt. But before we got inside the place a large notice on the door stopped us. It said following morning chow all enlisted personnel report to your duty officer for hurricane related work and detail assignments.
All liberty passes have been cancelled and no one is excused from the work details and assignments.’
(To be continued.)
Writers Notebook:
Something to think about.
Houston Smith has taught philosophy at MIT and Washington University, and religion at Syracuse University. He has written extensively on both subjects and in his book ‘The purpose of higher education Smith writes: ‘The aim of all writing is the transfer of some thought or feeling from one’s own mind to someone else. Effective communication needs two things: clarity in the ideas to be conveyed, and words that serve as good conductors. Whether these two – the ideas and the words that express them – are really separable is a moot point… The point is only that in writing the sole object is communication.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Hanna and Josephine bow out -- Ike finds Gulf
2008 Hurricane Watch:
A satellite view taken late last week of the South Atlantic and Eastern Caribbean gave a somewhat distorted picture of the storm situation.
Three potential hurricanes were all moving in the direction of the United States. Hanna, Ike and Josephine all had the potential to cause havoc on the East Coast, Florida and all along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
As it turned out though Hanna made landfall at North Carolina but not as a hurricane. It was a tropical storm carrying winds of between 50 and 60 miles per hour. Of course there was some storm surge, rain and flooding which increased the misery index all along the East Coast.
In the meantime Josephine, far out in the eastern Atlantic, was in the process of self destructing, which it did.
Sunday September 7th while Hanna was spreading rain over New England Hurricane Ike was nearing the Turks and Caicos Islands as well as the southeastern Bahamas carrying winds of 135 mph and moving west at 14 mph.
The Turks and Caicos took the brunt of Ike’s fury and according to the Drudge Report 80 percent of Grand Turks homes were destroyed and people were cowering in their closets. Ike left death and destructions in those islands that will be long remembered, and the survivors of that storm need our help.
By Monday it was Cuba that felt the sting of Ike. And while the storm took its toll on Cuba the land mass reduced the wind speed from 135 mph down to 80.
The citizens of Key West battened down the hatches again and some headed north, this time it turned out to be a false alarm – Ike pass them by.
On Wednesday morning September 10th Ike was located 125 miles north of the western tip of Cuba and 430 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Ike is traveling northwest at 8 mph with wind speeds of 90 mph. Those wind speeds are expected to increase as the storm moves over the warm gulf waters.
According to the Miami Hurricane Center, it appears that the Corpus Christi area of Texas is Ike’s likely target.
A hurricane’s life begins as a tropical disturbance, which may be defined as an area of enhanced cumulonimbus cloud activity. Looking at a clear sky with those puffy clouds piling up on a summer afternoon they appear to be nothing more than beautiful cloud formations. And they are just that until the swirl begins.
North of the equator winds spin counter clockwise – and when south of that imaginary line they spin clockwise.
Once those winds sustain the speed of 34 miles per hour for 24 hours the system is called a Tropical Depression and when that criteria reaches 45 miles per hour it is called a Tropical Storm.
The next step is when the wind speeds exceed 74 miles per hour, and the system can be called a hurricane.
Hurricanes are then ranked on the Saffir-Simpson Scale into storm categories based on their maximum 24-hour sustained wind speed.
Category 1 – 74 to 95 mph
Category 2 – 96 to 110 mph
Category 3 – 111 to 130 mph
Category 4 – 131 to 155 mph
Category 5 – 155 mph and up
Those Category 5 monster hurricanes can wipe the earth clean if they make landfall.
Only three Category 5 hurricanes have made U.S. landfall since the dawn of the 20th Century. The Unnamed, Florida Keys Labor Day, Hurricane in 1935 and Hurricane Camille that tore up the coast of Mississippi in 1969. Then there was the infamous Hurricane Andrew that devastated parts of South Florida on August 24th of 1992.
Back to Hurricane Season 1945:
Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in The Bermuda Triangle.
Tropical storm VII was first reported north of the Swan Islands in the northwestern Caribbean on September 3rd. The light tropical storm moved along a path toward Cuba. On the following morning, in the vicinity of Havana winds were clocked at 45 miles per hour with gusts to 55 miles per hour.
The storm continued on that northern path past Key West and touched the Florida coast near Naples. The storm moved in a northerly direction along the Florida coast tracking past the Tampa, St. Petersburg area to Port Ritchey. There it veered out into the Gulf of Mexico and took a west by west northwest heading and didn’t make landfall again until nearing the mouth of the Mississippi River where on September 6th the storm dissipated into a tropical depression.
Writers Notebook:
I have copies of a collection of letters written by Gustave Flaubert -- of Madame Bovary fame. The letters were written between 1851 and 1857 at the time he was writing Bovary. In the letters Flaubert writes about his problems in writing the novel.
This letter to Louise Colet was written just before he started work on Bovary and he gives us some thoughts about his tenacious approach to writing.
‘… Read, do not dream. Plunge into long studies; there’s nothing continually good but the habit of stubborn work. It releases an opium which lulls the soul. I have gone through periods of bleak despair and have turned endlessly in a void, desperate with boredom. This can be overcome by force of persistence and pride: try.’
Keep trying -- keep writing.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
A satellite view taken late last week of the South Atlantic and Eastern Caribbean gave a somewhat distorted picture of the storm situation.
Three potential hurricanes were all moving in the direction of the United States. Hanna, Ike and Josephine all had the potential to cause havoc on the East Coast, Florida and all along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
As it turned out though Hanna made landfall at North Carolina but not as a hurricane. It was a tropical storm carrying winds of between 50 and 60 miles per hour. Of course there was some storm surge, rain and flooding which increased the misery index all along the East Coast.
In the meantime Josephine, far out in the eastern Atlantic, was in the process of self destructing, which it did.
Sunday September 7th while Hanna was spreading rain over New England Hurricane Ike was nearing the Turks and Caicos Islands as well as the southeastern Bahamas carrying winds of 135 mph and moving west at 14 mph.
The Turks and Caicos took the brunt of Ike’s fury and according to the Drudge Report 80 percent of Grand Turks homes were destroyed and people were cowering in their closets. Ike left death and destructions in those islands that will be long remembered, and the survivors of that storm need our help.
By Monday it was Cuba that felt the sting of Ike. And while the storm took its toll on Cuba the land mass reduced the wind speed from 135 mph down to 80.
The citizens of Key West battened down the hatches again and some headed north, this time it turned out to be a false alarm – Ike pass them by.
On Wednesday morning September 10th Ike was located 125 miles north of the western tip of Cuba and 430 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Ike is traveling northwest at 8 mph with wind speeds of 90 mph. Those wind speeds are expected to increase as the storm moves over the warm gulf waters.
According to the Miami Hurricane Center, it appears that the Corpus Christi area of Texas is Ike’s likely target.
A hurricane’s life begins as a tropical disturbance, which may be defined as an area of enhanced cumulonimbus cloud activity. Looking at a clear sky with those puffy clouds piling up on a summer afternoon they appear to be nothing more than beautiful cloud formations. And they are just that until the swirl begins.
North of the equator winds spin counter clockwise – and when south of that imaginary line they spin clockwise.
Once those winds sustain the speed of 34 miles per hour for 24 hours the system is called a Tropical Depression and when that criteria reaches 45 miles per hour it is called a Tropical Storm.
The next step is when the wind speeds exceed 74 miles per hour, and the system can be called a hurricane.
Hurricanes are then ranked on the Saffir-Simpson Scale into storm categories based on their maximum 24-hour sustained wind speed.
Category 1 – 74 to 95 mph
Category 2 – 96 to 110 mph
Category 3 – 111 to 130 mph
Category 4 – 131 to 155 mph
Category 5 – 155 mph and up
Those Category 5 monster hurricanes can wipe the earth clean if they make landfall.
Only three Category 5 hurricanes have made U.S. landfall since the dawn of the 20th Century. The Unnamed, Florida Keys Labor Day, Hurricane in 1935 and Hurricane Camille that tore up the coast of Mississippi in 1969. Then there was the infamous Hurricane Andrew that devastated parts of South Florida on August 24th of 1992.
Back to Hurricane Season 1945:
Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in The Bermuda Triangle.
Tropical storm VII was first reported north of the Swan Islands in the northwestern Caribbean on September 3rd. The light tropical storm moved along a path toward Cuba. On the following morning, in the vicinity of Havana winds were clocked at 45 miles per hour with gusts to 55 miles per hour.
The storm continued on that northern path past Key West and touched the Florida coast near Naples. The storm moved in a northerly direction along the Florida coast tracking past the Tampa, St. Petersburg area to Port Ritchey. There it veered out into the Gulf of Mexico and took a west by west northwest heading and didn’t make landfall again until nearing the mouth of the Mississippi River where on September 6th the storm dissipated into a tropical depression.
Writers Notebook:
I have copies of a collection of letters written by Gustave Flaubert -- of Madame Bovary fame. The letters were written between 1851 and 1857 at the time he was writing Bovary. In the letters Flaubert writes about his problems in writing the novel.
This letter to Louise Colet was written just before he started work on Bovary and he gives us some thoughts about his tenacious approach to writing.
‘… Read, do not dream. Plunge into long studies; there’s nothing continually good but the habit of stubborn work. It releases an opium which lulls the soul. I have gone through periods of bleak despair and have turned endlessly in a void, desperate with boredom. This can be overcome by force of persistence and pride: try.’
Keep trying -- keep writing.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Gustav, Hanna, Ike and Josephine
2008 Hurricane Watch
Sounds like two couples going on a summer picnic. Not so this summer, it’s follow-the-leader and like in baseball you’ll need a scorecard to keep track. The 2008 hurricane season was quite normal before Fay and as most Floridians can attest, Fay could hardly be called normal. She hung around and settled in for a visit only to become an unwelcome guest. Eventually though she got the picture and moved along to lower Alabama and Mississippi.
Just as Fay was making her exit Monday August 25th a guy named Gustav came on the scene near Port Au Prince Haiti and moved west toward the vacation spots of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
By Saturday August 30th Gustav had turned to the northwest and as it headed for the Gulf of Mexico gained strength and wind speed. As a consequence western Cuba felt the wrath of Gustav’s 120 mph winds.
On that same day Tropical Storm Hanna was located 240 miles north of San Juan, Puerto Rico with 50 mph winds and moving to the west at 12 mph.
Sunday morning August 31st Gustav was located 470 miles southeast of New Orleans and carrying winds of 120 mph. Forecasters expected the worst that Gustav would increase to Category 4 hurricane.
At about that same hour Tropical Storm Hanna located 155 miles east northeast of Grand Turk Island was moving west-northwest at 8 mph showing winds of 60 mph.
During that day the mainstream media was in a frenzy and scurrying off to New Orleans – apparently heading off to cover another Katrina. Fortunately it didn’t happen.
On Monday morning Gustav, a Category 2 hurricane made land fall south of Houma, Louisiana, located 75 miles south southwest of New Orleans, at 10:00 am CDT carrying, lower than predicted, winds of 110 mph.
Of course even with the reduced wind speed Gustav did considerable damage along the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. But it was nothing on the scale of the monster storm that had been predicted.
This time around the people of New Orleans got out of town and while they were inconvenienced – they were alive.
By late in the afternoon following Gustav’s morning show many of the bars on Bourbon Street were open for business.
In the meantime while Gustav traveled north toward Shreveport Tropical Storm Hanna with winds of 70 mph was located 385 miles southeast of Nassau.
Next in that Daisy chain of hurricanes Tropical Storm Ike was 1, 235 east of the Leeward Islands carrying winds of 50 mph.
Next in line is Tropical Storm Josephine located in the east Atlantic and is tracking west at about 12 mph.
Stay tuned.
Back to 1945
Excerpt from my Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
On September 2nd 1945 while Squadron 114 was concentrating on hurricanes’ the eyes of the world were on the USS Battleship Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.
A Japanese delegation arrived to make their government’s unconditional surrender official. The new Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, directed the ceremonies. The general made a brief opening statement and then directed the Japanese representatives to sign the official documents.
Once the documents were signed for all practical purposes the Japanese government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration calling for the complete disarmament and surrender of all Japan’s military forces.
General MacArthur said, “We pray that peace be now restored to the world, that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed.”
With the documents signed by Japanese representatives and the pronouncement made by General MacArthur World War II had officially ended.
Writers Notebook:
The original writers notebook was Somerset Maugham’s pocket size note pad in which he kept a journal of events, people and places describing everything in great detail. And it was from those notes that he built his plots and storylines.
Here’s one of his notes titled: Lodging House.
It is a two-story frame house with verandas on both floors and it is about five minutes’ walk from the dock, on the Broad Road and faces the sea. Below is a store in which are sold canned goods, pork and beans, beef, hamburger steak, canned asparagus, peaches and apricots; and cotton goods, Lava Lava’s, hats, raincoats and such like. The owner is a half-caste with a native wife surrounded by little brown children. The rooms are almost bare of furniture, an iron bed with a ragged mosquito curtain, a rickety chair and a washstand.
The rain rattles down on the corrugated iron roof. No meals are provided.
The above description along with one of the missionary, his wife and Miss Thompson provided Maugham with the basic material he needed to construct his famous story called ‘Rain.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
Sounds like two couples going on a summer picnic. Not so this summer, it’s follow-the-leader and like in baseball you’ll need a scorecard to keep track. The 2008 hurricane season was quite normal before Fay and as most Floridians can attest, Fay could hardly be called normal. She hung around and settled in for a visit only to become an unwelcome guest. Eventually though she got the picture and moved along to lower Alabama and Mississippi.
Just as Fay was making her exit Monday August 25th a guy named Gustav came on the scene near Port Au Prince Haiti and moved west toward the vacation spots of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
By Saturday August 30th Gustav had turned to the northwest and as it headed for the Gulf of Mexico gained strength and wind speed. As a consequence western Cuba felt the wrath of Gustav’s 120 mph winds.
On that same day Tropical Storm Hanna was located 240 miles north of San Juan, Puerto Rico with 50 mph winds and moving to the west at 12 mph.
Sunday morning August 31st Gustav was located 470 miles southeast of New Orleans and carrying winds of 120 mph. Forecasters expected the worst that Gustav would increase to Category 4 hurricane.
At about that same hour Tropical Storm Hanna located 155 miles east northeast of Grand Turk Island was moving west-northwest at 8 mph showing winds of 60 mph.
During that day the mainstream media was in a frenzy and scurrying off to New Orleans – apparently heading off to cover another Katrina. Fortunately it didn’t happen.
On Monday morning Gustav, a Category 2 hurricane made land fall south of Houma, Louisiana, located 75 miles south southwest of New Orleans, at 10:00 am CDT carrying, lower than predicted, winds of 110 mph.
Of course even with the reduced wind speed Gustav did considerable damage along the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. But it was nothing on the scale of the monster storm that had been predicted.
This time around the people of New Orleans got out of town and while they were inconvenienced – they were alive.
By late in the afternoon following Gustav’s morning show many of the bars on Bourbon Street were open for business.
In the meantime while Gustav traveled north toward Shreveport Tropical Storm Hanna with winds of 70 mph was located 385 miles southeast of Nassau.
Next in that Daisy chain of hurricanes Tropical Storm Ike was 1, 235 east of the Leeward Islands carrying winds of 50 mph.
Next in line is Tropical Storm Josephine located in the east Atlantic and is tracking west at about 12 mph.
Stay tuned.
Back to 1945
Excerpt from my Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
On September 2nd 1945 while Squadron 114 was concentrating on hurricanes’ the eyes of the world were on the USS Battleship Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.
A Japanese delegation arrived to make their government’s unconditional surrender official. The new Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, directed the ceremonies. The general made a brief opening statement and then directed the Japanese representatives to sign the official documents.
Once the documents were signed for all practical purposes the Japanese government had accepted the Potsdam Declaration calling for the complete disarmament and surrender of all Japan’s military forces.
General MacArthur said, “We pray that peace be now restored to the world, that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed.”
With the documents signed by Japanese representatives and the pronouncement made by General MacArthur World War II had officially ended.
Writers Notebook:
The original writers notebook was Somerset Maugham’s pocket size note pad in which he kept a journal of events, people and places describing everything in great detail. And it was from those notes that he built his plots and storylines.
Here’s one of his notes titled: Lodging House.
It is a two-story frame house with verandas on both floors and it is about five minutes’ walk from the dock, on the Broad Road and faces the sea. Below is a store in which are sold canned goods, pork and beans, beef, hamburger steak, canned asparagus, peaches and apricots; and cotton goods, Lava Lava’s, hats, raincoats and such like. The owner is a half-caste with a native wife surrounded by little brown children. The rooms are almost bare of furniture, an iron bed with a ragged mosquito curtain, a rickety chair and a washstand.
The rain rattles down on the corrugated iron roof. No meals are provided.
The above description along with one of the missionary, his wife and Miss Thompson provided Maugham with the basic material he needed to construct his famous story called ‘Rain.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
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