Life is ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent how I react to it.
Lou Holtz
2008 Hurricane Watch
The Atlantic Basin has been quiet for the past week, however there is one disturbed area near the Lesser Antilles, which is moving toward the eastern Caribbean. Hurricane Center forecasters are watching for further development.
Stay tuned.
Attention Airline passengers: You are a passenger aboard an airliner flying at 30, 000 feet. Outside the pressurized cabin you wouldn’t live more than a few seconds, inside you don’t give it a thought. Suddenly the pressure system fails and a yellow oxygen mask falls into your lap -- don’t panic. Just follow instructions the flight attendant gave you before takeoff. Put the mask over your face and breathe normally.
Now as a way to tell you why, I’m going to take you through a typical training class, before pressurized cabins, that was given by the navy to all aircrew members in the use of oxygen masks.
Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
I was in torpedo bomber training at Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and taking a course about oxygen as it relates to altitudes. Suddenly our class was whisked off on a field trip to Miami that introduced us to an air chamber, which simulates air density and oxygen levels at various altitudes. We were escorted through a thick door and into a large room, on one side two rows of chairs were setup and on the other side were two 50 caliber machineguns and gun mounts.
Once everybody was in the room the instructor asked us to take seats in the chairs and said he needed a couple of volunteers for the machineguns. Then he said, “Now this is not a trick question and no matter how you answer it you will not be put on report. I need someone that has had no alcohol in the past 24 hours. And I need somebody that had a few drinks of whiskey last night.”
Everyone squirmed a little, but finally McMillan stuck his hand up and said, “I don’t drink at all so I’ll volunteer as the non drinker.”
Robinson stood. “I had a few shots of bourbon last night.”
“Great. OK you two go to the gun mounts, take your seats and get in firing position. Everyone other than the gunners put on your oxygen masks. You two at the gun mounts, don’t put on your masks yet.” He then gestured and said, “Looking straight ahead is 12:00 o’clock. I’ll be calling out various airplanes, when I call an enemy plane simulate shooting it down and friendly planes just wave them off. We’ll be starting out at an altitude of 8,000 feet.”
He called out, “Spitfire at 11:00 o’clock.” They waved it off.
“ME 109 2:00 o’clock low. Both of them fired at the German plane.
“P-51 12:00 o’clock high, and a Zero at 1:00 o’clock low. They waved off the P-51 and fired on the Zero. Then he changed the altitude to 11,000 feet and called out another group of planes. McMillan was as sharp as before but Robinson was slow to react.
Then the instructor said, “The next test will be at 13,000 feet. P-38 2:00 o’clock high.” McMillan waved it off. Robinson hesitated, but eventually fired at the P-38.
Next altitude as 14,000 feet “Now I’ll give you a few quick ones and then I want you to put your oxygen masks on.”
He called out a string Spitfire, ME 109, Stuka -- Dive Bomber, Betty, F6F, Zero, and TBM. McMillan gave the right signal on all of them. Robinson, on the other hand, made a mess of the whole thing. He was erratic as he waved off the enemy and fired on friends.
The instructor then said, “Now, if you were mountain climbers trained in high altitude climbing you could move to a very high altitude before you required oxygen. But with no training and starting at sea level the average person needs oxygen at about 14,000 feet. And if you don’t get your mask on you’ll begin hallucinating and eventually pass out. The higher the altitude the quicker you pass out.
Next week we are going back to 1881 Tombstone, Arizona Territory. We’ll pick up the narrative just moments after the gunfight at the OK Corral.
Writers Notebook:
Yolanda Fintor, California Writers Club provided the following tip.
Anne Lamott on perfectionism: "Perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness."
Another moment with John Steinbeck:
‘…the more one learns about writing, the more unbelievably difficult it becomes. I wish to God I knew as much about my craft, or what ever it is, as I did when I was 19 years old. But with every new attempt, frightening though it may be, is the wonder and the hope and the delight.
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, October 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Hurricanes Die in Cold North Atlantic
Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
2008 Hurricane Watch
October 15th Tropical Storm Omar made its appearance known as it moved north from the Leeward Islands, past St. Croix, and the Virgin Islands. High winds of 85 mph were reported on October 16th when Omar was located 180 miles north northeast of the Leeward Islands.
The storm continued north as it raced into the open waters of the Atlantic and on October 19th met its demise in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.
During the past several days the western Caribbean has been experiencing rain showers but no tropical storm activity reported. Stay tuned.
1945 Category 2 Hurricane XI
Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
‘I took off my earphones and maneuvered into position where I could get a good look at the model of a near perfect hurricane. Then when I thought about it, even without the earphones on, I could still hear the echoes of those anguished and panic stricken voices announcing their own doom via short-wave radio. While we flew high above it all in the relative calm those island people had nowhere to go, and no place to hide….’
‘The hurricane continued along its north by northeast path and because of the heavy rain clouds and rain preceding the storm we were unable to observe what was going on down below. However, the airwaves were full of reports, some in panic and others calmly reporting the details.
We hung around the area long enough to chart the storms movement across Little Abaco Island. Fortunately for those people Hurricane XI dropped in intensity from a Category 2 to a Category 1 storm. And the damage to Little Abaco Island was far less than they expected.
The storm continued north into the open sea, but even with no land in its path it continued to menace the Atlantic sea-lanes for another two and a half days before falling apart somewhere northwest of Bermuda on the sixteenth day of October 1945.’
1945’s Hurricane XI, the final event of that season, and last weeks Omar followed similar paths into the Atlantic and essentially found the same graveyard in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.
Storm clouds over Tombstone
Excerpt from Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone.
‘Late in the afternoon, October 24, 1881, Doc and Wyatt were with Virgil in the chief's office, which was located above the Golden Eagle Saloon. The three of them were looking at and commenting on a bunch of wanted posters.
Wyatt handed Doc the last of the posters and crossed to the window. He looked down on the intersection of Fifth and Allen Streets and made a terse observation. "Looks like a Saturday afternoon crowd. Trouble is it’s Monday.”
"The cowboys have been in and out of the Oriental for two days," Virgil said as he pondered the subject and rubbed the day old stubble on his chin.
Doc puffed on his cigarette. "You could figure it to be a convention of the ring's field representatives, but there seems to be one element missing -- Ike's group."
"I hadn't given that a thought," Virgil said, "but you're right, Doc. I haven't seen ‘em either."
Wyatt gazed down at the street, then he signaled the others to come closer. A large group of cowboys were leaving the Oriental. Virgil ticked off the names, "Curly Bill, Johnny Ringo, Pony Deal, Frank Patterson, Florintino Cruz, and Hank Swilling."
Doc pointed to one of the men. "What's that fellow's name, Virg?"
"That's Florintino Cruz, sometimes known as Indian Charlie."
Wyatt's curiosity peaked asked, "What about him, Doc?"
"Probably nothing. It's just that late one night a while back, Morg and I flushed him out of the alley between the pool hall and the Alhambra. He said at the time he was just taking a piss, and I paid no attention to it. But the way things are shaping up now it sure makes you wonder?"’
Writers Notebook:
Edna Ferber from A Peculiar Treasure.
…’You read what you wrote yesterday. Not so terrible. With a soft lead pencil you make some changes, tightening a line there, crossing out a word here, inserting a margin note for the next draft.
I have learned not to tear up my stuff until I’ve slept on it. I have sometimes written page after page through the work day in a kind of agony of ineffectualness, feeling weary, limp and unvital, only to discover on reading it bright and fresh next morning that the stuff has, somehow miraculously, pace and meaning.’
Stephen King agrees with Ferber’s overnight concept as pointed out in Writers Notebook August 13th 2008.
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, October 15, 2008
Key West '35, Camille, Andrew and Mitch
Never Confuse Movement with Action.
Ernest Hemingway
Hurricane Watch 2008
SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1130 AM EDT MON OCT 13 2008
A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE HAS FORMED IN THE SOUTHWESTERN
CARIBBEAN SEA ABOUT 100 MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST OF PUERTO CABEZAS
NICARAGUA...AND IS ACCOMPANIED BY A LARGE AREA OF DISTURBED
WEATHER. CONDITIONS APPEAR FAVORABLE FOR ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT...
FORECASTER BROWN/AVILA
That forecast was right on the money: On Tuesday October 14 the Tropical Disturbance moved up to Tropical Storm status and was named Omar. This morning Wednesday October 15, 2008 it was announced that Omar is now a hurricane and is located 285 miles south southwest of San Juan Puerto Rico and moving northeast at 7 mph, a Category 1 hurricane. Hurricane warnings were issued for the US and British Virgin Islands and vicinity. Stay tuned.
Category 5 hurricanes in the 20th Century that had the greatest impact on lives and property in the America’s were:
1935 Florida Keys ‘Labor Day’ Hurricane, September 2nd carrying winds of 150 to 200 mph and causing 424 deaths and untold property damage.
1969 Hurricane Camille hit Mississippi with winds of 190 mph and carried a storm surge of 22 to 25 feet above Mean Tide. The estimated lives lost were 255 with property damage of 4.2 billion in 1969 dollars.
On August 24, 1992 Hurricane Andrew hit southern Dade County, Florida racking up 25 billion in property damage, but fortunately only 15 deaths.
1998 came the unpredictable Hurricane Mitch.
Mitch was spawned near the west coast of Africa as a tropical wave that moved in a westerly direction skirting south of the vacation resorts of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
I’m using my story line review to tell about Hurricane Mitch.
Jim Carrier tells the story of The Ship and the Storm by using crew accounts, passenger interviews, surviving crew relatives and official weather related records.
Anchored in the quiet waters of the Bay at Omoa, Honduras passengers excitedly board the Windjammer Cruise Ship Fantome. Feted with the finest cuisine and free flowing rum swizzle the fun and excitement is just beginning as the tall ship prepares to sail from one tropical paradise to another.
Two mornings later as the Fantomes’ guests finished their Bloody Mary and sticky bun breakfast a weather station on the West Coast of Africa was recording a drop in the barometric pressure. The Miami Hurricane Center labeled the system #46 and indicated in the margin that it was impressive.
One week later on the evening of October 17, 1998 while Fantome passengers partied tropical wave 46 was moving west past Barbados in the Windward Islands. A day later the National Hurricane Center predicts that tropical wave 46 will become a hurricane.
October 21st the day Fantome arrived at the island of Guanaja and Fantome passengers were still enjoying their cruise vacation. But change came the next morning and Captain Guyan March advises crew and passengers about the storm.
BULLETIN: 5AM EDT SAT OCT 24, 1998. MITCH STRENGTHENS RAPIDLY INTO A HURRICANE
Storm tracks in the direction of Cuba and the Cayman Islands and forecasters are calling Mitch a potentially dangerous hurricane.
Fantome was at Omoa, Honduras where locals advised Captain March to drop both anchors and stay in port. March consults his boss in Miami by phone and following a prolonged discussion with Windjammer Headquarters in Miami it was decided to cancel the Fantomes’ cruise. Passenger safety was uppermost in their minds and they discharged the passengers at Belize City. They didn’t consider Belize a safe harbor to ride out the storm so Fantome with 31 crewmembers aboard left Belize to try and outmaneuver the storm.
Hurricane Mitch was coming up on Swan Island and conventional wisdom as well as the National Hurricane Centers computer models predicts that the storm will turn to the northwest. Fantome headed southeast from Belize toward the Bay Islands north of Honduras and had the storm tracked to the northwest as was expected there would have been plenty of separation between the ship and the storm. But the monster storm called Mitch with a mind of its own defied convention and turned south where it continued to spin its Category 4 and sometimes 5 winds over the waters and islands destroying everything in it’s path. High winds and waves produced by the storm extended out some 200 miles from its center. Fantomes’ engines and Captain March’s skilled seamanship was no match for the tall waves and winds produced by Hurricane Mitch. Eventually the powerful waves broadside Fantome and breach the ships watertight bulkheads.
The story of The Ship and the Storm is tragically compelling.
Tom Barnes
Back to 1945
Looking down from a test flight at the devastation done by Hurricane IX. Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Our Privateer aircraft had undergone an engine change and needed a routine test flight in order to return to service. Oddly enough, our test flight was conducted right into the teeth of the Bermuda Triangle.
…’I did my routine walkabout inspection, returned to the flight deck and reported to the skipper that everything was operating normal. He gave me a thumbs up and then did several maneuvers to test all the control surfaces. Then we made a 180-degree turn that put us on a heading for a return to the Florida coast.
At times like this I wish I had brought a camera along. I spotted three large sail boats with full sail and tacking to the wind, a tramp steamer and a large cargo ship. As the shoreline came into view I could see that our approach was going to be in an area between Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood, Florida. As we came near the land the damage done by the recent hurricane was clearly visible. There were a number of beached vessels, a dozen or more houses with no roof and scores of downed trees.
I spotted the old Riverside Academy building at Hollywood that we used as barracks during gunnery school. Then out of nowhere I began humming The Sheik of Arabia and since I was standing almost at Shepherds ear, he turned and said. “What’s that tune, Tom?”
I laughed. “It’s the Sheik of Arabia.” I pointed and said, “That red building down there is where we were billeted during gunnery school and instead of using a bugle for reveille they used the Spike Jones version of that crazy tune to jump start our day.”
Shepherd smiled then got on the radio and called Opa Locka Tower for landing instructions.
About the time I spotted our old target practice range we were flying over the Everglades and making a hard left turn onto our base leg. And only moments later I looked over the skipper’s shoulder and out to the port side of the plane. He pointed and said, “That’s what’s left of the Blimp Base.”
The scene reminded me of a Science Fiction movie or a war zone. All three hangars had been demolished and there was nothing left but a few metal frames, foundations and a pile of ashes.
Looking down on the scene we could see the path Hurricane IX took and the destruction of the Richmond Naval Facilities as well as the battered communities of Hialeah and Miami Springs. When viewing the overall damage it was hard to believe there were only 4 fatalities in the Miami area. Unfortunately though, it was reported that 22 lives were lost in the Bahamas.
Then the skipper made another left turn, gear and flaps down, maneuvered the Privateer onto a perfect glide path and set the plane down on Runway Nine just over an hour after we took off from Masters Field.
We taxied over and parked in our regular slot, did a thorough post flight inspection and determined that our plane was operational and fully qualified to return to active duty.’
Writers Notebook:
An old maxim of show business is to always leave the audience wanting more.
In writing it comes out almost the same.
Editor Maxwell Perkins (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolf and others) said in his letters: ‘Of course it’s always better to give a little less than the reader wants, than more.’
Ernest Hemingway in the book Papa Hemingway elaborated on the subject as regards to leaving something out. …’Ernest pointed out that if what is left out is left out because the short-story writer doesn’t know it, then it is a worthless story. It’s only the important things you know about and omit that strengthens the story, he said.’
His short story The Killers is a great example of leaving something out – but in this case it was for a completely different reason. You see Hemingway based The Killers on an actual event of a boxer taking a dive. Here’s the way Hemingway explained it. The heavyweight champion Gene Tunney asked him if the Swede in the story wasn’t actually Carl Anderson? Ernest said. ‘I told him yes, and the town wasn’t Summit, New Jersey, but Summit, Illinois. But that’s all I told him because the Chicago mob that sent the killers was and, as far as I know, is still very much in business.’ …’I guess I left as much out of The Killers as any story I ever wrote. Left out the whole city of Chicago.’
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
Ernest Hemingway
Hurricane Watch 2008
SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
1130 AM EDT MON OCT 13 2008
A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE HAS FORMED IN THE SOUTHWESTERN
CARIBBEAN SEA ABOUT 100 MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST OF PUERTO CABEZAS
NICARAGUA...AND IS ACCOMPANIED BY A LARGE AREA OF DISTURBED
WEATHER. CONDITIONS APPEAR FAVORABLE FOR ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT...
FORECASTER BROWN/AVILA
That forecast was right on the money: On Tuesday October 14 the Tropical Disturbance moved up to Tropical Storm status and was named Omar. This morning Wednesday October 15, 2008 it was announced that Omar is now a hurricane and is located 285 miles south southwest of San Juan Puerto Rico and moving northeast at 7 mph, a Category 1 hurricane. Hurricane warnings were issued for the US and British Virgin Islands and vicinity. Stay tuned.
Category 5 hurricanes in the 20th Century that had the greatest impact on lives and property in the America’s were:
1935 Florida Keys ‘Labor Day’ Hurricane, September 2nd carrying winds of 150 to 200 mph and causing 424 deaths and untold property damage.
1969 Hurricane Camille hit Mississippi with winds of 190 mph and carried a storm surge of 22 to 25 feet above Mean Tide. The estimated lives lost were 255 with property damage of 4.2 billion in 1969 dollars.
On August 24, 1992 Hurricane Andrew hit southern Dade County, Florida racking up 25 billion in property damage, but fortunately only 15 deaths.
1998 came the unpredictable Hurricane Mitch.
Mitch was spawned near the west coast of Africa as a tropical wave that moved in a westerly direction skirting south of the vacation resorts of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
I’m using my story line review to tell about Hurricane Mitch.
Jim Carrier tells the story of The Ship and the Storm by using crew accounts, passenger interviews, surviving crew relatives and official weather related records.
Anchored in the quiet waters of the Bay at Omoa, Honduras passengers excitedly board the Windjammer Cruise Ship Fantome. Feted with the finest cuisine and free flowing rum swizzle the fun and excitement is just beginning as the tall ship prepares to sail from one tropical paradise to another.
Two mornings later as the Fantomes’ guests finished their Bloody Mary and sticky bun breakfast a weather station on the West Coast of Africa was recording a drop in the barometric pressure. The Miami Hurricane Center labeled the system #46 and indicated in the margin that it was impressive.
One week later on the evening of October 17, 1998 while Fantome passengers partied tropical wave 46 was moving west past Barbados in the Windward Islands. A day later the National Hurricane Center predicts that tropical wave 46 will become a hurricane.
October 21st the day Fantome arrived at the island of Guanaja and Fantome passengers were still enjoying their cruise vacation. But change came the next morning and Captain Guyan March advises crew and passengers about the storm.
BULLETIN: 5AM EDT SAT OCT 24, 1998. MITCH STRENGTHENS RAPIDLY INTO A HURRICANE
Storm tracks in the direction of Cuba and the Cayman Islands and forecasters are calling Mitch a potentially dangerous hurricane.
Fantome was at Omoa, Honduras where locals advised Captain March to drop both anchors and stay in port. March consults his boss in Miami by phone and following a prolonged discussion with Windjammer Headquarters in Miami it was decided to cancel the Fantomes’ cruise. Passenger safety was uppermost in their minds and they discharged the passengers at Belize City. They didn’t consider Belize a safe harbor to ride out the storm so Fantome with 31 crewmembers aboard left Belize to try and outmaneuver the storm.
Hurricane Mitch was coming up on Swan Island and conventional wisdom as well as the National Hurricane Centers computer models predicts that the storm will turn to the northwest. Fantome headed southeast from Belize toward the Bay Islands north of Honduras and had the storm tracked to the northwest as was expected there would have been plenty of separation between the ship and the storm. But the monster storm called Mitch with a mind of its own defied convention and turned south where it continued to spin its Category 4 and sometimes 5 winds over the waters and islands destroying everything in it’s path. High winds and waves produced by the storm extended out some 200 miles from its center. Fantomes’ engines and Captain March’s skilled seamanship was no match for the tall waves and winds produced by Hurricane Mitch. Eventually the powerful waves broadside Fantome and breach the ships watertight bulkheads.
The story of The Ship and the Storm is tragically compelling.
Tom Barnes
Back to 1945
Looking down from a test flight at the devastation done by Hurricane IX. Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Our Privateer aircraft had undergone an engine change and needed a routine test flight in order to return to service. Oddly enough, our test flight was conducted right into the teeth of the Bermuda Triangle.
…’I did my routine walkabout inspection, returned to the flight deck and reported to the skipper that everything was operating normal. He gave me a thumbs up and then did several maneuvers to test all the control surfaces. Then we made a 180-degree turn that put us on a heading for a return to the Florida coast.
At times like this I wish I had brought a camera along. I spotted three large sail boats with full sail and tacking to the wind, a tramp steamer and a large cargo ship. As the shoreline came into view I could see that our approach was going to be in an area between Ft. Lauderdale and Hollywood, Florida. As we came near the land the damage done by the recent hurricane was clearly visible. There were a number of beached vessels, a dozen or more houses with no roof and scores of downed trees.
I spotted the old Riverside Academy building at Hollywood that we used as barracks during gunnery school. Then out of nowhere I began humming The Sheik of Arabia and since I was standing almost at Shepherds ear, he turned and said. “What’s that tune, Tom?”
I laughed. “It’s the Sheik of Arabia.” I pointed and said, “That red building down there is where we were billeted during gunnery school and instead of using a bugle for reveille they used the Spike Jones version of that crazy tune to jump start our day.”
Shepherd smiled then got on the radio and called Opa Locka Tower for landing instructions.
About the time I spotted our old target practice range we were flying over the Everglades and making a hard left turn onto our base leg. And only moments later I looked over the skipper’s shoulder and out to the port side of the plane. He pointed and said, “That’s what’s left of the Blimp Base.”
The scene reminded me of a Science Fiction movie or a war zone. All three hangars had been demolished and there was nothing left but a few metal frames, foundations and a pile of ashes.
Looking down on the scene we could see the path Hurricane IX took and the destruction of the Richmond Naval Facilities as well as the battered communities of Hialeah and Miami Springs. When viewing the overall damage it was hard to believe there were only 4 fatalities in the Miami area. Unfortunately though, it was reported that 22 lives were lost in the Bahamas.
Then the skipper made another left turn, gear and flaps down, maneuvered the Privateer onto a perfect glide path and set the plane down on Runway Nine just over an hour after we took off from Masters Field.
We taxied over and parked in our regular slot, did a thorough post flight inspection and determined that our plane was operational and fully qualified to return to active duty.’
Writers Notebook:
An old maxim of show business is to always leave the audience wanting more.
In writing it comes out almost the same.
Editor Maxwell Perkins (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolf and others) said in his letters: ‘Of course it’s always better to give a little less than the reader wants, than more.’
Ernest Hemingway in the book Papa Hemingway elaborated on the subject as regards to leaving something out. …’Ernest pointed out that if what is left out is left out because the short-story writer doesn’t know it, then it is a worthless story. It’s only the important things you know about and omit that strengthens the story, he said.’
His short story The Killers is a great example of leaving something out – but in this case it was for a completely different reason. You see Hemingway based The Killers on an actual event of a boxer taking a dive. Here’s the way Hemingway explained it. The heavyweight champion Gene Tunney asked him if the Swede in the story wasn’t actually Carl Anderson? Ernest said. ‘I told him yes, and the town wasn’t Summit, New Jersey, but Summit, Illinois. But that’s all I told him because the Chicago mob that sent the killers was and, as far as I know, is still very much in business.’ …’I guess I left as much out of The Killers as any story I ever wrote. Left out the whole city of Chicago.’
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, October 8, 2008
Ike Damage to Galveston Ignored by Media
‘Courage is the first of human qualities because it’s the quality that guarantees all the others.’
Winston Churchill
Hurricane Watch 2008:
Following Ike and the low intensity Kyle, Laura and Marco (currently playing out with rain showers in southeastern Mexico) you’d think the 2008 hurricane season was over.
Well, it’s not. There’s a reason the official hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30. It took years to compile hurricane data in order to come to that conclusion, so just hold on and let’s see what happens between now and November 30th.
Next week I’ll talk about Category 5 Hurricanes over the past century.
Hurricane Ike Creates Uncertain Future
Joan Reeves story continued from last week.
‘Galveston was the city that wouldn't die. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers came in and built the seawall to protect the rebuilding city. Not only did they build a seawall, they actually raised the elevation of the island. They
brought in soil and sand and raised the elevation of the island from 9 feet above sea level to nearly 17 feet above. The wealthy who owned mansions on the strand ended up with their first floors becoming basements because of this, but no one argued. The resulting raised elevation and seawall, an engineering marvel, has saved Galveston time after time.
Even after Ike, much of the city protected by the seawall, is capable of being rebuilt. Historic buildings that survived the 1900 hurricane also survived Ike. The city has no water or sewer service now. There is limited power. Many buildings are flooded and otherwise uninhabitable. Their tax base has suffered a major blow, but I think Galveston will, again like a phoenix, rise from the ashes. People who are BOI, born on the island, wouldn't consider living any other place. There are generations of the same families who are ready to roll up their sleeves and go to work. The
indomitable spirit of pioneers still lives in many who consider it a badge of honor to rebuild and not be defeated by the worst Mother Nature can throw at them.
The west end is another story. It's a significant part of Galveston's tax base, but it's mostly residential. I don't know the exact statistics, but I'd be willing to bet that most of the housing there, from modest cottages to fabulous villas, is vacation property. Sure, there are some full-time residents on west end, but those BOI normally live in Galveston proper, behind the seawall. That's where their roots are.
The west end is devastated. What were coveted first-row houses facing the Gulf of Mexico are simply gone. Obliterated. Second-row houses now have the tide splashing beneath their pilings. Third-row is the same distance from the water that first-row once held. And on and on. Most of the remaining houses are wind and water damaged so that everything inside is beyond saving.
So much sand is piled onto the roadways that no one can see a speck of asphalt or concrete until the sand is removed. Mountains of rubble cover what were once neatly mowed lawns.
In Texas, there is a law that says the public has a right to beach access from the vegetation line to the water. Hurricanes move vegetation lines so a house that may have been on private property suddenly becomes a public beach after a storm. This status affects a person's right to rebuild or repair because the state may declare eminent domain. There have been several lawsuits over the years about this issue, and I'm sure there will be several more.
It's too soon to see what's going to happen on west end and the east side of Galveston Bay, the Bolivar Peninsula. What was once a strip of shining beach accessible by ferry ride from Galveston is now broken into 3 islands. The ferry dock is destroyed. The only road from the other side of Galveston Bay is unusable. The peninsula has been wiped nearly clean like a marked chalkboard erased by a careless hand. Communities like Crystal Beach, Gilchrist, and Port Bolivar on the peninsula with no seawall suffered grave damage as did Surfside, the town on the mainland west of Galveston Island.
All those communities have a mostly middle-class population. You don't see mansions there, and many residents live there year-round with livelihoods tied to the water.
Communities can't survive without people and without new construction. If all those areas are allowed to rebuild, it may well be that they'll have to adopt new building codes. I'm always reminded of the house I lived in on Okinawa. Concrete block walls, poured concrete roof, and 1 ½ inch wooden slabs as shutters that you merely slid into place when a storm came. None of those houses were ever damaged by the fiercest typhoon. The wooden homes though became kindling many times.
Maybe hurricane construction standards will be adopted though without a seawall, there's only so much you can do. It's a tough question involving economics as well as an individual's right to live where he chooses.
One thing is certain. Eventually, another storm will come. When? Only time will tell.
Joan Reeves www.joanreeves.com
Writers Notebook:
Another thought or two from Steinbeck: If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it – bypass it and go on. When you’ve finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave you trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
If you’re using dialogue say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
Here’s another wrinkle on Steinbeck’s dialogue line. Use his method, but when you’re finished take a little cassette tape recorder and record those pieces of dialogue you’re working on and play them back. Take it from me; you’ll know if they sound real or not.
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
Winston Churchill
Hurricane Watch 2008:
Following Ike and the low intensity Kyle, Laura and Marco (currently playing out with rain showers in southeastern Mexico) you’d think the 2008 hurricane season was over.
Well, it’s not. There’s a reason the official hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30. It took years to compile hurricane data in order to come to that conclusion, so just hold on and let’s see what happens between now and November 30th.
Next week I’ll talk about Category 5 Hurricanes over the past century.
Hurricane Ike Creates Uncertain Future
Joan Reeves story continued from last week.
‘Galveston was the city that wouldn't die. The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers came in and built the seawall to protect the rebuilding city. Not only did they build a seawall, they actually raised the elevation of the island. They
brought in soil and sand and raised the elevation of the island from 9 feet above sea level to nearly 17 feet above. The wealthy who owned mansions on the strand ended up with their first floors becoming basements because of this, but no one argued. The resulting raised elevation and seawall, an engineering marvel, has saved Galveston time after time.
Even after Ike, much of the city protected by the seawall, is capable of being rebuilt. Historic buildings that survived the 1900 hurricane also survived Ike. The city has no water or sewer service now. There is limited power. Many buildings are flooded and otherwise uninhabitable. Their tax base has suffered a major blow, but I think Galveston will, again like a phoenix, rise from the ashes. People who are BOI, born on the island, wouldn't consider living any other place. There are generations of the same families who are ready to roll up their sleeves and go to work. The
indomitable spirit of pioneers still lives in many who consider it a badge of honor to rebuild and not be defeated by the worst Mother Nature can throw at them.
The west end is another story. It's a significant part of Galveston's tax base, but it's mostly residential. I don't know the exact statistics, but I'd be willing to bet that most of the housing there, from modest cottages to fabulous villas, is vacation property. Sure, there are some full-time residents on west end, but those BOI normally live in Galveston proper, behind the seawall. That's where their roots are.
The west end is devastated. What were coveted first-row houses facing the Gulf of Mexico are simply gone. Obliterated. Second-row houses now have the tide splashing beneath their pilings. Third-row is the same distance from the water that first-row once held. And on and on. Most of the remaining houses are wind and water damaged so that everything inside is beyond saving.
So much sand is piled onto the roadways that no one can see a speck of asphalt or concrete until the sand is removed. Mountains of rubble cover what were once neatly mowed lawns.
In Texas, there is a law that says the public has a right to beach access from the vegetation line to the water. Hurricanes move vegetation lines so a house that may have been on private property suddenly becomes a public beach after a storm. This status affects a person's right to rebuild or repair because the state may declare eminent domain. There have been several lawsuits over the years about this issue, and I'm sure there will be several more.
It's too soon to see what's going to happen on west end and the east side of Galveston Bay, the Bolivar Peninsula. What was once a strip of shining beach accessible by ferry ride from Galveston is now broken into 3 islands. The ferry dock is destroyed. The only road from the other side of Galveston Bay is unusable. The peninsula has been wiped nearly clean like a marked chalkboard erased by a careless hand. Communities like Crystal Beach, Gilchrist, and Port Bolivar on the peninsula with no seawall suffered grave damage as did Surfside, the town on the mainland west of Galveston Island.
All those communities have a mostly middle-class population. You don't see mansions there, and many residents live there year-round with livelihoods tied to the water.
Communities can't survive without people and without new construction. If all those areas are allowed to rebuild, it may well be that they'll have to adopt new building codes. I'm always reminded of the house I lived in on Okinawa. Concrete block walls, poured concrete roof, and 1 ½ inch wooden slabs as shutters that you merely slid into place when a storm came. None of those houses were ever damaged by the fiercest typhoon. The wooden homes though became kindling many times.
Maybe hurricane construction standards will be adopted though without a seawall, there's only so much you can do. It's a tough question involving economics as well as an individual's right to live where he chooses.
One thing is certain. Eventually, another storm will come. When? Only time will tell.
Joan Reeves www.joanreeves.com
Writers Notebook:
Another thought or two from Steinbeck: If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it – bypass it and go on. When you’ve finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave you trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
If you’re using dialogue say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
Here’s another wrinkle on Steinbeck’s dialogue line. Use his method, but when you’re finished take a little cassette tape recorder and record those pieces of dialogue you’re working on and play them back. Take it from me; you’ll know if they sound real or not.
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, October 1, 2008
Ike, Galveston and John Steinbeck
‘It’s always been ten percent talent and 90 percent hard work.’
Paul Newman
Hurricane Watch 2008
Storm activity during the past week formed out of systems located in the northeastern Caribbean. Kyle gained Tropical Storm status on Friday September 26th in the area of Turks and Caicos Islands before moving north into the Atlantic. Kyle past west of Bermuda on its move north toward Nantucket, Massachusetts generating winds of 80 mph. The storm moving at 26 mph entered the cold waters of the North Atlantic where the velocity of its winds quickly dropped and the storm broke up north of St. Johns, New Brunswick.
Just as Kyle was breaking up Tropical Storm Laura formed and followed a similar path to that of Kyle. Wednesday morning October 1st the remnants of Tropical Storm Laura was located 295 miles east southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland moving at 16 mph with diminished winds of 45 mph.
As a follow up on Hurricane Ike’s devastation to the north Gulf coast and in particular Galveston I’d like to share with you an article written by Joan Reeves a Texan from the area.
Bio Note: Joan Reeves is a published author of book-length fiction and a long-time successful freelance writer. www.joanslingwords.com
Hurricane Ike Creates Uncertain Future
by
Joan Reeves
I've lived most of my life on the Gulf Coast though for about six years I lived thousands of miles away on a speck of an island between the East China Sea and the Pacific known as Typhoon Alley. So I'm not exactly a stranger to tropical storms, hurricanes, and their Pacific sibling, typhoons.
The destruction from these violent storms is a certainty. The only uncertainty is when it will happen. Time is the great unknown. Too often, the passage of time brings a false assurance to those who love to live near enough to the ocean to hear the waves lapping the shore.
In 1983, I rode out Hurricane Alicia with my toddler daughter and my husband. We lived in the pinewoods, northeast of the Houston-area near the small town of Humble. During that long day that Alicia battered us, tornadoes ripped through our subdivision, capriciously felling forty-foot pine trees on unsuspecting houses.
We all survived the following two weeks without power when we sweated to the
background music of chain saws as downed trees were cleared.
A couple of years later we moved to Clear Lake, home of NASA, and started visiting Galveston fairly often. It was less than an hour's drive away. If we wanted to see ocean water sooner, we could just drive over to Seabrook and Kemah on the northern end of Galveston Bay and only ten minutes away.
This was the mid-eighties when there were few residences built around the waterfronts of those small towns on Galveston Bay. The old houses that were left standing had been there for decades, braving the storms and always surviving intact. I sometimes think the wood they used in those days must be harder than the wood used in home-building now.
In the late 1990s, new subdivisions began sprouting like mushrooms after a rain all over the Clear Lake area and all the other small towns between there and Galveston Island. A few years earlier, I'd noticed the boom in home building on Galveston's west end. You see, there's a defined difference between Galveston and Galveston West End. That difference is the seawall.
The fact that they started putting in oceanfront mansions in the 1990's was startling. I recall how my mouth dropped open in shock the first time I saw one of those million dollar villas with nothing between it and the surf maybe a thousand feet away.
Galveston is old by Texas standards. In 1817, it was home to notorious pirate Jean Lafitte and other exiles. Jane Long, called the Mother of Texas, gave birth to the first Anglo child in 1821 on Bolivar Peninsula. By the late 1800s, it was on the fast track to becoming the Wall Street of the South.
The city was a major shipping, business, and cultural center. Then the first week in September a hurricane formed out over the warm waters of the ocean.
On September 8, it made landfall at Galveston. There was no seawall then. Everything was at the level of the west end of the island. That was before storms were named so the storm that killed 6,000 - 12,000 people is called simply the 1900 Galveston hurricane, and it's the deadliest natural disaster to ever hit our country.
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
Answering a friend’s call for help in writing an important biography John Steinbeck wrote and said, ‘…Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm, which can only come with a kind unconscious association with the material.
Forget your generalized audience. In the first place the nameless faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place unlike the theatre it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person – a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.’
If that phrase ‘write freely and as rapidly as possible’ seems familiar it’s because it is.
Stephen King takes a similar approach: refer to my post of August 13, 2008.
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
Paul Newman
Hurricane Watch 2008
Storm activity during the past week formed out of systems located in the northeastern Caribbean. Kyle gained Tropical Storm status on Friday September 26th in the area of Turks and Caicos Islands before moving north into the Atlantic. Kyle past west of Bermuda on its move north toward Nantucket, Massachusetts generating winds of 80 mph. The storm moving at 26 mph entered the cold waters of the North Atlantic where the velocity of its winds quickly dropped and the storm broke up north of St. Johns, New Brunswick.
Just as Kyle was breaking up Tropical Storm Laura formed and followed a similar path to that of Kyle. Wednesday morning October 1st the remnants of Tropical Storm Laura was located 295 miles east southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland moving at 16 mph with diminished winds of 45 mph.
As a follow up on Hurricane Ike’s devastation to the north Gulf coast and in particular Galveston I’d like to share with you an article written by Joan Reeves a Texan from the area.
Bio Note: Joan Reeves is a published author of book-length fiction and a long-time successful freelance writer. www.joanslingwords.com
Hurricane Ike Creates Uncertain Future
by
Joan Reeves
I've lived most of my life on the Gulf Coast though for about six years I lived thousands of miles away on a speck of an island between the East China Sea and the Pacific known as Typhoon Alley. So I'm not exactly a stranger to tropical storms, hurricanes, and their Pacific sibling, typhoons.
The destruction from these violent storms is a certainty. The only uncertainty is when it will happen. Time is the great unknown. Too often, the passage of time brings a false assurance to those who love to live near enough to the ocean to hear the waves lapping the shore.
In 1983, I rode out Hurricane Alicia with my toddler daughter and my husband. We lived in the pinewoods, northeast of the Houston-area near the small town of Humble. During that long day that Alicia battered us, tornadoes ripped through our subdivision, capriciously felling forty-foot pine trees on unsuspecting houses.
We all survived the following two weeks without power when we sweated to the
background music of chain saws as downed trees were cleared.
A couple of years later we moved to Clear Lake, home of NASA, and started visiting Galveston fairly often. It was less than an hour's drive away. If we wanted to see ocean water sooner, we could just drive over to Seabrook and Kemah on the northern end of Galveston Bay and only ten minutes away.
This was the mid-eighties when there were few residences built around the waterfronts of those small towns on Galveston Bay. The old houses that were left standing had been there for decades, braving the storms and always surviving intact. I sometimes think the wood they used in those days must be harder than the wood used in home-building now.
In the late 1990s, new subdivisions began sprouting like mushrooms after a rain all over the Clear Lake area and all the other small towns between there and Galveston Island. A few years earlier, I'd noticed the boom in home building on Galveston's west end. You see, there's a defined difference between Galveston and Galveston West End. That difference is the seawall.
The fact that they started putting in oceanfront mansions in the 1990's was startling. I recall how my mouth dropped open in shock the first time I saw one of those million dollar villas with nothing between it and the surf maybe a thousand feet away.
Galveston is old by Texas standards. In 1817, it was home to notorious pirate Jean Lafitte and other exiles. Jane Long, called the Mother of Texas, gave birth to the first Anglo child in 1821 on Bolivar Peninsula. By the late 1800s, it was on the fast track to becoming the Wall Street of the South.
The city was a major shipping, business, and cultural center. Then the first week in September a hurricane formed out over the warm waters of the ocean.
On September 8, it made landfall at Galveston. There was no seawall then. Everything was at the level of the west end of the island. That was before storms were named so the storm that killed 6,000 - 12,000 people is called simply the 1900 Galveston hurricane, and it's the deadliest natural disaster to ever hit our country.
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
Answering a friend’s call for help in writing an important biography John Steinbeck wrote and said, ‘…Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm, which can only come with a kind unconscious association with the material.
Forget your generalized audience. In the first place the nameless faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place unlike the theatre it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person – a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.’
If that phrase ‘write freely and as rapidly as possible’ seems familiar it’s because it is.
Stephen King takes a similar approach: refer to my post of August 13, 2008.
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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