Well, here we go!
We interrupt "Inspiration Thursday" for this update:
There is a Tropical Storm (potential Category 1 hurricane) heading our general direction.
This is one of the perils of living along the Gulf coast, you never know when these things will pop up, but at least we do have notice and can prepare. This is the forecast path, you can see that even though it will "probably" make landfall to the Southwest of us, it's forecast to loop around and head right toward us.
We are good here in town, building is safe, windows are hurricane proof to 150+mph winds. We are also on the downtown electrical grid so the first priority in a widespread power failure is to get downtown back up and running. Our building also has a generator to supply temporary power so that’s good. Lastly, no worries of flooding for us since we're several stories up and our cars are parked several floors up in the parking garage.
As for the farm, not much we can do out there. The plants will get lots of water, hopefully not wash away, and of course the grass will grow like crazy making next weekend’s mowing insane I’m sure. Sigh.
We have no livestock or animals to worry about so that's good and 2nd Family will keep an eye on things for us. As they told us last night, rain they can handle, tornadoes, not so much. Tropical systems are notorious for spinning off small tornadoes. It has to do with the rotation of the storm, so we are hoping for none of that. If it remains a tropical storm, the winds are strong but not more than we sometimes get with a thunderstorm. If it gets up there close to or at a Cat 1 hurricane, then we will have 70+mph winds and that can definitely blow things around.
See this chart?
This is the rainfall estimate (as of yesterday). We are in the red area. That’s the 10”-15” estimate. Some places are saying 20” of rain! This will be spread over a few days but even still, that’s a dangerous amount of rainfall. Hoping that everything moves through quickly and drains away just as quickly.
The big unknown is that these storms are notoriously unpredictable. If it wobbles to the West, it's further away from us and maybe the heavy rain moves down the coast. If it wobbles to the East it will be right on top of us and we'll get the rain AND worst winds AND the storm surge along the coast.
There he is. Tropical Storm Harvey. LOTS of rain and stormy weather. Needless to say, barring some crazy unforeseen weather miscalculation that pushes it elsewhere, we will not be at the farm this weekend. We’ll just watch the weather unfold from the windows in our perch safely above downtown.
I cannot tell whether you are on the clean side or dirty side of the storm at this point. I only vaguely know where Houston is located on the map. I was telling my friend you had to get out when it was bad weather because of your profession. Do you own a boat? I had a job once where they told me I never got off because of snow or ice, that they sent the police to bring me to work. lol
ReplyDeleteIf it rains that much, it may still be too boggy to drive the mower in the grass. What story are you on?
wow! i've been thinking about you guys and wondering how it will hit. we used to vacation in port aransas...glad we aren't there now! hang in there and stay safe!
ReplyDeleteOh those pesky gulf storms. Hopefully it will lessen before landfall
ReplyDeleteWell the up side is you don't have to cut the grass this weekend! ha :-)
ReplyDeleteStay safe.
ReplyDeleteI would hate to think you being on one of the upper floors of your building and it starts to shake in strong winds.
Would totally terrify me feeling the building sway if living on the upper floors.
We do have a slight chance of rain through the remainder of the week
Keep safe. Batten down the hatches!
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Oh the rain down there. Category 1 will be much better than the one that destroyed so much years ago. Everytime I think it would be nice to have a beach house, I remember hurricanes. Would have to be in CA.
ReplyDeleteHope you still have your camera strapped out at the farm.
ReplyDeleteI just heard it's now a cat 3 storm. please keep safe!
ReplyDeleteI thought of you today as I heard about the storm. Hope you both stay safe, and there isn't much damage.
ReplyDeleteHope you are safe and dry--I have a sis-in-law in Pasadena that I'm worried about. The amount of rain predicted is crazy!
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