Took The Day Off..

Library closed...again...though they will be open tomorrow.

Got some food for the house.

Went away for the day with my brother who had jobs down in South Dade to do and so we could talk.

Very nice day. Left cell phone at his house by accident so really had a day off.. out of touch.

Saw so much damage in Coral Gablels, The Grove, West Miami..Kendall.. Kendale Lakes it is mindboggling. So many trees... NOT tornado damage. I do believe winds were higher than reported officially...definitely too much damage and way past 75mph.. maybe 85.. I mean there was an eye.. I was in it. Wasn't a CDO..was a clear, calm eye..high white clouds and sat outside by front step before all hell broke loose on backside.

Saw trees down in the Gables..house to house on houses.. that only saw before in Cleo.

Drove around my old neighborhoods.

Yes.. its small damage compared to what is going on elsewhere but they did suffer a hurricane. They don't have power..still. There are houses where rich people don't live.. maybe single mothers or old retirees that have 2 and 3 massive trees down they need to get off their front door..back door and roof. One house..small old original Gables house covered in 2 huge ficus trees..didn't even see the house. House was not fancy and will cost a pretty penny to get it off, cut up and fix the roof and or whatever else it ruined.

Everything is a matter of perspective...

When you look at footage from the Gulf..it is nothing.

Had there not been the second landfall.. people here would feel like they just had a hurricane. Many people are tired, suffering the pain emotionally of watching their favorite trees go down, being without money, businessess suffered losses.. being scared.. stuck home with kids.. spent money for supplies they didnt have..but needed. Any kind of Cane is stressful yet they dont feel they can complain because anytime anyone says anything someone glares at them and says BE HAPPY YOU DONT LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS.

Well that is true..100% .. we are all happy but have to tell you .. you want to beat the crap out of someone who has no compassion or feelings that can tell someone who has lost days of work, stock, product.. landscaping, rooftiles.. broken windows and gone through a Cane.. "oh it could be worse" Yes..they know that. But.. you have to let people feel.. process.

Trust me.. people all over Miami are thinking now.. what if the next one is like Katrina but a four or five?

What if we have a Cane before we clean up the 4 ft pile of debris in front of my house.. before FPL takes away the caution sign and tape next to my house telling people not to go there because they still have not fixed that transformer down the block.

People in Florida.. Miami.. the Keys... NW Florida had mild damage and yet..everyone including the Federal Govt wants to slam them with "it could be worse" and not give them money they deserve or would get in any other year. Tell someone who lost all their stock from flooding for their business. All their crops were destroyed in farmilng areas in South Dade.. "sorry, not this year... other places got a cat 5.. cat 1 no longer is enough to get aid.. help"

Humbled and in awe of the job that is going on in New Orleans. Tired of trying to explain to my kids...why they are not helping small chldren or picking up dead bodies.

We all are..but for those of us not living in denial... we are wondering what we would do.. if next week, next month Miami gets taken out by a Cat 5.. If Savannah who is way overdue gets hit by Katrina's little sister to come along soon. People in Tampa are staring and wondering what would happen...were Tampa Bay to fill up with a storm surge like Gulfport got..

And..we all want to help.

I took the day off... went down to my own home. Saw a park I love called Schenley Park look like a bomb blast went off in the middle of it.. or like 100 lightning stikes hit those beautiful trees in the Park where I have so many memories.. and tried not to be upst, they are trees..they will grow back. Drove along places where friends lived growing up of of Red Road and Ludlum... and off of 8th Street..saw some Pines down.. remembered how cute boys looked swimming in th canal there.. I know it will all grow back. Unlike people who have died, unlike people who change.. unlike the past we cant get back.. or do over.. it will all grow back.

And.. with time.. New Orleans will be rebuilt and I hope to go with someone down the road and dance..listen to jazz....see the beauty of the Garden District restored and .. love Highway 90 more than almost any stretch of highway.. even more maybe than Pacific Coast Highway.. not as much as the Overseas Highway... but I love it..and pray for all those people whose lives need to be rebuilt..

God send them mercy..money and faith.

Bobbi
Night..

Took The Day Off..

Library closed...again...though they will be open tomorrow.

Got some food for the house.

Went away for the day with my brother who had jobs down in South Dade to do and so we could talk.

Very nice day. Left cell phone at his house by accident so really had a day off.. out of touch.

Saw so much damage in Coral Gablels, The Grove, West Miami..Kendall.. Kendale Lakes it is mindboggling. So many trees... NOT tornado damage. I do believe winds were higher than reported officially...definitely too much damage and way past 75mph.. maybe 85.. I mean there was an eye.. I was in it. Wasn't a CDO..was a clear, calm eye..high white clouds and sat outside by front step before all hell broke loose on backside.

Saw trees down in the Gables..house to house on houses.. that only saw before in Cleo.

Drove around my old neighborhoods.

Yes.. its small damage compared to what is going on elsewhere but they did suffer a hurricane. They don't have power..still. There are houses where rich people don't live.. maybe single mothers or old retirees that have 2 and 3 massive trees down they need to get off their front door..back door and roof. One house..small old original Gables house covered in 2 huge ficus trees..didn't even see the house. House was not fancy and will cost a pretty penny to get it off, cut up and fix the roof and or whatever else it ruined.

Everything is a matter of perspective...

When you look at footage from the Gulf..it is nothing.

Had there not been the second landfall.. people here would feel like they just had a hurricane. Many people are tired, suffering the pain emotionally of watching their favorite trees go down, being without money, businessess suffered losses.. being scared.. stuck home with kids.. spent money for supplies they didnt have..but needed. Any kind of Cane is stressful yet they dont feel they can complain because anytime anyone says anything someone glares at them and says BE HAPPY YOU DONT LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS.

Well that is true..100% .. we are all happy but have to tell you .. you want to beat the crap out of someone who has no compassion or feelings that can tell someone who has lost days of work, stock, product.. landscaping, rooftiles.. broken windows and gone through a Cane.. "oh it could be worse" Yes..they know that. But.. you have to let people feel.. process.

Trust me.. people all over Miami are thinking now.. what if the next one is like Katrina but a four or five?

What if we have a Cane before we clean up the 4 ft pile of debris in front of my house.. before FPL takes away the caution sign and tape next to my house telling people not to go there because they still have not fixed that transformer down the block.

People in Florida.. Miami.. the Keys... NW Florida had mild damage and yet..everyone including the Federal Govt wants to slam them with "it could be worse" and not give them money they deserve or would get in any other year. Tell someone who lost all their stock from flooding for their business. All their crops were destroyed in farmilng areas in South Dade.. "sorry, not this year... other places got a cat 5.. cat 1 no longer is enough to get aid.. help"

Humbled and in awe of the job that is going on in New Orleans. Tired of trying to explain to my kids...why they are not helping small chldren or picking up dead bodies.

We all are..but for those of us not living in denial... we are wondering what we would do.. if next week, next month Miami gets taken out by a Cat 5.. If Savannah who is way overdue gets hit by Katrina's little sister to come along soon. People in Tampa are staring and wondering what would happen...were Tampa Bay to fill up with a storm surge like Gulfport got..

And..we all want to help.

I took the day off... went down to my own home. Saw a park I love called Schenley Park look like a bomb blast went off in the middle of it.. or like 100 lightning stikes hit those beautiful trees in the Park where I have so many memories.. and tried not to be upst, they are trees..they will grow back. Drove along places where friends lived growing up of of Red Road and Ludlum... and off of 8th Street..saw some Pines down.. remembered how cute boys looked swimming in th canal there.. I know it will all grow back. Unlike people who have died, unlike people who change.. unlike the past we cant get back.. or do over.. it will all grow back.

And.. with time.. New Orleans will be rebuilt and I hope to go with someone down the road and dance..listen to jazz....see the beauty of the Garden District restored and .. love Highway 90 more than almost any stretch of highway.. even mor maybe than Pacific Coast Highway.. not as much as the Overseas Highway... but I love it..and pray for all those people whose lives need to be rebuilt..

God send them mercy..money and faith.

Bobbi
Night..

What You See On TV ..is the Tip of the Iceberg.. It is much worse..

Watched the coverage on TV tonight with a few of my older kids who came over.

The son in Miami Shores lost power today during the mini-hurricane we had around 3pm. My daughter said they had 3 inches of rain INSIDE the school flooding into the classrooms. Not sure what the heck that was about ... just the heavens opened up and poured. Maybe the heavens were crying. Or maybe the heavens were warning us that the season is just beginning. Either way.. he is sleeping home and was watching coverage with me.

All I can say is this.. what you see is the tip of the iceberg. The reality of the situation is really more than most people could comprehend anyway.

There are dead bodies trapped in homes..the death count will go higher and higher day by day..week by week..this won't be over for a long time.

People ARE running around the streets with guns trying to protect their belongings and hoping the water doesn't rise in their streets and they have homes left to protect or they may have to be airlifted from their rooftops and leave the guns behind.

Imagine quite a few guns have been looted and they are running around trying to protect what they looted from someone else watching them.

It's not pretty.

People in the Superdome are watching the walking wounded and people on stretchers being brought in. Now.. put yourself in their place. They have been in that place for 4 days now? And, they are not as aware of what is going on outside.. they have little light at night, very hot humid air, no real food to speak of besides enough to get by.. noisy kids, people coughing.. people bitching.. people panicking and they want out and are told the water is rising. They can do the math and are wondering how they are getting out of there.. and then they start moving people in on stretchers and who are injured telling over tales of the outside. Oh, and the toilets aren't working.. they are filled.. not a picnic. Panic is setting in. I'd go crazy.. just thinking on it makes me go crazy and I am not claustrophobic..then again..they have a hole in the roof.. two..

The city is to be evacuated.. officially.

How??? I-10 is gone and highway 90 is out.. how do they plan on evacuating it?? Heard talk of using aircraft carriers like ferries.. is that possible? OR rumor.. What is rumor and what isn't?

Are the floating bodies old dead bodies or new dead bodies? Rumors floating about.

And.. personally tired of hearing reporters on occasion making fun of New Orleans being built there or with sarcasm in their voices say things like.. not sure of the quote..I did not write it down. "something about these people. southern ground....they insist on living here on the edge of the water" Lots of "theys" and "these people." Well ..this could have been avoided not by moving the town to Nebraska but by the town fixing a problem they knew existed back in the early 1980s when the first studies were done.. No one wanted to spend the money. No one wanted to be the one to make the decision. No one wanted to DO anything. A common illness in America...not specifically a Southern Trait.

Has anyone fixed the subways? They were made how long ago? They keep patching them up and they keep adding layers to Atlantic Avenue Station in Brooklyn.. one day it will collapse from the shear weight of additions and construction workers.. in their ongoing rearranging the station. It is an OLD system.

I heard it said today that NO new oil refineries have been built in the last 20 years..

The space shuttle was built in the late 1970s. You wouldn't own a car from then and drive it unless you were using it for Car Shows.

We maintain and hope our luck doesn't run out. Usually.. 9 times out of 10.. 99 out of 100 it happens.

Tell me please about all of "those people" up north who live in towns in the Mid-West that suddenly one summer or after the snow melts in the spring have those horrible floods. They know they live where it "could" flood but it doesn't.. rarely.. usually it happens to someone else's river.

This did not happen because New Orleans is built too low. It happened because the dikes ..damns.. were not built or fixed back in the early 1980s when they first knew there was a problem. I wish I had the newspaper I read that we bought while driving across the I-10. It was a FRONT PAGE story warning of the whole town being flooded if a strong hurricane were to hit and it outlined this very disaster in detail.

And.. there is no monopoly on stupidity. Miami's new financial district is built ON the water.. with barely room to stroll at lunch behind the buildings.. 10 ..20 ..30..40 story high buildings.. with a bank from every country. The new area to the north of the old Omni is being built up with cranes everywhere.. right on the water..big high-rises with wall to wall window views.. ceiling to floor.. they are called names like BLUE.. WATER FRONT.. etc.. lofts being sold starting at $600,000 or 2 Million being bought mostly by South Americans who are investing in America God Bless their South American Rich Hearts.

WE are over crowding the water front and gambling on life the way gamblers gambled in the water front casinos.

Neil Frank used to go door to door in newly built subdivisions and condos that were built on the water's edge and ask the builders.. posing as a potential buyer about what would happen IF a hurricane hit. After being told over and over they were in a hurricane proof zone.. and all the reasons it wasn't a problem he would take out photos.. of that same area..same lot after it had been hit by a hurricane..old photos.

The man ran the Hurricane Center back when Miami was being built up..when Condo Canyon on Collins was built and he saw those condos falling into the sea if a Katrina type storm surge was to have hit like it hit Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian.. and he lectured and complained and educated and he moved on.. sometimes in life we have to move on.

A lesson many were learn this week along the Gulf.

My kids ask where will they go?

They ask if we would move back here?

I tell them .. no. We rent. If we had such a storm and we survived we would .. go somewhere else. I would probably send a few kids up north to older siblings. (hello siblings reading this) and figure out what to do.. Sort of humbling for them to deal with until the 13 year old figured she could move to New York ...before high school. And, their father is there.. worst comes to worst I'd let him figure out what we would do.

What would you do?

This is not a problem of those stubborn Southerners who love to live along the water.

The water was America's highway inland..it still is. That is why it is called a PORT.

Every major city on the East Coast is there because there was a river.

How do you think people got up to St. Paul.. the Mighty Mississippi.

Yes.. I love the South. I love Southern Nights. I love Southern Boys. Smile.. I love Southern Food. Southern Flowers. Southern College Football. I love so many things about the South. So many things about my Grandma Mary.. something so special about Grandma Mary and her soft southern accent that sounded like honey. And, my Uncle who loved okra and had a great Florida Cracker accent and told folksy stories about the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926.

If the New Madrid Fault were to wake up suddenly tomorrow..and shake, rattle and roll.. would people say what kind of crazy people build a city on a fault line that can go off at 8.0??? Because it has..not so long ago..

And, San Francisco was rebuilt.

Manhattan didn't stop being Manhattan because we are afraid someone will blow up the Empire State Building.

It is our nature. We are as a friend told me.. resilient creatures.

It is humbling...upsetting and frustrating.

And, the drama is just beginning.

And..so is the hurricane season.

No..don't run away thinking you will move to Dallas..it gets Twisters.

Not a place on this planet that doesn't get something.. so buckle your seat belts. we are in for a rough September.

Bobbi

Checking In.. Checking Out

Been a long day of watching the heart wrenching live coverage on air as the drama unfolding on TV and for me.. it is very hard because it reminds me of Andrew.. brings up other memories and some I never dreamed of.. So.. I'll be back later. Going to watch the Redsox game with someone special online.. and watch the coverage on the TV while doing so. I am going to pay the Pizza man because I ordered pizza for dinner... couldn't cook. Could barely do much of anything today but sit.. and stare and think a million thoughts that are not really appropriate to write here or anywhere. I'll be back.. in a bit after I feed my kids the cut up pizza and go back on my laptop. All I can say is say a prayer you have never had to be faced with such a trial or test as those poor people have and .. pray you never will. Look into your heart and soul and ask yourself what would you do.. if you were in their shoes. Give thanks for what you have. Take whatever small amount you can afford and donate it. Money honey.. money.. do not.. do not.. DO NOT rummage through old clothes just yet thinking you will send them or drive them down.. they don't need them. They need right now money.. $$$.. they know what to do with the money. Later..when the place is dry (can't imagine when) and later.. when there is an operation set up somewhere.. you can look for what they are asking for and send it.. or volunteer time you might have used on a vacation.. Saying what was said on HurrCity.. The City for us hurricane trackers.. take a CPR class (I should..), read up on first aid procedures in case you have to deal with such a disaster. If you have the time and ability, join the RedCross and offer your services. Give blood. Give Money. Do NOT send clothes .. because after Andrew.. people all over Miami in the better off parts ran down and took clothes and things and dropped it off at places for people.. outside.. no one could get to the clothes (they were shell shocked living in their war torn ...torn apart homes that it never occured to them the govt would tell them they have to vacate soon because they were "uninhabitable" and the clothes sat in the rain..pouring rain (it is summer in the south) and rotted away. Well meaning donations.. by well meaning people..who thought they were helping. If you want to help.. give money. The redcross will give vouchers.. they need it to feed people.. to mount the biggest, largest rescue operation in history. Eventually.. local organizations will rise like cream to the crop and you can send you old clothes and shoes and they won't rot in the Louisianna sunshine somewhere waiting to be sent into a city that is not ready to be clothed .. but waiting for food.. for water.. for someone to do something to put it all back the way it used to be. Later..Bobbi Who is too tired to figure out why it won't let me make paragraphs right now.

Looters, Mayors, Water Rising.. Pouring in Miami.. a reminder its not over

Okay..

Watching TV here...

Fox News is showing the big FLOTEL that is stuck and slammed into the bridge.

CNBC is showing the Port Fourchon director... going to be a long time til normal.

MSNBC doing financial problems of the loss of oil production.. downplaying it. Insurance Biz.

CNN ... Jeanne is back on talking from a rooftop about what is going on. Official figure 80% of NOLA is now underwater and there is still water rising. Some looting. Gas leaks throughout the City. The water in new pics has almost breached rooftops...that a few hours ago in video was not as high..

TWC is doing weekly forecast...they are on Friday.

Back to CNN.. Army Corp of Engineers at 17th Street Canal Flood Wall and they are assessing the damage.. the water overtoped it (duh) letting the whole structure collapse (duh) and they found another breach.. closing the break is essential (duh)

anyway..

It's pouring on and off in Miami and the sky is a beautiful shade of purple blue and the sun is out and shining onto green trees... the colors of summer in Miami .. the colors of my youth. A reminder it isn't over.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER...

Because of dust storms and the poor conditions for formation of Cape Verde storms near Africa.. this is setting up a pattern where incredibly strong, beautifully formed Cape Verde Waves roll off of Africa..with great low pressure centers attached and they don't form ... they move west.. and crawl under the radar so to speak.. they form.. they fall apart..they get killed off and like some heroine on One Life to Live.. they show up really close to home. They reform close in like the last few have ... and the water is very hot and they have the ability to create strong Major Canes that "surprise us"

Note.. when a storm forms far out at sea... gets too big..too fast..more often than not they recurve safely out to sea.. only a few get through to put the US coastline in danger.

But.. because this year.. the waves are struggling through..not caught up in the strong currents that would take them out to be "fish storms" they are carried along by lower level currents that go west, west..west.. in under radar so to speak and when they finally find the right place to develop.. WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAAM sort of storms form and they get in your face, up close and personal much faster than if they had simply formed far out .. near Africa and traveled along recurving up the middle of the Atlantic.. infact if they get into the Carib... they will go west, west..form and then catch cold fronts up into the Florida area in October and well.. it is far from over and an odd set of conditions are making this coming September a September to Remember... and don't think it can't happen because it couldn't possibly happen after all of this.. It can.. it will..

So watch and learn and think what you would do.. might do.. may have to do.. sooner rather than later..

post from HurrCity below..
........................
Posted by bobbistorm on 8/30/2005, 3:15 pm, in reply to "Re: Dealing with Shock and Awe"User logged in as: Bobbistorm
yes it is very overwhelming..

all day watching water rising.. it is about to go over the rooftops.. was lower..getting higher

everything you said.. you said as always.. so well

as for the looters.. this is how i feel and wrote you but will post it here

let them lootlet them take it back to their houses that are partially under water..their apartment houses in crappy parts of town about to go under and soon to be condemned
who the hell cares at this point.. there is no real stopping it and to try right now wastes energy better used to find people dying who can be saved

so they took a produce case.. no one is coming back for itif they found food.. any kind let them keep itif they found a bunch of ipods.. or clothes or who knows.. let them take it

businesses with insurance will have written it off.. and no one is coming in anytime soon

businesses without insurance.. are not coming back

homes.. people left and knew if the worse happened.. it was gone

im not condoning it... not on any moral level but watching a bunch of kids (along with adults) happily carrying off crap acting like they found a buried treasure and worrying on it right now.. is wasted energy

wasted time....dont even show it on the news

use all energy possible to save whoever you can because from what I have heard.. they cannot stop the leak and the water will rise til its equal with the lake......

let God take care of the looters its one thing we dont need to see on tv(talking new orleans.. not mississippi.. let the cute gov shoot to kill good luck)

its awesome, its shockingand for all of us.. its a nightmare we knew would happen
and a train wreck watched in slow motion

let the gov of mississippi try
the mayor of new orleans is watching dead bodies floating by while on his survey of his town

SIZE DOES MATTER... ASK KATRINA

Quick post here..but want to say again and again that in the case of Katrina the PROBLEM was the SIZE and when FEMA talks about it being BIGGER than all FOUR hurricanes last year.

When the dollar amount is posted... when the death toll is done being compiled.

SIZE MATTERED ... She was the size of Texas and putting that into a small cone worrying on landfall was sort of silly in retrospect.

From Louisiana to the Florida border... there are bodies, clean up... and the size of her after she went in land was mesmerizing last night.

And, while the NHC kept downgrading her winds.. she grew.. outward and her clouds began to cover at least a 1/3 of the United States...

So...remember.. it's not just intensity.. its SIZE and in this case.. her SIZE made all the difference.

All of that rain.. being pushed up against the Gulf Coast.. FIVE MILES INLAND in Gulfport ..

Size does matter.. remember that.

She was a monster size wise and made Andrew look like a marble compared to a basketball and this particular ball did not fit inside the narrow tube in a pinball machine...

Worse case scenario indeed..

Heavy rain in Miami and thunder.. going on the porch to watch.. here rain is calming, beautiful.. there it destroyed the dike system.. wind and rain..

http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Putting the link up to see. Pouring rain here.. amazing how beautiful rain can be.. when it doesn't come with storm surge and Cat 5 winds.

Link For More Links on Katrina.. Excellent Link

Hi..

I was sent this link and it was requested I post it on my blog.

I checked it out.. it is excellent.

I would use it myself now except it is thundering up a small storm in Miami.. small one, not tropical .. and have to go off a bit..

As for looters.. just want to say... depends on what they are looting. If it is food.. they should let people take whatever food they can find before it rots...goes bad.. It's sick.. It's sad. Happens after every storm... sad but true... nice to know someone will have nice electronic ipods they can sell someone... after the storm. NO words.. What a mess. Hard to judge what goes through someone's mind at ground zero .. in hell.

GREAT LINK..

http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page


Glad I could help. Bobbi

NOLA Did Not Dodge the Bullet..... Areas to Her East Devastated

http://www.redcross.org/

The President is speaking on this now.. Imagine soon he will find a way to get to the area himself when he is done with events commemorating the end of ww2.

Good link.

Repost of a post I wrote on HurricaneCity below after my immediate thoughts...

I am home today.. seems my library can't get their electric on and I am not being paid for this nice little vacation where I am sickly staring at new coverage and wish I was at work making money and.. helping people go online to apply for foodstamps, INS forms.. help them with the college papers (colleges are in session for 2 days), correcting people's grammar and telling them we have no Zane books..they are all "missing" or "lost" which means stolen.. not returned.

Watching video from New Orleans that is humbling. I cannot even think what to type or say or what will make a difference. Video just came out of Bay St. Louis a town you will remember I was worried would get hit hard. So much for NOLA avoiding the bullet... no they did get the bullet. Was just with a silencer I guess and no one saw it slowly bleeding.. blood seeping out slowy like water flowing over broken dikes. And...how or why this happened is like trying to figure out the difference of being shot by a rifle or if you were shot by an UZI... you are still dead or in this case... New Orleans is sort of on Life Support.

Cantore filed his footage.. very heavy. Posting below and going off to do things I have not done in the last 3 days.. will watch coverage in the background. Also spoke to my best friend in Macon where twisters did touch down.. annoyed all the concern has been on the "path" of Katrina all the way up to Canada and not on the whole system itself.

Brace yourselves for untold high and tragic death tolls.. from flooding, from after accidents like the 10 year old girl in Kentucky who was playing in standing water (or something like that) and from people trapped in their homes.... apartment buildings collapsing..

Brace yourself for sad stories... and know that anytime over the next few weeks or months during this rebuilding or recovering bodies stage... New Orleans, Gulfport, Penscacola, Mobile or Miami can and will get hit by another tropical cyclone of some kind. It is almost a given.

It is not over..

September Remember...we are just getting close to September 1st.

It is not over.. it is not global warming.. it is a bad set up of conditions favoring tropical development this season and it is very much like 1960s, 1940s... like when Jamaica was hit with like 3 storms one year in 1888 or was it 1883..

We forget when we go through an easy period in the Big Easy and growth triples and we think we are safe... Key West went through it's biggest growth period when it was the Richest City in the USA in the 1880s.. 1890s during a period when they were not hit frequently with strong storms.

Miami... is going through the craziest downtown building boom in decades.. and Miami .. downtown has not been hit by a Cat 4 since 1926... not directly. Andrew hit Homestead and compared to Katrina in size she was an itsy, bitsy.. small storm... a marble compared to a bowling ball. Can you imagine what would happen to downtown Miami if it had been hit by Katrina or her 2nd and 3rd landfall? Katrina as a Cat 5..direct hit.. not having Grand Isle there to buffer the blow.. Miami had been hit dead on by Katrina as a Cat 5 and she would have destroyed Miami.. Broward County... water would have flooded Homestead that was dry in Andrew but not in Katrina.. my library would been washed away on the canal 3 miles in.. not just closed 5 days later still trying to get their electric fixed.

I think Katrina may be upgraded down the road.. think she was stronger in Miami.,,, at least 85 mph.. maybe 90 like the "gusts" show because she had one hell of an eye for a minimal 75mph storm. And, the devastation along the Gulf Coast I believe shows she was downgraded to a simple Cat 3 a little bit prematurely.

Here's my post.. donate as you can to those in need and think what you would do ..will do if and when your town gets hit by such a storm

Bobbi. .......................
Have to say here I am amazed and impressed at the amount of information given on this board. I am on information overload and off work today (w/o pay) because the library where I work can't seem to get FPL to hook up their electric.. mind you ever 99cent store and walgreens around the library has power. Who knows... maybe its more and they don't want to say.. government agencies hate saying too much.I think somewhere along the line the way Hurricane Prediction.. Forecasting is done by the GOVT needs to be changed.We are past the years when no one knew where a storm was.... it has to be about more than just finding the wind speed and path.FEMA goes into work after and yet there should be some way that the information that FEMA wants to get out is distributed in correlation with Hurricane Advisories.The regulars here knew this would happen.. this storm if not the next one.. and they could yet get another storm as patterns in a year stay similar.. we knew. They really are given lots of details like a CONE.. WIND SPEED that doesnt seem to correlate with pressure.Saw Bastardi on FOX last night.. did an incredible job of explaining.. what was going on weather wise. Do not want to get into a whole accuweather takes on the nhc..this is NOT what I am writing about.I am explaining that in today's world we do not need to be DUMMED DOWN TO.. about the dangers out there and why weather does what it does And.. NOW is the time to do it. Because it seems NOW people suddenly want to watch the weather.. CNN Your Hurricane Headquarters... Anyone can go online or watch the news these days and see for themselves what people at NOAA or NASA can see on their ipods and cell phones.. We need to be honest about the real dangers and not confuse them with "oh the wind speed just went down 10 mphs" or "new orleans got lucky and the eye is moving a bit east"This was a HUGE hurricane... size wise..and no where did I see it warned about the size. Comparison to Camille..yes.. for intensity. Comparison to Irene for rainfall.. yes..No where did I see NHC or even TWC (i could be wrong) or FEMA who was I am sure scared beyond words. Stating this was like MITCH or ALLEN or whatever you favorite MONSTER SIZE Storm about to come ashore and that a Cat 3 or Cat 4 that big..with that much there ... Well let me end this with something many can and will relate to.You all know that if Neil Frank had been in charge at the NHC he would have been freaking, screaming, showing all his charts and graphs and nonstop giving examples of what would be happening in New Orleans, in Gulfport.. in Slidell who we have still not yet heard much from.. The man would not shut up on the subject of storm surge and what we really did need was someone like that at some government agency somewhere on live nonstop not giving the example that its a 18 wheeler or a train what difference does it make. What the people did not need was to be told.. well it looks like New Orleans was spared the major damage .. if Katrina went a drop left then... Trust me.. Neil Frank NEVER would have been telling people that. .. he would have been begging people who were in NOLA as the storm was passing to the right to go up into their attics..find high ground if they did not leave.. he would have been warning them it was not over.. not going thru onair Missed the Bullet crap.I give you all unreal credit.. I'm on information overload.. going to blog. I want to know.. why weather is dummed down to people and then government agencies sort of go on CYA mode and say.. "well they were in the cone" Screw the Cone.. Stop dumming down to people.I emailed a friend in Macon yesterday BEFORE there was ANY talk on CNN about the twister danger there.. But they all went with the track.. projected track.. As my daughter said.. it's the size of TEXAS... you dont need to emphasize a cone or a path or what the exact wind speed from the dropsonde is.. you need to give a REAL picture of what is going on..ServeInformEducatestop dumming weather downWill check back later..And the media i believe for once is doing a bang up job.. unreal job... great job showing the real story.. And so are all of you.I will say lastly.. Max Mayfield did keep saying the small towns would get it and he complained that they have been criticized in the past they don't do enough to warn the towns not as big as places like New Orleans so .. he wants to make sure they know they are in danger... because they are in the Cone.. screw the cone if I may say this.. nowdays a child on their cellphone can see what is going on.. The cone is one piece of information.. the information they really needed was what Neil Frank would have given them but never got..

Map of the Day.. 2 Canes .. Camille and Katrina

Two roads diverged in yellow wood.. is that how the poem goes.. well go figure because it seems Camille and Katrina took the same yellow path http://flhurricane.com/googlemap.php?1969s3-2005s12

Request to post this blog.. here...

someone asked me to post this link.. in email.. am posting it.. not sure what it is or how reliable but this is what blogging is about... you decide.. it's your call

the blogging world is about freedom of speech in ways and new ways of self-expression

so posting this blog.. will post any that I think may be helpful or someone might enjoy

though I am not much into the blogging world.. but people do read and things do get around

when you read a blog.
it's information and partial entertainment

look deep into your wallets and if you don't believe in tithing...start a diet tomorrow
a one day diet... drink slim fast or eat fruit or marshmallows... cut back and take the money you would have spent on food and send it to the RedCross.. no one like the Red Cross and you will always know the money is going where it is needed. I've given to the charity on the main page of www.hurricanecity.com because if Jim says it is a good charity and the money helps the people.. gets there.. believe him.. he is honest and a good man.

On the Jim note... must be strange for him. This summer he drove out to the Conference in New Orleans and along the way took video and did interview with people who had been in Charley.. people who live near Camille's landfall.. he was there, he took film.. pictures... thought a lot. (I know Jim) and this must seem so much personal after just being there. And, he's worried on a few storm chasers he is personally friends with.. and hasn't heard from..

so..here is this blog.. check it out.. check out others.. google whatever you are looking for
it is the new indoor sport of America... you thought it was just there to look up you highschool sweetheart or the one you wished was???? come on... google a blog.. do it today

blogging....
bobbi

http://www.nowpublic.com/user/2173

Cantore Groupies Worrying On Cantore..

Watching tv and on IM with close online friend... will add here that supposedly Cantore took refuge in a veterans retirement home (according to twc producer) and he will post when he can.

In my house ..have to go make dinner... that one surviving Cichlid is attacking the air tube.. should call him Jaws..

Heard there are deaths being reported in... 3 people in a nursing home in New Orleans.. people have reported seeing floating bodies but it's early and not totally confirmed but trust me.. I know weather and some body somewhere is floating down a lazy river in the streets of New Orleans tonight.. trust me.. no way around it I suppose.

This was a major, major landfalling Cane just below the level of Andrew and Camille... way above almost every other Cane.. maybe close to Hugo... but over a much wider area...

It was the best of the worse case scenarios but still bad...

And.. like in Miami.. parts of New Orleans are under water..other parts got off luckier.

A quick sampling of life online...
Watching TWC here.. people waiting to see some video from Jim Cantore. Seems no one has seen him in a while and was in a building which had major flooding.. water rising. Seems the producer said they have spoken to him and he will file report soon. It's always a joke..don't know where it started..that Cantore doesn't get the bad stuff.. Have seen him blown about but people love to tease and follow Cantore.. he looked nervous and concerned last night. And to think I have seen video someone sent me of Andrew coverage (missed it.. my tv was gone) and there was Mike Siedel and Cantore covering it IN the Studio... waiting to see what Cantore has to say.

Otherwise around the web... good blog on Gulfport.. good pics from yahoo..small sampling of posts from HurricaneCity and Flhurricane.. two sites with great posters and a real close knit community of good people.. spread around around the country... even up in Michigan and Toronto.. go figure..

http://eyesonkatrina.blogspot.com/ good info...reliable on Gulfport..
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/ts/080304tropicalweathe/im:/050829/ids_photos_ts/r3187166071.jpg lots of pictures.

Oil drilling platform crashes into bridgePosted by Chris on 8/29/2005, 4:38 pmUser logged in as: Chris_in_TampaMOBILE, Ala. A major Alabama bridge is shut down, after being hit by a runaway oil drilling platform courtesy of Hurricane Katrina.A state transportation spokesman says the span (the Cochrane-Africatown U-S-A Bridge) in north Mobile will stay closed until it can be inspected for damage. The bridge is used for hazardous material to bypass a downtown Mobile tunnel.The platform apparently broke away from its moorings late this morning, drifting along until it became jammed under the bridge's main span.
........
Posted by CJPILOT on 8/29/2005, 12:05 pmUser logged in as: CJPILOTHomeland Security Chief Terry Ebbert estimates it may take a month to get power back to everyone in New Orleans.Councilman Oliver Thomas said he had received 120 distress calls from people in the Ninth Ward trapped by the storm. He said crews can not get to these people until hurricane force winds cease, the guess for that time frame is about 2 p.m.Karen Swensen reports that Charity Hospital lost its windows on the 4th floor and that patients are being huddled in the hallways.Senator Walter Boasso of St. Bernard Parish says there is 12 feet of water in most of the parish, up to the second floor in many homes.Reports of 3-4 feet of water in Lakeview.Apartment building on Wright Avenue in Terrytown has collapsed with people inside, according to Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee. Rescue crews have not been able to get to the scene as of 9:30 a.m.Karen Swensen says there is 3 feet of water downtown near the Hyatt. She reports several office windows coming out whole from buildings.Two holes ripped in Superdome roof, visible from facility floor, according to Associated Press reports... A LEVEE BREACH OCCURRED ALONG THE INDUSTRIAL CANAL AT TENNESSE STREET. 3 TO 8 FEET OF WATER IS EXPECTED DUE TO THE BREACH...LOCATIONS IN THE WARNING INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO ARABI AND 9TH WARD OF NEW ORLEANS.St. Bernard Parish spokesman Larry Ingargiola says the parish's two shelters at Chalmette High and St. Bernard High are suffering major damage. He said Chalmette High shelter is losing its roof, and St. Bernard High has plenty of broken windows and glass. He estimates 300-plus refugees at the two sites.Entergy says 317,000 customers were without power as of 6 a.m. Cleco reported 40,000 without power in St. Tammany Parish.St. Bernard Parish officials say most of the parish has no power. requests for help begin...
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Posted by Fire3083 on 8/29/2005, 4:59 pmUser logged in as: Fire3083Has anyone heard from anyone in the Foley or Gulf Shores area? I spoke to my grandmother in Foley around 10:30 am EDT and she said they had power but were really glad there were no trees around because they would be gone. However, this is before some of the harsher outer bands hit.
........
waiting to hear about Bay St. Louis... Posted by andy on 8/29/2005, 6:12 pm, in reply to "Re: cnn showing footage"User logged in as: magnificowhat I'm seeing on CNN now was a reporter who travelled from Gulport to Biloxi on Hwy 10, which is perhaps 2-4 miles from the waterfront and he claimed one lane was impassable due to floating appliances, etc.Will wait to see reports from Highwy 90, the waterfront route from biloxi thru to Bay St Louis...


********************************** Tornado discussion.... from flhurricane.com...Hey folks from Atlanta...some updates from here...
Major tornadic outbreak in Eastern suburbs of Atlanta as well as on the west side of the state.
Reports are coming in of at least 7 different touchdowns and a number of warnings have been posted for the affected area. Polk & Carroll Counties are the ones under the gun and according to WSB-TV there was a two car wreck in Carroll County during the Tornado Warning in which one person was killed. Radar loop...http://www.intellicast.com/Local/USNationalWide.asp?loc=usa&seg=LocalWeather&prodgrp=RadarImagery&product=Radar&prodnav=none&pid=none
Special Weather Statement
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENTNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PEACHTREE CITY GA558 PM EDT MON AUG 29 2005
GAZ032-033-292230-
558 PM EDT MON AUG 29 2005
...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ALERT FOR FREQUENT LIGHTNING AND HEAVY RAININ COBB AND NORTH FULTON COUNTIES UNTIL 630 PM EDT...
AT 553 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED ASTRONG THUNDERSTORM OVER ATLANTA...MOVING NORTH AT 25 MPH. THISSTORM WILL AFFECT NORTH ATLANTA...VININGS...MARIETTA...AND BUCKHEAD.LOCALIZED FLOODING MAY OCCUR WITH THIS ACTIVITY. IN ADDITION...SOMEROTATION WAS INDICATED WITH THIS STORM.
A TORNADO WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT. CONTINUE TO MONITOR NOAA WEATHERRADIO...WEATHER.GOV OR OTHER MEDIA OUTLETS FOR FURTHER STATEMENTS ORPOSSIBLE WARNINGS ON THESE STORMS.
$$


********************VERY GOOD POST TO REMEMBER SHOULD YOU BE IN THIS PLACE AND BE SO PROUD OF YOURSELF THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO BUY A GENERATOR... REMEMBER THIS .. ITS IMPORTANT.. FROM FLHURRICANE..
If you have a generator, buy a carbon monoxide detector. They are cheap.
(And like the previous poster, I apologize if this post is off-topic; but carbon monoxide poisoning, although uncommon, does happen more often after storms than at other times, and with a detector it is for the most part preventable.) **************************

Jambalaya Stew.. Bobbi Style

Coffee reduced liver cancer and helps in Alzheimers and Parksinsons. But, it is a drug... you can get a withdrawal if you give it up. I guess the message here is DONT GIVE IT UP!!

I learned this fact mind you while going through the channels and seeing a few minutes of Oprah before turning it off. Thought..yeah for soap operas and Oprah they went back to regular programming. Hey Jerry Stiller is doing a commercial for General Motors to use children's seats in cars. He's cute.. cuter than his son. Oh .. look Jason commercial for McArthur Dairy. Real TV.. look at that... going back to the news channels.. I do not want to see the nonstop commercials for the Fall Line Up. It's one those things I will do after eventually going into therapy..one day if I can find a shrink who would believe my life.

Sitting here drinking a Dr. Pepper and watching a candle slowly burn down.. trying to relax southern style..

So.. back to MSNBC... heavy wind and torrential rain.

Putting my new Beatles CD back on... video from the storm affected areas is awesome but predictable. I think what isn't as "normal" is that the area was so large because Katrina was such a big, big girl.

Bush didn't let go of the reserves.. guess he is waiting to see how bad it really is ... or for Al Kaida to attack. Sorry.. what can I say? I am a very liberal republican.. or am I a.. conservative democrat? Is there a purple party? Will see... maybe he will open up the reserves.. and if not we will go on. Right now it's more important to save lives in the area where flooding is going on and people may be trapped in their homes or cars or... where ever than to get political.
In a mood.. listening to the CD and it's getting to me in ways it shouldn't.
la, la, la.. Life Goes On.. love that song. Always did but lately.. bugs me. Al the shrinks in the world and you walk into my life.. oh sorry...wrong movie.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooo... Katrina is racing on through the back hills of Missippi on her date with Tennessee. Heard it said she has the perfect ingredient list to spawn lots of Twisters..
I lit a candle with little cedar chips in it.. and it's going out.. finally, can really smell the cedar and sage.. sweet smells...breathing in.. breathing out..

life goes on..

Stay calm Bobbi... stay calm... do not let hate or anger or pain into your life.

So.. daughter called in from NY.. needs weather loops.. needs better loops.. she is going to Montreal for Shabbos.. nice. Wondering if its a wedding, a camp out in the woods there... a chance to do Henna tatoos and pay for her trip.. what is she doing going to Montreal?
Shayna called.. wants to know if they are really getting all that rain later in the week...

Wow... candle is going crazy.. think all the little cedar/sage pieces just caught fire.. big bonfire..

Oldest son sent me some blog links.. I'm too tired to click.

Howie from the Hurricane Center.. the one with the cute guys ;) lol, giggling... well... he asked me if he cheered me up with the cute photos of funny sayings? Nah not really.. cute.. more cheered up by his other correspondence regarding the remnants of 13.. lol laughing..
oh yeah... mr postman...

wow this is really burning up HIGH.. should I like make a wish or run and get a fire distinguisher..

Good question asked on local news... No.. if you are living in Florida and don't have electric yet.. no this will not affect our recovery. The FPL crews restoring power in Miami before going out to Mississippi and other places to help them. People called in.. worried.

Speaking of power.

Here is one for you... a big wire went down..down the block that links to the back pole behind my house. (My kids are reading this and giggling) and FPL came out on Friday morning and immediately put BIG YELLOW WARNING FLAGS on it.. it is hanging low across the street.. talking low... forgot it was out there I need to go take pictures. And.. it is a BIG cable that runs across the street next to my house. I think that means STAY OUT!!!But ... looked out the window this morning and see all these idiots with big oversized vans.. the ones that scream "look at me, I spent a lot of money on this and I don't care how much the cost of gas is.." and they are playing limbo with it.. driving directly under it.. or driving up on the side of the grass where the low hanging electric wires are hanging .. barely clearing it. Now what I find most interesting about this is.. the small and medium size cars that could get under probably okay.. they back up, turn around.. the big MOMMA .....um... big flame there rising real high.. must be like four inches.. I should pray or something.. make a wish.. Well...the BIG VANS .. ATV type vehicles are the only ones trying to go around it.. like no wire gonna keep me out. Insanity... and most of those cars have people in the "community" packed with little kids.. and what are they teaching their children??? Oh, you don't have to pay attention to THOSE LAWS.. only OUR Laws.. Teaching their children to put tons of fences around the Torah but they can't respect a yellow caution flag fence that FPL put up to stay clear and be careful.. People... they are a whole book unto themselves and communities like this come with their own instruction book and I guess since they aren't breaking any Torah laws.. they can crawl their big fat vans under the Yellow Caution Lines..

Annoyed... things like that bug me..

The flame is dying..smoking ...wow... I love you more... stopping to send silent prayers as the smoke sifts up

I love you more... my life.. I love you more.. whimsical song..

Afraid of what comes next... smiling.. oh ..........smiling.. big smile.

Monkees.. Jr. High.. big smile.. wake up sleepy jean.. Cheer up sleepy jean oh what can it mean to a daydream believer and a Homecoming Queen :) Smiling.. you once thought of me as a white knight on a steed... rolling eyes..

you know when you have those little daisy flowers and you pull the leaves off.. periwinkles they are called...

i love him....i hate him....i love him....i hate him.....i love him....i hate him

Katrina is well into Jackson Mississippi after coming all the way north from Jackson Square.. daydream believer and a homecoming queen..

The daylight pictures show mass devastation if you call blown out windows mass devastation and cars floating in the muck that is on the streets of New Orleans

giggling.. Henry the 8th I am.. laughing.. 2nd verse same as the first lol

Life is a funny collage of bad and good and sometimes very funny. Giggling .. love this song..
Will always love this song. When I was about 13 or so we made a backyard talent show....and I stood on a little surfboard and sang and wiggled my very cute little butt with my very young growing shape.. bouncing around.. singing this song in what passed back then for a bikini. But as cute as I looked singing it.. as much as the guys in the neighborhood enjoyed it... never will ever enjoy hearing it as much as the time that my crazy friend in their crazy outfit.. ummm whatever sang it and insisted I tell them who sings this song. There we were driving down the street.. and they turn their head sideways and smile and insist.. (mind you I had been bitching at that time to someone else that my boyfriend was always asking me who sings this and who sings that and am tired of being asked.. I dance I don't know who sings what.... like the ex-boyfriend Herman did.. ) so there we were .... in the car...and as the car is racing down the street..they turn to me and go ..."OH I BET YOU KNOW WHO SINGS THIS SONG" (mind you had never told them about Herman.. they just knew... some snitch told them maybe.. ) and... I start acting like some contestant on Name That Tune.... lol screaming out "OKay, Okay... Herman Hermits" (pissed a bit at the Herman reference... ) and then ...no, no .. no... no little Bobbi HAS to get it right. so I start fumbling for the cute lead singers name... no no not Herman ..not Herman's Hermits.. he had a name.. it was.............ummmmm and scream up real loud:Peter!!!!! Peter (what the hell does someone have a name that says no one huh???) and turn up and look at them and they are driving along not looking.. sort of like that scene in Dukes of Hazzard when he wants the cousin to apologize and the cute guy who looks like Jim lol keeps saying "say your sorry" and the car is going foward and well... boy did I feel soooooo stupid. Giggled.. was pissed. So pissed. Was funny as hell. Funnier than anything you will ever see in any movie everywhere... PETER NOONE. lol stupid blonde guy.. Peter Noone.. the guy behind Hermans Hermits...

A great moment.. finally they smuggly turned fowardand kept driving... safely again.. and I stared out the other window annoyed as hell and muffled a smile. One of the funniest moments of my life.. crazy people... including me because I put up with it.. still trying to look out the other window and not let them see I am laughing with tears in my eyes.. Yes Virginia.. Peter sings Herman's Hermits lol giggling.

Think I have gone past the point of exhaustion here...

I want to hold your hand...........

Well that is the point of this...

Life is sometimes good, sometimes bad.. sometimes crazy.. sometimes sad and ..........sometimes a storm comes up and follows the path that all other storms before her have forsaken or not even tried to take.. the path that brought her into the City of New Orleans and just before it hits.. SHE SHE SHE lgiglging (family joke) and SHE.. swerves right... just enough to save New Orleans from total devastation ...

Sure a lot of windows got blown out and sadly.. people will die.. you know the death toll will climb... and they will have to dry out the city, fix it up... put the windows back in... rebuild... deal with crappy construction workers who try to take advantage and good ones who do good work and

Life...............it is a mixed bag and you cannot always outrun the storm. You can't always fool everyone all of the time but you can fool some of the people some of the time and ... sometimes people just pretend they are fooled because they don't want to pull the mask off the ole Lone Ranger when Tonto isn't around.. be kind.

Going off.. giving up... Take the Last Train to Clarksville roling on the floor, can't type.. oh no no no no...

Love him......Hate him.....Love him....Hate him

I'll be back later when I have something worthwhile blogging. Going over to play with the boys at Hurrcity and peak around to see what Clark has posted on Flhurricane.com where I post undercover..

One last thing.... I have it on very good authority that Lex Luthor killed off Tropical Depression #13 a little tooo soon and well... keep watching the remnants of 13...

McArthur Park.. Richard Harris.. beautiful.. and am very happy that New Orleans did not melt in the dark ...all the sweet green icing .. and felt like it was the cake that was left out in the rain... and it is still there.. and I plan on going there soon... (yellow cotton dress.. rolling eyes) and ... I plan on going there sometime soon.. somehow.. don't know how.. but I will.
Some things in life you shouldn't put off forever...comes a time you have to take a stab in the dark and go for it.. grab the brass ring, sing.. dance.. There is a time for everything unto heaven... and that means there must be a time to go to New Orleans.. with someone who will appreciate it as much as I would.. and listen to real Dixieland Jazz..

There will be another song for me.. for I will sing it.. there will be another dream for me.. someone who dreams.. I will drink the wine when it is warm and never let you catch me looking at the sun

and after all the loves in my life.. after all the loves in my love.. i will think of you

and be wondering ...................why...
later Bobbi

Noon: Update on Katrina.. Will Bush Release the Oil Reserves?

Watching coverage.

Going to write something here because have learned in life the hard way that if you dont toot your horn.. no one else does it for you.

So... want to say I am eerily amazed that everything I said this storm would do.. it did.

Wasn't some crystal ball or tarot card reading.. but watching the story unfold on water vapor imagery.. watching the wind flow and having a very good grasp of hurricane history..climo.. trends and will say I have learned a lot from some of the very best in the industry that I count among my close friends.

I've learned that a storm will retain the shape that it started out with... how or why I don't know but it is true. And, when as a depression she had a funny shape with a big line of storms to her NE I knew that when she became a hurricane she would develop one Long BIG Band there on the NE side.. and she did. And, as a wave.. she had that same look.

I knew she would slide up along Cuba... Old Bahama Passage and she did.

I knew she would hit Miami-Dade/Broward line and she did.. though she just barely kissed Ft. Lauderdale Beach of "where the boys are" fame before moving SW like the consistent GFDL model predicted she would do... down SW all the way through Miami.. and she kept going until she was just north of Key West. I didn't think she would do so far SW... WSW yes .. but even I didn't think she would go that far. But did know this was not a Palm Beach storm.

Knew she would become a hurricane before hitting land and before the hurricane center called her a tropical storm. And, I was right she would hit Thurdsay night and not Friday. Told friends at work who I was worried on that live on Miami Beach to prepare for her to come in sooner and that she would go south of forecasted track. I was right.

From the moment she made it west..that far west and I thought on my knowledge of hurricanes.. I knew she was copying Betsy's track.. Andrew's track and she would take aim at New Orleans and areas around there ... I was right.

Someone on the board teases me I have mind melded to this storm. LOL. Nah...not at all. I just see what is happening.. good gut, good knowledge and I use the water vapor a lot. More on that later.

Watched the water vapor when NHC had her coming in around West Florida and thought.. no I don't buy it. Mind you I don't have to support my gut or issue warnings that local governments are going to have to work with.. no it's just my own feeling.

Knew she would come in further East and as knew the eye would go over Bay St. Louis.

You can check my posts and see I was right. Should have thought on Slidell but truth is I have been to Bay St. Louis and know it better and for some reason forget about Slidell. We all identify with what we know best.. but knew the eye would hit where it did.

I am amazed.. not the first time.. just wierd.. and going to explain this once.

Many forecasters work with models...and they live or die by the models and they don't like to choose one..so they blend the different models and draw a line down the middle to be on the safe side. But there is no being on the safe side when it comes to weather.. it does what it wants to do and storms go where they want..they don't always take the middle road. Which is why they draw the famous Cone.. and then the media plays up the middle of the cone.. which makes sense.

Many weather watchers look at the storms too close..they look at the floater.. local sat imagery... you can't do that.. you just can't. You have to go WIDE.. go up high and look at the whole synoptic flow.. you cannot let yourself get mesmerized by the center.. and every fast frame that comes in on the floater or NRL.. you have to watch the ever changing... water vapor loop which shows you where the moisture..the water vapor..the highs and the lows want to go tomorrow.... and blend that with patterns...

Patterns of the past... laid over what you see today.. learn from the past.

If a storm is going that far due west over South Florida there is one hell of a high pushing it even if you don't see it well on IR or VIS or even WV.. it ha to be there..

Anyway... the worst is over for New Orleans and thankfully it is still there however people living on the east side have major flooding and there will be some clean up. Not to mention got to get that rooftop fixed on the Superdome and let the people go home.. and clean up.

Remember.. one good twister in a distant band can change much of what I say for an area that looks like it got off.

The storm is stronger than she seems and we are lulled into complacency by her wind speed dropping. TWC showed it and on Hurricanecity.com the posters have noticed she is looking almost stronger in rain and storms on her east side.. remember...most of her is still over water.. The eye has moved inland but as I said earlier... she is and was always bottom heavy and most of her bottom is out over warm water and she is moving along the coast ne.. slamming that red that is growing stronger into Biloxi.. Gulfport... Mobile and even Fort Walton Beach.

Now the damage reports will come in...

and, people all over America who really don't care THAT much if New Orleans is okay or not like us down south do..they want to know bottom line, bottom dollar..is Bush going to release those reserves we hold onto in case of an emergency. Of course he was saving them for some political drama probably. Stay tuned and see what Bush does..

And... keep watching the drama unfold.

Good luck to all the chasers in her path who are recording her landfall.. taking data at landfall and relaying it to different weather services around the country.. its not all just about loving danger.. its more..

She is beautiful... so beautiful... from a meteorological point of view... from up in outter space..

Simply beautiful lady... but a deadly one..

Bobbi
who got to see a sunset in Katrina's eyes the first time she made landfall.. and glad I didn't have to be in the eye the second time she made landfall..

11AM KATRINA UPDATE... Levee broken, roof still leaking.. eye over Bay St. Louis

Watching coverage on all channels... watching with friends online .. so people are passing along channels for breaking news.

Mobile going to get a strong storm as she turned NE..

Gulfport and Biloxi... not going to be pretty.

As I thought.. knew.. Bay St. Louis is getting the eye. Pretty town.. been there.. sits on the end of I90 give or take on the way into New Orleans.

Even though the eye has passed New Orleans be aware that on the radar there is an eye wall band that is swinging around the eye and slamming New Orleans from the North which is where she is most vulnerable.

Superdome is holding .. but it is leaking like the proverbial sieve... they should be okay for the rest of the storm but if the storm had come in any stronger and any closer to the left/west they would have had the disaster that many feared watching them go in there. Seems as someone on tv said.. the best worse case scenario.

It is being downgraded to a Category 3 and everyone sounds thrilled.
As someone on flhurricane.com said... don't use those terms together "only" and "Cat 3" a very good post.

All a matter of perspective here... IF you had a Cat 5 coming at you.. you are happy its a Cat 3.. if you are forecasting it .. you are very happy.

Always remember when I was about to be hit by Andrew and they announced that the wind speed had gone down 5mph. John Hope ..bless his beautiful soul... was soo happy. Remember wishing he would shut up. Oh joy.. let's jump for joy... I remember thinking.. down 5mph... whoppeee!! I know he meant well in retrospect and have been told that my friends who know over and over but 5mph isn't a whole lot. However if Andrew had gone down to a Category 3 my heart wouldn't have been pumping so hard and I wouldn't have felt like I was facing death .. me and all my kids and loved ones...

So... nice of Katrina to speed up.. to veer NE towards areas where there is a smaller population and less danger for so many people..

Watching lizards run along the wrought iron bars on my windows... leaping from bar to bar in the sunshine... looks so nice outside.. blue skies..high white clouds climbing.. hard to remember that somewhere someone here still doesn't have electric and people down in Homestead are trying to get their belongings dried out...

Well not so hard as I don't have work.. not all of North Miami Beach has electric..
Shepard Smith who used to be in Miami is on FOX NEWS.. remember him from when he was here.

Some links below.. but truth is... watch TV... check out message boards on www.hurricanecity.com and www.flhurricane.com for the latest breaking news and information and tropical discussion on what is really going on. Like now they are talking about dry air intrusion moving into the storm from the west... They were talking about that online on www.hurricanecity.com message boards yesterday.

No flooding in French Quarter..not yet..not now.

Some flooding elsewhere... multiple reports that levees on East Side of Town have been topped.. it is spilling into the city so keep watching...
and know as bad as it is.. it could be a lot of worse.. and may get worse..

later.. Bobbi.. on forced vacation today.. staring at the TV and still loading the cute email from Howie (hurricane man... at the good hurricane center lol) to cheer me and others up a bit.. cute.. still loading.. like Katrina is still moving inland..

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh see you later

Bobbi

http://flhurricane.com/jjohnston/

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real-time/atlantic/storm/dvor-nh2.GIF

click now at 11am and see where landfall is.. will be gone later..
winds down to 125mph.. cat 3

Daughter Dina in Flatbush calls...got to know her.. beautiful girl.. hard edge and smart as well very smart ... her Mommy's daughter in so many ways.. she calls me up and says.. "so let me get this straight..they put how many thousand people into one big place and didn't think part of the roof might fly off????" told her I'd send her the pic that was posted online at www.hurricanecity.com by Chris

love ya all... watching TWC.. really really posting this now....

BREAKING NEWS..Superdome Leaking..

here is where the curse words of your choice can be inserted..choose them wisely.. keeping mine to myself...

There are no words... how they could think a building built in the 1970s that is that big and has so many roof panels which means so many weak links... with so much pressure being put upon it's surface and even Bobbi who doesn't do math knows that mathematically that is a statistical nightmare....that building.. is leaking...

I am soooo happy they have all those EMT people in their who now have their lives at risk trapped in a concrete structure that may be coming apart at it's weak link seams.

What kind of place makes a decision to use such a structure as a place where you can offer safety to thousands of people and the building has never been tested ...

On a a wing and a prayer..

It's called denial and wanting to believe...

It's folly... and I pray with all my heart that somehow...a miracle occurs and not many more roof panels come off and those aluminun doors leading in where people walk in for football games... and delivery trucks deliver hot dogs and peanuts for fans to watch a football game...I really pray those doors hold.. and those people are safe.

So.. if you are reading this.. please pray.

Hope I am wrong but always felt this was a bad, bad, bad idea...

We learned in many a storm that it is better to let the animals go in a storm and hope some will find safety and survive than to lock them up in a barn that will come apart and they will die without being able to get out.

You don't tie down a horse.. let it run... let it try to find safety..

And, you don't put thousands of people into a building that has never even been tested that it will not come apart in a Major Hurricane.

Now is a good time to pray.. even if you don't pray normally... just try it. can't hurt.
And then watch my man Billy Wagner who is there on MSNBC explaining what is going on .. near his home turf.


Subj:
CNN Breaking News
Date:
8/29/2005 9:21:05 AM Eastern Standard Time
From:
BreakingNews@MAIL.CNN.COM
Reply-to:
newseditor@MAIL.CNN.COM
To:
TEXTBREAKINGNEWS@CNNIMAIL12.CNN.COM
Sent from the Internet (Details)-- Report: Roof of Superdome in New Orleans, where thousands evacuated ahead of Hurricane Katrina, is leaking rain.Watch CNN or log on to http://CNN.com and watch FREE video.More Americans watch CNN. More Americans trust CNN.*********************************************************CNN is your Hurricane Headquarters.Track Hurricane Katrina at CNN.com/hurricane.Watch continuous LIVE coverage on CNN.*********************************************************To unsubscribe from CNN.com's Breaking News E-Mail Alert, log on to:http://CNN.com/EMAIL/breakingnews.htmlTo sign up for additional e-mail products, go to http://CNN.com/EMAIL(c)2005. Cable News Network, LP, LLLP.A Time Warner Company.All Rights Reserved.CNN Interactive email id:26799090927214060

Katrina Making Landfall.. local thoughts and global thoughts

In the famous words of the 60s.. Think Global.. act local. So.. going to slide around a bit.. back and forth .. out of context like I usually do between Katrina's effects in Miami and on her current effect upon New Orleans.

So...start off with why am I here? Because I have no work.. then read on to what is happening on TV.. what is happening in Cajun Country..

Let's first deal with local while I am thinking global.

I am home today without work... without being paid for the day as I am one of America's many "almost full time" employees. You know we work like 38 hours or so.. but we don't get benefits. So.. the library still has no power. Go figure that one. Almost everyone else I know in North Miami Beach got their power yesterday and everything around the library has power but not the City library. What could have happened there that they could not get the Library hooked up? And, I feel bad because there are a lot of transient type people who hang out there and it was closed for 4 days now (from a landfalling Cat 1 storm) and they rely on the library. Nice people. Some of the nicest people who are technically homeless but most have a place they call home and the library is their link to the world. Somehow I always feel a bit responsible for those sweet souls. Am sure they are upset it's closed today but they will probably go over to another library that has power.. they find out, they are flexible.. they don't HAVE to be anywhere. Also.. school is out today in Miami Dade while they put the schools and school yards back together and mothers would have killed to have the library open to get books, get the kids out of the house somewhere safe and rent videos and DVDS as most now have power back.

So.. I'm here and I'll blog off and on my thoughts for those who wish to read; for me to look back on and read like a 2005 style diary. The real diary is by my bed. The real story in there..or as much as I would tell.

So.. Miami after Katrina.. still being put back together. Just saw bits and pieces of that high tech, splashy display of the MTVAwards.. hahaha... don't believe it.

Now...watching CNN. Great video from video phones. Walmart commercial. Going to have a Walmart next month across the street from the library. Bet they have power. Went over their after the storm with my brother. Check out the library..no big trees down and the City out cleaning up. And.. Walmart only lost a few palm trees they planted the day before Katrina. The day before.. crazy. Braced those palm trees really well.. I must say. Place looked good though I think the roof on the garden department looked funny. Oh wow.. just realized the new Ross is probably open in the Mall. Whole Mall being rebuilt and the Walmart opens Sept. 18th.. middle of the peak week of the Hurricane Season.

So... the storm has weakened just a bit...

So, I am sitting here watching a CNN. There is a Cialis commercial. Wonderful... just what I needed. "Send now for your free ED CD!" staring. Ends with "ARE YOU READY?" I should switch the channel. Afraid it's on other channels. Don't you HATE when they do that? Set up all the commercials to be on at the same time. So about to change the Channel and a bunch of bulls come on the screen. Wachovia. A bunch of bulls in a field.. wide open.... oh help.. then the really good pictures of Katrina on enhanced IR came on so I left on CNN.I'm thinking about Katrina and watching her make landfall. Doomsday seems to have been delayed and it looks like New Orleans might just make it through okay.. flooded in parts but okay. Without power.. but okay. I hope. Looks like. With hurricanes its all a matter of degrees.

Brian Williams is on now... he is in the Superdome. They can't be on TV as they had to take the antennas off the truck. Wind gusts of 100mph and City Officials are happy .... there is some sense of relief. Love the way he says everyone is trying to fall asleep. Right.. try to sleep in those chairs sitting up right with air coming in from air portal fans.

See? Usually.. somehow... it is never as bad as you think or fear it will be.

The storm shifts just a few degrees and its someone else's storm. Yes, the eye may go over but the worse of the winds will move over towards Biloxi though again.. the media HAS to go with a BIG named city. I think Bay St. Louis will have the worst of it.

So... looks like the people in the Superdome will be okay. If they get Cat 3 winds and not Cat 5. Then again... depends on Twisters and vortexes and everything like that.

Looking at the storm on sat imagery the storm has become oriented towards the NE and E. Take a good look at it. Suddenly it has this big bulg on the EAST SIDE and that whole red area will slam into the Pass Christian, Biloxi and Gulfport area. Storms usually bulge into the direction that they will go and think this storm will go more NE than N like most of the reports I have read by weather people who get paid to predict the weather.

Brian Williams... standing near the roll down doors of the Superdome and he says they are bowing inwards and its not reassuring. They were told the building was built to withstand 200mph winds. The structure of the building can withstand high winds.. but he isn't so sure. Not much he can do about it but pointing out what most of us have thought today.. those of us who really understand what a Hurricane can do... TWIN TOWERS. He talked about the fact that they always said the Twin Towers could withstand the blow of a commercial airplane hitting it.. but it didn't.

We take chances every day of our lives, especially in a hurricane where there aren't many places we can go and it's a crap shoot who gets the brunt of it and where the eye actually falls but... it's all we can do. Go to work and take a chance and hope nothing terrible happens.
We don't get hit by a car. We don't suffer a terror attack.We don't get stuck in an elevator.We don't get hit by a falling branch in a tropical storm and die.We don't have our double doors burst open during a hurricane.

As we sat in the eye wall during the second half of Katrina a few strong gusts hit the house from the south and the doors shook and everyone looked up quietly at the same time. Didn't shake enough that we jumped up to DO anything about it... but shook enough that we quietly all looked towards the door. Before Georges didn't hit and I closed up the house and went to Sharon's house down the block (she had shutters) I put a big heavy piece of furniture in front of those double doors (never have trusted them in a storm) and exited the side door of the house. But there we were in what was supposed to be a mild tropical storm trying to become a hurricane that was making landfall "way up the coast" to our north and .. I never bothered bracing the doors.

Typical. Somehow you prepare and prepare and forget half of the things you usually do... and usually.. it's okay.

Usually.

Tell that to the poor kid whose mother insisted he come home and not stay at his girlfriend's house when Katrina was making landfall and he and his girlfriend got in their cars, seperate cars to drive over and she watched as a big tree fell down over his car and swallowed it up and .. he died. She watched him die... she was saved.. but what??? Luck? Providence? She watched him die. Why were they out there? At landfall...during the first eyewall? Why? Am sure there is much to that story I don't know but personally I would have let my son stay at his girlfriend's house ( I did..) they are grown up... big... they are safe and smart enough to hunker down and seems to me having their girlfriend at easy access (smile) will keep them safe. And... either way.. it's all a crap shoot.

So what did happen with my sons.. the big grown up ones? Well..Moshe was in Hollywood with Deborah (his fiance) in their apartment.. hunkered down.. he stayed in I am sure. Inside with their two dogs and doing I can only imagine what. He's a big tough kid.. not too worried. He once carried three kids out of a house on fire across the street from me.. got certificates from the local Fire Departments.. refused to do on air interviews.. just did what he had to do (even though he lied to me for days he didn't go in there.. though I knew he did.. I mean come on his hair was singed, his jacket had fire burns. Kids always lie to their mother don't they?) anyways... but now days I worry about him more and well.. either way knew he was safe. Turns out the older brother in Miami Shores went out to El Presidente Market during the eye which was he said PACKED full of people all shopping, talking, joking.. and when the weather began he thought "oh shit" and got in the car and ran back to the house. The house that had no electric because the big Avocado tree split in half and took out the electric pole with it..

Kids..worrying on grown kids is energy lost that is better spent worrying on the kids you can do something about. The best you can do is pray and do what you can do.
Glad he didn't drive into a tree. Glad a tree didn't fall on top of him. Glad his sweet, cute girlfriend Sarah didn't have to see him die in front of her eyes.

Glad we are not sitting shiva for him.

But, you know what he said on Friday Night? He said that IF he had died, he wouldn't have wanted to hear anything like "oh that poor child" cause he knew he was an idiot going out into that storm. And.. in less colorful language than he used around the table Friday Night... he said he should't have had his ass out there but he did and it was his choice and if anything did happen to him... he would have deserved it. But he did go out.. and he will do it next time too. That is one of those grown kids I had to throw out of the house during Georges who had snuck back into the house and were sitting in the back room with candles, beer and music.. waiting for Georges.

Yeah.. the ones I found when I came back before Georges never really hit for a battery TV that Sharon wanted (she didn't know where hers was) and found them sitting here after they promised to go to another person's house that had shutters.. I found them there .. thought someone broke in, called the police... the police told them to listen to their mother.. they made fun of me calling the police, I was freaked.. in those days I freaked..now days I don't waste the energy.. they left, called me from friend's house and put the friend's parents on the phone to PROMISE me they would STAY there and I went back to Sharon's house where we watched Bryan Norcross tell us that Miami was saved from a direct hit and heavy impact from Georges and that Georges was moving over the Lower Keys. We let the kids play in the squalls ... play in the puddles in front of the house from fast moving squalls.. near the house but outside. We sat on her porch and watched the squalls go by.. then when the storm got closer.. we went inside, hunkered down and fell asleep listening to the radio.. the tv... the sound of the wind in the dark, shuttered house.

So... what do we know from this?

What do we learn?

Levi will always go out in a storm and he doesn't want anyone to cry for him if his stubborn ass gets slammed in a storm. Great.. I'll pass the message along to his father.
Moshe will stay put. And.. if he did go out (which I doubt because I know Deborah and Deborah wouldn't let) he would never tell me like Levi would.

Update from New Orleans.. a barge has broken loose, power is out in the Superdome.. just ceiling fans... they have been spared the brunt of the winds which have shifted east... but they should have flooding.

Don Moreau is online talking from Baton Rouge.. he is the coroner talking probably how stupid kids go out in the middle of the storm and have trees fall on their cars and die.. He's talking now about trees being down, blocking roads. Someone died at their home.. a hospice death.. an ill man who was dying who died during the storm but the coroner cannot get to him as the coroner that would go is trapped by a tree and can't get there.. his body will wait.. it isn't going anywhere.

What don't you know about me? My friends at Hurrcity? I did an online search for jobs last month.. checked out Baton Rouge. I like it. I emailed the Synagogue there to learn more about it. I love Baton Rouge and Lake Charles from the few times we drove through it. It's on my list of places to look for work.. how I would move.. don't know but figure somehow I'd find a way..
Didn't know that about me.. did you?

New Orleans Live.. windows have been shattered in a building near the reporter. Metal frames and curtains flying in the breeze.. flashback to Andrew on South Beach and the famous video of the same picture but in a different storm.. different location.

He's in an alley way hunkered down protected a bit from the wind giving damage info. You can hear the wind... There is a storm drain that is still working behind him.

If the bulk of the weather is on the east than New Orleans will be protected from the rains that will deludge Biloxi. The way I had so little rain in North Miami Beach and the people in South Miami Heights got slammed.

Watch the shape of the storm.

She will pour herself into a shape that shows the direction of where she will go.. usually or where her weather wants to go.

As she was making landfall over Miami.. she was bottom heavy... the band on the south side of the eye was dark and scary whereas the top half .. the NE part usually the worst was practically not even there. Should have been the tip off that she was going in and taking a SW turn.

Somewhere, everywhere weathe people knew that but the Hurricane Center needs hard data and proof to put on the record what they are seeing with their eyes, what they are feeling in their gut.. but must be verified in scientific ways... well when that eye was over FIU.. they had their hard data.. didn't they?

Watching the storm on CNN... no MSNBC... does it matter..same storm, coverage looks the same..

Last comment... some weather man.. the Chip guy on CNN is going on and on how never go out into the eye of the storm. Who is this man kidding? Unless there is flooding... everyone slowly opens their front door.. goes out, stands inches.. or a few feet from their front door and looks up into the sky to see if this is REALLY THE EYE?? He is talking about blue skies and birds flying around and stars out in the nighttime sky in an eye and he thinks people are not going to open their door and witness for themself something they may only see once in their lifetime.. Come on Chip.. or whoever you are... get over the lecture... drop the lecture... if you don't want people going out into the eye stop telling them that if they go out they will see stars.. they will see birds... parrots ( I did) .. that they will see a sunset (I did) .. stop telling them what is outside their front door and stop telling them not to open the door.

We are all Pandora opening the infamous Box that we learn about as small children in schools everywhere. It is an age old story... from the time stories first were written or even just told over.. person to person by story tellers who are in fact the first authors..
Pandora and the Magic Box...

We are all like Pandora and we all can't resist opening that magic box.. or laptop... or TV...or front door... or back door to the past...

Katrina... coming onshore... causing damage that is hard to describe but will be described by reporters who stayed behind. Katrina aiming her fury on the beautiful bayou towns along I-90... aiming her fury on the same street facing the open Gulf of Mexico that Camille aimed her fury on.. and storms before Camille aimed their fury on ...

Hurricane Country... and yes they know they can have a storm.. anytime.. any summer.. every summer.. one summer... it's part of life down in the Bayou, down in the Glades..down here in Miami.

And, in California far away... I woke up this morning and somewhere between the Cialis commercials and the coverage of Katrina they said there were parts of California on fire.. a brush fire raging somewhere.. and I felt it in my gut.. because.. we lived there.. been there..
But now I am back in Hurricane Country.. where will I go next? Don't know .. but wherever you go there is something that can come and get you in the middle of the night.. and if you think you are safe in Missouri.. go google the New Madrid Fault.. and if you are in a Federal Building in Oklahoma City or anywhere.. think again.. and if you are in a big strong building like the Twin Towers.. think again.

Enjoy today... revel in it.. enjoy the good and the bad and the beauty of life because there is always something out there you don't know about that can come and get you... meteorologically or otherwise..

Be back later..got nowhere to go.. I'm on an unpaid vacation today.. thanks to Katrina who made her first landfall at CountyLine.. North Miami Beach and is making her second landfall right now..

Take care, hold your loved ones.. tell them you love them... grab some joe and sit back and have a good cup of coffee... relax.. watch the coverage live.. something you see or learn may save your life because remember.. its only August...

Peak of the Season is just down the Road..

Remember September while you watch Katrina blow..
Bobbi.. not spell checking.. not changing anything .. as live as live can get and just typing away so someday someone will remember.

Katrina at 9am
winds 135mph
gusts 161 mph
pressure 923 mb
moving north 15mph..

I'll be back..

TURN ON NSNBC IS YOU ARE READING THIS....while I was cutting and pasting the roof began to leak at the Superdome... misty inside... field is flooding... everyone has moved back under the cement ceiling.. panels have come off and ... it's raining on the people...

no words...no words... glad they have EMT people in there... I would have stayed in a 2nd or 3rd floor apartment with an interior bathroom...the bigger something is.. the harder it can fall.

Going off to pray with my forever friend.. online. Bobbi

Final Thoughts For the Evening...

I don't know what to say tonight so going to toss out some random thoughts.. you weave them into whatever shape and form you can put them in.

Watching IR and radar... it has begun. Not the core of 150 mph winds or even 100 but it has begun. Katrina is moving onshore.. towards the coast and give or take 5mph she isn't changing much in strength.

Daughter came in.. 13 years old.. she stared at the TV and said.. "its the size of Texas."
Youngest son asked me wake him. He follows weather. Wants to be awake to see the eye come onshore. Daughter upset but he told her he likes weather.. wants to see it.

There is no school tomorrow in Miami.This is important because if you watch the MTV awards you will buy a lot of nice packaged PR to highlight Miami and Lord knows we can use the revenue. No..the city is not put back together. School is closed. Too many trees down and uprooted, some damage on campuses.. portables with roof damage.. trees went through windows..they are still cleaning up. We will be fine.. just well.. all is not well and that was a cat one when Katrina was young.

Love my bedroom. Very comfortable in here staring at the TV and listening to Drudge and watching loops and yet... my mind is everywhere.. all over the place.
Hurricanes do that to you.. collectively we are in fact (as Drudge said) watching this disaster unfold.

Meant what I said about putting away money and sending it somewhere.

I remember after Hugo someone on TV.. maybe Oprah made this request that everyone watching the broadcast send a Dollar or something. Every act adds up.. every dollar adds up.
Remember what I said about the unthinkable happening. The good, the bad.. the ugly, the beautiful. Every day has its hour.. every flower has its day.. what goes around comes around and like the wheel of fate... tonight is their night but somehow... someway.. they will dance again. Dixieland will play again.

My best friend Linda who passed away when we were young went to New Orleans for her honeymoon. She wanted to go on a showboat. She did. She usually got to do what she wanted to do.. except for surviving cancer. Always so happy she got to do that. She loved it. She loved the whole honeymoon and well.. good, good for her. Hope her husband who I believe remarried but been out of touch.. hope he remembers.

Everyone should have a beautiful honeymoon. Something to remember. Some beautiful perfect time in your life. But, better if you live and don't die from cancer..hodgkins disease and enjoy looking back on it together with your spouse after many years of marriage.

While we are talking morbid. My Uncle Oscar.. one of the most important men in my life.. ever.. like a second father went to New Orleans for a big law case when I was young. He had one son, my cousin who I think of like a brother at times.. and me.. like his daughter. He brought me a charm bracelet that I finally lost in some move somewhere. Had a streetcar charm, a sugar bowl charm.. it was so nice. So special. I felt so grown up. And, he brought me a box of pralines that tasted like heaven.. the best pralines I ever had. We used to watch the Sugar Bowl together.. and the Gator Bowl. He was a Gator fan.. he went to UF.. way back when all the boys when to UF and the girls went to USF. Long time ago..

Why do disasters make you remember personal disasters..

Going to give this up and go to bed. Drudge is right.. humidity will be 100%, power will go off... no one will know for sure what is going on and you can kiss your ass goodbye and ...cry... or pray.. or drink the night away.

Watching Fox coverage. I just refuse to believe it will be as bad as they say it will.
Call it denial..go on.

Either way.. not much else I can say but pray... hope... faith and charity?

Going off.. I'll be back tomorrow.Same bat place, same bat channel.. oh I am dating myself.
Smiling.. hey no one else dating me but really rather date a prince than a frog that will always be a frog. Fairy tales only come true in Disney World and I'm going to go off..and wrap myself up in some beautiful music that was a present... as close as I can get to musical heaven and considering where the music came from... its a real gift from the heart.

Nite. Bobbi
ps.....don't forget.. out there somewhere is TD 13... waiting to be Lee

What Does It Feel Like to be at Ground Zero? My thoughts from experience

Okay... it feels odd and strange and very real.

When you are hours away everyone is racing about .. looking for batteries.. driving erratically, trying to be polite and at the same time.. trying to get what they can fast and get home.

By Andrew.. people were angry, mean.. frustrated... panicked and the store was an ugly place to be.. no real food, most of the good stuff gone... people grabbing at things, banging baskets into each other... growling, nasty, pissed off.. upset with their spouses, their kids... the poor people stuck working in the store who want to go home but can't because they need their job when the storm is gone.

After Andrew... Miami changed. I don't remember a panic since. People are polite, friendly almost like we are all in this together. Then again... we haven't had an Andrew threat so maybe people wouldn't be so nice because they feel they are facing death.

The air feels electrically charged.

Birds fly about strangely and slam into windows.

The wind keeps blowing, heavy, steady but not that strong...yet strong enough to remind you that a Storm is Coming in..

If you have a fan... go and get it. Take it into the bathroom. First turn on the shower.. hot water only. Let the room get really hot and steamy. Then turn the water off and turn the fan on. Stand there in front of it.. Hot, humid air.. coming at you... nonstop. That is how it feels when the storm is still offshore.

Then a band comes through.. that first band that you remember sometimes better than the actual storm. The band that confirms ..this is not a drill or a game of make believe.. it's coming.

Then the weather gets a bit better. You rush about some more .. a bit faster.

You do strange things like you start cleaning the house and sweeping what might soon be under water or blown away.

You decide where you will make your last stand. IF you have kids.. you make them put shoes on and then realize...shoot.. you need to put shoes on too if you want them to .. darn. You put the supplies somewhere safe that you can reach easily. You give all the kids or people at home a flashlight with fresh batteries. You then soon tell them KEEP THEM OFF!!! Don't play with them!!! Rolling eyes..human nature. 10 or 60 they all start turning them on and off.. You put the medical supplies near the snack food. You give everyone a small bottle of water that is there. You take mattesses and play camp out around the living room...or any room away from windows.

You take the battery operated radio or better yet.. battery operated radio/tv/weather radio and you set it to the local news of your choice.. you hunker down.

You tell yourself it won't be as bad as it sounds. You tell yourself you have done all you could do. You tell yourself that they rarely live up to their press releases.

The surreal becomes real. Not normal becomes normal.

You resign yourself to waiting for the storm hit.. wishing it would hit.. wishing it would just come already so you can get to the other side and deal with whatever you have to deal with...

It is the unknown that can drive you crazy. That is why people stay in bad marriages and jobs.. the known devil is worse than any new devils they might meet along the way. So much for optimism huh? Smiling.. true. The unknown factor that people in New Orleans are going through is the hard part.

When it comes... you are terrified and at the same time... oddly in awe of the power nature is unleashing. That is if you are not holding your bathroom door shut and or trying to get to your neighbors house while yours is collapsing. Happened to friends of mine in Andrew... I was lucky. I was on Miami Beach in a beautiful old Roaring 20s sort of big house.. and everytime the wind slammed into the house.. I could feel the house shaking.. the floor vibrating. Thought there was water downstairs... was afraid the roof would cave in from the weight of the water that it turns out wasn't there. I acted strong for my kids. I prayed and said Tehillim.. Psalms.. I listened to the sound of the wind and the sounds faintly heard through the wind of the Ocean battering the shore... a few blocks away.. maybe four blocks away.. the wind flying fast through the Pine Trees on Pine Tree Drive.. knocking down a few along the way.

But right now.. at ground Zero.. they are both wishing it would go away and wishing it would hit.

It is an insane time.. where it feels like every decision they made was the only one they could make and where you hope and pray that everyone got it wrong and the doomstay scenarios are all wrong... and the city you love will be there tomorrow... and you will be alive to enjoy it. You and all your loved ones.