Cat 4 Hurricane Ike Moving Towards Cuba ... Miami Breathes Easier. Key West Still in the Cone.

In a Global World everyone is reading about the tropics. Far away in China they are following Tropical Storm Hanna's progress up the Eastern Seaboard.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/07/content_9818206.htm

Much the way we follow flooding and cyclones in Bangladesh.

In NY people are looking at their favorite NY Post to see what headline they will show and what pictures they will include on Ike's strange trip to the Big Apple.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09062008/news/regionalnews/hanna_hits_127805.htm

With this headline and chart they prepared people living in the NE with info on Hanna.

HANNA BARBARIC
STORM TO LASH CITY TODAY



We are all one world these days, despite our political differences or affiliations.
We all watch the weather from when we are small children in the First Grade and some teacher picks a little Matthew or Sarah to take the sunny smile face and put it on the day's calendar or when we wait worrying the Little League Game will get canceled because of a bad thunderstorm.

This year, the summer of 2008 we are all watching tropical weather. As each storm forms and moves towards land and hits the mainland somewhere we worry about the small ones like Hanna that can cause havoc on highways such as I-95 the whole way from Cape Fear to Maine and we worry about the big ones like Ike who slam into some poor unlucky city in Cuba or Alabama.

We watch the human story, the drama. Some poor guy who thought he'd take his new bride to the Bahamas in early September and has to evacuate fast or spend the honeymoon in the Hotel Ballroom with another several hundred stranded travelers.

Haiti has not dried out or cleaned up yet a Category 4 Hurricane that is intensifying is just to it's north with feeder bands on it's south side that may cause more rain.

Jim Williams over at Hurricane City is worrying about the small island of Great Inagua tonight as it is in Hurricane Ike's deadly path. It is a small, beautiful island in the stream and in the path of monstrous Hurricane Ike. Jim is a very sensitive man with a detailed knowledge of all the places in Hurricane Country. He watches and reads every news story, every map and stares at loops knowing the impact that these storms bring to small towns and cities not just the famous and infamous.

So... now is a good time for the rest of you to learn more about this beautiful island in the stream.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inagua

And, I quote: "There is a large bird sanctuary in the centre of the island with a population of more than 80,000 of West Indian flamingoes and many other exotic birds such as roseate spoonbills, pelicans, herons, egrets, and Bahama pintail ducks.

The neighbouring Little Inagua five miles to the northeast is uninhabited and occupied by a Land and Sea Park. It is 30 sq mi and has herds of wild donkeys and goats (descendants of stock introduced by the French). Little Inagua has a large protective reef that prevents boats from coming too close."

It reminds me a lot of Key West or maybe Stock Island. The Morton Salt plant was there which was what Mr. Whitehead thought he would do down at the Salt Ponds on Flagler on Key West.

The Caicos Islands are in Ike's sites as well as many hurricanes that pass that way though most are not as ferocious as Ike.

From Wiki: "They are located southeast of the Bahamas, north of Hispaniola, and 914 kilometres (494 nautical miles) from Miami in the United States. The islands are geographically contiguous to the Bahamas, but are politically a separate entity, an autonomous part of the British Empire.

The islands have a total population of about 30,000, of whom approximately 22,500 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands. Cockburn Town, the capital, is situated on Grand Turk Island."

A beautiful place to stay if you get down that way after they clean up.

http://www.grandturk-mantahouse.com/

Love that beach, I'm not a diver but would love to go there with my boyfriend and just chill out and swim together in the beautiful aquamarine, pristine looking water. Imagine the beach will be there but not sure much else will. Hopefully it will. Maybe I'll call them in a month or two and ask how they are doing? 20 feet from the beach... that's not very far is it?

Nice.. very nice, look at the photos... hope they will survive the storm.

As for the tropics currently if you are still reading and have not fallen asleep...

My point this evening is that today was a day of a Tropical Mess across the Eastern Coast and hopefully the fine paper from China is right and there was little damage.

Hanna took the left side of the cone. She could have stayed safely out at sea, churning up wild waves at the beaches after giving the Outer Banks a glancing blow. But, she didn't. She took the west side of the cone...the far west side of the cone.

This needs to be paid attention to as the Lower Florida Keys are on the north edge of the cone for Ike and they have the same chance of getting Ike as does the left side of the Cone.

When you are in the cone you are in the cone. Pay attention and don't think just because you're not in the middle of the cone.

Thankfully, the Miami area has been taken out of the Cone and we are breathing a little bit better tonight. I may not vomit Monday night and I may get to go to the ocean at lunch and take pics of a churned up ocean. I may drink an Iced Coffee and watch the parrots fly around Lincoln Road or watch a Cuban Tree lizard sunbathing on a palm tree near my office. I may get more rain and wind out of this than I think tonight because the tropics are fluid, always changing and very happening, in the moment. Blink and things happen. Ike was not expected to become a hurricane when it did but a little while later yet 3 hours after it was named as a hurricane it went from Cat 1 status to Cat 3. And, that is probably why Channel 4 in Miami is running a picture of Ike spinning his way towards Cuba in the bottom left corner of their screen constantly..not to hype the storm but because all of South Florida is not letting their guard down on a Major Hurricane intensifying and moving closer. Not that we don't trust the models and not that we don't trust the NHC... you just do NOT turn your back and get nonchalant about a Fire Breathing Tropical Dragon to your south that would lunge more to the north the moment it feels the slightest weakness in the high to it's north. We like the high..we just don't trust it. Not until it moves further away from South Florida and the Florida Keys. I am sure you can understand why and in our situation you would do the same.



Down the road, after Cuba and possibly the Florida Keys Ike could threaten the Gulf of Mexico with one more hit this year.

Local Floridians worry it could turn north towards a trough and affect the west coast and northwest coast of Florida. We worry so much on Tampa who has gone way too long without a direct hit. People in Alabama worry on Mobile for good reason. People in the Big Easy feel real uneasy. Somewhere there is someone in Houston or Galveston worrying that this could be another hurricane like the Great 1900 Hurricane.

It's name is Ike. It will not be another Katrina or another Donna or another Charley. It will be Ike!

As unforgettable as Hanna who traveled up the I - 95 Corridor and saw more cities than any tropical system so far this year and survived a nonstop battle with an ULL that tried to kill it but didn't. She did kill 100s in Haiti.

This is a bad season, it's gonna get badder, meaner, more wild and filled with more killer storms. That is not hype, that is a promise. We are not even in Peak of the Season Middle of September and this season may go longer than just September and not be all over in October.

So...if you are one of the many Miamians who bought water and granola bars and paper towels and sterno on Friday... hold on to it's not over til it's over.

In other news of importance to Miamians.. The Hurricanes lost to the Gators. Which just proves a point that is obvious from my life... Gators are scarier and can cause more long lasting trouble in your life than a Hurricane :P

The Fins are playing the Jets tomorrow in NY. Pennington starts for the Fins as does Ricky Williams and Brett Favre is playing for the Jets... reality bites funny sometimes.

I don't care what they say.. it looks it is moving west to me. I trust the NHC but... I also trust my eyes and this is a very long jog... but then again they forecast it to start turning west so they are as usual on track.

It was a beautiful night in Miami tonight. Stars twinkling in a cloudless sky as the palm fronds danced and a pinkish gold looking moon set in the west. Nice... I love hurricanes, I love tropical storms but no one wants a Category 4 to destroy their world.

One interesting thing I did hear said by a few people who I trust. Hope Ike doesn't get stuck over Cuba taking the long slow route west as he would most likely slow down then as storms do when they climb mountains and in doing so he would spend longer time down there and give the high more time to move out to the east and allow him to turn north faster after leaving Cuba and though weakened he would have a better chance at rocking our world on the East side of the Gulf of Mexico. I hadn't thought on the timing issue in that way.

And..the weather radio in Miami still sticks with possible tropical storm conditions on Tuesday.

We'll see... Ike will tell..he will let us know with a howl and rain that cuts into you like shreds of glass if you are caught outside. Such is a wake up call from a Hurricane named Ike... be it in Cuba or the Florida Keys, he has one wicked wake up call.

Good night.... prayers for anyone caught in Ike's path and the island of Cuba who has already been dealt one deadly hurricane this season already.