Hurricane Harbor

A writer and a tropical muse. A funky Lubavitcher who enjoys watching the weather, hurricanes, listening to music while enjoying life with a sense of humor and trying to make sense of it all!

Thursday, July 15, 2021

Updated INVEST 99L - Tropics Dry and Quiet. SAL in Charge. 1 Wave Trying to Fight off SAL That Found Its Way to Miami Too!! Perspective on Hurricane History. Hurricane Sandy.


Worth mentioning the NHC has Invest 99L
at 10% yellow.
Usually they don't make an Invest at 10% yellow.

Most models keep this week.
There's always that one that breaks from the pack.
Track would be due East pretty much.


So mentioning it because it's there.


I spent time at the Museum today.
A bit of research. Wrote some poetry.
Soaked in some local color.


Always loved this photo that's part of "the morning after" collection from the 1926 Miami Hurricane. The details matter, cars trying to navigate in the flood waters that were on 12th Avenue not by the Bay as flooding after that storm was epic in some areas. Roofs torn off, buildings collapsed and some teetered on the brink of falling while people walked around in bathing suits or their favorite dress staring at the aftermath of the Great Miami Category 4 Hurricane that hit with little official warning with a population that for the most part had never gone through a hurricane.  



Look at that detail. The guy in knickers (very popular then, the girl in her flapper dress with cutesy shoes staring down at the flooded road. the guy in his bathing suit (many put on bathing suits in the hot days after the storm) and the guy with arms folded and his robe tucked around him... the cute guy in the background staring. Did they know the hurricane would be the final knock on the boom that has busted earlier that winter or that the clean up would be epic? Did they wonder how to get out of town or did the thought never occur to them to leave? A moment in time as old Model T Fords tried to navigate the still flooded streets to check on their businesses and to see if they family was okay and had survived the devastating storm. 

Seriously a Category 4 Hurricane that made landfall at Miami's door after slamming into Miami Beach with a storm surge that went up the river and then back again when the wide slow moving eye passed over Miami. More people were killed who went out in the eye to check on businesses and family than who actually died in the hurricane. I know people who I interviewed who rode out the hurricane on Miami Beach in a 3 story apartment building two blocks from the Bay and the Atlantic that watched the storm tide wash through the first floor of their building. To me it's always a miracle so many survived the storm surge on Miami Beach in 2 and 3 story apartment buildings. Yet, those who got in their Model Ts and tried to drive into Miami during the eye were washed off the causeway when the back side of the hurricane returned with another storm surge, Category 4 winds and they were simply washed away and never made it back to safety yet had they stayed on Miami Beach they most likely would have survived. 

No one really understood hurricanes then, a few locals and some meteorologists but the coverage was far from how we have coverage today. So next time you think your local news channel is hyping the storm too much don't complain be happy because someone's life may be saved. Hype can be annoying for sure but knowledge is power.

As I sit here in my kid's condo looking down at the Miami River where yachts used to dock at the Royal Palm Hotel watching the boats going up the river or going out... people enjoying the tropical breeze always steady here I know that though I don't want Miami to get a hurricane that one day another hurricane will knock on it's door and I hope people have the knowledge what to do before a hurricane and after a hurricane not to mention during the hurricane; unless you're a news person or a storm chaser do not venture far from the front porch in the eye of a Major Hurricane. Enjoy those few minutes of amazement of calm, quiet skies but do not venture far from the building so you can be safely back inside with the doors locked and bolted. Knowledge is power.

Besos BobbiStorm ...keep reading if you have not it was just written this morning and nothing much has changed. Saharan Dust is coloring our skies with tropical sunsets and showing us the track that future hurricanes this season will most likely take.


The tropics are quiet this morning.
The tropics are also dry.
SAL has found it's way into Florida.
Sneaky odd route but it is what it is.


Looks like some hurricane track.
Cleo meets Sandy.

A wave has carved out some of the SAL.
Watch that wave way down the road ....
....they can wake up closer in to the coastline.

But for today nothing is pending.
10% yellow circle still in the Atlantic.

I'm in Miami and I had an interesting talk with an UBER driver who has been in 3 months and is from Cuba though he took a long route into the country via Chile and Mexico before Miami. He was not aware Hurricane Sandy hit New York City. You know why? Because he went through Sandy in Cuba where it trashed his home and the homes of many others and so he was a little surprised about New York City. Why I think this is important to mention is that many in America forget the Sandy was Cuba's storm and the one that missed Miami but slammed into Coney Island. 

It's all about perspective.

After Andrew I had no power forever on Miami Beach and we listened to the local news that was dedicated to getting Miami back to recovery and reminding the Federal Government that we were sorry we didn't FAX the proper forms but the FAX machines were down and had no electric in Miami Dade offices who were supposed to FAX for help the forms. Miami radio was all about Miami so I barely heard details on where Andrew went after Miami and living with many kids on Miami Beach without power my ex-husband and I were not following Andrew when it retraced Hurricane Betsy's track towards Louisiana. When I was in a Historical Museum in New Orleans years back it is worth noting that they think of Betsy a THEIR hurricane vs a Florida Keys-Miami hurricane. 

SAL has found it's way here because my brother's morning sunrise pictures are neon  orange and red and to be honest even though it rained briefly yesterday it was sunny and dry and blue skies where I sat with my son in Coral Gables on Miracle Mile the road of my childhood sipping Caramel Iced Coffee.

Miami got very lucky with Sandy as it would have hit Miami as a much stronger hurricane than up in the New York latitudes.

May you escape any damage this Hurricane Season but remember the world is way wider than your own perspective on hurricane history.

From Miami with Love...
Besos BobbiStorm
@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram

Ps Personally my daughter is trying to get to rehab for her broken hip in Erie but it's been a difficult route  working with NY and well she gotta go and hopefully that gets taken care of this week. Meanwhile I've got things to do in Miami research wise... writing wise.

Stay tuned.....








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