Hurricane Dennis


CNN: Hurricane Dennis sweeps across Cuba
Here we go again. In the image below, I’m on the west coast of Florida, just about where the white line hits the land, near “Sat PM”. So, at least right now, it looks like I’ll be okay. More as things develop in the extended.





Update, 6:41pm: Wow, I’ve had a phone call about this entry already. ๐Ÿ™‚ To answer a question I suspect a bunch of you are wondering about: it’s just rainy outside right now. Some of the droplets were a little bigger than average, but not by much. It was windy about half an hour ago — and during that time there was one brownout — but it’s calmed down since and I don’t anticipate an increase in activity, at least not tonight. Think it’s time to curl up with dinner and an episode of Firefly (if you’ve never seen the show before, be sure to click that link). ๐Ÿ™‚


Update, 11:01pm: Well, it looks like the predicted path has veered into the Gulf somewhat:

Not out of the woods yet, but my fingers are crossed.


Update, Sat 9:44am: An update on the projected path shows Dennis continuing to head into the Gulf:

Current predictions say it will be about 150 miles offshore when it goes by Sarasota; right now the main concern for this area is beach erosion. For the curious, here’s a clip of the local news this morning (29MB, AVI format).


Update, Sat 12:37pm: Wow.. conditions have really deteriorated here over the past hour as some of the outer bands on the stronger north-eastern side of the hurricane begin to cross over the area. The wind has picked up as has the rain, and there is intermittant thunder. Below is a recent doppler radar image of the storm:



Update, Sat 2:53pm: Well, I took a walk outside about an hour ago, and things were calm with a light drizzle. But pretty much as soon as I was back inside the gusts picked up again. Here’s a few pics taken recently.

The screen on my porch kept some of the rain out

Everything that would normally be out here — the recycling, my folding chair, tennis rackets — is in my living room. The grill doesn’t count because it’s pretty much part of porch’s supporting structure ๐Ÿ™‚

Closures and Cancellations

Apparently downtown Sarasota has seen quite a bit more rain than I thought! I suspect this is from the initial band which passed through the area at about 1 this morning. Clearly that driver didn’t read about the Hidden Dangers of Standing Water. ๐Ÿ™‚

A cute girl sells mattresses in Clearwater
So, yeah. Things seem to have settled down somewhat. The rainfall will almost certainly pick up tonight as Dennis moves on by, but (fingers crossed) it looks like we’re going to make it through alright. The latest reports from Key West (the southwestern tip of Florida) indicate they made it through the storm remarkably well, with the biggest damage being the loss of power. Cuba didn’t fare so well, with President Castro reporting the loss of at least 10 lives. Dennis is the biggest hurricane that country has faced this early in the season since the 1850s.


Update, Sun 12:58am: It’s freaking windy outside, so I thought I’d check out the radar again. No wonder — looks like Sarasota’s getting hit by the eastern bands still:

And here’s an update on the projected path — almost missing the Florida Panhandle now:



Update, Sun 8:35am: Er.. missing the panhandle might not exactly be the right way to put it:


Update, Sun 3:47pm: Back to normal. Took a walk outside — the only visible effect was there were a few more small fallen branches on the ground than usual. The headline of today’s paper is “Dennis makes swipe and barrels toward northern coast”.


Comments

3 responses to “Hurricane Dennis”

  1. Distant touch

    Seems that our place back home is getting our first major hurricane of the season. Now, it is not like we have not been through this before – but at the moment we are not in town. Patches is…

  2. I have to be a word-Nazi, but “impacting” is not a word. Glad you’re alright, of course ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. You mean “hate”? I cringe every time I see that usage of the word, so for second there I was like… “Oh my god, I didn’t say that, did I?” Heh.

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