Hurricane Katrina didn't follow the usual script for a late August, rather sudden storm. It was forecast to maybe make landfall as a minimal (74 mph+) hurricane and proceed due west across Florida, then curve north in the Gulf and probably hit the panhandle area or the semicircular area we call the Big Bend, on its way up through Georgia and the Atlantic Seaboard.
TV weathermen called it "a wetmaker, not a windmaker" and said not to bother putting up the shutters this time. They talked about the "clean side of the storm" on the south half and "the dirty side" on the north half--the idea that the most intense rain, lightning, tornadic activity and wind is usually on the northeast quadrant. Those on the south side wouldn't be affected as much.
Katrina didn't study that diagram very well. She consistently showed her worst mannered tantrums in her south to southeastern quadrant and remained pretty quiet in her northern half.
The storm moved steadily due west as though heading straight into Ft. Lauderdale, but at the last few miles veered sharply south toward the Broward/Dade county line, made landfall officially at Hallandale, and curved down further toward Miami and her southern suburbs, then traced U.S. Highway One clear to Key West. The Florida Keys are an archipeligo that start south but arc due west; if one drives it to the end during the afternoon, one can drive straight into the sunset.
Due to Katrina's quirky gyrations, residents of Miami/Dade County finally got to claim some legitimate damage, after some greedy opportunists soaked FEMA with last year's ridiculous claims and got caught. (Last year being an election year, the government rushed in to ease Miami's pain when there wasn't any and paid out millions in bogus damages.) This year the same people who filed false claims a year ago may need assistance for real, but I'll be surprised if FEMA rushes in with the same enthusiasm to dole out the money as fast. It's too bad. Miami's southern suburbs truly got soaked by Katrina, as much as sixteen inches of water in a few hours, flooding many homes and businesses. Many will need help for real this time.
In any case, Katrina is now a category two storm and threatens to become a three or higher before making landfall again, much further west than was originally forecast, now possibily in Louisiana or Mississippi. With seven deaths related to the storm at this hour over Florida alone, and major flood damage and loss of property, it should put an end forever to the idea that a category one hurricane isn't a big deal. It is, after all, a hurricane; by definition, it is more intense and potentially damaging over a wider area than a storm or rainshower. "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst." It's a saying we SoFla residents live by at this time of year.
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Yeah, I remember Alicia didn't follow "the usual script" either. Pat and I lived in Houston at the time, and Alicia was a really weird case -- she didn't start off as a depression near the Azores, but rather as a fairly ordinary storm system passing eastward over Texas and into the gulf. There was a lot of rain, and some flooding in Houston.
What happened once she got out into the gulf was really weird. She picked up energy, turned into a hurricane, and came right back at Houston. She was Category 3 when she came ashore. She was still raging when she got inland to where Pat and I had an apartment. We didn't have a battery powered radio at that time -- Pat had said that as far inland as Houston was, we wouldn't suffer severe damage. But to give me peace of mind, he did allow me to put diagonal cris-crossing strips of masking tape on the windows.
The winds rose, the rains raged, and we got repeated Emergency Broadcast System warnings on the radio, in particular about tornados spawned by the hurricane. Then, just as an EBS warning came up about a tornado in our neighborhood, the power went out. From that point on, we were in the dark, both literally and figuratively.
Sometime during the night, the winds blew in the bedroom window. The hurricane also did damage to the roof that the apartment management was never able to repair.
Following the hurricane, we had no utilities -- no electricity, no water, no gas, no telephone. It took the power company nine days to restore the electricity. We packed up our cat and some clothes and went on a extended vacation -- we had a wedding to plan, anyway.
Now I no longer live in an area where hurricanes pose a threat -- but if I ever am in an area threatened by a hurricane, I will definitely take it seriously.
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