Tropical Storm Isaac Thursday Edition

The weather approaching Cuba and South Florida is a tropical storm right now expected to increase and hopefully decrease in intensity over the next few days. In the Keys the weather right now is perfect, a little muggy, but sunny and the winds are gentle. Sunday evening we will be close to contact with the hurricane/tropical storm and things will be different. No one knows how different because the big question right now is how much damage will Cuba's landmass do to the counterclockwise whirling of Isaac. Cyclones need warm water underneath them to feed their winds and when thy pass over land they lose their fuel. If Isaac hits Cuba while a low category hurricane there is a chance Cuba will wreck the rotation and we shall see winds and rain but only modest cyclone strength.

Tropical Storm Isaac is on everyone's lips now. A few minor preparations are underway as people start to clean their yards, drag out their hurricane shutters and start to figure out their evacuation plans. My wife says the school district has announced no closures yet but no one expects Monday to be anyway normal. I am expecting to be locked down the police station Sunday evening but at this point everyone is waiting to see what happens to Isaac this weekend.

It's been a while since we had a real hurricane scare, a few near misses in 2008 didn't prepare anyone for the real thing and I'm hoping Isaac will be strong enough to remind us all what hurricane season means without the collateral damage. I remember Hurricane Wilma all too well and the chaos that followed.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunset Light

Only the need to exercise my hound dragged me out from my air conditioned couch on a ninety degree evening, snug with my book and a tumbler of iced tea.

I wasn't sure where I was going but when I saw the golden light illuminating the sky and the water I said, sod it Cheyenne, this is where we're walking.

She was amenable, as she likes fishing bridges where very often anglers drop unconsidered trifles like bait fish.

I looked out at the water glowing in the sunset.

Cheyenne ignored the boats and chased baked bait fish on the pavement. I wondered when my boat would be back in the water, with any luck running perfectly and able to carry me to private swimming holes. Hurricane Isaac has delayed launching anything this week.

Yum!

The gap in the bridge isn't, just a department of transportation annoyance. It allows people with tall boats to pass under Highway One. On the other stump of the bridge people were chasing fish.

The buoys mark the no boat lane close to the houses, designed t keep the incessant ferry traffic to Little Palm Island away from the waterfront.

And then we turned to head back to the car and I saw the setting sun for the golden orb it really was.

I patted Cheyenne to thank her for dragging me off the couch.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Isaac Continued

Tropical Storm Isaac, the former Tropical Depression Nine has been dumping rain in the Eastern Caribbean and has also been forming a more definite path forward in the minds of meterologists.

There are winds pushing down on the storm from the Northern Atlantic they tell us so it seems this storm, which is trying to push north itself will be held over the larger islands of the Caribbean, that string of mountains known as the Greater Antilles. Which is all good news for the Keys even as the storm appears to be headed, still five days out, in our general direction. From the track it appears the path over Cuba will weaken the hurricane back to tropical strom status, and from there it may strengthen again as it approaches Florida, possibly the west coast. Travel over land weakens storms so we like that.

There are tons of variables but so far Isaac does not seem to pose a huge threat to the Lower Keys though some hurricane shutters have started to make their appearance and no doubt my weekend will be spent in similar preparations. Unless things change!

The Twenty Four Mile Bridge

The boast of the Keys is the seven mile bridge. Check out this monster

This bridge crosses Lake Pontchartrain and takes 24 miles to do it.



The equivalent would be an uninterrupted bridge from Big Pine Key to Stock Island.

They have cross over points along the bridge where cops and tow trucks park and traffic can be redirected in an emergency. Pretty smart.

There is also a draw bridge to let tall shipping through.



And in the distance the north shore gradually comes over the horizon.



They have weather stations to monitor conditions in the middle of the lake.

There are emergency phone boxes along the way too. All very reassuring when out of sight of land!

There are actually 24 mile markers all the way to the end.



And here they are enjoying a hundred degree afternoon, just like us...



...on the water.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tropical Storm Isaac

THIS ESSAY IS SUBSTANTIALLY OUT OF DATE. PLEASE CLICK ON THE BANNER FOR UP TO DATE POSTS.
Tropical Storm Isaac tracking through the western Atlantic as reported late Tuesday by the National Hurricane Center in Miami:

Let's face it, it's been a while but here we are once more in the cone of the storm. This is typically the peak period of Atlantic Hurricane Season which goes from June First to November 30th. It's been a few years since we could be the target of a hurricane and the reaction I've got from my friends and neighbors was one of surprise, "It's been such a long time..."

There was a time when the bumper sticker "Another Weeekend, Another Hurricane" was quite popular as they never seemed to stop coming. This one is a long way off, maybe a week away and the way it looks now, from very far away, is that Cuba will take the brunt and likely their landlmass will do it's job and weaken the storm before it makes landfall in Florida. Currently it looks more likely to whack Miami than Key West...but a week is a very very long time in the storm prediction game.

Part Restoration, New Orleans Style

For some people the St Charles streetcar symbolized the city's return to life after Katrina. These days the street cars run all the way and their elderly gravitas looks as it always did.

The wealthy white neighborhoods of New Orleans are protesting the Times-Picayune's decision to fire reporters and publish online. That the paper comes out in print just three times a week is a sore subject. Especially as the paper was turning a profit when it made the changes.

The mansions by the lake were badly flooded and wrecked by Katrina but they have come back in grand style:

And the lakefront parks are restored and lovely.



Lots of city workers out here trimming the public nose hair.



The black neighborhoods, separate but equal look slightly different.



Quite a bit different.



Not equally restored.



"Not For Sale" says the plywood sign, spray painted.



One wonders when and how these wrecks will ever be restored.



Canal Street is back in fine fettle, where the tourists go.



Who wouldn't want to go shopping here?

And yet, even in the business district these wrecked zombie office high rises gape like rotting flesh, leprous scars in the middle of shiny bright office windows.

Wreckage amid the boardrooms.



It is a fascinating town, New Orleans.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad