Downdraft wrote:You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear! I have no idea what the passion is for trying to make this system into something it just isn't and won't become. 76 pages for something like this to me is absolutely amazing. If recon went in just to get some synoptic data for the models that's fine but Derek is right if they went to see if this mess was developing they just wasted the gas. People ought to be saying wow we dodged a bullet and this thing won't make landfall as anything more than a mess. Instead it seems so many now think every swirl in the Gulf is on it's way to a Cat 5.
I've been "lurking" for 3 days now, and had to sign up today to answer a few of these "issues" ............
We were hit HARD by Rita in SETX (Bridge City caught the 11:00 - 1:00 position of the leading edge of the eye), after dodging bullet after bullet for close to 30 years. Every time there was a threat, a cold front or an upper High would come along and shove the "worry" either to South TX or LA. Rita was the exception. And with all of the hulabaloo following Katrina, nobody got to see what happened to us on the evening news.
Imagine checking the NHC web site at 11:00 pm last Wednesday night, to be assured Humberto was only a low-grade TS - expecting 40-50 mph winds and rain to make landfall 50 miles away - only to be awakened at 4:30 am with no power, 80 mph winds, and horizontal rain on the eastern edge of the eyewall! I lost power around 3:00 am Thursday morning, and got it back Sunday evening. I had NO GAS in the gas cans, wasn't sure where the generator was in the garage, or if it would run, no water or food stores........... I was TOTALLY unprepared!
Those experiences far outshadow all of the "close-calls" and "false-alarms" we've had for nearly 3 decades. If another storm is lurking out there, I want all of the info I can get, so I can make educated decisions to protect my family and property. THAT'S why all the excitement!
And about the man who was killed here in Bridge City -
Some of you should be ashamed for making the comments you made without knowing the facts. He was a good man, and though I didn't know him personally, I have several friends who did, and EVERY ONE of them has commented on what a kind, gentle-hearted, hard-working man he was. And he IS missed in our community. It WAS a freak accident, but remember - When we went to bed last Wed. night, we expected a little wind and a lot of rain. With no power, and not being prepared, NONE of us knew we were waking up in the middle of a Cat I hurricane!
