Open the Floodgates, Close the Schools

Katrina's not a hurricane quite yet. But she probably will be soon, and so we act accordingly. Headed straight for Ft. Lauderdale no less. She'll hit us late tomorrow or in the wee hours Friday morning.

She's picked up strength and speed, she's over warm open water, she's bulked up to the west, and the Bermuda High is keeping her steered toward the west, not north. She's a slow mover still and has lots of rain, perhaps 15-20 inches just for us. This is all bad news.

They think she'll only be a 1- or 2-force storm. The only other good news is, if it goes just a little bit to the north, we'll take much less water. The north/northeast side of the hurricane - called the "dirty" side of the storm - has the most rain and tornadoes.

What you really don't want to be in is the center, in the eye. Unfortunately, unless she changes path, Katrina's eye will go right over my house.

Here's lookin' at you, kid.

The Water Management District has opened the floodgates to lower the water level in the canals and help prevent flooding. Here in Broward County, schools are closed tomorrow and Friday, and non-emergency workers are off. Me, I'm all supplied up, and I'll head to Mom's condo tomorrow to pull the furniture away from the windows.

Dade County better not make up a bunch of phony FEMA claims again. They're crying over the Video Music Awards show this weekend, they'll lose a lot of business. Most people in Broward and Palm Beach counties don't feel much sympathy this time. Sticking the garden hose in the living room window to "flood" yourself. Honestly!

Well, well, here we go again, huh?

Katrina cooked up from a long-meandering nothing wave, to a rather sudden intensification only 230 miles from shore.

She surprised us.

Andrew surprised us, because he came barreling along on a straight path and intensified. He was actually pretty little but boy was he mean.

The No-Name Storm of a few years back surprised us by forming very suddenly right off land, starting up in SW FL.

Charley surprised us by taking a sudden turn into the coast, instead of heading up north over water like so many planned he would.

Then, of course, we had Floyd. The scariest looking hurricane I've ever seen, bar none. Millions were evacuated, setting records. Floyd surprised us by not hitting Florida at all. Not that he didn't run amok through our friends to the north. However! No longer as powerful as he might have been. That's a very good thing indeed.

I love hurricanes.

The only thing is, I wanted to go to Yeehaw Junction.

l like Yeehaw Junction, too.

This time I like it extra, because Walter is there on a little layover. We had plans for me to drive up and bring him supplies, and go road tripping about in Florida together.

If I were his employer, I'd want my big rig out of there. Like yesterday. Hurricanes have a way of going where ever they want, and there's no reason Katrina can't eat Yeehaw Junction - and Walter's rig - as she goes over the state. Still, I need to take Walter his stuff, and who knows? Maybe we can drive around hurricane-hunting just a bit. I think the bar-b-q plans are off though.

So...We'll see. I do know that I can't go leaving the house unattended in the middle of a hurricane. Gracious! The poor cat!!

Maybe I'll run up to deliver Walter's things, visit a bit, and turn around and head back home. We're both exhausted just now. Time to sleep. We'll see what the hurricane news is tomorrow. Then we'll know what we can and can't do for fun.

*sigh*

This is one of those situations where a person has too many good things to choose from.