Darling Lili...
We lucked out major big time. Lili dropped in intensity from a category 4 to a category 2 hurricane just before it made landfall this morning. The New Orleans area was especially lucky; the storm went enough to the west of us to spare us and there was only minor damage city-wide, and none in my immediate neighborhood, so no dramatic pictures. But that's a good thing.
The city remained closed for the day as various feeder bands of storms came through, but the sun came out two or three times. I had ocassional power outages, but they didn't last long. The scariest time was between 4 and 5 AM when a storm cell crossed my area with strong tornado signatures; the wind and rain were pretty intense and things were banging around as the power flickered on and off, but that was definately the worst of it. I watched the national news and it only shows the affected areas, but as you can see from the pic above of my block, my area is just fine.
Other areas around the city, and especially to the south and west had moderate to extensive wind and water damage, but nothing catastrophic and there were no fatalities. It could have been much worse. A category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph will blow down trees and power lines and damage roofs and cause flooding. A category 4 storm, which Lili was just before hitting land, with winds of 140-150 mph will totally destroy buildings, uproot trees and toss them hundreds of feet and cause 10 to 20 foot storm surges of water that literally wash away buildings and people. There would have been fatalities, possibly quite a few.
We were very fortunate; this was an extremely close call. Because of the way the storm developed and how fast it came, there was no way to evacuate New Orleans. If it had veered a bit and hit the city as a cat 4, I probably would have been sitting on the roof of my house right now, (that is if I still had a roof) surrounded by water 10 to 15 feet deep.
The feeder bands from the storm continue to push through the city with some rain and wind, and there is a strong wind from the south that is causing some tidal flooding along the coasts which will not subside until sometime tomorrow. We are still under a flood and tornado watch until 10 PM this evening.
And finally, Monday we get a cool front and some cooler temperatures, (lows in the 60's, highs in the low 80's.) I go back to work tomorrow and do what we did most of last weekend; try to get caught up on all the work that was missed during the storm. And hopefully catch up on some sleep.
durlx
We lucked out major big time. Lili dropped in intensity from a category 4 to a category 2 hurricane just before it made landfall this morning. The New Orleans area was especially lucky; the storm went enough to the west of us to spare us and there was only minor damage city-wide, and none in my immediate neighborhood, so no dramatic pictures. But that's a good thing.
The city remained closed for the day as various feeder bands of storms came through, but the sun came out two or three times. I had ocassional power outages, but they didn't last long. The scariest time was between 4 and 5 AM when a storm cell crossed my area with strong tornado signatures; the wind and rain were pretty intense and things were banging around as the power flickered on and off, but that was definately the worst of it. I watched the national news and it only shows the affected areas, but as you can see from the pic above of my block, my area is just fine.
Other areas around the city, and especially to the south and west had moderate to extensive wind and water damage, but nothing catastrophic and there were no fatalities. It could have been much worse. A category 2 storm with winds of 100 mph will blow down trees and power lines and damage roofs and cause flooding. A category 4 storm, which Lili was just before hitting land, with winds of 140-150 mph will totally destroy buildings, uproot trees and toss them hundreds of feet and cause 10 to 20 foot storm surges of water that literally wash away buildings and people. There would have been fatalities, possibly quite a few.
We were very fortunate; this was an extremely close call. Because of the way the storm developed and how fast it came, there was no way to evacuate New Orleans. If it had veered a bit and hit the city as a cat 4, I probably would have been sitting on the roof of my house right now, (that is if I still had a roof) surrounded by water 10 to 15 feet deep.
The feeder bands from the storm continue to push through the city with some rain and wind, and there is a strong wind from the south that is causing some tidal flooding along the coasts which will not subside until sometime tomorrow. We are still under a flood and tornado watch until 10 PM this evening.
And finally, Monday we get a cool front and some cooler temperatures, (lows in the 60's, highs in the low 80's.) I go back to work tomorrow and do what we did most of last weekend; try to get caught up on all the work that was missed during the storm. And hopefully catch up on some sleep.
durlx
posted by durlx at 10/03/2002 06:44:00 PM
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