Yikes is right, it’s Ike.

Beth sure is right, yikes is all I can say for the residents facing the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Many of you may be sick to death of all my hurricane talk around here, but mother nature truly is an awesome force to be reckoned with and I simply cannot resist documenting her destruction, along with some history.

Storms have always fascinated me. Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, lightening, earthquakes, volcanoes…you name it…and I am glued for hours to the television. You can imagine my joy when I was offered a course in college called “Natural and Man-made Disasters”. It covered all of the above and more. I learned so much in this one little class, that it spurred my desire to change my minor from history to geography and to wish my actual major was in geography. At the time, it was way too late in the game to do that. And so, my minor became all things topographical, cultural, and historical. That’s the thing about geography it covers everything. It’s a wonderful subject and major that is often overlooked.

One of the topics we had covered, obviously had been hurricanes. Hurricanes were a huge deal since ODU was located in Norfolk, which is barely above sea level and is a major U.S. port. Therefore, our professor (Freebird as we called him) assigned us to read the book, Issac’s Storm by Eric Larson. This is the 1900 storm that devastated Galveston, Texas killing over 6,000 people because the United States choose not to heed Cuba’s warnings of the approaching Category 5 storm. (-Which in retrospect, the storm’s category is actually unknown since wind and surge instruments and other meterologist tools were just beginning to be invented. It may have been more of a Category 3.) However, this very storm is what prompted the city to build a seawall. Up until Ike, this seawall had been good at protecting its citizens. For more on Isaac’s storm and to view a few pictures, visit this link.

Both this story and Ike, remind me of my days living in Houston and how on the weekends, I would visit Galveston pier. It prompted a search for an old picture of me fishing off the pier at Galveston Islands. (where I accidentally hooked a stingray and couldn’t catch anything more than baby shark.) My interest in this picture is that this pier I am pictured on has a large hotel sitting out on it about 1000 feet from the main road- (Seawall Blvd.)

I remember thinking to myself, one day that thing isn’t going to be there. I also remember being amazed as I realized how vast the sea really was. (Even though, I frequented the beaches of the east coast since a child, I never fully realized how big fish could get or how powerful hurricanes really were. I was a naive soul back then.) Anyway, here is a picture of the Flagship Hotel minus me. This is a video of the Seawall Blvd. and the Pier yesterday before even making landfall. Look how high the surge is and the Ike was still some 9 hours away! I wonder if it has survived. As I search the Internet today, I will keep you posted.

Although, I doubt that many folks have lost their lives because of modern inventions, I do fear there will be a death toll since only 60% of the Galveston residences actually evacuated- leaving nearly 20,000 or so brave souls to weather Ike’s impact alone.

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A small Hurricane update

I thought I would give everyone a quick update- the tropical storm/hurricane is estimated to make landfall in south of Myrtle Beach, which is where we live. It is only supposed to have sustained winds of 65-75 mile per hour as of 6 p.m.
I was able to work today, even though rain began early this morning. By 2 p.m. the humidity level was rising and you could feel that low pressure that occurs during hurricanes. It’s a strange feeling, but I promise once you’ve been through a hurricane you start to sense it, probably somewhat like right before a tornado.

Speaking of which, we have a tornado watch in effect for the rest of the night and into the early morning. I think that’s the worse, is you have this one thing going on that you are worried about and then on top of it you get another thing to worry about. Great! At least Bryan will be home tonight and as it makes landfall! That’s a huge relief. We decided to order pizza and rent a movie, hoping the power doesn’t go out until after midnight.

Right now it’s getting darker and the wind is starting to pick up. I’ll be sure to update again tonight before it hits or in the morning…that is if the power doesn’t go off!

Oh and let’s really say a prayer for Florida- as Ike approaches. Hopefully, it will downgrade even more! (My brother and his family live in Orlando and my mom and sister will be visiting there NEXT week!)

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Who’s Environment is this, Anyway?

I really can’t take the Republican Convention, but I’m trying to get through it. I feel like their speech writers watched what worked for the Democratic convention and just changed it around for themselves. Let’s not even talk about Palin…I mean, please a pit bull with lipstick? Too bad I’m not a fan of pit bulls. I would rather work for change than fight for change.

One of the blogs I follow, Crunchy Chicken brought up that she believed McCain and Palin were the biggest threat to the environment. Whoa…that’s a big statement, but I do think it’s a warranted one- I mean can we really live with another 4 years without agreeing on a Global Climate Policy? Shouldn’t we be protecting the environment before caring to go back into a war? Or whether the woman next door is having an abortion? Or whether taxes get raised or not?

To me these things won’t matter when our air and water isn’t clean or when we have torrential storms, no Amazon or polar caps and more diseases to worry about.

Which leads me to another issue, another iceberg (this time the size of Manhattan has broken off). I hope everyone understands the impact this can have (it directly influences the way in which our whole world’s climate works). In my opinion this really does matter.

I guess it boils down to whether or not we want to create a better place for our children to live in or if we want to leave the earth a better place than when we were here. I think those are important things in the eyes of God. No?

Maybe I have it all wrong, but I think we should be able to live and work together without war, be green, find spirituality, educate our children, have moral character, care for the greater good and still prosper as a people- all at the same time. Ok, so maybe I’m a transcendentalist.

This really wasn’t intended to be about the election or the environment (it simply found its way out), so please forgive me. My real intentions were our anxiousness with wondering where Ike is heading. We have Hanna headed our way now, carrying not much of a threat- but, a pain as we wait to see what Ike might bring if it is to follow Hanna’s footsteps. It’s akin to hurricane Isabel in its track thus far. Likewise, it’s a horrible Category 4 right now! Which could spell major trouble for anyone in its wake. What’s even worse, it will be arriving to the U.S. at the peak of Hurricane season, September 10th.

We are prepared, however have decided to only stay if it is below a Category 2 Hurricane. Since both Bryan and I have been through hurricanes before, we know the impact they can bring. We won’t be taking the same chances we once did as ‘young adults’. It’s funny, how bravery and reasoning evolve into cautious sanity once you have children. The bottomline is that we are privy to the environment and really should start respecting it.

Please say a small prayer for the Bahamas, the Gulf and the East coast this week. : )

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