Thursday, September 13, 2007

Hurricane Humberto

I have gotten enough phone calls from family and friends that I decided it was time to make a post about the hurricane. Galveston was hit with a Category 1 hurricane last night. It was remarkable for the fact that it developed into a hurricane so rapidly. Initially, there was little concern because it was just a tropical storm with maximum winds of around 45 miles/hour. However, as the storm hovered over the warm Gulf waters, it rapidly became a hurricane with winds sustained around 80 miles/hour. It hugged the coastline into Louisiana. We were expecting 5-15 inches of rain locally, but we only received 6 1/2 inches. The brunt of the storm hit east of us in High Island and the moved to Port Arthur/Beaumont area. I would liken the hurricane to the average tornado in Kansas just much more widespread. Still, I can not imagine how anything could be left after a Category 3, 4, or 5. We are OK and nothing in our city was greatly damaged. I think the Galveston they are referring to on the news is all of Galveston county as there were parts that were more heavily affected than others. For example, Port Bolivar was declared a disaster area. It is only a few miles (plus a ferry ride) from our house. Now, we are getting ready for the next storm Ingrid which is already forming in the Atlantic. The only difference is now we are seasoned veterans.
I got a couple of pictures, but it was dark by the time the worst of it come through. Here you see our car in front of our house at about 6 pm. You can see the the water is already up to the hub caps. We were afraid if it continued at that pace it would be under water. We drove it onto the grass to get it a little higher, but I don't think we would have had to do that. The rain was so much less than expected.This is a picture of the waves. I read somewhere they were 6-10 feetI got this picture from a website with pictures of Galveston. It shows that the waves were actually high enough for someone to surf. Usually the surfers are just floating on the water.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So glad that hurricane stayed "just away" from you. It sure did come up fast. Thanks for the pictures, the gulf waters are beautiful.
Mom

the fredin's said...

thanks for posting erika!!! :) those pictures you got of the ocean are awesome. glad you guys are ok...you seasoned veterans, you :). glad you didn't get flooded in!

Anonymous said...

Happy you all are fine. Hope to see you sometime soon. Maybe when the hurricane season is past.
Grandma B