Friday, September 12, 2008

Ike

Hurricane Ike is bearing down on us tonight. Last year at about this time we were casting a wary eye at Humberto, but Ike makes that storm look like an amateur (To the left is the view from the International Space Station). It's a category 2 but that's deceiving: the actual energy in this storm and its sheer size are greater than Katrina's. Since this morning Ike as been piling up more and more sea water on Galveston and may have the whole island under water before it's done. Even where I am, 50 miles inland, we're due for 85 mile per hour winds with gusts up to 100. That's enough to rip your roof off and shatter your windows. Ike is hours from landfall but I can hear his winds howling right now against my doors.

About an hour and a half ago my son and I watched these pink, fast moving bands of clouds in the skies as the sun set.

I fully expect our power to go out before the night is through and it may be several days before its back. Ike's eye is expected to make landfall around 1:00 a.m. and pass almost directly over my head 2 or 3 hours later. It will only have started weakening by then. I may be up all night.


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