Next hurricane headed toward LA/MISS?

[audreyh1]

That was quite a storm. The eye of the storm went right over us, which was an amazing experience. The winds and rain in the eyewall were pretty strong, and knocked out power intermittently (every second or two) for about an hour, but our power and internet are back now. The storm has moved on and my thoughts are with those in its path.

Tomorrow when it's daylight, we'll walk around our houses and look for damage. We don't want to walk or drive around in the dark, because of all the debris that needs to be cleaned up.

So glad it is behind us now.

Delighted to know you are safe and have power. I saw a blip that 400K were without power in LA.

 

[Gumby]

That was quite a storm. The eye of the storm went right over us, which was an amazing experience. The winds and rain in the eyewall were pretty strong, and knocked out power intermittently (every second or two) for about an hour, but our power and internet are back now. The storm has moved on and my thoughts are with those in its path.

Tomorrow when it's daylight, we'll walk around our houses and look for damage. We don't want to walk or drive around in the dark, because of all the debris that needs to be cleaned up.

So glad it is behind us now.

I'm glad you are both safe and sound.

 

[Koolau]

That was quite a storm. The eye of the storm went right over us, which was an amazing experience. The winds and rain in the eyewall were pretty strong, and knocked out power intermittently (every second or two) for about an hour, but our power and internet are back now. The storm has moved on and my thoughts are with those in its path.

Tomorrow when it's daylight, we'll walk around our houses and look for damage. We don't want to walk or drive around in the dark, because of all the debris that needs to be cleaned up.

So glad it is behind us now.

So glad to hear your good news. Hope your damage is minimal. Our prayers were answered. Let us hope this is the very LAST one of the season!

 

[Dtail]

W2R,
Glad you and Frank are okay and hopefully can resume your daily activities.

 

[Montecfo]

Montecfo, why is it that regardless what tropical storm comes along, you want to downplay it, and tell us why it is not going to be a significant event? Even with Hurricane Laura earlier this summer, which was a Cat. 4 hurricane when it hit Cameron, LA, you made light of the storm surge and the damage that resulted. Lake Charles, LA was hit twice this year with significant tropical storms, yet you act as if there was very little damage there, and everything is fine. You also routinely suggest that the official NHC forecast for these storms is exaggerated, and not to be believed. Is there some reason why you do this? If so, I can't figure it out.........

I just try to stay fact-based. Weather prognosticators and media do hype storms, and there have been many examples this season.

The post you responded to was what Gov Edwards said about the storm. It was certainly what he said (again, facts) and it appears to have been correct. My prior post about no serious damage, injury or death in the Yucatan is what authorities there stated.

Despite your comments, I never suggested people should not prep for storms and prioritize personal safety.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

We are fine and have no house damage but both of the boy's schools have significant damage. Also lost our RV. The power company truck stopped in our yard- we thought we were going to get power back but they were just assessing damage. It's going to be days. Going to help my parents clean up their mess tomorrow. They're going to need a new roof, a new shed and a new fence- but no firewood for a loooong time [emoji16]

 

[W2R]

We are fine and have no house damage but both of the boy's schools have significant damage. Also lost our RV. The power company truck stopped in our yard- we thought we were going to get power back but they were just assessing damage. It's going to be days. Going to help my parents clean up their mess tomorrow. They're going to need a new roof, a new shed and a new fence.

So glad to hear that you are fine with no house damage. Same here. We got a lot of branches from the neighbors' trees, and a lot of their roof shingles, in our yards. Frank just came over to borrow my push broom to try to gather up some of it. I picked up some earlier today.

We drove around this morning looking at damage. There are HUGE trees down everywhere blocking the streets, fences down, some houses damaged and a few demolished. Street lights are nearly all non-functional, torn up, and no longer facing traffic (even if they had electricity). 83% of homes in my Parish (=County) still have no electricity, and repair will take an estimated 7-10 days for most. We were among the lucky 17% that have power.

Essentially all businesses are closed up. We tried to find a restaurant where we could get lunch, but were unsuccessful. Most either have no power right now, or else they are busy trying to save what food they had when the power went out earlier. We found one restaurant which was serving food out of about a dozen we checked, and they had a wait time of at least an hour (so we gave up on eating out). There are insanely long lines at the gas stations, stretching for blocks, and we can't figure out why. Everybody knows you get gas before a hurricane, not after? My latest hypothesis is that they are getting more gas because they need it for their generators. I'd sure hate to be spending all day in one of those lines though.

But, we'll rebound and be back to normal before too long. I was so impressed that we had our normal trash pickup this morning at 10 AM. They even picked up big piles of branches that people had put out. After Katrina, it took almost four months before trash pickup resumed.

 

[Montecfo]

Great news on everyone being safe!

I know a lot of folks last power but it sounds like that is being restored fairly quickly.
Let's hope that is the case and things get back to normal quickly.

 

[street]

Very thankful for you folks that are fine and safe.

 

[Dawg52]

So glad to hear that you are fine with no house damage. Same here. We got a lot of branches from the neighbors' trees, and a lot of their roof shingles, in our yards. Frank just came over to borrow my push broom to try to gather up some of it. I picked up some earlier today.

We drove around this morning looking at damage. There are HUGE trees down everywhere blocking the streets, fences down, some houses damaged and a few demolished. Street lights are nearly all non-functional, torn up, and no longer facing traffic (even if they had electricity). 83% of homes in my Parish (=County) still have no electricity, and repair will take an estimated 7-10 days for most. We were among the lucky 17% that have power.

Essentially all businesses are closed up. We tried to find a restaurant where we could get lunch, but were unsuccessful. Most either have no power right now, or else they are busy trying to save what food they had when the power went out earlier. We found one restaurant which was serving food out of about a dozen we checked, and they had a wait time of at least an hour (so we gave up on eating out). There are insanely long lines at the gas stations, stretching for blocks, and we can't figure out why. Everybody knows you get gas before a hurricane, not after? My latest hypothesis is that they are getting more gas because they need it for their generators. I'd sure hate to be spending all day in one of those lines though.

But, we'll rebound and be back to normal before too long. I was so impressed that we had our normal trash pickup this morning at 10 AM. They even picked up big piles of branches that people had put out. After Katrina, it took almost four months before trash pickup resumed.

Glad it's behind you. Better days ahead!

 

[W2R]

Great news on everyone being safe!

I know a lot of folks last power but it sounds like that is being restored fairly quickly.
Let's hope that is the case and things get back to normal quickly.

Yes, let's HOPE that is the case. However, I hope my post did not downplay or minimize the damage Zeta (or any of these storms) caused. Hurricane Laura evacuees from southwestern Louisiana are still here in New Orleans. They had to evacuate from their homes two months ago due to devastation and destruction caused by Laura. They have not been able to return to their communities since, and have had to rely upon the kindness of strangers and various organizations. And now this. It's tragic.

Electrical workers are doing all that is humanly possible. In my parish, by 36 hours after the storm, the total of 83% without power dropped to 70% without power. Here's an article describing the progress on this monumental task as of today. It has a map showing the remaining power outages.

https://www.nola.com/news/hurricane/article_6eaafae6-1abc-11eb-81bd-e7873bb1034e.html

 

[ejman]

Happy to read our posters here made it mostly OK!

 

[W2R]

Happy to read our posters here made it mostly OK!

Yes, doing fine except perhaps a bit of survivor's guilt! Frank and I have power, internet, and no damage that we know of so far, but so many here are struggling right now.

 

[Lakedog]

Thought I was going to endure Zeta with no loss of power but about 30 minutes after the worst of the winds had passed my power went out (around 2:30a.m. Thursday morning) and still have no power. I am almost an hour northeast of Montgomery, AL.

There are lots of trees down on adjoining properties, and I spent the early morning hours Thursday (beginning around 4 a.m.) helping my neighbors get a few cows back in their pasture and cut some fallen trees along the fencelines in order to repair fences.

Most of us probably don't really think about the value of electricity at home until going without for a few days. I have a small generator to power the fridge, a light or two, and charge my phone and laptop. Internet is my cell phone as a hotspot which is working as usual since cell towers are still functional.

 

[W2R]

Thought I was going to endure Zeta with no loss of power but about 30 minutes after the worst of the winds had passed my power went out (around 2:30a.m. Thursday morning) and still have no power. I am almost an hour northeast of Montgomery, AL.

There are lots of trees down on adjoining properties, and I spent the early morning hours Thursday (beginning around 4 a.m.) helping my neighbors get a few cows back in their pasture and cut some fallen trees along the fencelines in order to repair fences.

Most of us probably don't really think about the value of electricity at home until going without for a few days. I have a small generator to power the fridge, a light or two, and charge my phone and laptop. Internet is my cell phone as a hotspot which is working as usual since cell towers are still functional.

So sorry your power is out! Hope it comes back soon. It's amazing how widespread the damage was from this storm.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

My husband went to help some relatives in Clarke county (central) Alabama today and said he didn't pass a single working stop light. The damage is considerable. Two relatives had to chainsaw their way out of their driveways. Power restoration will be more than a week away for many residents.

I went to help my relatives in coastal Mississippi. Heavy damage there as well. Trees and boats in the road and utility repairs made the trip home an hour longer than usual.

 

[Koolau]

Thought I was going to endure Zeta with no loss of power but about 30 minutes after the worst of the winds had passed my power went out (around 2:30a.m. Thursday morning) and still have no power. I am almost an hour northeast of Montgomery, AL.

There are lots of trees down on adjoining properties, and I spent the early morning hours Thursday (beginning around 4 a.m.) helping my neighbors get a few cows back in their pasture and cut some fallen trees along the fencelines in order to repair fences.

Most of us probably don't really think about the value of electricity at home until going without for a few days. I have a small generator to power the fridge, a light or two, and charge my phone and laptop. Internet is my cell phone as a hotspot which is working as usual since cell towers are still functional.

Where I lived in midwest, we once lost power due to ice storms. We actually never lost our power, but 6 blocks away, my mom was without power for a week and a half. It was 30 degrees outside so I rigged some Kero heaters for her and brought her over for showers, etc. It took FOR EVER to deal with all the downed trees and getting the lines back up and on. You just don't realize what it's like without electricity - until you lose it. Our worst here was 18 hours due to a thunderstorm knocking out the entire Island. I have lots of flashlights and battery radios, etc. BUT, it was still a shock to be without power. I've never looked at electrical power quite the same way since my mom's power loss - and especially mine! YMMV

 

[audreyh1]

Thought I was going to endure Zeta with no loss of power but about 30 minutes after the worst of the winds had passed my power went out (around 2:30a.m. Thursday morning) and still have no power. I am almost an hour northeast of Montgomery, AL.

There are lots of trees down on adjoining properties, and I spent the early morning hours Thursday (beginning around 4 a.m.) helping my neighbors get a few cows back in their pasture and cut some fallen trees along the fencelines in order to repair fences.

Most of us probably don't really think about the value of electricity at home until going without for a few days. I have a small generator to power the fridge, a light or two, and charge my phone and laptop. Internet is my cell phone as a hotspot which is working as usual since cell towers are still functional.

DB from Atlanta called me today. Their power had been out since 2 pm yesterday (Thursday) and the state park they had reservations at for the weekend had closed due to flooding, so they decided to head down to the farm instead which does have power.

At the farm power was out for several hours during Wednesday night, but restored mid-morning on Thursday.

It affected a large area. I noticed that the storm maintained 60 mph winds for several hours from north AL, across northern GA and into NC.

 

[audreyh1]

DB still waiting for power to be restored. This tree came down a few houses up the street taking the power out for the neighborhood.

 

[Car-Guy]

OMG.... There's another one out there... ETA


At least it doesn't "appear" to be a threat to the US this time. But it ain't over until it's over.

 

[W2R]

This afternoon my electricity and internet went off again. We saw lots of electrical workers and trucks on our block, fixing the power for those who needed it, so I figured their work involved shutting off our power temporarily. Luckily that turned out to be the case and I have power and internet back again.

They are doing an amazing job of restoring power in my Parish (=county). It's gone from about 175,000 customers with power out on Thursday, to 42,000 power outages today. Seriously these electrical workers are our heroes.

 

[audreyh1]

OMG.... There's another one out there... ETA


At least it doesn't "appear" to be a threat to the US this time. But it ain't over until it's over.

I’m hoping it stays in Central America. We only need one more named storm to beat the 2005 record. Hurricane season lasts until Nov 30.

 

[JoeWras]

Worldwide, this is a down year for hurricanes

What a strange year! The Gulf Coast has been unfairly targeted. To our friends down there, I send my best wishes. I'd be traveling to help with recovery, except that we're still working recovery here in NC from storms of 1, 2 and 4 years ago. It is keeping our recovery team busy.

Believe it or not, this year's hurricane activity is way down worldwide.

To us in North and Central America, this seems impossible. But with only a few exceptions (one happening now), the Pacific has shut down.

The world is interconnected. Some forecasters call it "teleconnections." The more we learn about the weather, the more we find out that what happens on the other side of the world matters. This is a small planet after all.

For those more interested in tropical storms, Colorado State University is a great source. Funny a land-locked school has such high esteem. Tropical weather specialists measure something they call ACE, Accumulated Cyclone Energy, in order to judge hurricane seasons overall. In the northern hemisphere, the current ACE is 373.1 versus a normal of 496.2. Way down. With the current storm ETA, it will catch up a bit. Still down when the Pacific drought is factored in. Our sense about our neighborhood is correct, though. The Atlantic ACE is 150.8, where normal is 98.8. Way over.

Link: https://tropical.colostate.edu/forecasting.html

Chart:

 

[Car-Guy]

ETA is hitting Nicaragua this morning with 145 mph winds. And it looks like it may loop around after hitting several Central America countries and come back out to sea in a few days....

 

[audreyh1]

OK - forecast come track has Eta heading into the Gulf as a tropical storm near Florida early next week. We will have a much better idea this weekend.