Miss. beaches largely unspoiled by Gulf oil gusher

Miss. beaches largely unspoiled by Gulf oil gusher : "So far, Mississippi hasn't dealt with such messes, largely because of the underwater DeSoto Canyon in the Gulf, which is south of the Florida Panhandle, said Don Johnson, an oceanographer at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory."

Some bunny needs a little more patience

Our rabbit hutch project for our deserving bunny, Leo, has hit a few snags since I last mentioned it.

First - the project was stricken by extreme procrastination.

So we had an idea.. we got the materials... and then we played the Wii and watched stuff on Netflix all weekend.

Second - the project was delayed by germs.


With one weekend basically wasted and behind us - of course the next weekend was spent totally immobilized on the couch trying to remember a time when I had the luxury of breathing through my nose.

Third - the project is currently being delayed by something called a 'heat advisory' - a thing of which I have recently learned.


Thirty eight years on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I can tell you that heat and humidity are no strangers.  However, I don't think I've ever paid much attention to the term 'heat advisory'.  I'm sure that a few thousand heat advisories have been issued here in my lifetime - but I guess I quietly dismissed them.. You know like "Uh.. right - Be advised! It's hot!"  I'm like that.

Earlier today I got a handy alert on my cell phone advising me that it is (and will continue to be) hot.  Undaunted, I slathered myself with toxic bug repellent and went into the backyard anyway.  I lasted close to 5 minutes out there.  I then came inside to find out more about these heat advisory things.

I found the current watch via NOAA's NWS:

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE


NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA


348 PM CDT MON JUN 7 2010


...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM TUESDAY TO 6 PM CDT
THURSDAY...
.HIGHS INTO THE 90S IN CONJUNCTION WITH DEW POINTS AROUND 80 WILL
BRING THE HEAT INDEX IN MOST AREAS TO ABOVE 105 DEGREES AND AS
HIGH AS 115.
Further down in the advisory we get some info on exactly what this means and what to do about it:

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

THE HEAT INDEX IS A MEASURE OF HOW HOT IT FEELS WHEN THE EFFECTS OF
HUMIDITY ARE COMBINED WITH THE TEMPERATURE.  A HEAT INDEX OF 105
DEGREES IS CONSIDERED THE LEVEL WHERE MANY PEOPLE BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE
EXTREME DISCOMFORT OR PHYSICAL STRESS.  THE HEAT INDEX IS MEASURED
UNDER SHADY CONDITIONS...AND DIRECT EXPOSURE TO SUNLIGHT CAN INCREASE
THE HEAT INDEX AS MUCH AS 15 DEGREES.
A HEAT ADVISORY MEANS THAT A PERIOD OF HOT TEMPERATURES IS
EXPECTED. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY
WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE
POSSIBLE. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS...STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED
ROOM...STAY OUT OF THE SUN...AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND
NEIGHBORS.


All of that translates to:  "You won't be building any bunny hutches until at least Friday." 

A common local sentiment

Read more at gulflive.com

The reason I'm not outside at the moment ...

Something happens

I thought Ida was gone... Isn't it gone?

We woke up this morning to learn that the storm had been downgraded to a depression. It was still cloudy around the house. However, there was no rain - the streets had dried out and our windows had stopped leaking. There wasn't any wind to speak of either...

Until a couple of hours ago, that is. Oddly enough we started getting some strong gusts this afternoon - some of which were the strongest yet from this whole tropical fiasco.

I was standing in the kitchen during a strong gust and heard a bang and a scrape which called my attention to the front kitchen windows...

(Yes - another video. Don't worry - it's short. OH and you can actually see something in this one.)



So with that I say with confidence: We will never live to see our house fully repaired.

Ida Video: Don't expect much

Because I have a camera and the will to use it - I figured I would share these completely uneventful videos with the world. Oh what I would have given to have had a video-capable camera during Katrina....

TS Ida @ 10:27 am, Pascagoula: Not a lot to look at, I know.

TS Ida @ 3:35 pm, Pascagoula: Still not a lot to look at, I know.

Now that I have that out of my system - I promise not to post any more video until there is something to actually record. Forgive me. Thanks.

Twitter updates ... Will be updating... something.

I just added Twitter updates to the sidebar here and will updating via Twitter throughout the day as absolutely nothing worth blogging about is happening here re: Ida.

Waiting....

A view of the sound from Beach Boulevard in Pascagoula - 3pm November 8th

We received our WeatherBug alert a little under an hour ago with the news that Jackson County, Mississippi is now under a Hurricane Wind Warning. These things sure can sneak up on us, can't they?

We already have enough bottled water to float a barge and our emergency equipment is all safely tucked away upstairs. Food is always a completely different story with a house full of kids... The more we buy the more they eat. It is completely impossible to keep an emergency supply of food in the house when your two eldest sons consider every hour that passes without a sandwich to be an emergency. We sighed a heavy sigh this afternoon and took a trip out to pick up lots of granola bars and tuna fish and snack foods just in case we will need them this week.

Pelicans fishing at the jetty.

Tomorrow morning I'll start moving all of those annoying potential projectiles out of the yard and into the garage.

Now I'm wishing we had somehow managed to acquire the funds to buy some of those cool kevlar hurricane screens I've always wanted. Alas - we'll have to find time somewhere on our shortened schedule to lug out the plywood shutters and get them in place.

For now I'm going to get some rest -- just in case I won't be getting any tomorrow night.

Hurricane Watch Issued for Louisiana, Mississippi as Ida Moves North - FOXNews.com

Hurricane Watch Issued for Louisiana, Mississippi as Ida Moves North FOXNews.com: "A hurricane watch has been issued for parts of the southern U.S., covering coastal Louisiana and Mississippi as Hurricane Ida begins making its way through the Gulf of Mexico toward the U.S."

We'll be gearing up for live-blogging if she continues to head this way.

The view from upstairs, August 29, 2005.

And what better way to remember the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina then to spend the day preparing for yet another storm....

We survived Hurricane Katrina. I've been a bit reluctant to actually state that publicly lest someone would suggest I change the name of this blog... But it's true. Today as we scurry around stowing the hatches full of whatever can't be tied down and tying down whatever can't be stowed in the hatches I realize we have everything under control that we can control.

We've done this a million times before... Checking emergency food and water supplies, stocking up on fresh batteries for flashlights and radios, trimming dead tree limbs, taking home inventories and pictures of possessions for insurance purposes, declaring the freezers off-limits until further notice, checking in with the neighbors, planning for last-ditch evacuation, putting an axe in the attic....

But this time feels a little different. I'd be lying if I said we're not on edge. We're wondering if the unimaginable can really happen again in our lifetime...

Practically, things are different too. Three years later only a handful of houses in Pascagoula between here and the water in any given direction have been rebuilt (contrary to reports of the area having 'almost fully recovered') and of course lost trees haven't had the lifetime they need to be replaced.... What this means is that neighborhoods such as this one will become the new frontline when it comes to storm surge. We no longer have a yardstick. We're in new territory here.

Those of us in homes which took a beating during Katrina also have no idea how much more the structure can take. How close did we come to losing the entire thing three years ago? How much has rotted, shifted, corroded, or otherwise weakened quietly and unseen while we made our cosmetic repairs?

We have a lot riding on this one.

Stay safe, people.

YES!

A fantastic link to keep us all going while we board up our windows and fill our freezers with frozen vegetables we'll never eat..... It's time:

"We are proud, world class, resilient people.

We are the national experts on natural and manmade catastrophes.

We who remain have shown we can deal with anything."

(Read more....
Time to Be Who We Are)


Hat tip: to Judy @ Thanks Katrina for the link.

Breathe out....

The most annoying tropical system of the year award goes to Tropical Rainstorm Fay. Through no fault of her own, Fay irritated tens of thousands of folks coast-wide this past weekend. Despite the fact that Fay was only a tropical storm when she would begin her journey over several hundred miles of land to reach us... Despite their own admissions that Fay would be downgraded to a weakening tropical depression when and if she reached us... Our local news stations issued constant urgent warnings to the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast about rainfall and winds gusting to 25 mph. The governor's office used their nifty new automated warning system to send out telephone messages from the governor himself telling people to be prepared and make plans to evacuate if necessary. (We didn't get one of these phone calls... Apparently the governor's office lost our number.) Nothing happened. Which is, ironically, exactly what all those warning messages predicted....

And so this weekend - the weekend of the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina... The games begin anew with the threat of what is predicted to become Hurricane Gustav.

I talked to a lady last night on the telephone who made it through Hurricane Katrina without major damage to her home only to have the place burn down 14 days later in an electrical fire.
She's been living in various trailers with rotating combinations of family members as they all try to get their own homes finished while waiting to get started on hers. She's not feeling all that happy about predictions of hurricane force Gustav winds reaching us by August 29th. It's just not funny.

I do. not. want. to. evacuate.

But we would need to start calling for hotel reservations yesterday. If we manage to get a reservation for the weekend somewhere within 200 miles of here - we will not know whether we need it or not in time to cancel reservations without having to pay for the unused rooms.

"Canceling your reservation before 6:00 PM (local hotel time) on Wednesday, 27 August, 2008 will result in no charge. Canceling your reservation after 6:00 PM (local hotel time) on 27 August, 2008, or failing to show, will result in a charge equal to the first night's stay per room to your credit card."

So I would have until 6pm tonight to decide whether or not I really need the room for a hurricane that isn't a hurricane yet that may make landfall between Sunday and Tuesday of next week if at all somewhere between the Yucatan and southern Florida.

I'm off to search for rooms.... If I can't find any I suppose I'll just throw a few hundred dollars into the Gulf of Mexico and say I did.

Back with more....

SunHerald.com : Tropical Storm Bertha forms in the Atlantic

SunHerald.com : Tropical Storm Bertha forms in the Atlantic: "It's still too early to say if or where Bertha will hit land."

Click here for your printable tracking map.

ScienceDaily: 'Trapped Wave' Caused Unexpected Dennis Surge, Scientists Say

ScienceDaily: 'Trapped Wave' Caused Unexpected Dennis Surge, Scientists Say: "When Hurricane Dennis passed North Florida on July 10, 2005, it caused a 10-foot storm surge in some areas along Apalachee Bay -- about 3 to 4 feet more than forecasted-- that couldn't be explained only by the local winds that conventionally drive storm surge."

In light of recent events -- and after several threats to do so over the past few months -- we have now purchased a separate earthquake policy for our home. Let's hope we won't need it.

METLIFE notice to Homeowners Policy Holders

From Camille and Katrina Were Not Ladies:

"What's more, if your policy excludes coverage for damage resulting from an earthquake, a notice with detailed information regarding the exclusion appears on the reverse of the page. If your policy currently includes optional Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption coverage, it will be listed on your Declaration Page and no exclusion notice is contained on the reverse."

Isn't that just totally interesting and so very timely! AND it just so happens that we received the same letter dated August 23, 2006 -- an astonishing 18 days before a magnitude 6.0 rattles the Gulf Coast from the Gulf of Mexico (where, incidentally, there is no earthquake-generating plate boundary).

Here's a bit of what the reverse side of our letter states :

"Your policy excludes coverage for any damages caused or precipitated by an earthquake or earth movement. This exclusion generally excludes all damages caused or in any way resulting from an earthquake, earth movements, tremors and aftershocks, and also excludes earth movement, land shock waves, aftershocks or tremors before, during or after a volcanic eruption. For further details, please see the language of your policy."

This is the second earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico since the beginning of the year. The first was measured as a 5.2 on February 9, 2006.

(Image from http://www.iris.edu - WILBER II - Station LTL.LI Seismograms)

(I'm challenging my blog-readers to help Mississippi public schools -- and quite specifically schools impacted by Hurricane Katrina -- by making a donation today:

Help Public School Kids by Funding my Challenge at DonorsChoose)

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program � Magnitude 6.0 - GULF OF MEXICO

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program � Magnitude 6.0 - GULF OF MEXICO: "# The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A strong earthquake occurred about 250 miles (405 km) south-southwest of Apalachicola, Florida at 8:56 AM MDT, Sep 10, 2006 (10:56 AM EDT in Florida). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available. This earthquake was felt in parts of Florida, Georgia and Alabama. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time.

Felt Reports
Felt in much of Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Tectonic Summary
This earthquake was centered beneath the Gulf of Mexico, well distant from the nearest active plate boundary. Such 'midplate' earthquakes are much less common than earthquakes occurring on faults near plate boundaries, and most probably represent the release of long-term tectonic stresses that ultimately originate from forces applied at the plate boundary. This is the largest of more than a dozen shocks that have been instrumentally recorded from the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the past three decades, and it is the most widely felt. The most recent significant earthquake in the region occurred on February 10th, 2006 and had a magnitude of 5.2. We have not associated this earthquake with a specific causative fault." [emphasis added]

Chevron successfully tests new US Gulf oil discovery - Yahoo! News

Chevron successfully tests new US Gulf oil discovery - Yahoo! News: "Still, the appraisal well flowed at a rate of more than 6,000 barrels of crude per day, Chevron said, -- putting it on a par with discoveries in exploration hot spots such as the waters off Angola.

It was the deepest successful well test in the U.S. Gulf. With U.S. oil output in decline, large new fields are increasingly rare and oil companies are widening their search to more difficult places and drilling to far greater depths than ever before."

Today is the day of the community-wide picnic. We woke up to rain - so we decided to break out the watermelon indoors.

The skies have cleared up so we'll probably walk down to the cul de sac at 3 pm. Until then - it's a bit up in the air -- like everything else.

We made reservations for a couple of rooms in Laurel for the end of next week -- just in case Ernesto keeps plugging along. We'll have to start calling about lodging for Judge and the kitties on Monday morning...

Tropical Storm ERNESTO Public Advisory

Tropical Storm ERNESTO Public Advisory: "000 WTNT35 KNHC 252030 TCPAT5 BULLETIN TROPICAL STORM ERNESTO ADVISORY NUMBER 5 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL052006 500 PM AST FRI AUG 25 2006 ...HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT DETERMINES THAT TROPICAL DEPRESSION FIVE HAS BECOME TROPICAL STORM ERNESTO... AT 5 PM AST...2100Z...THE GOVERNMENT OF HAITI HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR THE SOUTHWESTERN PENINSULA OF HAITI FROM THE HAITI-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BORDER WESTWARD TO THE SOUTHWEST TIP OF HAITI. ALSO AT 5 PM AST...THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR JAMAICA. INTERESTS IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS AND WESTERN CUBA SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF ERNESTO."