Sally

I have been thinking about the experience of going through Hurricane Sally. First, let me explain how it happened.

We watched as the hurricane moved, ever so slowly, northwest accross the Gulf of Mexico. It was moving at a snails pace. The forecast was for it to pass us and come on shore roughly at the Louisiana/Mississippi border. Well then it slowed even more. Then it began to meander. It simply did not go far enough west before it started drifting north, then northeast.

This put us in the general path, but the weather experts said it was not in a place conducive to strengthening, that it was showing signs of losing steam, etc. Then the landfall location kept shifting east, a little at a time.

Now we could have packed up and left at any time, but at no time did we think we were in its path. Until Monday. On Monday it showed signs of definitely heading in our direction, and then, it showed signs of strengthening.

Well, by the time we saw these factors, it was time to put up the shutters on the windows, bring everything inside, and hunker down. It was too late to evacuate. Besides, we still only expected a glancing blow of a Cat 1, so we were prepared.

Needless to say, what actually happened was this very slow moving hurricane grew to a strong Cat 2 hurricane before it came ashore. The target, where we were. The experience, well, here it is.

We began having strong winds and rain late Monday, about evening. We listened as the wind blew and the rain came down. My rain gauge measured 8 inches on Tuesday morning. I emptied it, but it fell over in the winds so I never got an accurate reading after that. But, they say we received 20 – 25 inches of rain.

On Tuesday it deteriorated, and by Tuesday night we were in a storm. By midnight, it was seriously blowing, and you could hear the occassional something hit the house. It grew to a minor roar by 1AM. By 2 AM it was a train passing through the house, with more and more things hitting the house and roof.

By 3AM it was a full fledged ROAR! It was loud, powerful and intense. About 3:30 I heard trees breaking ourside and the fence shatter. We moved to the front of the house away from any trees, but it didn’t make it any quieter. It blew and blew, roared and roared! They said it was 105 MPH sustained winds, with gusts to 120. Then suddenly, about 4:30, total quiet.

You wander if its real or if you died. It was eerie. I told my wife we were in the eye of the storm, and we waited for the same fierce winds to come at us from the other direction. Fortunately, the eye was so big and it moved so slow that the back feed was much less than the first eyewall passage.

By Wednesday afternoon the rain had stopped and we took the window shutters down and surveyed the damage. None to us, none to the house (fortunate, because some trees fell fairly close) but lots in the yard.

I personally don’t ever care to go through another Cat 2 storm. It was a sobering event, knowing you are so powerless in the face of the power of nature. In the future, even if the storm is meandering and losing strength, I think we will button up the house and head away for a couple of days.

Glenn