Having lived and worked in SW Florida and at the GA/FL state line on the Atlantic coast, hurricanes are nothing new to us.
They are, however, dealt with in dramatically different ways, depending on where you experience them.
That in mind, when Beryl shifted course and locked into a track that would come so close, it was with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension that we watched it unfold.
Why both?
Because I truly love the raw power of the natural world and the biting, twisting, driving force of a hurricane is something to behold.
Yes, I’ve stood on the Atlantic coastline with a pocket anemometer held high in the face of storms, measuring the local effects to compare them to the figures broadcast by the authorities.
I enjoyed it…my suits, not so much.
This week, the storm just crossing into Cat 1 status before making landfall, it dissipated quickly. In our area, it made for sheeting rain, twisting of trees, and loss of power as the morning evolved.
When it cleared, a few hours later, I found out that half a dozen trees had fallen within about a 2-block radius of our place, but I hear no reports of injuries.
Our backyard looked, as I said to one person, “like a bunch of rowdy, adolescent Ents got into a wrestling match.”
Still, nowhere near what it could have been.
That said, now at Landfall+3 days, vast parts of the metropolitan Houston area seem to still be without power and/or Internet, at least half the stoplights on my way to the office remain dark (and a fair number of the Houston drivers ignorant / unobservant / selfishly uncaring about what that means. Par for the course with the locals and their Road Warrior driving mentality).
Hoping it resolves quickly…but thankful that, where we are, outside of Houston proper, we are already up and running.
Tight lines…