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Archive of "Tropical Weather" Category
Hurricane Katrina
Hard to believe it’s been two years ago since Katrina changed a lot of lives including mine. Growing up in Mississippi I had always been exposed to hurricanes and had always heard stories from my family about Hurricane Camille since my parents were living on the gulf coast when it hit. There was no way that I could understand the power and destructive force that comes with a storm of that magnitude. The best way to explain what happened is to go back into the archives…So here are some posts leading up to Katrina and in the days after (once power was restored at the university).
August 28 2005 - Gulf Coast…Bend Over
August 28 2005 - Deceptivly-calm
After the Power Issues post we lost power. Here are some posts from when we got power back at the university.
September 03 2005 - Still Alive
September 03 2005 - Later In The Day
September 03 2005 - Still Recovering
There are a few more posts after that but those hit the heart of what happened. I didn’t blog a lot of it since it was just so damn depressing. Here are a few pics from my apt and a few from the surrounding community.
A lot has happened in the two years since Katrina. I’m in a very good place now and as much as that whole time sucked it really did lead to a lot of great things.
Posted in Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
3 Comments »Last yet again
So it seems last night was the magic night for some people to get cable/internet back….The neighborhood that I am living in is, yet again, going to be the last one to get service back. Last night my roommate’s girlfriend got cable back on. She lives with her mom on the east side of Hattiesburg. We live on the west side…(West Siiiiiiddddeeee)
I thought comcast may be working east to west…But I awoke this morning to a text message from Matt saying Meethune, a friend of ours, also got cable back last night. And he lives about 3 blocks over from me. So I don’t know if there is a method to comcasts madness but hopefully we will have cable/internet by the weekend. Although if all goes the same the power did it will be about 4 days until we have cable. Currently I am at McAlister’s deli here in Hattiesburg leeching off their wireless….
I am still up in the air about my job….I want to work there and help rebuild but I still don’t want to move back to the coast. My old job at the clinic is there if I want it but I just need to decide what I want to do…If I leave I won’t get my free classes. But I am not sure if that is enough reason for me to stay.
If I go back to the clinic I will lose some money but I can really carve a niche for myself there with some of the projects they have coming up….I don’t know, maybe this whole coast thing wasn’t ment to be anyway. I was hesitant to move in the beginning but once I got down there and started working things really fell into place.
Another option I am considering is moving completely out of the south. I have toyed with this idea for a while but never really acted on it. Things just kept popping up here to keep me here. I think with my experience I could find a decent job that would hopefully allow me to continue my current career path…
I could also try and transfer to the Hattiesburg campus…But I can’t decide if that is something I want to do….Do I want to continue working for the state? My hosting company has a position that I think I am going to apply for. It is a Remote Sys Admin, which means I would work from home and deal with helpdesk type issues and get to play with a lot of servers (~120). It is payed as an independant contractor. This could come in handy experience wise down the road, but is it the right choice for me now???? Damn, so may questions I don’t have the answer for right now….
This goddamn storm has really upended my life…I don’t know what direction I want to take…
Until later….
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
2 Comments »Still recovering
Things are almost back to normal here in Hattiesburg…No more gas lines, no more ice/water lines…Traffic is still a nightmare in some places because of all the power line crews working…
I have got to say the power company and those companies that came down to assist have done an outstanding job. Most of Hattiesburg where I am staying had power about 5 days after the hurricane. We ended up getting it back around 9 days after the storm…With all the damage that we took around here that is pretty amazing…
My motorcycle is running and I had it checked at the place I bought it and they gave her a clean bill of health…Not bad for a bike that survived a cat 4 hurricane…
I am also happy to say I have a job to go back to…We are supposed to report Monday at an old hospital the university recently bought to run network lines and get everything setup to move in until we can rebuild the old campus…
My apartment on the other hand has been officially condemned….I talked to the property management people and they are just going to raze them and rebuild. She said former residents would get priority on getting back into the new buildings…But it will probably take 6months to even begin construction…That is really kind of a blessing because I am still not sure I want to move back to the coast…I want to help rebuild but after that I may try to transfer up to the hattiesburg campus….I just really don’t want to go thru this again.
People keep telling me that this only happens every 30 years or so…but the point I try to make is it could happen with the next hurricane…This has already been the most active hurricane season ever and we could be in this cycle for the next 10 years….
But anyway…we made it thru this one and are going to rebuild, hopefully before the next one gets here….
Until later….
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
2 Comments »Later in the day
It seems finding gas, water, and ice have become full time jobs now…Even tho the power is on every where around us we still don’t have power…I really think it will be coming soon tho, hopefully.
I am waiting for the call about my dad and stepmother. The contact that I have doesn’t get off work until 5pm so it will be after that when I find out…
Matt and Chris went out today and got gas so we have enough to get to the coast and back now…We are planning on getting enough gas out of my truck to finish filling Matt’s car up and another gallon for my bike if it is still working and in running condition. His car has some mechanical issues but I would rather deal with those than running out of gas down there….So hopefully I can get a few things and pack them into Matt’s car and dig my bike out and just ride it back to h’burg. So far we are planning to leave after breakfast in the morning.
I really don’t want to go down there without hearing from my Dad…But I can’t get up there to them with my truck…If my bike is working all I can strap a 2 or 3 gallon gas can and hit the road…
More later….
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
2 Comments »Still alive..
The only thing I can say about the last 6 days is goddamn….I have never ever been thru anything like this in my life. I left the coast on Sunday not expecting this storm to do much at all…Monday evening was a totally different feeling. Matt, Meethune and I stood outside watching the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina roll thru Hattiesburg.
We were in a building that provided us an exceptional vantage point to watch in relative saftey. All I can say is the force of the wind snapped trees while we watched including a huge oak tree that snapped and started rolling down the street.. The sheer destructive power of the storm, I still can’t wrap my head around it.
On Tuesday we went out and walked around and surveyed the damage and all of us were speechless. Every single house within Hattiesburg has some type of damage. Most of them have at least one tree somewhere inside the house. Power and water went off shortly before the eyewall got here and water was resorted on Wednesday. Power, however has been spotty around town. Most of the businesses and main drags have power but most of the gas stations are to damaged to open. This is leading to extremely long lines at the pumps with 4-5 hours or more of a wait time.
Matt and I went with my old roommate to try and get gas this morning only to find the station we pulled up to at 5:45am wasn’t getting any gas today. Chris and Matt’s cars are dangerously low on fuel. I am sitting on about half a tank which I wanted to top off so I could go to Montrose Mississippi and find my dad. I haven’t heard from him since the eyewall passed over us and knocked out cell phone service.
Tensions are extremly high here. In downtown a brother shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice. I didn’t believe this at first simply because it sounds so damn out there…But sadly it is true…People are armed to the teeth down here anyway and I have talked to several friends who have started carrying firearms to sit and wait in gas lines. Matt and I have had a lot of time on our hands to talk about how people have been acting…Paniced…With power being restored it seems things are calming down somewhat until you pull into a gas station. I just talked with a friend of mine who has been sitting in line since 5:30am and saw two guys get into a fight over a gas can…A goddamn gas can…To me gas is not worth dying for..Most places are setting either a $20 or $40 limit.
With prices so high that is not getting much gas at all…It pisses me off tho because I see people sitting in line at the pumps with their windows up and engine running..This means they are running the A/C…If they have enough gas to run the A/C then they don’t damn well need to be in line.
I haven’t heard from my Dad or my Brother since the storm hit. I am sure they are fine but because I can’t get gas to go see I don’t know. I did manage to get ahold of a woman I worked with at Hattiesburg Clinic…Her parents live right next door to my dad and step mother…And she has a line to get to her mother, who is going to go by and make sure they are ok and let me know their status.
I found satillite images of my apartment building and work yesterday when the internet came back on here at USM…My apartment is standing but has roof damage but it looks like no flood waters got to it. Now I am just worried about looters…My motorcycle is hopefully still parked under my patio and we are going to try and ride down tomorrow and recover some of my stuff and meet Matt’s family down there..They have been in Destin/Panama City since all this started….
I finally managed to talk to my boss last night and he and his family have lost everything. Their house is completely destroyed. 16 members of his family lost their homes. The pictures of the destruction make me sick to my stomach.
This is a long post and doesn’t even scratch the surface of what has happened and what I witnessed. All I can say is if another storm is compared to Katrina, I am gone. Without hesitation, I am outta here…I will not come to Hattiesburg or my dad’s…I will get completely out of the south…I will not go thru this again if I can prevent it.
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
2 Comments »Power issues
Our lights are flickering quite constantly….we have also lost our live feed to the local station on the coast….before they went off the air it was said there was about 10-12 hours of worsening weather left…also the superdome in new orleans has been damaged….reports are it is raining lightly inside the dome…
I am going to go ahead and post this…rest assured we are all fine where we are and feel comfortable that the building will hold that we are in…matt just told me we are getting gust of 50mph…
If we lose power i will be turning my phone off to conserve batteries…but i will be checking messages as longs as the cell towers are up…
Until later….
**EDIT** a lightning rod just fell thru roof of the super dome…and the pumps that have to pump ALL water out of the city are NON-FUNCTIONING at this time…
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
1 Comment »7am
After an hour and a half of much needed sleep we are getting some strong winds and rain…I am still pleasantly suprised that our power and internet are still up. Matt and I walked downstairs to do the redneck activity of takin pictures….
It strange to be sitting here watching the local channel on the coast via the internet and seeing how hard they are getting hit. So far the eye is supposed to make landfall on the Mississippi coast about 10am cdt. So that will put it here in hattiesburg ~noon or 1pm…
We already heard debis breaking off some of the trailers on a construction site next to the building we are in…As we started looking the crew that is working on it left all kinds of shit on the ground (i.e. 2×4’s, metal signs, etc) so basically all kinds of good projectiles for later…
btw hwy 90 that runs along the beach is completely under water…
just heard wind gusts around where i live 130mph…
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
No Comments »4am
So we are up at the tech building and lo-and-behold we have internet…..so I will be on as long as possible…not much change in the last hour…winds are still fairly calm ~20mph, and the rain is picking up…
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
Comments Off3am
Katrina was just downgraded to a Cat 4…I am not sure that it is going to make much of a difference whether it’s a 4 or 5. Current winds are 155mph with gusts up to 196mph…
Matt and I are still at his house with very little weather affecting us. It all just seems to die out before it gets to Hattiesburg.
We are going to go ahead and head up to the tech building..So I will not have any internet until further notice…I will try and get online if the cell towers are working later this morning and give an update…
Until later……
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
No Comments »Deceptivly calm
So far we have recieved a little rain and some wind earlier…That was around 5pm…Matt and I are still at his house since there is cable and internet and it is so calm. We already know there will be no internet at the Tech building because all the servers and whatnot have been shut down….
I do have my phone and can connect thru it but I will save that for urgent updates…The weather channel just showed a tornado heading for New Orleans so that is not good at all…
The eye of this damn thing is over 30 miles wide…As some jackass on the weather channel stated that is the equivlent of a 30 mile wide F3 tornado. I have pretty much resigned myself that my apartment will not be there after this goddamn thing.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst….right?? right…..
***EDIT*** The track has shifted to the east…Towards the Gulf Coast…Home
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
Comments OffGulf Coast…..Bend over
Ok, so the weather is getting bad fast….two counties over tornados are reported….We are still at matt’s house and ready at any moment to go to the tech building to ride it out….
I just really hope I have a house to go back to…
fyi, My apartment is in the worst part of the storm….expected 20′-25′ storm surge, winds sustained at 110mph…I live about 3 miles from the actual coast…Hopefully all the storm breaks will kick in and keep my place dry….
pray to whatever gods you pray to…I am…
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
2 Comments »Family Reunion
Along with Hurricane Dennis I had a family reunion this weekend on my step-mother’s side. I wrote this Saturday after everyone left. It is short, but so was the reunion..
Saturday July 9, 2005
Today was the James family reunion. All in all there was about 30 people that showed up and everyone ate and spent some time together. It is about 1740 and the rain has started which I assume is from Hurricane Dennis.
Earlier the track of the storm was slated to go to the grand Isle of Louisana, but that has since been changed back to Pensacola/Panama City area. I really think we are going to get some weather in Long Beach from this storm. I truly hope my apartment and motorcycle are there when I get back.
The satellite t.v. went out apparently it does this fairly regularly …Great…not a damn thing to watch and no internet…That is a lot of fun huh…
Ok, so it seemed to go back to the storm more than the reunion. Honestly the reunion was rather small. Usually there are 50-60 people that show up at 8am and don’t leave until 7 or 8pm. This year there was maybe 25 people and most didn’t show up until 12pm, ate and left around 2pm…
I ended up staying until Monday to see what Hurricane Dennis did. Luckly we (Long Beach) didn’t get anything except rain and wind. The power didn’t even go out. If I had been here it would have tho…
I did get damage from an upstairs neighbor who didn’t tighten the water hoses on his washer. I came back today to hear water dripping onto my washer. The ceiling over my washer is soaking wet and dripped all over the floor and onto the carpet in my dining room.
I noticed my ceiling was wet before I left on Friday and I did the right thing and called the landlord and reported it. I ended up calling 3 times that night, finally a maintance man came and looked at it and told me to ” keep an eye on it and someone would fix it over the weekend”.
Well needless to say no one came and looked at it so now have to deal with the ceiling being pulled out and most of the sheetrock replaced…I have some pics but I can’t seem to find the right usb cable. Somewhere between my last job and this one I ended up with a dozen or so usb cables and I have no clue where most of them go.
Speaking of usb cables…I think my Neuros died :-(….That sucks btw because they have been discontinued..:-(
Well this has just turned into a ramble…so I am going to wrap it up now….
Until later…
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Tropical Weather |
1 Comment »Dial-up sucks!!!
Well, I managed to get on for a bit tonight…Unfortuneatly it won’t be very long because the longer I’m online it ties up the phone line [sigh]..They really need on-demand broadband…
I just need it for a couple of days and then they can go back to dial-up…
But anyway I am here and the family reunion was good, more on that later. We are watching the weather and I hope Dennis doesn’t turn my way anymore…I would really like to have a place to stay when I get back to the coast.
Oh, and my cell phone gets absolutly no signal here…Somewhere between 1 and 2pm I was getting something but the wind shifted…
Until later
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
4 Comments »Shutting down for a while…
Well, I am getting things packed to go to the family reunion and to get away from Hurricane Dennis. I will be out of the net for a while since I am shutting down my server and covering everything with plastic. I honestly don’t think things are going to get *that* bad but an ounce of prevention right…
I will be up at my dad’s until Sunday, then depending on Dennis I may come back to Hattiesburg. If things are bad I am just going to stay at dad’s and fish
Dad doesn’t have hi-speed internet and I am not even sure if they still have dial-up (hopefully they do) but if not I will talk to everyone when I get back…If anyone needs me you can try to call my cell. If I don’t answer please leave a voicemail. My phone service is spotty in that area at best. If you leave a message I will call you back…Until later
Posted in Computer stuff, General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
1 Comment »Stupid Hurricane
Well for the second weekend in a row we are threatened by a hurricane. This storm is nothing to play around with tho. It is already a Cat 4 and it hasn’t even hit Cuba yet…So it has the potential to get into the gulf and get stonger.
I will be leaving Saturday morning anyway for a family reunion at my Dad’s house in Montrose Ms. I am staying that night and coming back Sunday. If it hits us I will stay in Hattiesburg with my old roommate and decide what to do from there.
On that note, what is it with these hurricane names?? I mean Dennis, come on, what kind of fear is that supposed to provoke?? Something like “Hurricane that slipped from the seventh circle of hell” would actually provoke some fear.. But Dennis?? That sound like the name of an obnoxious neighbor who won’t leave you the hell alone…But I digress, hurricanes suck and hopefully Dennis will piss off and go away. I don’t see that happening..
So, I am off to cover all our lab machines with plastic and get everything off the floor…I know, you wanna be me right now don’t ya
Posted in General, Things that suck!, Tropical Weather |
2 Comments »
