People are already being warned to evacuate from this hurricane, and told that there will be a storm surge as far as 30 miles inland, even before the hurricane makes landfall. The map shows it causing devastation all across the bottom of Texas and Louisiana, and this could turn out to be a very serious hurricane . I am reminded of when hurricane Harvey came ashore in Texas a couple of years ago, and Ina was still alive and was marooned in her home from the flooding, and (even though I still miss her terribly) I am thankful that she is not going to have to go through another hurricane disaster like Harvey was.
The devastation is going to be horrible. They said while ago that a twenty foot storm surge could go miles inland. They had issued evacuation orders a few days ago. They said anybody who hadn't evacuated by now is on their own. My heart goes out to those in the path.
They are saying on Twitter right now that the wind speed is over 150 mph, and if it gets a little higher, it will make landfall as a cat 5, which is almost unheard of. We need to keep @Babs Hunt in our prayers. She lives at Lafayette, and said she expects to be on the edge of the storm, and be okay, when I messaged her . Here is a live update from Galveston that we can watch and see how things are going as the storm comes in tonight.
I just checked Facebook, and Babs has “marked herself safe” from the hurricane, so that is good news. I am also really concerned about @Beth Gallagher , who has been on the trip to see her family in Georgia, and either is, or might be , on her way back home again, and they would be driving through some of the storm area to get back home. If you are safe, and have an opportunity to let us know you are okay, @Beth Gallagher , please check in with us as soon as you are able to do so ! The storm is going to be moving into Arkansas next, but looks like it will miss @Sheldon Scott . We are supposed to have rain and thunderstorms tomorrow as the residue passes over this area.
We got back up at 12:30 this AM to see, on The Weather Channel, what was going on. Lake Charles was really getting hit with wind and rain. We seen Jim Cantore, Jen Carfagno and Tevin Wooten reporting from there. Jim had to out of an open area, due to wind and flying debris. Jen, who was reporting close to The Golden Nugget Casino/Hotel, had to end up going inside of a parking garage and then inside of the casino, due to flying debris, which included broken glass, and high wind/rain. Live video was shown of the wind and it was blowing.......sustained: 98 mph and gusts: 140 mph. It was truly frightful seeing the wind blowing that hard! Parts of Lake Charles was shown this morning (8AM), with appeared to be a whole lot of destruction done. As of that time, one person had been killed. A 14 yr. old girl was killed by a falling tree. I told my wife, and she 100% agreed, "will take freezing temps and either full-blown snowstorm or blizzard compared to a hurricane". Actually, we seen what Irma done to the area we lived in in Jacksonville, Florida. The St John's River looked like a junk yard with picnic tables, wooden docks and even some boats floating down it that had broken away from their docks.
Hello all. We sat out the hurricane at my sister's place in GA. Left for home yesterday morning and traveled miles out of our way to avoid flooding/devastated areas. We heard that I-10 was closed through Louisiana, which is our usual route. We ran into some very heavy rain along I-20 but made it home safely about 2 a.m. this morning. So a long, tired day; a trip that is usually about 12 hours of driving took 18. Along the route we planned to stop at a hotel to rest but they appeared to be filled all along the route. I assume those occupants were anxious evacuees wondering if they had a home to return to.
I am SO glad to hear that you made it back home safe and sound, @Beth Gallagher , and thank you for taking the time to let us all know, which I know you have to be beyond exhausted, after that long drive back home. Get some sleep, and we will look forward to seeing you after you are rested, we have missed you here !