Hermine update – absolutely no damage

Just a quick update to say that tropical storm Hermine did absolutely no damage to the area. As a matter of fact, we didn’t get near as much water as the northern part of Texas is right now! We lucked out down here and were under the “clear” band as Hermine swirled around and we missed 90% of the rain and heavier stuff.

We still have to get all the way through November 30th before hurricane season is over, so I ain’t putting away the duct tape and plywood yet!

Quick pics of incoming Hermine [PHOTOS]

Just some quick photos of Tropical Storm Hermine rolling in earlier today.

Hermine 01 photo


Hermine 02 photo


*NOTE : These photos were auto-color and auto-contrast adjusted in Photoshop because the 1st generation iPhone camera stinks.

Anyhow, while I was out earlier today re-stocking on emergency hurricane supplies, I noticed there wasn’t the same “grab everything!” mentality at the stores like when Hurricane Alex was passing through. For the most part, people were buying water and some canned goods, but nothing extraordinary.

Unfortunately all the local municipalities said there will be no sandbags available tonight as they were all caught completely unprepared. And, as usual for this kind of incoming weather, the lines at all of the gas stations were qued up two or three cars long.

It’s about 10 pm right now and the air is completely still outside, yet there’s little waves of ice-cold micro-drizzle spraying everything. The streetlights are flickering slightly, and you can see explosive white arcs trying to dig their way out of the thick grey clouds overhead. The local radar shows the big storm bands are making their way around to us from the gulf, so any minute now…

Surprise! Tropical storm HERMINE is here!

OK, I know I said I was going to take the day off from posting, but this weekend, like magic, Tropical Storm Hermine appeared!

Tropical storm HERMINE 01


Tropical storm HERMINE 02


It looks kind of Harry. Quite the Sirius storm! Perhaps we should Ron away before it comes in and Fawkes us over!

OK, now that I got the junior-high-level Harry Potter character puns out of my system, in all seriousness, it is coming right for us. That’s not funny. I need to run and refresh my hurricane supplies and prep my home right friggin’ now. According to NOAA, this one might flip into a hurricane right before it hits land.

“HERMINE IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHWEST NEAR 13 MPH…20 KM/HR…AND THIS GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. ON THE FORECAST TRACK…THE CENTER OF HERMINE IS EXPECTED TO APPROACH THE COAST OF NORTHEASTERN MEXICO OR EXTREME SOUTHERN TEXAS IN THE WARNING AREA TONIGHT.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO NEAR 50 MPH…85 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER GUSTS. ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST AND HERMINE COULD APPROACH HURRICANE STRENGTH PRIOR TO LANDFALL.”

Off to go hurricane shopping now…

EDIT : MSNBC and CNN and FOX are actually covering this!