Thursday, July 14, 2005
Getting Back to Normal
Most of the county is getting back to normal. There are some areas, such as Holiday Isle, that will need more work. One of my commentors (OK, so far my only commentor! And maybe commentor isn't really a word, but what else do you call someone who comments? Commentator doesn't really fit, at least not from what I can get from the dictionary.) was asking about Holiday Isle's power situation. Right now Holiday Isle is without power and they have a "boil your water" order. And they still have a curfew, too. A good reference is Destin's site. They have a link at the top of the page to their status .pdf file. As of this morning the link is this, but the "201" in the URL tells me this link may not work when they update the info. At any rate, the Destin home page should continue to be a good source for their info. County-wide, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office site is a good one to check for information.
Most of the county is getting back to normal. There are some areas, such as Holiday Isle, that will need more work. One of my commentors (OK, so far my only commentor! And maybe commentor isn't really a word, but what else do you call someone who comments? Commentator doesn't really fit, at least not from what I can get from the dictionary.) was asking about Holiday Isle's power situation. Right now Holiday Isle is without power and they have a "boil your water" order. And they still have a curfew, too. A good reference is Destin's site. They have a link at the top of the page to their status .pdf file. As of this morning the link is this, but the "201" in the URL tells me this link may not work when they update the info. At any rate, the Destin home page should continue to be a good source for their info. County-wide, the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office site is a good one to check for information.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
We Dodged A Bullet
That's the phrase that pays. Dennis moved quickly, stayed small, and fell apart as the eye moved inland. Yeah, there's some damage, but so far it looks like small potatoes compared to either Opal or Ivan. Looks like the biggest thing in Okaloosa is power outages. Here at the house (just off Mary Esther, near Sun Plaza) it was out for about 50 minutes, but as of 2015 local the following areas looked pretty dark (as observed coming back in from Shalimar):
Eglin Parkway from south end of Shalimar bridge to Yacht Club Drive, and possibly further south - dark on both sides (commercial, residential, and traffic lights)
Beal Parkway from Mary Esther to Yacht Club Drive - same "coverage" as above
Highway 98 is washed out, again. I don't think they'll be able to use the west-bound lane for one lane of each east- and west-bound this time. It's been chipped away pretty badly for a stretch of at least half a mile, and undermined by six inches to a foot along at least that much.
I'll try to get a little more posted tomorrow. For now, though, I'm thanking God, my lucky stars, and whatever wind and water sprites may have been involved with getting Dennis through here quickly. Now to unwind, and start watching the tropical updates, again - get ready for Emily, arriving midweek.
That's the phrase that pays. Dennis moved quickly, stayed small, and fell apart as the eye moved inland. Yeah, there's some damage, but so far it looks like small potatoes compared to either Opal or Ivan. Looks like the biggest thing in Okaloosa is power outages. Here at the house (just off Mary Esther, near Sun Plaza) it was out for about 50 minutes, but as of 2015 local the following areas looked pretty dark (as observed coming back in from Shalimar):
Highway 98 is washed out, again. I don't think they'll be able to use the west-bound lane for one lane of each east- and west-bound this time. It's been chipped away pretty badly for a stretch of at least half a mile, and undermined by six inches to a foot along at least that much.
I'll try to get a little more posted tomorrow. For now, though, I'm thanking God, my lucky stars, and whatever wind and water sprites may have been involved with getting Dennis through here quickly. Now to unwind, and start watching the tropical updates, again - get ready for Emily, arriving midweek.
We may have more of a problem than it looked like last night. On top of Dennis strengthening to a Cat 4, the local news (WEAR TV, the ABC affiliate on channel 3) and at least one of their radio network reporters are thinking they've picked up a northerly wobble or jog in the storm's track. The National Hurricane Center isn't saying so, but we'll see what comes up on the next report. Due north of this hurricane's present position is pretty much smack-dab into Okaloosa County. Not that the exact landfall location really matters that much with something carrying this much energy, of course.
One of the hot topics in this area, especially since Ivan, is beach renourishment. Renourishment, or rebuilding, projects have been proposed for the beaches around Destin, among other areas. These projects have so far been proposed as public-works efforts, paid for with public funds. A snag they've run into is that in exchange for the public paying for the work, the public gets access to the beach that's (re)constructed as a result. The problem is that this now-public land was, before it washed away and was rebuilt, private beach property. Some of the property owners have balked at this and have so far held up the work. After today, it may not matter much - especially if Dennis heads this way directly. With the erosion they've had with Ivan and Arlene, and to a lesser extent Cindy, there's not much left to protect the multi-million dollar homes on the beach.
One of the hot topics in this area, especially since Ivan, is beach renourishment. Renourishment, or rebuilding, projects have been proposed for the beaches around Destin, among other areas. These projects have so far been proposed as public-works efforts, paid for with public funds. A snag they've run into is that in exchange for the public paying for the work, the public gets access to the beach that's (re)constructed as a result. The problem is that this now-public land was, before it washed away and was rebuilt, private beach property. Some of the property owners have balked at this and have so far held up the work. After today, it may not matter much - especially if Dennis heads this way directly. With the erosion they've had with Ivan and Arlene, and to a lesser extent Cindy, there's not much left to protect the multi-million dollar homes on the beach.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Yeah, tomorrow's gonna be a rough one. So far today the worst has been a couple of way-out-from-the-storm feeder bands, one around noon and another around 1900. Some thunder and lightning and a little wind, but nothing compared to what's in the near future.
Friday, July 08, 2005
This Is Only A Test...
Let's see how well this "post by e-mail" gizmo works...
It's another beautiful summer day in south Okaloosa county. As of Advisory 16 (11 AM EDT), Dennis is on a track to make landfall somewhere in the vicinity of the Florida-'Bama line. That's not far west of here, and is approximately where Ivan landed. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but it looks like Dennis will have a little more ooomph at landfall than did Ivan, and that's not going to be a good thing.
