soapbox

Well, I just finished talking with my folks, and they weathered the much-trumpeted Hurricane Dennis with little to worry about. They never even lost power, and the maximum winds at their house barely approached hurricane (>75 mph) strength. In fact, they watched much of the storm while sipping iced tea from their screened-in back porch. This would be about the umpteenth “mandatory” evactuation order that they’ve ignored over the years, making them dyed-in-the-wool die-hards, I’d reckon.

Turns out that Dennis one was a lot like Hurricane Ivan from last year, in that there was little to the backside of the storm as it came ashore. Once the eye was over land, the worst of everything was already in off the water. Unfortunately, Dennis is moving fast enough that some of the regions NE of where my family lives are catching some serious hell from the very compact, very strong eyewall region, whose squalls remain highly organized.

Dennis should lose considerable steam overnight, but the inland regions of Alabama will suffer as much storm damage (minus the storm surge, of course) as the Pensacola, FL, region where the storm went ashore.

We can probably look forward to some heavy rain later this week as the remnants of Dennis make their way through the eastern U.S.