Surviving Hurricane Dolly............................

Well, as you might know-I live in Hurricane Alley-which actually is anywhere along the Gulf Coast.

By late Tuesday evening we started to get higher wind gusts at over 50 MPH along with bands of rain-some heavy, some not. Well, the rest of Tues and all day Wed, we had winds almost at Hurricane strength. The rainfall came in sheets and with the wind blowing as hard as it was, the rain fell almost sideways. This happened on and off as we got the front wave of the hurricane bands. Then we had a lull for about a few hours on Wed, but then we started getting the back bands from the hurricane come through our area-which were much more worse than the font bands of Dolly. Yesterday, we had several smaller Tornadoes touch down all over South Texas. Thankfully, these only lasted a mere minute or two from start to finish and had almost no time to leave paths of destruction through the area.

All in all, I think we (in my area) got about 15-18 inches of rain in about 30 or so hours. This rain broke the back of the drought we were having and the ground in many areas, was able to soak most of it in before any flooding happened-thankfully. Also thankfully, nobody in my area was killed or even slightly injured.

The house im staying at until I have the operation (which now is scheduled for Auguest 13, and in which I will be there in hospital for a few days) and my move to Houston will start sometime this Saturday. Anyway, the worst part of this hurricane for us started at about 7 PM Wednesday and lasting through to noon today. The windsa and rain again were so hard and were longer lasting.

At about 2 AM this morning, was when the worst winds started happening and it really sounded a bit funny to hear the howling of the winds and to hear things being blown around from other yards and such. Well, the worst part seemed to reach a crescendo at about 3:45 Am when I heard what sounded like a double-barrelled Shotgun firing in rapid succession-right outside my bedroom window. At about 4:00 AM, I hears a sickening roar, and then the sound of some large metallic items being ripped away from whereever it was at, flying through the air and slamming into the outside wall to where my bedroom is. I heard a loud bang against the outside wall, and heard whatever this thing was, being slid across the roof up and over.

Fast forward to about 10 AM. I went outside to survey damage, and noticed that we lost three of the large Mesquite Trees in our backyard, and also noticed what I had heard from earlier, noticing that that metallic thing-happened to be the entire garage door that was ripped away from the nextdoor neighbors home-it was wrapped around one of the trees on our frontyard-like it was tinfoil.

That lous "roar" I heard earlier, was a small tornado that had actually touched down in the vacant lot nextdoor to our house. A few trees there to, were uprooted.

Anyway, we survived a catagory 2 hurricane. Im sure glad it's all over-and partly because we live in a nice neighborhood with a lot or retirees and great-looking homes and yeards-and also partly that because all my stuff, is still packed on a flatbed trailer.

 

So glad you are safe Carl!

We've been having wicked weather up here this summer, but not such a close call as you had.

 

Glad everything is ok mucker, though I'd have thought there was a clue to the danger in the name 'hurricane alley'

 

Carl,as a fellow Texan living outside that wonderful state, Dolly has not helped me in my campaign to convince the DW to move to CC upon retirement in about 3 years.

But I am glad to hear you survived the storm. Best of luck with the upcoming operation too.

 

lmao dolly was nothing.I live in New Orleans, Louisiana. now i didnt expirience dolly like you did, but i lived through Katrina. Katrina killed over 2000 people. I'm sure what you lived through couldnt even compare to what I did. Im not trying to be rude, or insult anyone, but i just had to mention, that people where i amhave been through lot worse then what some of you could ever imagine. so sorry if it sounds rude but...

 

Carl -- I am so happy to hear that you are safe. Hurricanes are not fun experiences. When they rolled through Orlando a couple of years ago, I was shocked by the devastation. I hope the storms stay away from all of us for the rest of the year, at least!

Cheers!

 

Glad to hear your safe Carl.

 

I'm glad youre all right, Carl..
Reading your story, I must say I'm glad to live at a place where these things don't happen.

Yes, we have a lot of snow and cold sometimes, but that don't rip your house apart!

The wind we have here were I live is more like a gentle breeze compared to what you experience.

Take care!
RAM

 

Yeah, good to hear you´re ok and not harmed by the hurricane, Carl!

You do seem to have those nasty things quite often, I must say....

Would not swap our polar bears to those....

 

Glad to hear your ok after the hurricanne, Carl.

As you probably know, i've just got back from a two week family holiday to Orlando and while I was there I tracked Dolly's progress via Fox News, it's a relief that it didn't cause too much damage.

 

As a survivor of Hurricane Katrina... I can't really say much other than better you than us. LOL!

No but really glad you're okay.

 

Hello Michelle, Stefan, Texan66,

Michelle, thank you and I hope the weather where you at is not too intense? Right now, thanks to all the rains from Dolly (and now Edouard) the humidity is hovering in the Corpus Christi area at about 85-90% most of the time, and since the sun is out-the temps hover at an average of about 95 degrees "F"-depending on what station you might get your news on.

The rains from Dolly hit our area till late Wed-and I was finally able to move all my stuff to Houston that Sat. Well, Houstons humidity hovered below or at about 60% with even hotter temps than in Corpus-since where im at-gets little sea breeze.

Hi Stefan, we also got hit by Hurricane Edouard as well. However, this time the worst of the storm hit somewhere near Houston-but we got feeder bands of rains from it. The day we left Bandera to come back to Corpus (will explain further on that later) we drove at least 100 miles through rain. About 15 miles out from my Sis's home-the rains stopped and the sun came out-quickly making the outdoors nothing more than a Russian Steambath.

Hi Texan66, thank you for the nice thoughts ;-)) Also, if you want to move to Texas-skip out on Corpus Christi-it's nothing compared to where I just moved to. Im going to be near Katy, TX, but still in the Houston City limits. I have not been up that way in well over 20 years-and boy has it all changed. There are Hotels and restaurants galore. Everything looks nice compared to Corpus. Several gated communities really out did themselves with decorating their entrances. I passed one that even had two waterfalls and small ponds.

Anyway, we ate at several restaurants there that Corpus Christi does not have and or no longer has, and their food was fantastic. I only ate at one place that I was slightly disappointed in-and I can't remember what place that was? Even Taco Bells food tastes good there.

I was in Houston till the next Saturday-then went to the ""Cowboy Capitol of the World"" which is a small town called: Bandera-which is about 30 minutes drive from San Antonio. The second time we ate at a great place called: O.S.T-Old Spanish Trail-restaurant-I met a person who was a character actor in a few of John Waynes movies-and also is a Rodeo Star-by the name of Dean Smith. If anyone watches the movie: The Alamo-look for a scene near the end of the movie where two wounded Texans are sitting against one of the Alalmo's walls-with Mexican soldiers pointing bayonets at them-and the man who answers his friend squestion with: "It do," is Dean Smith. BTW, he lives near Bandera and I am told often comes to town.

I bought an enlarged photo of the near entire cast of The Alamo-inluding Duke, Widmark etc-and had Dean Smith autograph it for me. The only folks I could see that were missing from this cast picture-were Richard Boone-who played Sam Houston, Jack Pennick-who was the US Army Sergeant (with the visored cap) and Patrick Wayne-who played James Butler Bonham.

 

Thank you Jeff, 11thAirborne, DGM, Mike, RAM, Kai, Jagd/P44, Terror,


Jeff, you can say that again Bro-these Hurricanes are no fun. I missed the winds from Edouard since I was in Bandera, but we got the feeder bands of rain almost all the way back from Bandera to Corpus Christi. Traffic wasn't so bad though.

11thAirborne, you weren't rude with your posting. In fact, I really felt pretty bad for you all there in New Orleans. I saw lots of news video of dead people floating in water-which really made me sick. I could not believe that the media would show that which to me-disrespected those who died. I sincerely do hopw that New Orleans is bouncing back nicely. At the time of just after Katrina, all I could afford to donate, was a new box-fan, about 20 cans of Campbells Soup, $20 bucks, a case of Dasani Water, and a few never worn shirts I had-oh and some toys I also had.

I did get to do some help locally-when we got in about 3,000 Katrina victims here in town. I was stationed at the old Expo Center-which looks like a large brick and concrete Quansit hut. I volunteered there for two weeks. I also hate to report that we did encounter some problems with a few Katrina victims-but i'll not publicly say what happened as the vast majority of the people I met-were great folks to be with. I think about 1,000 or so of them decided to make Corpus Christi their permanent home.

DGM, thank you also for the nice words and sorry about your having to experiancing hurricanes too. In fact, it seems to me as if Florida gets double-whammied when one hits there. Talk about being on the Bulls Eye.

Mike, thank you my friend. Also, I hope you guys don't get hit next. You know, it's interesting that over the last few years, it seems as if every state along the Gulf Coast got hit by two Hurricanes and in rapid succession. Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and now Texas.

RAM, thank you friend. I guess one thing we dont get here like what you get-is extreme cold. We get hit maybe one every 20 or so years-with temps dipping near the zero mark. The last time I remember that happeneing-was back in either 1988 or 1989. It was below zero here for about 3 days. I remember how hard it was to start cars, and to do anything.

Kai, thank you my friend. Heh heh, I don't know if I could ever stand a Finnish Winter. My blood is too thin and we easily get cold. Heck, ever since I lost a nice amount of weight, I get chilled easily. ;-))

Jagd/P44, thank you sir, and I tracked Dolly too as is a habit of mine since school days. I keep a map on the wall and use colored stickpins. I didn't get the chance to track Edouard because of the move and also how quickly it formed and moved in. It cut our stay at our Time Share place (Bandera River Ranch) because of how fast it formed and moved in. We didn't feel like being possibly stuck in the Hill Country for a few days.

Terror, thanks and, sorry you experianced Katrina. And I know exactly how you feel ;-)) I guess one thing was good in that there were few Tornadoes that came with either storm. I saw a small tornado when Dolly came through but thankfully, that tornado only lasted maybe about 2 minutes and his out in the salt-flats.

I heard in the news just last night, that somewhere in France-they too got hit with a tornado. I think it killed 5 and one man committed suicide because he lost everything :-(

 

Damn Carl get your behind up north ASAP ! we had a wild thunder-lightning storm right on the Rheine at Speyer for about 5 hours, nothing like a Hurricane but still ........ the boat actually rocked a tad bit of course ~ 3/4's of the tourists on the ship were drunk

I hate wind

 

Hi E, heh heh, hopefully some year??? It's probably going to be at least 3 years before I can think of moving again. I'm hoping to get on with the Govt, in about a year or so-the future job at one of the Army Surplus shops in Houston is only temporary-or at least till I get hired on with the TSA or maybe the Postal Service?? Not sure yet which I want the most?