Waiting for Hurricane Dennis

When I moved here to Montgomery, Alabama in August 2004, I was greeted with facing Hurricane Ivan within 2-3 weeks of my move. My initial reaction on watching news of the approaching Hurricane Ivan was "well, Montgomery is not on the coast. It won't affect me so why should I care?" Right up until the day before Hurricane Ivan landed. It turns out, the hurricane/storm has a diameter that expands far beyond the eye, and Montgomery suffered power outages, fallen trees, flooding, and 2 deaths (from folks who ran their power generators indoors). I stocked up on water and canned goods the day before (when pretty much supplies were running low in grocery stores) and snatched the last battery-powered radio. Thankfully, I had tons of batteries from my days of Costco shopping so I didn't have to search for batteries (which would have been unsuccessful anyway). One of my colleagues insisted I stay with her family, and I was quite thankful that I didn't have to weather the storm alone. And fortunately, her house never lost power, which was amazing considering that the rest of Montgomery was without power for at least 2 days (some parts even longer).

While the national media focused intently on Florida (which was quite unfortunately hit again and again), Alabama also suffered incredible damages. Waiting for Hurricane Dennis and watching all the projected path, I know that Alabama will be hit once again. And this time, I am not making the same mistake of waiting until the last minute.

I had my stock of water and canned goods. It's important to have as much water as possible... because we not only need drinking water, we also need water to flush the toilet once the power goes out. My flashlights are all in working order. I am also stocking up on ice in preparation for my referigerator going out. I have towels against my windows to prevent water from seeping in, and have placed my back-up computer hard drive high above my living room floor. This afternoon, I may move some other things off of the floor. My ac is running at all time high right now because once the power goes out, I will have no ac, and it will be baking at 80-90 degrees. I've taken as much trash out as possible so that I won't have to deal with not being able to take the trash out. I also filled up my car with gas because when the power goes out, we won't be able to get gas. Along the same line, once the power goes out, we can't use credit cards so I have emergency cash handy in case I need to buy something. My car is parked well away from the trees and light poles so that if the wind knocks down trees and whatnot, my car will hopefully be out of the harm's way.

www.wsfa.com has information regarding local weather information, shelter information, and other emergency information. The national hurricane center is keeping track of the path of Hurricane Dennis. And I learned from native folks here that hurricanes gain strength over warm water. Also, the east side or the right side of the hurricane is where you do NOT want to be because that is where all the wind, rain, and mayhem come from. And guess what? Montgomery will most likely be on the east side of Hurricane Dennis. When the pressure within the eye of the hurricane drops, that bodes ill because it means it will gain in strength (according to the weather channel folks). Throughout the day yesterday and last night, the newscast was focused on how Hurricane Dennis was gaining strength and the pressure kept dropping.

My biggest worry and fear, though, is tornadoes. I have no fear of earthquakes (having lived with them in California) but tornadoes scare me to death. During Hurricane Ivan, we had tornado sirens go off at 3 in the morning. While the best place to weather tornadoes is your basement, there's no such place in my apartment complex. So I learned that I should get into the inner most corridor of the building (my bathroom) and take a mattress to protect yourself.
I am somewhat comforted, though, that I am on the second floor of a three story apartment building. That means my apartment will most likely not be flooded, and that if there's a tornado, it will most likely rip apart the apartment above me.

Course, Hurricane Dennis is now considered a category 4 hurricane; hurricane is classified as category 4 if wind speed falls between 131-150 mph. Hurricane Ivan was category 3 -- at 130 mph. We'll just see how we all weather this storm. I suppose since I began my residency here in Alabama with a hurricane, it's fitting that I should end with a hurricane too. My last day of clerkship is less than a month away (August 1), and I had been preparing for moving back to California before being rudely interrupted by mother nature. Alas, we human beings are still no match for mother nature's plans, I've learned. Until after the Hurricane Dennis!