Its starting early

Just got this weather update from our weather team. Looks like the hurricane season is starting early.

Tropical Disturbance in the Gulf...
...The Tropical Disturbance in the Central Gulf of Mexico continues to push to the west/northwest. This disturbance could soon be classified as a Tropical Depression. If this original low-level circulation remains organized, this system will most likely make landfall along the Texas/Louisiana border on Monday with heavy rainfall and gusty winds, but should not reach Tropical Storm strength. If this system develops a new center of circulation underneath the thunderstorm activity, then it could make landfall in between the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle as a Tropical Depression, with once again mostly heavy rainfall and some gusty winds. On Sunday, this system will become sheared by strong upper-level winds and the thunderstorm activity will begin to elongate toward the Central Gulf Coast. It looks like no matter where this system goes, we are in for some heavy rainfall from Sunday Afternoon/Night into Tuesday Morning.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm
I always told my bosses I wouldnt work in a hurricane... LOL

Hot Dog.

Consider me wrong and twisted, but I love hurricane season. Mother nature when she's as ticked as she can be, but willing to give you a 3-5 day advanced notice before she destroys everything you have, or at least leaving you thinking so.

Lived through the full effect of Hugo. He (She, until the NHC was forced to become PC) left me with a hard time trying to find my way home. Took down every street sign and land mark from Charlestown to Goose Creek. Literally drove in a circle for an hour, looking for a road I'd taken daily for 2 years.

Never found it.

Buried,
I feel the same way about them, nothing like the wrath of MN.
The last one we had was Georges in 98? We didnt have any home damage, but lots of trees down. Theres nothing like driving around right before curfew and feeling it in the air. Such an intense feeling of impending destruction.
I think George was 2, early 3, and I decided about 3 am, that i would NOT stay here in anything higher than a 2.
Every year, the old timers say "oh this is just like the summer of camille"....doesnt matter if its starts out rainy, dry, hot or cold, ......it was JUST LIKE that summer, lol. I was watching the news the other night and they said they are expecting an active season because the gulf waters were already up to like 82 degrees.
So what do ya do? Batten down the hatches, grab your insurance policy, photo albums and important papers, and head for high land, lol. And like you said, we at least have notice.
Jen

i, too, love hurricane season.. though i'm not entirely sure why
i just do
it is a pain to come home and navigate through all of the wreckage, though
we typically only evacuate when it's a "mandatory evacuation" but when it is, we board up the windows, pack up all valuables and put them in the hallway.. or in closets, throw everyone in vehicles (pets, too!) and go to my aunt's house on the other side of houston until the all clear is given :)
we've yet to have damage to our house, aside from a few misplaced shingles.. been lucky, though because a lot of people i've known have lost just about everything they owned in some ...

Every time a disturbance even comes NEAR the Gulf of Mexico, I start looking for hotels where we can evacuate, if necessary. LOL. I've seen water up to the eaves of houses and awful stuff floating in flood waters. It isn't pretty.

Of course, when I was a kid, it meant nothing more than time off from school. But now....

Hurricanes scare the beans out of me now that I am aware of what actually happens, and I'm terrified that something will happen to my three kitties.

June 1 means that I check the 'hurricane box' and make sure it is up-to-date, the car tank is always full, and the Important Papers are in one place and ready to go, in case we have to bug out. I'm not an alarmist, just prepared. Looks like everyone else takes the same stuff as I do.

But if this turns out to be no more than a tropical system, then I'm happy that I won't have to water the garden for several days! And it will cool things off. The sun was shining on the outdoor thermometer today and it was 102 degrees! Makes me dread the coming July and August temperatures.

I love hurricane season but one thing.. I dont like them to come toward to our area!!!!!! We lives in our new brand house! We lives about 45 miles south to the Gulf.

Well, I'm certainly old enough to know better, especially going through every Miami hurricane from 1952 to Andrew, but I must confess that I'm an Adrenaline junkie also! In spite of no electric and boiling water for almost 3 months, trees in the house, lost landmarks, etc, etc, etc, the excitement and anticipation builds every time Mother Nature announces a new show. Shelters are no option for me since they don't take pets, so I will make sure I have food and water for the Doxies and cat and we will just hunker down and ride it out. What most people don't realize is that dealing with the aftermath of a major storm is more traumatizing than the storm it self.
Pati

i dont think i've ever "hunkered down and rode it out" before, pati!
several friends of mine typically go outside and enjoy the wind and stuff that comes with the storms, but we almost always evacuave when it's going to be bad at all (above a 2, for sure!)
luckily, we have a place we can go to evacuate, and bring the pets along, too
dont know what i would do if we had to go to a shelter and leave the dog behind...
but i know lots of people do it..it's horrible to see all the dogs left behind at the bus stop after they evacuate for a storm

I am among this small group who love hurricanes! The last major hurricane I was in was http://www.usatoday.com/weather/huricane/wdonna.htm and I actually slept through it!

I really love how the air feels the next day (it's the ozone) and everything washed so clean. I used to love to walk out on the jetties when a storm was approaching. Got drenched to the skin but felt SO exhilarated!

My folks survived the 1928 Huirricane http://www.ibiblio.org/uncpress/hurricanes/sept28.html but lost everything they owned. Lost most of it all again in 1935, the hurricane that wiped out so much of the Keyes.

For the last 40 years, I've been removed from the hurricane paths (mostly) and all I get is the torrential rains from the hurricanes that make landfall mostly in the gulf and come right up to GA/TN/NC/VA... like http://www.usatoday.com/weather/huricane/wdavid.htm where even in western VA there were whole trees floating on the flooded highways.

sunday we watched a tornado within 2 miles of our home-sacary stuff!!!! lots of damage but it missed us-knockin on wood!!!!!!

"love to walk out on the jetties when a storm was approaching"
Oh yes, my children still talk about going to the beach as a storm was approaching and how the sand stung their legs and how loud the waves sounded. It must be a genetic thing in my family, now they take their children to see the show!

I love the final hours leading up to the storm.
I remember in Georges we were watching "titanic" until we lost power. the volume was turned up as loud as it could go so we could hear it over the wind.
at 2 am my dad woke us up so we could barricade the front door, because the wind kept pushing it in, which was weird because their front door faces due north.
one of the most neatest things i saw, although sad, was watching the oak in their back yard struggling to stay upright. It lost its fight and laid down gracefully, right on top of the neighbors garage. To see a huge tree fall like that
we're due for one and the trees need pruning, lol.

Ah... hurricane stories. I remember my dad's unit flew out of Boca Chica when a storm was approaching... about 1949. His new wiffe had bever been in a hurricane... we were in Maimi. I remember the back door blew off and a neighbor helper her nail it back on... and the new parquet floor in the entryway buckled from all the rain inside and we had to enter and exit through those narrow crank-out windows for 203 weeks. Had water in the bathtub (to flush the toilet) for weeks!

Pati... maybe we ARE related... I could almost feel the sting of the sand from your post!

Since we're telling stories, I'll go into a little more fun of Hugo.

I didn't get to experience him(her), right through the eye, but out apartment did. I did get to surf her waves on a huge board, though. U.S.S. Sierra (AD-18)

We were stationed in Charleston, and ordered to sortie out at the last hour, when it mad the sharp turn towards Charleston. While the fleet got out in time to avoid the worst of it, we did have some exciting times. Notable were 35 foot swell in the outer/inner bands. Picture a small cruise ship with waves crashing over the flying bridge (the tallest part). It was really interesting watching these things hit the smaller frigates. They literally covered the entire ship, and then it would bob back to the surface like a cork.

During the worst of it, we were actually confined to the signal bridge for 36 hours, as there were no indoor routes to the lower decks. Five people stuck in a 75 sq ft space. Two of them sicker than dogs, and three "adrenaline junkies" enjoying the rush. No food. No Bathrooms. No water. We did have a large coffee perculator that was fortunately full when the fun started.