Hurricane Michael

Just a few days ago, Michael was just a tropical storm out in the gulf. With great speed, it turned into a monster and headed right to the mainland. Lord, have mercy! (Storms always remind me of the wrath of God.)

I hope those of you in its path have evacuated in time and that your property will be intact when you can go back.

The winds reached 155 m.p.h., making Hurricane Michael one of the biggest to hit our shores. See this, which also quotes the National Hurricane Center for what one can expect from a Category 4 storm:

Catastrophic damage will occur: Well-built framed homes can sustain severe damage with loss of most of the roof structure and/or some exterior walls. Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months.

The hurricane is hammering the Florida panhandle and also threatens Alabama and Georgia. Also the Carolinas and Virginia.

This is less than a month after Hurricane Florence hit some of those same areas. Florence was just a Category 1 hurricane, much weaker than Michael, and yet, because it was so slow moving, some are saying that it might have caused more damage than Michael will. But that remains to be seen.

Hurricane Florence developed close to Africa, whereas Hurricane Michael developed close to the American mainland. That is why last month’s storm had such a long buildup, whereas this storm seemed to have come out of nowhere.

Go here for some first hand reports of the damage wreaked by Hurricane Michael. You can get a sense of it from this video, a CNN report posted on YouTube: