10 PM, JUNE 20, 2017
FIRST AN UPDATE: For those of you who follow my blog, I’m happy to report that my surgery is complete as is the biopsy. No malignancy! My doctor wants to monitor me for a couple more weeks and then we’ll be on the road again. Thank goodness! We’ll head to Georgia, then to South Carolina to visit my friend Jackie in Greenville. After that stop we will explore North Carolina, with a stop to spend some time with our dear friend Julie who lives in Charlotte. We’ll also take another look at Tennessee, Arkansas and Virginia. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
HURRICANE SEASON HAS ARRIVED. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season began June 1st and will last until the end of November. And the season is off to a quick start with tropical storm Cindy now threatening the Gulf coast. A tornado watch has just been issued for Pensacola and the National Weather Service is warning of imminent torrential rain, flash flooding, rip currents, high surf advisory and beach closures. Cindy will likely become a hurricane shortly. Great! Despite having been in the path of some very threatening weather in the past and being spared a direct hit, we’re concerned. These kinds of weather events are still pretty new to us and we’ll be glad when they’re just a distant memory.
This is the way things look right now! Pensacola is in the center of the screen.
HERE COMES CINDY. At this moment, tropical storm Cindy is a huge and very messy weather system approaching the Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle, where we’re staying. Short of leaving the area, we’ve taken all the precautions we can at the moment. The awnings are retracted, the patio umbrella is secured as is the American flag, and the satellite dish has been closed down to present as little wind resistance as possible. We’ve emptied our tanks and taken on a supply of fresh water. Now we wait, but it looks like this storm is going to be a bad mamba jamba which will threaten us for at least the next five days. And we may have to evacuate sooner! Stay tuned.
UPDATE: JUNE 21, 2017: Tornado watches and warnings all day long. Severe flooding on roadways. Heavy rain, but we are safe. Storm continues.
UPDATE: JUNE 22, 2017: The rain is so heavy that it sounds like we’re inside a snare drum! Tornado watch in effect today until 3 PM, Central Time. Wind is picking up speed.
JUNE 24, 2017: The storm has passed, skies are sunny and but for the humidity all is well.
I’ll continue my story next time.
