TROPICAL WEATHER ATLANTIC BASIN

                                                       SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

This is a graphic from The National Hurricane Center showing activity in the Atlantic Basin on Monday morning September 1, 2008, Labor Day in the United States.  Is this not an image to strike fear in the heart of a prudent mariner?

There's Hurricane Gustav which as we speak is crashing with fury on the Louisiana coast about fifty miles west of the embattled city of New Orleans.  After today it may literally be a new New Orleans, perhaps unrecognizable
in the memories of its fleeing residents.  What's a prudent mariner to do?

Then Tropical Storm Hanna lurking with ill intent ready to eat the Bahamas just to the east of the Florida peninsula.  The circles out in the central and east Atlantic are tropical waves whose intensity and propensity to develop further is indicated by the color scheme explained on the bottom of the graphic.  What's a prudent mariner to do?

I believe ground zero of HURICANE GUSTAV is at Morgan City a place I have fond memories of from a long-ago journey from Texas to Florida when I began this trek on NEREIS almost fifteen years ago.  The first time I heard Cajun-Speak, the charming accent of those who have lived for generations in this historic landscape full of the cries of mating alligators.  Well not full of but I remember hearing their out worldly bellows in the dead of night when anchored in an isolated mangrove surrounded creek off the intra coastal waterway leading to the Mississippi River.  And the fears experienced when traversing through the  enormous Industrial Lock from the Intra Costal Waterway to the mighty river still linger in those fond memories.  There are locks on both sides of the river that allow a downriver jaunt to the other side as the ferocious current would sweep a small boat downstream, out of reach of sanctuary, and eventually out into the Gulf of Mexico.  Perhaps its topography is being rewritten even now as we speak.

     What's a prudent mariner to do?


                         

                          HURRICANE GUSTAV

                                                      SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

When you click on the icons in the first graphic above you get specifics of each threat.  This is Hurricane Gustav as of 6AM Central Time already pounding the coastline.  This is certainly a tragic time for residents of this historic region filled with the accents of America's past, however there is a reason for all things.  Read CHICKEN SOUP AND HURRICANES on the HURRICANE PAGE of this site for our beloved mother's slant on beneficial aspects of these magnificent storms.  That's Mother Nature I'm referring to. 


                             

                      TROPICAL STORM HANNA

                          SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

And in the Atlantic lurking near the Bahamas is yet another threat to more hapless inhabitants of our embattled planet, poised to wreak havoc as we mere humans attempt to survive Nature's onslaught.

     What's a prudent mariner to do? 

Well I'm glad you asked.  Take a look at HURRICANE SURVIVAL GUIDE found elsewhere on this site.  There are things we can do to protect the lives of our families and property.  Take a look.  You know you want to.

                That's that for this.

                       

                 FRANNIE THE WATCHFLAMINGO

                  WATCHING OUT FOR ALL OF US

                      TAKE CARE,  

                             JB