The Perfect Hurricane

[SARGE]

The perfect hurricane - Dean. You may be following the path of this monster and it's surely to be one of the most devastating ever. As of today it looks as though it will hit Cancun/Cozumel late Monday as a Category 5 - the worst. And that is before it hits the warm waters of the Gulf to make it even stronger as it heads towards Texas.

I had a visit to Cozumel this past June and since I have been there before, stayed off the beaten tourist routes and this time kept things close to the vest and lived the simple life with the locals. Visiting the out-of-the way places along its coast, the grass hut restaurants and places to get a cold one, I was blessed to meet folks who scrapped by each day, some even having pigs or hogs for pets, and of course they all drove old VW Bugs if they could even afford a car. The most popular car in Cozumel is an old Bug. I felt at home since I have one myself. I feel so sad knowing that everything I saw will be in ruins by Tuesday and the folks I met will have their lives shattered. I will however have the memories of the great time I spent with them and hope for their safety and recovery.

[juppy]

Yeah, I've been seeing that thing reported on our local tv newscasts. For us, they're just looking at it as a possible rain maker, but it doesn't sound too good for those folks down in Cancun and south Texas.

[rjfvillarosa]

It rattled my cage a few days ago because it's original path took it right over my house in Puerto Rico, fortunately for us it drifted south.
Where ever it goes now is sure going to get a pasting.

[TwoRails]

Haven't had a chance to listen to the news all day... what's the latest?

[juppy]

About 30 minutes ago, our local newscast said it was going to hit south of Cancun as a category 5 and then end up weakening to probably a category 1 or 2 and hitting old Mexico.

Just south of us, they got a dose of what was left over from hurricane Erin. It spun around and circled over Oklahoma from west to east and somehow gained strength, dumping a whole bunch of water on the central parts of the state. Some places saw 8 to 10 inches from just this one storm in a single night. All day today they've had news footage of people being rescued from the flood waters in Kingfisher.

[blue60007]

Also heard you guys got over tropical storm force winds. Even hurricane force in a couple spots.

[doubledragon5]

Now sad to hit Mexico as a possible cat 4 or 5, today.. I hope the people who can't leave will be safe in shelters.. Thank god it is going to miss Texas..

[blue60007]

Dean is now a Cat 5. Only 5 mph faster than before. So it's not a big jump.

[juppy]

Originally Posted by blue60007 Also heard you guys got over tropical storm force winds. Even hurricane force in a couple spots.

Yeah, the weathermen didn't seem too sure what to really call it, because they said we aren't supposed to be able to actually get a tropical "storm" up here. BUT....they said something about a tropical storm being categorized as one that has winds over, I think, 74 mph, and a couple places like Geary had 85 mph winds (which ripped the roof off the local nursing home and planted it in their yard). So I guess the winds were too strong to call it a tropical depression yet not really sustained long enough at the high levels to qualify it as a hurricane.....so most of 'em are going with "tropical storm" when talking about it. The radar imagery of it circling around sure looked just like a hurricane though.

[tigstah]

i hope everyone in deans path is safe. after having gone thru a minor tstorm and just getting power back. i cant imagine all the chaos of downed trees on power lines, roads blocked.