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Topic: Upload your random pictures
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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 09-20-2004 03:07 AM
Shortly after daybreak, the morning after the hurricane's eye had passed shortly before , still blowing a gale, please excuse the camera shake, the bottom third of a formerly 2,000 foot tower:

I'm glad it was dark, because I sho nuff didn't want to see the fan that this shit hit!
About 35 miles inland from where the hurricane made landfall. The hurricane made landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama (red star), the tower site is at the green square, I was spending the night at a xmtr/tower site at the blue square mostly outside shoveling dirt to keep water out of the building (Mobile's broadcasters have their xmtr facilities on the other side of the bay to pull in more population).

Alabama fortunately had a mandatory evacuation of everything below I-10 in the picture. Big storm: tornadoes 'way to the east in Mississippi (still without power there in many places), New Orleans didn't get more rain than a bad tropical storm but the wind was strong enough to send three-foot waves in Lake Pontchartrain over the levee (but not over the next "hurricane" levee), Mobile of course is a mess.
It was still a hurricane about 180 miles inland, tearing stuff up all the way. Gulf Shores is razed, of course, but the big loser was Pensacola, which was on the 'dirty' side of the storm. The eye didn't pass over there, so they never stopped getting hammered. If you haven't seen any of the pictures, Pensacola was just chewed up & spat out; it looks like a bolus. The interstate-type bridge over Pensacola Bay was obliterated in places. It's pre-civilization over there now of course - no safe water or sewage, no power, contests for shelter, no gas or places to buy food because of no power & water, etc.
The storm spawned an incredible number of tornadoes all along the coast. I wonder if the reason that John Pytlak (and obviously many others) think that "5 miles" from landfall is safe is not just because of the point nature of of the tracking charts, but also because of confusing a hurricane with a tornado.
All the Alabama Power crews & trucks that have been in Florida helping patch up are now back in Alabama, all the Mississippi Power trucks that were in Florida are now back in Mississippi.
Dauphin Island is scrubbed again. After Frederic, FEMA said that the bridge to it (and other barrier islands) should not be rebuilt, because it would lead to overdevelopment. Politics pushed the bridge through, & sure enough, they overbuilt the sand bar that is Dauphin Island with condos & expensive houses that will now be making claims for total loss with the federal flood insurance program. They need to stop writing those policies for buildings on barrier islands, not the least because the development wrecks the dunes that hold the islands together.
One of the cool things about getting ready for the hurricane was coming into contact again at gas stations, etc. with the folks who live in the remaining rural areas of southern Baldwin County (the east side of Mobile Bay, where the hurricane made landfall). "Hurricane out there, Bobby!" "Yep, got to shut up & get out." "Shut up" meaning "Shut up the house". The double-entendre is excellent, though, & I think "Shut up & get out" should be made the official motto of hurricane preparedness. That's how those folks do it, live through the things, & it's the only way to do it.
(Screaming into cell phone in the wind): YES, I'M OVER THERE NOW, BUT I DON'T THINK THERE'S ANYTHING I CAN DO TO PUT IT BACK ON THE AIR...I CAN TURN THE GENERATOR OFF IF YOU WANT
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