As of late yesterday afternoon and last night, aftermath photos were starting to surface online.
[Note: External links to current information may not be permanent on these third party sites. Apologies in advance if links go dead at some future date.]
Dauphin Island rolled through with minimal damage since it was to the west of the eye wall. The photos at the bottom of the following page were taken around 5:00 PM on the day of the storm:
From Bruce of Boardwalk Realty:
http://king-o-coals.com/dennis.htm
My guess is that more photos of houses and the area will surface on the Boardwalk Realty site later today or in the very near future.
But the areas around Navarre and Pensacola Florida were not so lucky.
From Pensacola News Journal:
http://photos.pensacolanewsjournal.com/index.shtml
There are other galleries floating around on major news sources. I have yet to see many from Gulf Shores. When and if I run across them, I will post them here.
Guess they are too busy being relieved and celebrating to snap. That is not a bad thing!
Beware though. The season is very, very young and NOAA issued notice of the number five forming as a tropical depression at 11:00 PM [EDT] last night. It appears to be a bit less organized in the 11:00 AM report from this morning. Let us all hope it fizzles to nothingness quickly.
Farron
Looks like Dennis petered out before landfall. Horrah!
Rumor has it that most parts of Gulf Shores never lost power and Hwy. 59 was reopened late this afternoon.
Navarre & Santa Rosa Island, FL may not have faired as well, but damage seems to be minimal in all spots that are being shown on television or online.
Good news for one and all!
Conditions are going downhill fast in Gulf Shores. Even the police who, as of last night, was planning to stay on the "Island," are evacuating.
Dennis is back up to Category 4 (currently reporting 145MPH winds).
If you are watching, hurricanetrack.com is setting up their tower now in an attempt to get some footage of the storm at the beach again this year. They had been scheduled to stay at the Gulf Shores Police Department to ride out the storm. Conditions have changed that plan. It is an interesting site to watch for updates and recent video of the area.
NOAA and the NHC seem to have the potential direct hit area narrowed to the area between Mobile Bay and Ft. Walton Beach, FL. The models seem to be converging there. Not a good day for Gulf Shores.
May the angels bless them one and all!
Farron
I can't stand it! I swore last winter I was not touching this blog again until I redid and moved it off MT to Expression Enigine this summer.
I have been picking at it and snooping the new Expression Engine 1.3 release in the last week. I swear!
As of this moment, the blog still sits and here come the hummingbirds and hurricanes.
Hurricane Dennis is tracking toward my favorite part of the world, Gulf Shores, AL. The strongest hurricane on record for July in the Gulf. Scary stuff.
Right now, it has dropped to a Category 1 after being overland for ten hours. Dennis is expected to strengthen back to a Cat 3 before it makes landfall somewhere on the northern Gulf coast. It appears the best guesses range from Mobile to Panama City Beach. That is the exact path we drove last Christmas to see how things were going three months after Ivan. They were still devastated, but the spirit of the people was evident in Christmas lights and decorations amid the rubble. We cheered and cried at the same time.
There's my Hero of the Hurricane Season, "Indiana Weather". Dennis is back up to a Cat 2 as it pulls away from Key West.
Some light poking around the forum for Gulf Shores, AL on al.com seems has a much more tense and nervous feel than it did prior to Ivan last year. They seem to be trying to remain hopeful, but they are still rebuilding and have seen first hand what a major storm can do.
A forum that appears popular with Dauphin Island residents shows that some of the few full time residents are planning to batten down hatches and ride out the storm on the Island. Brave storm troopers or fools? Depends on your point of view. I have a funny feeling that if my home were there, I'd be with them right now. More power to them and bless them all!
I am probably only talking to myself due to my long absence from blogging, but I am going to go ahead and add a list of links to hurricane tracking sites other than the well trafficked weather.com. Mostly so I can find them easily in the future. There seems to be a good possibility of a long and rough hurricane season.
A quick Google search will bring up many more. All eyes seem to be on the northern Gulf coast right now. May they all ride out this storm in safety.
Now on to a brighter note. Hummingbirds!:
We did see the usual advance scout hummers in the early spring, one or two, but they normally move on. The flowers are not blooming yet. Even though they seem to love the sweet nectar of the feeders, the lantana and peavine flowers seem to be the staples they love for natural and buggy treats. Eat those bugs birdies, please!
This morning, over coffee on the patio, two females paid visits to the feeder in rapid succession. Turf wars have begun!
I declare Saturday, July 9th the official day to add the second feeder this season. Time to run cook some more nectar for the visiting ladies and their little ones.
Farron
[& Snoozing, Could Care Less _^..^_ ]
