Tropical Storm Lee

Bill D.

Bill D.

Crazy Old RO
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Jan 1, 2000
RO Number
150
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We "were" headed to the Alabama coast for a long weekend, needing to run the boats some, but Lee changed our minds. Now the last 2 storms to hit Gulf Shores were Ivan and Katrina, with Ivan doing the most damage. I have to say sorry to Texas, but it looks like Lee will come our way after landfall. I say sorry because Texas needs rain, but so do we. It's so dry here that when you pull a tick off a hound dog it pop's into a big red dust cloud. So to Lee I say, bring on the rain........
 
And don't hog it all ..... save some for Georgia !
 
"Hey, man. It's rainin" -- J. Hendrix

It's going to be a wet weekend.
 
Just looked at a private meteorological report that showed the storm making a second landfall near the Bayou Labatre area with 75 MPH of breeze, gusting to 90 MPH at 0700 on the 6th. This type of storm is the kind that can sting you, so be careful and good luck.
 
Actually, that little storm surge will be the most challenging. It's only 2 to 4 ft above, but ( as you know ) there are many areas where the roads will get covered. This makes for difficulty getting around ( needed or not ).

As for wind, well, the new house was designed and built to withstand far more than is available in this storm system, and I have already been through a couple of storms with equivalent conditions, so the biggest risk is losing out on a football game if cable fails.

I must admit, I really, really hope that the winds knock that giant widow-maker out of the oak tree in the front yard. I can't quite get to it, and it truly needs to come down in a "safe" manner.

I'll stay "ion touch", but I don't expect ( though I am prepared for ) any major excitement.

Time to go buy lots of bottled water, bleach, white bread. :)
 
is this going to be a rain maker more than anything else? I was looking through the stats and see the winds touch 60mph - can you guys handle that?
 
"the winds touch 60mph - can you guys handle that?"

Yes. That is fairly typical of a strong afternoon T-storm.

Expected issues are: "fresh water flooding" ( thought the amount of rainfall is not huge, relative to our area ), the rate might might create a few issues. Falling tree limbs. And traffic accidents from folk who think that approaching a flooded area of highway at 60 mph is the "right thing to do".

Most of this area is now houses that either withstood Katrina or were built afterwards. This storms winds should not present a major problem. ( There will always be exceptions, of course ).

Even the power co has modified their infrastructure, so I do not expect any lengthy power outages, either.

Mostly, It will simply be a bit difficult to grill a steak in the backyard...
 
Wind is not an issue, even in the 200 MPH (+) of Camille in 1969, we only lost one window on the cabin aft door. In Katrina (30' surge) the boat did fine. The surge is an issue in our area. Shallow offshore water depths, solid shoreline to the North and West with strong Southeast winds causes the water to stack up before the storm and then you add a 5' storm surge with breaking seas on that and well you get the picture. Not a killer type storm but one that requires your attention, extra lines, fender boards and maybe a few aircraft tires thrown in for good measure. If it looks worse in the AM, the boat is already in Back Bay about a one hour run to my hurricane hole.
 
I know much of Texas needs rain, but we do to. Sometimes a tropical storm can be a overall good thing and this may be one of those times. We had some 400+ wildfires around the state last week. My yard in Tuscaloosa looks "winter brown" and when I ran the bushhog at my Fitzpatrick, Al farm it was like being in a dust storm all day. We really NEED the rain.....
 
LA should get a nice rain shower or two out of this. We are at about 2.5 inches in the last 24. If it follows the path to Bayou LaBatre, OB/GS will be on wet side and it should move NE after that. I hope ya'll get the moisture without the wind.
 
I am sitting offshore, right in the middle of this weather.
Winds are anywhere from 22 knots to 60 knots.
Seas are between 17 ft to 25 ft.
We got the first bands of weather on Tues. night.
It has been raining constantly since Wed. afternoon. Not
letting up at all.
Everyone on the Gulf Coast needs some good rain. It has
been hot and dry in SW La. for the past 3 months.
 
Some places on land are reporting up to 7" of rain just so far. Be careful what you wish for .

rduhon- If you sitting offshore in 17-25' seas in the nice vessel in your profile pic, I wish you codspeed. Hope you are safely on a large ship or much better I imagine, on a good tight rig, and conditions abate soon. .
 
quote:
Originally posted by Sandy

Some places on land are reporting up to 7" of rain just so far. Be careful what you wish for .

rduhon- If you sitting offshore in 17-25' seas in the nice vessel in your profile pic, I wish you codspeed. Hope you are safely on a large ship or much better I imagine, on a good tight rig, and conditions abate soon. .

Click to expand...


Thats some pretty serious weather to be out in, are you on a boat or rig? Heard they were evacuating the offshore rigs in the area due to this storm but could be wrong.
Hope you are safe wherever you are and please update your situation for us as soon as you can.
 
UH-OH... Jim Cantore is in Bay St. Louis, MS.

Thisis never a good thing.

Well, not usually, but in this case, while he might be in the location of the most visible storm events, his worries about flooding are, well, a bit over-stated.

a) I just drove by that reaa.

b) Since that road is only about 4 ft above mean seal level, it floods every-time you get a slight above average tide plus winds from the SE ( a typical ditrection ).

ie: Move along, nothing to see here...
 
Tides are running about 2.5' to 3' above normal. The usual places are flooded with a foot or so of water. I was in Biloxi today and drove the beach back to the Bay. Back Bay was choppy, but everybody seemed to be staying in their normal slips. Most of the offshore shrimp boats were standing by, saving fuel! Rain squalls on and off, evidence of higher tide (debris line near the sand fences, beach vendor's equipment scattered). No damage noted, except the coast is EMPTY. This is Labor Day week end and all the beach motel parking lots were EMPTY. The restaurant parking lots EMPTY. The Casino's had the usual crowd, but even their parking areas had plenty of EMPTY spaces. High tide in the AM about 0300 local, that will bring about 2' more of water. I hope that limb fell out of your tree, I'm sure the local businesses would chip in and hire you a tree service, so that you would not have wish for a Tropical System to blown it down.
 
I'm betting he's on a rig. Be safe y'all!

quote:
Originally posted by rduhon

I am sitting offshore, right in the middle of this weather.
Winds are anywhere from 22 knots to 60 knots.
Seas are between 17 ft to 25 ft.
We got the first bands of weather on Tues. night.
It has been raining constantly since Wed. afternoon. Not
letting up at all.
Everyone on the Gulf Coast needs some good rain. It has
been hot and dry in SW La. for the past 3 months.

Click to expand...
 
I don't wish for these things, but I do recognize that they are less than advertized by the media, and there are a few bright spots. We did, after all, need some rain and the storm IS cooling the GoMex, which we really needed. I'd much rather have a couple of storms like this, rather than a big slow moving Cat 3+ hurricane.

Silver Slipper will likely close for a few hours due to a flooded access road and parking lot, and, yes, the roads/beaches ( and non-grocery retail stores ) are mostly empty. But, truly, this is not that bad of a storm. Irritating, disruptive etc, but not "bad". If FEMA wants to pay for moving the sand from Hwy 90 back to the beaches fine ( though we already paid for the service via a $0.03 tax on fuel in the coastal counties ).

In all, it ends up being a rainy holiday weekend. Not what we wanted, but no major storm, either.

Off the beach, there is/will be fresh water flooding. Some might actually be a problem. We are below the predicted rainfall rate, so it might end up being good entertainment, rather than a problem. We'll see.
 
I am on a 97,500 ton floating production platform, still producing.
This vessel has survived Ike, Ivan, Rita, Katrina, Gustav...ect.
It was like a bad winter storm until last night. Around midnight
winds reached 60 knots and by 4:30 am, they reached the mid 70's.
Seas have been 20 to 25 ft. with some going up to 30 ft. at times.
We rock slowly in a figure 8 motion, not side to side or fore and aft.

We evacuated a few non-essentials, but still have 101 POB. Waves and
winds prevented us from evacuating all non-essentials. The GOM is not
evacuated like the news media state. We are out in 4000' of water. We
didn't have time to set up evacuations in time before the helicopters
flew North to get out of this weather. Crew boats cannot come out here
and safely take on passengers in these seas, so we decided to stay out
and continue to produce oil and gas.
Core contractors are still out here, but not working. No one is allowed
to go outside unless it is a very high priority. Everyone else is restricted
to any designated safe haven buildings.
Drilling rig is shut down at this time and workers are not on board.
 
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