Blogging From Inside Hurricane Humberto

RIGHT NOW we are in the midst of a hurricane. That's right - A HURRICANE. Not a supersized mas grande category 5 deathstorm, but a hurricane nonetheless. As I write I can hear the wind roaring outside, and the occasional cracking and thumping of things falling down. Nature is flexing her muscles tonight. It's kinda cool.

This one really snuck up on us. I had been following the weather, hoping it would produce some good birding, but somehow I missed the part about a tropical storm spinning our way. I only found out when Troy called to warn us late yesterday afternoon. From the news reports it didn't look like such a big deal, and we decided not to panic. Heavy rain was predicted, but wind speeds then associated with the storm were less than alarming. During the night, while we were trying to sleep, the storm intensified, and Tropical Storm Humberto was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane.

Since we still have power we can watch local news and track the storm, which is now moving to the northeast. Most of Southeast Texas is presently without power. Actually I'm surprised that we haven't lost power yet. Of course that could change at any minute. It's still dark outside, so I can't see what's going on, but I'm hearing powerful wind gusts and some strange sounds...

I'm more concerned about the rain, which has been coming down heavily for hours. From local news we know there is street flooding in Beaumont. We live close to the bayou. Water's gonna rise. At least we are on high ground and have flood insurance (thanks to Michelle's powers of persuasion). Just heard more unpleasant cracking and bonking sounds from outside...

Well that's it for now. I'll post un update later, assuming we aren't washed away. This one really caught us off guard, and we aren't the only ones. I'm sure there are some sound sleepers out there who are gonna wake up this morning to discover that they just slept through a hurricane!