Watching Dennis Go By

I live in Orlando. Last year I got to sit through three hurricanes; Charlie, Frances, and Jeanne. So it was with morbid interest that I watched Dennis this past week as it tore through Cuba and made it's way past the Gulf coast of Florida on to landfall somewhere to the North Gulf coast. Right now it looks like it will make landfall near Pensacola, Florida. As of 2pm it was 40 miles south of Pensacola and was rated a category 4 storm with winds of 135 mph. It was September of last year that Ivan, a category 3 storm, hit Gulf Shores, Alabama. Ivan tore up communities all across that area and knocked out a section of I10 that crossed Escambia Bay.

The weekend here in Orlando has been somber. Trips to the local grocery and Moes had very few people out and about, especially Friday night. We've had lots of wind and rain, and it has blown more limbs out of trees that were weakened from last year's triple whammy. I remember that Charlie, the first hurricane, didn't hit until August. And here it is early July. With predictions that this is going to be an above-average hurricane season, I dread what the rest of the 2005 hurricane season holds for Florida, especially central Florida.