SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

ALL ASHORE

Most everything that was feared about Hurricane Ivan has come true. The storm had sustained winds of about 130 mph as it came on land at Gulf Shores, Ala. It's killed almost a dozen people. It has spawned tornadoes. It has devastated shorelines.
And worst of all, it has assaulted the First Amendement!

At the Pensacola News Journal building, flood water seeped into the building about four blocks from Pensacola Bay, barely covering parts of the floor. Workers feared a wall of water would cascade in if they opened the doors to leave.
Ivan's waves — some up to 25 feet — destroyed homes along the Florida coast Wednesday. Twelve-foot waves boomed ashore at Gulf Shores, eroding the beach. A buoy about 300 miles south of Panama City registered one wave of 50 feet high.
In Fort Walton Beach, Fla., a nursing home lost its generator power and reported that six patients desperately needed oxygen. An emergency medical crew drove through the 90 mph winds to deliver portable oxygen tanks.
"You want to see the natural hand of God firsthand but you don't realize how strong it is," said Kevin Harless, 32, who was sightseeing in Panama City Beach, Fla., around the time of the tornadoes.

Damn.
There's still some interesting residual reporting being done in the wake of Frances, The Hurricane That Wouldn't Leave.
The Palm Beach Post reports that animals responded in funky ways to the barometric pressure fluctuation:

On Singer Island, schoolteacher Anne Craig started noticing odd behavior in Isaiah - the neighborhood iguana - on Thursday.
Isaiah used to stop by every morning at 9 for breakfast (prepared by Craig) of fresh strawberries, grapes and romaine lettuce. He'd spend a few hours sunning himself beside the pool. More than once, Craig came home in the afternoon to find Isaiah had slipped in the cat door and was lounging on the couch.
On Thursday morning, though, Isaiah didn't stay. And on Friday morning, Craig saw him making a run for the mangroves across the street. "I tried to keep telling him not to go - but he went," she said.
Isaiah's instincts may have told him a storm was coming. But no one knows, yet, whether those instincts directed him to safety. Craig and her husband evacuated on Friday. When they returned, Isaiah was nowhere to be found.
"He never returned. Everybody's been looking for him," she said.

Posted by Jeff at September 16, 2004 07:52 AM | TrackBack