Hurricane Laura - Long post
On August 27, 2020, we were hit by Hurricane Laura. She turned into a major hurricane with winds up to 150 mph before making landfall in Cameron, Louisiana, which is about 70 miles away from my house. The devastation from this storm is unbelievable. The pictures coming from the coast, Lake Charles, and other areas are very sad to see. Here is how the last few days went for me and my family.
Wednesday - August 26, 2020
I didn’t have to go work so we could do final preparations for the storm. There were predictions it would make landfall as a Category 2 storm, maybe a Category 3. I went to Walmart when it opened at 7am to get what supplies we needed. I went to a couple of stores and made it home. I have an anemometer somewhere (I can’t find it). I wanted to measure wind speeds when the hurricane came in. I went back to town to Tractor Supply, Walmart, and Ace Hardware to see if they had a weather station. Nobody in town had one. I got online and checked Lowe’s. They had one left. I was able to get it. When the order was ready for pickup, I went to Crowley, which is about 20 minutes south of where I live. I picked it up and noticed a bunch of generators in stock. I called my wife to see if should get one and I got one. My son came by after work to take it home. We got to the house, set it up and waited. Late in the afternoon, I was setting up my weather station and needed some supplies to mount it. So back to town I went, this time with my son. We got what we needed and went back home. It was starting to get windy and rain bands were coming in. As the night progressed, the storm intensified to a Category 4 monster, and conditions deteriorated quickly. The power kept blinking until early Thursday morning when it went out.
Thursday - August 27, 2020
Early in the morning, Laura made landfall in Cameron, Louisiana. Our house kept shaking a bit. The trash can lid kept banging against the trash can. The tree limbs by the house kept hitting the house. It was loud and bit scary. I have never been through a major hurricane before. My family and I stayed in the living room and would go to our closet when we would get tornado warnings on our phones. About 3 in the morning, I had to lay down. The power came back on briefly but was out again. Thank goodness for the generator. It ran our freezer, refrigerator, fan, and light. I was able to run my Keurig and coffee pot on it. I highly suggest getting a generator for such emergencies. It can run over 10 hours at 50% capacity.
Friday - August 28, 2020
We didn’t have power most of the day. It was restored early afternoon. A little while later, we lost it again. After a few hours, it was back on again and has been on ever since. We did have thunderstorms come through most of the day yesterday. It kept the temperature down a bit but the humidity was bad. I’m thankful we made it with minimal damage. I believe because Laura was moving so fast, it didn’t do a lot of damage. If it was a slow moving storm, the outcome would have been a lot different in my opinion.
Below are some screenshots and pictures. Thanks for the support and have a wonderful week. Shalom.
First screenshot of Hurricane Laura from Wunderground
Sunset Wednesday evening as Hurricane Laura was coming in
Screenshot of Hurricane Laura from Radarscope before landfall
Screenshot of Hurricane Laura right after landfall
Orange tree fell but it’s salvageable. It didn’t get uprooted.
The Keurig being used Thursday morning
Coffee pot being used Friday morning
Sunrise Friday morning
2020 steps up the game
2020 has stepped up the game this month. Southern Louisiana now has two tropical systems heading for our coast. As of writing this post, Louisiana has Tropical Storm Laura and Hurricane Marco on the way. Hurricane Marco will hit first sometime on Tuesday. Southeast Louisiana is the target for this storm. The track has it moving west and I will probably get to see it. Here is the latest graphic from the National Hurricane Center.
Latest on Hurricane Marco
The second system, TS Laura, is the one to watch. She has the potential to become a Category 2/Category 3 before landfall. If you look at the graphic below, south central Louisiana is on the east side of the storm. The east side of the storm is the dangerous side of the storm. If she comes in during the day, I will get to see it. Here is the latest on Tropical Storm Laura from the National Hurricane Center.
Latest on Tropical Storm Laura
I will give updates during the week if we don’t lose power/cellphone usage. I’m hoping to get storm footage as each system comes through.
Have a wonderful week. Shalom.
What a weekend...
Oh, where to start? Friday, I was getting ready for work. I adjusted my pants and my back seized up on me. I have been having problems for almost two weeks now with having spasms. This time, it locked up on me. I tried to sit down on my bed and ended up in the praying position, unable to move. My wife brought me an ice pack, and it helped enough so I could lie down on the floor. After being there for about 20 minutes, I was able to stand up and go to my chair. I have been fighting this ever since. I could maneuver around better on Saturday. I could make it out of bed a tad easier this morning without having to roll out like yesterday.
In the afternoon, we had a nice thunderstorm come through the area. I shot video footage of the storm cells coming in and once it passed; I followed it in my car. There was lots of lightning, so I spent over an hour taking storm shots. I made it home, transferred my pictures onto my external hard drive like I do. Got up today, and those images aren’t on my drive. I took some of the best lightning shots and they aren’t there. Poof. I’m trying to recover the pictures. I hoping this works. We shall see.
I was getting footage with my phone. Here is one of the best shots I got. At least I have something to share.
Caught with my phone
Sorry for the long post. This isn’t my norm, but I wanted to get it out there. Please subscribe to my website or to my YouTube channel, if you haven’t. I would appreciate it.
Storm Chase - July 31, 2020
I was able to go on a storm chase Friday evening for the first time in a long time. I was able to get quite a few shots and a nice sunset.
I’m hoping to get more storm pictures here soon. The forecast isn’t promising for storms but here in southern Louisiana, anything can happen.
I hope you have a wonderful week. Take care. Peace.
Storm watching/chases - Six straight days
I have been busy either watching storms come in or going out storm chasing from May 23rd to May 28th, six straight days of footage. Most of the storms came through close to my house so I didn’t have to drive anywhere. There were a couple of storms where I drove to storm watch and I got to chase one storm. With the storm chase, I had to get home quickly because I was getting chased by the storm. Below are the best shots from each day. I hope you like them.
May 23rd - south of Eunice, Louisiana
May 24th - southeast of Eunice, Louisiana
May 25th - south of Eunice, Louisiana
May 26th - north of Mamou, Louisiana
May 27th - southeast of Eunice, Louisiana (taken while under my carport)
May 28th - south of Eunice, Louisiana (two lightning strikes a frame apart from each other)
I am currently working on a video highlighting all of the lightning strikes from each day. I have several hours of footage to go through.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. If you haven’t subscribed, please do so. I am going to shut down my social media at the end of June. This website and YouTube will be my only focuses.
Thanks and Peace.
