A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

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Dinner by Candlelight

By Jimmy Johnson

Well, I’ll be John Brown. This blog was revived just three days ago, and here we are, talking about hurricanes. In 2005, I was in a unique if unenviable position to pass along, via this website, reports of the destruction wrought upon the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina. Since then, hurricanes have been a recurring topic here. Now, as I write this, the National Hurricane Center’s newest advisory has upgraded Tropical Storm Helene to Hurricane Helene, and it’s headed in my direction.

Wednesday morning, the storm was in the Yucatan Channel and expected to cross the Gulf of Mexico and come ashore near Apalachicola, becoming a major hurricane along the way. If it continues on the forecast trajectory–a big if 48 hours out–the center of the storm will skirt the Georgia/Alabama line, the part of the world where I now reside. While I live well inland, the remnants of hurricanes and even full hurricanes blow through often enough, toppling trees and powerlines and swelling tributaries, making life uncomfortable for days on end. However, I have witnessed firsthand what those on the shores will experience, and I would not trade places. I am now going to turn all further discussion of this matter over to our in-house meteorologist Hurd Finnegan. You’re welcome, Hurd.

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12 responses to “Dinner by Candlelight”

  1. Steve From Royal Oak, Mi (kinda) Avatar

    My nephew is getting married in Austin on Friday and we are flying down today. My daughter has been in Greece for the past week and her trip was extended so instead of flying into Tampa, she is flying directly into Austin. Her fiancé is still in Tampa and is concerned that the flights will get delayed, but I think that they will be OK.
    The website when Katrina hit was different in that we did not have comments. We would email Jimmy and he would mention that he had heard from readers by name. It kind of reminded me of the weekly letters that I would get from my Mom. Very “newsy”

    1. Jimmy Johnson Avatar

      Those were the pre-WordPress days. That website was scraped together by me with a program called FrontPage. Now, everything has become so “easy” that I hardly can do anything.

      1. Mark Jackson Avatar

        Tell me about it. I did websites for years by hand-editing HTML. My personal website is still that way, but the one other site with which I remain involved went WordPress; with the addition of Elementor as an overlay I make my small contributions with considerable angst.

  2. Jim Young Avatar
    Jim Young

    Middle Tennessee is under extreme drought conditions. If we aren’t washed away, some rain my help? ?

  3. cxp Avatar
    cxp

    My best reconnected [as of 2001] friend (we go back to 1950 or earlier) got to be a genuine, 24karat, heroine in the hurricane which wiped SW Florida 2 years ago. She wrote about it and I saved her email. In short, she was taking care of a frail woman in her 90s when she recognized signs of congestive heart failure (friend is/was a nurse of some repute) and the need for medical treatment STAT. Consequently, having bundled the patient into a car, she spent some time driving around Sarasota seeking an open medical facility while desperately dodging the fallen poles, live wires, and assorted debris driven by the winds. Finally found an open hospital and murmured the magic initials “CHF” to the staff. Immediate treatment resulted and the patient lived. {She did expire a few months later from an unrelated cause.}
    3 weeks ago, my friend moved from Sarasota to Nokomis, a bit more to the south. I pray she doesn’t regret the move in view of the current storm coming. She wrote that she never wants to go through that scenario again. Given that she exceeds me in years of life, may she not have the need to drive anywhere during severe storms again.

  4. cxp Avatar
    cxp

    PS: If unclear, my friend drove around trying to find an open medical facility during the height of that ‘cane.

  5. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    Aha! The arrows to access previous posts have moved to the bottom of the page below the comments. Had me worried for a minute there, JJ!

  6. Emma Avatar
    Emma

    I have relatives in the middle of the Gulf Coast of Florida, so I’ve been watching Helene develop. So far it looks to be heading more to the panhandle but storm surge could still be an issue. Keeping the whole area in my thoughts as well as those more inland who may have downed trees and power outages. With all the ‘cane activity these past few years, my relatives have finally stopped asking me why I don’t leave the Northeast!

  7. cxp Avatar
    cxp

    So glad you are back again, JJ, after yesterday’s glitch. I am sure I wasn’t the only worried Villager seeking refuge here.

  8. TruckerRon Avatar
    TruckerRon

    It amazes me how far inland a hurricane can cause damage. In August of 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall and sent high winds and extreme rains that reached us in Memphis, some 440 miles away. Hundreds of large, beautiful trees in the city parks and cemeteries were felled. As a 16-year old, I quickly learned some lessons about driving in downpours and slowing down when approaching streams and large pools of water in the street.

  9. Ivan Avatar
    Ivan

    Living near the coast in Tampa Bay, we have been given 2.5 hurricane days, due to the expected flooding from the storm surge. This morning, we’ve seen photos on social media of flooding around the beach areas. Fortunately, we are not in a flood zone, so stay home, and hope we don’t lose electricity. We know loads of people will be affected though. Stay safe everybody.

  10. Hurd (Lower Alabama) Avatar
    Hurd (Lower Alabama)

    I flat missed checking in yesterday. We have family that came in yesterday. Refugees from the Big Bend of Fl which is fixing to get hammered. This one is going to be very similar to Katrina since it is still going to be a Cat 1+ storm as it enters Georgia. Going to be a long night.