Gustav this morning moving away from Jamaica towards CubaLots to talk about this morning so here it goes. Today is the third anniversary of the worst storm this weather person has ever tracked. I have been plotting storms for over 25 years. Prior to Katrina we all measured storms by Camille in 1969. All that changed in 2005 when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, very close to where Camille had done so 36 years before. The storm all but destroyed the Mississippi Gulf Coast up to 1 mile inland as well as flooded New Orleans when the levees failed, with the loss of 1500 souls. You can read all my entries here
With that we come to 2008. Tropical Storm Gustav threatens to hit some of the same real estate that Katrina did. The storm is poised to hit the Louisiana coast by next Tuesday as a major hurricane. That is far off and there remains great uncertainty in the forecast, but officials are taking no chance. Evacuations could be ordered as early as Saturday morning. The death toll from Gustav has surpassed 20 in flooding and mudslides across Haiti. Jamaica was hit last night with heavy rain ans gusty winds. I was listening to Power106 in Kingston, Jamaica and it seemed that power outages and some downed trees were the worst damage at that time.
T.S. Hanna meanwhile is moving through the northern Caribbean far from land at this point but bears watching for impact on the east coast. There are at least two other areas that the National Hurricane Center are watching as 2008 begins to look a lot like 2005.
It is Labor Day weekend, be safe and enjoy the last long weekend of the summer. The weather looks awesome. Sunny and warm here in Ontario and Quebec.
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