Beauty and the Beast
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The Beauty has been popping out all over the place around here ever since about the first of the month, as we’ve had drier air, cooler mornings and a lot of sunshine following a rainy end of August.
Everything’s in bloom, including an amaryllis that was fooled into thinking it had somehow made it through another winter and spring. A huge candle plant has its yellow flowers blazing in one of the side yards, and a big tropical wisteria vine along the front fence (and way up into an adjacent pecan) has been putting out an enormous number of dark-purple flower chains.
The wet August put the damper on most of the plumerias, which haven’t bloomed that much this year. But just the slightly cooler days and the drier air has really brought out the hibiscus blooms.
Then there’s the Beast – also known as Hurricane Ike.
First it was supposed to slide up the west side of Florida and into the Alabama coast. Next thing you know, forecasters had it headed straight for Galveston, and on into my backyard shortly (about 85 miles inland) thereafter.
Then I thought I might be able to breathe easy, as the National Hurricane Center’s computer forecast models dragged the storm down into Corpus Christi, or even into Mexico. Whoa! That was a relief. I wouldn’t have to haul my big collection of plumeria and smaller collection of potted hibiscus back into the garage. And my wife’s folks could rest easy down in Galveston County.
But that was yesterday.
Now the hurricane tracking models are swinging back up the Texas coast and showing the Beast making landfall at Port Lavaca or Matagorda or Freeport, but with a northern hook that could bring Ike right through Fort Bend County, depending on which forecasting model turns out to be correct.
The other major question looming (in addition to the one about where exactly will it make landfall) is: How big will the Beast be? It’s “merely” a Category 1 animal right now, having lashed Cuba for the past day. But the National Hurricane Center is talking about Ike strengthening to Category 4 status in a day or two. That means sustained winds of more than 130 miles per hour.
It may not be until Thursday that anyone can tell with a degree of certainty where this Beast is aiming. And by then, as is usual, there may not be much to do but hunker down and pray for the best.
→ B.Dunn, Sep 09, 2008, 07 48 pm
