The hurricane is enormous and growing in strength. Hope everyone there can make it through. It’s looking to drop a lot of water deep inland also.
Should be making landfall anytime now.
Here’s a couple of livestream cameras in Galveston, TX:
I have relatives down that way. I hope they come through OK. One of my cousins, a nurse at a hospital in Galveston, moved to Austin some years ago after a hurricane(don’t remember which) went through and devastated the hospital he worked at.
The storm seems to be taking a similar track to that of Rita in '05 (but without the highway chaos that that one spawned, thank goodness). Houston/Galveston look to be spared, but Beaumont, Port Arthur and Lake Charles are about to get thoroughly hosed.
Looks like it’s moving north rapidly and the Texas coast will get spared from the worst. The inland flooding looks like it’s going to be pretty bad from the storm surge as it moves rapidly through Louisiana heading toward Little Rock.
I used to live in Lafayette, and our favorite weatherman was in the Lake Charles TV station. Looks like they are going to be slammed. I was lucky, during the 3 years I lived there no hurricanes, and we were on the dry side of the only one that came close.
I wonder if the grocery bags still have hurricane tracking charts on them?
Ashore in southwest Louisiana per the National Hurricane Center. Storms this strong leave utter devastation. COVID is going to make cleanup harder.
Those further inland need to be aware that extensive inland flash flooding is possible well up into Arkansas. You heard that, right, @Beckdawrek ? Pay attention to forecasts and take it seriously!
We’re on it. Prepared all day.
So crazy we’re under Tropical storm warnings. Flood and Tornado warnings as well.
The storm shelter is de-spidered. The generator is ready. We have dry ice for the freezers.
Not my first rodeo.
Miss Laura is knocking on my door.
So far rain, rain, rain.
We still have power. DirecTV and the internet keep flickering on and off.
The Wrek inmates are already complaining.
Looks like it’s moving fast, at least not hovering over one area for a long time. Looks like Little Rock gets the leading edge in about 2 hours. This thing is going to turn east and dump water all over the country, even up here into New England. We don’t get heavy flooding or the highest speed winds very often, but we still get flood in low lying areas and power lines get knocked down. We would get massacred if we were getting the brunt of these storms like the southern states do.
I went out on the deck to bring a plant in. I decided to take it to the garage. I made a dash to the garage walk-in. Of course that door is locked. I ran back up on the deck and told someone to go unlock the door.
I stood in the rain 2min. or so.
I was completely wet.
Surprisingly the rain tasted salty.
I think I have some gulf sea water raining down on my place.
I don’t know.
Is this possible?
Don’t know how far inland salty rain reaches. It’s supposed to be fairly limited and coming from salt spray picked up from near the ocean surface. Those are huge thunderstorms though, if they can hold big hailstones up in the air I guess some salt water could stay up there for a long time. But storms pick up all sorts of stuff in the air, could be something else that you are tasting.
Ewwwww!!
In theory, no, at least not under normal circumstances, where rain is re-condensed pure water that has evaporated. Clouds will typically form around cloud condensation nuclei (CCNs) which, over the ocean, will often be tiny particles of sea salt, but the amount of salt will be so tiny as to be undetectable.
But your observation is quite interesting, and in a hurricane like this, all bets are off. This thing is huge – more than 1000 miles across, depending on how you define the fringes. ISTM entirely possible that while you’re facing the fringes of the northernmost part of the system, the fringes of the southernmost part are still whipping up Gulf ocean water and whirling it around within the system.
Stay safe, Beck. Glad to hear that you’re an old hand at dealing with storms. You certainly sound far better prepared than I ever would be, but we don’t get hurricanes around here, though it’s been unusually windy here today.
And please give Bayliss extra hugs and attention during this storm. The poor dog has been through a lot recently. It’s a wonder that he isn’t a nervous wreck just from being abandoned, never mind the storm!
It might have rained ‘catfish’ in my world. That rain was coming down hard.
It’s just sprinkling now. But the wind is really blowing.
Apparently it went far enough east that Port Arthur/Beaumont/Orange were mostly spared the worst of it, unlike Lake Charles.
I just read a news item in which a resident of a Louisiana town that stayed, and luckily survived, said “I didn’t know it was going to be this bad”
Well, duh, every report I saw encourage people to evacuate NOW. Don’t dither, just grab the kids, the pets, and GO. They kept emphasizing how dangeous it would be, and how time was getting short.
And there are still doofuses that stay behind and endanger themselves. I saw one report that said once the wind got to a certain speed, they could not send out rescue or emergency vehicles. Some folks just come from the shallow end of the gene pool I guess.
It stuns me the storm was still a hurricane when it crossed over from Louisiana to Arkansas.
Another example of my epic bad luck.
I know every thing in the world isn’t about me, but this makes me wonder.
I am Beckdawrek, after all.
You don’t have bad luck. You just have an exciting and adventurous life, whether you want to or not. After all, how many of us have had a Very Good Boy like Bayliss just literally walk into our lives? He appears to have materialized out of nowhere, just like the state trooper who was once apparently stalking you, and handing out tickets as a cover story. 
Take good care of Bayliss! BTW, I would ignore Mr. Wrek and get Bayliss the very best food, including all dinner leftovers. The poor doggie has been through so much. I used to make Bernie his own steaks on the grill sometimes, and stews and such. Kibble was just the underlay, like rice for Chinese food.
The wind is really picking up here in Memphis. The eastern edge should start coming through in an hour or so. We lose power during normal storms around here so I’m prepared for the power to go out. It is 2020 after all.