So much for a quiet new year… Around 5.30am, Beck woke me to tell me that there was a bad storm raging outside, and that she thought she heard the sirens going off. About as soon as she finished her sentence, I could hear the sirens, too.

We gathered up us, the animals, and the new storm station, and dashed downstairs. We cranked up the TV to the local news to see what was going on. By then, the storm had already passed us by, but there was indication of rotation in clouds moving toward downtown. So far, I haven’t heard anything about any damage or touchdowns.

What a surreal way to start the year though — tornadic activity in January! When I went to bed last night around midnight, it was still 61 degrees outside. It’s about 50 now, so I’m not real surprised that there was some big weather last night. That’s just real unusual for this part of the country this time of the year, especially given the time of night it took place.

All noses are accounted for, and everything’s safe, but it was certainly a startling way to begin the morning!

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Rita slammed the Gulf Coast way early this morning. That can’t be a good thing, but what I’ve seen this morning on CNN and FoxNews leads me to believe that it’s much, much less devastation than what I was fearing.

Houston was spared. Galveston was largely spared. The sparse population probably means a much lower casuality cost. I’m sure there will be some damage to the oil industry, but it seems to be minor in comparison to what Katrina did a couple of weeks ago. In listening to an AM radio station out of Dallas Thursday night, it sounds like all the oil that passes through that part of the world has been turned off until Rita passes, which probably means shortages and higher prices until they are restarted sometime in the coming week.

It could’ve been a whole lot worse, and the fact that it wasn’t is something I’m so thankful for.

God be with you all in Texas and Louisiana.

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This morning, it appears that the gulf coast is bracing for the impact of Rita. Texans are fleeing the coast. Rita has strengthened, and then slightly weakened. The markets are getting pummelled. Precious metals are at close to 20-year highs. Oil barrels are approaching record territory again. And, the pundits are predicting $5/gallon gas out of this storm. What the heck is going on?

The good news is, I guess, that it looks like the hurricane is moving more north than originally thought, which should spare the refineries near Galveston and Houston. It also looks like the powers-that-be have finally realized that for many, the lives of their pets are as important as their own lives, and they are being allowed to evacuate with their masters, rather than being left behind to drown or starve. It appears the various government agencies have learned how utterly deplorable their response was to Katrina, and have set up ahead of time for a better response to Rita.

At the end of day though, there’s nothing I can do about any of it, and nothing I can do to help, aside from send money to the the American Red Cross, which I will do again for this event. I really think it’s the best way to get aid directly in the hands of those that need it.

I also heard about a cool site from the folks in San Francisco called 72hours.org. It’s basically a site designed to help you plan out survival for the first 72 hours of a disaster, realizing that you may very well be left to manage your own survival for that long until help arrives. Cool sounding site that I will be digging deeper into.

I think there’s good lessons to be learned from these disasters, and I intend to pay attention in class.

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Katrina’s wounds are still fresh, and word tonight is that the Gulf Coast must prepare for another large hurricane, this time named Rita. It appears that it will strike Key West tomorrow as a category 2 or 3 storm, and will aim for the gulf, destined to make landfall as a category 4 or 5 hurricane around the end of the week. Where will it make landfall? Well, Houston seems likely, but there’s also a chance it could turn north to New Orleans.

My understanding from the news is that New Orleans really couldn’t withstand another strike like Rita is appearing it could deliver. I saw on the news that the Army Corps of Engineers believes that they could stand 3″ of rain across six hours, and a storm surge of five feet or so. If Rita even makes a glancing blow, I suspect New Orleans will see conditions far beyond what they can withstand. The good news is that New Orleans is mostly vacant, and it looks like mandatory evacuations there are coming soon. However, the additional damage that Rita could do to the city and the oil business could be staggering, and surely would impact the economy of the US.

If it hits Houston though, the oil business there could be impacted, and that would also impact the country’s economy. Just the thought of what Rita could do has already had an impact. Oil went up 7% today, gold has surged from about $435 to close at almost $470 today, and silver has gone up nearly 5% in the last week or so. It’s crazy. There’s so much speculation on everything anymore that someone sneezing the wrong way causes the financial world to be rattled. I can’t imagine what gas at the pump will do this week. It got as high as $3.29 just after Katrina hit, and I have to think that it will push at least that high.

This is crazy folks, absolutely crazy. Hold on to your hats, the ride’s gonna get bumpy.

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As the images and stories come in, I simply am crushed by what has happened in the South.

Locally, prices at the pump here didn’t maintain their sanity. While the price of a barrel of oil increased by about a dollar, the price of a gallon of gas here went up between 30 and 40 cents. There are folks saying that the price of a barrel could go up to $100. If a dollar increase in the barrel price translates to 30 cents per gallon at the pump, then a gallon of gas will then increase by $8.70/gallon, to about $11.50 a gallon.

And now there’s talk of moving oil from the strategic reserve to the oil companies. Why? If half the refinery capacity is offline right now, what good is more barrels of oil? The refineries can’t process them, so there’s no benefit to the price of heating oil or gasoline. That smells political to me, pure and simple. Unless I’m missing the boat somewhere, all the oil barrels in the world wouldn’t do any good, and no increase in unrefined oil will lower prices.

So many things today lead me to such a sense of insecurity, helplessness, and a lack of control. I’ll be writing off and on throughout the night and the next many days and weeks as things strike me. Few are listening, but it’s therapeutic for me. As I hear more stories of the folks in the way of Katrina, I realize I have no room to whine about the price of gas, the weather, the cost of living day to day. Those folks have nothing. Nothing. And a nothing of a kind that I certainly can’t imagine, and probably neither can almost any one else in our country.

And, without anything, along with a lack of basic needs, people are reverting to their lowest level. Looting, stealing, carjacking. And loads of angry people doing things they wouldn’t otherwise do. And under cover of darkness, it’ll probably only get worse.

New Orleans is 80% under water, and the water is still rising. The news is reporting that the mayor is suggesting that a mandatory evacuation of the whole city may be necessary. It’s just so staggering. 5,000,000 folks without power, and they may be that way for weeks or months. Likely an unimaginable toll in lives lost. Not enough supplies. No where for the survivores to go, and no way to get there.

I think it was Biloxi’s mayor that said this was “our tsunami”. He’s right. Do I really believe that other countries and other people will come to our aid the way Americans did after the Tsunami last year? I doubt it. I can’t imagine that other countries will remember our charity, and come to our aid.

It’s a feeling of desparation. I feel such a sense of wanting to help, far beyond sending money. Hands can help clear away debris, fill sandbags, and maybe give a shoulder to cry upon. Money can’t supply that, but money’s all I can give. Even if I could break away from work for a few weeks or months, there’s no way to get there, and they probably don’t need another mouth to feed down there anyway. Sending money seems so impersonal and so useless, but I know it’s the right and only thing to do at this point.

To me, this is easily as shell-shocking as 9/11 was, and not because of the financial and economic impact, but because of the human toll. Seeing people that talk like I do, live in places I’ve lived and visited, and that I share a common sense of family and culture with in such a state of choas and destruction feels like someone sucker punched me.

I don’t know how to end this tonight, except to say that I will be praying, and praying hard. You should too.

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So the “worst case scenario” is about to happen — New Orleans is about to be hit by a category 5 hurricane.

From everything I’ve heard, New Orleans could very easily turn into a giant city-sized swimming pool out of this hurricane when this thing hits tomorrow. Ugh. I have to think that the impact of this hurricane could be devastating, and not just to that area.

Already, the news — even The Weather Channel! — is talking about how gas prices will go up out of Katrina’s strike on the Gulf Coast. I know there’s many drilling platforms down there, and I know a whole bunch of oil comes through the ports down there, but I can’t imagine why interrupting things for a half-dozen days or so could drive prices for gas at the pumps up tomorrow, or heating oil prices for the winter. That just baffles me.

Mom believes that the price at the pump will go to $3 tomorrow. She might be right, but I have to think that folks will revolt if prices jump that much.

Still, I’ve gotta really feel for the folks along the coast. God be with you all.

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After the last seven days of 95+ degree heat — the last four of which had us at or above 100, including today — a cold front has broken through, and the rains have begun. When I got home about three hours ago, it was 100; it’s now 73, and it feels great!

Of course, the grass will grow out of control, as there’s about three days of rain predicted. That’s ok with me. All I know is that there’s finally a break in the horrible dog days we’ve been living through, where a mere stroll outside can suck the air right from your lungs, and that’s the important part!

Today I’m home after a long weekend of work — gratis day as thanks — and it is raining and raining. The remnants of Hurricane Dennis are showering over our heads, and bringing us a bunch of needed rain.

St. Louis has been really droughty, and watering the lawn just doesn’t help enough. So, since this thing rolled in just about 24 hours ago, we’ve had just about two inches of rain according to my trusty rain gauge on the deck. The weather gamblers on TV are saying we should have this for another 24-36 hours, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see us top three or four inches of rain by the time it’s all done.

That’s cool. It’s a slow rain, and it’s keeping temperatures way down in the high 60s or low 70s — a welcome change from the mid-90s of just last week. Yes, this is the springlike rains we just don’t get this time of year.

I, for one, am enjoying the lesiurely pace of this freebie day, and the beauty of the day that was handed me!