Pensacola Beach Blogger

While waiting to lose power out here on Pensacola Beach, we decided to make light of the evening and have a hurricane party, including our very own Hurricane Gustav Cake 2008!

Yum Yum! Hurricake!

As we approach high-tide on Pensacola Beach tonight (12:21AM), the sea continues to rise. In fact, tonight it is higher than I’ve ever seen since moving down here. The waves are approaching the foot of the dunes, nearly breaking through to the houses behind. Take a look:

We’ll keep you updated so long as we have power. If the surge gets any higher we might leave the island though.

We’re starting to see the outer bands of thunderstorms and winds from Gustav. This quick storm rolled in a few hours ago:

Time to come in from the beach. Red flags indicate that swimming in the Gulf is now prohibited:

We should see most of the action after midnight tonight. I’ll keep updating, so check back!

Here on Pensacola Beach, we are starting to see signs of Hurricane Gustav. Although it is scheduled to slam New Orleans to our west, we will still see some impressive weather here on the beach, along with a formidable storm surge. We are currently under a tropical storm warning.

Not the sunniest day on Pensacola Beach:

You can see these strange, low, gray clouds whipping across the island from the north-east:

Hurricane shutters are still going up:

This guy has a quite a challenge ahead of him:

He might have the best view on the island to watch Gustav come in:

If you’re in New Orleans, it’s probably time to leave. The latest models show that there’s a good chance of Gustav making landfall near New Orleans, although the cone of uncertainty is quite wide. Hurricane Gustav is predicted to be a category 3 hurricane when it reaches land. This isn’t good news for New Orleans, which is still recovering from Katrina. According to CNN, about 4300 people still live in FEMA trailers. I wouldn’t want to be in one of those during a category 3 hurricane.

Even though Gustav is expected to fall west of Pensacola, you better believe I’ve already been getting prepared. Unless we see a huge shift that puts Pensacola Beach far out of harm’s way, this Labor Day weekend will be spent buying supplies like water, canned goods, tarps and garbage bags. I’ll also be testing out the hurricane shutters and preparing everything I want to take off the island (car, electronics, files, etc).

If nothing else, this will be a good practice run, as we have several other contenders in the North Atlantic right now.. Tropical Storm Hanna, and Invest 97. Look at all these!

Every cloud in paradise has a silver lining:

Looks like I’m not the only one out for a walk on the beach:

The rough surf from a few days ago washed up all kinds of shells:

Fay has faded, but the evil looking hurricane Gustav is just getting started. The fact that this may enter the gulf as a category 3 hurricane scares me. Experts are saying that there probably won’t be enough of a cold front out of the west to turn Gustav north, which is good news for Pensacola Beach. Gustav actually tied a record yesterday, for the fastest advancement from tropical storm to category 1: It only took 16 hours.

It’s too early to tell where its going to hit, but it we know for sure that it will leave a mess in its wake.

There was a midget on the beach… but probably not what you’re thinking of:

Fay is gone, but it looks as though we might have another contender: Disturbance 94L. There is no comfirmed circulation just yet, but it is a solid storm. The hurricane experts are giving this system a medium (20-50% chance) of developing into a tropical depression by Tuesday afternoon. That isn’t good news for Pensacola Beach.

For more information on 94L, visit this page:
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200894_model.html

A few nights ago, before Tropical Storm Fay moved in, i captured this huge bird in my backyard during sunset. This picture is a little blurry. I really need a tripod:

After getting too close he moved up here:

A few minutes later, the heron was gone, and I was left alone with a beautiful Pensacola Beach sunset: