July 10, 2005
Dennis Flickr Photos
There are an increasing number of photos over at Flickr tagged “Dennis” with more being added all the time.
Good collection here.
Check out this photo (not on Flickr - Weather channel has some great reader photos)
Hurricane Dennis V/ Landfall [updated 5:14pmEST]
Live feed from WKRG can be found here.
All reports say Dennis is still strengthening.
3 year old boy first Dennis related fatality:
Waves pound beach; Dennis about one hour away from landfall:
Hurricane Dennis closed in on the Gulf Coast on Sunday with battering waves and high wind after strengthening into a dangerous Category 4 storm, roaring toward a region still patching up damage from a hurricane 10 months ago.As the eye of the storm got closer to shore Sunday, wind exceeding 45 mph blew rain sideways and rolling waves pounded piers and beaches. Landfall was expected Sunday afternoon somewhere along the coast of the Florida Panhandle or Alabama in virtually the same spot as last year’s Hurricane Ivan.
4:00pm
The storm landed as a category 3 hurricane
RADAR OBSERVATIONS INDICATE THAT HURRICANE DENNIS MADE LANDFALL AT 1925Z…225 PM CDT…ON SANTA ROSA ISLAND BETWEEN NAVARRE BEACH AND PENSACOLA BEACH FLORIDA. DATA FROM THE STEPPED FREQUENCY MICROWAVE RADIOMETER ON BOARD THE NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT…AS WELL AS FLIGHT-LEVEL OBSERVATIONS FROM NOAA AND AIR FORCE RESERVE
AIRCRAFT…INDICATE THAT THE LANDFALL INTENSITY OF DENNIS WAS 100
TO 105 KT…115 TO 120 MPH…CATEGORY THREE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON
HURRICANE SCALE.
Satellite photo here
Dennis slams Pensacola
5:14
Damage reports from Pensacola
More at Reuters
Local help for victims
Latest warnings
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HURRICANE COVERAGE ON BLOGS
We’ll keep/update the list of blogs covering the storm on this post, at the bottom of any further updates.
Alabama weather blog
Weather Undeground blog, also here.
Brendan Loy
Jordan Golson
Eye of the Storm
Foot’s Forecast
Eye on Dennis
Hurricane!
Razor Kiss is liveblogging and has a good links list
Pensacola Beach blog has signed off for the day.
Coalition of the Swilling
Jim Matheis
Stay safe, those in the way.
Collection of Dennis-related photos here.
Mobile Alabama Sources
Mobile, Alabama is in Dennis’ crosshairs this morning; here are some local Mobile, AL news sources:
- AL.com has a storm blog here. Not updated since last night, but plenty of local details. (And oddly, to me the AL.com coverage seems a bit cheery … personally, I’d be scared off my rocker.)
- WPMI TV has local coverage, as does their AM radio partner, NewsRadio 710.
- WKRG Mobile has local coverage, and a blog as well, which is much more bloggy than that of AL.com. Lots of local photos and first-person entries, including a note that many of the folks from WKRG have hunkered down with their pets at the station, and this post about life in news as Dennis approaches:
I think it was Mark Twain who once said “in the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time.” This is one of those times.Covering a hurricane is a journalist’s double-edged sword. We all understand the obligation to provide information that can mean the difference between life and death. It’s also a time when a journalist has to leave his or her family. We do our jobs, but that awful feeling in the pit of our stomach stays with us. Working for a station like WKRG and a company like Media General makes it less painful. If you could take a quick tour around the studio in Mobile, you’d understand. We’re in our second day of 12 hour shifts. The folks who just got off are asleep on the floor. The community affairs and sales department cooked up a pot of spaghetti tonight that would make Emeril jealous. I only wish we could get the hot meal to our crews working in the field.
Media General asked what extra resources we needed in Mobile…and within a day 10 company employees arrived to assist the dedicated WKRG employees providing 24/7 live continuing coverage. We’re now in our 14th hour. Employees from Media General stations and newspapers in Birmingham, Lexington, Wichita, Spartanburg, Savannah, Charleston, Opelika left their jobs and families to come to Mobile to help. Their hotel closed, so they’ve joined our employees sleeping on the floor. We thank them.
No one knows where Dennis will make landfall or how strong he’ll be. News 5 reporter Steve Alexander may have put it best as he gazed out over the Gulf of Mexico in his afternoon live report from Pensacola Beach. “Dennis is knocking at our doorstep”.
Be safe.
Be safe indeed.
Hurricane Dennis IV: Updates/blog links [updated 9:45 am]
Morning updates:
Dennis is back to a category 4 storm and is now located 175 miles south/southeast of Pensacola, Florida.
A hurricane warning remains in effect for portions of the
Northeastern gulf coast from the Steinhatchee River westward to the
mouth of the Pearl River. Satellite image here.
—
With nearly 1.4 million people under evacuation orders, some towns in the projected path were left almost deserted. Landfall was expected Sunday afternoon somewhere along the coast of the Florida Panhandle, Alabama or Mississippi.After weakening to a Category 2 storm over Cuba, Dennis regrouped in the Gulf on Saturday and became a Category 4 storm again early Sunday, with sustained winds of 145 mph.
“Category 4 is not just a little bit worse _ it’s much worse,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Damage increases exponentially as the wind speed increases. And no matter where it makes actual landfall, it’s going to have a tremendous impact well away from the center.”
Dennis’ expected landfall on Sunday would be the earliest a Category 4 hurricane has hit the United States since Hurricane Audrey struck the Louisiana and Texas coasts in June 1957, according to the National Hurricane Center.
For all news and updates on the aftermath in Cuba, please check here.
Blogs with coverage:
—
technorati tag
Alabama weather blog
Weather Undeground blog, also here.
Brendan Loy
Jordan Golson
Eye of the Storm
Foot’s Forecast
Collection of Dennis-related photos here.
Latest strike map (click for bigger):
9:45:
Curfews in some areas
Power could be out for three weeks
Updated strike probablities here
Latest satellite:
July 09, 2005
Hurricane Dennis III : Storm Regains Major Hurricane Status[updated 7:20pmEST]
Dennis has weakened a bit as it heads to the states.
Here is what the warning/watch situation looks like now (last updated 5am).
The death toll in Cuba is at 20. The storm also killed 15 people in Haiti before slamming into Cuba.
In southern Haiti, 15 people died when a swollen river tore away a bridge. The total number of deaths in Haiti reached 22, according to various officials.
—
Cuban authorities had evacuated more than 600,000 people in different parts of the country as Dennis approached the southern city of Cienfuegos. But the measures, which usually allow the Communist island to escape hurricane strikes with minimal casualties, failed to prevent 10 deaths on Thursday night.Cuban President Fidel Castro said most of the victims died in collapsed houses in two coastal towns in Granma province. An 18-day-old baby was among those who died, he said on state television, calling the hurricane a “diabolical force.”
Officials said 15,400 of the adjacent towns’ 20,000 homes were destroyed or damaged. Television images showed rows of clapboard houses flattened by the storm.
Dennis is now Category 2, with 110 mph winds, but experts expect it to pick up strength as it heads over the waters towards the US coast.
You can see here that the hurricane doesn’t look as tight and concentrated as it did yesterday.
..to be updated…
11:45:
Hurricane Dennis Swipes Florida Keys
Coastal residents packed up and evacuated or hunkered down Saturday as Hurricane Dennis lashed the Florida Keys with wind and sheets of rain and churned along a path toward areas still rebuilding from last year’s storms.More than 1 million people from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana were under evacuation orders. Landfall was expected Sunday afternoon anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to southeast Louisiana.
“This is a very dangerous storm and we hope that you will evacuate,” Gov. Jeb Bush said to residents in the Panhandle.
Some blogs talking about Dennis:
Nicholas Roussos
Hurricane Land
Mike Bonnett
—-
3:36PM
Dennis cuts power to all of Key West
-
Coastal residents packed up and evacuated or hunkered down Saturday as Hurricane Dennis lashed the Florida Keys with wind and sheets of rain and charged toward areas still rebuilding from last year’s storms.More than 1 million people from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana were under evacuation orders. Landfall was expected Sunday afternoon anywhere from the Florida Panhandle to southeast Louisiana.
“This is a very dangerous storm and we hope that you will evacuate,” Gov. Jeb Bush said to residents in the Panhandle.
The latest warning from the Hurricane Center says Dennis is reorganizing.
Check out the satellite image here - looks much more like a hurricane than it did this morning.
—-
7:20
Million told to flee as Dennis closes in
The storm was on a north-west track that could take it to landfall today local time between Florida’s north-western panhandle and Mississippi - an area still recovering from a battering by Hurricane Ivan in September.
Dennis could be Cat. 4 at landfall
Hurricane Dennis is rapidly intensifying and could be a Category 4 storm at landfall near the Florida/Alabama state line, the National Hurricane Center reported in its 4 p.m. briefing.Reports from aircraft reconnaissance and signs of the storm resuming its track toward Northwest Florida have National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service forecasters concerned that this storm will be more intense and have higher storm surge than Hurricane Ivan, which made landfall in Gulf Shores, Ala., on Sept. 16 as a Category 3.
Thousands lose power, tornadoes touch down in South Florida
Update from Hurricane Center:
REPORTS FROM AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT INDICATE
THAT THE CENTRAL PRESSURE OF DENNIS HAS FALLEN RAPIDLY TO 947 MB.
DENNIS HAS REGAINED DANGEROUS MAJOR HURRICANE STATUS…CATEGORY 3
ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE…WITH MAXIMUM SUSTAINED
WINDS OF 115 MPH. WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE EVEN MORE THIS
EVENING.
Check this out:
Looks a lot different than this morning.
July 08, 2005
Hurricane Dennis II
Dennis has come ashore on the south coast of Cuba, and it took one of the worst possible landfall trajectories—a 70-mile long track scraping the coast with its right eyewall. The right eyewall contains the hurricane’s strongest winds and highest storm surge, and normally only a 5 to 10 mile section of coast suffers it. Cuba just had 70 miles of coast with some of its prime tourist areas suffer a storm surge of at least 13 feet, and probably 20 feet or higher in many places. Add to this the hurricane’s sustained winds of 145 - 150 mph, and the result will be a multi-billion dollar destruction of a key part of the island’s economy. Dennis has also made a direct hit on Cienfuegos, a city of 200,000, and is now aiming at the Caribbean’s largest city, Havana. The destruction occurring in Cuba from this storm must be truly staggering.
Also:
Today will be the worst day in Cuba’s modern history. Dennis is a worst-case hurricane following a worst-case path for the island. The storm is already punishing Cuba as it moves parallel to the island, subjecting much of the island to hurricane force winds and rainfall totals of 10 - 15 inches, and destroying much of the rich sugar cane fields and other crops. The situation will get much worse tonight when the storm makes landfall, pushing a storm surge of 20 feet or higher onto a long section of the coast. Dennis will pass near Havana, the most heavily populated part of the island. Although loss of life will be low thanks to Cuba’s excellent civil defense system, the destruction of buildings will probably be the worst in Cuba’s history
Will update as we get more updates.
5:34pm:
Tourists evacuated as hurricane hits Guantanamo Bay
From National Weather Service:
REPORTS FROM THE CUBAN METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE AND CIVIL DEFENSE THROUGH HAM RADIO OPERATORS INDICATE A WIND GUST TO 149 MPH
OCCURRED AT CIENFUEGOS CUBA AROUND 130 PM EDT. MORE THAN 85 PERCENT
OF THE POWERLINES WERE DOWN AND EXTENSIVE DAMAGE HAS OCCURRED TO
THE COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE.
Blogger 26th parallel has links and updates
Satellite view of storm, 5:31 pm via Weather Channel.
You can see a loop of the storm in action here (java).
7:00pm
At least ten killed in Cuba
More from Cuba:
Powerful Hurricane Dennis struck Cuba Friday in Cuba, entering through the bay of the central province of Cienfuegos, 250 kilometres east of Havana, officials said.The hurricane’s eye reached Cuba early Friday afternoon and maximum sustained winds slowed slightly as it moved over island.
The storm’s raging winds and intense rains had already caused power outages in most of Cuba as well as heavy flooding, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, the Cienfuegos office of Civil Defence said.
—-
8:30pm
Hurricane Dennis roared through the Caribbean on Friday, leaving 10 dead in Cuba and 22 in Haiti before aiming for Havana on a course toward the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, where oil rigs and vulnerable coastal areas were evacuated.The storm weakened slightly as it crossed Cuba but the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Cuban meteorologists had reported a 149-mph (240 kph) gust that caused extensive damage in the city of Cienfuegos.
Hurricane Dennis
Hurricane Dennis has strengthened to a category 4 hurricane.
The storm is working its way through Haiti now and headed towards the Florida panhandle.
The Hurricane Center in Miami said the eye was swirling over water about 230 miles southeast of Havana, Cuba, and about 285 miles southeast of Key West, Fla. It was moving to the northwest at about 12 miles an hour.
It has already killed five people in Haiti and people from the Florida Keys to Louisiana are fleeing or making preparations in advance of Dennis’s arrival.
Forecasters warned residents from Florida to Louisiana to be ready this weekend for Hurricane Dennis, with top winds already at 135 mph. The Category 4 storm was projected to hit the Gulf Coast by Sunday and the National Hurricane Center warned Dennis had become “an extremely dangerous” storm.
Gov. Jeb Bush has already declared a state of emergency.
You can track Dennis here. We’ll be giving the storm full coverage, so stay tuned for news, updates, links and emergency/evactuation postings.
10:51:
Packing devastating 135 mph winds, Hurricane Dennis tore down a guard tower at the U.S. detention camp for terror suspects as it stalked Cuba’s south coast and prepared Friday to strike into the heart of the largest Caribbean island.[…]
The eye was taking aim at central Cuba Friday morning from 60 miles at sea, a few miles short of the storm’s most dangerous winds, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
“It’s right off the coast, they’ll be getting hurricane-force winds before long if they haven’t already,” meteorologist Trisha Wallace told The Associated Press by telephone from the center in Miami.
Hurricane-force winds extended 50 miles with tropical storm force winds stretching another 140 miles. Dennis was moving northwest near 12 mph.
Three day track - click for bigger.
—
3:40pm
- Southern Walton County in the Florida Panhandle will be evacuated beginning at 4 p.m. Friday.
- Eglin Air Force Base in Florida was ordered evacuated. The evacuees were told to get at least 100 miles away from the base by noon Saturday.
- The Lower Keys Medical Center closed, and even emergencies were not treated.
- Florida and Alabama remained under a state of emergency declared by their governors.
[Via AP]