Hurricane Ivan

As most of the nation has undoubtedly heard, Hurricane Ivan is expected to make landfall in the next 24 hours. Weather experts tend to differ as to the Category that he’ll be when he makes landfall, but they’re between strong Cat4 and weak Cat5 (because “weak cat5″ is apparently not an oxymoron… though I’m not sure how)

Tuscaloosa is 180 miles inland.

Virtually every academic institution in the state is, at the very least, closed Thursday and Friday… most of them are closing up shop early today. The Univ. of Alabama has already closed for the rest of the week in anticipation of our impending weather.

The eye of the storm should hit Tuscaloosa, by current estimates, tomorrow evening around 8pm. My sources tell me that officials are currently planning for Tuscaloosa to experience 30-55 mph winds sustained for 30+ hours, with gusts reaching hurricane strength (75mph). Many parts of the county could be without power for several days, and the storm is expected to spawn anywhere between 5 and 30 tornadoes state-wide, but mainly in the southern and western parts of the state.

The university is a zoo right now, folks evacuating, going home, going north, going west, going SOMEWHERE to get away.

My plans are to ride out the storm here at home, and blog for as long as we keep power. I have some contingency plans if things go REALLY wrong, but at this point I think I’m just going to ride it out.

My cell phone will be off starting tomorrow in the early afternoon to conserve battery in case I need it in an emergency. If you need/want to get ahold of me, you can call my home telephone, the number for which is (205) 345-8840.

Should I die, I’ll be sure to post immediately from hell, where I’m quite certain all they have is dial-up.

DEVELOPING…



PS: Happy Birthday to my little sister Ara!