Hurricane Isaias

Most of you know that I have lived with the threat of hurricanes for almost 20 years, my choice I know. Google ‘hurricanes and Chicago Addick’ and a story book of close misses and direct hits will come up, but this year not even a murmour.

Until now.

Hurricane Isaias is on it’s way to make landfall between the Florida and Alabama border tonight which will be exactly two years since Hurricane Milton made United States landfall.

Isaias officially became a hurricane on October 7, making it the latest-forming first hurricane of an Atlantic season in 121 years.

This morning Isaias became a CAT 3 storm with winds excess of 120 mph. States of emergency have been issued in parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for several coastal counties as the eye of the storm moves quickly across the gulf with landfall expected to be around 9pm near the historic coastal city of Pensacola.

The coastal area along Pensacola has a wide and gently sloping and shallow continental shelf which extends a long way out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Because this shallow shelf stretches out so far, it acts like a ramp pushing the hurricane’s volumes of water toward the shore. The ocean floor blocks the water from flowing downward, forcing it to pile up and surge onto land. Forecasters are warning of a life-threatening 6 to 9 feet of storm surge as the Category 3 hurricane nears landfall.

Fortunately we live over 500 miles away from where Isaias will hit, so we are anticipating just a weekend of rain.

Isaias was the Israelite prophet, hopefully he told people he was coming!