Storms already? Give me a break
Here it is barely six weeks into the hurricane season and already Little Martin's undermanned Emergency Management staff has had to contend with four named cyclonic storms. This doesn't include the localized flooding, hazardous materials, and all the other incidents that normally occur throughout the year. Six weeks, and the staff is already feeling the effects of stress - a direct holdover from the nightmare that was 2004.
Hurricane Dennis had us worried, and with good reason. It was a killer storm, having taken more than two dozen lives in Haiti and Cuba. Our fate was determined by a tenuous high pressure system hovering northeast of the Florida peninsula that somehow hung together long enough to inch Dennis into the Gulf of Mexico and away from us. All Little Martin experienced were some locally heavy rains and high wind gusts.
But as I write this, Dennis is churning its way toward Mobile, Alabama, as a strong Category 3 storm. It was a Category 4 before losing some steam in the mountains of Cuba, dropped to a Category 2, then quickly regained momentum as it settled on the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Key West, thanks to the aforementioned high pressure ridge, was spared a direct hit by nearly 125 miles and only suffered power outages, some flooded streets, isolated structural damage, and fallen trees. Now you would think that Key West, jutting so far from the mainland as it does and surrounded by Gulf waters, would be a prime target for hurricanes.
You would think that but thankfully this is not the case. Historical records show us that the last time the city of Key West took a direct hit from a hurricane was 1948. No, the Panhandle and Southeast coasts have been impacted by direct hurricane landfall more than any other areas in Florida. As for tropical storms, I cannot say.
Regardless, this has already been a long, anxious hurricane season and it has barely begun. We are waiting for Dennis to make landfall at Mobile this afternoon, and we will be ready when they call for assistance.