Coastal Empire, Dorian Edition

Editor’s Note: I am getting this out a little late, but wanted to get the latest on Hurricane Dorian’s landfall- or partial landfall- in the Carolinas. The below accounts from Marlow outline the last preparations at his house in Charleston. The Navy has sortied the Fleet to more welcoming waters, and the jets have all departed Naval Station Oceana for more salubrious climes. We await the morning here southwest of DC. Clouds have already commenced passing overhead, and the trees periodically dance in anticipation. Not particularly dramatic, and I hope it stays that way. Not so for the coast. We will see in the morning.

-Vic

Author’s Note: Isaac and now Dorian on our door steps

After two days of dry weather, Hurricane Dorian tentatively announced his impending arrival minutes ago as I watched a gentle drizzling on our side garden.

it is hard to square Savannah’s calm before coming tropical storm force winds and rain later today with the imagery of what cable TV and the internet are endlessly showing of Dorian stay in the Bahamas. I have seen similar storm aftermath video like that only once before — Homestead FL after Andrew. I drove though that south Florida plain of sorrow two months later. In person, I saw something similar in a post- typhoon Philippines back in the 1970s.

The only other similar post-annihilation video I have seen were grainy ones of 8th AF bombing runs during WW II and USN alpha strikes and USAF B-52 carpet bombing runs BDA during Vietnam.

Mother Nature is infinitely more powerful and indiscriminate in her savagery towards those who do not flee her rampages.

Our southernmost island friends have emailed, texted and voice-mailed us their best wishes, concerns and offer of storm shelter from Doran even as they enter their third year of recovery and rebuilding from Hurricane Irma. That’s just how they are. Miss them one and all. There are none finer or truer.

A final note or two: Hurricanes often don’t bring out the best in people — even those who live far away. Some seem to delight in ramping up the anxiety. Folks call local PDs in storm threatened areas warning that they must leave or they will die. Some morons ask if it’s safe to visit even as Key West or Savannah is evacuating en masse. People are strange. Maybe, they want to share a part of the experience by involving themselves from a distance? Or maybe they’re just dicks?

Bearing all of this above in mind, none of these folks ever thinks to ask how it’s like to live without water or electricity like we did on Oahu in 1982 after Hurricane Iwa for a week or so. Sent the kids to a US Army provided water buffalo tanker truck in the hood daily for H2O. Or how about being out of gasoline? Do without any of these three for more than day or so, and their absence results in a PTSD that makes subsequent storm planning 2nd nature. Sorta like Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) school attendance lessons learned. Still not sure why I took all three of those courses (Brunswick, ME, Warner Springs, CA, JEST Jungle School in the Philippines).

I remember as 2017’s Hurricane Irma approached south Florida, how empty Savannah was becoming as gossip of planned future evacuation announcements sped up the process while we begged our Conch friends to get out of the way less than 24 hours before its Keys landfall and stay with us. Hating the waiting for their responses, we went out and took a brief windshield tour of downtown. It was serene and peaceful to see its emptiness, serenity and foreboding.

Important Safety Tip: Always try to be safe in the face of an advancing storm, folks. Remember these keys from the Keys: Bread, milk, beer, booze, ice and TP. Dammit — check that — don’t need no stinking bread or milk.

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