another long hiatus

Here we are again after another long hiatus. What's prompting this entry is the aftermath of some very stormy weather we've had the last couple days. The last couple nights we've had nonstop lightning. Not bolts for the most part, but lightening in the clouds that was going off like strobes nonstop. And torrential rains. I was able to swim Monday night, knowing we were going to get some rough weather later. Not as rough as folks up in Mississippi and Alabama, where tornadoes creamed towns on Sunday and killed 18 people, but a light show that started around 0300 and died off c 0600, just when I was going to work. The same areas in Mississippi and Alabama got run over again Monday night, killing another dozen people. I started out for the pool c 1830 but aborted along Bayou because I could see that there was too much lightening. I headed back home and over the course of the evening the weather got worse. Supposedly we got 5 inches in an hour between 2100 and 2200. Linh got stuck on I-10 overnight because of water flowing over the interstate. I tried to go to work this morning and ran into flooding and stalled cars on Cervantes near A Street. I cut down to Garden Street and had to make a detour around some more flooding just before Pace. When I went over the bridge there was flooding at W and Garden. I went up on La Rua and tried to get over to Warrington. I cut down Old Corry Field to Garden/Navy but the intersection at Navy Blvd and Highway 98 was totally flooded. I tried to cut through Corry Field but their gate onto Highway 98 was closed. That's when I got a call from my boss telling me the hospital was closed for the day. I wound my way back home. Linh got home around 0800. She said Bayou was a mess near the Presbyterian Church. Around 1030 I thought I'd go over to Pensacola State College to see if the pool was going to be open at 1100. As Linh said, Bayou WAS a mess. The whole front of a house near the McMansion had collapsed. In spots, there was dirt a yard deep on Bayou. The neighborhood up behind the church looked a mess. I managed to wind my way through and over the dirt and got up to 12th. There were several abandoned cars facing the wrong way along 12th. PSC was closed, so no swim. I hit a tennis ball for awhile then headed back home. I thought I'd take Summit, but it looked closed. The dip on 12th looked a mess so I tried to go back via Bayou, but it was now closed. I wound up cutting over to 9th, then cutting back on Fairfield to 12th. 12th was flooded at one point so I cut over to 17th, then home. Online I could see pictures of damage along Scenic. I just got back from riding my bide down there. The road is undermined at Scenic and Bayview, so there's a detour. There's a spot right by Bay Bluffs Park that's going, and farther down the road past Brookshire a washout has taken out both lanes. The police wouldn't let me go down to get pictures of that spot. It looks like DOT is going to have their hands full trying to fix/shore up Scenic Highway.