Final thoughts on Gustav...

I got back late last night after chasing Hurricane Gustav...  We were bunkered in a sturdy movie theater on 90 east about 5 miles south of Lafayette, LA...  We saw sustained winds around 60mph with gusts around 85mph...  The chase for the most part was fairly uneventful but I did enjoy watching two of my friends getting to chase a hurricane for the first time...  There was one close call though...  Diving back to Starkville on 55N between McComb and Jackson there were a decent amount of trees coming down...  Michael Haynes and I were in the left lane dogging a decent amount of debris when all of a sudden a huge 50ft + tall pine tree fell down into the right lane about 5-10 feet from us...  It really was a close call and if we would have been in the right lane I think at the very least my car would have been destroyed...  It really seemed like it was in slow motion and I'm just VERY grateful the tree missed us...  I have said this many times but in my opinion the drive back from a chase is the most dangerous part of the chase...  I feel much more safe in my bunker even in a Cat-3/4 then driving back in the dark, tired, and truly being at the mercy or others and mother nature...  You can't predict a tree coming down so honestly a lot of this just like life in general is the luck of the draw...  Again I'm just very happy we got back safe!!!

Photo Credit:  AP Press

On a side note, I can't tell you how lucky New Orleans got!  I'm very happy/thankful the levees held, but wow that was close...  What scares me is Gustav was a weakening Cat-2 way west of the city and they still came about 1-2 feet from going under???  This should be a warning for the city officials of New Orleans...  They did an EXCELLENT job in getting everyone out and there is no doubt they should be praised for their actions...  However I would be very worried with what I saw with the levees...  To me it's time to act NOW with the levees because if you don't your playing with FIRE!!!  The biggest thing I learned from Gustav is a direct hit from even a average Cat-2 would put New Orleans under...  I understand that you can't stop mother nature but you have to have that city protected up to at least a solid Cat-3...  The threat is SO HIGH that not learning from this would be very foolish and honestly just plain dumb!  Hopefully this will open every ones eyes and help the city do what it needs to vastly improve the city's levee system...  From what I saw with the evacuations I have some hope the city's government will do the right thing...

Later tonight I'm going to put together a fairly detailed tropical update...  I'm already preparing myself to get ready to go after Hanna and Ike...  There is also a possibility I might go after Josephine, but I feel like she will head out to sea...  Hanna is going to be a problem for South Carolina/North Carolina in my opinion...  I really could see Hanna getting to a major hurricane at landfall...  I know it's getting annihilated with wind shear right now but once that relaxes and Hanna turn back north, the environment looks almost perfect for rapid intensification...  Ike looks like a problem for Florida and MAYBE the Gulf...  It's still too far out to say anything for sure, but it does look like a MAJOR threat to Florida...  Things are about to get crazy!!!