Hurricane Dennis Drenches Gulf Coast

Dennis is now a category four hurricane. Our hearts and minds are with our fellow hurricane-weary souls on the northern Gulf Coast, where the impact of Dennis will be catastrophic -- at best. The forecast track takes it right to the folks who suffered through Ivan last year. I can't imagine the horror of watching Dennis approach now. All I can say is that the peninsula feels for you; we're watching and praying.

The storm is a couple hundred miles out to sea, yet it managed to deliver some nasty weather, including tornadic activity and flooding to the Sun Coast. We woke up to howling wind and pounding rain at about 5:00 this morning. As the outer bands pass through, we get small tornadoes, waterspouts and some microburst activity throughout the area. We opened the hunker bunker yesterday, but it wasn't necessary. It was really just an excuse to party and eat Chef James' cooking.

Flooding is a major concern on the barrier islands and near the intracoastal waterways. The picture at right shows this morning's high tide in Cortez. Sarasota Bay has pretty much taken over our friend's yard. Good thing he's the Captain; he's going to need a boat to get out of there today.

Our friend who lives on Anna Maria Island just called and said the beach where we always frolic is gone. "The water is right up to the steps of the houses and some of the rocks [that form a retaining wall there] are just gone," he said.

He's worried about the next storm...all of us are worried. This radar image from intellicast.com shows the energy just streaming off of the coast of Africa and strong thunderstorms building once again near the Caribbean Sea. The question isn't if we will have another hurricane, but when.

Though it's been a bad tropical storm, Manatee County has had very minimal damage and flooding. We were lucky. Again. But after last year's season, no one seems quite ready to breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe in November.