2:23p

Ground Zero? Ouch.

2:19p

Riding it out – about this guy. Ouch.

Dennis will be making landfall as a Category 3 Hurricane, with winds in excess of 120mph, in 45 minutes to an hour.

The strength has gone down a bit, Praise God. It’s still terrible, but it’s not 145…

Watch for a live RSS feed from Technorati, aggregating Hurricane Dennis posts from around the blogosphere – I’ll implement it shortly. Technology is cool. I SO should have thought of this earlier.

1:35

News check. Wish I had a tv up here…

1:28
Hurricane Dennis 2005 – the blog – check it out – looks like up-to-date information.

1:22

Stormtrack, with minute-by-minute updates. Go check it out.

1:20

illc0mmunication, with an update on the water levels near his house.

1:06
Another post from meeyotch – Weathering Dennis, Day 2 – video

Taking a short break to eat, see what’s happening. Don’t have the computer in the same room as the tv… bleh.

Thanks for the link, CP.

Be back shortly after news and food. This’ll be updated then.

Command Post – I’m still updating, and aggregating as I can. Just a quick fyi.

Click the link above for more blogger coverage of Dennis.

Harnessing the power of technology:

Want the latest posts about Pensacola, and Hurricane Dennis?

Go here.

Want the latest posts about Destin, and Hurricane Dennis?

Go here.

More as I find them. I’ll do roundups as I can get to them.

Update: 11:55a

Dennis is approximately 50 miles off of Pensacola, FL, with sustained winds of 140mph, moving NW at 18-20mph. Hurricane-force winds will be felt in approximately an hour from right now – 12p CST.

Destin, FL will catch a double portion of the northeastern quadrant, which spawns most of the tornadoes, and carries the heaviest rains.

It’s not looking pretty. We’re looking at a category 4 hurricane plowing directly through Pensacola, FL – where our church helped with cleanup and debris removal only 10 months ago, following Hurricane Ivan. I’ll be praying for you all – and I’ll be back to help again.

Godspeed, and may His protection rest upon you and yours.

Please, feel free to leave any comments or questions, and I’ll do my best to get the info out ot you.

I haven’t seen more than a couple Gulf Coast bloggers writing on this – so I’d be happy to be a point of contact, if necessary. I’ll be here all day.

Bloggers writing about Dennis:

illc0mmunication.org – it passed them by, but they got wet… (pics)

meeyotch – made it out safe, has evacuation pics.

Nite Time Knitter – worried about her friend Becky.

Hurricane! – Hurricane news and information.

Mark’s Forum – giving Hurricane warnings.

Pensacola Beach Blog ruminates on “Local Confusion”, this morning at 8:30 or so. They signed off at 11:10. Hope they’re ok, and stay that way.

Watching The Weather Channel at the moment, surfing some news sites. See if I can find anything interesting.

Wind’s picking up a small bit, and it’s spitting rain – that’s about it. It’s something else entirely there – I know.

We’ll be praying for you, Floridians, Alabamans. I know you covet them, and need them.

I’ll have updates in this post later on.

Update: 10:25am

Dennis can’t decide what it wants to do – but it sure looks mean.

Update: 9:55am

Sorry about the time between updates!

I went to get a drink… I HAVE been up all night, and all.

It seems like Dennis has decided to jog a bit back toward the northeast, which is putting it on a track to even miss Mobile entirely. I hereby relinquish my prediction for Pascagoula.

The Florida panhandle (yet again) is going to get absolutely creamed, instead. Sorry, Florida – it wasn’t our idea, we promise! It’s now headed N/NW at 18mph. Projected track puts it between Mobile AL and Fort Walton Beach FL, as of right now. Offshore waves in excess of 30 feet – I’ve seen several reporters saying they’ve seen coastal waves nearing 20 feet.

The eyewall, where the most damaging winds occur, is projected to cut a swathe 25 miles wide – with a truly scary northeastern quadrant. That means that places like Destin are going to be Dennis’ punching bags, unfortunately.

Keep watching for further course corrections from Dennis, though – it’s done a bit of moving thus far – another wouldn’t surprise me.

Winds at 140 mph, 940mb.

Ugly stuff. Keep checking it out, and keep a close eye on it. In the meantime, I’ll do another map, I think.

Last post was full, more or less, so this is a new post – and it will have a few hours worth of updates here, too. And playing with Google Earth maps. May as well learn the software while you keep people informed, hrmm?

Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties, MS – evacuation orders for all low-lying areas. A, B, and C. Harrison reminds you that evacuation is a matter of life and death for residents in those areas. That means you. Get out, now.

Go to the
MS Emergency Management Agency Information page for more info, MS residents.

It’s still steadily heading towards the Alabama coast – which means that it could still hit just about anywhere within the “danger zone” still – as the Alabama coast isn’t very long. So, Florida to Mississippi.

Wind speed remains at 145 mph.

We’re looking at a max of 12 hours before this storm hits – and I seriously doubt it will be that long. The weathermen are saying it’s going to hit around Mobile, still, and are even edging toward Pensacola. I may, in fact, be wrong about my Pascagoula prediction.

But I may not. Regardless, those who remember Ivan can surely tell you – a storm like this will definitely be felt as far as that – and likely into Gulfport/Biloxi, to crushing effect. Ivan, if you also remember, was a Category 3 hurricane – this one is a Category 4. The effects will be more severe, and it’s cutting to the west as it approaches – which means it’s going to bury itself deeply into southwestern Mississippi, and into central Mississippi as well.

Mobile is going to get hammered, and so is Pensacola, regardless of where the eye makes landfall. The northeast quadrant is the doozy – and even if it veers decidedly westward, it will hammer those two. So they’re going to get it regardless. The eyewall, where the most damaging winds are to be found, looks to be able to cover a good 50-60 miles across. At least. I’m about 60 miles from Pascagoula, as you may recall from last post. I am 90 miles from Mobile.

Click image for full-sized picture in a new window.

So, over to the left is where I am. Pensacola is to the right. Mobile is centered, more or less.

Now, for where Dennis is, in comparison.

As you can see, in this overlay, the main body of the storm is wide enough to cover the entirety of the Alabama coast. And the Mississippi coast too, I do believe. That means that even if you “miss” the center – you’re still going to get knocked a good one. So, if it hits Mobile, dead on, Pensacola is going to get creamed even worse, as it’s farther east, and I’m going to likely get the edge of the main body myself – or pretty close to it.

So, that tells you – this is a BIG storm. It’s a Category *4*.

I mentioned earlier that they are edging toward predicting a Florida strike. That is because the course of the hurricane seems to have jogged slightly in that direction in the past few hours.

930 mb, N/NW @ 15mph.

That pressure is the lowest yet recorded by this storm – which is bad, incidentally.

Technorati: Hurricane Dennis

Update – 5:52a:

Click image for full-sized picture in a new window.

Powered by Google Earth, weather.com, and image overlay.

Yar for technology.

Update – 4:58a:

Dennis remains at 145 mph, and is still projected to hit near Mobile AL. (I still maintain it will hit at Pascagoula, turning slightly westward as it begins to hit the shore.)

Leading edges of the storm are still hitting the Florida panhandle – no severe weather in Alabama or Mississippi as yet. It’ll come, though. It’s just a matter of waiting, now.

Starting to get a bit of rain here on the typical smaller westward front, as well as a bit of wind, about 10 mph. Nothing to write home about. Or from home about, in this case. Will give occasional updates, as I find something noteworthy. I may just play some video games and relax. Can’t tell you how long it’s been since I played Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries. Bad gamer. Bad.

(And no, Bethany… haven’t been to sleep. Sorry. This is too interesting.)

932 mb, N/NW @ 15mph.

Update – 2:41a:

Dennis is at 145 mph, and is still projected to hit on Sunday afternoon. The Weather Channel is saying Mobile, still, but I still say Pascagoula.

934 mb, N/NW @ 14mph.

Well, watching the storm’s progress – if it continues on a straight line track, it’s going to head directly at Pascagoula, Mississippi, which is ~55 miles east of us, in Diamondhead, seen on the map below.

During Hurricane Ivan, I predicted that it would hit Mobile – I was right.

I’m predicting between Pascagoula and Gulfport MS, this time – which would be in the Gautier/D’lberville area. Unfortunately. If it hits Gulfport, it’s only ~30 miles east of us.

So, this could be fun. On a straight line track, using the current maps, it looks to be hitting Pascagoula. I doubt, however, that it will veer back east. If it moves from the current track, it will hit closer to us, most likely. Here’s a graphic showing what I mean.

That red square is where it’ll hit, if it stays on the straight-line course.

Now, for it to hit us directly, well… it would have to veer about 50 miles west from projected.

Which would look like so.

Hard to know. In any case, it’s already back up to category 4 – and they say it may even GAIN strength. So, this may be as bad as Ivan, and even closer to us. I hope it doesn’t hit Mobile again, as bad as it may seem. They still don’t have Gulf Shores and Mobile back together completely from Ivan.

More as I get developments and as I still have power and internet. Don’t worry about me being safe – house is boarded up, and it’s a very solid structure. Just keeping you updated. As I still have internet, I’ll keep updated, as I can – and get back to you afterwards, with some info on what happened where.

So, yeah. There you go. The Weather Channel may be the megalith – but hey, bloggers are on-the-spot too.

Edit:

I notice that Are we seeing the Decline of Civilization? is a “Related Post.” Not funny, exactly… but ironic, at least 😀

Technorati: Hurricane+Dennis

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods. “What majestic trees! What a powerful river! What beautiful animals!” he said to himself. As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7 foot grizzly charge towards him.

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer.

He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him. At that instant the Atheist cried out: “Oh my God!…”

Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky: “You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don’t exist, and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?”

The atheist looked directly into the light, “It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian, but perhaps could you make the BEAR a Christian?”

“Very well,” said the voice. The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. And then the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together and bowed his head and spoke: “Lord, bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen.”

Source: The Conservative Voice
(HT: Google Alerts)

Well, Hurricane Dennis is locked and loaded, and it looks like it’ll be headed my way.

Maybe not *exactly* – but it’ll be close enough to feel it, definitely.

Might put a damper (yuk yuk!) on Bethany’s moving plans this weekend, but we’ll see.

Oh, and the right front wheel seems to want to fall off of my truck. Isn’t that nice?

“Logic and truth, as a matter of fact, have very little to do with each other. Logic is concerned merely with the fidelity and accuracy with which a certain process is performed, a process which can be performed with any materials, with any assumption. You can be as logical about griffins and basilisks as about sheep and pigs.”

…

“Logic, then, is not necessarily an instrument for finding truth; on the contrary, truth is necessarily an instrument for using logic – for using it, that is, for the discovery of further truth and for the profit of humanity. Briefly, you can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.”

Source: Basic Philosophy, by way of Confessing Evangelical, by way of BlogCritics, by way of Google Alerts. (Apologetics)

5:05p
Our Prayers and Heartfelt Expressions of Concern go out to the People of Great Britain during a Day of Tragedy.

You were there for us during 9/11, and it’s aftermath – we’ll be there for you, in whatever way you need us.

Newly added to Vox Apologia:

Deism, by Chad MacIntosh (Doxazo Theos)

It’s an excellent explanation (and rebuttal) of Deism.

An addition to Vox XX – The Unfairness of Heaven?, from Anne/WeekendFisher at CADRE Comments.

From Anne’s synopsis: Response to atheist Michael Martin’s latest critique of Christianity. Although a few of Martin’s arguments were probably destined to be unique to Martin, I decided to respond because a few of them were common enough. I mostly wanted to retake the ground on whether Judgment Day is fair, being a bit tired of the atheists thinking they have the high ground there. I go some places that Christian apologists usually don’t go, but it was about time we opened up some new ground there and stopped being so defensive.

Anticipating:

The first set of questions for The Theomeme Project. Hint: The first question author is a member of Ten Christian Blogs

Other Cuts:

Parableman writes about The Problem of Evil, in reference to a reference of a paper on it. Follow the link trail – good reading all around.

Aggregated:

From the Apologetics Aggregator, we have a VERY nice collection of posts, of late. I really encourage you to read through one of the aggregator versions every day or two. There are 30 blogs on the aggregator, and I NEVER find less than 3-4 interesting posts.

Another post from Chad, entitled Ontological Musings explores the varying ontologies which necessitate the existence of God.

United Church of Christ and Gay Marriage

A Pastor and His Apologetics informs those of us who may live under a local rock that the UCC has voted to support gay marriage.

Alex Forrest posts about the Creation Science Museum. I’d also recommend this post from blestwithsons. And remind you what I think about evolution, etc.

Which reminds me: someone email me if I forget to do a post on Old-Earth Creationism within the next two weeks. I had an email exchange with my dad, and an interesting im conversation with a friend on the subject recently.

From Daily Apologetics comes America: Yoga’s Greenhouse

From Hux, we can find two posts on T.D. Jakes’ Modalistic Heresy. What is that? Read #1, and #2, to find out.

Check out James White’s fisking of BYU professors Millet and McConkie’s Sustaining and Defending the Faith.

Resource Blog is looking for articles and/or reviews

Should we Defend Doctrines? The Huntington Apologetics Team asks the question – and gives the answer.

Just read Vincent Cheung’s Blog. You’ll enjoy it, I promise. Read it all, if you have to.

Most importantly:

My girlfriend’s blog, which I just finished the basic design for.

Visit now, visit often – I’ll make sure there’s plenty of updates 😀

Now, did you enjoy that? Was it informative?

Well, I can’t do it that often. Look at the post time, in case you’re thinking “but, you did all of that – it’s easy, right?”

It is mind-bogglingly time-consuming to collect links JUST from the Aggregator. If I did half of the posts I WANTED to, this week – this would be three times as long – every day.

I’m still looking for people willing to collect 4-5 links per day – and post them in a similar format to Vox Apologia.

Think, people: 5 people, 5 links a day. That’s 25 links/day.

I just posted 17 by myself. Think about it. It’s not hard, and it won’t take long.

Email me – Contact button – top left.