Just to get this out of the way, before I go on to anything else:

What I feel about New Orleans, and the tarnish that elements of their population put on the entire southeastern United States, can be summed up by the comments of a member of my Church – my Sunday School teacher, actually.

“I’m actually glad Katrina hit us, too – otherwise, all of the gangbangers shooting at helicopters would be down here.”

I agree, most wholeheartedly. I would rather have the massive devastation Katrina wreaked on us, than the types of people I saw in New Orleans on the news, my one day out of the area.

It’s utterly, completely ridiculous. It’s insane. It’s also intolerable.

Second, I was completely apalled by the national media’s feeding frenzy on politics, while people were dealing with the aftermath of the largest national emergency this country has ever seen. It made me ill. It made me physically, utterly, ill.

CNN did it. ABC did it. Even Fox did it. Everything was sensationalized to score political points. Everything was reported in the worst possible light. Nothing, and I mean nothing, was painted in the light in which it actually appeared. It was painted as if to make completely sure that everyone knew that people were, indeed, depraved, and that nothing whatsoever was being done to help.

You know what? The national media has now completely, absolutely lost any vestige of respect I will ever have for their so-called “objectivity”. They are a pack of hyenas, looking for ratings, and for the most tear-jerking, heart-rending stories, so that they can keep viewers.

Screw you all.

Ahem. The local media, however – Kicker 108, the local country station, has done an absolutely MAGNIFICENT job in keeping people informed, connecting loved ones, getting the news out, and in telling us EXACTLY what we need to know. NPR has done a decent job, but they have the same problem that the national media has – they sensationalize.

The local radio stations have been absolutely awesome in the midst of disaster, and they are a real godsend.

Thank you.

Thank you to the National Guard, who has performed with excellence, with aplomb, and with a smile. Thank you to Mississippi power, who has been absolutely brilliant in restoring power to so much of the community. Thank you, especially, to the scores, hundreds, and thousands of outside power, utility, and tree workers who have done a fabulous job assisting. My hat is off to you all.

Bell South – AWESOME job in getting phone service back so fast. The cell companies have been awesome, too. Cable One, I’ve seen you all over. Great job. Red Cross, Salvation Army, local churches… the list goes on. They’ve all been fantastic. The local FEMA representatives have been great at keeping us informed, and the management of the disaster relief down here has been nothing short of spectacular.

It’s been truly awe-inspiring, watching something so devastated come back to life under the careful, skillful hands of a massive influx of technicians, managers, volunteers, and just plain hard workers.

It’s been a real blessing to watch, and a real blessing to be blessed.

The national media… they’re a pack of vultures.

Haley Barbour, the local mayors, their staffs… they’ve all been working around the clock to put us all back on our feet. President Bush’s compliments were certainly apt, when they were offered to Haley Barbour. He has really done an excellent job.

I’ve seen 98% smiles, here in Southern Mississippi – 2% frowns, 2% bad moods, 2% bad tempers, and 2% despair. 98% of the time, someone has a friendly wave, a cheerful greeting, and a smile to send you on your way.

THAT is what is REALLY happening here. Anyone else who tells you differently is out of their ever-loving mind. I’m here. I’m down on the coast as much as I can get down there, and where I am JUST got power back TODAY. So don’t even think about telling me I’m not in the middle of it. I have been. The media is scavenging horror stories – which, in most cases, are probably true. The other 98% of us – the people who can smile, laugh, wave, and still keep our temper…

We still love each other, and we prove it every day. Several people in our church lost EVERYTHING. They are loved, are being loved, and will be loved – and will be loved right back on their feet. I watched a friend break down while we talked to him, about losing his house – after his cry, he had nothing but a smile and a hug for us. He’ll be ok. We’ll make sure he is. That’s how Mississippi is doing.

We aren’t shooting at rescue copters, I’ll tell you that. We offer them whatever we have to give them – and it’s usually turned down with a smile, and a friendly wave. They’re being taken care of too.

That’s how WE do things down here.

Ok, I got sent these interview questions about 5 minutes ago – I even watched them being written! That is because they were sent by my girlfriend, Bethany.

1. If you could live anywhere you wanted, where would
it be and why?

Tucson, Arizona. That’s my hometown, and I think it’s the most beautiful place in the country. Barring that… wherever Bethany happens to be!

2. What are the benefits/drawbacks of coming from a
large family?

Benefits: Lots of playmates, growing up (although, in my case, the next-oldest is almost 4+ years younger, and I’m the oldest), you learn a lot about parenting by watching so many examples, and you have a fun time when you’re all together for family dinners and/or get-togethers.

Drawbacks: Sharing rooms, financial shortcomings at times, and being blamed for stuff your siblings did 😀 I really have never thought of the drawbacks, other than that. I’m from a large family, and my parents are both from large families. I’ve always vaguely pitied small families, for some mildly obscure reason. I can’t really say why. That’s about the extent I’ve thought about it previously.

3. How has music affected your life?

Music has been a big part of just about every aspect of my life. I’ve been singing since preschool choirs, and my mother was a children’s choir director my entire life. She’s recently moved up to music director for our whole church, now. I’ve been in, or around music for pretty much forever, and I absolutely adore singing. I really can’t say, exactly, how it affects my life, though. It’s just… interwoven with it, I suppose. I can’t imagine life without music, and I have a hard time imagining what it would be like. I hope that answers the question.

4. What food do you wish your girlfriend would learn
to make?

I wonder if this is a trick question…

Seriously, though. Something called Chicken and Rice Casserole, from a cookbook of my mom’s. It’s probably my favorite dish. I’ll teach it to her soon, though, so no worries 😀

5. What family member has most impacted your life and
why?

Oh, man. I don’t know how to answer this one. Different family members have impacted me more in different areas of my life, really. Steve was always my best friend, my Dad gave me my love of reading and for the sciences, and my Mom has always cultivated my love for music, as well as culture in general.

I’m close to my other siblings in different ways, but Steve and I are probably the closest. I really don’t know how to answer this other than that.

Now, for all you commenters out there, you can insert strong text, emphasized text, links, strikeout text

quotes

and lookup words in the dictionary, all with the handy dandy tabs I’ve installed on top of the comment form.

Aren’t I nice?

Plugin is called “Comment Quicktags”, and I got it from Asymptomatic.net.

As some of you may, or may not know, my father is the NASA Resident Chief Engineer for the Space Shuttle’s External Tank.

Today’s Space Shuttle launch was the culmination, for him, of over two years of grueling work to get the shuttle back into space. It involved the largest troubleshooting tree EVER created, several significant redesigns of the external tank, and an almost completely revamped way of doing business for NASA. My dad was involved in all of those, as well as the endless PR nightmare that was the days following the Columbia disaster. If you read it in a newspaper, saw a response to an allegation respecting the disaster, or saw a response to the various “theories” circulating around that disaster – my dad was probably the person that it originated with, prior to the “official” response from the PR division at NASA.

He was the “man on the spot”, and thus was very much in the spotlight for a significant amount of the investigation, and return to flight activities. He has worked some incredibly long hours, and participated in one of the largest investigations in the history of mankind, with one of the most sophisticated failure analysis schema every devised.

The result of all that work is now visible. You just saw it catapult into space today, atop it’s quintuple pillars of fiery thrust.

I’m one of very few people in the entire world who can say “my Dad is a NASA engineer”. I’m always proud to say it – but this is a day I wanted to publicly say it. I’m VERY proud of my father. He’s the son of a World War II fighter pilot, and the brother of an Air Force maintenance/aerospace technician. I was also an Air Force maintenance tech (but he was/is a lot better than I ever was). Aerospace is a family thing, for me.

This blog exists, because of him. My first video game was “Space Invaders”. I owned the first 3d space simulator – Elite. While playing that game, I came up with the “handle” I still use now as my virtual pilot’s call sign. I was 10, maybe 11. I was fed book after book of “hard” science fiction. Not the space operas – I read those on my own. Books written by physicists, engineers, and people who were closely involved with the space program. That was how I was raised to love science, the hard sciences in particular, and writing especially. Don’t get me wrong – I love Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dickens, and Melville. Hard SF, like nothing else, gets my blood pumping.

It makes me want to write. It makes me want to read. For every “deep thinking” book of theology I read – I read 1 fantasy/gen. fiction, and at least one volume of historical literature. Then I devour a couple SF books at a sitting. My dad gave me my love of reading – my mom gave me my love of culture (including culture in reading). They both gave me a desire to learn, and taught me how to do that.

Thank you.

I’m SO very proud to say that my Dad is a NASA engineer. I am almost as proud to be a NASA brat – but not quite. Dad, great work – and I’ve enjoyed all the great conversations as you’ve plugged away for the last two years. How many people get to hear about the inner workings of NASA while standing in the kitchen sipping coffee, or jointly raiding the fridge?

That… is so unbelievably cool.

I know NASA is not the supreme object of devotion. Don’t worry, I really do know. It is, however, one of the coolest things humanity has done. Sending someone into space, and doing it in a vehicle that can come back – and be *re-used* is something we should never cease to wonder at.

God’s creation is, indeed, fearfully, and wonderfully made. We are drowning in our sins, this is true. We are also fearfully and wonderfully made. We’d have to be, to dream of – let alone succeed at – something so ambitious. I consider it nothing but a privilege to have a father involved in that fulfilled dream.

Imagine – your dad has a moon rock as his paperweight at work. He’s brought you to see the Space Shuttle land at Edwards. You’ve met astronauts – and they remember you. Your dad talks to astronauts all the time, and has funny (and heart-wrenching) stories to tell about them, and the test-pilot culture they reside in. Never forget – the people that fly in the Shuttle know FULL well what risks they are taking. It is only WE who forget it, and treat it like it’s just an everyday occurrence to send people into orbit in the most complex piece of machinery ever built by human hands, assembled in one of the largest buildings ever built by human hands.

They know. It’s truly a wonderful thing to see that – and realize that they retain that sense of wonder you seem to have misplaced, since childhood, when viewing the truly marvelous. that realization restores it, and brings a smile to your lips once again as you think of your mother chanting “go, baby GO!” as she has for every Shuttle launch you can remember, since the Challenger disaster. She understands. I still get a happy tear in my eye watching those plumes arc up into what seems infinity – and know that once again, we’ve shown that we are truly created in the image of God. A dim reflection, to be sure – but a certain, indisputable reflection of the Creator who gave us the faculties which enabled us to accomplish such a thing.

One final thing. My father, the quintessential engineer – is a believer in Christ. He teaches Sunday School, helps my mother as she runs our church’s music ministry, and is the father of 6 children. He too believes that our own efforts to do such seemingly miraculous things are a gift, bestowed by our Creator. I’m inclined to think that Creator is pleased with our baby steps imitating His majestic creative genius. I’m also inclined to think that He smiles, every time one of our incredibly complex tinkertoys escapes the pull of gravity, and begins to orbit the blue, green and white sphere we call home. The way a proud father delights in the accomplishments of his children. The way my father has never failed to praise my accomplishments, regardless of how infantile they seem in comparison to his.

To him, they ARE something.

To me – he’s a hero.

He’s my Dad.

Hrmm. God’s trying to tell me something 😀

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.

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