Last night around 6:30, Hurricane Katrina made landfall just south of Fort Lauderdale. Experts downgraded her to a Tropical Storm and predicted she would exit due east via Fort Myers within 24 hours. Katrina decided to head South and crossed over the most narrow portion of our peninsula in only 8 hours! By morning there were four dead and a family of 5 missing at sea. Seems some people didn't take Katrina seriously and were killed by falling trees.
This morning Katrina was upgraded to hurricane status again fueled by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. In just the last few hours her wind speed has increased from 75 to 100 mph and is upgraded from a Category 1 to a Category 2 hurricane. Meteorologists suggest she could increase to Category 3 or Category 4 this weekend.
Flooding has been problematic with some areas like Key Biscayne receiving 15-20 inches of rain overnight. One can feel the presence of Katrina approaching, she must be increasing in size. Here in the Tampa Bay area winds have been gusting and the rains have begun. Currently the storm is about 60 miles WNW of Key West and has been moving westerly. If she turns North before getting further out in the Gulf, that would spell trouble for the Bay area (storm surge, wind damage, tornados). We're not out of the woods yet!
We need to list some Soggy Saturday & Sunday Smooth Storm Songs!
