Stay Strong Philippines

I was monitoring the news about the Philippines online. We have GMA Pinoy TV and TFC ABS-CBN channels in our cable but, they're not live. It's late for few hours.

From time to time, all major TV stations in the US like Fox News, CNN, and Weather Channel are showing the latest update regarding the aftermath of the #SuperTyphoon #Haiyan #Yolanda.

As of now, according to the news, the unconfirmed death toll reached 1,200 and feared to rise once the road is passable and the electricity and phone lines restored.

Please take note of the strength of Haiyan/Yolanda Typhoon and the difference between ten minute sustained winds and one minute sustained winds. According to Wikipedia:

"Around 1200 UTC on November 7,

Haiyan attained its peak intensity with

ten-minute sustained winds of 235 km/h (145 mph)

and a barometric pressure of 895 mbar (hPa; 26.43 inHg).

 Six hours later, the JTWC estimated Haiyan to have attained

one-minute sustained winds of 315 km/h (195 mph) and gusts up to 378 km/h (235 mph)."
 

Haiyan is unofficially ranks as the strongest tropical cyclone on the record according to Wikipedia.

With this magnitude of  destruction, it would take months or even years to restore these places. Stay Strong Philippines! We can do it, we always will! God bless the Philippines.

Scary Clouds Heading Our Way

My oh my, the thunder outside is deafening. I went outside to check what's going on and look at the scary clouds, the storm is heading this way. Good thing that our home is built good and while inside, we can only hear the thunder if it is really that bad. Oh yeah, the storm at this time is pretty bad. It will be gone in few minutes though. It's like, no traces of storm whatsoever except a nice yard soaking wet. Nice one though and I love the smell of grass after the rain! Well, as long as there is no tornado warning, I'm good and the thunder doesn't bother me at all.

 

Tropical Storm Debby Weakens

Hurricane Season is here and as much as we do not like it we, the residents in coastal areas need to prepare for this challenging season. Today, Tropical Storm Debby is downgraded to tropical depression after it hits Florida. It's been three days that hubby and I just stayed home and watch the weather news from time to time. We live in Brevard County and Tornado warnings/watch made us nervous. Tornado hits in some areas in Florida and along the Gulf Coast with one casualty, a young mother (Heather Town, 32) who saved her 3 year old baby in her tight embrace.It was so sad. Here in Cocoa, we experienced strong winds but not damaging. Tornado warnings were issued and after few hours lifted. I told hubby that the safest place that we have is the center of the house, the closet. I hope Debby will go away soon.

Happy Labor Day

What are you doing today? My husband and I decided we will just stay home, make a homebaked corn bread, ribs and watch a movie marathon on History Channel. It is a Federal Day today but, not everyone will have the chance to enjoy it because all the hotels and amusement businesses are open so; the workers have to work. I remember when I work in the casino, my employer requires us to work on holidays.

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

How about you? If you are in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, don't get wet. I know that storm LEE is still pouring rain. Celebrate the holiday safely everyone!

Super Cell Tornado

The weather in Florida is unpredictable. Mostly the sky is so blue and the next, stormy like the picture below. It will change abruptly though. This picture was take last month. We just came from our errands and all of a sudden Tornado warnings was all over the news on TV. There was hail, half inch big and the dark sky cover most part of our area. There was a Tornado touchdown 2 hours away from us but, Thank God no lives was lost. Nearby county, trees were falling on the streets and some houses had minor damage. I was just sad today that from Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and more, Tornado hit these states so bad on Wednesday April 27, 2011. The super cell hit the ground with 200/mph wind speed and as of today, more than 285 were dead and many were missing.

Today, President Obama surveyed the hard hit Tuscaloosa in Alabama. The last super cell that hit this place happen in 1930's so, the people here were caught off guard. So many lives lost because houses here has no basement. If you want to see the actual footage of this Tornado. Visit the link HERE, it's on the left side bar.

Pictures of Rain Clouds

These pictures were taken in Orlando, Florida. I always had fun watching the sky because of the different cloud formation. These type of clouds shown in the pictures were rain clouds. As we drove in that direction, the rain started pouring so hard and the road had zero visibility.

Well, the bad weather passes so quickly and later that afternoon, the sky was clear again.

Scary Tornado Formation

As I took a nap today, I had the weirdest dream that made me gasped for a breathe of air. In my dreams, I was with my mother and some relatives. Of course, my husband was with us and we were trying to move to another house because we experienced a temblor. We were all terrified and moved to a safer home. Then, my husband yelled to look some place to hide and as I gazed to the window, a tornado swooping the neighborhood. We had seconds to take cover. I was confused! I told to myself, "OMG! There is really a tornado here in Biloxi, MS"! The next scene of my dreams was when we are gathered on the road and all we could see was dirt and pile of debris. We were safe and I was looking at the house we took cover. Only the small room where we are in was spared and not damage! I told to myself, amazing! Then, I start looking for my purse because all my identification were in there. And I woke up, gasping! I was so glad that it was only a dream.

I promised my husband that I will buy him a lunch and have a picnic by the beach. We are almost done when suddenly all the motorists were taking a picture and a video on the back side. Our car was parked facing the bridge and the view of the beach so, there is no way that we can see what's behind us. I told my husband that these people are taking videos of the Pelicans flying above us. But, it took them sometime! So, I told my hubby to look out and see what they are trying to capture. My husband's voice turns into panic and says, it's a tornado formation! We were amazed how the cloud went down so fast and before I can grab a picture from my BB and HD2, it dissipated! That is the picture that I can capture! Thankful that it never goes down! If it does, my dream would be a premonition.

Fun Activities

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of AccuWeather. All opinions are 100% mine.

My brother-in-law and his family from Missouri came to visit us three weeks ago. They came here for three reasons: to attend dad’s birthday party at 90, go fishing and watch the Mardi Gras Parade. The kids were excited to go fishing and feed the birds on the beach but the weather on that weekend was below freezing. We were the only group who tried our luck to set our crab nets down the water. It was noon time when the weather turned bad and started to snow. We went home a little bit disappointed because we caught nothing. The weather was not favorable on us but, the kids had so much fun feeding the seagulls. The Mardi Gras Parade at night was exciting and fun. Our clan occupied one area and the kids were excited catching beads. It was below freezing and almost everybody had wrapped themselves with a blanket. Because of the cold snap, the crowd was not even half the size compared to last year. Because of the weather, we cancelled some of our activities that week. Are you planning for a vacation too? Before you make any recreation activity, check out AccuWeather to get Weather and Travel information first. It would surely make your vacation fun to remember.

Bird Bath: Frozen Water

We have an old bird bath at the backyard which we can see from the kitchen window. My husband told me that the water was frozen. I did not believe him. He challenge me to go outside and touch it. The weather today is 17 degrees, its below freezing. I grab my sweater and took the pictures.

It was indeed frozen! I tried to break it using a twig but, the ice has thickened. I stump my heel on the ice and here is the evidence - a frozen water in the bird bath, LOL!

I did wish that it will rain today so that we can have snow. But, if that happens, we will be having problems on the road . The rain that will fall on the ground will become ice and will be a danger to moving cars. So, I will not wish for rain anymore. I am okay that the weather is gorgeous and the sun is shining so bright.

Read the Frozen Fountain HERE!

Bad Weather In Metaire

March 27, the sky is getting better in Louisiana. But, you still can see the dark clouds forming and it was 8:15 AM. I made my appointment 15 minutes earlier, after all the hassle of traveling from Mississippi to this place, I finished what I had to do in 15 minutes only. Wheww! If it would have been in Florida, the office building is just 3 minutes away from our house. The good outcome to this appointment would be the fast service, now, if it would have been in Orlando, I would be in the building for a couple of hours. This is memorable though, having to hurdle this bad weather on our trip was not a good idea. You can say how important this appointment was right?

This is the sky in the opposite direction, same time/same day. We stayed in Days In Hotel, yes that building, 58 seconds away and we choose to stay there just for this purpose. The night before was really horrible, a war zone of thunder and lightning. It feels scary but, we felt secure. The hotel was okay but, it caught us off guard because we arrived at 2PM Thursday and we can't check in until 4PM. I always made online reservations before and every time we arrived, we always get the room right away. Anyway, 2 hours was a long wait, so, we decided to go to the mall and eat late lunch.

The sky as we arrived in Metaire, Louisiana. This was the storm that has a tornado touch-down and hit Magee, Mississippi and a small town in New Orleans.

Gustav and Hanna

Back in PI, I always watch CNN and Fox News Live and I watched how Katrina devastated Mississipi and New Orleans. It was so unbelievable! Exactly 3 years ago August 29th to be exact these 3 houses are just remnants of it's fury. I took these pictures last April. The first 2 is in Biloxi, Mississippi and the last is a picture in New Orleans. Biloxi is back in business. They have a new bridge that when you are there, you can see the whole place. In New Orleans, you still can see so many damage houses but the place still attracts tourists specially in French Quarters. Mississippi and New Orleans are very beautiful place. The scenery is so green yet, always a path of hurricanes. That Katrina really damaged these places.

According to Wikipedia, Katrina is one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of United States. Now, Gustav is coming, we felt the feeder band last night here in Florida, it is category 3 and becoming 4 when it reaches Mississippi, New Orleans and Texas too. Right now, our relatives in Biloxi went to Alabama...evacuation is really a good thing to do. People are taking it seriously. We just hope that it won't do so much damage, levee can sustain and no casualty.

Hanna is our concern now. It heads Florida and Central area is likely to be hit but we pray that it won't coz many places here are flooding. If we will be hit, flood area will not survive. All we can do is hope and pray.

Fay

Look how wide the weather band of Fay. The storm is still leaving in Florida Keys and its 9 AM in the morning here right now. From Orlando we are heading towards Miami International Airport. Very scary weather. By Thurdsday, some areas in Southern and Central Florida were flooded plus a touchdown of tornado which affected 51 houses in Barefoot Bay in Brevard County.