I missed meeting Ivan last year by one week. At the beginning of July I missed Dennis by 24 hours. It looks like I picked a dandy for my first Gulf Coast hurricane, Katrina.

My brushes with bad weather on the Gulf Coast over the last 30 years of visiting Mobile were limited to a couple of tropical depressions and one tropical storm. Last year I missed Ivan by one week, having returned to Germany exactly 7 days before Ivan made landfall just east of Mobile. In July some friends and I made it to Mobile one day after Dennis made landfall, so our flight from Atlanta was not disrupted.

Katrina appears to be headed for New Orleans, already a category 5 hurricane, packing winds over 170 mph (270 kmh) and due to make landfall tomorrow at noon. So it is time to put up the corrugated aluminum storm shutters on the south (Gulf) side of the house. The wind has already picked up a bit, making placement of the longest pieces (at 14 feet) a challenge. The storm surge is what could affect us the most, since we will be east of landfall. The water in the yard is already up about 10 feet from shoreline, and that will increase as the day goes on. Once we get all the shutters up, store water and get the electric line ready for hook-up to an emergency generator, it will be time for Katrina to "bring it on". The way things look, she won’t need any encouraging!