everything you never cared to know about hurricane history

i probably ought to warn you know that if there's a hurricane setting sights on where i live, you're going to hear alot about it here. it may seem like just another windy rainy storm to you, but unless you hunkered down & waited one (or three as the case may be) of them out, you just have no clue the effect it has on you mentally. the incessant winds pummeling your house & shaking its walls all around you. the rain falling any direction you can imagine--except for down like you normally see it. the fear of the unknown once darkness falls & you can no longer see what missles an angry Mother Nature is hurling in you direction. it feels like it will never end. you long for silence. you pray that your roof stays on. it was like nothing i ever experienced before, a total mental assault even if you sistain no physical harm.

we're waiting on Hurricane Dennis. watching. wary. remembering Hurricane Charley from 2004 who took a last minute sharp right turn & ripped up through Central Florida with a furious vengence. like Charley, Dennis is a Category 4, meaning he has sustained winds of 131-155mph, with gusts even stronger. a hurricane of this magnitude is catastrophic. causes on average more than 8 billion dollars worth of damages.

this is only the 2nd time in recorded history that there has been a Category 4 hurricane in the month of July. this is also the first time the Atlantic hurricane season has had four named storms this early since record-keeping began in 1851. to see them on radar is impressive. to expect it to barrel down your street is terrifying.

yet all we can do is wait. and watch. prepare. hope. and see the destruction left behind in his path as he heads for the Gulf...