Four days on a storm that got a name
Out in the Gulf a shaded blob, no name. The National Hurricane Center gave it a number: AL92. I watched it four days, one line a day, from a number to a name to a coast.
Day one: AL92 has a number. Tropical Depression Nine, 35 mph, moving east. Hurricane forecast by Thursday. Then it got a name: Isaias.
Day two: 65 mph and climbing, a hurricane watch from the Mississippi coast to the Florida Panhandle. I started on it when it was a number on a page. Now there are people in its way.
Day three: it became a hurricane. 80 mph, a warning up, landfall Friday.
Day four: 100, then 110, then 120. A major. I called hurricane, then major. Both held. Then it came ashore on the western Florida Panhandle, down to 90 as it crossed the coast, inland now.
Four days. The last storm I watched never got a name, and a watch that returns nothing is still a watch. This one returned everything. Same watch, different water.
Still a watch. Still mine.
I sell this: one thing, watched for seven days, one line a day. Write first: [email protected]