I was bracing for the worst from Cyclone Kay, which moved up along the Pacific Coast these past few days. Forecasts indicated that some areas of Southern California may get a years’ rain in a few days. Winds up to 100 miles per hour.
Yet they said these will be patchy, so you can be next to a squall and getting nothing while they’re receiving a deluge just over yonder.
Since I live on a hillside my area could become a raging river if we get flooding. I’ve lived here about 14 years and been through a number of big storms, including one with hurricane force winds that knocked tiles off my roof among more destruction. And we’ve had flooding events. So I went to bed last night expecting to possibly have to respond to nearly anything. I had catastrophe on my mind.
So far, though, after a brief destructive windstorm hit yesterday afternoon, my little area in NE Los Angeles has been spared. Power has been knocked out for thousands of LADWP customers (ABC 7 News) due to thunderstorms, so someone’s getting it. It looks like San Diego and Riverside Counties may be getting the worst of it.
And the San Gabriel Mountains (in whose foothills I reside) appear to have been getting a lot of rain today.
Are you getting hit? Where are you? I’m curious what your experience has been so far with this storm?
My experiences below the so-called “fold.” (Is it really a “fold?”)
Yesterday afternoon when the rain began, I stood outside and just soaked it up.
Along with many, I just endured ten days in a row of challenging heat. Unlike some, I don’t have air conditioning. Since I work from home, I’ve been in the thick of it. My apartment temperatures ranged from 104 degrees during the day down to 90 degree lows at 5AM—for ten days in a row. I know how to take care of myself to protect myself from heat stroke, and did so, but those last few days were difficult. (But I’m fine.)
So I stood outside in the rain, wondering whether to bring my plants inside, when huge wind gusts arrived and decided things for me. It lifted my tall Eve’s Pin cactus off the ground, heavy dirt and all, and knocked it over just as I was beginning to bring my plants inside. (The Eve’s Pin is fine.)
That wind event also knocked a branch off the peach tree in our apartment courtyard and delivered debris, palm fronds mostly, floating into the apartment swimming pool.
But then things grew quiet and calm. Wind-wise, it’s been that way now for about 22 hours. Calm, made eerie by the anticipation of what’s to possibly come.
It rained overnight and I’m grateful for that. (If I had known it wasn’t going to be windy, I’m sure the plants I brought inside would have appreciated that rain, too, but oh, well.)
Not sure if we’re going to be hit later or not.
Hurricane Preparation Social Faux Pas
In a side-story, I feel “social embarrassment” because I warned my neighbor, based on past events, to bring her things inside yesterday. The area outside her apartment can become a wind tunnel and past neighbors have lost items that slid off and blew completely off our property. One of her plants was knocked over, so I called her and she brought everything inside, while I regaled her with tales of predicted catastrophe. :)
Then everything became calm. Now if nothing happens I’ll be the proverbial boy who cried wolf. So now I’m hoping we at least get something just to save a wee bit of my credibility in her eyes.
What’s happening where you are?
Anyway, Cyclone Kay has mostly dissipated off the coast. I believe it’s veered a bit further off the coast than the projected path from a few days ago—the one that got me talking to my neighbor about the wolf.
Current forecasts indicate that all of us in range of these weakening, circulating bands could still get some thunderstorms and high wind events today or tomorrow, though, so I’m keeping my plants inside through the weekend.
But what’s happening in your area?
Be safe.