Winter Storm Izzy

I’m not sure when they began naming these winter storms as they do hurricanes, but I like the name Izzy for this latest one.  It’s better than naming one “Mike” or “Harry.”  I’m old-school enough to think that storms should all be given female names.  We both completed a chilly, windy long run yesterday (seven miles for me, the longest all year!), and Izzy was already making her presence felt as the wind increased and the clouds moved in.

They began posting Gale Warnings yesterday.  I would not want to be a small craft out on the road running this morning, let along out there on the raging ocean!

 

Last night they began posting Coastal Flood Warnings, and they sounded equally frightening.  In conditions like this, I am glad that our condo is a long, long way from the ocean and on the second floor.   

 

They take these very detailed warnings seriously out here.  Veteran mariners know what six- to twelve-foot seas can do to a small fishing boat. 

Looking ahead, we made a trip to the grocery store and to Friendly Market yesterday afternoon and don’t have to go out at all today.  Our condo is exposed to the northerly wind, and all night we could hear the wind whistle and howl through the door.  Now we are settled in on a Sunday morning watching the wind furiously shake the palm trees out near the swimming pool as if they were dust mops. 

 I checked the Highlands Webcam on Main Street first thing this morning and watched a time-lapse image of a Town snow plow making its way down a deserted Main Street covered in about seven inches of snow. 

We had checked in with Main Street yesterday and noticed that it was absolutely filled with vehicles.  Visitors like to flock to Highlands before a big snow, a real treat for Floridians and Atlanteans.  But they also make it difficult for crews trying to clear roads and restore power.  Many of them have huge SUV vehicles and think that because they have four-wheel-drive they are invulnerable.  In my experience, those are the ones more likely to slide off the road, and the first to call 911 when the power goes out.  Stay home, people!

We learned from Martha’s aunt Anne that Clemson received three inches, and our daughter Katy reported the same from Greenville.  That’s unusual for the Upstate area.  Anne could not remember that much snow since six years ago.  We were visiting her at the time – on the way to Atlantic Beach for the first time, actually – and I took this photo of her patio.

Now the rest of the day stretches languidly before us, a lazy Sunday watching the blowing rain as the wind slowly moves around from the northwest to the southwest, playing music, reading, perhaps even playing Scrabble while the wind howls outside.  

Stay safe, everyone!