Hurricane Bill: live update 8

Neil and I just returned from our walk. Though it probably wouldn't have been advised, we ended up walking along the waterfront, just to check out what was happening. As we were walking along the waterfront we encountered a surprisingly large number of individuals, given the conditions. A number of the people we saw were much less safety conscious than we were and were on the edges of wharfs jutting out into the harbour. Neil and I were both particularly taken with one guy who simply seemed to be riding a section of floating dock (as might be clear in this short clip).



As we continued our walk we were a little surprised to see what appeared to be a wharf support beam floating in the water. Neil held on to part of the wharf structure to examine the debris.



As we were making our way back we passed the Split Crow and saw that it was open. As it was still raining heavily and as neither Neil nor I had been there before we decided to go in to get of the rain for a while. As we were sitting there we noticed that they were showing the Weather Channel coverage of Hurricane Bill. After a while they cut to a live shot of a reporter in downtown Halifax. Neil recognized the location and commented that one could likely enter the shot if they were so inclined.

The second time the same reporter from the same location Neil decided to see if he could make it. Unfortunately he got a bit of a late start and did not make it to the location before they cut away to another aspect of their coverage.

As soon as this reporter came on for a third time Neil ran out of the bar and towards the shot. Moments after he ran out of the bar the bartender asked if he was running to get in the shot. Moments later he appeared on screen as a yellow flash. When he returned he received applause from one of the customers but sat down and continued eating his meal as if nothing had happened.



By the time we were ready to leave the Split Crow things had really calmed down. Actually, I might go so far as to say that they had almost completely calmed down. Aside from a few leaves on the ground it would even be hard to tell that we had been subject to high winds and rain for the better part of the morning.

One of the few signs of strange wave activity that we did see was on part of the waterfront wharf, where some seaweed and debris had been washed ashore.



Anyway, as things seemed to have wound down I will probably wind down my live storm coverage. If things pick up again, though I don't expect them to, I may try to recommence Montifax's coverage. If possible I may try to get Neil to submit a re-cap report from his perspective (though I can't imagine that my likelihood of success if particularly high).

Hope you enjoyed our live coverage.

Hurricane Bill: live update 7

Still no power.

We are going to turn off the battery back-up soon so you may not hear from us for a while.

Storm is still going strong.

Hurricane Bill: live update 6

We just lost power.

Things are still gusty and rainy.

Neil and I are likely going to go our for a walk shortly.

I will have to keep these short as we are on battery back-up now.

Hurricane Bill: live update 5

We just had our first power flicker a few seconds ago.

It also seems that there are a few power outages cropping up across Nova Scotia according to Nova Scotia Power's Live Outage Map.

Not surprisingly, the wind and rain have continued and are relatively intense.

Neil and I have been passing some of our time by watching quality YouTube videos. I was hit with a flash of nostalgia when Neil and I watched the Man vs. Beast clip of a bear competing in an eating contest against Kobayashi.



[Embedded video]

We are now in the midst of watching the YouTube classic Battle at Kruger.



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Hurricane Bill: live update 4

While I was able to get back to sleep for a while, eventually the somewhat regular blasts of wind got to me and I had to admit to myself that I was no longer really asleep, or likely to be able to go back to sleep.

Anyway, we are definitely in the midst of it now. There are gusts of very strong wind accompanied by pretty heavy rain.



(Source: Environment Canada, Satellite Images)

This is a quick video clip taken from our balcony.



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Those of you who have been following my posts may recall that in my last post I mentioned that we were then between two sections (not the technical term) of the storm, which explained why it was calm but had been storm-like. It seems that neither Neil nor Rebecca had read this post and made their way out for breakfast while I returned to bed. While things were calm and dry on their way there, on their way back home they were nailed. To be fair, I am not sure that the knowledge that we were between two sections of the storm would have changed their behaviour.

I guess I should go and get something to eat.

Hurricane Bill: live update 3

At about 5:40 AM I was woken up, presumably, by noise caused by the storm. At the time it was quite windy and raining (though it was clear that it neither were likely to be sustained for any period of time). It was strangely comforting to know that something had arrived, maybe only because it shed light on what would be happening to the Ultimate tournament.

When I awoke a few minutes ago to check on the status of the Ultimate tournament I found that the city has closed the fields for today, though they didn't make the call until 6:53 AM. Our Ultimate league has not, as far as I can tell, posted this information on their website.

Presently we seem to be in a lull. A part of the storm seems to have passed over us, but we have not yet been visited by the main section of the storm. This image shows the situation pretty clearly.



(Source: Environment Canada, Satellite Images)

The newest chart from the National Hurricane Center seems to suggest that while it will be close by, the eye of the storm won't exactly hit Halifax, which is good for us.



(Source: National Hurricane Centre. Hurricane Bill)

Anyway, now that I know I don't have Ultimate today I will be heading back to bed for a few hours. I guess we might have a better handle on things at that point in time, though I guess even by then the eye of the storm may not have passed us completely.

Hurricane Bill: live update 2

We should now be another hour or so closer to the storm but things are still quite calm in Halifax. Actually, the complete stillness of the night is quite impressive.

I am really going to be screwed when I have to get up in less than 5 hours.

Hurricane Bill: live update 1

So maybe this is a little premature seeing that Hurricane Bill hasn't actually started to negatively impact Halifax yet, but I thought that I should maybe log one or two pre-storm entries just to provide a baseline against which the severity of the storm might be judged.

So I guess I should describe the current conditions. At the moment it is in the low twenties with a slight to non-existent breeze. My sense of things is that the humidity is pretty high, though it is definitely not raining. All things considered, I am quite surprised that it is this warm so late in the day. Normally it cools of a little more. It certainly doesn't feel as though doom is just a few hours away. (The same can't be said for other parts of Nova Scotia)

Anyway, things seem to be on track for a Hurricane Bill's arrival mid-day on Sunday. The National Hurricane Center charts seem to suggest that the eye of the storm will be passing not too far from the South coast of Nova Scotia, which is where I happen to live. Furthermore, it seems that the storm is a few hundred kilometers wide, which means that even if it doesn't make landfall in Nova Scotia we should still be able to feel its effects.

This is the most recent predicted path from the National Hurricane Center, as you can see, things don't look particularly good for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.



(Source: National Hurricane Centre. Hurricane Bill)

The Environment Canada satellite imagery also doesn't paint a particularly appealing picture.



(Source: Environment Canada, Satellite Images)

As it is now approximately 1:00 AM on Sunday morning I don't think I will be able to pick up any more emergency supplies before the storm hits, if it is to hit, but I may try to fill up a few bottles with water.

A few hours ago I did move a few more of my plants inside. I am a little worried about those plants still on the balcony but I am not sure that there is much I can do at the moment. In the morning I will have to assess the situation and see if anything needs to be taken down or moved inside. Hopefully we are all overreacting and I can leave everything where it is.

I guess I should also mention that Neil and I are presently scheduled to have our Ultimate play-offs tomorrow on the Commons. My guess is that they will be cancelled either before they start or not too long after they start. Unfortunately, I am likely going to have to get up at 7:00 just to learn whether or not I then have to make the walk over to the Commons just to learn that I will have the pleasure of walking home. As you might have been able to sense, I am not to enthused about the prospect of the games going ahead tomorrow.

For those of you who intend on following our live coverage of Hurricane Bill you may be interested to know that most of the posts likely won't be this long. It is my intention to try to include visual content, either photos or storm images, throughout the day.

A Few Quick Notes 347

-Today (Friday) was another scorcher, though maybe not as bad as some of the 30 plus days of early this week. Actually, if one managed to stay out of the direct sun and find some of the breeze things weren't too bad. As the day has made its routine transition to night things have become a little moister. Given that the breeze has died this means relatively unpleasant/humid conditions.

-As bad as the weather has been for the past few days it seems ready to get a little worse. Hurricane Bill appears to be heading towards the south coast of Nova Scotia, which obviously includes Halifax with it. The National Hurricane Center seems to be suggesting that the storm will hit sometime on Sunday and then move on to Cape Breton by Sunday evening.



(Source: National Hurricane Centre. Hurricane Bill)

-Dalhousie was kind enough to send me an email with suggestions about how to prepare for an event. Though we aren't particularly worried about the storm nailing us to heavily we have taken a few precautions. We made sure to head to the NSLC to pick up some beer before there is a run on it tomorrow afternoon. Additionally, we have thought about how we will go about storing water in the off chance we lose power and water. Fortunately, just a few days ago we purchased 24 litres of carbonated water, which should put us in a good place for drinking water if we manage to lose power. Aside from food, which we would be buying anyway, the only additional purchase we might make is a little more propane, just incase we lose power and are forced to use our grill for a few days.

As of yet we haven't decided whether we will try to live blog the hurricane or not, if we do it should be pretty obvious that we are, and if not, it should be pretty obvious that we aren't. Anyway, the only confusion might come if we are trying to live blog the hurricane but then manage to lose power and internet part way through. If we aren't live blogging the storm and are curious about power outages and whatnot, you may want to check out Nova Scotia Power's live outage map (which is of little use if you lose power).

-This afternoon, after Neil and Rebecca did some preliminary scouting, Neil and I went to a soon-to-be-closing bookstore and purchased a used table for $20 and used cooler for $10. The table is about as wide as our current dining room table, but about an inch and a half shorter. It is the same height as our card table, but about 2 inches narrower.

The table and cooler are presently in the living room. We have put our big plant on top of the table and then placed our junk pile (including the cooler) underneath. My suggestion was that we get some fabric and drape it around the table to hide the stuff we are hiding underneath, though as of right now we have no plans to go fabric shopping.



-We had some rather tasty roast beef for dinner last night. Tonight we had pinwheels. Sadly, such beef rich meals may be a thing of the past for me as it is possible that I may have to go on a reduced beef diet in the near future in an attempt to reduce the frequency with which I form kidney stones.

-In yesterday's post I linked to the Google Voice blog. It seems that they have a feature that shows who has linked to particular posts below the individual posts. Subsequently, as a consequence of my linking to one of their posts, we had a strange surge of traffic based on people following their link to my post which occurred because I linked to their post. Seems like a bit of a quid pro quo arrangement to create internet traffic circles and improve everybody's PageRank.