Hurricane Ike

This is what Pensacola Beach usually looks like. Today is different.

It is Friday, September 12. Hurricane Ike is about to landfall on Galveston Island.

I live in Pensacola, FL. Ike is so huge (it covered nearly the entire Gulf of Mexico) that it is impacting us here in Pensacola. In addition to tropical storm force winds we are experiencing very high surf. We went to Pensacola Beach today to take a look at the surf; it was incredible.

I took a short video with a cell phone so that I could share it with you. The waves are about 15-20 feet tall. The sounds you hear are the wind and the waves breaking on the sand bars and the beach. It was a spectacular experience.

Unfortunately, the weather forecasters are making predictions similar to those for Hurricane Katrina, and I know that there will be a great deal of suffering for many through property loss and damage, as well as personal injury and death. I do not mean to make light of the suffering when I state that the sights and sounds are beautiful - they really are.

Nature can be both destructive and beautiful at once.

Also, please watch these brief, excellent videos of Ike at Pensacola taken and posted by others; in some of the videos the sun is shining. In some it is cloudy, and the air is full of blowing sand and spray from the waves, making it difficult to see. You could stand away from the water and become soaked and encrusted with sand; it was like being sandblasted!

I would like to see your comments:

Hurricane Ike - 4 Wheel Surfing

Pensacola Beach during Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike waves at Pensacola

Hurricane Ike vs Cop (another video that shows what happened without breaks)

Hurricane Ike ATV (a third video, taken from above on the Pensacola Beach Pier)