Tropical Storm Ernesto
At about 5 AM I was awakened by the sound of howling wind and pouring rain. The eye wall of tropical storm Ernesto was upon us with sustained winds of about 50 mph and stronger gusts. At this time the center of the storm was at 35.1 N, 77.8 W, 27 miles southwest of my house. Ernesto was pretty well organized for a tropical storm. The barometer in my house dropped to 990 mb. Between 5 AM and 8 AM it moved in a north-northwesterly direction to 35.8 N, 77.6 W. The center passed 13 miles to our west. Once we were on the south side of the storm the rain slowed to a drizzle and we went out to take some pictures.
Here is the house across the street, standing in water.
To the right of the flooded yard across the street you can see that the branch has expanded well beyond its usual boundaries.
The water rapidly draining down to the culvert below made a loud sucking sound.
After passing under the road, the water exited the culvert, creating a noisy upwelling in our catfish pond.
The branch at this point is usually just a trickle, but here it has started to flood the neighbors' lot. The winds ripped their TV antenna from the roof.
The bank of the branch is usually quite steep here, but you can see it has filled up almost to the level of our yard. On the other side it has reached the gas pack behind the neighbor's house. Again, there is usually just a trickle of water here.
My ten foot tall red Okra took a licking.
On the left is a crepe myrtle halfway submerged. On the left is the branch where it has been dredged to about 15 feet deep, but it is still full and starting to overflow.
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We did not lose any shingles, and only a few large pine branches came down. We had about six inches of rain from the storm, but we also got a lot of rain the preceding day as well.
Contact Information for the Webmaster,
Dr. Karl L. Wuensch
This page most recently revised on
1. September 2006.
