It was a dark and stormy night. No, really, it was a dark and stormy night last, except when the lightning flashed.
Tropical Storm Cindy blew ashore about 40-to-50 miles from here on the upper Texas coast. Actual landfall, which is in many cases of little significance, came about 3 a.m. It seems as if every hurricane or significant tropical storm I have experienced shows up in the middle of the night much like a drunken, old girlfriend wanting to start some s**t for something said 30 years ago.
The rain yesterday started sometime around 3 p.m. in the form of a medium-to-heavy mist with intermittent large droplets of precipitation. The area from New Orleans to the Panhandle of Florida was pounded during the day with constant rain and heavy surf.
Rain began falling in earnest, and in Beaumont as well, near dark-thirty. The liquid was heavy to a light drizzle. Heavier storm elements such as slightly increased wind along with thunder and lightning began rolling in as the evening proceeded.
As far as I know, no serious damage, with the exception of a large tree falling on a local residence with a family inside, took place here in Jefferson County, Texas. One fatality, a 10-year-old who along with his family from St. Louis was visiting the coastal areas near Mobile Bay, was killed when a huge log popped out of the surf with no notice.
An accident closer to home resulted in the death of an elderly man from a neighboring county. A body was found near or inside a burned truck that had been submerged into the sand on the beach just east of state highways 87 and 124 in Galveston. Claude Credeur, 86, of Winnie in Chambers County, was dead at the scene. His 81-year-old wife, Lena, was found alive and was recovering at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston hospital. Some reports initially reported that authorities believed the couple were there due to a suicide pact. Officials later said that did not appear to be the reason leading to the fatality. The couple’s family earlier reported the pair missing, and prompted a so-called “Silver Alert,” which is a program for missing elderly people similar to “Amber Alerts” for missing children.
The storm was the type of event I enjoy sitting at home listening to the rain and the thunder. I have been out in all kinds of weather in my past professions as a sailor, a firefighter and a newspaper reporter. But I am not reckless. I, likewise, wouldn’t “send a dog out on a night like this.”
There is something magical about weather events, specifically storms. We have no control over them. Storms claim no intellect, or any other quality one might, just might, find in a living human being. Although storms are potentially dangerous, many more such as I am drawn to its raw power.
Perhaps you might argue with me about that. Just make sure you are inside and away from your windows. That’s all I’m saying.
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