Ramblings' Journal

Hurricane Dennis bearing down on Havana, Key West; Pensacola/Mobile next?

Hurricane Dennis is a strong Category 4 storm with 150 MPH sustained winds. It's expected to reach Category 5 before it strikes Cuba later today.

The storm has been running parallel to the coast of the island nation, and raking it with hurricane-force winds. The US military base at Guantanamo Bay has received minimaal damange, however, a guard tower at the terrorist detention facility there was knocked down by the force of the storm.

Hurricane Warnings are up for much of Cuba, as well as the western Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas. The lower Keys are under a manditory evacuation order, and traffic up US 1 has been very heavy. North of there, along the Florida West Coast, a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning is in effect. This has residents in the Ft. Myers/Naples area very skittish, as they remember the disaster of Hurricane Charley last summer.

Once Dennis crosses Cuba and enters the Gulf of Mexico, it could land anywhere along the Gulf Coast, though forecasters are projecting a landfall in the vicinity of Mobile or Pensacola, where residents are stlll trying to recover from last summer's Hurricane Ivan and last week's Tropical Storm Cindy.

Hurricane City is streaming live coverage of this storm nightly from 8-11P ET. Their coverage includes calls from people in the affected areas, meterological professionals and others interested in the storm, along with live television and radio audio from the affected areas.