Hurricane Rita: Local Report

"Wait a minute, Doyle" I'm sure you're saying. "Since you're in Northeast Florida, you can't possibly have a 'Local Report' on Rita!"

Guess again.

The forecast the last few days was for it to be dry and sunny until this weekend when we'd probably have showers come through. Even yesterday when the sky south of me looked overcast and funny it remained unchanged.

When I got up this morning it was way too dark. A "big-storm-coming-in" kind of dark. It wasn't until I looked out of the back door that I realized we'd already gotten a fairly good amount of rain during the night.

The wind picked up and the sky opened. I flipped on the radio to hear a local weatherjerk announce that we could expect a "changeable day," mostly sunny with occasional wind and rain from Rita's feeder bands. That's when the thunder and lightening started, not south or southwest of me which is where Rita is, but north.

I have seen the sun once. Once, and not for very long.

I had to take Tank across town earlier today for his next chemo treatment. (He's doing well, by the way, and in full remission.) I white-knuckled about half of the trip because the rain was so heavy sometimes I couldn't see four car lengths ahead. Oh, and one gust of wind sent an 18-wheeler ahead of me wobbling out of his lane into mine.

Maybe 20 feet from where I'd parked to the doorway. Both Tank and I were so soaked when we went in they offered me a towel.

Not as hard, but it was still raining an hour later when we left. It picked up again once we were headed home.

Keep something in mind, please.

Not only am I on the other side of the state from Rita, but it's been moving away from me the entire time and still is.

And although they're not as frequent or as strong, we're still getting feeder bands.