Early effects from Ivan

We're having light-to-moderate rain and off-and-on windy spells, so far. Both are bound to get worse as Ivan gets closer, but here's hoping that the storm will weaken quickly so we don't get soaking rains and significant winds. In "the city in the trees", that means big trees down on houses, streets, powerlines, and occasionally people. The wind prediction graphics at Crown Weather's assemblage of hurricane information are favorable.

Lots of preparedness is visible: on the way to work, I went by a DOT person (who looked soaked already, poor fellow) cleaning the storm drain and gutter in part of Spaghetti Junction, and then after going through 2 intersections with dead traffic lights, I got behind the Georgia Power truck that was clearly looking for the problem. Our office has all the field crews on standby in case of flooding, in which case they'll be sent out to try and measure and/or sample the rivers.

Hurricane weather

Lots of rain, a good bit of wind--but so far no damage.

I got in most of a day at the office, including a 2-4 PM conference call. Power went out a little before 5, so I shut down to the beeping of the UPS, borrowed a flashlight so I could find stuff on the desk to pack up, and left. Heavy rains for part of the (9-mile) drive home, several places with lots of water on the streets (I'm glad for the CR/V's extra clearance in weather like this), but traffic on my route home was not bad. Most of the major highways, however, appear to be completely snarled.

Traffic light count for the drive home: 17 working, 5 out, 1 blinking. Luckily, the places I cross a major road on a minor one all had working lights. One tree down across Briarcliff Road, again luckily just past my turn off Briarcliff.

Arrived home to no power in the neighborhood, but sister-in-law had called Golden Buddha and they a) had power and b) would deliver. Joined them for Chinese by candlelight (my brother was still snarled in traffic, so it was s-i-l and the kids), let the kids come back over here to alleviate their house-bound-crazies, and the power came back on while they were still here at around 7. Lots better than the 4 AM the Georgia Power recording had estimated.

So, I'm charging the cell phone and still have flashlights at the ready. There's another heavy rain band coming, but at the moment the wind and rain are down and the electricity is up.