I've been reading a LOT of LIttle Sister books lately. They're fast and easy to get through, and just pretty enjoyable. .. and they're getting spit out on the BSC Ebook community fairly regularly.
Since I've just myself been through Hurricane Ike, I was looking forward to reading this one. I liked it, trust me, I did. But there were just some major wtf moments going on in my brain while reading it.
#1. Hurricane Karen is a Category Three that keeps shifting north. Surely Stoneybrook would've been in the warning zone... It's a good sized storm ..keeps going North... they said between Jersey Coast and Long Island. I don't have a map out in front of me, but this was said a couple of days ahead of landfall. Connecticut's a small state, small coastline, so I'm sure it was well within that "cone of uncertainty" in the longrun. (Don't I just sound up on my hurricane knowledge).
What I don't get is that they called a hurricane warning JUST HOURS BEFORE THE HURRICANE HIT. Everyone was already stocking up on supplies "just in case". Karen's school WAS STILL OPEN THE DAY IT HIT. They call a warning. Everyone goes home, except for Pamela whose parents had the sense to get out if the hurricane should hit. (of course they left after school let out, which really doesn't make any sense. If this were IRL, the roads would be packed, and they'd be stranded in the middle of the road when the hurricane made landfall.)
They started ordering mandatory evacuations on a day and a half before Ike hit... voluntary were going up two and a half days beforehand... What morons let school out when the leading edge of the hurricane is already upon them?? Seriously?
They state that this is a CATEGORY THREE. Sustained winds of at least 111 mph It hadn't hit land yet to slow it down. Stoneybrook officials are morons. Or the ghostwriter.
Another wtf moment for me.
Okay. Storm is in full swing by that evening. Power goes out around 10pm.
Why in tarnation does it take until 3 THE NEXT AFTERNOON FOR THE EYE TO HIT?
Perspective... Ike was 600 miles across. We were getting slammed (45 minutesish from the Gulf...but by GAlveston Bay) by nightfall. Our power went out around 11. When did the eye hit? We got it around 3 in the morning. What hurricane (one that's moving at 17 mph mind you... Ike was moving about 12.) takes over 24 hours from the leading bands for the eye to make landfall? Especially when they were getting whalloped the night before.
Oh yeah... it's not until the next morning that everything is okay and calm again. (Streets flooded).
Okay I haven't been through many hurricanes... Ike was my first major one (we're all okay. My mother lives in a heavily devastated area, but her house was one of the lucky ones). But considering the size and enormity of Ike which might as well have been a Cat 3 (110 mph with huge wind gusts... I'd call that a Cat 3 even though it's not "technically")...the storm surge was so big because the size of the hurricane was huge.
If Hurricane Karen was as big as how long it took for the eye to make landfall suggests... they'd have been long gone ... or should've been long gone.... but I doubt it was.
I'm just making random ramblings becasue right now I'm wating for class to begin... I'm bored... we just got power back last wednesday (12 days after the storm hit)+
but are still without internet at the house. I hope half of what I said made some kind of sense.
On a side note. We have magic fish! Seriously!
Who knew that fishies could go 12 days without a filter running to give them oxygen? and Over a week without food?
Our 25 cent goldfish apparently can.
