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Fielder’s Choice
By Barry Burleson Watching the weather Typically, I’m not much of a weather watcher. But that changed last week, as Hurricane Isaac moved toward land. Pam and I have two children, Emma and Andy, in Hattiesburg, just about 80 miles from Biloxi and the Mississippi Coast. We
started watching the early predictions on where the eye of Hurricane
Isaac would make landfall. And those predictions changed and varied.
There were even number one, number two and number three possible routes
by the weather experts. For all of us in
Mississippi, we certainly were not hoping bad things for our neighbors
in Alabama and Louisiana, but we did not want our state’s coastal area
to take another huge hit – seven years to the day following the
devastation of Hurricane Katrina. As it turned
out, Isaac sidestepped New Orleans to the west and hit as a Category 1,
packing heavy rain and 80 miles per hour winds. Compared to Katrina, it was a piece of cake for folks living in the coastal regions. But that’s not to take Isaac lightly. There was damage along its wide path. Many are still suffering. In
fact, more than 100,000 people in Louisiana remained without power
Monday of this week, days after Isaac flooded the Gulf Coast area.
Thousands were also without electricity in Mississippi and Arkansas. We
constantly stayed in touch with Emma and Andy via cell phone as
Hurricane Isaac approached and after the storm made it to Hattiesburg. Classes
at the University of Southern Mississippi were cancelled Tuesday and
Wednesday. They resumed Thursday, even though some classes did not
meet, as tornado warnings and heavy rains continued. USM
has a hurricane plan in place. School officials have gone over it with
parents during the orientation process. That’s comforting, and we felt
confident in our children’s safety during Hurricane Isaac. But that did not stop our nervousness as parents and our staying in constant phone contact with them. Thankfully, they’re OK (Andy even got to come home for Labor Day weekend) and thankfully, Isaac was no Katrina. The
remnants of Hurricane Isaac posed little difficulty for North
Mississippians. I think we were all hoping for lots more rain in these
parts. DeSoto County Schools decided to play
their home football games Thursday night as they watched the forecasts.
It seemed like a good move to me, too, but as it turned out, Thursday
night I went to Center Hill (where Byhalia played) and shot photos and
took notes in a constant rain with wind and the Friday night for
Marshall Academy’s home game the weather was perfect. I actually enjoyed trying out my new “wet weather” boots Thursday. But the wet notepad with spreading ink wasn’t fun. I
always choose to stay on the field though – no press box. But there was
one time, during a monsoon in the Delta while covering Itawamba
Community College, that I did make a dash to cover. The
weather-watching week wrapped up with loss of electricity at my house
for six and a half hours Saturday (not due to weather) and then about
four hours Sunday night (due to a scary storm that included a tornado
warning).
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