Crazy surf and bad levees

Well, I heard this morning that they were allowing access to Padre Island again, so off I went! No, I didn’t try to catch any waves. It was just too rough to be surfable (and I rode Katrina). There was only one surfer out, and the white water and the current wouldn’t let him do much.

(Most of the serious surfers are probably 100 miles south at South Padre Island. I heard it’s crazy down there.)

It was an impressive site though. And the waves seem to be rising even more.

Let me tell you something about the photography and video of hurricane waves that you see in the news. They don’t do the waves justice. I’m not sure why, but it’s really hard to give an idea through photography just how big those waves are. I was going to post what I thought would be excellent photographs, but when I downloaded them, they just didn’t look like much compared to what I saw with my own eyes. And I’m a pretty good photographer! So the surf you see on the news – it’s bigger than it looks.

When I got back from the beach, I saw parts of New Orleans are flooding again. I thought all the concern about New Orleans and Rita was media hype, but it looks like I was wrong. Ugg.

On the bright side, it looks like Rita is weakening to a Cat. 3.