Date: Wed, 04 Oct 95 12:01:50 CDT
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen 
To: TOURBUS@colossus.net
Subject: TOURBUS 10/5 -- HURRICANE OPAL


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     \___/ \___/  "Why Surf When U Can Ride The Bus?"  \___/


(This lesson was written and distributed on 10/4 in order to
avoid the upcoming power outages across Alabama and Florida).

TODAY'S STOP: HURRICANE OPAL
TODAY'S ADDRESSES:
   http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/fcst/*/hurricane.html
   http://thunder.met.fsu.edu/explores/Tropical/td17/td17.html
   http://thunder.atms.purdue.edu/hurricane.html
   http://femapub1.fema.gov/fema/hurricaf.html


Hey, did you hear about OJ? :)

Actually, as hard as this is to believe, there is more going
on in the world than the OJ Simpson trial.  As a matter of
fact, the Alabama/Florida coast is about to be pounded by one
of the strongest hurricanes in recent history.

Hurricane Opal is currently in the Gulf of Mexico and is heading
towards the Alabama/Florida coast at 20 knots. The center of Opal
(which is 7 miles wide) should cross the Northwestern Florida/
Southeastern Alabama border around 19:00 CST (+01:00 GMT).

Hurricanes are rated by their potential for damage on a scale of
1 (minimal damage) to 5 (catastrophic damage).  Hurricane Opal
is currently a category 4 (extreme damage) hurricane with winds
in excess of 150 miles per hour.  By way of comparison, hurricane
Andrew, which destroyed most of Southern Florida on August 31, 1992,
was also category 4 hurricane with winds around 150 miles per hour.

The National Weather Service is calling Opal "the United States'
weather disaster of 1995" and is urging that "all preparations
for the protection of life and property should be rushed to
completion."

The current text version of the National Weather Service hurricane
warning can be found at

     http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/fcst/*/hurricane.html

You can also find a great deal of information about Opal (including
the current satellite and radar images) at

   http://thunder.met.fsu.edu/explores/Tropical/td17/td17.html

This page is at Florida State University, and the folks at FSU have
done a great job keeping this page up to date.  However, "Florida
State University is now closed, an inland state of Emergency has
been declared, and evacuations are currently underway."  In other
words, since Tallahassee is in the Florida panhandle, and since
Opal is headed towards the Alabama/Florida coast, it is quite
possible that this page will disappear once Opal hits land
later tonight.

If Opal takes out FSU, you can still find information on the
hurricane at

     http://thunder.atms.purdue.edu/hurricane.html

This page is at Purdue University, and is loaded with graphics
(so it may take a long time to fully download).

If you live in the path of Opal (or, for that matter, any other
Hurricane), you probably want to check out the Federal Emergency
Management Agency's Hurricane fact sheet at

   http://femapub1.fema.gov/fema/hurricaf.html

The fact sheet tells you what to do before, during, and after
a hurricane.


TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE DAY
--------------------------------

In light of the disaster that is about to hit Alabama and Florida,
I believe that printing a Southern word with today's tourbus would
be in extremely poor taste.

Instead, I hope that we will all remember the people along the
coast of the Gulf of Mexico in our prayers tonight.


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TOURBUS - (c) Copyright 1995, Patrick Crispen and Bob Rankin
All rights reserved.  Redistribution is allowed only with permission.


   (\__/)  .~    ~. ))
   /O O  ./      .'               PATRICK DOUGLAS CRISPEN
  {O__,   \    {                   PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU
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