Here comes Edouard

A tropical system formed rather suddenly off the coast of Louisiana over the weekend and is now headed this way. Edouard will probably be a strong tropical storm or even a weak hurricane when it makes landfall sometime tomorrow. As of late this evening its projected track takes it right over Houston:
There is, however, a possibility that its track could be shifting to the east. We won't know for sure until it makes landfall sometime in the early afternoon tomorrow.

Of course, the approaching storm has predictably sent the local news media into their usual frenzy, and the evening TV news broadcasts have all contained the obligatory footage of people stocking up on bottled water at the grocery store and boarding up windows on beachfront homes. But even the local media know that there's only so much hype they can render to what just isn't likely to be a particularly devastating storm. The winds and storm surge generated by Edouard are not expected to be severe, and as of this evening no mandatory evacuations have been ordered, even in beachfront communities.

This isn't to say I am taking the storm lightly. While I do not expect damaging winds to reach my house, I am concerned about flooding - we all know what tropical storms can do to Houston - and there's always the chance that wind gust could be strong enough to knock down power lines, leaving us without electricity for a few days. That's a real concern, given that Houston in August is unbearable without air conditioning.

But I'm not especially worried. We're stocked up with water and batteries, we're not in a floodplain and we're not required to be anywhere tomorrow: Kirby's daycare is closed, as is Lori's office, and I work from home a lot of the time anyway. So we're just going to spend the day here at the house and hope that the power doesn't go out.

Everybody stay safe and dry. I'll post an update as I am able to do so.