40 Saber Tails Fall 2017

Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America

hurricane harvey

When a plan doesn’t go according to plan

By Tiffany Cannon

H

urricanes usually form off the coast of Africa and make a slow and plodding course across the Atlantic.  As they near 

the juncture between North and South America, weather patterns help determine which way they will turn.  Steer-

ing currents are known in advance and weathermen usually have a fairly decent idea of which way the storm will turn at 

least a couple of days before it arrives.  Hurricanes are one of the few natural disasters for which there is time to plan and 

prepare.  Except...when there isn’t.  This certainly doesn’t minimize their impact, just allows 

people at least a little time to try to get out of the way when possible.

H

arvey entered the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical depression after crossing the Yucatan 

Peninsula.  It had spent a week dousing Mexico and a handful of Caribbean Islands with 

rain, but no real damage.  Unlike almost every other hurricane, it appeared to have fizzled 

out when it suddenly reorganized in a mere 56 hours from a depression into a Category 4 

hurricane aimed directly at the Texas coast.  Landfall was just north of Corpus Christi put-

ting Houston on the ‘dirty’ side where the rain and wind are the most severe.

W

e live about 50 miles inland and about 160 miles from 

Victoria where the center of the storm passed Friday 

night.  We had prepared by buying water, gas for the genera-

tor, food, extra dog food, etc.  We have been through hurri-

canes before and were prepared to live for a week or more, 

if we needed to, without power.  What we hadn’t anticipated 

was the inevitable tornado activity that frequently accompa-

nies the stronger feeder bands on a hurricane’s dirty side.  A 

small tornado skipped through our neighborhood...missing 

all houses, but taking out trees across several properties in-

cluding ours.  We were awakened at 1:34 in the morning to a 

violent jolt that reverberated through the walls along with a very loud rumbling sound and 

crash.  

B

eginning about 7 pm our phones had started sounding off with Emergency Alerts every 

15 minutes.  Tornado Watch – Tornado Warning – Flood Warning – High Wind Advisory, 

etc., etc., etc.  At 7 pm, every warning brought me to a window to double check the sky, 

make sure there was no evidence of clouds moving in different directions above us and that the color was still ‘sky-

colored’ and not greenish-gray.  All seemed normal – windy, rainy and 

blustery.  Everything was as expected in the preamble to a Category 4 

hurricane.  By midnight, Bill and I had both reached for the volume but-

tons on our phones to silence the loud and relentless warnings.  They 

were literally coming every few minutes.  Honestly, there was nothing 

different we could have done even with the warnings.

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efore bed, we had put Aslak, Apple, Monroe and Jezebel in crates 

covered with blankets.  They tend to panic a bit with a really big 

thunder storm.  My biggest concern was that a tree would fall knocking 

a fence down and the dogs would escape in the morning.  Our two old 

ladies were in bed with us along with our Spanish Water Dog.  Unlike 

We live just to the South West of the 

blue dot (Houston)

This tree was twisted off about 20 feet 

up.  Evidence that this damage was 

caused by a tornado and not hurri-

cane winds

Massive pecan tree that fell onto the roof, attic & garage