Wow, I just woke up from the longest day of the longest week I have had in quite some time. For the last week, we have been putting in some long hours filming and it concluded with the opening of the high school football season. Mike and I saw a game Friday night, got up well before the sun Saturday, and then spent the day in San Antonio watching games and reporting on them for the Lone Star Gridiron podcast. The night came to a close with a late night drive back that ran us smack dab into the middle of the wildest storm I have ever driven through.

We saw lightning off in the distance and watched the fireworks for about sixty miles before running into what felt like a hurricane. The wind was whipping wildly, the road was nearly invisible, and the lightning was amazing. It was constant and all around – blinding me over and over from the strobe effect. Several times I witnessed super large bolts striking what appeared to be dangerously close. They struck and stayed connected to the ground for three or four seconds at a time – I have never witnessed lightning that stayed there so long. It was like a huge one of those plasma globes that you put your hand on. Following each of the super-bolts was an bright green glow that emminated from the ground in a dome that seemed to rise about 100 feet into the air before fading away.

We finally made it through at about 2am.

It was only this morning that I heard about the situation facing New Orleans as I have been too busy this week to catch any news. The last I saw was early in the week when the hurricane was crossing the bottom of Florida and expected to whip back up and to the right, hitting the Florida panhandle.

I wish the people of New Orleans the best and hope that the city can bear the brunt without too much devastation.

PS. Am I the only one that remembers the show earlier this year Oil Storm, in which oil prices were rising from Middle East conflict when a hurricane slammed into New Orleans flooding the city, severing pipelines and toppling offshore oil systems? If the rest of the movie come to pass, it might be time to stock up on ammo. 🙂