It now looks almost certain that Hurricane Dean will make a direct (or almost direct) hit on the Cayman Islands. Julie & I have done all that we could ; all our important stuff is now in my office and the house is as prepared as possible. We have decided to ride out the storm in my office. Dean is now a Hurricane type 4 and may very well get to be a category 5, so staying home is probably not a good idea since the roof could be ripped off with such high winds. Since we have never lived thru a hurricane, its probably also a better idea to be with other people than be alone at our house. Right now its wait & see. We still have to remove our (very large) satellite dish and a few other things around the house. It is gorgeous weather now; it feels surreal that a massive storm is only 36h away …
Below is the latest path predictions. For those of you who are not sure where exactly is Cayman in all of that, I have circled Grand Cayman with the red circle.
It looks like Hurricane Dean, the first one on the 2007 season, will either hit Cayman or come quite close. Julie & I are well into our preparation. Last night we did a final grocery run to complete our survival kit and started to pick up stuff outside the house such as lawn chairs, flower pots, etc. The groceries were already packed with people so we were glad we only had a few things to buy. Most of our important stuff such as electronics and documents will be brought to my office which is a very solid and hurricane-rated building. We are unsure though at this time if we will use my office as a shelter or stay home ; it will depend on the storm trajectory and strengh. If it is a Hurricane 3 or more, we will go to my office. If its a 2 or less, we will probably stay home. In any case, the pets will be with us and taken care of. The car will stay here in Savannah in our garage; although my office building is secure, the area is low-lying and flood prone so all cars will get wrecked. Here in Savannah risks of flooding is minimal. The hurricane rating of the meaning of Categories 1 thru 5 are detailed on this website : http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/basics/saffir_simpson.shtml
Below, is the latest predicted trajectory. It places Dean just below Grand Cayman at 2am monday ; roughtly 72h away. By saturday PM we should know for sure the path and strengh. Fingers crossed.
The first hurricane of the 2007 Hurricane season is on its way! As of today, it is still well off but possible paths include passing not too far from Grand Cayman. As you can on the chart below, Cayman is the small island just above the second to last dot on the predicted path. Of course this path is just a computer model as of right now, so anything could happen. Julie & I are fully ready for this and will be safe & sound if this thing rolls thru the area. Stay tuned!
Last week I was in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada for the annual BlackHat and Defcon hacker conferences. I say in my title that I was in “HOT Las Vegas” thats because it was extremenly hot outside. On sunday, it was 110 degrees outside. The best way to describe the heat is when you are making something in the oven and open the door to check if your food is ready ; it was that hot! My high school buddy, Mathieu, who now lives in Toronto, joined me in Las Vegas for 3 days; we had a great time visiting the hotels, walking around “The Strip”, seeing the sights and taking a drive to Hoover dam on the last day.
Here is the hotel I stayed at ; the Treasure Island. It is right on Las Vegas Boulevard in the thick of things.
My two KPMG-Montreal hacker buddies Benoit-Luc and Jean-Sébastien assisted the conferences. It was great to see them. We had a great time!
At the Defcon there is a public wireless network people can use to check their email, surf the web, etc. However, it is dubbed “the most hostile network in the world”. If you happen to check your email without any encryption (security), they will capture your password and put you to shame on this board for everyone to see that you dont practice good security. Considering that everyone who assists are security professionnals, it does not look very good.
One evening, Mathieu & I went up the Stratosphere tower. I was really happy to see Mathieu and spend some quality time with him ; both us us are really busy guys and of course we live 3000km away …
The view from Hoover Dam is great. However, you can see the water level has dropped a lot. It is down 30 meters in the last few years. Considering that Las Vegas and other cities depend on lake Mead for drinking water, it is unfortunately not very good news.
Of course, Las Vegas being what it is, we actually got to see an arrest Live! These guys were driving around with beer cans in their hands and got stopped by cops on bicycle for what I assume will be a DUI (Driving under influence) charge. Getting arrested on the Las Vegas strip is probably the worst place to get arrested since you have masses of tourists looking, filming and taking pictures.
