Sandy, Isn't that going to be a lot of work for you, putting a cover over your pond and removing it after the storm has passed, if in fact, your cover is going to be portable?

Or is this going to be a permanent structure?

Your point about it becoming "a kite" (in any high wind situation), would certainly caution one to have it well secured, so it stays in place. And how would you make it tornado/hurricane proof, is the major question???

It seems to me that it will be a lot of headaches for you.
"Horton"

I've been wondering too, if the tract is more northward, what will happen to everyone's everything (plants, gardens, etc.).
I'm thinking it will be pretty well dispersed and maybe no worse (in Indiana) than if you mow near your pond with a gas mower.
Not to get into a political/philosophical debate here, but I get the feeling we, the ever-consuming, not-caring-enough-for-the-environment nation, are about to get its come-uppins.
As the old margarine commercial used to say "Its not nice to fool mother nature!"

I live on the Texas Gulf coast, about 30 miles inland. Trust me, EVERYONE is worried about the possible effects of an oily hurricane. I'm glad you mentioned this because I hadn't actually thought about protecting my ponds. Fortunately, mine are small enough, I could cover them temporarily. Only problem is the tarps would be ripped to shreds. Nevertheless, they would probably still help. I will have to add a couple of tarps to my hurricane preparedness kit!

Good luck garden mama! So far, it looks like it might be south of you, but you never know. Keep us posted.

I'm in Florida but we don't expect to see any problems from the current tropical storm ... Alex? However I do have a tarp ready for any tropical storms or hurricanes that will be closer to my area.

My little pond seems very insignificant compared to the vast amount of creatures and plants expose to oil in the Gulf.

My worries do not include my pond. When water evaporates into hurricane clouds the oil will not go with it. I don't see any abnormal hurricane problems for people and ponds located hundreds of miles from the Gulf oil leak.

I can see winds carrying oil inland until they diminish to tropical storm strength. A hurricane might cause an oily mess for the first hundred miles of land in its path.

The problem I see is that the large amount of oil is creating unusually warm water in the Gulf and warm water increases the strength of hurricane winds. We might see more category 5 storms this year. I hope those in the region are spared.

From what I have read and observed, Hurricanes can lift and carry surface spray and debris to high levels. They don't just exist from evaporation and with the various chemicals evaporating along with water and recombining with dust particles in the air, I think those chemicals can easily end up in the pond. How else do you account for acid rain?

Have you ever looked at a puddle of rain water or snow melt that is in a place where it is clean and protected. A substantial amount of solid material winds up on the bottom of a supposedly clean container. I imagine scientists will learn a lot if there is a big hurricane that has winds that track to the midwest.

Yep, Horton. I don't expect it to be easy but I have had a good bit of experience over the years building shelters, greenhouses and kites. I have a semi-permanent metal frame over the pond in the shape of an octagonal pyramid and a couple of rolls of 5 mil. plastic. In this area we can expect a few wind storms before the addition of hurricane tail winds so if I start soon I can try out a couple of different designs. The shape has given really good results in the several years it has been up. The 5 mil stuff may be too heavy though. I still smile at the memory of some of the kites my friends and I have inadvertently created. One had the Great Lakes authorities quite upset since it showed up on their monitoring equipment and they thought they had a small plane in trouble during a bad storm. That was a rather large greenhouse though. It took 10 of us all day to build it and less than an hour for every tie down to fail. It was 15 feet wide and 30 feet long. The problem in the design was because the prevailing wind had not been judged correctly. The wind went in one end, filled it with air like a balloon and popped it off of the framing. Half inch poly tubing was carried with it so it kept air inside. The owner was very embarrassed.

Oh man Sandy..........what a bummer!

I'd imagine wind-blown oil would affect the same areas that are affected by wind-blown salt water in a hurricane.

I live in St Petersburg on the West Coast of Florida. When I first lived here I was about two blocks from the beach. One storm in particular (a winter storm with tropical storm force winds) blew salt water all over my yard when I lived at that house. It killed many plants in the yard that were not salt tolerant. Everything was encrusted with salt.

Where I live now (7 miles from the beach) my yard has never had damage from salt spray. We've had tropical storms since I've lived in this location, but no direct hits by hurricanes. Obviously a hurricane would be able blow salt water and oil further inland than a tropical storm.

John

It looks like Alex was less of a problem than it could have been although I feel for the citizens of southeast Texas and northeast Mexico. This hurricane season is going to make a lot of people nervous through September.

Looks like I will have lots of chances to figure out a less than aerodynamic design.