Hanna brings us an overdose of football

Thanks Hanna... for nothing.

For the past 10 days, news outlets have kept their eyes on the tropics as tropical systems Fay, Gustav and Hanna churned through the Atlantic Ocean. The storms have left utter destruction in their wake, as residents of Haiti, Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and other Atlantic islands wade in water up to their knees.

Remnants from Hurricane Fay dumped several inches of rain on the Upstate a few weeks ago. Although it helped boost water levels in the Broad River, the weather system caused small streams and ponds to swell and did damage to bridges and other structures in the county.

Gustav up to this point has had no impact on us locally. Forecasters predicted the hurricane would severely punish the Gulf Coast, an area still licking its wounds from Hurricane Katrina three years ago. Fortunately, it did not inflict as much damage as expected, causing minor flooding in New Orleans and spurring a number of short-lived tornadoes in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. Only problem — the tropical system is still wreaking havoc in the country's midsection and the Northeast before making its way out to sea.

However, my eyes were set on Hanna as it targeted Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. From the time I saw meteorologists describe the path of the storm, I had a hunch it would cause some type of problem.

Truthfully, I found myself at odds regarding the impending act of nature. While we need the rain to help with the current drought, I also thought about the worst-case scenario.

Remembering how a few days of rain brought some parts of the county to their knees, I cringed at the thought of what could happen and how much work would have to be done in the aftermath.

As school after school began to either reschedule their football games to Thursday night or postponing the contest altogether, it really seemed we were going to see some weird weather over the course of the next few days.

Not.

For some reason it seemed "Mother Nature" was telling a lot of us that she is still in charge. While it is unknown the direction Hurricane Ike has ahead, it seems Hanna has spared most of the Atlantic seaboard. But boy, has the tropical system done something with the weekend.

I'm not a Gamecock fan, but Thursday night had to be pretty inconvenient.

"Not a cloud in the sky, calm winds, nothing in sight... so they moved the game up for this? And we're missing the Carolina-Vanderbilt game?" a South Carolina football fan probably said somewhere while in the stands of their local high school. Another punch to the gut would be having to miss the first NFL game of the season.

When football season was not here, we were begging for some news, any type of news to come that would salivate our interests in the upcoming football seasons.

Now that it's here, nature basically threw us three shots of gridiron action in one night. But she also said "make a decision... if you think long, you'll choose wrong."

So thanks Hanna for nothing, you made me miss Friday's game. But thank God for network television.

Joe L. Hughes II (joe@gaffneyledger.com) writes feature and enterprise stories for The Gaffney Ledger.