Hurricane Francis

[Granbonny]

Just saw on news the size of this one... Picture showed the range if it hits U.S. From Cuba all the way up East coast. The reporter was asking if it was going to be another Andrew or Hugo. No one knows at this point. Should know more by this weekend..Time for Floridains to be concerned again. charleston, S.C. was hit hard by the tropical storm yesterday. 8 inches of rain and many people still out of power. Keep an eye out for this..members who live on East side of U.S. Bonnie

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

I feel so bad for the people of Florida. Hope this one isn't as bad as Charley.

 

[Granbonny]

Hi Peggy

Hi Peggy

Long time. no see. where have you been? And how are you doing? Don't have to worry in Alaska about Hurricanes Seems like it's going to be a long Hurricane season. Hope the people will listen and move out this time...If I lived in Fla. I would head North. I'll take anyone that needs a place to stay. Bonnie

 

[Yaps]

I am

I am

doing such aprayer for the eastern coast, it can not take much more...

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

Hi Bonnie!

Hi Bonnie!

Hi Bonnie and all:

I've not been on this site for awhile, but I think about all of you guys all the time.

I am doing fine, in fact, sometimes I feel like I don't belong here, yet, because my surgery is a long way off at this stage of the game. Unless I take a drastic turn for the worse, which I don't anticipate.

I have a friend who used to work with me that lives in Punta Gorda, and I haven't been able to get ahold of her since Charley. I hope and pray that she and her family are all ok.

I have another friend in Florida, but she is inland so the hurricanes so do seem to bother her much.

Yup, no hurricanes for me in Alaska! Just those pesky earthquakes, and boy, did we have a couple of big thunder/lightning storms last week, a very rare occurence for us in Anchorage. Made me homesick, though, because was born and raised in Wisconsin.

Take care. I'll try to drop in more often.

Peggy in Alaska

 

[Granbonny]

The worse thing..It's a 3 day Holiday coming up..Every room, R.V. campground is booked solid on East Coast. I even tried to get a local place in Mountains nearby and it was booked. Combined with many people on the Coast and who knows when this Frances will hit.. You have to call and cancel a week before or will not get money back.. If I had reservations would cancel now and stay home..I don't think this one will fizzle out. Just hope maybe stall and come ashore after the Holidays.I know, Myrtle Beach only has 2..2 lane roads leaving..Can you think of the tie-up in traffic.Trying to leave. Bonnie

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

3 day weekend

3 day weekend

Yes, Bonnie, that is bad news, the last big summer holiday and a hurricane to go with it. Not a good combination. I'd cancel my plans, that's for sure, and head inland.

 

[tobagotwo]

...And yet, there's always someone who won't listen.

Pat and I will be clamming on the VA coast, in Chincoteague, when the storm hits.

Six or seven years ago, there was a small island off of Assateague point. Hurricane came: island left. Too bad. It was a great spot for clamming.

About four summers ago, we were on one edge of a cove in the bay, clamming. About 150 yards distant, on the other side, a huge water spout formed. We looked around: nothing but flat sand and grass as far as you could run. We just watched, as the only thing we could do was drop flat if it came our way. I did gather the presence of mind to hunt up the camera and take a shot. It's not as spectacular on film (it was dissipating by the time I located and unpacked the camera), but it did show up.

Our three concerns are flooding, lack of air conditioning, and some well-intentioned idiot closing the entrance to the wildlife refuge, sealing us off from the bay and its clams.

I feel very bad for the people whose homes are gone. It's a horrible thing to have happen. But I'm also angered that no building codes are enforced to allow for the fully expected periodic high winds and coastal flooding that we all pay for in our non-seashore home insurance bills, and in taxes that pay for disaster relief. They build, they blow down or are flooded out, they rebuild the same way.

Instead of the massive funds that are poured into disaster relief when the hurricanes hit, why don't we put out preventative funds to qualified people when they are rebuilding, that pay for hurricane-and-flood proofing in the new structures? People shouldn't lose their land to richer people who can afford to do it right, but they shouldn't be allowed to rebuild paper houses either.

Best wishes,

 

[EVELYN]

Hi Bon

Yes, we've been watching Frances, too. We only have residual rain from Gaston/Hermine today...bands of it, some heavy at times, but the sun is trying to come out.....maybe we'll get a break in this humidity!!!

We have friends in Fla, too....last time they only had no power and wind damage in the form of branches, etc.....They're in Sebring, I sure hope they're as lucky this time. Sometimes it's nice to be inland. My cousin and her husband are up here with their boat and are/were planning on heading south to Virginia on Friday....hope they reconsider. They're safe here and tied up all tight; would hate to see them in huge waves heading south. Maybe they'll wait till next week....hope, hope, hope.

Told Tyce we'll put away all out outdoor furniture before we leave next week for Maine. Will probably have some winds, high surf, and rain in ny, but if that's all we get, it's fine with me. Sure has been an active season, hasn't it!!!

Ev

 

[Granbonny]

Looking at the size of this thing.. It could cross Fla or head up to Panhandle(Ann) or go into south Georgia or even go North to S.C. coast.I cannot believe anyone would stay in the Palm Beach area where they are now projecting it to hit. The eye alone is 22 miles wide and Labor Day weekend to boot..Much rain from this one. We were suppose to have a nice day. At 11 a.m. it got dark, thunder, lighting and rained for 3 hours. Streets were flooded. where did it come from? I sure hope people leave the coast now..Don't wait..go North.. I'm sure Fla and Georgia will open shelters..but there are those people who do not want to leave their homes or pets (cannot take them to shelters)South Georgia is very rural in many parts and poor. Most people do not own cars. Surely, the County emergency people will help transfer them to shelters if need be. I'm really scared of this one for our members who live in direct area that it is going to hit. bonnie

 

[Granbonny]

Bryan B

Bryan B

I just re-read some of your posts and saw you are going back to N.C. because your parents were going on vacation. Hope not to their beach house. When, this Friday? Bonnie

 

[Bryan B]

Bonnie,

I'm flying home tomorrow and staying in Raleigh for 10 days. My parents are going to the Mississippi coast (Gulfport area), so I'm a bit nervous no matter which way it decides to go. Bottom line is there is nothing you can do about it except to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

You should have seen what Hugo did to Charlotte, and they are several hundred miles inland...almost to the mountains. When Fran hit Raleigh I was without power for 2 weeks. With a hurricane this size it's not only the coast that is in danger, although they will bear the brunt of the storm.

 

[Granbonny]

When John retired in 1990..We took a ride from Charleston down the coast looking for a marina to leave our Cruiser...All Marina's were full. after that..when Hugo hit shortly after. They made a hardback book of the devastation. Yup, there were the pictures of these Marinas with boats stacked on top on one another. ..Also, many years ago, we had a Condo in Northern N.C. at ski resort. Many years before like 50..a hurricane had hit the coast of N.C. and they had so much rain in the mountains, many homes were washed away, on creeks, ect. ..Daughter called just now while I was typing and said friend who lives in Orlando stopped on the way home and lines very long at grocery store. They still have not removed all debris from their yard from Charley Bonnie

 

[Phyllis]

My daughter-in-law's father lives in Palm Beach- he has put up the hurricane shutters and has a reservation at a hotel inland for the next 4-5 nights. My sister and her husband are in Delray. They have prepared the house and gotten in supplies. She said the stores are jammed with people getting ready. Our condo is in Boca Raton and we are just keeping our fingers crossed. Of course it could always come up the coast and hit us here in CT where we are on Long Island Sound. Will be happy when this hurricane season is over!

 

[Granbonny]

Phyllis

Phyllis

I hope your family and your condo will be fine. I'm making notes..to see where it goes. I was in Panama City a few months after Opal hit. High rise condo's..Some half gone.half standing Same building. The worse, glass still in streets and this was 3 months later. That's what my daughter's friend told her. so many logs still in yard. With high wind..they could be like bullets hitting house. ..Because we travel in our Motorhome. I know how many retired people are down there in their motorhomes..Thank goodness, it's not time for season. When many Snowbirds go down. We were only caught 1 time and that was in middle of Ga. when a hurricane hit..and still our motorhome swayed all night. Bonnie

 

[hensylee]

One of my good friends in Punta Gorda will have to wait several months to get her roof back on - and other repairs made. That area is destroyed and the hundred-year old buildings are gone. It is so sad. I have been through some bad ones growing up in Miami, but not like this one.

The new hurricane may begin winds on the east coast of Florida as early as tomorrow afternoon. I have a cousin just east of Tallahassee. He raises pups and has called to find a vet over here to take them in. I also heard on NPR that 300,000 have been asked to leave the east coast. We are in line if it crosses the peninsula and heads to the panhandle, but hopefully it will lose most of its strength by then. However, if it jumps into the Gulf of Mexico it could regain some power. I wish it would miraculously head back out to sea but I am afraid it is too late - and too powerful. A category 4 storm is catastrophe. I know this because I used to work in the courthouse in the hurricane center of our county. Floridians, pray.

 

[Bryan B]

Unfortunately there are no major systems coming through that could possibly steer it back out to sea. I'm a bit of a weatherphobe, and when the eye of Fran came right over Raleigh I slept right through it. When I woke up my roommate was freaking out. I looked outside and it looked like a bomb had hit. I told him "how could you let me sleep through this!" There was a huge pine tree just outside my bedroom that had fallen down and had taken out a couple of fences. Just don't know how that didn't wake me up. That particular storm came ashore in Wilmington and made a beeline for Raleigh...it was still a hurricane when it hit us. Flooding rains and the 100's of short lived tordnadoes it spawned did most of the damage. FL is so narrow I don't think being inland will prevent you from being in danger if you are directly in its path. And if it crosses back out into the Gulf of Mexico it presents the same problems for people living in AL to TX.

And the way hurricanes seem to love curving up the coast I'm not taking my gaurd down here in the Carolinas...we seem to be a magnet for them. The year Fran hit we had 3 hurricanes make landfall in NC in that one season.

Hope everyone stays safe, and if in doubt...GET OUT!

 

[Christina]

Hurricane Francis..

Hurricane Francis..

Look at the size of this sucker..

 

[Ross]

Anybody for category 5 before it makes landfall?

 

[hanali]

Catagory 5

Catagory 5

Gosh! I hope not!!
It might make it up to the Montgomery area if it does! I'd just as soon watch it on the Weather Channel.
I have to tell you folks how much I enjoy your discussions! I feel like an interloper....since I haven't done many posts.
Hope you don't mind!
Barbara