Hurricane Francis

[Ross]

I'm wondering how my brother in law and family are. The storm came ashore almost on top of them. I know it's going to be a while before we hear anything. Power is out and who knows what all. The worst of the storm is yet to come.

 

[hensylee]

Bryan, it's ok that you forgot the panhandle. We want everybody to - then they will move to the rest of Florida. You better believe we are keeping a weather eye out for Ivan. My part of Florida has been lucky and I just hope we stay that way but won't know til Ivan decides.

Ev, yes, Bill is in Pensacola - and there are several of us over here.

I posted my latest update in Yaps question about 'anyone heard from' and y'all can go there to read it.

As we speak, things at my house are getting shaped up in readiness, tho we expect only (ONLY?) much rain.

Pray for Florida - we have had way too much.

Imagine what the insurance rates will be next year??????!!!!!

 

[MarkU]

We've been sitting here in Sarasota hunkered down for the last 24 hrs. waiting for the storm to pass. Getting steady winds of around 40 mph and intermittent heavy rain. We've gotten off pretty easy so far, but the worst is forecasted for us this afternoon - 70 mph winds & up to 6" of rain.
Feel bad for the counties in the center of the state that are getting hammered for the second time in three weeks.

Mark

 

[Granbonny]

Ann

Ann

Kameron and I were just watching CNN and Gov. Bush said for everyone in the Panhandle of fla to be prepared.. Take cover. Bonnie

 

[Ross]

Sunday morning 10:30 am Sept 5, 2004

I called their house (land line), talked to Beth and Kelcey Saturday around 3:00 pm in the afternoon. Their power went off and on for a while - and they took advantage of it showering and drying hair, stocking coolers with ice (so as to not open fridge when power was off, etc). Then power finally went out at around 10:00 am.

With the wind howling over night (Fri. night) and Sat am, it made for not good sleep ... so Clark was napping when I called. Kelcey answered the phone ... she's anxious with the wind noise, but being 13, bored with out Ashley at home. They had batteries and access to a battery-powered TV, had watched movies, etc, but were stuck with eachother as anxiety built. Beth was tired-sounding and calm ... said they were trying to do things "as normal routines as possible". Said they were conserving cell phone, since they may not be able to re-charge till storm passes and they could run the generator outside. (with relentless rain and winds of slow storm, may not be till Monday). I asked them to call me when the felt comfortable and were out of danger.
Ashley emailed me from Gainesville in overnight hours Sat- she talked to them at 10:00 pm - they were fine. I don't know if she has heard form them since ... and now the outer bands are moving over Gainesville to the northwest) and they are probably in the College shelter. Seems there have been a couple tornados in the northern outer bands - I'm sure the college has Ash safe.

As of 10:30 am Sunday, while the backside of the eye's winds are still on them, I haven't heard from them since yesterday. ... They are still in HEAVY rains and winds ... There are probably many reasons why I haven't heard: They may be in their safe places under counters or in the tub, or when it was quiet- finally sleeping (during the 3-4-hour huge eye calm... before dawn Sunday), or they are probably exhausted from anticipating, or phone lines are down and cell phone batteries are used, or cell phones don't work when there is not power to the transformers too.

On a lighter note -
Since I had power and was anxious for them last night (Sat.) when the eye was starting to move through, between 1 and 4 am, I did some screen captures of the eye moving over Palm City (from the weather channel and other sources) - it came on shore 4 miles from them in Sewalls Point. I am going to put together a little "memorial" PowerPoint presentation for them ... with a couple comments. They are unlucky but LUCKY, that it was not a cat 4. They have traded prolonged heavy winds and rain for devastwting winds. Prayers have helped, I'm sure. Perhaps it will remind them to maybe leave next time ... or not!

OK, since its beautiful in Northeast Ohio ... I am going up to one of our beaches at Lake Erie. 84 and sunny and clear ... and calm ... I'll take it!

xxoo
Sue

 

[hensylee]

According to NOAA weather, the storm will still be in the gulf of Mexico tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. so we still won't know if it's coming straight to our house. We don't think so because the prediction is about 2 hrs east of us at the Apalacchi (I can't spell that) River. On the other hand, it could tack left a little bit and take off our roof and knock down our trees. Daughter Teresa has picked up and brought onto the (screened) porch all the loose stuff outside. flower pots, hanging baskets, temperature gauges, bird houses, wind chimes and all spare animals. If it gets really windy she will bring it all inside the house. well the cats and Miss Sally Sue are already inside - if one drop of rain comes, Miss SS won't go outside for two days. And then she looks outside, checks for any clouds, runs out like the devil is chasing her - and right back inside. Never knew a dog that could wait that long! And tonight before we retire, we will get up the water we might need and fill the tub (to flush). We have that $157 worth of batteries and flashlights. Plus the bleach - if we ever decide what it's for. (I have been teasing y'all. I know it's to purify the water. My mother taught me this when I was at her knee.) Plus a kerosene lamp. Plus radio.

We have had our showers, shampoos. If the power goes off we won't get a shower or shampoo till it comes back. The laundry is done so we have plenty of clean underwear. That's always a good thing. We are just sitting here trying to find things to do besides watch TV. Teresa says, 'well, maybe I could paint a wall' - or maybe I will just bake that frozen apple pie (she's baking the pie -won't the house smell good!). Then we check the TV every half hour (they promise one every half hour but it's the same one we got 6 hours ago) when we are not watching the storm itself, to see if the course has changed any - maybe headed for Mars or somewhere like that. So far that's not so.

There's a bit of a breeze out there and a little cloudy. This morning it was dead still and sun was bright. Tomorrow morning, only God knows what will be outside in our yard. maybe nothing.

Pray for Florida.

 

[Nancy]

Just spoke to my daughter in Tampa. Her power is off, transformer blew. She said it was more like a bad tropical storm, lots of branches down, and quite windy. She was not in panic mode, so far.

 

[Granbonny]

Mark U

Mark U

Do you still have power in Sarasota? bonnie

 

[hensylee]

Just talked to my son, Chuck, in Sarasota/Bradenton area just north of Mark U. He has power, no damage, one tree down in his neighborhood. So I know Mark U is ok, too.

The first feeder band just came in but did not quite reach my house. A bit sooner than expected. But the storm itself isn't even going to hit this Florida coast til tomorrow afternoon or evening!

Signing off. Need to shut this down. Back whenever...............

 

[Phyllis]

All family in FL are fine. My sister in Delray had no electricity from Friday morning to this morning, but they had no house damage and the electricity and phone were reinstated this morning. My daughter-in-law's father who lives in Palm Beach checked into a hotel on Thursday, but it was evacuated one hour after he checked in and he went to his son's house in North Palm Beach. They have had no electricity, phone or water, but they checked out his house in Palm Beach this morning and there was no damage. Still not allowed back on the Island - maybe tomorrow. Haven't heard from our neighbor yet about our condo in Boca, but no news is good news, so far. Hope that all our members in the Panhandle are okay and that Ivan stays away from FL.

 

[hensylee]

We got nearly nothing. Little wind, minimal rain - but it's still raining. Storm struck about 150 mi east of us and the west side of the storm was not producing damages nor much rain and that's the part we got. So we are safe at least for another week til we see about Ivan.

Friends east of us and back in south Fl where Charley did so much damage have gotten more damage and torrential rains.

 

[Bryan B]

Not to downplay the possible impact of Ivan, but I heard on the weather channel today that of all the hurricanes that are in the same area that Ivan is in now only 1 has hit the US mainland (not sure how many there have been). Here's hoping that trend continues. I was also looking at how many hurricanes have hit the US mainland by decade going back to 1900. The average is somewhere around 15-20 per decade. At the beginning of the 2004 hurricane season only 1 hurricane had hit the US mainland this decade. I guess we were overdue for an active year.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml

 

[Granbonny]

I think .no one knows what the weather will do..in the South Have learned not to panic when weathemen says..Huge snow coming..Eveyone cleans off milk and bread in stores..to find 1 snowflake falling. Schools closed, ect...Media wants you to be prepared..and turns out nothing. and then the schoolchildren have to put in an extra day off the end of school year. But better safe than sorry with school buses running. Lived here in Georgia for 40 years and worse snow fall was never projected..Big surprise and caught off guard...I think it was 30 years ago. Atlanta shut down for days..No one saw it coming.Ice storm in middle of a week day. Horrible. Power out for days. I had 2 babies and had to cook on grill just to warm up their bottles. When Ivan comes this week, wonder how many Florida people will say..no big deal and then caught off guard.. Do you believe the media and leave? Hard to say..Don't know the answer. bonnie

 

[fyrfytr]

Hey Ann,
So glad to hear you guys are OK.
I will gladly take the weather (hail and possible tornado's) we have any day then what you guys go through.
I sure hope this next one dies out before it gets to Florida.
Take Care

 

[hensylee]

Bryan, I have been following the NOAA map and I agree with you. I have a feeling this one might head north - but then the unpredicitibility factor is always there. Just a feeling, tho.

Also, Bryan, did you notice that there was very little coverage of the panhandle? We are glad they keep us hidden.

Bonnie - we never are relaxed when there is one out there. Always on our toes and for those who don't follow the news, the others keep THEM posted constantly. It is the topic of every discussion. No matter where, in Florida, you live.

 

[Granbonny]

Storm hit Atlanta early this morning. Trees down, stop lights down, schools are closing..One large county school just closed and they said, buses will be turning around and taking them back home. All the Atlanta stations are covering it..Just called daughter on her mobile and she said it was awful driving..with traffic lights down. I think 250,00 without power. Raining hard here now. We may be next.. Cable t.v. just popped but came back on..Will go and watch T.V. while it's still on. Bonnie

 

[Guest]

It's about the same here in LaGrange. The kids are out of school as we've had some power outages....hubby reported that there were lots of limbs down on his way into work. Seems pretty calm here now, just very wet!

 

[Bryan B]

Ann,

I did notice the lack of coverage in the panhandle. Don't know if they were ignoring ya'll or were just too tired to drive over there.

So far so good in the Raleigh area, just rain. We had 9" of rain in August so it won't take too much to cause flooding in some areas. They are calling for around 4-6" in the next 2 days. There have been several tornado warnings to our south and west. I hope they don't come this way...I've been through 2 tornadoes (plus a 3rd that hit our neighborhood while we were at church).

 

[Granbonny]

Daughter e-mailed and said it took her 2 hours and 45 minutes to drive to her Office outside of Atlanta. All traffic lights out...Has rained all day with no let-up. I have emptyed 6 coffee cans of water out of my Goldfish pond to keep them ( .Hootie and the Blowfish (5)goldfish from falling out. Rufus (cat) sat on front porch all day waiting for it to quit raining. Finally gave up and came inside. Forecast for Northern Ga. mountains. Rain and thunderstorms all night and tomorrow too. ...Bryan..guess where this rain is going? Right up into Tenn. near Nashville.Veering to the left (west)and then to Indiana and Ohio....Last I heard 500,000 out of power in Ga...but we have been lucky so far..Keeping fingers crossed. Calling for windy weather tonight..I have cabin fever with lights on and computer. Hate to wake up in a.m. and cannot log on to VR.Com Bonnie

 

[MelissaM]

Granbonny,

Glad you saved the goldfish. Even happier that Rufus didn't consider them brunch. Keep the posts coming. I'm scheduled to fly to Atlanta on Thursday. Doesn't sound like such a bright idea if everything is still a mess. . .

Take care of yourself, your fish and your cat!

Melissa