Dan Gould Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Its still too early to know for sure, but it certainly looks like south Florida is gonna get smacked around by Hurricane Frances. So think good thoughts for Big Wheel & Evan (probably less in the path in Miami) and MartyJazz and yours truly (potentially real close to where its projected to come ashore, north of beautiful Palm Beach County). (If I'm posting the answers to my BFT on Saturday or Sunday, you'll know that chances are good me and Marty made it through OK. If you don't hear from me for a week or more, please contact the Delray Beach High School Storm Shelter-and feel free to start the next BFT in the meantime Quote
BERIGAN Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 (edited) I was just going to start a thread on this...a day late, and a dollar short today! Seriously, hope this thing loses some steam, I heard one of those Hurricane experts say that this wasn't a "small" storm like Charlie! Not talking about wind speed of course, just the massive size of this mofo! Florida Calls for Hurricane Evacuations Email this Story Sep 1, 2:55 PM (ET) By JOHN PAIN (AP) Hurricane Frances is seen in this satellite image at on a computer screen at the National Hurricane... Google sponsored links Hurricane Frances - Live Weather Updates & Alerts WeatherBug - Free! www.WeatherBug.com Emergency evacuation - International medical and security evacuation assistance. Affiliate. www.InternationalSOS.com MIAMI (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of people were told Wednesday to get ready to evacuate as powerful Hurricane Frances crept closer to Florida just weeks after Hurricane Charley's rampage. It would be the worst double hurricane strike on one state in at least a century. Generators were hefted off store shelves, along with water, canned goods and other emergency supplies as forecasters warned the core of the Category 4 storm with 140-mph top sustained winds was due along Florida's Atlantic coast late Friday or early Saturday. Charley left billions of dollars in damage and 27 people dead when it swept across the peninsula Aug. 13. "I can't emphasize enough how powerful this is. If there's something out there that's going to weaken it, we haven't seen it," National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield said. (AP) Meteorologist Richard Pasch studies his computer screen as he and others at the National Hurricane... Full Image About 300,000 residents in coastal areas of Palm Beach County were told to evacuate starting 2 p.m. Thursday. In Rockledge, about 45 miles southeast of Orlando, Brevard County told at least 50,000 residents to start evacuating mobile homes and barrier islands Thursday afternoon. In Stuart about 85 miles south, Martin County planned to urge up to 7,500 residents to evacuate low-lying areas starting at noon Thursday. More evacuation orders along Florida's east coast were likely. The Kennedy Space Center planned to close Thursday and Friday to allow workers time to board up their homes and evacuate if necessary, said NASA spokesman George Diller. Helicopters and planes left Patrick Air Force Base. Craig Fugate, director of the state Division of Emergency Management, said steps were being taken for to prepare for large-scale evacuations, including possibly reversing lanes of some highways to accommodate fleeing coastal residents. Frances was nearing the Bahamas with steady strength, but it was expected to fluctuate in intensity and could become a Category 5 storm with top sustained winds of 156 mph or higher, forecasters said. The storm could hit anywhere from South Florida to South Carolina as early as late Friday. Hurricane-force winds extended up to about 80 miles from Frances' center, making it about twice the width of Charley and increasing the possibility for damage, forecasters said. "The lessons of these storms are that all the science in the world and all the technology in the world isn't going to be able to pinpoint exactly where the storm goes," Gov. Jeb Bush cautioned. Records from the last century show no two Category 4 storms with winds of 131-155 mph hitting a state within weeks of each other, hurricane center meteorologist Rick Knabb said. The last time two major hurricanes hit Florida in rapid succession was 1950. Hurricane Easy hit Tampa around Sept. 4 of that year and Hurricane King hit Miami six weeks later on Oct. 17. They were Category 3 storms. Nancy Cuffaro, whose home and pizza restaurant were damaged by Charley, said she was hoping Frances would spare the area still cleaning up and recovering emotionally. She is in Port Charlotte in hard-hit southwest Florida; the greatest danger from Frances is along the state's east coast. "I know we can't withstand too much. I really don't know what to think here. I'm lost. It's starting to get to me," said Cuffaro, whose restaurant still didn't have electricity Wednesday. With the memories of destruction so fresh, many people didn't need an official heads-up to begin preparing. About two dozen people lined up Wednesday morning at a Home Depot store west of Miami, waiting to pay for items such as generators, tarps, flashlights and batteries. A Home Depot to the south in Florida City, ground zero during Hurricane Andrew 12 years ago, more than doubled its daily sales, ran out of generators and plywood and pushed $50,000 worth of lumber out the doors Tuesday, said Lisa Ftiffler, assistant store manager. "We are completely out of stock of plywood," she said Wednesday. "We are waiting on another truck. We have people since 5 a.m. waiting for generators and the plywood." North Miami Beach resident Lorraine Lewis bought a small cooking stove in case of emergency but wasn't planning to stick around long enough to use it. "I have water and plastic and a plane ticket," she said. She said she bought the ticket to New York on Wednesday, planned to cover her furniture with plastic and get out. "It will be too hot staying here without light for days." At 2 p.m., Frances was centered about 60 miles east-northeast of Grand Turk Island southeast of the Bahamas and 700 miles east-southeast of Palm Beach. It was moving west-northwest at around 15 mph. With landfall possible on the Atlantic Coast from one end of the state to the other, wary officials watched the clock and forecasts as they grew more refined. Some schools in coastal districts already decided to close Thursday and Friday. Miami-Dade County, home to about 2.3 million people, would need 24 to 36 hours to evacuate people in low-lying areas, emergency management spokesman Louie Fernandez said. The county's decision on evacuations would need to be made over the next day or so. State officials worried about finding hotel rooms and shelters for people who may need to evacuate. Many hotel rooms in the southern half of the state are occupied by people left homeless by Charley and out-of-state emergency workers. Some schools and community centers are still being used as shelters. But Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said they were ready. "We have all the operations, all the resources that we need to respond to a major emergency," said FEMA spokesman Justo Hernandez. With top sustained winds of 145 mph, Charley destroyed or heavily damaged more than 30,000 homes and did an estimated $7.4 billion in insured damage. It was the worst natural disaster to hit Florida since Andrew caused $15.5 billion in insured damage and killed 15 people. Edited September 1, 2004 by BERIGAN Quote
JSngry Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Y'all do whatcha gotta do to stay safe. And to protect your collections! Here's directing some focused and directed positive mental/spiritual energy (ie -a prayer) your way. Hope nobody's offended by that. Quote
jazzbo Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Best wishes for a safe time, and here's hoping for a fizzle and a pass over! Quote
Jazzmoose Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 I don't know whether to call the relatives down South and wish them my best, or just be thankful a talking mule isn't involved... Quote
JSngry Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 It might be a talking mule, or it might be Jessica Lange. Feel lucky? Quote
Big Wheel Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Y'all do whatcha gotta do to stay safe. And to protect your collections! Here's directing some focused and directed positive mental/spiritual energy (ie -a prayer) your way. Hope nobody's offended by that. I'm already thinking of where to put the Mosaic boxes. My guess is they'll fare best triple-bagged in one of those big garbage bags. About 2/3 of the others are already in binders, so I'm less concerned about them. Boarding up the house is going to be the biggest pain in the ass. Quote
BERIGAN Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Y'all do whatcha gotta do to stay safe. And to protect your collections! Here's directing some focused and directed positive mental/spiritual energy (ie -a prayer) your way. Hope nobody's offended by that. I'm already thinking of where to put the Mosaic boxes. My guess is they'll fare best triple-bagged in one of those big garbage bags. About 2/3 of the others are already in binders, so I'm less concerned about them. Boarding up the house is going to be the biggest pain in the ass. Doesn't sound good enough, mail 'em to me, I'll take real good care of them. Quote
Dan Gould Posted September 1, 2004 Author Report Posted September 1, 2004 Y'all do whatcha gotta do to stay safe. And to protect your collections! Here's directing some focused and directed positive mental/spiritual energy (ie -a prayer) your way. Hope nobody's offended by that. I'm already thinking of where to put the Mosaic boxes. My guess is they'll fare best triple-bagged in one of those big garbage bags. About 2/3 of the others are already in binders, so I'm less concerned about them. Boarding up the house is going to be the biggest pain in the ass. We're lucky in that we have so-called "Bahama" shutters, so on Thursday my wife will be heading up the ladder to drop them down and secure them. I have no idea how good they'll be in 130+ MPH winds, but at least its something to protect the windows, without drilling holes into the exterior to put plywood up! (And the collection, being in binders, can be thrown in the car lickety-split, so if we have to high-tail it, I won't have any worries there. Quote
Dan Gould Posted September 1, 2004 Author Report Posted September 1, 2004 Best wishes for a safe time, and here's hoping for a fizzle and a pass over! A fizzle would take an extraordinary act of God, at this point ... a passover (or a near miss) just needs a little help from a little high pressure ridge sitting out there in the Atlantic. They keep saying it will pull it North, and I sure hope they're right, because otherwise I'm gonna be in or near the thick of it! Quote
jazzbo Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Okay, then I'm putting whatever juju I have into a pull to the RIGHT! (Gosh it sort of hurts to say that!) B-) Quote
catesta Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 ... a passover (or a near miss) just needs a little help from a little high pressure ridge sitting out there in the Atlantic. I could try and send you some of the high pressure we have here every damn day. Quote
Jim R Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Lon, you haven't been watchin' that convention, have you? Best wishes, Dan. Your vinyl collection is probably too heavy to blow anywhere, right? Quote
catesta Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Just to be on the safe side, maybe Dan should post the BFT answers now. On second thought, don't, I still have to post my disc 1 guesses. B-) Quote
Bright Moments Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 thanks for all the good wishes and positive energy! B-) Quote
JSngry Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 ... a passover (or a near miss) just needs a little help from a little high pressure ridge sitting out there in the Atlantic. A little lamb's blood wouldn't hurt either, if history is any precedent... Quote
connoisseur series500 Posted September 1, 2004 Report Posted September 1, 2004 Hang in there, Dan, Evan, Wheel, and Marty. Marty lives in the same town as my folks. I'm gonna throw some Jamaican obeah on that mean ole hurricane... Quote
connoisseur series500 Posted September 2, 2004 Report Posted September 2, 2004 Maybe it's a good time for Wheel to visit Thailand and Malaysia once more... Quote
Big Wheel Posted September 2, 2004 Report Posted September 2, 2004 Don't think I haven't contemplated skipping town to avoid having to put up the shutters. I moved some of them into position tonight and even that sucked. As for the trip, pictures are all up here... Quote
BruceH Posted September 2, 2004 Report Posted September 2, 2004 Yikes! It's been, what, less than THREE WEEKS since hurricane Charley? Global warming at work. Hope all you guys in or near Florida ride it out safely. (Batten down the vinyl!) Quote
Peter Johnson Posted September 2, 2004 Report Posted September 2, 2004 Of course, read phonetically, the title of this thread is "France is coming to get us" which is, all things considered, not so bad. 32-hour work week! Red wine in the drinking fountains! Sign me up! Quote
connoisseur series500 Posted September 2, 2004 Report Posted September 2, 2004 Don't think I haven't contemplated skipping town to avoid having to put up the shutters. I moved some of them into position tonight and even that sucked. As for the trip, pictures are all up here... I looked at those pics and they brought back some memories for me. I loved Suan Pakkard. I had forgotten the name of that place. Been there many times. I lived walking distance from that house for 11 years! Quote
vibes Posted September 2, 2004 Report Posted September 2, 2004 Working in retail and trying to deal with natural disasters like this is always interesting. Batteries is one of the categories I deal with, and we've sold more C and D batteries in Florida the last four days than we sell chainwide in some months. As far as I can tell from what and how much we're selling, people aren't taking their chances with Frances. Best wishes to all our board members in Florida. Quote
JSngry Posted September 2, 2004 Report Posted September 2, 2004 Of course, read phonetically, the title of this thread is "France is coming to get us" which is, all things considered, not so bad. 32-hour work week! Red wine in the drinking fountains! Sign me up! Well, that's assuming that they actually GET here... Quote
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