Hurricane Fear Support Group Meeting is on

[GratefulFred]

Repeat after me Floridians: You ain't so bad! Come on you MFers, bring it on. Whatcha gonna do hit me with one of your whimpy tornados? Catagoree 1? Ha, might as well fly a kite in ya. Guess what windy? As soon as your eye passes me I'm gonna run out and chuck a frisbee in ya sucker!

Ok...repeat this as necessary. Once you are emotionally prepared to ride out the storm go pull out some board games when the power goes out.

Non-Floridians may repeat the oath if they are in the path.

 

[SummerMorning]

When I saw your name I thought it was GratefulDed for a minute...

 

[BlackSnake]

Ha! I remember hurricane Fredrick. I was in Mobile, Al at the time. People boarded up their homes, stores, put boats away, and then began to mock the storm.

They painted "Ready for Freddy" over their boarded up windows and doors.

As the storm came, I watched large pecan trees that looked amonus my entire life bow down to Freddy's strong winds. The tops of the trees that once touched the sky, reunioned with the ground for the first time in maybe a hundred years or more. Trash cans and old car tires flew down the street without bouncing on the pavement.

We sat on a screened in porch as the wind wripped away the mess drinking cheep wine and smoking weed. My mom and other neighbors who gathered together played spades (a card game) by candle light.

A few hours passed and there was a steal that fell. We chuckled and laughed about a terrible storm that turned out tobe a flopped. My mother and her friends rushed out dragging us inside securing the door and rechecking the window. I remember feeling their panic. They counted heads and see balled all of the animals.

I felt that they were trippin'. The winds were strong before, but hadn't done any real damage. The entire house like it was hit by an earthwake. There were loud crashes and howling winds. The noise outside was so loud that a shout could barely beheard. I got a little taste of fear.

I was told that the calm was the eye and the backside of the storm was much worse. When the storm was over the next day, the portch where we had been getting high was gone; scattered in a debri trail across other neighbors yards and the few trees that remained standing.

We climbed through the tops of fallen trees trying to make our way home. As we got on our street, we could not see our house for the fallen trees around it. I think I saw my mother shake for the first time.

My brother and I climb through the thick branches to our house. All the large trees around our house had fallen; front back and both sides, but not one had fallen on our house. The front end of my mother's car was point almost straight up to the sky. It had been parked on the right side of the house; between the house and a large tree. It was determed that when the tree fell, it slid down the side of the car, causing it to miss the house.

The house was nearly undamaged, but a lot of my neighbors weren't so lucky. It was a good thing that some of them were smart enough to leave town. Hurrican Fredrick showed that you can not be full prepared.

My thoughts are: Leave now! Go inland as far as you can. You can not save anything against Gail force winds.

 

[R. Richard]

I lived through a hurricane in Charleston, SC. It was not fun. My hope are with those in the path.

 

[shereads]

"It's at times like this, when we see mortality staring us in the face, that we find out who our friends are."

~ Channel 6 weatherman Roland Steadam, whose courageous on-air nervous breakdown prior to Hurricane Whatsis (Charles? Larry?) would no doubt have saved dozens of lives if it had taken place in states where the storm actually hit.

Another of Roland's greatest hits from that same broadcast:

"People of the Bahamas! You have to get out of there!"

 

[shereads]

My thoughts are: Leave now! Go inland as far as you can. You can not save anything against Gail force winds.

Inland doesn't always work, down here on the narrow end of the Florida peninsula.

Before Hurricane Andrew, we were advised to drive across the state, instead of up, because the storm was expected to continue up the coast. It changed its mind and went directly across the state.

I spent 8 hours driving 120 miles, in traffic so thick there were 4 lanes of cars on 2 lanes of road. People were driving on the median and at the side of the road, which only works until you reach a bridge. Not pretty.



If the storm had taken a different path, I'd have been in the middle of it, stuck in a traffic jam a few inches above sea level.

At home, I can at least watch the TV weathermen enjoy their moment in the spotlight until the power goes out.





"You call this a storm?! This is the best you can do?!"

~ Lieutenant Dan, Forrest Gump

 

[BlackSnake]

Inland doesn't always work, down here on the narrow end of the Florida peninsula.

Before Hurricane Andrew, we were advised to drive across the state, instead of up, because the storm was expected to continue up the coast. It changed its mind and went directly across the state.

I spent 8 hours driving 120 miles, in traffic so thick there were 4 lanes of cars on 2 lanes of road. People were driving on the median and at the side of the road, which only works until you reach a bridge. Not pretty.



If the storm had taken a different path, I'd have been in the middle of it, stuck in a traffic jam a few inches above sea level.

At home, I can at least watch the TV weathermen enjoy their moment in the spotlight until the power goes out.





"You call this a storm?! This is the best you can do?!"

~ Lieutenant Dan, Forrest Gump

My mother is at my house now. She left the are yesterday. You have plenty of warning with these storms. Sitting around waiting to see what the storm is going to do will only put you in traffic. North is the direction inland I'm talking about. I know it's along way, but Atlanta is a nice place to visit, besides we're only getting rain. Some babes look really hot when they're wet

 

[OldnotDead]

Each storm is different along with the terrain it chooses to visit. Storms that were 'wimpy' along the coast have gone inland and flooded out entire communities while hardly a tree gets bent. If it's YOUR electricity or YOUR basement or whatever, it's a bad storm.

I remember Frederick. My family is from Mobile and we followed the news carefully, concerned about relatives.

Gloria went through my yard while we had gone inland. Our neighbors were trapped in their house with two or out trees blocking their front and back doors.

My guess is that if the forecasters are right, the worst hit communities are going to be some inland, Midatlantic folks that are already well soaked and have no place for all the extra rain to go.

Even in mild weather, it's no fun to be without electricity and water. Wishing minimal damage and even less inconvenience for anyone that gets visited.

 

[shereads]

You have plenty of warning with these storms. Sitting around waiting to see what the storm is going to do will only put you in traffic.

That's my point, Snake. We don't have any credible warning until half a day or so before landfall, because the predictions aren't that accurate. A retired person, if she's able, I'd encourage to leave as soon as it begins to seem certain she's in the storm's path, but if I evacuated every time we have a close-call, I'd spend half the summer missing work. We have half a dozen serious watches and warnings every hurricane season. With a Cat 1 most people won't get more than a heavy rain, but if you happen to be directly in the path of it you're in for a miserable time. Still, I would prefer to be here than on the highway listening to the guessiing game on the radio and hoping they're right about where the storm is headed.

North is the direction inland I'm talking about.

Hurricane Andrew changed direction and went across the state instead of north. "Do not drive north," we were told. "Drive west." If I had left an hour earlier, I'd have been driving west with no way to turn back when the report came that the storm was now expectged to go west instead of north.

There are plenty of warnings, but they don't get specific until the hours before landfall.

 

[BlackSnake]

I maybe wrong, but I don't recall any hurricane that didn't go Northeast when it made landfall. Even when they hit along the Texas border, the turn Northeast.

I'm referring to hurricanes in the gulf.

 

[BlackSnake]

My first

Hurricane Camille 1969

This powerful, deadly, and destructive hurricane formed just west of the Cayman Islands on August 14. It rapidly intensified and by the time it reached western Cuba the next day it was a Category 3 hurricane. Camille tracked north-northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico and became a Category 5 hurricane on August 16. The hurricane maintained this intensity until it made landfall along the Mississippi coast late on the 17th. Camille weakened to a tropical depression as it crossed Mississippi into western Tennessee and Kentucky, then it turned eastward across West Virginia and Virginia. The cyclone moved into the Atlantic on August 20 and regained tropical storm strength before becoming extratropical on the 22nd.

A minimum pressure of 26.84 inches was reported in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, which makes Camille the second most intense hurricane of record to hit the United States. The actual maximum sustained winds will never be known, as the hurricane destroyed all the wind-recording instruments in the landfall area. The estimates at the coast are near 200 mph. Columbia, Mississippi, located 75 miles inland, reported 120 mph sustained winds. A storm tide of 24.6 ft occurred at Pass Christian, Mississippi. The heaviest rains along the Gulf Coast were about 10 inches. However, as Camille passed over the Virginias, it produced a burst of 12 to 20 inch rains with local totals of up to 31 inches. Most of this rain occurred in 3 to 5 hours and caused catastrophic flash flooding.

The combination of winds, surges, and rainfalls caused 256 deaths (143 on the Gulf Coast and 113 in the Virginia floods) and $1.421 billion in damage. Three deaths were reported in Cuba.

by Hurricane History

 

[BlackSnake]

It took a minute, but here is the path of Hurricane Frederic

 

[GratefulFred]

Hurricane's are bad meteorologist are badder...

Ever since that little fireplug Andrew cut through south dade, our weathermen always have the attitude that each tropical storm can turn into a catagoree 5 and nail us. Their body language oozes with disappointment when a potential tropical storm just don't seem to be able to strike us. For such reason, I'll just board up and ignore them. Publix and Home Depot beg for these tragedies as people go and buy their inflated priced products.

Get your frisbees handy people. Once the wings kick up let 'er rip. Please respond with distance people.

 

[Dream Keeper]

Floridian Here! I'm riding out the storm, and guess what? I didn't even buy provisions! Ha! It's not gonna be that bad...

 

[Edward Teach]

Shepard Smith - Fox's Jerk

Some of you may remember Hurricane Floyd in Sept, 1999. It was a cat 5 storm, 500 miles wide with winds topping 150mph, bearing down on Miami.

It caused the largest evacuation in US history with people trying to flee the coasts from southern Fl to New England.

At the last minute it turned north brushing the FL coast and came ashore as a cat 3 storm in North Carolina. It stalled over the flat coastal plain of NC dumping over 10 inches of rain per hour and flooded almost 25% of the state. Whole towns were washed away.

Shepard Smith, the jerk, was doing a play-by-play for Fox News ( that's an oxymoron for you folks).

He actually screamed in his best excited sportscaster voice,"Look out, Outer Banks, here it comes! You're next! You're in for a world of hurt!"

Then, to show his sensitive side, announced that the storm had taken a more easterly course and would likely miss New Jersey, sparing the cancellation of the Miss Ameica Pageant, thank goodness.

What a guy!

Ed

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Any of you eastern dwellers wants a nice dry place to stay, come to Lucky's. Only requirements here are putting the toilet seat down and waving to everyone you pass in the car.

~lucky

p.s. Tipping your hat to elderly ladies and responding with "Yes ma'am/No ma'am" is a MUST!

 

[Dream Keeper]

I don't own a hat! http://graphics.gaiaonline.com/forum/images/smiles/icon_crying.gif

 

[SeaCat]

I've been through two hurricanes, and I can't count how many Nor'Easters. I fear Nor'easters more than I do a cat 1 or 2 hurricane. (If I lose power here in West Palm Beach it's a nusance, if I lost power in the middle of the Winter on Cape Cod it could prove to be a problem. (Catsicklse don't taste good, and they smell terrible when they defrost.)

On the other hand I have a well stocked kit, and I work in a hosptial so I have a safe place to be during the storm.

Here in West Palm we're not forecast to get hit too bad. Winds gusting to maybe 50, and rains of maybe 6 inches.

Being your typical hich I have done a few extra things over the past couple of days. I have filled the gas tank in the van. I have purchased an extra case of beer, (as well as two bottles of Tequila and another box of Cigars.) I have wrapped the toilet paper in plastic bags. Oh and I have also picked up another bottle of bleach as well as more filters for my hand pump.

As for normal activities which might have some bearing on this, I changed magazines in the handguns and shotgun on Monday. (The normal day for this.) This is something I do every Monday.

Hunkered down and watching with amusement as my neighbors and co-workers freak out once again.

Cat

 

[Edward Teach]

Any of you eastern dwellers wants a nice dry place to stay, come to Lucky's. Only requirements here are putting the toilet seat down and waving to everyone you pass in the car.

~lucky

p.s. Tipping your hat to elderly ladies and responding with "Yes ma'am/No ma'am" is a MUST!

How big is your boat?

Ed

 

[shereads]

Even in mild weather, it's no fun to be without electricity and water.

Man. You can say that again. Andrew did its worst just south of here; wiped out my friend's scuba diving business; lifted a 50-foot boat and depostited it upside-down in the parking lot (not a single scratch on either side of the hull.) I was lucky, but lucky is a relative term when you spend weeks crawling under trees to reach your front door. The fallen trees are what saved the contents of the apartment - the softer limbs at the top of one were resting against the glass patio door.

Talk about clueless! I had draped sheets over my computer and stereo before I left!



I had also chained my bicycle to a fence outside the apartment in case the winds were strong. The fence and the bicycle were crushed...But I was lucky. I had a phone, and I had bought enough bottled water, and I had friends a bit farther north with Electricity. THE GRAIL.

Hell is August in Miami without so much as an electric fan. An apartment in what used to be a neighborhood of tree-lined streets loses much of its charm when the trees left standing are brown skeleton things and every part with leaves left on it is blocking the streets. I'd park a block away and hike home after work; crawl to the door. Spend the remaining daylight with my upstairs neighbor, cutting limbs with a handsaw and a pruning saw until we had cleared a path. No garbage collection, even after the roads were cleared, because every available landfill was full of debris before the first week was out. The fragrance of three-week old garbage piled alongside the street is memorable.

What loves a city with no garbage service? Rodents, that's who! They bred like...well, rodents. I think they ate the stray cats.

But the worst thing was the heat. I've never felt such heat. Not a fan to stir the breeze; every window open but blocked by fallen trees.

I learned that dogs can sweat.

How else can you explain that when she'd get up from a nap, there would be a dog-shaped damp spot on the floor?

Rumors about the return of electricty were the major topic of conversation in our neighborhood for three weeks. Every night, creeped out by the absolute blackness of houses where a burning candle made the room seem hotter somehow, neighbors would emerge from their individual black holes and hike through the gradually clearing rubble. Conversations went like this:

"Hi."

"Hi."

{depressed silence}

"Any news about FPL?" {our electric utility}

"I heard they were in Coral Gables today."

"That's good. That's close."

"Yeah."

{depressed silence}

A third neighbor would arrive, with better news:

"We'll have power by day after tomorrow!"

"You're kidding?!"

"No, I talked to a crew over in the Gables. The guy swore to me."

{the guy lied}

During week three I was able to borrow a portable generator from a friend whose street had been blessed with a visit from FPL. I used it to power a lamp and, theoretically, the a/c unit in the bedroom. The power output wasn't enough to make cold air, but the fan blew air at the ceiling and I pretended it was cold. The trick is to shower in a t-shirt and pj pants and try to get to sleep while the cotton is still wet. The silence when the generator would run out of gas would wake me up and I'd spray myself with Deep Woods Off to fool one out of every three mosquitos, and I'd curse the flashlight and pound it on something until it came on.

The dog would stare up balefully from her tile floor, wondering why I bothered. No doubt, she was wondering if she could apply for a transfer to a home with a more comfortable lifestyle.

The best moment at the apartment was coming home at the start of week 4 and noticing, as soon as I opened the door, that the ceiling fan was turning. Hallelujah! We had electricity! We were a community of gods! Hot showers followed by cold a/c are the best thing, aren't they? Add some cooked food and a cold Diet Coke and you are in heaven.

The worst moment at the apartment was the 3rd day after Andrew, when I opened a file cabinet and felt a rush of cooler air.

I had released a drawer-full of what had once been air-conditioned air, and it had felt amazing for a full second.

The dog and I sat on the floor in the dark and cried.

And we were lucky.

 

[shereads]

Re: Shepard Smith - Fox's Jerk

He actually screamed in his best excited sportscaster voice,"Look out, Outer Banks, here it comes! You're next! You're in for a world of hurt!"

Good one.

You have to love the way local TV weatherguys embrace their moment in the not-so-much-sun, whether it's blizzard season or hurricane season. I'll bet the Dust Bowl in the 30's was narrated by a weatherman in overalls with slicked-back hair and a microphone made out of string and tin cans.

The first clue I had last week that hurricane season was revving up in earnest was a change in the weatherguy's mood. He was perky when he was introduced just before the station break.

Too perky, I thought. This can't be good.

Imagine the bullying they take from the sports announcer during the other 6 months of the year. Not to mention the news anchor team, who are always named Matt and Shelly or Scott and Eileen.


Who else has Doppler Wars among two or more of their local stations?

When one station intrroduces Doppler Radarcast, its competitor has to top it with MegaDoppler StormCast. Next comes Uber-Doppler KickAss RadarMegaWeather. After that, it can get ugly.

 

[shereads]

Re: Hurricane's are bad meteorologist are badder...

Ever since that little fireplug Andrew cut through south dade, our weathermen always have the attitude that each tropical storm can turn into a catagoree 5 and nail us. Their body language oozes with disappointment when a potential tropical storm just don't seem to be able to strike us. For such reason, I'll just board up and ignore them. Publix and Home Depot beg for these tragedies as people go and buy their inflated priced products.

Get your frisbees handy people. Once the wings kick up let 'er rip. Please respond with distance people.

The plum job is the on-location guy who courageously drives down to the Florida Keys, delivers the build-up of the century, shows black & white archive photos of the "No-Name Hurricane" that took out the overseas railroad and several thousand of the men who built it, dresses up in an Eddie Bauer rain parka and stands on the seawall warning the locals to stay away from the water.

Then, when nothing happens, he's no doubt the first volunteer to take down the plywood at Sloppy Joe's. If he's lucky, a waitress will mistake him for the sportscaster.

 

[shereads]

1) Water 2) Toilet paper in a ziplock bag 3) More than three battery-operated fans from Walgreens. It takes at least two of them to move air. 4) A gross of batteries. They will inevitably not be the ones you're looking for, but maybe you can trade them for more toilet paper.



Those are the basic necessities. The truely prepared hurricane survivor-wannabe will keep an emergency stash of food, but contrary to what's popularly done, these should not be foods that you like. Those get consumed piece by piece throughout the year when you crave a poptart. I recommend CheezWhiz in a weird flavor, packets of oil-free tuna, and many rolls of Lifesavers candies in your least-favorite flavor. We're talking emergency sustenance here, not dining. You're not going to like the food anyway, when it's so hot the dog is sweating.


Courage, Pornsters.

Floridian Here! I'm riding out the storm, and guess what? I didn't even buy provisions! Ha! It's not gonna be that bad...

 

[lucky-E-leven]

1) Water 2) Toilet paper in a ziplock bag 3) More than three battery-operated fans from Walgreens. It takes at least two of them to move air. 4) A gross of batteries. They will inevitably not be the ones you're looking for, but maybe you can trade them for more toilet paper.



Those are the basic necessities. The truely prepared hurricane survivor-wannabe will keep an emergency stash of food, but contrary to what's popularly done, these should not be foods that you like. Those get consumed piece by piece throughout the year when you crave a poptart. I recommend CheezWhiz in a weird flavor, packets of oil-free tuna, and many rolls of Lifesavers candies in your least-favorite flavor. We're talking emergency sustenance here, not dining. You're not going to like the food anyway, when it's so hot the dog is sweating.


Courage, Pornsters.

Are the lifesavers for the pooch, or do you just give her the cheez whiz?

~lucky

 

[shereads]

Are the lifesavers for the pooch, or do you just give her the cheez whiz?

~lucky

Bite your tongue, girl! I always make sure there's nutrious food for the dog. She will take my emergency Cheezwhiz when she pries it from my cold, dead fingers.

In a real emergency, she'll probably snack on my remains before I'm found. So in a way, she benefits from the Lifesavers, the CheezeWhiz and the Gatorade.