I am just listening to Gov. Bush's speech and I think he just said "you could be in the eye for 5-10hours" warning people not to think it is over just because the eye is so hugh. Did anyone else hear this ???
Weather Channel Addicts
I didn't hear that, but that could be very true. When the eye passes over there is a calm, giving the notion that the storm is over when it is not.
Blooms, they must train the mets to do that! LOL. Whatever channel....they always park themselves right over the pertinent on-screen information. Why display it if they are going to obscure it?
old_rose, that is so. Frances' eye is a large one and, since she is moving so slowly, it will take hours for the eye to pass over an area. Unfortunately, after the eye moves over a spot, the winds and rains return from the opposite direction, and usually worse than before.
The danger is that when the eye passes over, some people think that the storm is over, never expecting the impending return of the storm from the opposite direction.
Frances is moving SO slowly that the rain bands will also linger over land for a long time and will probably produce flooding rains. Not a good situation at all.
Jean
I've been switching back an forth between the Weather Channel and CNN for coverage of Frances. The CNN channel seems to stay on longer!
Waving my hand --- I love TWC! As a matter of fact, the radar online today has been so interesting with this hurricane-aftermath rain. It's really weird to see storms coming in from the southeast. They usually come from the east or northeast for us. This was our radar earlier today. I marked the direction the storms were heading. The red circle is our approximate location.
This message was edited Sep 8, 2004 1:47 AM
Hey, Shoe...Meant to say that it's easy for you to watch the sky, what with you lying on your back out in the grass daydreamin'. ;)
pattischell, how did you weather the storm? My sis and her husband sheltered in the American Legion on US 1. They lost their mobile home and lost part of the roof on the Legion, but are alive and well, thank the good lord!!
Guess we are all anxiously awaiting Patischell to check in...
Hi weather addicts! I posted a hello on the Parking Lot forum. Please read it there. For my weather friends, here is my personal timeline:
Wed/Thurs 9/1 &2....Boarding up, moving plants, 9/2 birthday cake for me!!!
Friday 9/3...lost power and water 11AM..winds building all day....11PM wind at sustained125 MPH, gust 135MPH, incredible sound.....11:30 PM tornado passes within 3 blocks, REALLY incredible sound! Midnight....exausted sleep in spite of noise.
Saturday 9/4...3AM ..woke up suddenly because of SILENCE! Quiet until 7AM when it came back from the other direction with a vengence. Only good thing is it my big Bounganvilla blew flat with the first wind and the wind change blew it the other way, so now it is almost upright! LOL
I love weather, but with hurricane Charley, Frances and maybe Ivan so close together, I don't have time to really just enjoy it LOL
Pati
So happy you are back!
You really get a high off those storms Pati....I'd much rather have a good lightning storm any day. I'll post again I wish you would leave!!!, but I know you won't .... you and all the other stubborn Floridians will be in my thoughts over these next few days.
I think she is a thrill seeker, Lilypon. She will probably take up sky diving when the weather settles down!
Yea! Pati's back! (and SAFE)
I know she is........and I wish she wasn't!! If Ivan hits without downgrading...... Pati, her building and most of Florida will be bobbing along in the Atlantic.
If I insulted you Pati would you leave to come beat me up???????????
Florida could be History if Ivan hits with the winds he now has... and the forecasters say it could increase intensity. Is there more than a Cat5???
I have a spare bedroom...
Somebody can camp under my cottonwood. No, I take that back! That old tree is going to blow onto my house someday. :-)
I lost my edits again today...but to clear things up my statement "I know she is...and I wish she wasn't" was in reply to Imway2dumb's post. Didn't see Darius' before I posted. :S
Darius the weather guy just said "Ivan has reached a caegory 5 the highest on the scale and it may get stronger" .... didn't even seem to realize the contradiction he had just stated.
I get it Lily, referring to Pati being a thrill seeker. She has a group of ten for company and as crowded and ridiculous the path of evacuation is now - perhaps she's better off staying at this point. It's problematic being able to stop and refill your gas tank halfway thru the state. BT was so late in posting I had feared he was swimming the 'glades. And Lutz is not so great either.
And nobody who knows cottonwoods would camp under one even in good weather - they self prune way too readily. Sometimes it's a perfectly healthy looking branch. hee hee. ~Blooms
This message was edited Sep 9, 2004 12:02 PM
Thats true Blooms, mine does in mildly breezy weather. One third of it came down a little over a year ago during a thunderstorm. Didn't even hear it the wind was so loud. Some of the neighbors said it was a small tornado but, it was straight line winds. Had it been a tornado the downed trees in the area would have fallen every which way. These downed trees all faced pretty much the same direction.
Pati, so glad that you are back!
I just pray that Ivan loses strength as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico. Too soon to tell where it might make landfall and there must be lots of nervous folks watching this one. For once in my life, I am glad that I am NOT in Jamaica!
LOL Nat! Glad to see you back Pati! Hang in there for the next one, mabbie he will go somewhere else!
So good to have you OK and posting again! I just knew you were OK, I felt it in my heart! But I'm sure glad to have it confirmed.
You take care with Ivan. We'll be watching it with you!
I have friends in Naples, how is it there, anybody knows?
Maria
The Grand Cayman is sitting right on the north side of the eye as I type, getting the daylights knocked right out of them. There are only a few folks left there, and one of the shelters had lost a door. I've been checking a site on the Caribbean - http://stormcarib.com The folks that live there were posting as long as they could.
Blooms, thank you so much for this website. I have traveled the Caribbean for so many years and love those islands so much. It's been a number of years since I have been to Cayman, in fact they were still using tenders off the cruise ships then. I remember getting off the tender, going up a few steps from the dock and there you were! All the streets run straight back from the dock. I just can't imagine the devestation the surge will cause there. Alas, the turtle pens will go and seven mile beach will probably not even exist anymore. If I remember correctly, 50 ' is the high point of the island. Many prayers for the beautiful Caymens.
Pati
Did you read any of the threads for Grenada? And absolutely not a word in our media. Shame on us.
Apparantly North side of Grand was faring best so far.
I've been reading those threads for a couple of days now.....I feel sick reading their messages and then looking at the pictures of the size of their Islands and that monster on their doorstep. The Caymans are reporting that even well constructed houses in affluent neighborhoods are showing significant damage. :S
Blooms, I keep going back to the website, but my electric keeps having "senior moments", just goes off and forgets to come back on for a few hours. LOL When the TV is on, the Weather Channel is doing good coverage on Granada and Jamaica, or at least with as much footage as they have.
If I lived near where the storm surge would hit, or in a mobile home, I would leave in a New York minute. But, that being said, I live in a home that is very well constructed and has a good safe room. I would rather be here than on the road, or staying in a hotel (we lost several) or a shelter without my furkids. My daughter (Red Cross) had to evacuate 600 people from a shelter that lost it's roof while the storm was blowing. If they are going to use schools as shelters they should require the gym or cafeteria be built to a hurricane standard. Sorry, better get down off my soap box before I get carried away and Dave has to scold me *grin*
Before the storm is the adrenaline rush and preperation, next, during the storm is the adrenaline rush and FEAR, then after the storm the wonderful feeling of meeting mother nature face to face and winning! Then comes the looooooooooonnnnggg recovery. As the old quote goes "A jug of wine, a loaf of bread and thou", mine is "A pack of balony, fresh loaf of bread and cold milk". *grin*. The squirrels are back, some birds are showing up, the ants are on the march again......LIFE IS GOOD!
Pati
Now TWC is predicting that Ivan will take a similar path as Frances once it makes land fall in the Panhandle! Those guys are all over the place on this one. I hate it when folks say they know something and really don't!
Now, now, iw2d, don't get your shorts in a bind.*grin* You know they are working with 6 different models, and I have the feeling they are all blond females. (Sorry blond females, bad joke). Just go out and sit under that Cottonwood tree, have a glass of sweettea, and think good thoughts, bless your heart!
Pati
Oops! Guess I was binding up there. I walked around a little and feel much better now!
The weather channel here just showed Grenada......in an aerial shot of over hundred houses only two look to be somewhat intact. Ours, too, is still showing the Florida Panhandle as the expected site of landing. Don't want to wish that storm on anyone........really, really hope some miraculous weather/water phenomenon will stop it in it's track.
The Canadian Red Cross is begging for donations for all that are in it's path....our eastern provinces have convoys of Hydro trucks and workers that left for Florida two days ago.
Hi lilypon, CANADA ROCKS!!!! It's a good time to have good neighbors! So many of our states have sent convoys of different types of workers, mostly electric. A group from KY is working on my electric. They work 16 on and 8 off and it's really hard, hot work. Of course we have had a united nations type group of TV crews here, and they all seem to be at the marina in Fort Pierce. LOL Too bad the TIKI Bar and Resturant blew away, best spot in town, but it went the way of the marina!
Pati
I know many here were so grateful for the Americans' help when the ice storms hit the eastern provinces and left many without heat and power when it was well below zero!!! I remember pictures of people crying they were so happy to see the convoys from the U.S. arrive when they were in dire straits! I am so happy that our two countries are quick to lend a neighborly hand when people are in their darkest hour.
For those that haven't looked at the Storm Caribbean link this is the latest from the Cayman's:
"Gretchen Allen
Associated Press Correspondent
HOUSTON (AP) – Reports out of Grand Cayman, which has been furiously pummeled by category 4 Hurricane Ivan overnight and throughout Sunday morning, via internet and telephone, reveal a picture of grim devastation.
So far, Ivan has caused the deaths of some 56 people in the Caribbean on its deadly rampage from the Lesser Antilles, across Grenada, on to Jamaica and now Cayman.
Yesterday the Governor of the Cayman Islands, Mr. Bruce Dinwiddy, declared a State of Emergency.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, the Weather Channel reported that the island had been lashed by winds in excess of 200 mph.
Ivan was 60 miles west of Grand Cayman, traveling to the west at 10 mph, according to a National Hurricane Center Advisory.
There are unconfirmed reports that part of the capital, George Town, is “gone”, that roofs are blowing around in the streets of George Town, and that the hospital has been badly damaged, or is possibly also “gone”.
Two British ships are reported to be 250 miles behind Ivan, waiting to come into port to come to Cayman’s aid. The Cayman Islands are a British Overseas Territory (colony).
Vehicles in flood-prone areas have are said to have “just disappeared”.
There is two feet of water at Owen Roberts International Airport.
Hurricane shelters on island are full to capacity.
An estimated 80 percent of the roof of Queensgate House, a waterfront commercial office building on the south side of the capital overlooking the harbour, has been blown off.
“It’s as bad as it can possibly get,” Justin Uzzell, 35, told the Associated Press by telephone about noon Houston time on Sunday, also noon Cayman time (Houston is on Daylight Savings Time, Cayman is not) from his fifth-floor refuge in the Citrus Grove Building downtown. “It’s a horizontal blizzard,” he described, saying he could see no further than the parking lot of the adjacent building. “The air is just foam. It’s a white wall. We’re being buffeted badly”.
At the Marriott Resort on Cayman’s famed Seven Mile Beach, its prime tourism product, windows were blown out of the 300+ room facility, and the cars in the parking lot had water up to their rooftops. Children of guests were said to be “going bonkers” from being “cooped up”.
“A catastrophe”, was how one landlord described the residential area of Crewe Road in George Town.
The island has been without electricity since Saturday evening and phone service is often impossible. Cell phone batteries are wearing down or are spent.
Canal-front developments, such as Governor’s Harbour and Snug Harbour, are flooded.
The Hyatt Britannia Resort’s canal which flows into the North Sound has overflowed due to the storm surge, and the Britannia Villas are flooded inside, as is the golf course. Cars there are under water.
At 12:50 p.m. “winds are fiercer than ever”, reported one Cayman resident on the website stormcarib.com, which featured many posting from people seeking information on their loved ones.
Here in Houston, some 125 evacuees who arrived from Grand Cayman Friday afternoon on a special charter flight hired by Cayman-based Dart Management Ltd. to bring its employee resources to safety, were worried and frustrated at not being able to get through by cell phone, hearing “all circuits are currently busy”. They continue to try to reach friends and relatives in their storm-tossed country.
Although the eye of the storm is now 60 miles southwest of the coast of Grand Cayman, Ivan’s hurricane-force winds (155 mph, with gusts to 190 mph) extend out 90 miles from the storm’s center, and it is presently moving west-northwest at 10 mph. Tropical storm-force winds extend out 120 miles. That means Grand Cayman is in for hours more of continued bashing.
The three Cayman Islands – Cayman Brac, Little Cayman, and Grand Cayman, 90 miles to the southeast of the Sister Islands – are home to about 45,000 people with well over 90 percent of them residing in Grand Cayman.
Flood waters were threatening the integrity of the Allista Towers Building in George Town.
There were unconfirmed reports that the roof had blown off the Kirk Servistar Home Center on Eastern Avenue.
Cars in the area of Cayman’s airport are said to have “floated off down the road”.
There were reports of 135-mile-an-hour winds out of the northeast over the last two hours.
Winds were so strong around noon on Saturday that “trees were bending down to the ground” along the West Bay Road, the island’s main road and tourist strip which runs parallel to Seven Mile Beach.
There is no radio service, leaving residents in the dark as to when and where the storm is going.
At midday people who sought shelter in the Walkers Building in the center of town were said to be okay.
Communiques from the Citrus Grove Building also said people seeking shelter there were safe.
The Huntlaw Building in the same area had its roof torn off around 8 a.m.
If Hurricane Ivan, which is reported to be developing a concentric (second) eye wall, winds increase by just one mile an hour, it will again be classed as a category 5 storm.
It is kicking up waves 15 – 25 feet, or two stories high. Cayman is experiencing 8 – 12-inches of rain.
According to the Weather Channel, Hurricane Ivan is the sixth strongest hurricane in the Atlantic basin in recorded history.
It is taking a track similar to that of Hurricanes Charley and Gilbert, which visited Cayman in 1988, and has been called the “son of Gilbert”.
At noon Cayman time, Ivan’s coordinates were 19 N., 81.5 W., with wind gusts to 190mph.
“The wind is howling and there are no leaves left on any of the trees,” Perry Garrison told his wife, Shruty, in Houston by phone from Cayman."
This message was edited Sep 12, 2004 1:36 PM
I just got through reading that on the Storm Caribbean link, and it made me feel, once again, how fortunate we are. Our trailer parks were badly damaged here, but over in Punta Gorda with Charley, they looked like a bomb exploded them. I can only imagine that it will be worse than that in Cayman.
I guess I have been a Floridian too long to even imagine what it would be like to be without heat and power and COLD. It's really hot here, but we can always wet down and get cool. Now that's one kind of storm that would have me knocking on your door for a warm room and a hot cuppa' coffee!
Pati
I am so thankful for those of you who post news and stories I would not hear otherwise. Doesn't make the devastation any easier to comprehend, just more time to get Prayers in order.
Lilypon, Yes, we are different countries, and even within my own country, we are different states with differing agendas. Isn't it nice we can humanly put those things aside in Times of Need?
Oh yes...people helping people is the greatest grace of all!
My Husband Loves good Jazz and when we first met in 96', we didn't have all the subscription radio services like XM. I was perplexed as to why it was always on that channel. He would leave it on the weather channel for the music!! He wished they would name the artist and title too!!
:)
Susan McCoy
They DO play good music!
I know I'm a weather addict because I turn on the weather channel before I look out the window. I refer to the meteorologists on a first name basis, the only Jennifer Lopez I know is on TWC, I want Jim Cantore to visit Buffalo during a Blizzard, and I'd pay thru the nose for a storm stories T-shirt.