A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2004 Hurricane Frances

Anyone in the path of this one?
Good luck to you! Its a big one!!!

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/FLOAT/VIS/20.jpg

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/images/frances090204-2015z.jpg

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http://radar.weather.gov/radar/loop/DS.p20-r/si.kamx.shtml

Gardenmom is THERE!!!
And, Andy left FOR Clearwater a few hours ago !

Cindy, did Karen leave yet??? I hope so!!! I'd be driving as far as I could.....

And I hope Andy drives as fast as he can and gets back safely!

I haven't heard from Karen this morning. I'm watching the "Weather Channel" 24/7. Looks like Frances is slowing down a little, so that will give people a LITTLE more time to leave. The traffic is unreal. I hope to see Karen on here soon!!! My stomach is in knots!

Cindy

I just called Andy. He is already in Clearwater getting the Land Rover his friend bought loaded on the trailer! So, they will be heading back shortly, which will be a whole new ballgame with millions of people all driving North right now!


Karen, where are you???
The "Weather Channel" guy is reporting LIVE from Jacksonville right now! (Walk behind him and wave to me! )

Cindy

George and I got up real early and went shopping...refilled our propane tanks,bought groceries and other necessary supplies. I wrote a very long post this morning,but then Bill started doing maintenace on the site so I don't know where it went.
Now that it is going towards the north we are more in line for a bad hit. Even if it turns to the west it is far enough up, to where we will be on the north side(the bad side) If it doesn't turn we will be in a direct line(if you pull up a map of Florida counties we are in the extreme SW part of Duval county,almost at the Clay county line(rural area).
The mayor held a press conference and has asked people in low lying areas and mobile homes(we just bought this doublwide in Dec.)to voluntarily evacuate. As the day goes on and if the storm doesn't turn, we will be going to mandatory evacuations. He said it is likely that there will be major loss of power in our area.
We are packed up and ready to go...but there is NOWHERE to run to at this time...the expressways and rest stops are like parking lots(estimated 2.5 million evacuees are coming through our area)the closest available hotel rooms are in North Carolina. If the need arises I guess we'll have to go to a shelter.
We are boarding up our windows(there is no more plywood available,we checked)with lattice work and 2x4's(better than nothing!)and are securing all outside stuff. The van is gassed up and we have 2-5 gallon cans of gas.
I have exchanged phone #s with Cindy, so I can keep in touch,when and if we lose power.

We are VERY nervous about this storm. I have lived in Jax. my whole life and have been through many brushes. I was here in 1964 when we took a direct hit and it was horrible, I was only 2yo but have vivid memories of the storm itself and the aftermath(actually this is my first childhood memory)
We are hoping for the best but are prepared for the worst. It has been downgraded a bit and that IS good news. I guess we're just playing the waiting game now.

Thank you for your concern

Karen

I was going to ask you if you were there and remembered the hurricane in '64.

I feel SO bad for you. I'm glad you got the extra cans of gas. From what they're saying on TV they are rationing it IF you're lucky enough to find it!

So, I guess it will be about this time tomorrow when the proverbial $h!T will be hitting the fan, right?

What do you do with your pets if you have to go to a shelter?????

Here's a pretty good WEBCAM at Daytona Beach.

Also, a listing of Florida webcams .

With the way its slowing down, they're saying sunday pm or monday am.

I'm not sure about the pets,but no matter what they are going with us!

Right now it is pouring down rain...don't know if it is a rainband from the storm or not...it kinda looks like it from the radar.

Karen

I'd be so scared....I'm scared for you.....I hope if you have to evacuate you can get out okay.....And I'm glad that you gave Cindy your number so that way we'll at least be able to know that you are safe........What a mess it all is, I feel so sorry for everyone down there....Stay safe!

omg karen, i hope you'll be okay >.< I've been very worried about you too! I'm so glad you have ms. cindy's number! Take care ms. karen >.<

~Phoebe

Karen...
You still with us?
We need an update!
Andy called about 5:30 and was already at a motel in Macon, Georgia to sleep for a few hours.
Dang, and I had plans for tonight!
Guess I better stay home now in case he breezes in here sometime in the middle of the night!

I bet Karens on the move......I sure hope she's okay and that she calls you to let you know what's going on.......They said that with the speed it is moving it has the capability to dump up to 25 inches of rain......

karen, you got my prayers.... been there, done that... camille is one of my earliest memories... and opal and erin went over the top of my house in '95

i forgot, www.wftv.com has some very good links for hurricane tracking... particularly frances... watched it all day at work yesterday...

almost forgot the best one of all.... www.noaa.gov

info direct from the national weather service. most up to date and most accurate.

Everybody around here is getting really frustrated with the way this storm keeps changing course,north one time ,west the next.
Kinda wish it would just hurry up and get it over with.
Its been really windy(you should hear my wind chimes...it sounds like a fairy band playing music),with dark clouds and ALOT of rain. And we've already lost power 4 times since yesterday and we're not even in the direct path anymore. We are supposed to have tropical force winds by tonight(39-74mph). Thats about as bad as it will get for us(if it doesn't change course again :p )
We are sooooo bored...I just went and rented 6 movies,so I guess thats what we will be doing till it gets here.

Karen

I was already getting worried!
I'll probably have to up my dose tonight!

I made sure to have plenty of my "hurricane supplies" on hand....I might just up my dosage too!

Karen

:rolleyes: I might need the box(case) it came in!

Karen

They just came over the news and reported that the storm has quit moving...its just sitting still gaining strength again :p

I am getting soooo tired of this It needs to hurry up and do what its gonna do so we can get back to life.

Karen

Ihave been vigorously switching between FOXNEWS and CNN checking all the lastest news!!

They just had a police officer on there telling a story of a rescue of a bunch of surfers.
Makes me sooooooooo mad to hear that, that they can't respect that storm, and do that, then put someone else's life or lives in jeapordy to rescur them!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
They should throw them in jail for a month or more, just to get the point, they didn't get killed!!

Keep us posted Gardenmom!!!!

Weezie

Michelle,
Great sites you posted!!!
Thanks for adding these!!!

Where do you find all those??

Weezie

I wonder how Gardenmom is doing?

I sincerly hope everyone comes out ok. My adoped uncle has an elderly aunt and uncle out in FL. They (the elderly couple) took off for their son's home in central FL. So far, they are ok.
NOAA is always a great site for the dopplar radar and sat. photos. Heck, most of the new agencies get their storm traking info from NOAA.

Batten the hatches down and lay low!!!

for all of you in FL.

http://radar.weather.gov/radar/loop/DS.p20-r/si.kmlb.shtml


Melbourne, FL Radar

Karen,
Is it real windy now?
I'm watching it on the Weather Channel constantly. Those reporters are crazy!
There's stuff (BIG stuff) flying thru the air (signs, lights, etc.) and going right by them!

How far is Melbourne from you?

Its windy but not that windy. Its kinda dark for this time of night and we keep getting heavy downpours. Its supposed to get real yucky tommorrow...winds from 39-73mph & heavy rains. Its going below us so we won't see the BAD stuff. Its supposed to last all day and night.

We've got the board games,cards,candles and flashlights,so we won't be totally bored if the power goes out. We're looking at it as quality "family bonding" time

Karen

Uhhh......you better watch those "family bonding" times!!! I've had a few of those that got ugly!

My family "shuts down" when the electricity goes,
they can not function!!!! <img border="0" alt="[perplexed]" title="" src="graemlins/confused.gif" />
I love it when the lights go out, I like candles
and roughing it, and games and reading a book by candle light..
They can't function without a computer~tv~sound! :p

I have pictures of the 3 of them sleeping on the couch the first time the electricity went out when the wee~one was just born...so cute!!!!

I dislike the candles now with the kids, but we bought a weather ban 4" screen tv combo with radio, flashlight, 2 bulb flourencent light, siren, etc.... when the Eastern Blackout happened, we needed something for the kids to have in with them and not be afraid they'd get hurt....

Weezie

Fortunately our kids(11 & 13) love to play family games...we usually have 1 night a week devoted to playing games with them.
We've lost power many times over the night and just had a brownout/surge. I had to check in here though. I'll be checking in as often as I can.

Gonna shut down now before another outage occurs.

Karen

keep us posted... i'm just getting lots of rain from it.... lost power once yesterday, but think that was some idiot who couldn't drive...

The squall passed by and before the next one comes in I had to jump on here and tell ya'll something really cool that just happened.

I realized I had left my hummingbird feeders hanging outside..so when it stopped raining I ran outside to take them down. There were 3 hummers at one and 4 hummers at the other. When the 3 hummers left the first one I walked on out and took it down...before I could walk 5 steps there were 2 hummers flying around me chattering a mile a minute..I looked around and there were hummers ALL OVER my yard! They were hitting the mexican petunias,the bat-face plant,the lantana and even on my roses! I stopped and held the feeder up and after a few moments.. they came to the feeder I was holding!!! It was sooooo amazing

Gardenmom,
Glad you are OKAY!!
I sat up and watched the tv for a loooooong time last night, I haven't put it on as of yet, got lot's to do today but wanted to make sure how you were doing!!

Poor little birdies are probable scared too. They were probably glad to find food on your property, probably not much left in some places!!!

Weezie

Dang, I bet a lot of hummingbirds will get killed.

Brennan will NOT carry the hummingbird feeders back to the hangers anymore. One landed on the feeder he was carrying a few weeks ago and he FREAKED and threw the feeder!
I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants!
He's afraid of them, I think because he thinks they will sting him. (Or maybe Lola has given him a BAD impression of birds!) He had a red shirt on one day and they were swarming him, so I changed his shirt and they left him alone.

Karen...I hope you get to keep checking in and letting us know what's going on. Don't forget...you have my home and cell numbers, so call whenever you want to if you can. Don't worry...I will be calling YOU (if I can get through) if we don't hear from you for awhile.

Cindy

We've been without power for the past 5 hours. It just came back on and didn't want ya'll to worry so I figured I had better check in.

I was the first one bankrupt in monopoly(the kids LOVED that ). They are really getting competitive now. George(my hubby) and Alex(my 13yo son) are trying to out he-man each other

Be back later!

Karen

Glad to hear you are doing okay Karen.....and enjoying your family bonding time......is there any damage around your area, or to your home??? I hope not.....

That's amazing about the hummingbirds.....

Dang, I missed you, Karen! You came on right after I got back off! Brennen was watching the hurricane on the news and asked about my friend in Florida, so we got on here to see if you had posted anything. We were thnking about sending you a text message on your cell phone! Glad to see that you posted.

OK...here's my strategy for always winning at Monopoly:
#1) ALWAYS be the banker! (Endless supply of cash! )
#2) Play with children that haven't learned to count yet!

Cindy

Oh, yeah.....if you live where they pump the water with electricity, make sure you have your tub filled up in case the electricity goes off! It's always nice to be able to flush the commode!

The satellite link shows major stuff going on over Gardenmom's.
Cindy

Have we heard from Gardenmom since this afternoon????
Just wondering how she's doing!!!

Weezie

Nope. Her last post was a little after 3 p.m.

I sent her a text over the cell awhile ago, but I doubt if they even have cell service at this point. The radar looks awful over Jacksonville right now.

I will call her first thing tomorrow if she hasn't posted by morning.

Cindy

Praying and hoping that karen is staying safe!!!!!

My prayers are with all of you who have endured the rampage of the hurricane. I live in KS and many times have watched twisters tooooooo close to my home. Thank God we have never taken a direct hit. So sad to see what you have worked for all your life snuffed out in a a few moments. God works in mysterious way - some times we sure don't agree and like to argue - but in the end He usually has a plan for us. Take care. Sal in ks

i'm sorry it's taken me so long to check in here. i hope you all are ok. karen i hope things are ok for you and nothing was damaged too bad. how's the flooding? sheesh i hope you are alright. how are the kids taking everything? we moved up north from south florida almost 2 years ago and i still feel guilty. all my family is there and i feel guilty being happy i'm not there while at the same time worried about all of them. UGH! south florida seemed to be alright. they all just lost electricity since saturday afternoon, but other than that everything is ok. now they all just have to wait for ivan.

www.Storm2k.org
good forum to be for hurricane info.especially for the 2 hr updates.

Hope ya'll get missed for ivan.I think he's heading to redneck vegas instead.

HI,
Isn't Pineapple Raye from Florida??
Has he been heard from? Hope everything is ok.

We won't get anything like most places--thankfully, however we are supposed to get a lot of heavy rain tommorrow and that worries me.....where I live it's like a big stadium.....mountains all around and the valley in the middle......so downtown will probably be a mess, and lots of flooded basements......

Check out my weather album, that was just from several inches of rain....we are supposed to get 5-10 inches....

too much water pics...

Anyone in the path of the remnants had any flooding? Jiffy?

That's a lot of water!!! LOL send some out to CA, we could use it!!

Checked out that storm site: Next up, Hurricane Ivan???

LOL, got rid of that double post for you.....

Yep, it's been way too wet here.....wish I could send you some of it, I gladly would if I could.....

I saw some people sandbagging today, getting ready.......one time we had a big flood and a lot of books in the library got ruined.....it's downtown and all the runoff from all the hills has no other place to go....and our sewer system is sooooo old, it just can't handle it all.....even the hills get flooded pretty bad....if you look at the second page of my weather album you'll see the steep hill my sis lives on.....it was like driving up a river....

Nothing at all compared to what the people in florida went through at all, but too much rain around here gets awful ugly.....

I feel terrible for everyone, with Ivan on it's way....and they're so unpredictable really that it's hard to say which way it will go.....we're watching the weather almost 24/7.....

Raye in Port charoltte.last I heard he had not checked in and was when Frances was stalled.

Yes Ivan is next.Monday he will be in GOM(gulf of mex)on THAT day we will know better what it will do.Its heading WNW right now but will be turning N today sometime.has to turn N or will go SAmeric. It hit Grenada this morning.
post on hit...info not all in cause no power,maybe more around 10.
http://storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=42725


Bad thing about lots of rain is snakes,they search for higher ground,that may be your house.folks dealing with snakes in FL right now...course maybe the gators wil come out and feed on snakes.

I live on a hill and know about them rains Loz...we got a tractor.we keep road graded& I hear the end of hill we DON"T travel has all these gully washes and not driveable anymore...runs off into woods.I hear looks like a waterfall.I gotta get a good pic some time when it rains.

I hear FL has commercials telling folks how to seperate hurricane debree.I wonder how many have their TVs on to see that?or are even home to see it.I think most are looking for gas/water/ice/bread/more canned crap to eat& lumber for Ivan.

Cuz has learned to make coffee on grill.she stapled her coffee into filter and dropped in pan& has informed me that hotdogs taste great boiled in beer.I'm actually gonna try this one soon.......and she wants my generator,but says then would have to worry about gas.

I second that!

Don't like snakes......that would freak me out!

well, i was lucky, even though we had a flash flood warning, and tornado warnings, all we really got was rain. but, i had chosen my lot well, and my house is off grade also, so that helps. savannah had lots of streets flooding but they do every summer, and there were some tornados putting trees on top of houses. no injuries locally i don't think, but state-wide there were 5-6 deaths.

We're okay here too, but in Virginia they had 5 or 6 tornados.....we were under tornado watch until midnight, but luckily none......We had 5 inches of rain when I checked aroun 5 pm.....It fell about an inch an hour my dad said......town is pretty flooded, schools are all closed tomorrow, and the 2 main ways out of town are closed due to flooding.....our town has a creek that runs right through the middle of it so we flood easy.....man hole covers were popping up all over town and exploding with water, many basements flooded, etc.....My nephew is pretty happy there isn't any school....lol We heard that there was 2 feet of water in the High School--which was built on a flood plain... Heck, my hubby may not be able to get to work tomorrow....Weather channel said we could get up to an additional 3 inches of rain overnight.....We'll just have to see what it's like in the morning......Oh, we had some really good wind gusts for a few hours......I got everything that could blow away gathered up yesterday though......