hurricane frances update

[tnctcb]

this morning things are a little more windy than it was last night. winds are 25 mph with 40 mph gusts. frances hit land about 200 miles south of me and is moving very slowly west northwest across the state. when i went to bed it was just hitting land near palm bay florida and they eye has just crossed palm bay this morning. the good news is that the storm is now a category 1 but as slow as it is moving it is still doing major damage down south. we arent even getting any rain here but the winds are fairly strong. so far no immediate danger here but the folks down south really need your prayers.
here are a few pics of our local waterways on friday morning

this is the intracoastal waterway,basically a salt water river about 2 miles off the coast

jacksonville beach, remember this was friday when things were just getting moving up here

you know things are bad when the lifeguards board up and go home

 

[tnctcb]

these are from my neighborhood yesterday afternoon

sometimes pretty sights remind us that storms too are Gods creations. this one helps

some smaller limbs down already

 

[tnctcb]

this is the front of my house this morning. you can see all of the leaves and small branches blown out of the trees and the trash and debris blowing in

about 24,000 people in this city are without power right now and the governor has said that no power will be restored anywhere in the state until this thing has passed.the safety of the workers has to come first and i am sure everyone agrees with that.it really isnt that bad here right now but in light of power outages i dont know how long i will be able to give you updates.my wife wants to get some more pictures of the ocean so as long as the weather stays like this we should be able to get some more.

 

[Gunner46]

10:45AM Sun

Gusts to 50MPH. Pretty steady around 20+.
The tide is extremely low right now. The boats in the slips, behind my place, are sitting on the bottom.
1st bands came through yesterday about 8PM, and it's still another 8-10 hrs before the eye even gets here! Looks like we're in this until at least late tomorrow evening.
So far, so good, here...at least as long as the beer holds aout anyway

 

[Hunterman]

Hopefully the damage will be minimal for everyone down in your neck of the woods...

I just have two questions for you Tim...

1) Did y'all lay that basketball hoop down, or did the winds bring the poor thing down?

2) Is that coffee in your hand or a beer???

If its a beer in the time of a major storm like this,,,,with all the danger flying all around,,,,,,all I can say is "My brother you sure know how to keep things in its proper perspective"

Hunterman(Tony)

 

[tnctcb]

Tony: thats coffee in my hand.i am saving the beer in case the power goes out ill need something cold. and since my mini fridge is right next to my generator...............

. as to the basket ball goal it is a neighbors, im sure they layed it down though the winds werent that strong when the picture was taken. we put ours down though.

dwayne: my families thoughts and prayers are with you. my real concern is for the people between us, that part of the state cant take much more.

 

[Nut]

Thanks for the updates. Glad that y'all are fine.

 

[Gunner46]

5:00PM

The eye has moved to just west of Lakeland.
The major bands in front of it have been sweeping through for the past three hours. Don't know why the He77 I still have power, cuz the news claims Coquina Key is out. Must be the north shore (1 mile away). The Gulf Beaches are getting swept with 60+ constant winds, gusts to 75+. They are no more than 6 miles from me, but the sustained wind here is probably more like 40, gusts still around 50-60. The eye hasn't moved 2 miles in the last 45 min! Crap!

So far, so good, just bored to death, TV sucks, if ya don't want to watch the "Hurricane News". waiting for this thing to move on. They say the worst will be tomorrow afternoon, after it gets back on the water and the south edge swings more rains, and surge, back in on us. FUN.

More later. When & if I can. Three six packs left.......

 

[Gunner46]

1:30AM
The eye moved off the coast to the north about 2 hrs ago. The south side bands are coming in very strong now. Gusts still around 60 mph, steady at about 40. ALOT more rain.

I've watched the tide surge in by the minute. The boats were on the ground just a couple hrs ago, but now are rocking & rolling heavily on bouncing waves. There's a CHOP on the canel behind my place!!! It's come up at least 5 feet, in the past hour. Two more feet and it will be to the top of the seawall, two more and I'm going to get seriously WET!!

Still have power, but if the surge gets to the seawall, I'll have to cut the breakers.

Guess I'll be up all night, cuz the news is saying there is still about 12 more hours of this crap! 29 hrs of steady rain and 12 to go........

Tim... I tried to call earlier, couldn't get thru..If Ya get this soon call me.

 

[Elkhunter]

Thanks for the updates and glad you are all doing OK.

 

[Hunterman]

Gunner,,,Tin lost power and phone yeasterday...All he has is his cell phone..I talked to him for just a bit,,(he wanted to save his battery on the cell) He said he would keep us informed, so I expectb to here from him today, and I'll have him call y'all

Hunterman(Tony)

 

[Gunner46]

1:30 PM

Thank God, The last major band is working it's way through now. Might actually see the sun in a couple of hours.

High tide came in around 8AM and the waves were bretching the seawall. Got a little nervey there for awhile. The bands were just bulldozing the water into the Bay and up my canel. The tide turned around 11 and it's receeded below the wall again.

Checked the boat. It had 4" of water standing on the deck, & that's with the bilge completely full. Started draining 30 min ago, still going.

Oh Well..Hurricane #5 since '95....here comes Ivan

 

[Orca Lover]

Well at least you are almost out of the woods!!! Keep the updates coming, these ones are better than the news!!! GOOD luck with the rest of the storm!!

OL

 

[Mojave]

Anyone heard from our Fla. friends lately?

 

[Gunner46]

Tues 4:15PM

Contact with Tim. He's good, as is the family. They got power back, but the land-line phone and cable are still out. With power, his cell is rechargable now. A couple more days (???)and he'll be back online. He had some damage to the fruit trees but otherwise all is well.

I headed out to my audit assignemnt this morning at 4AM. Kinda scary, with no traffic signals, and not being able to see if power lines were down, but it went OK. Got there and the place was dark, taped up,and not a soul to be seen.... Waited 30 min, in the da*m dark, in a not so good part of town, and then decided it was going to be a No-Show and figured I'd swing by tomorrows assignment, cuz it was kinda along the way back home, and see if they were willing to flip-flop audits, so I wouldn't loose a days pay.

Got there, and the manager blurts out" Where the He77 Ya been"!

"Uhhhh, sitting in the dark waiting on Michele".

Seems the stores district manager and my boss decided to switch assignments, cuz the one got flooded. Neither could get in contact with me, cuz cell phones couldn't penetrate the storm (I guess).

What the he77, we were all thinking on the same plain, even if we couldn't communicate. Considering this past weekend... Like I said.."WHAT THE HE77"!!!!

 

[tnctcb]

im back in the real world. we got power back yesterday, it was off and on all weekend.today our phone and cable were fixed. ive got some really cool pics to share with you as soon as we get caught up around here.the winds got pretty stong around here but not bad enough to take many trees down.i had some fruit trees that wont be back next spring mostly bannanna trees and if you remember the pictures i can stand to lose about 20 of them anyway.im glad to be back to normal and thanks to everyone for your concern

 

[Elkhunter]

Glad you all are OK. Welcome back to Moosie's.