Wish us luck with Hurricane Frances

Posted by: Bhoyo on 01 September 2004

Good luck to all Floridians here. We live about 150 yards from the ocean, so we've shuttered the house (which took hours), moved some gear (including system and vinyl) inland, and are preparing for Palm Beach County's mandatory evacuation, which starts 2 p.m. Thursday.

We'll probably be sheltering in my newspaper's printing plant for the next couple of nights - hoping and praying there's a house to come back to on Sunday!

At the moment, Frances is scheduled to make landfall north of here, but she could turn at any time, as we saw with Charley, Floyd and Andrew. Wherever this monster goes, it's going to be a nightmare.

Fingers crossed. See you all later.

Regards,
Davie
Posted on: 01 September 2004 by matthewr
Best of British Davie. Make sure you take a hot toddy with you when you hunker down.

Matthew
Posted on: 01 September 2004 by JonR
Yeah good luck boyo (Bhoyo).
Posted on: 01 September 2004 by dave simpson
Good luck Davie...we're thinking about you here in the Carolinas!

regards,

dave
Posted on: 01 September 2004 by ErikL
Wishing the best for you and yours Davie. And for everyone down there really.
Posted on: 01 September 2004 by Dan M
Best of luck Davie. Let us know how you're doing when you get back.

Dan
Posted on: 01 September 2004 by HTK
Oh god - not another one! How do you folks manage? I spose you have no choice - needless to say, good luck with it.

Cheers

Harry
Posted on: 01 September 2004 by ejl
We've been watching this bad boy all week. Appears to be running a bit south of the forecast, which is even making people here in AL nervous.

Unlike you Bhoyo, I'm on the edge of the latest probability chart, but that's already enough excitement.

Could be Florida's worst year in recorded history.
Good luck.
Eric
Posted on: 02 September 2004 by MichaelC
Good luck to all - having been through one of the worst Cat 5 cyclones recorded in twenty five years I know what you are going through.

Mike
Posted on: 02 September 2004 by Martin D
Blimey why live there then?
Posted on: 02 September 2004 by MichaelC
'Cos it's rather nice despite the occasional cyclone?

Mike
Posted on: 03 September 2004 by greeny
latest report I heard over here, suggest it is weakening, so you may be OK, fingers crossed. A lot weaker than Charley, but bigger apparently!!
Posted on: 03 September 2004 by TomK
Good luck Davie.
My aunt and uncle live down there. They moved from Long Island because the harsh winter climate was bad for his health. Out of the frying pan and into the fire it seems to me.
Posted on: 03 September 2004 by JonR
quote:
Originally posted by MichaelC:
Good luck to all - having been through one of the worst Cat 5 cyclones recorded in twenty five years I know what you are going through.

Mike


In Surrey...??? Confused
Posted on: 03 September 2004 by Bhoyo
It's me again, checking in from my work (I'm at a newspaper in Ft. Lauderdale). 'Er indoors and I were evacuated from our beachside loveshack and have moved to a friend's place with decent hurricane shutters. I'm working until about 1pm today (Friday). Frances has weakened and slowed, but this might not be entirely good news. It can pick up strength and speed again in the warm waters, and veer inland at almost any point. If it remains slow, it will linger over land for more hours. These things are maddeningly unpredictable, but as far as the forecasters can tell, we're still in for a lot of wind and rain. In southern Palm Beach County, we're expecting to feel hurricane strength winds (74 mph and up) from the early hours of Saturday.

There are plenty of hurricane veterans here. For hurricane virgins like me, it's extraordinary. Seeing the empty roads, and all the buildings shuttered, is truly bizarre.

Anyway, thanks for all your good wishes. I'll try to check in again whenever we get through whatever happens next!

Regards,
Davie
Posted on: 03 September 2004 by MichaelC
quote:
Originally posted by JonR:
In Surrey...??? Confused


OK - rather than make it easy let's see if you can identify the location - a clue to the region is already in my post but a further clue is "Dina Robin"

Mike
Posted on: 03 September 2004 by Dan M
20 17 S, 57 33 E?
Posted on: 03 September 2004 by MichaelC
Correct
Posted on: 04 September 2004 by Joe Petrik
Hang in there, Davie.

Best,
Joe
Posted on: 04 September 2004 by Mick P
I once stayed in a lovely house in Florida which was made of wood and painted white.

Why not build houses out of bricks and motar, it will be less liable to damage.

Regards

Mick
Posted on: 04 September 2004 by JonR
quote:
Originally posted by Mick Parry:
I once stayed in a lovely house in Florida which was made of wood and painted white.

Why not build houses out of bricks and motar, it will be less liable to damage.

Regards

Mick


They also seem to persist with trailer parks as well, a recipe for disaster if ever there was one.

Regards,

JonR
Posted on: 04 September 2004 by ejl
quote:
Why not build houses out of bricks and motar, it will be less liable to damage.


It turns out that the main causes of massive structural damage in these storms are flooding and the roof blowing off as the result of a failed window or door. In either case, the advantage conferred by brick is fairly minimal.

Incidentally, one of the biggest culprits behind catastrophic damage in past hurricanes has been unreinforced garage doors. The flimsy doors quickly collapse, allowing wind to get under the roof and blowing it off.

quote:
They also seem to persist with trailer parks as well, a recipe for disaster if ever there was one.


It's just economics Jon. The enormous stratification of wealth in America means that for many people, their only chance at having their own place is a trailer home. Sadly, insurers are understandably reluctant to insure them against major storms. So the poor get poorer after these.

My big puzzle is the video footage of windows covered with that cheap, flimsy pressboard (the kind that disintigrates when wet). Why not plywood? I guess plywood stocks run out before the storm, but why not buy it in advance? The first thing I did when I moved to the gulf coast was to buy several sheets of nice, 3/4" ply.

Eric

P.S.: TS Ivan is now predicted to strengthen to hurricane force, cross Cuba, and reach the US. What was all that blather about global warming increasing ocean temperatures and, thereby tropical storms? Bah!
Posted on: 04 September 2004 by JonR
'Yet' being the operative word?
Posted on: 04 September 2004 by JonR
Just you wait till el Nino strikes again....will you still be smiling then..?? Big Grin
Posted on: 04 September 2004 by ejl
quote:
Our road flooded the other day. Meant we couldn't go for a day out to Fort William. It's global warming I tell you.


Tom,
We all heard this joke in the early '90s. You need to get with the Bush Administration on this one.


By the way, I don't know if you guys get "The Weather Channel" in the UK, but their coverage of this storm has been damn funny. They are, of course, beside themselves with scarecely-concealed excitement ("This is going to be a story (!) for days!" they keep telling us), and are milking it for all it's worth by interposing seeming interminable strings of commercials with dire warnings that it's getting even more dangerous.

Now, during prime time, they have all their prettiest correspondents out in the wind and rain, their hair blown back as they struggle to keep standing. One of them just got hurt -- a little debris hit her in the side and she bruised her ribs. This has produced an orgy of exclamations about her heroism, and about how dangerous hurricanes really are. (Who'd have thought?)

Really fantastic.

[This message was edited by ejl on Sat 04 September 2004 at 23:57.]
Posted on: 05 September 2004 by ejl
I'm sure Bhoyo's physically fine. His house may or may not be.

They are now estimating that this may be the biggest cleanup in U.S. history, due to the storm's enormous size (= Texas, or Germany) and glacial pace (8 m.p.h.).