Thought or Rant of the day!!!

[Wolfsong]

It's a little scary, but hurricanes are also really beautiful and powerful examples of forces of nature. Some of my favorite memories are sitting on the back porch, watching the wind whip everything around, rain pouring in with the smell of old earth/wet brick, no power, surrounded by family because there's nowhere else to be and nothing else to do. Most of the danger of a hurricane is for poorly constructed houses, trailer homes, property with a lot of trees... and the danger afterward for the elderly and very young children because it's 90 degrees out, 100% humidity, and no AC. The worst we ever had was a tree fall on the house, and the road to our house get flooded out. Where we lived was (and still is) a mandatory evacuation zone as it's just an island off the coast.

Edit: That said... All the family live on the east coast, literally right in what looks like the worst of the bands, so they are gonna get slogged with rain for awhile. I don't envy them the clean-up later.

[Alladinsane]

Its a cat3 now, but is expected to return to cat4 when it hits about this time tomorrow.

Nobody sits on their back porch in a cat4, but I understand how you can appreciate the awesomeness of one of these storms. I have been through many in my nearly 40years in florida...this is the worst for me. Andrew was probably worse, but it was south of us and tightly wrapped. This storm is the size of Texas... there is no place to hide right now, just cower down in interior rooms and pray.

We prepare for this every year, not this big; not this powerful. Yes, some people are going to die... they already have in haiti and cuba. There are pictures of where it blew a stone building down, crushing those inside. Granted that building maintenance and construction in Cuba may not be up to our standards... but a whole building just wiped off the foundation? I am almost tempted to use words that I don't use anymore as expletives.

Really Wolfsong is mostly right... we are inland and live on one of the 3 hills in Florida... but are surrounded by 100yr old oak trees (they are monsters) and if one of them falls on the house... yeesh. we have water in buckets all over the house...some to drink and some to pour into the back of the toilets... food, pillows, batteries, check check check.

This will be the only storm named Mathew to hit the USA... when people die they retire the name. I don't know anyone who got hit by Camille and I probably never will. So when Mathew is mentioned...people will know it was 2016. Talk about a rather dubious distinction!

Okay... an hour till the 2am update and then I need some sleep. Ciao for now!

[Wolfsong]

Maybe folks inland take it more seriously than people on the coast? We definitely porch sat through all the major ones back... Again, probably 10 years now. But then we also drove down to the beach during a lull in one of them, too, so my family might just be crazy stupid.

Edit: To be fair, we evacuated to Brunswick, Georgia for Ivan, I think, and that's what put the tree on our house, but we were at the beach with the rellies for Frances. Which I do not recommend, it was incredibly dangerous, driving by power lines on the road. Stay inside and sweat it out behind plywood.

[MattWithoos]

It's a little scary, but hurricanes are also really beautiful and powerful examples of forces of nature. Some of my favorite memories are sitting on the back porch, watching the wind whip everything around, rain pouring in with the smell of old earth/wet brick, no power, surrounded by family because there's nowhere else to be and nothing else to do. Most of the danger of a hurricane is for poorly constructed houses, trailer homes, property with a lot of trees... and the danger afterward for the elderly and very young children because it's 90 degrees out, 100% humidity, and no AC. The worst we ever had was a tree fall on the house, and the road to our house get flooded out. Where we lived was (and still is) a mandatory evacuation zone as it's just an island off the coast.

Edit: That said... All the family live on the east coast, literally right in what looks like the worst of the bands, so they are gonna get slogged with rain for awhile. I don't envy them the clean-up later.

That strangely made me feel your nostalgia. I can definitely see the excitement of a hurricane, of playing boardgames by candlelight with family, the smells etc.

[Alladinsane]

I guess we do... just down the same block from us... I think it was 4 houses, the back porch became a front porch.

Ripped off of the foundation (brand new house too, but I actually think the older ones are better built) and blown over top of their house...2 stories iirc and put it in the street in front of them. We didn't have a porch, so were spared. So yeah, we are pretty cautious... if somebody would have been on that porch...goodbye. It was just a mass of twisted metal, wood and screen laying in the middle of the street. But really that was the worst...everyone else lost fences and stuff like that.

I am not sure if we are more cautious or you are more brave.

Our property has a lot of very big tree's, one is supposed to get trimmed during the day. Its dangerous to do and we had to pay extra for it...but that tree is too close for comfort.

I am thankful that you and your loved ones were not hurt or suffered severe property damage.

[Wolfsong]

It is certainly a very strange thing to get homesick over, though, I agree.

[Snickie]

In the interest of maintaining enough cell phone battery life to make 911 calls and receive weather warning texts during the imminent power outages during this hurricane, I am putting my account on vacation mode. This is the last post until we get power back. Please pray for us and our safety, but more importantly pray for those on the east coast.

[Wolfsong]

Yeah... I've got friends on Merritt Island that refused to evacuate, haha. Shit has gotten a bit scary for some of them.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

My thoughts are with those in the path of the hurricane. Natural disasters of any kind are awful.

[Snickie]

Well that was mercifully short here. We're still getting southern bands and light gusts here but the worst is over. Actually wasn't that bad. We lost power for about ten seconds.

I can't say the same for the rest of the state, or even the county. I just saw a picture of part of a metal roof being pulled back by wind on a house about 10 or 15 miles north of here. I'm going back to the other house (northeast, much closer to the eye) as soon as the roads are clear and the storm has moved away. I expect it to be much worse there.

[Wolfsong]

Dad had a flooded yard, some tree branches and mess. They cut off the water where he lives, which was his biggest complaint. Friends on the island still have power, some of them, but lost water too. Bridges were closed leading to the island last I heard, though. Haven't heard back from my mom yet, but she was working a 12 hour shift in a shelter, so that's probably why.

I bet this means the mozzies will be absolutely out of control when we fly over to visit though.

[Alladinsane]

It took a last minute jog to the right and saved lives... nice since Charley too a last minute jog to the right 10 years ago and lives were lost.
I guess you get to know just how close and fragile you are.

We are still assessing the damage, but I think we got lucky.
The same storm killed about 800 between Haiti and Cuba, so I don't feel bad for taking it seriously.
Next time, and there will be a next time ofc, we may not experience that same.
St. Augustine is a lake today:

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/v ... tion=click

Now for some cantr.

[Snickie]

Snickie needs to stop reading about severe weather phenomena. It's going to give her nightmares. Ally, THIS is why I stopped wanting to be a meteorologist!

Going to look at pictures of tunneling wounds now. Somehow I find those far less unsettling than hurricanes.)

[Mafia Salad]

Ugggh, nothing like breaking down on a remote stretch of highway outside of cellphone coverage to brighten my day. Thankfully some folks in a 57 Chevy gave me a ride back to the nearest little roadside store to use their phone and get a tow.

[muidoido]

Ugggh, nothing like breaking down on a remote stretch of highway outside of cellphone coverage to brighten my day. Thankfully some folks in a 57 Chevy gave me a ride back to the nearest little roadside store to use their phone and get a tow.

Pics? I like old chevys...