The bad wind has arrived and it's going to stick around, as will the rain. As long as I don't get my neighbor's palm trees on my roof, I'm happy.
I've taken some pics and will take more as things progress. I'll post them if they're interesting. I don't think my neighbor's swirling palms will look quite as menacing to y'all as they do to me. ;)
The electricity is going off and on, but hopefully will mostly stay on.
Eye of the Storm, blogging from Tallahassee, is tracking the storm closely and has much scientific information.
Yeah, what he said.
If I'm loving my hurricane shutters now, I'm going to be asking for their hand in marriage tonight.
Let me again add Cindy's two links to live desktop TV hurricane coverage.
Florida Cracker is blogging from the secured war room at right.
Here's the Miami radar and the Florida/Bahamas satellite.
UPDATE II:
Palms of Evil and Menace
They've lowered the lake out back. They need to keep lowering it.
68,000 people in Broward are without power so far and FPL has suspended sending out teams. I hope mine stay on. When I talked to my niece in Lee County yesterday, she was taunting me: "Call us when your phone comes back on." "Call us when you get your lights back."
Kathy K. is Frances blogging from Lee.
Might I add that I'm not liking this wind.
UPDATE III:
248,000 people in Broward are without power.
Governor Bush says there are 13,000 electrical workers waiting in Alabama to come on down when the storm ends.
Mr. Cracker got tired of uploading pics for me. You're seeing everything on TV anyways. I'll take some more before it gets too dark. The winds are high and it's continuously raining, and it will stay like that until tomorrow. Eye of the Storm has more.
All in all, not too bad.
Rob of Pious Agnostic is also blogging Frances, from up in Orlando.
UPDATE IV:
I got some new pics after all:
The tree that wants to crush my head
Lake with silly duck in foreground
UPDATE V:
Outback is a mess, but nothing that we can't handle, so far. In additional to the Hurricane Warning, we're under a flood watch until tomorrow night because the feeder bands with rain (and wind), are going to keep coming.
One third of all Broward County households are without power (that's more than 260,000 homes), with more expected to lose power this evening.
Hopefully not us.
A car lies crushed by a fallen tree in Fort Lauderdale.
Highway A1A in Ft. Lauderdale
UPDATE VI:
Frances has finally come ashore.
They say our worst winds will be tonight and our worst rain will be tomorrow.
Good luck to all the people further north.
They're saying there will be a storm surge in the SE part of Lake Okeechobee. I hope all goes well with the levee.
An organized homeowner
I sense a theme
I see London, I see France
I see Frances' underpants
Florida Gothic
Posted by floridacracker at September 4, 2004 09:59 AM
We're getting the bottom edge of that band right now... I know exactly what you mean about your neighbor's swirling palms. Our neighbor has one of those. It made it through Charley ok; though.
But we probably aren't getting the winds you are. We are only expecting tropical storm conditions here. We are also under a flood watch; though.
Posted by: Kathy K at September 4, 2004 11:52 AMAre you in Broward county? Never been sure of your present location... if you are, change that 'probably' above to certainly...
Posted by: Kathy K at September 4, 2004 11:58 AMYes, I live in Broward, Kathy, right off Alligator Alley.
I'm from North Fort Myers, and all my family is there, except me and my husband and his folks.
Lee County's going to get drowned more than anything. We are already getting some pretty heavy rain from that band in the link you posted.
Posted by: Kathy K at September 4, 2004 12:29 PMThe sun is still shining (mostly) here in NE Florida, but the sky sure isn't blue. It's that funny look where you know something's coming.
The wind started picking up a bit this morning and the gusts (15 m.p.h. ??) are more frequent. The weather folk keep pushing Frances' ETA back (late tomorrow night now) and extending how long she'll be in the area. Tuesday?
We're not in the direct path, as of right now but with as many times as she's changed her mind, who knows.
Now, it seems she's stalled? On top of you?
My thoughts are with you guys downstate.
Stay safe.
Posted by: doyle at September 4, 2004 02:37 PMPower went off at about 11:45, then back on again at 2:00 here in Orlando. If our power company can't even keep it going when there's 30 MPH gusts, it simply won't be able to do anything when it really gets messy.
Still no real rain here, but the gusts are heavy and the sky is full of dark clouds.
Posted by: Pious Agnostic at September 4, 2004 03:01 PMOuch. I hope there wasn't anyone in that car or, if there was, that they got out ok.
Posted by: Kathy K at September 4, 2004 08:06 PMA guy in Cooper City was taking a nap on his bed when a ficus tree came crashing through the roof over his bed.
He got scraped up and had the hell scared out of him, but he's OK. The fire department couldn't believe it.
And thanks Doyle, Rob, Kathy, and everybody for your good wishes.
Posted by: Donnah at September 4, 2004 08:24 PMMy daughter lost her electric around 2:00. She's hold up in her house. Just hope that big pine tree next to the house holds up!!
Stay inside and stay safe Donnah!
Posted by: Cindy at September 4, 2004 09:10 PMShe should have skated over to your house this time, Cindy. :)
Posted by: Donnah at September 4, 2004 09:19 PMHas anyone seen Geraldo blow by yet?
Best remote of the day: Weather Channel's Mike Siedel having Al Roker in a bear hug, and vice versa, to keep from being blown away. Worst remote: Not sure who, but a five minute feature on a powerline sparking in a tree, with shots of the fire engine standing by and an interview with the Lt. commanding the firefighters. Or, any Geraldo remote...
Posted by: Chuck Simmins at September 4, 2004 09:39 PMI liked the powerline sparking in the tree!
The worst remote we saw was this doctor/reporter out on a beach with some hand-held wind measuring device. The wind was nothing at that point, and he would be screaming "12 miles an hour! 14! 12!"
My husband was just rolling. He said, "That's almost a stiff breeze!"
They came back to the guy several times, and he was still being retarded.
Chuck asked, Has anyone seen Geraldo blow by yet?
No, but I saw when one gust almost put him on his butt.
Dang, I thought. Maybe next time.
Posted by: doyle at September 4, 2004 10:37 PMI think I'm the first one to pick up on this, but in my coverage of this storm a noted that another hurricane could hit Florida within a week and a half.
Posted by: Jordan at September 5, 2004 12:46 AMJordan, we all know about Ivan. We just don't want to think about it!
Posted by: Kathy K at September 5, 2004 02:58 AMJeebus, Donnah, you'als going to get a nother visit from George w.
I'll bet 2.1 on a visit from Lurch, 1.1 on Edwards.
Who's going to pull votes.
I live in Broward County, too. Luckily, my power went off twice for about 2 seconds each - and then went back on! Yay!! I'm thinking we're only going to take a few shutters down. I'm not going through that God-awful prep again any time soon. Better to leave things half prepped just in case until this stupid hurricane season is OVER. My parents live in Lake Placid - they are both elderly. Thank God they went to my sister's in Naples - Lake Placid is getting hurricane force winds - and since their power was out for a week after Charley, it probably is again.
Posted by: suzeisnotfooledbyislam at September 5, 2004 10:23 AMJordan, that's how humans are able to cope: by not thinking about the possibility of getting smashed by three hurricanes in three weeks.
Welcome, Suze! I liked that little satellite graphic you had on your site, so it's now on mine too.
Posted by: Donnah at September 5, 2004 12:20 PM