Florida Creekers

[Ken Wright]

If any of you folks are in harm's way from Frances and there's anything we can do to help you ... all you need to do is give us a shout. I've got room to pasture horses, can temporarily store a small amount of stuff if you need and so on ... our house is rather small so there's not much I can do in that regard but this little town has a ton of good motels ... be glad to help with that. We're 34 miles west of I75/Valdosta, Ga on GA 84.

All is based on the assumption the NOAA is wrong and the current path doesn't bring her to my doorstep as it appears this evening. If it does comes this way I'll be dodging 80 year old pine trees........

In any event .. good luck and holler if we can help.

[Kevin Beck]

Thanks Ken for the kind offer. We're in the current projected path but about 40 miles inland so we're not going anywhere. The storm is so wide and the path can change so there isn't really anywhere "safe" to evacuate to. The ground here in the Orlando area is so saturated that there will probably be many more trees down than with Charley. The storm debris from Charley isn't cleaned up yet so there is a lot of concern about damage from the wind picking up the Charley debris. Charley came through at about 35 MPH and Frances is currently only moving at 14 MPH so it's going to be a lot longer going by. We didn't get that much rain from Charley but it has rained heavily almost every day since then. The NWS has issued an Inland Hurricane Wind Watch for most of central Florida from Saturday to Sunday morning.

We lost about 2/3 of an oak in our backyard (pictures posted in a thread a few days ago) and about 80% of our pool screen. I figure the other 1/3 oak tree and 20% of my pool screen are goners for sure. We lost power for 5 days with Charley this will probably be even longer. At least we don't have much in the fridge yet.

I'm ready for the end of hurricane season. I haven't been through 2 in one season since 1995.


Kevin

[Michael Barry]

Ken,
Thanks for the very generous offer of shelter from the storm. Frances is a big one. I think she's gonna do a lot of damage.
I live just west of Ft. Lauderdale and it's been nuts around here the past couple of days. The stores are all cleaned out of water, canned goods and batteries. HD and Lowe's have no plywood left. People are buying any kind of sheet goods they can to board up their windows. I could be wrong but I don't think door skins will keep your neighbors's trash can from coming through your window at 100mph. There's long lines at all the gas stations, but from what I've seen so far folks are keeping calm.
Today I'm boarding up my house, bringing in all my wife's crap, errrrrr, decorations from around the yard, then packing our bags. As luck would have it we have a wedding to go to in St. Louis this weekend and we were gonna be out of town anyway. Talk about timing! I just hope our flight gets out at noon tomorrow.
Thanks again.

Mike

[Ralph Steffey]

Thanks for the kind offer. I am in Stuart Fla. and right now it looks like we will be the bulls eye, I am boarded up and ready as I cab get but I am nervous as a cat under a rocking chair.

[Ken Wright]

from the latest I've seen we'll almost certainly be dodging thos pines also..

The offer stands if we can do anything.

[Roger Fitzsimonds]

Hi Guys

I am north of Atlanta so if you do come this way you are welcome up here.

Roger

[Tyler Howell]

Ken,

That's a wonderful offer to our Florida WW brothers and sisters. My thanks to you.

And the rest of you down there hang on tight!;)

[Dennis Lightbourn]

Thanks for the kind offer, but the airport on our island is closed! We are in Nassau on the island of New Providence - the capital of the Bahamas. We've been checking Intelicast.com and noaa.gov every three hours and since last night at about 11:00pm it has looked like this storm is aiming for our house!

We have shuttered up as best we can, and have our supplies ready, but what I am afraid of is the aftermath. We have not seen a major storm in many years and I think that our infrastructure will be devastated as most of the island still has overhead electric/telephone/cable lines.

On the bright side, I am a General Contractor - so I should be very busy for some time - hey somebody has to rebuild.

Dennis

[Michael Stafford]

I live in area where just in the last 30 days 4 tropical storms/hurricanes or their remnants have passed through. In 1999 Floyd flooded 30% of my little city of 65.000. We have had too much experience with these storms and our Florida friends would probably agree. I hope you all stay safe and dry. I fear the "F" storms. They have been hard on Eastern N.C.

[John Shuk]

Ken,
My uncle was the parish priest at the Catholic church in Thomasville. I visited him there once. Nice place.

[Tom LaRussa]

If anybody needs a dog-sitter, we have room here in Tampa, so long as your dog (or dogs) can get along with my vicious watch-beast.

:p

[Ken Wright]

dont know when you visited T'ville but you might be interested in knowing a couple of things about the Catholic Church here ... 1. Jackie Kennedy worshipped there regularly immediately after the President's assassination when she came to one of the Plantations to "hide out from the press" for a few weeks. 2. Not too long ago the Catholic church was literally lifted off its foundation and moved about 5 blocks to a new location where it then became the Episcopalean Church. As you would expect in the Bible Belt, the Catholic Church here is quite small and was easily loaded on a truck and moved. It is a beautiful wooden structure and in excellent condition preserved in its originality.

Its a really nice town .... but it sure gets hot in the summer!!! Frances will probably break the back of the summer heat for the year but its gonna be a big price to pay to get that done I'm afraid.

[Chad Pater]

And the rest of you down there hang on tight!;) [/QUOTE]

Like Tyler said that is a nice offer. Now if you really want to get out of the path of the storm you can up here to Minnesota and visit us.
I'll be think and praying for all of you down there.
Chad

[Kelly C. Hanna]

I sure hope this thing breaks up or turns a hard right after the Bahamas. You guys don't need another storm!!

[Dennis Lightbourn]

I sure hope this thing breaks up or turns a hard right after the Bahamas. You guys don't need another storm!!
A hard right NOW would be really good!:)

Dennis

[Joe Scarfo]

Ken,

Thanks for the offer. I've been pondering leaving after boarding up the house. After another look at the size of the storm, it's wider than the state, so basically there's no where to run...

We'll just have to hang tough and hope for the best...

Good luck to everyone in orange tree land...

Joe ... near Tampa.

[John Shuk]

Ken,
I was in T'ville in the late 80 maybe 86 or 87 a couple times as a teen. I'll have to let my uncle know about the church if he hasn't heard about it yet. I know that he was stationed at alot of southern Catholic churches thru the years and most of them weren't exactly booming most were on the way out. It is nice to know the building will see a "new" life.

[Tom LaRussa]

Ken,

Thanks for the offer. I've been pondering leaving after boarding up the house. After another look at the size of the storm, it's wider than the state, so basically there's no where to run...
Joe ... near Tampa.
Joe,

Are you boarding up your house?

My family and I are new to this area, and we can't find any guidelines regarding when to board up and when not to.

Some advice from other Floridians would be greatly appreciated.

[Michael Barry]

As it turns out my timing isn't so good after all. No flights out of FLL after 10 a.m. tomorrow. Frances is moving really slow so she's gonna be around for a while. I just hope I have enough beer for the whole weekend.
We're going to have a full house here. My sister lives in a mobile home up in Boca Raton so she'll be here with my BIL and my niece. My daughter and granddaughter should be here also.
Hey you other Southern Creekers, how do you board up your homes? I use 5/8 Ply with Red Head Expansion bolts in the block walls. Seems at least one or two bolts on each window break loose and it's a major PITA to wedge them out to get them secure. I gave up on a couple and just put Tapcons in in their place. What should have taken just a couple of hours took all day. There's gotta be a better way.
Good luck to all.

Mike.

[Kurt Aebi]

Best of Luck to all you "Creekers" in FL and especially you Dennis in the Bahamas, you are all in my prayers that no harm come to you and your families. Houses can be replaced, loved one's can't.

If I lived nearer, I too would offer shelter from the storm. Since I don't, all I can offer is my thoughts and prayers - You guys got that!

[Keith Starosta]

I knew we had at least ONE Bahamian Creeker, and I've thought about him everytime I see the radar. You guys stay safe. Hopefully, it won't be as bad as it looks...take care.

Keith

[Ken Wright]

Our offer of hospitality still stands in T'ville but I have to warn you that overnight the town has turned into a refugee center. No hotel rooms, no campground spaces and we're in the process of opening some of the churches for shelter. Walmart's parking lot is full of campers and the main drag thru town has a 2 mile traffic backup northbound.

I realize that the ones who really need to hear this probably won't but....

I can still take horses and park a few self contained RV's if I can help.

[Tony Falotico]

That's quite an offer you made, and my appreciation comes with it.

I'm in Lake City, about midway between Tallahassee and Jacksonville, and right now I don't know what to expect. Hopefully by tomorrow morning they'll have a better idea, but for the last 48 hrs predictions are all over the place. Got my Aunts out of Titusville yesterday, they are in Lake City with us, and we are going to ride out whatever happens here.

Kevin -- I spent some time in Lake Mary last evening, on US 441 in NB traffic going nowhere trying to get from Titusville back to Lake City. What a mess!! Took better than 8 hrs to get home, what should have been a 3 hr trip. We were at a bumper to bumper barely moving from Apopka to Ocala. Once I cleared Ocala I knew the back roads was able to get home. I-95, US 1, the turnpike, I-75, US 441 / 301 were linear parking lots!

Dennis -- You know Jim Mosko or any of the Mosko boys? I graduated college with Jim in '75 and lost track of him about 15 yrs ago.

[Ken Wright]

as you said the predictions are all over the ball park ... they've moved the eye again over to the Dothan AL area again placing us on the east side of the eye but they changed the wind predictions for us from 70'ish mph's to less than 38 .. if so we should just have a long period of windy rain I guess.

Did observe a few minutes ago that there were a lot of Florida cars headed East on US 84 toward Valdosta/I75 leaving me with the thought that a lot of folks may be headed home to ride out a much lessser than expected event ... a lot of the traffic in town has disappeared.

Just hope it doesn't pull a "Charlie" ...

Good luck Tony ... we're not far away from you guys.

[Tony Falotico]

Ken, I had to run over to Marianna today, I-10 was fairly clear (normal weekday traffic) and I made good time. Saw NO signs of anyone preparing except for FDOT lowering the high mast lighting at the interchanges.

[Tony Falotico]

It's 5:53 pm Saturday. All Is well in Lake City.

Just thought I'd spread a little humor on the situation, Thursday when I was leaving Titusville with my Aunts, going west on SR 50 there was an older gentleman with his wife in a newer model Lincoln Town Car. The back seat was loaded down with clothes, boxes and stuff, the trunk lid was halfway opened tied down holding a Table Saw in it. I remarked to LOML that there was a man who had his priorities right !!

[Ken Wright]

this has been a roller coaster ride for the past 3-4 days ... noticed the motels have filled up again but not as much wandering traffic as yesterday morning. Tony, you're only about an hour and a half from me ... we'll have to get together after all this.

..just changed clothes after getting soaked doing some last minute tie downs. Its been a lot of work and a fair amount of expense for this Lady. Once source, Weather Channel Local, says to expect up to an inch of rain and the Nat Weather Ser just put out a bulletin warning of "torrential" rains.

The Weather Channel, IMHO, is a worthless institution. What do you believe?? Unfortunately, I'm afraid ... believe what you see. :cool:

[Tony Falotico]

The Weather Channel, IMHO, is a worthless institution. What do you believe??

I'm with you on that one Ken, I wish they would just report the facts and quit trying to dramatize everything. We need good dependable information, not their opinion or what they want us to think. They talk and talk but say very little.

Spoke to my sister in West Palm Beach about two hrs ago, they are getting pelted very hard with wind and rain, have been out of power all day. The scary part is they are looking at at least another 24 hrs of it. Thankfully they are OK and everything is holding up well for them so far.

My daughter in St. Petersburg say's they are getting the high winds. Hope you guys in Tampa are OK.

Kevin, Michael, Ralph, Joe -- Let us know how you are. And Dennis, Let us know how you all are in the Bahamas.

Looks like your going to feel this one also Ken, hope it doesn't regroup and strengthen when (IF) it hits the Gulf.

[Ken Wright]

Tony and looks like the next swirl coming across is going to be yours. Tie a cement block round the dog.

got the 3 chain saws out yesterday and converted them from dry storeage. The 17 year old ECHO started right up even tho over the years its been heavily used ... The POULAN which has been very lightly used played its usual role and wouldn't start as did the newer off beat MAC. That POULAN has been a real disappointment. it never starts ... garage sale time I guess.

They're predicting 8-12" of rain for us currently ... beginning after lunch for the next 24 hours along with 50mph winds. We'll see what happens.

Stay dry!!!

[Tony Falotico]

Getting some light rain right now, no substantial wind yet. They are predicting 35 mph wind 100% chance of rain late this evening through the night till Monday morning. We are battened down, everything is put away, got plenty of food and drink, so bring it on! No shop time today, it's full of outdoor furniture and assorted yard stuff. Guess I'll be catching up on the reading today.

Spoke with my sister in WPB this morning, she said they are fine and it's slowly letting up down there.

BTW: Don't forget about Ivan, he's coming in fast.

[Tom LaRussa]

Getting some light rain right now, no substantial wind yet. They are predicting 35 mph wind 100% chance of rain late this evening through the night till Monday morning. We are battened down, everything is put away, got plenty of food and drink, so bring it on! No shop time today, it's full of outdoor furniture and assorted yard stuff. Guess I'll be catching up on the reading today.

Spoke with my sister in WPB this morning, she said they are fine and it's slowly letting up down there.

BTW: Don't forget about Ivan, he's coming in fast.
Wind is really picking up here in New Tampa -- which, for those of you who don't know the area, is basically the north-east corner of the city; we're losing some screen from our patio and some neighbors are losing some trees. I see one palm and two other trees down from my front door. Note though that this development is brand new, so these trees are less than 10' tall and haven't had a chance to root yet.

Other than that, we cooked dinner early and are now waiting for the inevitable power outage. We've already have a few momentary interruptions, starting last night.

[Ken Wright]

the wind's picked up here in the last hour and although the sun is still shining these pines have already started dropping small limbs. From the radar it appears the first band for us is about 35 miles away just east of Valdosta. If it comes in either at St Mark's or Alligator Point after going back out over the Gulf ... 'fraid we may be in for a rough 24 hours. All we know for sure is 30-70mph winds and 4-20" rain ... that's a pretty big window of boom to bust.

Tony ... from the radar it appears you may have already gotten a dose. Hope you, Tom, and Tony and your families fare well physically first and then financially thru all this.

[Tony Falotico]

Tom, glad your OK, hang in there buddy. Did you hear anything about some vehicles being blown off the Howard Franklin Bridge last evening? I know they closed (restricted?) the Skyway for a while.

We lost power right after noon, just came back on. My hats off to the folks at Clay Electric (and all the others) for being our there in this weather. Winds are slowly picking up, had one real bad squall with high wind and very hard rain that lasted maybe 30 minutes. The worst for us will be later this evening till morning.

My sister in WPB lost several rows of roof shingles along the peak but structurally seems to be holding.

Well, the lights are flickering again, please don't go out!

[Kevin Beck]

We're okay so far here in Lake Mary. We've had rain for almost 24 hours now and strong winds since the early morning hours. We haven't lost power yet (knock on wood). Several neighbors with older roofs have lost shingles and several trees have blown down.

It looks like the folks down in Vero Beach and Melbourne really got the brunt of this one.

We lost another 4 panels from our pool screen but my other 1/3 oak tree is okay so far.

Kevin

[Michael Barry]

Tony,
Thanks for your concern. I was extemely lucky this time. Half of Broward County lost power. Mine went off for about ten seconds and came right back on.
My roof is fairly new so it's intact. I can't say the same for my neighbors. I'd say more than half of my block is going to need new roofs, or at least major repairs. I sat on my front porch yesterday afternoon and watched two of the houses across the street lose at least thirty shingles each.
The only damage to my property was to my Yellow Tabebuia. It's a fragile tree to begin with, but it only lost one large limb. I can't complain.
My dad in Kissimmee and my sister in Clermont both lost power today,but so far no real damage. My sister in Boca Raton lost power yesterday. She stayed with us for the storm, and even with no electric opted to go home today. I don't know about you, but I don't sleep too well without A.C.
My dad is building a house on Lake Tohopekaliga and it got damaged during Charlie, so he went over and put some boards up. We won't know until tommorrow how that house fared.
My daughter in Tampa left her apartment to go stay at a friend's parents house, so I think She'll be O.K.
So, after all that my family is all safe but mostly sweaty.
I hope all you Creekers up in Central and North Florida and up into Georgia come out of this safe and sound. I'm praying for ya.
I think I'll leave my shutters up for Ivan.

Mike

[Ken Wright]

5 minute burst of wind at 515 that may have been 25mph. End of the electricity and we're still out. Word is that brief shot of wind toppled pines in "multiple places creating multiple outages". Laptops/batteries are really nice at a time like this. The wind is getting up again for the first time since the power went out.

And ... thank goodness ... as I write this ... the power is actually coming back on. YEAAAAAA .. come on AC.

And they say the best is yet to come. You guys keep your heads low .. we're predicted to stay in this until Tuesday Noon.

Tony, Tom ... you guys still there??

[Ken Wright]

Not that I"m superstitious but I'll this one just to get to #214 ... there is a hurricane out there.

[Michael Barry]

Ken,
Hang in there, I was just looking at the Weather Channel and it seems like those orange cells are going to be close to you soon. Stay Safe!

[Tom LaRussa]

My daughter in Tampa left her apartment to go stay at a friend's parents house, so I think She'll be O.K.

Hi Mike,

Just in case you haven't heard from your daughter, -- phones go out so easily -- I thought I'd let you know that we really didn't get much here in Tampa except for a lot of rain and some fairly moderate wind. So I'm sure she's fine.

:)

[Michael Barry]

Thanks Tom,
That's certainly good news. She's getting to be quite an adult but I still worry.

Mike

[Tom LaRussa]

Tony, Tom ... you guys still there??
Yep.

We haven't even had any power outages in my area since last night. Plus, the news says that the center of the storm -- not calling it an "eye" anymore -- passed Tampa a couple hours ago.

So, looks like we pretty much dodged a bullet again.

Now if Ivan misses Cuba... :(

Ugh, let's not go there until we have to. :o

[Michael Barry]

I was just wondering. How much do you think those doofus reporters make to go out and get pelted by these storms?

[Ken Wright]

we still haven't heard from Tony since yesterday afternoon. He must have lost power.

Was up most of the night with the wind .. bout 2am heard this awful thud and just knew that pine had come down on the roof .. went out and checked and it was luckily just a limb. Went out to our farm at daylight and surprisingly I didn't see a single pine down in that 4 mile drive until I got to our place ... the top out of a big one came down and about 32' of board horse fence is under it somewhere. Haven't heard from Creeker Glenn Hodges over in Nashville Ga since yestrday afternoon ... he may have lost power also or he may just be out in his shop guarding that huge PooleWood lathe of his. Heck... he may have spent the night turning.

Wind and rain are supposed to get to us in a serious way today ... saying the worst will come at sunset tonight. Does this thing ever end?? Its hard to believe those Doofus weather people are still standing out in the rain .. actually saw one woman who had her producer propping her up so that she could do the reporting out in all that. Show Business!!

[Dennis Lightbourn]

Hi Guys,


The short story is that '"me 'n mine" are fine - no major damage or losses. This one just missed us here in Nassau. Unfortunatly many of my fellow Bahamians were not so lucky.

We are hearing reports of major damage to buildings, roads and infrastructure in several islands including Acklins, Crooked Island, Long Island, Mayaguana, CatIsland, San Salvador, Rum Cay, Eleuthera, the Abacos and perhaps the hardest hit, Grand Bahama.Frances will prove to be the costliest strom in Bahamian history.


There were "only" three confirmed fatalities - three too many in my book.


To Tony Falotico - sure I know Jimmy Mosko (and Milton and John and…..), let me know if you want me to pass on a message.

Dennis

[Ken Wright]

are safe Dennis. Sounds like the islands took a real "licking" ..

I'm sitting in what I believe to be the "eye" of what's left of Frances. Bout 20 minutes ago everything went dead calm and the rain stopped ... but from the radar it appears there's more to come.

[Dennis Lightbourn]

Ken,
Like I told a friend in Tampa, we tried to weaken this one as much as we could for you!
Dennis

[Ken Wright]

have gone a bit to the extreme Dennis ... but thanks anyway ... I've seen as much of this one as I care or need to see. The catfish are trying to get into the house.

Still sitting in the "eye" ... I guess.

[Tony Falotico]

Hey guys, just got power restored, we are safe and sound. Lost one tree (gained some turning blanks, cherry I think) in the backyard and lots of limbs, but no damage at the home-front.

Will talk at y'all later.

Tony.

[Ken Wright]

glad you're back safely ... had guessed that you had lost power based on the radar that I was seeing. I think you may have gotten a much bigger dose than we did. For some reason when every one of those waves came through it seemed that we usually got a break between the bands.

We still had damage but not as seriously as it could have been.

Hoping Ivan wears himself out on Castro.

[Tony Falotico]

We had rain, and rain, then some more rain. Winds were not that bad, but did we ever get rain. My gage was full to the top at 7", not sure what the official rainfall was. It continued for nearly 30 hrs non stop. I estimate winds at 30-40 mph max, they would come and go, maybe some higher gusts. Power went out when a tree toppled lines about three houses down from me.

Didn't get widespread severe damage in the north end of the state, only two out of 18 counties reported traffic signals down, most reported them out due to power outages. They seem to be cycling back on as power is restored.

The power is back, the sun is out, the water is receding........ couple weeks we'll have forgotten about it!

I realized through all this how spoiled we really are. 100 yrs ago (that is not that long ago) there was no electricity, phones, TV News, batteries, AC, microwaves.......................... and they survived.

DENNIS.... tell Jimbo that Tony from Georgia Tech sends his regards. I'm living in North FL, last time I saw him I was living in Jupiter, just north of West Palm Beach. I didn't know his brothers, only met them a time or two, they went to Auburn (or Clemson?). Jim was the only Mosko at GT.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Tony, glad to hear it, you made it through the storm and that's a good thing. New blanks might be good too, but sorry you lost the tree.

[Glenn Clabo]

I don't believe it! Lets all put our minds and prayers together hoping this doesn't come true.

[Kelly C. Hanna]

You guys have our prayers!!

[Tony Falotico]

As of the 5 PM projection it's off the west coast back in the gulf again ( Look Out Ken!). Kinda like a dog waggin it's tail.

For those of you who don't deal with these things, this is the most frustrating and annoying part, it's coming at you..... no it's gonna miss....... wait, it's coming at us again..... no it's going east this time....... hold on it's ..........

This goes on for days............

[Ken Wright]

Its no secret these things bother me ... but then some of the guys up north understand that after this week. Amazing one system can dump so much water all the way up the east coast. Got a pic from a close friend just east of Ashville NC .. he had a 40 acre field under 8' water from a very small Catawba river.

Just have to see how much punch Jamaica and Castro takes out of ole Ivan. In the interim I'm not cleaning up storm debris until I know its not going to happen again in 3-4 days.

Tony ... if it looks rough you're welcometo ride it out up here ... although I'm not sure I'll be a lot better off than you ...

[Tony Falotico]

Tony ... if it looks rough you're welcometo ride it out up here ... although I'm not sure I'll be a lot better off than you ...

Again Ken, I appreciate the offer. My problem right now is I have two sisters in Palm Beach County, one still doesn't have power since last Saturday, MIL in Jupiter, My daughter / SIL & infant baby are in St. Petersburg, and my two elderly Aunts are in Titusville. I DON"T KNOW WHICH ONE TO GO GET / RESCUE !! By the time it's determined for sure where the storm is going, IT'S TOO LATE !! If I bring them (or they come on their own) to Lake City, I can't guarantee they won't be worst off here.

And they wonder why I have high blood pressure !!

[Ken Wright]

an almost impossible mission ... way too many bases to cover in the short time frame that you would have.

Maybe it'll wear itself out on Cuba ... but realy don't want to wish that on anyone.

IF it doesn't and does head this way .. i'm going to have to move horses further inland away from all that kind of wind.

[Ken Wright]

the latest projected path ... this, if it holds, is not good.

[Rich Konopka]

the latest projected path ... this, if it holds, is not good.
We are all with you on this. I have a sister and other family in Sarasota and Bradenton and they are very concerned. My cousin and other sister over in Boca Raton escaped Frances with minor Wind Damage. Everyone is on pins and needles and just trying to maintain a normal life with all of these distruptions.

Sitting up her in Connecticut we really never have experienced the wrath of a powerful hurricane such as these. However, I have seen the effects of a Cat 1 hurricane about 10 years ago that brushed Rhode Island. We were at family beach house and the surf was huge. However, the whole Atlantic Ocean was so angry and it is the only way I could describe it.

Lets just hope this Bugger Ivan skates way to the West.

I am curious to those in Florida if the relief efforts have been effective. Was Charlie as bad as Andrew? Is there enough Food or Water?

I remember everyone pitching in up here in Connecticut and filling tractor trailers with water and food. This time I haven't seen anything of that sort. Is there a need?