| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 03 Sep 2004 : 00:18:25
As many of you know, there's a rather large hurricane bearing down on Florida's East Coast right now...
What many of you may not know, is that I live on the East Coast -- the Space Coast area, to be exact.
Frances keeps wobbling. The weather-guessers still aren't sure where it's gonna hit. The best scenario I've seen thus far is that it hits south of here, and we get winds of *only* 105 mph. Worst case, it comes right at us, and we get 145 mph winds.
Many people are getting out of dodge. Very early maņana morn, I shall be joining the exodus. I'm headed to Orlando with some friends.
I have no idea what I'll be coming home to, after this is past. Maybe, hopefully, (I pray for this!) everything will be as I left it. Maybe I'll only have that small amount of stuff I can fit in my car...
Either way, I'm gonna prolly be offline for a few days, unless I use someone else machine while I'm in Orlando. If my apartment is still here after this weekend, we could still be without power for days. So we shall see how it goes.
Either way, wish me and the rest of Brevard County luck. |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 29 Aug 2023 : 03:17:22
I live on the east coast of Florida, so Idalia isn't coming anywhere near us... But I know at least one person, previously active here, that is having to watch it with some concern.
So I will say that I hope no one here is in the path of the storm, and if they are, that they make it through alright. |
| BountyHunter |
Posted - 25 Feb 2021 : 03:25:00
This is why I live where the air hurts my face. |
| cpthero2 |
Posted - 13 Sep 2020 : 00:20:15
Master Rupert,
Glad to hear you are out of the woods, at least on this one!
I hope all is well for you and yours these days!
Best regards as always,
|
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 12 Sep 2020 : 03:54:49
quote:
Originally posted by cpthero2
Master Rupert,
Any chance of that tropical depression hitting your neck of the woods? How's it looking down there?
Best regards,
It's going to be well to the south of us. We're projected to have a rainy weekend, but that's it. |
| cpthero2 |
Posted - 12 Sep 2020 : 00:12:48
Master Rupert,
Any chance of that tropical depression hitting your neck of the woods? How's it looking down there?
Best regards,
|
| sleyvas |
Posted - 05 Sep 2019 : 02:31:33
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I've updated this thread for 7 storms, since 2004.
Well, make that 8 storms.
The bulk of Hurricane Dorian is past us, now.
Originally, it was supposed to hit as a tropical storm, over the weekend. My main thought was that damn, I'd not be able to cut the grass. 
But then they predicted it hitting us as a Cat 3 or Cat 4, and that's freaking scary.
Then the predictions moved south, and it looked like south Florida was going to get trashed.
Then the predictions started moving north again, and we once more had a Cat 3/4 aimed dead at us.
But the predictions kept moving north, until it became the off-the-coast arc we so often see.
It looks like we only got about an inch of rain, and though there were 70 mph winds reported elsewhere in the county, I think our max winds were in the 40s (Brevard County is a long one).
This one was worrisome for a while, and it's the first time I've boarded up my windows (mainly because the previous owners of the house left the wood, and a friend came over to help), but it looks like we came through relatively unscathed.
Gotta say, that one even had me a bit worried in Mississippi. I just pictured it sitting out there for a while and then just plowing over Florida and coming here. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 04 Sep 2019 : 14:16:18
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I've updated this thread for 7 storms, since 2004.
Well, make that 8 storms.
The bulk of Hurricane Dorian is past us, now.
Originally, it was supposed to hit as a tropical storm, over the weekend. My main thought was that damn, I'd not be able to cut the grass.
But then they predicted it hitting us as a Cat 3 or Cat 4, and that's freaking scary.
Then the predictions moved south, and it looked like south Florida was going to get trashed.
Then the predictions started moving north again, and we once more had a Cat 3/4 aimed dead at us.
But the predictions kept moving north, until it became the off-the-coast arc we so often see.
It looks like we only got about an inch of rain, and though there were 70 mph winds reported elsewhere in the county, I think our max winds were in the 40s (Brevard County is a long one).
This one was worrisome for a while, and it's the first time I've boarded up my windows (mainly because the previous owners of the house left the wood, and a friend came over to help), but it looks like we came through relatively unscathed. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 19 Sep 2017 : 15:10:20
It's a 6 foot wooden privacy fence. One of the 4x4 uprights had rotten thru, a few inches below ground, and that post blew over and took a section of fence with it.
The neighbor's yard on that side is wide open, so the wind was able to hit that fence full force. The fence on the other side of the yard wasn't even leaning. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 19 Sep 2017 : 13:26:02
Glad you made it out Wooly. How bad and what kind of fence did it mess up out of curiosity? The one thing I had never thought about with Katrina was my chain link fence, and I was surprised that it had basically tore up a lot of the strapping of the the fence to the poles at the top and that ended up allowing the fence caps to come up, etc... such that the fence I had just installed a couple months prior looked all crooked after and has never quite been right since. I had figured being not solid it would have been fairly stable with maybe just some shaking. It helps of course that I'm about an hour in from the coast too, so the storm was a lot less powerful when it got to me (though still bad enough to rip off the metal roofs of my neighbor's house and the trailer across the street... but I consider those kind of like a big semi-solid sail or wing once the air gets under them). |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 19 Sep 2017 : 05:13:21
Oh, and two other notes about my Irma: a friend came over and helped (by which I mean he did most of the work) me repair my fence the other day, so that's all good. And I saw an official report that the highest reported wind in the county was 94 mph. That's a lot of wind, but it could have been a lot worse, obviously. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 19 Sep 2017 : 05:11:40
What really sucks is a lot of people that got hammered by Irma, in the Caribbean, are now getting (or will soon be) hammered by Maria.
Current projects for Maria are for it to turn north soon; it will be better for damn near everybody if it follows that track. |
| Compaste |
Posted - 19 Sep 2017 : 04:54:33
It was so sad to hear different stories of the victims of hurricane. Prayers for each family. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 11 Sep 2017 : 15:10:44
So... Part of our back fence blew down, and there's a hell of a lot of yard debris, but we're otherwise fine.
The power flickered a lot last night. At about 12:30, whilst I was watching a movie I'd luckily downloaded, the power went out entirely for a couple minutes.
And then came back on.
And then went back out a couple minutes later.
And then came back on a couple minutes after that.
It did that routine until about 1:15, when it died entirely. This made for an uncomfortable night's sleep for me, though my son didn't seem to notice.
I woke up about 7:30, and started cleaning up the yard. About two hours later, as I was walking around the block, my wife called to say we had power again.
So now the only question is when I go back to work... I'm paid, either way, but I do like the overtime on the paycheck.
|
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 10 Sep 2017 : 05:39:50
quote:
Originally posted by Kentinal
Predicting weather of all kinds is an art more then a science. Not enough understanding to fully understand all the dynamics of such stroms. That is reason that 14 centers are part of Hurricane path models. At least it does appear to sound better for you.
One question though. Why do you not have a generator in case the grid goes down?
Because they're not free, and because this kind of thing is far from being a frequent occurrence. I've updated this thread for 7 storms, since 2004. Two of those were in the same year (practically the same month!), three were like snow days, and for one of them, I only left my home to hang out with friends a couple miles away. FPL is pretty good about restoring power quickly, and though 7 or 8 storms may sound like a lot, the combination of ocean currents and barrier islands means we usually don't get much more than heavy summer rains, if that.
Oh, and it takes a large generator to run the AC. |
| Kentinal |
Posted - 10 Sep 2017 : 05:14:34
Predicting weather of all kinds is an art more then a science. Not enough understanding to fully understand all the dynamics of such stroms. That is reason that 14 centers are part of Hurricane path models. At least it does appear to sound better for you.
One question though. Why do you not have a generator in case the grid goes down? |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 10 Sep 2017 : 04:13:43
The latest weather prediction has us catching 75 mph gusts, tomorrow, with sustained winds at 62 mph.
I've been outside during 85 mph winds. Yes, that was stupid of me, but I bring it up to show that while those are powerful winds, they're not as scary as they could be.
Heck, if it wasn't for wanting to set a good example for my 6 year old, I'd be more than a little tempted to wander outside once or twice tomorrow.
My main concern for tomorrow is power. If we lose power, we lose AC. And that's uncomfortable. But we didn't lose power during Matthew, so I'm hopeful. I know for past storms, power crews from other parts of the country have been sent down to assist, arriving before the storm did -- and I did hear the other day that they're doing that again, with this storm.
It's been a long and worrisome week... At one point, we were planning on fleeing to St. Petersburg -- but that's now directly in the path of the storm. And my wife really had her heart set on going to stay with her best friend in Orlando, until I showed her that the track at that time had the storm going over Orlando. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 09 Sep 2017 : 04:37:06
It's looking a lot more favorable for this part of the state, now -- Irma is (once again!) projected to go way west.
A lot of places are still shut down and boarded up, but I'm far less concerned than I was yesterday afternoon.
This storm has been odd -- the predictions for hurricanes are normally pretty consistent, but this one has had some wildly different projected tracks. |
| Taleras |
Posted - 09 Sep 2017 : 01:49:10
Best of luck Wooly, hopefully it changes course! |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 08 Sep 2017 : 12:35:48
Good luck Wooly. We're all scared of this beast barreling in. I've been dreading that it stalls for a while and heads further into the gulf, because we know these things are really giant water based skriaxit and they have a mind of their own. |
| Alaundo |
Posted - 08 Sep 2017 : 10:26:21
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I really, really dislike the fact that I'm updating this thread again...
It's been a really long week, watching Hurricane Irma. For a while it looked like it was going to skirt the tip of Florida as it headed for the Gulf... Then, in about a 36 hour span, the tracks changed from that to hitting south Florida and then heading east of us back into the Atlantic.
The tracks earlier today made it look like my area wasn't going to see all that much of it -- it was starting to look like Hurricane Jeanne, the one that a friend and I kept going outdoors during.
Then came the latest update, and I went from "this will be barely worth paying attention to!" to "Need to board up the windows, load the cars, get out of town, and pray."
I'm obviously hoping the current track proves to be only a temporary one, and that it goes back to either of the previous tracks that had it hitting only south Florida before heading elsewhere. But at the moment, I can't bank on that one.
This sucks. Two years in a row. 
Well met
Gah! Best of luck and hope you and your family come through unscathed personally and thine abode! Stay safe. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 08 Sep 2017 : 00:22:59
I really, really dislike the fact that I'm updating this thread again...
It's been a really long week, watching Hurricane Irma. For a while it looked like it was going to skirt the tip of Florida as it headed for the Gulf... Then, in about a 36 hour span, the tracks changed from that to hitting south Florida and then heading east of us back into the Atlantic.
The tracks earlier today made it look like my area wasn't going to see all that much of it -- it was starting to look like Hurricane Jeanne, the one that a friend and I kept going outdoors during.
Then came the latest update, and I went from "this will be barely worth paying attention to!" to "Need to board up the windows, load the cars, get out of town, and pray."
I'm obviously hoping the current track proves to be only a temporary one, and that it goes back to either of the previous tracks that had it hitting only south Florida before heading elsewhere. But at the moment, I can't bank on that one.
This sucks. Two years in a row. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 09 Oct 2016 : 22:21:04
So the word from St. Augustine is that both houses are fine and have power and water. Despite being practically on the beach, the in-law's place just got some debris.
We dodged a major bullet, here. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 08 Oct 2016 : 03:31:50
Well, I am back home and back online.
It looks like Matthew wobbled just a bit back to the east when it was approaching, and that made a lot of difference. It could have been a hell of a lot worse, here.
My workplace shut down early on Wednesday, and I came home, secured some potential windblown debris, grabbed a couple days' worth of clothes, and we left. We spent Wednesday eve, all day Thursday, and a good chunk of today hanging out with Callmegene at his place in Orlando.
A friend of mine had to ride out the storm at home, just a couple miles from here, and he came by this morn and sent us pictures showing nothing worse than a dead tree down in the yard -- and reporting that we had power.
Other than the dampness of some towels that were placed by the sliding glass doors before we left, the house was just as we left it -- we didn't even lose power.
That was such a profound relief.
I was dreading the idea of having to replace all my stuff a second time... But what worried me more was that if that happened, we would have to try to explain it all to a 5 year old.
So I was so incredibly grateful to find the house just as we left it.
Some local friends did lose power, and my mother-in-law's backyard is trashed - it was a minor jungle out there (to the point that there were literally footpaths for navigating around the yard), and a lot of limbs and such blew down. Between all the downed limbs and how chaotic that yard already was, I'm really not sure how badly damaged it was -- it's bad, but it'll have to be cleaned up before we can tell how bad.
The major concern now is my wife's brother, his family, and his in-laws. His in-laws live just a couple houses away from the beach in St. Augustine, and brother Drew and his family are just a mile or two from there. There's a lot of flooding in the historic downtown area, right now, so there is a lot of reason to be worried.
Drew thinks his house is likely fine, but the in-laws' place most likely did not fare so well. They're all in Tampa, right now, so we don't know.
Thanks for all the good wishes, folks -- it is very much appreciated!  |
| Brimstone |
Posted - 07 Oct 2016 : 16:17:32
Stay safe and dry Wooly. |
| Arivia |
Posted - 06 Oct 2016 : 23:37:38
Be safe Wooly! |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 06 Oct 2016 : 20:45:03
Good luck Wooly. Make an offering to Talos to turn his eye elsewhere. |
| Steven Schend |
Posted - 06 Oct 2016 : 17:47:56
Stay safe and dry, Wooly. Nobody should have to be in a storm shelter smelling of wet hamster fur. |
| Alaundo |
Posted - 05 Oct 2016 : 09:15:12
Well met
Stay safe, Wooly! Batten down the hatches. |
| Irennan |
Posted - 05 Oct 2016 : 02:09:33
Best wishes indeed. I hope it all turns out for the least bad. |
| Fellfire |
Posted - 04 Oct 2016 : 22:03:53
Looks like FL might get slammed. I would sacrifice a goat for Talos if I were you. Good luck. |
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