Hurricane Almost a Cat 4 now
 

Just heard the update - winds are sustained at 130 mph - its kicking up a little too fast - not good as the pressure inside just dropped again - which means more intensity in a while

Yeah its either moving more east or growing by looking at the wind map.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/grap...swind120?large

I'm all set for this year so bring it on.
This year I have a 7500 KW generator. 30+ gallons of fuel storage. A one room portable A/C that is on wheels. Comcast cable for my main internet connection. Earthlink ADSL for backup internet. DirecTV for my main source of TV and Comcast cable for a backup.

I've upped my insurance to replacement cost and have storm shutters for all openings to my house.

I figure I should be good to watch TV or listen to music, one room of A/C, and surf the internet in the middle of even a category 5 hurricane while all my neighbors sit in the dark bored and sweating.

I went to the grocery store and stocked up on food that can be nuked. Had extra bottles of water delivered. I even stocked up on |potleaf|

Your preparedness reminds me of blizzards up here.
Could be days before power is restored.
But if we need water for bathing or whaterver, we can just melt snow. We keep a case of bottled water for drinking.
Though our problem is heat.. so we have to rewire the furnace to run on the generator. (don't want to back feed the utility line)
Oh, and we do have 2 kerosene heaters and plenty of kerosene just in case. We plan for 5 days without power.

Isn't this storm a bit early for the season?

You know what Jim would say if he was in Florida right now...bring it on cocksuckers! |Jim

I get to walk around the back of my house after I loose power and turn off the main, maybe in the middle of the hurricane.

Yeah it is a bit early. I can only imagine what the rest of the season will be like. |shocking|

I wonder what happens if a hurricane hits the week of Internext? Do they give people their money back? Last year many didn't show up because of the hurricane warnings. Doesn't matter to me as I don't plan on going anyway.

Guess we get to use this smiley a lot this year.
|hurricane

I going to the grocery store now to pickup a few more things that I realized that I should have before the mobs hit the stores in the next few days.

good for you !!!
Im fine with 10

Cleo -
We just pigtail in the furnace from an extension cord. (remove the plug-in end and connect)
Then we have 2 ground fault extension cords from the generator (the yellow cords) running into the house.
From there, 1 goes to Work stuff, 1 goes to survival stuff.
In offline mode, we're not connected to the main line at all, so when the lights do go on, we know it.
Hasn't failed for 4 years.
Oh, and you need a gas stove.. :)

They predict above average this season and it did start early.
In maryland we always get the leftovers .. a ton of rain.

Happy Birthday =)

UW, ya never fail to make me chuckle man...thanks |waves|

I'm over near the gulf coast...looks like the latest projections are it might get a lil windy here :D

I'll be battening down the hatches tomorrow morning...pulling plants and furniture off the cool deck...strapping down garden hoses and such. Damn, knew I should have gotten an electrician out there to install a power transfer switch for the generator. Oh well, extension cords will have to do...IF it comes to that...

Sounds like you're all dialed in Cleo...you go girl! Wanna share of of that |potleaf|? Eases stressful situations donchaknow :D

42 gallons primary storage

http://cd34.com/mid_dsc01701.jpg
http://cd34.com/mid_dsc01836.jpg
http://cd34.com/mid_dsc01957.jpg

I only lack a window A/C unit or two. I might go to walmart tomorrow and pick up a unit or two.

You should get that Rhino-lined.

The insurance compaies seem to think it is going to hit Mobile/Destin. My son that is in the boat business works the storms for Boat USA and they just put him on alert

I have a box of matches and some old birthday candles I keep around incase we lose power

|waves|

All this extreme weather makes me think of that damn movie "The Day After Tomorrow."

Read on the internet that the polar ice caps have receded - again.
|cry|

You'd better not let the neighbors know you have A/C, TV and Internet or they'll all be at your house for the duration.

I would like to add here that the single most useful thing I own is an LED "shake it to make power" lifetime flashlight. That sucker is truly amazing. One in the house one in the car. Truly a wonderful thing when the power goes off in the dark.

Good luck to everyone down there... keep everything tied down.

Did anyone see the tornado / storm that hit the atlanta motoro speedway?

http://lpe.ajc.com/gallery/view/metro/0705/storm/

Go through the whole series of pics... that place got hit hard.

thanks, I'll look out for it!

pornrex - ya know its kinda funny - I was watching a show yesterday where they were explaining the extra storms - its cause the water temps are 3-4 degrees warmer at 10 deg above the equator which is causing this - a 4 deg rise in temps above normal ocean temp is incredible when you think about it

Greetings again folks. I wanted to say hi to everyone before Dennis hits us. I am in Pensacola still and this town has barely gotten over IVAN. Sorry I have been a stranger but I have been working on some mainstream projects in light of 2257.

Linkster and GG thanx for all your support as always and feel free to call and check in on me after the storm. I expect to be without power and such for around 2 weeks much like Ivan. This town is focking nutz now as you can imagine. I will finish boarding up today and hunker down.

You will not believe the pictures you will see if this thing hits us again.

Say a prayer!

Peace,

Soggy

Everyone hunker down and be safe!

Hey Soggy

It looks like it shifted a bit our way, so it's a given that one of us is gonna get nailed. Keep your head tucked low and Good Luck!

Well - this is not what I had in mind when I was asking my supreme belief system to get nailed |bow|

Soggy we'll definitely check in on ya if it looks like you guys go under again - and we'll be watching those pump systems in the Big Easy for ya FanTC :)

It looks like it is turning into a huge storm and is now just shy of being a Cat 5 storm.

"Packing 150 mph winds, just shy of Category 5 strength, Dennis morphed on Friday morning into the most powerful hurricane ever for this early in the Atlantic season."

Latest loop
http://www.wunderground.com/data/640...g3_ir_anim.gif

The rest of this year's storm season is looking to be lots of fun.

The bad thing about this thing is that my yard is still soaked from Cindy passing through here 2 days ago. I have a bunch of huge oaks and magnolias in the yard...probably 75 feet tall and their roots are weak as hell from the saturation.
I live a block off the beach and if Dennis turns this way , I'll probably be under water... and trees. Ah well, I'm riding out whatever Mother Nature sends me, be it direct hit, indirect hit, or total miss.

Eerily enough, this is starting to look alot like a familiar storm that wiped us out in '69, striking just a couple of miles from my house. Regardless of where it comes ashore, let's just hope it's not a repeat of Camille...
http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene...anecamille.htm

Being that there are so many adult webmasters in Florida, someone in the north, like me for example, could see a markable increase in profits in the days to come.

Looks like it's going for the AL/FL coastline....I feel really, really bad for the folks that live there. That storm just looks scary!

Man.. hope it dies down and doesnt cause any damage. Good luck to all in its path.

Yes but then there is me and I have two ISPs and a generator with fuel storage. :D

I used to love hurricane season when i lived in Nova Scotia. Lots of great surf spots near Halifax produce some amazing surfing from hurricanes and tropical storms.

Later in the season would see lots of Florida lisence plates on vehicles parked at the beaches. Many guys would follow a storm system up the coast hitting all the good surf spots in each state right up to Nova Scotia. A few hardcores would even jump on the ferry to Newfoundland.

Even got guys from california fly out after seeing on a weather map the tropical depressions in the atlantic, where they tend to track, and where Nova Scotia is positioned.

I miss it. Hope to move back there in a couple years.

Lost power a few hours ago. Tried to stay sleeping but this storm is making too much noise so I fired up my generator and made even more noise. I seem to be the only house as far as I can see with lights, TV, fridge, and all the creature comforts. :D

The storm hit last night here.
We've been without power/phone since 10pm last night.
Winds are still blowing hard this morning, and we haven't started on the back side of the storm yet.
Oh wel... probably won't be uploading much today at my current cell phone connection speed.

Good luck to everyone else in Dennis' path.

Back with updates later.

Hope all goes well Simon. It looks like one hell of a nasty creature :(

It's on the front page of todays newspaper here: http://www.aftonbladet.se/

Watching vid from Cuba now. I'm sure glad that we only got hit with its outer winds up where I am.

Simon who is south of my down in the Keys is still going to get hit with some pretty nasty weather as the storm moves north. We will too later today but nothing real bad.

Lots of good Miami cams on this page including ones over looking the bay with pan and zoom controls.
http://www.destinationwebcam.com/Miami.htm
Free registration required.

Here is the latest satellite loop
http://www.wunderground.com/data/640...g1_ir_anim.gif

Well I guess my nephew who is down visiting my sister will either be on his way home soon or will just have to ride it out. Her husband bought a generator but I think still had it in the shed in the box when we left there. lol. I guess he has it out now lol. Is it me or did FLA always have storms like this? I dont remember many going up. I remember most were located in the mid-north east. IE NYC area. But over the past ten years or so it seems like owning a trailer in FLA would be a very very bad move.

I moved here in 1969 with my family. We never had storms growing up down here. It wasn't until the eighties that one even came our way and it turned and missed south Florida.

Andrew in the nineties was the first one that I really remember.

They say it is going to stay like this for the next twenty years now.

Still a fucking great place to live. |potleaf|

Yup, perfect place for the generator...much less wear and tear that way :D

I've always thought that trailers/mobile homes were good bait for hurricanes and tornados...lol.

Pulled out my generator the other day and fired it up. Secured all the outside plants and such yesterday...so we're good to go :)

Had quite a bit of rain last night...let about 3 inches of water out of the pool this morning. Looks like the banana tree leaves are getting a bit tattered, but nothing severe at all. Bananas are still on the trees and ripening :D

We're supposed to have some pretty good squals come through later in the day, but just catching the outer edge of this one. All part of living in paradise :)

Power just came back on. Just as I finished going through two more of my LL's cats.

I'm going to go find something to do away from the computer now…

like bathe?

:D |waves|

I drove down to my rich neighbor's house. He still has no power and his generator isn't going to be installed for months so he was going to go stay someplace else. He does have a 48 foot boot parked behind his house on the intercoastal with its own power A/C and just about anything else you could want but he said he was going to go rent a room at some nice hotel near his Asian rent-a-girlfriend's house and get himself some pussy. The rich really are different…