Beware of Hurricane Ike!
 

Fellow Floridians, brace yourselves! Please follow the storm closely and heed any warnings. Have your party if it's headed your way, but first make sure you're safe and prepared, okay? :hearts:

I've been down here for over 30 years now and I've yet to see one reach Category 4 (as of 5 pm update) that far out. If you're in the cone and anywhere near a coast, please take it seriously. (Yes, I experienced Hurricane Andrew in South Florida in 1992, so I've seen what they can do firsthand.)

http://icons-pe.wunderground.com/dat...00809_5day.gif

Brevard and Orange Counties are already preparing to direct traffic on both sides of the medians, for the first time ever, to expedite and ease the evacuations and traffic flow out of certain areas by Sunday.

Yeah, nothing to play around with. I saw a show the other day on Andrew. They were interviewing some people who decided to stick around and have a hurricane party. Bascially the show was an interview with two people. The two out of the 15 or so that survived.

Some of the NOAA models have it hooking north sooner, that would be good... if you live in Florida. GA, SC et el- maybe not so much.

On a side note- as much as I like the diving in the Bahamas I'm starting to be really glad they make it near impossible to bring your dog(s) with you if you move there.

You should look up information and stories on Hurricane Camille, if you have never heard of her.

Sure have, but I was a child living in the northeast at the time. I do recall hearing bits and pieces about it, though, and have seen pieces about her wrath.

I am on the SC coast. The storm could easily turn and head right at me as well. We will evacuate.

For sure. Are you coastal as well?

Not looking good for the Miami or Keys this morning...

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphi...085513W_sm.gif

It's funny how now NOAA seems to be more in line with Weather Underground. Jewels do you find WU to be more accurate?

I did some looking around this morning for the above mentioned storm. I couldn't find anything at first. The first two Google searches came back with this page as the first hit. I went a poured another cup of coffee and tried Yahoo. Nothing there either. Yep, turns out there is no record of a Hurricane Grancey. Now Hurricane Camille, it turns out, has a lot of hit when you search it.

Let's hope for a serious right hook. Hannah turned more easterly than forecasters expected.

What's going on with Hanna? It appears to be right at Orlando, but the cams I pull up there only show cloudy skies.

CNN states that Tropical Storm Hanna should reach the Carolina coast early tomorrow (Saturday) morning.

They also state that the small but impressive Hurricane Ike could hit Florida's south as a category 3 by Tuesday evening.

Carolinas watch for Hanna; Ike waits in the wings - CNN.com

We're in a TS watch and flash flood watch, rain predictions - 4 to 10"

I like it better than TWC/weather.com. I thought wunderground got their info from NOAA, but I can't swear to that. The info seems to be on target and updated frequently.

Hurricane Grancey?? Never heard of that one. ?
-----Added 5/9/2008 at 09 : 23 : 07-----
She's out there in the ocean. I'm in Brevard (central coastal FL) and we've been getting outer feeder bands all morning and they're expected until mid-afternoon. Just winds ranging from 15 - 25 mph with gusts of 30 - 40 and some heavy downpours. We are in for a clear weekend though. :)

Neither has anyone else. Turns out I mixed up the hurricane's name with the name of the TFP member who first posted about Camille.

More coffee solved my problem.

You're only allowed one mistake per month, so watch your back :lol:

The thing that sets wudnerground apart is their network of local weather stations. About 10,000 US hobbyist and local weather stations report their data directly to them, giving them excellent local coverage. When I give them my zip code, I get data hot off the weather station belonging to a neighbor down the street, in damn near real time. Very impressive work.

Hurricane Grancey? I like the sound of that.

I heard Hurricane Ike kicked Hurricane Tina's ass..

Mm. The version I've been saying is, "Hurricane Ike is gonna slap Florida like it's Tina!"

Hooray for tasteless humor.

Hey, I like that one better :)

Now they have Ike heading even farther south-

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphi...084015W_sm.gif

I'm just west of the southwest edge of the "cone o'risk." If it doesn't hook north soon it will slam into Cuba. That'll be, I think , their fourth hurricane in a month or so. Then I suppose it could hit me. Every source I have has it hooking north at some point, hope it does before it hits me. Then looking to the future looks like it goning to move out in the Gulf. It could build back up quickly in those waters and once again every where from the north Mexican gulf states to the Florida Panhandle looks like it be at risk. I really hope it doesn't bear down on NO. Seems like those folks have had their share.

NO is looking like a hurricane magnet.

i had just returned from vietnam and was living on the beach on anna maria island, just west of bradenton, florida, when camille was originally forecasted to make landfall right where i lived...we got very lucky that week when she decided to veer northward...

Looks like must of Florida is going to be spared. Cuba's screwed yhttp://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphi...085314W_sm.gif

how dry will the tortugas be?

Wunderground failed me. I kept checking while we were clearly having downours and high winds. Wunderground said we had light rain and 7mph. I finally went back to weather.com, which confirmed we were getting 30-45mph winds.

Just realized these photo's we posted by saving location are updated based on what their parent site is showing...

So Ike is now headed to Southern Texas.

See this is why I don't use them, I figured maybe it was because I'm in Mexico. But it can be a cloudless sky and WU will say it raining and visa versa.
-----Added 8/9/2008 at 07 : 18 : 34-----
Man, did Cuba piss off God this year or what?

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphi...092237W_sm.gif

I didn't know Cuba even had gay pride parades.

LMAO.

I bet it keeps curving and nails NO again.

Unka Phil, how'd you fare?

Don't know if I were in Houston I'd be boarding up and headed to high ground. They're talking Cat 4 and it's pointed in that direction. Course it should lose a little after hitting land, but there isn't much hand between the gulf and Houston.

Plywood, high ground, booze and a generator or battery operated boom box. PM noodle for advice, she seems to have this down pat.

we might get some sprinkles this weekend...

We were supposed to get hammered by the last one, and we never got so much as a drizzle. Everything this year has been a wash so far. I'd worry if I were in Corpus Christie.

I was wrong, last night was the changing factor for me. It took the turn towards the west that I didn't expect. We'll most likely be on the eastern upswing (if it goes south of houston), so the weather will be pretty bad.

Everything here's been a wash this year too, so far. Ike's eye passed my me to the north never getting closer then 400 miles. We got wind, rain (lots of rain) and thunder. I wouldn't discard the power of this storm. I never lost power but the rain filled the streets.

We're in for some heavy weather here, unless Ike turns to the west.

Oh what joy................................

Well, the grocery store was a mob scene (and all I needed was hot sauce!). My office has already been closed for tomorrow, and I was the last person to leave there today. I could care less about rain as I'm on the third floor, but if I lose power and miss the USC-OSU game, all will feel my wraith.

Yep I just spent 3 hours battling traffic, and I hadn't eaten yet today until a few minutes ago.

CNN's reporting that Texas State officials are warning Galveston resident in single and two story homes "face certain death" if they do not evacuate.

Some sources have it hitting as a Cat 2, other's show Cat 3. I think focusing on whether it's a 2 or a 3 doesn't make mush sense. This thing is half the size of the Gulf, take it serious.

Well, it'll be interesting to see exactly where it hits. If it hits southwest of Galveston, I'm probably fucked. If it hits right at Galveston, I'll still get a fair bit of it. If it hits northeast of Galveston, I shouldn't have too much trouble.

Good luck, it's going to be rough. I'm NE houston, so I'll see a strong wind heading west, then it will swing to heading north, depending on how quickly the storm takes that northward swing they're predicting.

We've been getting streams and streams of people coming through our E. Texas roads evaccing from down south.
Even saw 3 Coast Guard boats on trailers going North.
I started getting a bit more alarmed after that.

We're gathering our papers, pets, food and clothes and hie'ing off to my brother's brick house. Good luck everybody else! :thumbsup:

Well, stay safe everyone. Sounds like if you're not out yet it might be too late.

Saw quite a few military trucks driving through town earlier, presumably carrying relief supplies with them. Caught quite a bit of attention from passing drivers.

Clouds are hauling ass through the sky right now and its much darker than usual. They were talking about 120 mph gusts reaching downtown and out this way. OUght to be a hell of a storm to watch. Hope it doesn't rip these crappy windows out the side of my building.

Didn't cover your windows?

Hope not either. Best of luck dude, be safe. keep us posted when you can.

Can't cover our windows. Third floor of an apartment complex that's a brick building. Pretty much just have to rely on renters insurance if any damage happens. If things get hairy or there's any damage, I'll run across the street to the firehouse and take cover.

Sounds like a reasonable plan.

...Swim across the street :p

It's getting pretty windy here, but fortunately the wind above matches the wind below, so hopefully no tornadoes tonight. I've slept through one tornado already that was about a 30 foot miss, don't think I'll be so lucky next time!

Keep safe, guys.

They're expecting Tornado formation to be at the northeast corner if anywhere. Winds have picked up pretty good here too. I'm lucky in that my windows are kind of in a niche between a balcony and the tower for the staircase, and the wind is coming in from the backside of the building, not head on. All of the light up Exit signs have already been ripped down by the wind, and the metal roofs are already lifting up off the car ports.

No sweat :)

I have a 2 story and we sleep on the bottom floor. Flooding is very unlikely, so biggest threat is a tree falling or a tornado. I doubt the hurricane is strong enough to rip the roof off, but I only say that because the trees are so thick in this area that you can hardly see the roofs from google satellite images.

I did have to tie up one tree, a massive sweet gum that's about 8 inches from the roof edge of the garage. I tied it to 3 other tree bases, pulled the rope as tight as possible, then pulled the already tight ropes together and lashed them together mid-air so the tree is pulled from one direction by 3 separate ropes at the base of 3 separate trees. I estimate the ropes have a combined tensile strength of 1200lb, hopefully that is enough to keep it from hitting the roof/soffit :oogle:

As for survival:
Have food
Have beer
Have water
Have dirty thoughts

We're good :)

.. don't forget, so far you have internet. Good sign.

Seriously though, my thoughts are with you all. I have never been anywhere near a hurricane to know what it is like. Stay safe dammit!

They told the great population of Houston to stay put at home unless you were in one of mandatory evacuation zip codes or a low lying area. We have stayed, prepared and are ready for this. Hopefully they will cancel classes on Monday, that would be amazing!

Stay safe Texas TFP

Report in please, Texans.

hope your Texan peeps are ok too.

i cant fathom what must be running through your heads.

Chins up!

Why Do Some People Ignore Evacuation Warnings? Psychology -The Holdouts| Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com

I know I would have taken a trip someplace outside of Houston/Galveston the past few days.

I hope they took some good pictures or videos of flooding/wind/rain if they are still there.

I've never heard of a "certain death" warning like they issued for Galveston Island last night. Scary.

We used to own a house for six years that was directly in the path of the eye. Makes me feel a little better about being so upside down on the loan for our new house 1300 miles to the west. At least we still have a dry house to live in. We got out of there for precisely this reason, right before Rita. When it comes to climate, Houston is hell-on-earth. Wild horses couldn't drag me back there.

That being said, I hope my old neighbors & coworkers stayed safe. Well, most of them, anyway.

My thoughts are with those in any danger.

My sister lives on high ground outside Houston. Too stubborn to evac, she merely bought extra groceries and road it out. Today, she sits in the dark and waits for the power to return. But she and her husband are safe.

My thoughts are with the ones who left and have to return to damaged or flooded houses. For anyone who is in danger that stayed behind, it's Darwinism in action. They were given plenty of warning and plenty of options, I don't feel too bad if they didn't heed the warnings days ahead of time to save themselves.

Sorry it's harsh, but it's not like it was a surprise accident or illness. They made a choice to stay, they get to live or die with the decisions they made.

Howdy from Houston.

We now have our power back on, & we made it through pretty much unscathed. I feel guilty writing this because I know that others were much less fortunate. Our worst damage is some downed sections of fence, & we're going to have some food spoilage from the relatively short (thankfully!) power outage.

Good vibes & positive thoughts to everyone touched by Hurricane Ike.

Glad to hear you made it with limited damage. Hopefully things will be back to normal for you and everyone else in the area.

Thanks for getting an update to us.

I hope to hear many updates just like this one. Glad to hear you came out of this safely.

Thank you for touching base.

Glad to hear you made it through okay. My thoughts have been with you and your "neighbors".

Thanks, folks! Our appreciation for your thoughts far exceeds my vocabulary.

Are any TFPers on the coast near Galveston or Bolivar Pennisula? That area is now pretty much a wasteland.