Rae called! They are about an hour and a half away from us and may make it over to see Bear at his show tomorrow. That would be so cool!
Hang on Floridians! My prayers are with you. Check in as soon as you can tomorrow.
Wonderful, I hope you all get together!!
I know that this is another thread, I suppose I should start one -
On the straps, I was talking big steel beams. We are using steel beams in a job we are doing now. But whoever it was, aquiunK? someone a few pages ago clued me in re air pressure.
Given that lots of people already live in mobile homes, I am interested in how to secure them, even at possibly stupid cost., and then, probably outlawing new ones, or coming up with some hybrid presently in fantasyland.
I have a friend who is the architect for a major newspaper, to earn his living, but he spent a lot of his off time, at least a few years ago, designing 400 and 500 square foot houses, at least conceptually.
I don't think this is a dumb idea, for housing planning in the world, or a way to spend your time thinking.
What are you thinking, that Florida should do re housing? (I know, another thread, but I can't shut up... )
ossoB - I'm not much of a design freak - but urban and regional planning? I'm in. Somewhere in this house there's a planning degree I didn't actually earn (short, weird story for another day), and a real degree in what, in the 1970's, was called Man in the Environment (what did they change that to?).
Not so much plants and birds and stuff - but how we relate to our physical environment - psych/soc/geo/history ... and plants and birds and stuff on the side.
Scrolling back - Rae checked in - that's great news. I've been worried.
Hang Osso...wanna discuss that.
from the Associated Press
STUART, Fla. (AP) -- Hurricane Frances lost some steam and hesitated off the Florida coast Friday, prolonging the anxiety among the millions evacuated and raising fears of a slow, ruinous drenching over the Labor Day weekend.
Downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, the storm was expected to come ashore with up to 20 inches of rain as early as Saturday afternoon, nearly a day later than earlier predictions.
For the 2.5 million residents told to clear out - the biggest evacuation in Florida history - and the millions of others who remained at home, Frances' tardy arrival meant yet another day of waiting and worrying.
"It's all the anticipation that really gets to you," said Frank McKnight of Wellington, who waited four hours at a hardware store to buy plywood. "I just wish it would get here, and we could get it all over with. I want to know now - am I going to have a house left or not?"
A hurricane warning remained in effect for Florida's eastern coast, starting about 30 miles north of Daytona Beach and extending almost to the state's southern tip. Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency for all of Florida.
At 8 p.m. EDT, Frances was centered about 200 miles southeast of Palm Beach. Gusty wind began to buffet the coast, and utilities reported that as many as 170,000 customers lost power at one point.
As Frances pounded the Bahamas, its top wind fell to 105 mph from 145 mph a day earlier. And its march toward Florida slowed to about 4 mph. The storm's lumbering pace and monstrous size - twice as big as devastating Hurricane Andrew in 1992 - mean Frances could spend hours wringing itself out over Florida, causing disastrous flooding.
"The storm, unlike Charley and others in the past, will be with us for a long, long time," Bush said.
Frances might remain over Florida for two cycles of high tide, meaning two rounds of storm surges expected to be 5 to 10 feet.
"This storm is bringing us everything," said Craig Fugate, Florida's top emergency management official. "It's going to bring storm surge, it's going to bring hurricane-force winds for a sustained period of time, it's going to bring torrential rainfall, it's going to bring tornadoes."
Wind gusts in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach had reached 38 mph Friday afternoon. Palm fronds bent in the wind as waves slammed into the beaches. A gust peeled half the roof off a mobile home in Davie, but no one was hurt.
In Miami, which was expected to escape the worst of Frances, winds at the leading edge toppled trees and caused scattered power outages.
<snip>
"People are hearing that the winds are down to only 115 mph," he said. "Well, if a bug hits you at 115 mph, it will knock your head off."
Frances was expected to come ashore along the middle of Florida's eastern coast, crawl across the state as a tropical storm just north of Tampa and weaken to a tropical depression as it moves over the Panhandle on Monday.
For the most part, evacuees seemed to be adapting calmly to spending Labor Day weekend in shelters. Nancy Syphax said the mood was good at an elementary school in Jensen Beach. "This is a necessary precaution," she said. "I'd rather be safe than comfortable at this moment."
Many schools and government offices closed, as did major amusement parks, the Kennedy Space Center and airports serving Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Melbourne.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency mobilized 4,500 workers, three times the number sent to help victims of Charley. Officials said they had enough people and supplies in the state to handle two disaster-relief operations at once.
The American Red Cross planned a larger relief operation than the one it conducted after Hurricane Andrew. Back then, the agency spent $81 million.
Hurricane season usually peaks in early September, and the ninth named storm of the season formed Friday in the far eastern Atlantic. Tropical Storm Ivan was about 865 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands with winds of 50 mph.
I just joined this forumn today, and I hope everyone down there in FL makes it through this ok. I've been reading most of the posts through out the day, and from your friends up here in the Great White North, god bless, and stay safe... We will be watching, and hoping that everyone will be ok..
Midnight
Thanks Midnight, and welcome to A2K! Thanks everyone else, and good night. I'm going to see if I can't get some sleep. This extra slow, punk-ass storm is boring me to tears.
skipping past, I haven't read the last posts, but my pal richardfrom krv who I have only nagged to post once, follows the accuweather.com site and claims it is much clearer than these - but he only saw an early one ... well, you might want to check it out.
ehbeth, it's hilarious that the AP reporter is hunkered down in my town, Strange seeing those Stuart bylines.
erm, and he is the LA planner, architectural historian pal who turned me on to lots and lots of interesting planning/buiding links, he's the one with the prefab housing links for all over the earth. Some of the recent ones in California are, natch, very expensive. But interesting.
I'm doing it again, tangenting, and I apologize.
I am hard to shut up until I get tired.
I can heartily support Panzade Mamma, she is one cool woman. And the Panzade Mamma children, who must have been stalwarts to go through that all, no matter how much they whined at the time.
Thanks osso, I just realized Frances is pointed right at Panama City where they're staying once it gets done here. What to do What to do.
Don't you suppose the storm is going to lose lots of force by the time it gets to Panama City. That seems to be pattern of hurricanes, if I remember correctly.
Be safe.
It is very slow. It might take whole 24 hours to pass.
The hurricane seems to have slightly changed the course (WNW to NW).
Hello, Panzade, Letty & O'Bill!
Here's hoping you are all still OK, still have your homes & will soon be able to get back to normal life again.
Yeah msolga but this has turned into a tedious storm...it's the waiting.
Good grief, still waiting! This must be so draining, panzade.
One good thing, I occupy my time with my A2k friends...a sort of lifeline in the storm.
