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Osotogary
09-02-04, 08:39 AM
If I don't log in in the next couple of days or so it will because I am preparing for the on coming hurricane. Heck, I know that no matter how much you prepare the Murphy Quotient is always out there. I am about ready to go into my survival mode. This hurricane I've loaded up with peanut butter, crackers, one-a-day vitamins, breakfast bars and some beer. What's a hurricane without beer? I've got some first aid equipment and I scanned and downloaded to a disk all of my pictures, cartoons and personal documents. I'm thinking that I wouldn't mind having the avacados off my neighbors tree head this way(not to fast). Nachos, beer and quacamole is good hurricane snack food....for me.
Question. Why do I have to do the lawn before the hurricane arrives? She insists on it. I'm fighting it. I'll probably lose the argument. (As I type, the lawn mower is being placed on the lawn and the garage door is open) Crud, I'm doomed. As long as I'm not asked to get a pizza while the hurricane is passing...I'll be fine. LOL
Well, take care, one and all. No matter what happens, I'll try to keep in touch. Got some work to do.
Adios.
Gary

thedrifter
09-02-04, 08:42 AM
Batten down the Fort...

Find Safe Cover.

Be Safe Gary......

To All those in the Path of Her....

God Bless


Ellie

enviro
09-02-04, 08:43 AM
A lot of us that were stationed in NC or SC know what you're going through Gary! Stay safe and don't fight the hurricane or the wife!

USMC-FO
09-02-04, 10:28 AM
Gary: Get prep'd Stay low and safe.... Spoke to my sister in Jensen Beach last night with the same comments......

Look for you on the back side !

Osotogary
09-02-04, 10:39 AM
Thank you one and all for your well wishes. I filled my truck with gas but, really, where am I going to go? Have to get more beer, the lawn is done. Will make some bbq'd chicken for a couple of meals and do some nic-nac preparation around the house. Got tons of s paper. This has been one heck of a vacation. Hurricane heading my way and the very lovable second half enduring her cycle. I'm up s creek without a paddle. LOL Will take all of your advice to heart and do the best that I (we) can.
Adios..
Gary

OLE SARG
09-02-04, 12:19 PM
Gary,

Batten down the hatches. Keep your head down and watch out for flying debris.

Seriously, STAY SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SEMPER FI

ED (alias Ole Sarg)

TracGunny
09-02-04, 12:34 PM
Yo, Gary... see you in the North Carolina Mountains? ... might be safer there... TG

Last modified Thu., September 02, 2004 - 12:35 AM Originally created Thursday, September 2, 2004

Storm is triple Charley's size, same strength

By JESSIE-LYNNE KERR
The Times-Union

In the world of forecasters, Florida-pounding Hurricane Charley was a pencil-thin line on the map -- but Hurricane Frances is a thick black line and a monster storm that promises to ravage the state.

The question no one can answer yet is what part.

Late Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for about 280 miles of Florida coast from Florida City to Flagler Beach. A hurricane watch means that those areas could start feeling hurricane conditions within 36 hours.

Nearly half a million coastal residents, from Daytona Beach south to Vero Beach, were urged to evacuate. Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency, which orders the activation of the Florida National Guard and other preparations. He also warned more evacuations may be ordered.

''I can't emphasize enough how powerful this is," National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield said. "If there's something out there that's going to weaken it, we haven't seen it.''

A ridge of high-pressure in the atmosphere off the U.S. East Coast will determine Frances' path, Mayfield said. If it stays strong, it will push Frances south toward Florida. If it weakens, it will steer the hurricane north to Georgia or South Carolina.

At 11 p.m. Wednesday, the latest projection from the National Hurricane Center had Frances hitting the east coast of Florida Saturday evening in the vicinity of Melbourne/Cocoa Beach and heading northwest up the state.

Frances was a dangerous Category 4 hurricane Wednesday night and forecasters said it could strengthen to a Category 5 storm with winds more than 155 mph, which would cause catastrophic damage as it hit the Florida coast.

"Remember, it is important that people don't focus on the exact forecast track because there is a lot of uncertainty with that," said Steve Letro, chief meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Jacksonville. "I am sure that was a problem with some people who got caught in Charley because they were focusing on the specific track of the forecast and not on the fact that hurricane warnings were in effect for their area.

"People should listen for the watches and warnings," Letro emphasized. "Those watches and warnings should determine what their actions should be, not that skinny line on the hurricane map."

Changing that habit is critical, Letro said, "because this one is especially big."

When Charley stomped across Florida on Aug. 13 from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic with sustained winds that reached 145 mph, it was blamed for 27 deaths.

Hurricane Charley heavily damaged or destroyed more than 30,000 homes and caused an estimated $7.4 billion in insured losses, making it the worst natural disaster to hit Florida in 12 years. Then, Hurricane Andrew killed 15 people and did $15.5 billion in insured damage.

"Charley was intense," Letro said, "but it was a relatively small system. Charley's destructive winds were no more than 50 miles in diameter. Frances has hurricane-force winds over a diameter of more than 150 miles, three times the size of Charley."

Letro said he was not trying to terrify anybody at this point, "but even if the storm doesn't come directly over us, you can still have a significant impact from it."

Hurricanes are normally difficult to forecast when they get near the Jacksonville area's latitude and longitude, Letro said.

"In this area, we are at the western edge of the Atlantic or Bermuda high. Through most of the Atlantic that Bermuda high steers storms nicely westward toward us across the ocean," Letro said. "But in the western Atlantic, the influence of that high pressure lessens and the storm can respond to other weather systems."

That makes the challenge in hurricane forecasting identifying what those other weather systems will be, where they will be, how strong they will be and how they are going to interact with the hurricane.

By this morning, Letro said, Frances will be entering that area where the effect of the Bermuda high will be lessening, but another high pressure system will be moving off the eastern United States. Until that second system begins to exert its influence, Frances could start moving more northwesterly, he added.

"That second high pressure system could be strong enough to steer the storm westward into South Florida," Letro said, "or it could be weak enough that the storm just blasts right through it and heads up to Georgia. The more likely scenario is something in between, which covers a lot of area."

Some of the tools National Hurricane Center forecasters use in predicting where storms will head are computer models prepared by different meteorological sources and known by their initials. For instance, the GFDL model is prepared by a federal agency, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. UKMET stands for the United Kingdom Meteorology service. GFS (AVN) is the Navy, Letro said.

Forecasts and storm updates issued by the National Weather Service frequently make reference to these computer models and how they change, or flip-flop, from update to update.

"The fact is that how a hurricane interacts with the environment around it is a very delicate balance of forces," Letro said. "The slightest change in those forces, whether weaker, stronger, faster or slower, can have a great deal of effect on how the computer model handles a hurricane and our data network is simply not dense enough to capture all the information that a computer model would need to make a really specific forecast."

He said that a computer model is a simulation of the atmosphere.

"We can simulate the atmosphere of a hurricane inside a computer but we cannot duplicate it," he said.

jessie-lynne.kerr@jacksonville.com , (904) 359-4374
Material from The Associated Press was included in this report.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/090204/sto_16535914.shtml

DSchmitke
09-02-04, 02:03 PM
Batten down the hatches. Good Luck

thedrifter
09-02-04, 03:59 PM
A Marine’s Experience: Hurricane Charley's visit to Florida on Friday the 13th <br />
Submitted by: New York City Public Affairs <br />
Story Identification #: 200492155517 <br />
Story by Cpl. Beth Zimmerman <br />
<br />
<br />
...

CAR
09-02-04, 04:37 PM
Gary,
Best of luck riding it out. My Father is in the Ft. Lauderdale area and only 1/4 mile off the water. Bad year! I was already freaked out when Charlie was heading to where my mom is in Tampa. I'll keep you and your family in my prayers also.

Hold on tight

PS- You could have the pizza delivered, might have to give one hek of a tip but, hey!

Osotogary
09-02-04, 04:50 PM
I gather that is too late to be of assistance to your Father but then again it is never too late. If you happen to get in contact with him tell him that I'm wishing him the best.
Pizza? LOL I'll have to just imagine eating one until the all clear is sounded.
Take care in Clovis. I have sent you a PM in conjunction with assistance.
Gary

thedrifter
09-02-04, 05:42 PM
Military Readies for Frances' Fury
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2, 2004 - Hurricane Frances is going to be very bad storm.

The hurricane - now over the Bahamas - is a Category 4 storm and has sustained winds of 144 mph with gusts reaching 185 mph, according to the National Weather Service. The storm is projected to hit South/Central Florida Sept. 4.

Like the other residents of the southeastern United States, the military is bracing for the storm. Some bases already have been affected.

The National Guard is the component most affected. In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush had alerted 7,000 National Guardsmen for service in the state. Georgia officials said they have alerted guardsmen, but will see how the storm tracks before calling up personnel.

In North Carolina, officials have alerted 5,000 guardsmen in anticipation of the storm. If the National Weather Service track is correct, the storm would move over Florida into Georgia and up through the western portions of the Carolinas. The weather service said once Frances reaches land, it will lose some of its power and become a tropical depression. The storm, however, would still pack a great deal of rain.

Even with the weather service's best, current information, officials point out that forecasting hurricanes still is an inexact science. Hurricane Charley's movement in August proved that.

Charley was forecast to move over Tampa, Fla. It turned sharply, and the Category 4 storm surged over Captiva Island and Punta Gorda instead. Florida is still cleaning up the aftermath of that storm.

Even so, defense installations prepare for Frances. Off shore, the Navy's Andros Island Underwater Testing and Evaluation Center in the Bahamas has been evacuated. Navy officials said 50 personnel are remaining in the facility as the hurricane covers the islands.

The Air Force has made plans to evacuate aircraft out of Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla., MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., and Robins Air Force Base, Ga.

Aircraft based at the Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., are moving to safer areas.

No ships have been ordered to safer areas as yet, Navy officials said. However, vessels in Mayport, Fla., and Kings Bay, Ga., will take precautions as the storm nears.

Marines at Parris Island, S.C., and Camp Lejeune, N.C., will monitor the storm and take actions as needed. "It is a holiday weekend," said Marine officials. "We hope that Marines on pass pay attention to the weather situation."

Ellie

TracGunny
09-02-04, 06:15 PM
Forum member tracrat sent this to me, and I decided to share. I do not intend to make light of a serious situation, but it seems Warriors have always dealt with times of stress with humor... albeit,...

GySgtRet
09-02-04, 06:30 PM
GAry,

She just doesn't want you to forget that you are responsible for the HONEY DO LIST...!!! Good luck and god bless you and the family. We will be watching hopefullt from a safe distance here in VA., but we did have a bout with Isebel last September so we aren't out of danger yet either.

Osotogary
09-03-04, 03:24 AM
TracGunny,
Yep, humor is one of the ingredients to a fun filled hurricane experience. LOL Last hurricane (Andrew) we left the dog outside, in the yard, hoping that it would be swept away into another county. How's that for morbid humor? LOL
Take care of yourself in Jacksonville.
Gary

thedrifter
09-03-04, 06:09 AM
Marines Change Graduation Date Due to Hurricane

It looks like we won't be getting the brunt of Hurricane Frances, but that doesn't mean it's not already affecting the Coastal Empire and Low Country. In fact, on Parris Island in South Carolina, it's changed one of the most important days.

Today, some 600 Marines graduated from boot camp on Parris Island a day early. Normally graduation is held on Fridays, but because of the threat of Frances, Marine officials moved it up a day, eliminating the traditional Thursday family day.

"Nothing but death was going to keep us from it," said Marine mom Carol Fagins.

After the graduation, the Marines were free to go home. But many who are from Florida said they weren't really sure where they should go.

Reported by: Jaime Dailey, jdailey@wtoc.com



Ellie

Osotogary
09-04-04, 11:11 AM
So far, Knock on wood, so good. Shear luck I gather. The wind is picking up with rain gusts occasionally accompanying them. Left the house looking for a open supermarket. No luck. Headed home and decided to stick around for the duration. More wind and rain expected this late afternoon through the weekend. It's almost time to take a bath in the pool. Take care.
Over and out.
Gary

thedrifter
09-04-04, 11:27 AM
Thanks Gary for the Update


Ellie

Osotogary
09-04-04, 01:22 PM
I think I'll wash my truck. Couple of pool screens down. Guess who got blamed for it? LOL Don't know what else I'll get blamed for by monday.
Oh, yeah. Some surfer on Pompano Beach took his surfboard and jumped off the pier to catch some waves. The camera caught the entire episode. The police are still looking for him because they haven't seen him since. No telling if he was drawn by the surf further southward. In any event this one individual has taken away alot of man power that could be used elsewhere. This was a stupid "surfs up". (my opinion)
I'm running out of beer. I don't know when I'll have to swith to lemonade.
Got to go.
Gary

wayne553
09-04-04, 08:06 PM
My mother lives outside of Tampa,In a trailer.If anyone sees a 83 year old Stubon lady blowing around Tell her SEE YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE BACK TO MAINE

wc


http://www.geocities.com/wayne_553/Dyer.html

lurchenstein
09-04-04, 08:22 PM
Gary,
I hope you get nothing more in your yard than the neighbor's avocados. Most of all, hope Frances runs out of gas before tormenting you & your fellow Floridans. You & the wife keep safe in your bunker!