NEWS: Hurricane Frances Makes Landfall!

Oddly enough, things haven't changed here (Tampa Bay) much (just got back from my brother's)...

We had a lot more rain, but we seem to be missing the nastier parts of the eye wall. Quite a few more gusts...at one point, I was outside and nearly blown off my feet, but got behind a dumpster to hide from the wind.... (I was taking a plate of food to someone just a street away....family friend...who was without power, and couldn't make it due to leaks at home (she had to keep emptying buckets)...

I'm still amazed we have power, but once we get the tail end of this, I think that's when it will get nastier... When the storm is back over water tomorrow, and we get lashed with the backside.... I've got a couple pics to post soon....nothing great, but the gusts seem to die as I get ready to snap the pic....

EDIT: Current pic of the storm (I'm where the yellow dot is!!!)



[edit on 5-9-2004 by Gazrok]

Last I saw there were 5 million people without power as a result of this storm.

Have there been damage estimates released yet?

Nope, no estimates yet...

It's weird, some people have power (like me), and others just a street away don't.....

Honestly, other than the occassional gust, I've seen worse thunderstorms here....

Gazrok... unfortunately you may get your chance to lose power once again in about 9 to 10 days. The current forecasted path of Ivan doesn't look good. But its way too early to tell. Should get a better clue in 2 or 3 days as what area the storm may trend to near the US coast (if at all).

Forgive me if this has been posted, but Ivan is now a CAT 4 with more strengthening possible.

[edit on 9/5/0404 by dangermouse]

Yup. Posted that about an hour ago. Here is an interesting quote from a Brevard County Florida news paper talking about county emergency management workers...

"Hurricane Ivan -- County emergency workers are being told they will have to stay at the Emergency Operations Center through Tuesday, go home for a couple days, and then come back for Hurricane Ivan."

Link: www.floridatoday.com...

DOH!!!!! I just found the Ivan thread after I posted that

Forgive me if this has been posted, but Ivan is now a CAT 4 with more strengthening possible.

Jeez!!! Guess mother nature is trying to clean the voter pool before the elections!!!

Here's the current 5 day projection for Ivan, although everyone should still keep an eye on Frances as she enters the Gulf. Crazy year indeed!

Here is some information on damage estimates:

"Frances Could Cost State Billions
An early estimate of insured losses from Hurricane Frances is $2 billion to $5 billion. Frances is still churning across the state, dumping over a foot of rain in some areas.

More than 5 million people are without power.

Not only will the storm cause millions of dollars worth of property damage, but the state also missed out on one of its biggest tourist weekends of the year."

Source: a.www.orlandoweather.com...

We'll know more in daylight I guess... Some bad stuff coming through now, worst so far really....

Tried to get some pics, but hard to see at night, so they didn't come out great...

Here's some from yesterday, minor stuff really....

Looking out the van window, my brother's street....



Branch from a tree in our front yard....



The road to my brother's house (after about the second time it had been cleared)



[edit on 6-9-2004 by Gazrok]

[edit on 6-9-2004 by Gazrok]

Want to hear some really good news? The NHC path prediction for Ivan takes it close to Florida again.

Infact today's 5-day path has a more southernly track than yesterday, directly toward the Miami area.

I've got some video footage from right outside my house of these clouds zooming by super fast, and I'd like to share it, but I have no clue were I can host it at...

At any rate....I talked to my family down in Tampa and they faired about the same as you Gazrok - downtown Tampa's flooded - people two houses down have power but of course they don't...

We are about to get the salmmed ourselves here in Tallahassee - the power's been surging all day along with the wind speeds steadily increasing - all the local schools, state offices and malls are announcing theyy'll be closed tomorrow - Should be an interesting night...Tallahassee's nothing but one big lumpy and uneven chunk of land, so we'll probablly flood pretty bad...

clean up has begun, Broward and Miami Dade counties are almost back to normal. Just garbage pickup needs to be done soon, to get some of the debris off the streets. Some parts still without power but the majority of urban areas are back on the grid.

Gas in coming in to most gas stations, long lines but gas is available in Broward. Palm Beach still has widespread outages and long lines for gas, most gas stations are still without power, but efforts are being made to have all gas stations along the turnpike has gas, but again long lines.

Most Publix and Home Depot stores are open again, but with long lines. Frustation in some parts is beginning to set in (car accidents, fist fights over line skipping, etc)

From driving around Broward, damage is widespread but mainly to trees. The majority of people are keeping shutters up, with the exception of businesses.

just got back online from Francis. power still out running computer on generator. All I can say was that was a heck of a three days and as far as Ivan goes bring it on I got no more trees to come down. What the hell is this a hurrucane a weekend in Florida. Put it this way I'm leaving my boards up!!!!!!There is so much water standing around here I'm gonna start building an ark. And the damage just alot more pick up. We are gonna change pour logo Welcome to Florida The Hurricane State!!!!! But seriously we all made it ok and my house is still standing so thats a good thing!!!!!

At approximately 2pm EDT on Wednesday September 8th I tried making a phone call to Merritt Island, FL. As of this time the phone lines are still down. Anyone else having problems making phone calls to any other parts of Florida?

I live in Volusia County and we are still really messed up here but I saw one good thing that came out of this!!! Finally a big business helping out the little guy!!! I went to the relief center to pick up some ice and water and was surprised when they handed me cannned water. To my surprise the cans read: Drinking Water- not for sale...donated by Anheuser-Busch Inc ,, My hats off to them and from now on when i drink a beer it will be from them!!!! So this is a THANK YOU to Anheuser-Busch for taking the time out to help us here..Sometimes the little things mean the most!!!!

Originally posted by DragonFly5
To my surprise the cans read: Drinking Water- not for sale...donated by Anheuser-Busch Inc ,, My hats off to them and from now on when i drink a beer it will be from them!!!! So this is a THANK YOU to Anheuser-Busch for taking the time out to help us here..Sometimes the little things mean the most!!!!

Wait...isn't their beer and water the same thing? That's a cool thing to do tho...of course it's impossible to ignore the marketing behind that one....too bad it wasn't Corona or Heineken - lol

With regards to the phone issue...my uncle in Tampa has been having issues with his as well - it cut off during the hurricane, came back on, then got cut off again - I'm sure it will be a while until everything is straightened out regarding phones and utilities...

[edit on 9/8/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

Link to help with local info


Here is a local link of a news station that gives you county by county reports..One problem with the phones might be is that everything is under water!!!! We are so flooded. It's gonna take em over a week to get power back to some ppl...so phones I would expect the same... Good Luck getting through