Latest storm track; I'm in the center of the cone dammit!

[Afflyer]

Well, wouldn't you know it?  During the 10 o'clock newcast tonight, the storm track for the latest hurricane has Pensacola smack dab in the center of the tracks "cone".

Now it might venture off far left or far right of the cone, but seeing my house sitting right at the end of that projected path (for the moment) only reminds me of the hell I went through with Dennis last summer. 

Looks as though my Sunday will be spent getting the plywood out and start leaning each piece by their respective windows, firing up the generator and making sure all our gas cans and vehicles are filled up.  Hell, with gas prices at "steal" at $2.76 a gallon, I'd better fill them all up! 

I've got the sinking feeling I'll be tasked with flying a couple of Herks up to Little Rock for a Hurrivac mission or two.
Figures- I've been on leave all this past week and what happens right when I come off of leave?  A damn hurricane threatens Hurlburt and that means I'll be too busy to take care of things here at the house unless I get them all done tomorrow.

I swear when I retire in four years or less, I'm packing up the family and moving to Kentucky for cripes sake! 

F&#K HURRICANES!!!!!

Bradley 

[Chryco Psycho]

you still there ?

[TruckDriver]

I'm worried as my boys live in Tampa with their mom. And she has already said that they will ride out any hurricane that would ever come. 

[Vainglory, Esq.]

That's not good.

My parents' house is in Destin, so I feel your pain.  We got hit by Ivan.  The good part is that my parents are both in Minnesota right now, so if anything hits, they'll be well out of harm's way.

[Charger_Fan]

I swear when I retire in four years or less, I'm packing up the family and moving to Kentucky for cripes sake! 

Are you saying that Kentucky's long past due for a hurricane or two?

[69charger2002]

as always they have no idea where it's going. i think for a while yet when they are out in the carribbean.. they will put first storm tracks all on new orleans to keep people intereted/freaked out. it is still 4 days out. and in the ONE day i've watched.. i think the center cone has moved about 600 miles already
trav

[Johnny SixPack]

as always they have no idea where it's going. i think for a while yet when they are out in the carribbean.. they will put first storm tracks all on new orleans to keep people intereted/freaked out. it is still 4 days out. and in the ONE day i've watched.. i think the center cone has moved about 600 miles already
trav

Bingo.

At first it was centered on the Texas side of the TX/LA border, then it moved east towards the area Katrina hit, and now it's creeping deeper into Florida.

It's definitely too far out to know for sure where it's going, and the meteorologists have admitted time and time again that they really have no idea what drives these monsters, let alone where they'll land.

[bull]

There's an Air Force base up here in Portland. We'll take you if you want to move since volcanoes aren't as bad as hurricanes.

[TruckDriver]

There's an Air Force base up here in Portland. We'll take you if you want to move since volcanoes aren't as bad as hurricanes.

Tell that to the people who were around Mount Saint Helens when she blew. 

[Afflyer]

Well after all that work this morning, NOW the latest track puts the city of Jacksonville, over on the east coast, in the middle of the "cone of uncertainty".  The western edge of the cone looks to be over near Panama City.

We'll see after it goes over Cuba, where this damn thing starts straying.

Bradley 

[Shakey]

My Wife is already asking me not to go to Tallahassee next week.   

[bull]

I've always wondered why people who live in Florida don't just put some heavy duty shutters on their windows so they don't have to raid Home Depot for plywood every time a hurricane comes through.

There's an Air Force base up here in Portland. We'll take you if you want to move since volcanoes aren't as bad as hurricanes.

Tell that to the people who were around Mount Saint Helens when she blew.

There wasn't that much havoc for humans during that blast because it blew toward the north/northeast, which was away from civilization, except for a few remote homes. The only people who died were lookie-lews and the schmucks who refused to evacuate. However, many people in the surrounding cities had to deal with a good dusting of ash fallout, but nothing life-threatening.

[Lord Warlock]

west florida should be safe, it is looking like it is more likely to march up the east coat now.  We can use the rain.  I don't worry about a cat1 hurricane like this one.  Its those cat 5 and cat 4 storms that get me nervous.  I'll stick around for anything up to a cat3, but a 4 or 5 will get me to try and get out of the way.  Lucky for me, we don't get hit often in Jacksonville Florida. 

[Steve P.]

Some or most of the newer, HIGH END homes are being built with storm curtains. They are made of steel or aluminum and roll up into a tube out of sight when not in use. They are BIG bucks..  They can be fitted to most older homes, but,,, BIG BUCKS.....   You only need to buy the plywood once and it is much cheaper..

[Lord Warlock]

Actually its cheaper to just skip the plywood.  Thats what homeowners insurance is for...to replace the glass.  plywood won't stop anything but small sticks and rain once the windows broke anyway.  I never board up the house for storms, I do get emergency supplies, and have some wood set aside should i need to repair something, but storing (and not using) 6 5x5 ft plywood sheets isn't worth it, just attracts the harvester bees and termites.  Its amazing how many folks run out to buy up plywood before a storm hits here in florida.  Sometimes you can't even buy plywood, which they tend to raise prices on if they think they can get away with it.  I'd much rather invest my money in a generator (still haven't after 18 years in florida) and enough canned drinks to last a couple weeks.  Worst we have is downed trees and lost power for a week.  (which sucked at night in mid summer).  I've sat thru several cat 3 storms so far, and lots of cat1s.  I'm much more worried about tornadoes that spawn around the storm than the actual hurricane.  They are more destructive.

[Steve P.]

I hear ya... Only I will stick with boarding up when it's getting close. It stopped a metal shed door from taking out my French doors in back once. That's enough reason for me to put it up.. My neighbor was not a real happy camper when he got back in town. All the stuff in his shed was blasted away...

[PocketThunder]

So its all you guys driving up the price of plywood everytime i go to home depot! 

[bull]

You guys down there need to stockpile plywood when it's cheap and sell it on craigslist for four times the price you paid when the storms come. Extra Charger money.

[Steve P.]

It's not that bad. I have only seen the shelves empty once here. That was when the building boom was huge and we had 5 hurry-up-canes coming one after another..  They can't gouge us on prices. The local GOV. keeps a good eye on that shit. Now and then you will hear about some gouging, but that's mostly from the oil companies....   


Gas went up here over the last few days. That was due to the "  CHANCE "  of a hurricane coming through the Gulf and causing shit with the oil rigs.  Now they are toning it down again..  (Like they haven't made enough)!!!!!!!

[Lord Warlock]

gas going up due to "the chance" of it going thru the gulf...whatta crock.  What most folks don't know is that all the oil we pull out of the gulf gets exported anyway.  Its sweet crude, or natural gas rigs for the most part.  (i spent 4 years working on production oil rigs in the gulf as a roustabout/rigger in my younger days) we used to shut down the rigs a day before hurricanes came thru, chopper everyone out if we could or take a boat in once the winds got too high.  (rode a boat in once 6 hours before one hit, and it was a bitch with 40-50 ft swells on a 150 foot boat)

The speculators are driving up the cost of oil unnecessarily.  Too bad Bush sees it as good for his cronies to see oil go up, for a long time big oil let the oil fields in the gulf go untapped because it was cheaper to buy it from overseas than it was to drill for it here.  That isn't the case anymore.  Anyway, thats a rant for a different thread i guess.  Looks like "Ernesto" is gonna be a light blow after all, and headed right for the east coast, I'm not too worried...although i did make sure the homeowners insurance was upped to cover the new garage in the backyard.