Hurricane Francis

[Cheval]

My parents are in their 70s and had to evactuate from their mobile home
in Spring Hill. (West-Central coast of FL). Left Florida Thursday morning.
I took a few days off work to drive them to Alabama; an 8 1/2 hour drive.
Got back (finally!) Tuesday night.
We had to wait it out until Frances cleared the panhandle of FL.,
which took 3 days longer than planned.
(Minor damage to the house. At least nothing I can't fix myself.)

Hurricane Ivan doesn't look to good now.
Forecasted to follow the same path as Hurricane Charley,
right up into the Tampa Bay region.
If Ivan visits Florida, it will mean 4 hurricanes to hit Florida
in about 6 weeks time...
Bonnie in across northern FL;
Charley from the west side and out the northeast end;
Frances out from the Atlantic, across the penninsula to the Gulf
and then into the panhandle...
...and maybe Ivan up from the Gulf and into west-central FL.

If it does, I know that my house cannot withstand the 165 MPH winds
(and 210 MPH gusts!) that this monster packs with it.

I'm outta here!!!

[ZefaLefeLaH]

There is too much land that the hurricane has to pass to keep that power going. I would be surprised if it was a Cat3 by the time it crosses Jamica & Cuba.

Also Cuba is close to Florida. If it does hit Florida, it will be right after hitting Cuba. There just isn't enough time to refuel.


But I'm not so sure I would mind if it did refuel. Not because I want people to die, but in my blunt honesty, when I look at the news I would rather that something amazing and interesting happened than to hear that what was supposed to be amazing and interesting turned out to be normal and 'everyday'.

So it might be pretty fun to see that it spawned 40 tornadoes and had winds of 178mph, as if it were a gigantic tornado all by itself. It wasn't fun for the people who lived through the Mount St. Helens fallout. They had to dig out from inches of ash that threatened to clog their throats and blanked out the sun for two full days so that there was a night that lasted 60 hours. Was that fun for them? No. But I bet all of them like to talk about it now and again. And I get to see a lot of good documentaries.

That might seem cruel in a way, but it isn't. It's just more honest than a lot of people would want to portray themselves to be.

It's sort of strange, don't you think, that we talk about the Challenger explosion, but not the Columbia explosion. It just wasn't as interesting. It had already happened. It wasn't as good of an explosion. There aren't documentaries on it. We just don't care.

So for the newsworthiness of Ivan, I hope it gets huge & packs the strongest winds ever recorded from a storm. But from a compassionate standpoint, I hope it just becomes a Cat2 quickly.

[Bucky OHare]

...okay...
I don't like the way your piccy keeps looking at me Zef. Its too scary.

Good Luck once again to people in Florida!
You obviously need to appease the Wind Gods!!! (who you have obviously royally pissed off) Maybe you need to perform a little sacrifice and dance around naked and chanting or draw huge long lines on the ground like the Nazca (sp?) people in Peru. (though maybe its just time to take the hint and move to Canada.)

[aliantha]

Zef, I respectfully submit that if your life is that boring, maybe you need to turn off the TV and find something to *do*.

How about volunteering with Habitat for Humanity? Instead of watching a hurricane destroy houses on TV, you could help build a home for someone who doesn't have one.

Just a thought....

aliantha (who doesn't watch TV)

[Worm of Despite]

So it might be pretty fun to see that it spawned 40 tornadoes and had winds of 178mph, as if it were a gigantic tornado all by itself. It wasn't fun for the people who lived through the Mount St. Helens fallout. They had to dig out from inches of ash that threatened to clog their throats and blanked out the sun for two full days so that there was a night that lasted 60 hours. Was that fun for them? No. But I bet all of them like to talk about it now and again. And I get to see a lot of good documentaries.

Personally, I find it fascinating to watch disasters/catastrophes that have been recorded on tape. Yes, I feel bad for the people who went through it, of course, but, on another level, I won't pass up the chance to see footage of, say, a Mount St. Helens or a fireworks factory on fire. I mean, really, it's pretty much the equivalent of watching special effects in the movies. If that's "sick", I won't argue you. Just the way I am. I think it's human nature, IMHO (slowing down to look at a car wreck, etc.)

Heh, interesting to see where this topic has gone in the past few days.

[dANdeLION]

Zef...thet way you say 'clique'...it makes me hot.

[Myste]

Being a person who actually did see Mt. St. Helens erupt (admittedly from the shores of Green Lake in Seattle, and when I was 5), and suffering from a particular recurring nightmare ever since, I'd like to agree that being close to a disaster like that does make for more interesting stories than spending 15 years going out to milk the cows at 5:30am every day. But it's not very nice at the time.

Go away, Ivan! Bad hurricane! BAD!

[Bucky OHare]

So it might be pretty fun to see that it spawned 40 tornadoes and had winds of 178mph, as if it were a gigantic tornado all by itself. It wasn't fun for the people who lived through the Mount St. Helens fallout. They had to dig out from inches of ash that threatened to clog their throats and blanked out the sun for two full days so that there was a night that lasted 60 hours. Was that fun for them? No. But I bet all of them like to talk about it now and again. And I get to see a lot of good documentaries.

Personally, I find it fascinating to watch disasters/catastrophes that have been recorded on tape. Yes, I feel bad for the people who went through it, of course, but, on another level, I won't pass up the chance to see footage of, say, a Mount St. Helens or a fireworks factory on fire. I mean, really, it's pretty much the equivalent of watching special effects in the movies. If that's "sick", I won't argue you. Just the way I am. I think it's human nature, IMHO (slowing down to look at a car wreck, etc.)

Sorry to disagree, but I don't find it fascinating at all. I don't like watching stuff like that. I just feel too bad for the people going through it. However, I don't mind watching stuff like that at the movies precisely because I know nobody has been hurt. I especially hate those programmes on telly that are based on true crimes, like a mini series on Ted Bundy. They make me want to puke. I can't even read crime fiction books.
IMHO people slowing down to look at a car crash is disgusting too.

I know its only natural and you can't change it, but sometimes I'm disgusted by human nature.

[Worm of Despite]

Fair enough. Nothing wrong with disagreeing with me on something like that, of all things. When it comes to disaster footage, some of us feel desensitized to it/removed from it, which just happens to be the cards I was dealt.

[ZefaLefeLaH]

I try not to look at accidents on the side of the road. Not because I'm not interested in seeing something different, like a lot of blood or an arm laying on the ground away from the crash, but rather because I get so infuriated at people who can't gawk & drive normally at the same time. So I try to set an example and keep moving normally... although I peek.

This is a pretty well written article about Ivan:
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20040910/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/hurricane_ivan_28