Here Comes Ivan!

[Jim Becker]

to be the one to post the 13th reply didn't I?????

Yes, but I had the 13th actual post in this thread...I better be carefull where I walk tonight!

[Tony Falotico]

The biggest problem for me is to understand what I'm facing ... if it swings again and its a head on its a no brainer ... get the heck out of here... But .. if it comes in between Ft Walton and Panama City I really cannot fathom what my risk will be ... at least with the current info.

I hear ya Brother, Hard to tell what to do. I'm off to Orlando today for the rest of the week, not extremely comfortable about leaving right now, but we'll keep an eye on the storm and can be back here withing a few hours if needed. Looks like it's going west of you, but you will still feel it.

Hang in there Ken, a few weeks we'll be laughing and joking about all this.........

Tony

[Ken Wright]

we're off the hook this morning but unfortunately at the risk of a great number of others including a dear friend and 22 year boss .. Bob Pittman over in Mobile.

There's a lot to be thankful for every day ... but particularly this morning.

[Earl Kelly]

Well guy's I haven't posted in a bit, and thought I'd get a post in before we get realllly busy around here. Yesterday they had the track coming within a few miles of my place here in P'cola. It's been fluctuating to the east and west of us. This morning it's over in baldwin county,next door, about 20-30 miles. I've ridden out Frederic, Opal and Erin in the last 20 or so yrs. I've not seen any models or forecasts that would indicate the storm is going anywhere but up here on the central gulf coast. It's as large as Francis and will be as strong as Charlie. So everyone from New Orleans to Cedar Key is going to feel some of it.

Wish evryone well and hang on to your hat it's gonna get windy.

[Ken Wright]

appears that you've been tagged ... if there's anything I can do give a shout ...

[Pete Lamberty]

Hi Tom, I hope you and your family will be safe. I do have a couple of questions for the people who live in Florida. Aren't all of the houses supposed to have hurricane shutters? Don't they just close over the windows and therefore make it unneccessary to "board up"? Also I would think that if I lived there I would have have cut up plywood, long ago, to fit each window and just store it in the garage. Then it would be there when I needed it. Evidently no one does this. Obviously I know nothing about living in hurricane territory. I live near Chicago. Just wondering, and good luck.

[Earl Kelly]

Ken,thanks, for the offer. Power co. says be prepared for up to 3 wks. without if it's a bad storm. We'll just have to see how bad it is afterwards. Just hope my house and shop survives intact.

Pete, some people do have ply already for windows. And some have never been through a Hurricane before. It would be nice to have some really strong shutters you could just close. The hurricane shutters that you put up when a storm comes, the cheapest aren't. My SIL paid $5000.00 for her house shutter and it takes about 4-6 hrs. to put them up. The more expensive houses on the water have powered rolldown shutters they activate before they leave.

[Kevin Arceneaux]

New Orleans is bugging out. What a mess, it took our operations manager a hour extra to drive from Morgan City up here to Lafayette. But southern Plaquemines, Terrebone, and La fourch Parishes are a whole 3 feet above sea level. It is time for them to go.

Earl, one of my testers went through Opal in P-cola. He ended up with 7 feet of water in his house. Be Safe!

For those interested, this is a link to the I-10/I12 webcam in Baton Rouge. Normally the westbound side is pretty empty in the afternoon, it is inbound to downtown.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/traffic/tower.shtml

[Chris Padilla]

Wow...these hurricanes are nasty suckers. Imagine if we could harness the energy of those storms to turn generators for electricity....

I live in Japan for 4 years (6-10 years old) from '75 - '79 and went through a few typhoons (I'm guessing the Pacific Ocean equivalent of a hurricane?). Pretty scary as a child....

[Michael Barry]

Pete,
In response to your question about shutters. There is no law or insurance requirement to put up shutters of any kind. Down here in South Florida builders have started to include them in new construction but older homes don't have them.
Many people have plywood cut to fit their windows as I do, but many other newer Florida residents don't as yet. Some others don't like to save the plywood from storm to storm. South Florida is not famous for the intelligence of it's inhabitants.
To all the Creekers in Ivan's path. STAY SAFE!

Mike

[Kevin Arceneaux]

I was talking to a couple of people this morning at the store, second exit north of I10 on I49. They left New Orleans last night at 9 and arrived there at 7 this morning. This is normally a 2 hour drive.

My wife looked this morning, the closest motel room was Corpus Christi, Tx.

Looks like all I am going to get is 20-40mph winds.

[Ken Salisbury]

Huntsville Ala expecting 40 - 60 mph winds and 3" - 6" of rain Thurs PM - Fri

Looks like I should have left for Terry's BBQ instead of staying here for the Craft Show Fri, Sat & Sun. I suspect attendance will be drastically affected Oh well !, what the heck - it's only money

[Chris Padilla]

Yeah, Ken! I thought you were going at one time, then a change of plans cropped up, and Mother Nature intervened and now you wish you had taken off for Arkansas! Funny how things work sometimes.... Best of luck at the show...hope you get something out of it.