Good luck to everyone in the path of the hurricane... take care of yourselves, your loved ones and your MINIs!

Godspeed.

 

Thank you. I'm in Clearwater and not in an evacuation zone, so my family is going to ride it out. The MINI is in the garage. For once the MINI is the least of my worries.

 

Yes! Good luck to all our friends in Florida! We're thinking of you....be safe!

Clo/Wanda

 

We hope all goes well there people - our fingers are crossed that everyone remains safe and sound.....:smile:

Cheers!

Donna :smile:

 

Our taughts are with the residents of Tampa Bay, St Petersburg and Clearwater areas. The hurricane should be making landfall in Tampa by 2PM today. The west coast of Florida has not seen a hurricane in over 50 years!

Here in Miami-Ft Lauderdale are very lucky to have dodged the bullet this time around but we are still under Tropical Storm Watch (or warning) and expect to get soaked under 2' to 5' inches of rain later today. We also were under Tornado Warning until 8AM this morning.

 

Being over in the panhandle I may not get much effect from Charley if it stays on its path, but if it turns west as many have in the past I can be right smack dab in the middle of it. I’ll just have to keep an eye on the satellites to see what’s going to happen.

 

When Isabel rolled through DC last year, I moved both of our cars to the middle of the parking lot of the strip mall next to our community (we don't have a garage).

When I walked back over to move the cars back they were almost spotless! All the bird poo and tree sap was gone! Didn't appear to rinse any of the brake dust off though!

 

We had an abundance of Keys evacuees come through yesterday. Traffic on Useless One was a little harsher than normal. Traffic this morning was very slight. Not much wind or rain (right now) but alot is expected.

All quiet here in Homestead/Florida City @ work. Tornado watch is still in effect. Good luck to you all on the West coast.

Remember to stay out of the puddles with your MINIs.

Luis

 

Have a safe next few days to all those in Florida. Still watching the reports for Charley. Can't always tell what the true path will be as it wiggles closer to land.

In Ft. Lauderdale today is very cloudy but still dry. No thunder like the other days but still early (12 noon). Got two umbrellas ready to go.

Let's hope for the best.

 

Thanks!

Thankfully, it shifted east of Tampa Bay and just slid by us by about 30 miles...whew! Spent the AM applying plywood to all the windows. Tucked the MINI S and the Classic in the garage [wife's Cooper was left out - but its leased ]

145mph wind speeds down around Punta Gorda & Port Charlotte Lots of damage reported down that way. Hope there's no casualties...

 

My thought are with you all. Those huricanes and tornados scare the $^!# out of me!!!! I'll take the earthquakes thanks.

 

The hurricane intensified and hit hard as Category 4 with 145 mph winds south of Tampa. It hit relatively less populated areas causing damaged estimated to be about $20+ billion. Orlando also in the path as was Daytona Beach.

Otherwise it blew by rather quickly and spared SE Florida more or less.

 

My parents are in Orlando and the inlaws are in Valrico (East of Tampa)....

phones must be down, can't get ahold of either...

anyone know how bad the conditions are in those places?

Not scared yet, but would like to know something about whats going on...

 

There are about 2 million people without power in the region as we speak. Not sure about phone service.

Ft. Myers and the towm of Punta Gorda in Charlotte county were the hardest hit areas. Also Captiva and Sanibel islands sustained severe damage.

This was a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds in excess of 145MPH...extremely powerful and destructive. Hurricane Andrew back in 1992 in Miami was a Category 5 hurricane with winds over 160MPH (In some places winds registered speeds of 200 MPH)


Here is a link to NBC's WESH Channel 2 station in Orlando:

http://www.wesh.com/index.html

 

Some areas both power and phones were out.
Last night some areas were closed to all traffic in or out since roads were not clear until this morning. Sheriffs from Ft. Lauderdale area went over early last night to lend a hand to cover areas hardest hit on the eastern coast.

From the coverage some areas were pretty hard hit with many power lines down and roofs torn off. Pretty destructive in Punta Gorda but it missed downtown Ft. Meyers when it veered north and not NE.

 

Hope all is safe!

 

Meanwhile in the Panhandle....



That's my buddy on a chest high green roller in Destin.

 

Some areas hardest hit look so bad on the news that it might take weeks to a month to restore electricity.

I remember about 12 years ago when hurricane Iniki hit Kauai about 99%
of all power poles were knocked over on the island and it took very
very long to get power restored throughout all areas.

Many good stories hear about people going out to devastated areas
to lend aid and serve food, etc. Red cross, emergency services,
salvation army, fire and police from neighboring areas all out to help.
Some restaurants giving away food that cannot be saved due to lack of power.

Some areas were under about 10 feet of storm surge water initially.
A great percentage of trailer homes and even larger buildings lost
their roofs. Aerial video shows many many homes were completely lost.

 

Well - got the word from the family.

Mom and stepdad in Orlando were evacuated out, took some minor damage to a shed behind the house but they and everything else is fine. No power, but that's just a nuisance.

Future inlaws in Tampa are fine, they boarded up the house before the storm hit and other than cleaning up trash and debris everything was fine.

Hope everybody else is getting good news too...

 

Those pictures remind me a lot of Dade County after Andrew. That storm was so strong there was never an accurate reading on the winds. The best that the National Hurricane Center was able to come up with was 150 MPH sustained, and then the Doppler Rader and all of the sensors were ripped off the building.

Since most of the non-mobile homes that were seriously damaged by Charlie were probably built after Andrew (I believe that is a relatively new area as the West Coast of FL has had explosive population growth over the last 10 years or so), and the building codes that applied to them should have been based on the lessons learned from Andrew. I wouldn't be surprised that when they investigate the buildings and the damage that they come to the same findings they had in Dade County... Most of the buildings affected weren't up to code and that the inspectors were over worked, under paid, and in many cases accepting bribes...

Hopefully the lessons learned from dealing with the effects of Andrew will be used, and that the needed aid will get to those in need quickly and efficiently.

 

Well there will probaby not be any problem with Canadian soft wood going to Florida for awhile
Hurricanes scare the ****** out of me.
Be safe down there eh