My baby got to Ocala last night, so she’ll be hanging with grandma and grandpa, and I’ll be fretting till it’s all done. Their house is new, cinderblock construction, and no significant trees nearby. They’ve got water and food and duct tape, so I hope they’ll be OK.
I wish they’d come to visit us…
Everyone stay safe!!!
Just checking in. I’m on vacation now through Wednesday, so I have nothing better to do than to sit around and report on whatever I can find out.
Today, I heard some stupid rumors from some ignorant people at work who are not smart enough to verify the facts before they start spewing misinformation all over the place. That is just so not helpful; I wanted to smack these women. Instead, I put my hard drive on top of my desk, burned a backup CD and popped it into my purse… and went home.
[cartman]
Screw you guys… I’m going home!![/cartman]
I’m now preparing to hole up. Tallahassee Dopers: Does everybody have a safe place to be? That thing is still going to be a Cat 1 or Trop Storm by the time it cruises through here, y’all. Let’s not be stupid and throw hurricane parties and whatnot.
But I already have the stuff for a party! I was all set for the match-up between FSU-Miami! drats!
Actually, I don’t know how scared to be yet. I have some supplies, but I’m kind of worried that I’ll have to just sit here in my apartment alone. My roommate tends to not really live here. 
Be safe everyone! Here comes another round!
Jenny*
Pinellas County schools are closed tomorrow. Not for the hurricane, per se, but because the refugees fleeing from the East are going to use our schools as shelters. I hope that doesn’t mean that Frances is going to go all the way around the bottom of Florida and then turn back and whomp us one. Latest number on USA Today says 2.5 million have been given orders to evacuate.
Be safe all you Floridopers! This thing is gettin’ uglier and uglier it looks like.
That sound is the noise of several million confused Floridians flushing their toilets all at once 
I have to go to work tomorrow, because Disney sucks… …but I’m heading for the hills of… er… Oviedo immediately afterward.
Hope Swampy, FairyChatKid, Shibb, ivy, and all you other Floridopers who I’m getting to know much better through these freaking hurricane threads make out okay- and prepare for much whining when I have to sit in a non-air-conditioned house for a week AGAIN
Seminole County announced mandatory evacuations for residents in mobile homes, manufactured homes and homes in low lying areas beginning at 6pm today. And I’m assuming for those near debris dumps, if they weren’t told to leave earlier.
Gas stations are either dry or have hella long lines. A friend just told me the local Albertson’s is out of most canned goods. Even some ATMs are out of cash. Insane.
My office is going to be a shelter for any employees and their families who want it. What a way to spend the holiday wekeend, camped out in the cubicles (as the nice offices have huge glass windows, natch). On the plus side, we have an enormous generator for the building and a nice video projector screen. 
Here’s the local paper for the Melbourne area.
Hopefully, your sister & dad have evacuated…I believe they’re under mandatory evacuation right now. I know that my parents have boarded up and left. I also have an aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandmother in Melbourne.
I feel very far away right now.
i’m glad to see they posted warnings on lake okeechobee. finally! if the storm goes over the lake it will pick up water and dump it. rather like a second land fall with storm surge.
hang on tight y’all.
trouble again, you can’t take the cats with you? be sure to mark your house somehow, so if they need to be rescued they can be found easily. a sticker on the door with the kittys location in the house?
Hillsborough County Schools are also closed tomorrow for the same reason.
I only wish my husband (a truck driver) was here. He was here for Charley, but with today being his birthday, we really could have celebrated.
Oh well, stay safe, y’all.
RNATB I am a south Jawja doper. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the sentiment any less, though. Thanks.
If any of you Floridopers make your way up to the Albany, GA area and have puter access, email me. I’m just above Albany. We could sit around and watch the rain together.
My SIL and her family and my MIL are coming over here.
I heard the Port of Tampa was closed, so that’s why gas stations are running dry.
XJETGIRLX, I was stuck on the turnpike too. It was backed up because everyone was getting off at the Turkey Lake Service Plaza for gas.
But, there is justice in the world! Some idjit was speeding by on the shoulder, past all the cars resigned to their fate. I honked my horn at her in irritation, and then, wonder of wonders, here comes a police car with lights and sirens blaring.
Guess who was pulled over a few hundred yards later!! Take that, you jackass who thinks You’re More Important Than Everyone Else.
more glad tidings!!
tropical depression nine is moving out of cape verde area. this will be ivan should he get to the tropical storm stage.
it looks like a rather wild hurricane season this year.
Oh no!! Y’all are gonna miss the President’s speech live! :eek:
Seriously though, stay safe. Worse we’ve had this week up here is some assholes blocking commuters in Grand Central this morning, anarchists disturbing the pigeons’ sleep in Union Square, and a 2:1 cop/donut ratio everywhere. Puts things in perspective.
God bless you, every one. Check in when you can.
Just spoke to my sister, who lives in Royal Palm Beach (artificial “town” few miles inland from WPB) with her husb., our dad, a teenager and two gradeschoolers. No evac there. They have shuttered up and stocked up. Their home is very recent construction and made with much concrete (but nowhere near the pillbox-like construction of the house I’m sitting in now!) so we’re confident it should all hold up well if their area is not hit with the Cat-3-or-above wind level. Her big worry is the west facade faces an open expanse of grassland, and it has a lot of big doors/windows – and as soon as the eye is north of them the wind will be coming from the west, unobstructed (with the eye to the east, wind will be from the north, where the row of homes, relatively closely spaced, should act as a break). There is time yet for some course changes but it is doubtful they would be enough to spare almost everything north from Miami several hours of sustained TS or hurricane conditions.
We’ve all been thru a direct upper-Cat-2 hit before (PR, 1998) and this is one show we could live with seeing just once. Brace yourselves and be safe, everyone!
LilCutie, I don’t think it will be too bad by the time it gets to us, but if it starts to look like it’s going to be rough and you need somewhere safe to stay let me know. We’re going to have a houseful at my parents’ with my brother, his wife, and other friends evacuating from the south and I’m sure we’ll have room for one more.
Make sure you stock up on water, at least, and have plenty of gas in your car just in case. For those of you harboring evacuees it would be a good idea to have them purchase an extra container full of gas to take back with them after the storm has passed too.
I was supposed to go into work today, but with the Turnpike as bad as it is I’m afraid I won’t get home. It’s not like we have anything critical to do; my department kicked ass and we got all our work done yesterday. My boss even told me to bring a book today to work.
So, I left messages, and if they need me, they can call me.
My MIL talked with one of her neighbors who is a recent Florida transplant (in a retirement community, of course) - MIL didn’t think the neighbor would know how to prepare.
Neighbor said “Well, we have duct tape, but we don’t know what to do with it.”
Those are the kinds of people who are going to have problems. Hope MIL set her straight.
if frances takes a turn and misses you, hold on to your hurricane prep; trop. dep. 9 has been upgraded to tropical storm ivan. he looks like he will visiting in a week.
Looks like they’ll be sending us home from work early today. I post from work so I won’t be back til Tuesday, but I’m sure I’ll be safe enough here in Gainesville.
Good luck you guys!