I thought about that, but I’ve already missed more than a week of work because of Frances. (I’m working from home today because my office is still without power. That’s why I can play here during the day. :)) Unless Ivan is heading straight for us, my coworkers and I need to stay local.
Besides, I wouldn’t know where to go at this point. ::looks at watch and anxiously awaits 5 p.m. update::
A little west of the last one. Not very promising. Sorry 
I’m in west central Florida and I’ve been lucky so far. Charlie missed me completely and although Frances hit me pretty directly, it only caused minor inconveniences (loss of phone and internet access, not even loss of power). But Ivan’s starting to look pretty threatening and I might not be so lucky next time.
But you know what? I still prefer this to New England winters.
I hear Europe is nice this time of year.
:eek: :eek:
:eek:
You know, I never thought of that! Am I a trouble magnet? Trouble is actually my cat, but I suppose it’s possible someone mistook my screen name for an actual invitation or request! Oh, lord!
:eek:
Tomorrow many people will die in Jamaica.
Uh, may I clarify what Trouble Again meant by that term! 
=============
Seriously, Ivan was at the last report I saw (6:00 PM) a maximum Category 4, just below Category 5, headed directly for Jamaica, and with a cone of potential paths that targets Florida again. Central line of the trajectory options brings it up across the Keys and off the southwest coast of the peninsula, making landfall somewhere in the Tampa Bay area.
And the warm water of the Gulf is likely to cause it to strengthen if it moves along anywhere in the western 65% of the potential paths.
This could be absolutely horrible!
Good night - Grenada took a beating. 90 percent of the island’s buildings were destroyed.
Good luck to all the Floridopers and any Caribbeanites we have. This string of storms is unbelievable…
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that it’s probably going to hit Florida
Call me crazy.
::sigh::
Yeah, and the official track put out by the National Hurricane Center at 11a has it passing right over my house. Yesterday, it was 50 miles west; the day before, it was 50 miles east. Translation: “We’re not certain exactly how screwed you are, but you’re screwed.” If you look at the 11a map and look at that little green spot southeast of the last H, that’s where I live. However, this map will change at 5, and I cannot link to the old one – the NHC uses the same URL for the map, even as it changes. We’ve already boarded up the house and reserved a hotel room in Jacksonville, so we’re as ready as we can be for Round 3.
Oh, and the best thing about the current ‘skirting up the west coast’ track is that it keeps the eye out to sea so that the storm keeps its strength up while simultaneously keeping the strongest side of the storm over land and ensuring that the prevailing currents in the storm work to push the water up into all of our bays and waterways – almost all of which on the west coast are open to the south. This is pretty much the worst-case scenario for flood and wind damage in west coastal Florida.
I’m here. TPTB at work decided we needed to get ahead, so we did about a week and a half of work in four days. My department kicked ass.
I bought more ice and charcoal, and we’re just going to batten down and hang on.
When a trop cyclone moves north, the bad side is the east, but at 145 mph, whether the winds are 145 on the east or 125 on the west, it’s bad.
At NOAA, some clouds hid the eye, but they’ve cleared and it looks even more defined.
Interesting: longest a hurricane held a Cat 5 rating = 2.2 days
This is a cool site.
Click on Storm Tracker in the interactive section (you can find it under the Ivan info) and you can track the path of past hurricanes.
Betsy (under historical hurricanes) actually went backwards and hit Miami!
If you look at the same map and notice the tip of the arrow that just sticks out of the right of the “H”, that’s my house. If Bambi goes down we’re going down with him.
And I’ve already got customers calling to cancel service for next week. If the rain and wind don’t destroy me they’re going to bankrupt me.
FYI: http://www.floridadisaster.org/ is the Florida Division of Emergency Management site. They have live updates on road closings and traffic information available as well as shelter status, evacuation routes and emergency hotlines.
I beg your pardon. Most people in Florida have some kind of insurance, or at least a govt. infrastructure that assures that they will get some support and aid.
It really sucks to be a Grenadian or, probably, a Jamaican, with Ivan in the Caribbean. Sorry, i don’t feel as sorry for Americans (even my father, who lives in West Palm Beach). These people in Grenada, Tobago, and soon probably Jamaica are being devastated by these storms. They are losing everything they have, facing disease epidemics, looters, and other challenges most Americans can’t even fathom. They are the ones who deserve our prayers and assistance.
oh, I see… we can only hope and pray for one group, and due to the limited amounts of money that the US clearly has(with our charge it now and care later attitude…), I see how we can’t assist anyone else either :rolleyes:
Oh yeah, I’m taking my fishin poles to jacksonville, might as well make something of it…
