Club Arnage

This is insane.  Thank God I moved from Tampa to Indy.  Better put the roof up on the Vette Matt!

Yeehaahh!
Grab yer ironing board Matt, here comes a big one!
NOAA tell me that it's to be closely followed by tropical storm Brut...

Go easy dude
H

We were due to be in Florida Last week and this week before a family bereavement  :'(

Its a drastic way to stop us from going, but I cant help thinking that someone up there knew what was going to happen and engineered all of this.........

 ::)

It is currently hurricane season in the Caribbean.

http://www.floridadisaster.org/ (http://www.floridadisaster.org/)


It certainly puts our storms and shitty weather into perspective.

Stand by Matt!

The Bengals are scheduled to play their first pre-season game against the Bucs Saturday night...er, I don't see this taking place even though the Bengals team flight had to leave a day early.
Hold down the fort Matt!

Looks like O'town's going to become Notown. For heaven's sake stay away from the trailer parks, it always seems to hit them really hard.

Go out, do your panic shopping, you're bound to need at least twenty bags of sugar and a big sack of spuds. Then get into your storm shelter and batten down the hatches. It's gonna be a goody.

Good luck mate, see you on the other side.

From the satellite image it looks like our old buddy Fidel is getting pretty good pasting.
Fax

No, don't you worry Fax, good ole cigar chompin' Fidel will be fine. It's his fellow "Comrades" who will be taking the pasting.

Something about some of us being more equal than others I think.

No doubt!  Sucks for those poor bastards too.  Tin shacks don't hold up very well in 130 mph winds.
John

Yes, it's all looking a bit ugly here.
There is a mandatory evacuation effective in Pinellas and Hillsboro counties (Tampa Bay area) which is where it's due to make landfall this afternoon. The oak trees in my back yard are worrying me - they could be in my pool or living room by 8.00pm tonight.
Thanks for the best wishes folks - looks like we could be in for a rough afternoon.......

You might want to bring your garbage cans in too for that matter.

Don't want those suckers landing in Atlanta!

Cuba has moved 250,000 people inland, I wonder if Fidel has a spare room?

On the weather report it is due to cross the atlantic wed/thurs next week and cause a few gusts in the UK. I hope no one has any plastic chairs outside.

(Gulp) it's now only 60 miles SW of Tampa. 7 mile, sunshine, St Pete and Gandi bridges all closed. 375,000 people moved inland from the bay area. I have a friend in New Port Richie, who's stayed put and intends to tough-it-out, but I'm certain he's going to take a real battering this pm.
Florida Highway Patrol just announced no tractor/trailers (artics) allowed on any central FL road after 2.00pm - it's all getting a bit serious. I'm wondering if I should get the f**k out of the office and scoot over to Home Depot and buy materials to board my house up.
 

Has Key West copped badly?

I think most Key Westers just brew up another batch of margarita's, fire up another fatty and ride it out.
John

It's being pounded, as I type - though as Fax says, they are used to it.
It's the NE edge of the storm that's going to do the damage. They reckon we could have 4+ inches of rain, a lot of cloud to ground lightning and (WTF?) tornados! I've had my daughter remove all the potential missiles from around the house, but I'm shitting bricks now, because I have a lot of floor to ceiling glass and some BIG trees in my garden. This is no fun.

http://www.intellicast.com/Local/USNationalWide.asp?loc=usa&seg=StormCenter&prodgrp=FloaterImagery&product=Float1Loop&prodnav=none&pid=none

Jeez, might mean racing the caterham with the roof on next weekend.
Fermez le flaps Matt!

Hey Matt Pidgeon and any other CA's in Florida:
Are you guys OK?? GAB where are You?'
Canada Phil

How are the plastic garden chairs ?  :'(

The situation in Florida is very serious, the death toll is terribly high and the damage is state-wide.  The most devsasting storm since Andrew in the late eighties.  I haven't spoken to Matt (was going to try him tonight)
But I hope he and his family are okay.  My Aunt & Uncle in Naples suffered some significant damage to their home.
John

Hopefully the Harper family and casa del Matt are still standing.

At least the vetter is heavy enough to stay on the ground  :-X

Talked to Matt on the night the Hurricane hit.  The shitter is that it didn't slow down 'till after it passed over Orlando.  Therefore, he was having 100 mph + winds!

Lost his pool lanai and had one of his big trees fall next to his house vs. on it!  I'm sure he's without electricity still - not sure about water.

My in-laws live on Sanibel island, right where the f**k*r hit land and although they're house held-up well (they've got Cat 4 storm shutters/shields that armour-clad their house in such events), their neighbor's roof is gone and they've got the National Guard saying that they can leave the island, but can't come back - trying to stop looters!

I get the feeling there have been a number of fatalities down there - Captiva island next to my in-laws is flattened.  I'll take the randomness and significantly better odds of Tornadoes up here thank you very much!

Blimmy guys, my houghts are with you, As Brad said, if it had'nt been for a crule twist of fate we would have been there and trying to take advangtage of the many helpfull tips and advice you so generously gave.
Good Luck.

Holy s*** that looked scary guys, thoughts are with you all. I'll take the cricket being rained off anyday.

Dave,
No doubt about it, I'll take our dark, cold, shitty winters and occasional tornado warnings any day over having to deal with state wrecking 'canes every ten years or so.
Andrew,
When did you take up autocrossing?
Fax

Oh sh*t!  I hope the Sho-Boat is still standing.
Fax

Not decrying what you guys are experiencing , but the village of Boscastle in North Cornwall was devastated today by flash floods - 10 foot high torrents travelling at 25-30mph tore through the centre of the village , approx 60 cars in the nearby carpark were washed out to sea. 7 rescue helicopters having been on station rescuing people from trees , roofs etc .   our thoughts are with those affected

sh*t a friend only came back from a place just north of Tintagel on Saturday, and that's close(ish) isn't it?

Yep , only 5 miles away -

Check out this video link to see cars being swept down the village centre at a rate of knots - http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/39962000/rm/_39962558_floods22_kennedy16_vi.ram

Hi guys,
Yeah, I saw the footage of the flash floods on the news tonight over here.  Looked pretty awful. Goes without saying that our thoughts are with those who are suffering because of this.  Mother Nature is just f**k*ng with everyone these days.
Fax

Holy sh*t!

If anyone sees locusts could they let the rest of us know?

We've had a plague of hover flies.

Pestilence is next  :(

We just got rid of a wasps in a nest, and it looks like their back again! so much for them not returning.
Scary point  - The global average temperature of the Ice age was just 3.5 deg lower than today’s average, So think what 1 deg increase will do - higher precipitation (I think this means more intense rain - storms etc) - sounds familiar? Global warming - no surely not !!

We are still in an Ice Age.

The problem is, we humans only think short term 100-200 years, Ice ages last for many many thousands, and ebb and flow during that time.

 I would suggest you read,  if your interested,  'A short History of nearly everything' by Bill Bryson.

It explains the history behind the Global warming and ice ages etc in terms that even I could understand.

I am less concerned about changeing weather pattens than the fact that should an astroid have our name on it, we would not be aware of it until a few days from hitting us.

Quite right Nordic. If humans stopped burning all hydrocarbons, it would lower the CO2 in the atmosphere by a mere 2%. The rest being naturally occurring. Thus it would make chuff all difference to the earth's climate. Glaobal warming is a good excuse for the luddites of the green movement to get us out of our cars and living in mud huts in the forrest.

But I am very worried by the prospect of the new Ice Age. That's why I wanted the waste body fat from the swimming pool filters...

yep we've always had climate change as the dendrochronological  samples from peat bogs proove - well someone has to do it - its just vogue to blame change on a group of defenseless people who keep the economy going through road tax, petrol tax and speeding fines

yours with a big puff a black diesel smoke  ;D

We finally got the power back on at the office. It's nice to catch-up with the outside world.
The juice has been off at my home since the hurricane hit us on Friday night - and is likely not to be restored until the weekend (or so we're told). This ain't good, with daytime temps in the mid- 90's, so a daily forage for ice is needed to keep things from spoiling.
As for the storm itself - it came out of the Gulf much further south than anticipated - flattened Port Charlotte (killing lots of people in the process) and then just steam-rollered north east, tracking right over the metro Orlando area. I live 6 miles east of Orlando Airport and the eye of the storm passed directly over my neighborhood, with diminishing windspeeds of 114mph. I was very lucky. I'd removed a 60 foot oak tree from my back yard two months ago. It would definately have fallen onto my house, had it been there. As it was, I lost all my perimeter fencing, my pool enclosure, 3 trees and my roof will have to be replaced. My next door neighbors house was crushed by fallen trees, so I got off lightly. The destruction in the eastern half of the city is really scary - but things are quickly getting back to normal - all related to the restoration of power.
The hackneyed old adages about hurricanes being similar to runaway freight trains are all true. It's not an experience I'd like to go through again. Thanks for all the thoughtful comments and thank Christ for home insurance......  

Glad to hear all is (relatively) okay with you and your family Matt.

The insurance companies will up the premiums now though!

Were the small plastic chairs safely stowed away?

At risk of prompting witty comments like, "Yeah, but what did it look like after the storm", here's a shot of my back yard on Saturday morning. Thanks Charley!http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/2055DSC000051-thumb.JPG

http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/2055DSC000051-med.JPG

Uh, that looks like there's more to do than just lift the odd plastic chair. Glad to hear you are ok.

Matt, how come you can spell dendrochronological but can't spell 'proove'?  ;)

i dont know how matt can since i wrote it, still the wonder of nature will never cease

The word 'DOH' comes to mind!

For fucks sake!
It looks like we're going to get hammered again!

http://www.hurricanealley.net/Storms/06L.html

I know Matt, I've been keeping an eye on it as well:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ftp/graphics/AT06/refresh/AL0604W+GIF/251453W.gif

(if that doesn't work it's the 3-day forecast track on:

http://community-2.webtv.net/ltursi/LOUSWEATHERWATCH/

No-one minds a draught, but this could give you more than a crick in the neck, and those poor mobile home salesmen were only just getting back on their feet.

I sat one of these out on an island whose highest point was 4m above sea level, and I think that was a bit of fly tipping. Only one guy drowned. Best of luck mate, get the deep sea diving boots ready for Saturday, it's the only way to get down to the bar in a gale. Read this one fellas, it makes you thankful for those wet bank holiday weekends.

http://www.centerpointenergy.com/files/105517_Hurricane_Aware_Media_Guide_03.pdf

I'm going to have to catch up with CA, I've missed a few weeks. Christ knows what happened, it just went dark, and then it was September.
H

Hi Matt,
Looks like Francis is a big f**k*r too!  Another run to Home Depot in the cards?  From the models I've seen its either going to head right at you or chug up the coast and clobber the outer banks of North Carolina, it wouldn't be the first time they got pasted either, I've got a buddy who was in Kitty Hawk the last time one re-profiled the beaches.  Hold down the fort buddy, I'll see you in a few weeks in Georgia.
John

Holy sh*t Lord, have mercy on the locals. A category 4 is a big'un, and it's heading straight for Matts house, see below:
H

I can't believe Florida is going to be hammered again in less than a month.  What a disaster, some folks are just getting the electricity back on and cleaning up from the last mess and here it comes again.  I saw that some local aide agencies here is Texas are packing up trucks and vans to head to Florida to help out.  The news people said there is a real problem evacuating the coastal area down there because there is no place to go in Florida because of workers, volunteers, and the displaced living in all the motel/hotels all over the state.  As large as Frances is, it will cover several states with a lot of rain, flooding and damage.  No where to run, what a mess.  Our prayers are with all of you down there.  

She's going to douse most of the midwest once she peters-out into a big thunderstorm.  We're supposed to get soaked clear up here in southwest Ohio sometime Monday night-Tuesday from whats left of her. Florida, Georgia and the Carolina's are going to get whalloped.
John

Good Luck MAtt :o

They are now saying that Frances is going to be worse than Andrew (which was the most destructive in US history)
Over a million people have been ordered to avacuate.  This is really damn serious.
John

I'm struggling with the concept of having to go through this again. I couldn't even leave if I wanted to now - all the interstates north are clogged with evacuated coastal residents. They are predicting landfall between West Palm Beach and Cape Canaveral - predicted storm surge is 13-18 feet. It's track takes it directly over metro Orlando and then continuing NW towards Tallahassee. Scarily, it's gigantic and slow moving - so we are expecting 130mph winds for up to 7 hours and 20" of rain in 24 hours. I'm really not sure if my home's structure, particularly the roof, will be able to take a f**k*ng-over like that.
Stuff like this never happened when I lived in Shipley...........  

This doesn't sound good. All the best of luck Matt.

Some good and bad news on the Frances front.  The good news is that she's been down-graded to a cat 3 hurricane, she's now packing ONLY 128 mph winds.  The bad news is that she's slowed to a 9 mph crawl, which means she's spending alot more time over any particular area dumping rain and pelting with wind.  Also the longer she spends over the ocean, the better the chance of her picking up more punch, the warm sea air feeding it.
Hang in there Matt & Pidge.
John

Have you checked out Ivan, following hot on Frances's heels...
H

They also sell mushy peas with fish and chips in the Wilds of West Yorkshire

Looks like it's one after another at the moment (http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung0304/sprachlos/speechless-smiley-014.gif) Not good! Hope everyone caught up in this is ok and good luck!

http://autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=100753  :o

Not a lot of fun to be had in these situations and I wish everyone well, but this guy has a few problems now.

Hello again...
Not as ferocious as the first one - but lasted 24 hours as opposed to less than 2, first time around.
My roof is totally knacked now, but my acquisition of a 4kw generator helped keep things a little more civilised - so much so, that I was able to watch the storm coverage on TV, which yeilded a few quite amusing but unintentional double-entendres...

"I don't want to get too close to the sea wall, because I might get sucked-off".

"If I step into the wind-flow, I really get hammered in the rear"

and my personal favorite.....

"... and now back to Deborah in New Smyrna Beach, you'll recall, in the last pictures we saw of her, she was being pounded terribly hard".

Finally, I find it incredible how Americans so easily invent new words. This morning, they interviewed the Orange County Sheriff about downed traffic lights. I quote, "We are experiencing some signalization issues".    
Huh?

Glad to hear you're ok. BAM! got it worse. As DSC reports, their office and work shop has been seriously knackered by Frances. The roof was blown off but the Porsche is alright. Despite the damage, they will attend the next ALMS round at Road Atlanta. Time for the T.W.A.T.S. to step in ?

Glad to hear it wasn't quite as bad for you this time round and good to see your sense of humor is still well and truely intact!  ;)

Glad you're OK, but just in case...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/2078085.htm?1c

 ;)