New Orleans in Danger again

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

New Orleans will be spared, BUT

It Looks like the people who suffered

through Charlie are in for it again.

[FunnyDuddies 6]

TOM I am assuming you are no where in the south. this storm is quite a yawner to a lot of us here. LOL Its not going to be strong at all. the last two hurricanes that we have been through, both my husband and I drove to work in, and so did most of his office. Its not a party till its a Category 3 or higher. Everything else is just a rain storm.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

TOM I am assuming you are no where in the south. this storm is quite a yawner to a lot of us here. LOL Its not going to be strong at all. the last two hurricanes that we have been through, both my husband and I drove to work in, and so did most of his office. Its not a party till its a Category 3 or higher. Everything else is just a rain storm.

You are assuming incorrectly.:faint:

The eyes of Frances, Jeanne and Wilma all passed over my home.

My roof was repaired twice times in 2 years and totaly replaced this year. The roof inspection has not even taken place. And my screen-room has been replaced.

I worked in the Home Depot that was within 1 mile of dead center of the tracks of both Frances and Jeanne when they made landfall, and spent countless hours helping people with advice on emergency generator wiring (do's and don'ts). Some people had no power from the time Frances hit until 3 weeks after Jeanne hit.

During Wilma, which was only supposed to be a catagory one, more damage was done to my property than in the higher rated Frances or Jeanne.

If you and your husband were lucky enough to be able to drive around in those hurricanes, May God bless you, but I do not think you should make light of what may be a coming tragedy for many people.

[3loves 0]

Funny, you sound so nonchalant. It reminds me of my brother. He too feels the same way. He's been to many hurricane parties having lived in HI, FL, CT, & now VA. I always worry about him even though he feels it's mild. His last hurricane, Isabel, he had to go out during the break (before it circled back) and patch his roof. The tree in his yard crushed part of the house next door. He lives for the excitement. Since becoming a daddy last Dec, I'm pretty sure he won't stay through another major hurricane.

I will never share his views on this. Being a Buckeye all my life (living in FL for a short period of time) I am always fascinated how those living in those areas do feel it's not really a big deal. It is to me, but like I said, I would feel differently if I had grown up in the area or had been exposed to it more. It's a way of life either way you look at it.

It still breaks me heart to see all the destruction a hurricane or any other disaster can do. I have seen many life-long Floridians absolutely crushed and devastated at what is left of their homes even though they KNEW it could happen. Knowing it will happen doesn't remove the heartache. BTW, have you ever lost your home in any disasters? I know you said you can lived all over being exposed to many natural disasters. Ever lived in HI? Just wondering.

[FunnyDuddies 6]

Yes, I lived in Hawaii. Lived there for 4 years. I have had losses due to natural disasters. I have had two homes burn down, one due to wild fire, I have been through various storms, earthquakes, floods, blizzard that brought down the roof and an ice storm that brought a tree through a family home in North Carolina. I am not non chalant. Anything over a cat 2 and I am out of here. But you gotta understand...I live in florida where most of the time our afternoon thunderstorms are stronger than most of the hurricanes that come through. I have seen Water spouts while fishing and had no where to go. Its something you live with when you live here. I think that being smart, being prepared, and having a plan is better than an alarmist attitude (not saying anyone here is being alarmist). I just think that calm cool thinking, and going with the flow is the best situation. I have lived all over the world. And lived in many states in this country. There are natural disasters everywhere. You just have to know where the threats are and how do deal with the consequences. I am a firm believer in taking care of yourself. If you live in an area where hurricanes come through, be prepared to due some rebuild. We are. We are heavily insured, and have evac plans and supplies. We know that if anything happens it is just an act of nature, and we would rebuild and live on.

[Pinkylee 7]

My husband spent a lot of this summer making hurricane shutters for our windows b4 the hurricane season started.

I bought the dog food, people food, etc shld we decide to stay if one comes our way.

Never thought about making reservations early Cindy--thanks for that one!

By the way--I'd rather face a hurricane than the clogged highways and dangerous conditions on the road.

[FunnyDuddies 6]

You are assuming incorrectly.:faint:

The eyes of Frances, Jeanne and Wilma all passed over my home.

My roof was repaired twice times in 2 years and totaly replaced this year. The roof inspection has not even taken place. And my screen-room has been replaced.

I worked in the Home Depot that was within 1 mile of dead center of the tracks of both Frances and Jeanne when they made landfall, and spent countless hours helping people with advice on emergency generator wiring (do's and don'ts). Some people had no power from the time Frances hit until 3 weeks after Jeanne hit.

During Wilma, which was only supposed to be a catagory one, more damage was done to my property than in the higher rated Frances or Jeanne.

If you and your husband were lucky enough to be able to drive around in those hurricanes, May God bless you, but I do not think you should make light of what may be a coming tragedy for many people.

I'm sorry for my wrong assumption. Usually people are more afraid of what they do not know, or have not experienced. I guess I ahve seen more powerful storms in my life in Okinawa than what comes through here. I know that good construction and good preparedness makes for an easy ride out.

I am not making light of anything, though. Please do not mistake my ease at understanding I have NO CONTROL over the weather for just not caring. But I do not see the need to become alarmed at these things either. I am glad that your customers had someone there to show them how to hook up a generator. I could not do that job, because my whole day would be shot trying to explain things to frazzled people who should have been prepared before a storm came, but were too lazy to do so. I would not last in that job, I would have turned mean and mad. But that is just me. I am a big one on responsibility. And you live here, you are responsible for how you handle a disaster.

[paula 4]

TOM I am assuming you are no where in the south. this storm is quite a yawner to a lot of us here. LOL Its not going to be strong at all. the last two hurricanes that we have been through, both my husband and I drove to work in, and so did most of his office. Its not a party till its a Category 3 or higher. Everything else is just a rain storm.

*Im laughing over here.*

She's right, y'all.

[3loves 0]

Sorry I misunderstood. Like I said, my brother seems to share your views and I guess unless you live there, you just don't get it like the natives do. When you speak of taking care of yourself, that is something the Navy boys don't always do. I'm glad my brother is not "so wet behind the ears" these days. He didn't always do that during hurricanes. Of course, now he's out of the military and married. That seems to help those wild ones settle down a bit.

Wow....you have been through a lot. Bless your heart. I can't imagine going through all of that. You have witnessed more than your fair share. When you said volcano's, I assumed it was HI. I never did get a chance to visit there when my brother lived 3 yrs in Oahu. :phanvan

To all of you.....be safe and be prepare like Funny said. Like I need to say that. I'm up north. I do have loved ones in FL and watch those hurricane carefully. I'm being a little chatty tonight. :biggrin1:

[FunnyDuddies 6]

I have lived by volacanos in HI, but also lived at the base of mt ranier...which is always fortold to blow any day. Her little burp a few years ago was interesting. lots of excitment. Will enumclaw be buried? LOL

[FunnyDuddies 6]

*Im laughing over here.*

She's right, y'all.

SEE! Someone gets me! LOL hugs Paula!!!

[3loves 0]

Will enumclaw be buried? LOL

I'm going to google that. Don't know what it is. I live in a small world.

Oh, I see now. I'm getting "edumicated" tonight. :biggrin1:

[FunnyDuddies 6]

Enumclaw is a small town that i lived in that is right at the base of the volcano in Washington. Actually the whole west of Washington is surrounded by a chain of volcanos. That and earthquakes threatening to drop downtown seattle into the sound is pretty exciting. I would take a hurricane any day over that major disaster waiting to happen.

[3loves 0]

I'm with you all the way. I'll pass on a volcano.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

Today, in church, an announcement was made to alert all in the congregation about the change in the course of Ernesto. Two women ran from the church in tears, followed by their husbands. The minister was so taken aback, that he excused himself to go to the parking lot in order to find out what the problem was.

One of the couples drove off and one came back. One of the women who had left explained after the service, that many of the people in this area, including herself are being treated for PTSD and many others though not being treated, are suffering from it.

After three hurricanes in less than 14 months, many here are shell-shocked. Yes, we should all be brave enough to deal with life, just like we should all be able to control our eating. The minister met with our small discussion group while we were discussing this issue and tried to console the women who had run and returned. Some members who knew the other women explained that her family had been hit very hard during the last three storms and she had just sent her daughter off to college in Tampa, which at the time of the announcement in church was ground zero for Ernesto's landfall.

Personally I am not worried that much for myself, but it was I who talked my wife into moving to Florida. She suffered immensely during the storms which reminded her of NYC subway trains coming through our home continually for 4 to 5 hours, then the eerie silence of the eye followed by a repeat of the trains coming though. The biggest difference between Wilma and the 2004 pair of Frances and Jeanne was that because Wilma came from the other direction the before and after the eye durations were different.

During the eye of Frances, I went up on my roof to cut the wires on my DirecTV satellite dish. Half of the bolts on the mounting foot had been ripped out and the other bolts were loose, so I realized that when the storm changed direction, it would rip the dish off the roof and the wires would wrap around the Florida Power and Light electrical feed and probably rip that out of my roof. My wife was screaming and crying as she begged me to come down off the ladder, no matter how much I assured her that the eye would last about an hour. We found the dish a block away after the storm was over.

During the eye of Jeanne, I tried to make re-enforcement repairs to my screen-room main beam support. I obviously failed because we heard a terrible bang two hours later and 6 hours later, after the storm had passed, we found the screen-room collapsed into our swimming pool.

Wilma found little left to break, because we had not gotten all our repairs done from the previous storms, so it just ripped our roof to shreds. My home was less than 5 years old when Wilma ripped my 30 year (guarantee) roof to shreds. We placed as many buckets around home as possible to catch the rain. I guess the only good thing was that we could not see well by the battery operated flash-lights and lanterns that we were using. We didn't get the full effect until after the storm had passed and we could fire up the generator.

Those generators are great. Too bad no gas stations have them. To keep food from spoiling, you need to run the generator about 10 hours or more each day, depending on the temperature. However, even though I had 4 five gallon cans of gas, I was down to my last few hours of power when I finally found a 3 hour line at a Mobil station. My son who lives about 2 miles from me had spent 4 hours on line the day earlier, only to have the station run out of gas when he was three cars away.

People started doing crazy things, like carrying 4, 5 or 6 five gallon gas cans on the roof rack of their SUV. I was on Interstate 95 and saw a SUV with Broward County plates carrying gas on his roof. It is very dangerous to carry gas cans either full or empty inside of a vehicle, so they carried them on top. Because my area started getting power back about a week before Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, they were driving the hour to two hour drive here to get gas.

I witness fights on the gas lines. I had waited one time for only an hour and was about to turn onto the station when a car jumped in front of somebody else. The drivers started screaming and before you knew it there was a fist fight in the middle of the street. The police came quickly, but they shut the place down while they investigated. From then on, there a police car at every gasoline station that had gas to sell. Civilization had broken down.

So, it is not only the wind and the rain that has many people on the edge of their seats. It is also the fear of the unknown. Months later, after the 2004 storms and again after Wilma, we were all joking about the storms, but when the maps start showing the approach of another storm, be it category 3 or 2 or even a 1, the nerves start to get on edge.