What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Hurricane charley

First of all, I hope everyone who was in the path of this bad boy is well.

Being that I am in New Orleans I watch hurricanes very closely, regardless of where they are heading. This one in particular is very eye opening. I have family in Ft. Meyers. For 2 days EVERY expert said this storm was heading north to Tampa. Ft. Meyers was supposed to get some rain, high winds, maybe a little storm surge but nothing too serious.

Well, Ft. Meyers had 2 hours warning. Thats right boys and girls, 2 hours warning from all accounts I am hearing, before they got pretty much a direct hit. That scares the heck out of me. That is almost the equivilant of the forecasters saying its going to hit Houston then N.O. getting a 2 hour notice of impact.

To top it off, this is probably the worst case scenario. After bulldozing over half of Florida, it jumps into the atlantic, re-streagnthens and now its going to pound the East cost.

If your reading this, and you get nothing else out of this post, please head this warning. If a big storm like this is even relativly close to you and your family. Please, get out. Head in-land, go to a hotel a few hundred miles north at least, go visit family, anything. Just get out of its way.

On a side note, I will be gone for a week, maybe more. We have teamed up with 3 of our suppliers and we are (as in the roofing company my family owns) heading to Florida as soon as it settles down a bit. A lot of people and a lot of business in the area are without a roof, and the main roofing mat. supplier in Florida was flooded. So there are basically short of mat. and there just arn't enough skilled hands in the area to temp everything in.

P.S. Is it a bad thing that I am kind of excited that I get to lead a convoy? I get to lead a group of 12 18 wheelers and 5 crew trucks all the way to central Florida.
 
Got grazed... a little rain, 30mph winds, some plant damage.
 
Southeastern PA is poised to be in its path as of tonight. I've moved my outside plants to be under shrubbery.
 
hurricanes are sort of scary, here in new york we always get the leftover stuff, winds around 50mph gusts get way past that sometimes though. i remember the last one that came through it took a part of the roof of the building next to me and it slammed into my window. they seem to come here after they are done messing up the lower states and the carribean.
 
my sis is in palm bay/melborne
smile_h_32.gif
she says its fine luckily
 
I'm watching the olympics, and on the bottom of the screen it just said that there is a tropical storm warning in effect for the new york tri-state area, and a flood watch. Here comes another one
confused.gif
 
Upstate NY here- sunny & warm this morning with not even showers predicted for the next week.  Looks like it's headed right for Schloaty, though.  
smile_h_32.gif
 
It looks like Fla was hit hard. I've been through alot of hurricanes and tropical storms. I've been in three that were the size of and bigger than Charlie. I know what it's like to be in the middle of the destruction. It's no fun and really scary. Most people think that once the storm is over the danger is gone. That can't be farther from the truth. I was almost killed in the aftermath of hurricane Fran. These people are still in danger. They have no electricity, water and in some cases food. The struggle for survival is not over for them. In the major storms I've been in the week after is worse than the storm itself.

This storm also hit the Carolinas. It made landfall in Calabash NC, about 15 miles south of my family in Holden Beach. I'm away from home right now and I watched the storm approach my family on the Internet. It was really hard to just sit here and watch the radar as this storm made a direct hit on my family. I would have rather been there instead 700 miles away. I talked to my Mom after the storm left the area and she told me that everybody was ok, but my Grandma's house does have damage. We still don't know how bad it is.  I know we are very lucky compared to the people in Fla. About 24 hrs before Charlie hit here, what was left of TS bonnie went through our area and killed 3 people just a few miles north. It's been a bad weekend for North Carolina but it's nothing compared to the horror Fla saw. Keep these people in your thoughts, it's not over for them yet.
To make things worse, two more TS's are in the Atlantic and appears to be headed the same way.
 
Up here in Ocala, Florida, Charley was supposed to come through after it hit Tampa, but since it hit further south, all I saw was a couple of periods of rain bands passing through (about 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm) that weren't as bad as most of the thunderstorms we have all the time. I didn't notice any strong winds and none of my plants on my patio fell over or anything.

I think they should have warned the whole west coast, since they don't seem to be able to really pinpoint where these things are going to land. It is amazing this one didn't break up much after it hit land like they usually do...
 
  • #10
The reason It didn't break up like they normally do when they hit land is because Fla is flat and it didn't offer as much resistance as it would if it hit a piece of land that was higher.
 
  • #11
But usually they aren't a serious danger to inland Florida like this one was to Orlando and other areas in its path.
 
  • #12
Heres a little information about the 2 new tropical depressions ozzy mentioned. One is named Danielle and one is named Eric. They are really close to each other with Danielle traveling just behind eric. Just this morning Eric was considered a tropical depression with 30 mph winds. In about 12 hours it went from that to being a tropical storm with 50 mph. Danielle has sustained winds of about 40 mph. Both strenghtening. What makes things better is that they are both on a direct path to the carribean (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico etc. ) im supposed to fly out to D.R. next friday, just hope Danielle and Eric don't get in the way
confused.gif
 
  • #13
I'm im Kissimmee Fl. just south of Orlando. They managed to get the power back on about an hour ago. The eye passed directly over kissimmee on its way to Orlando, and they said on the forecast (before everything hit the fan) it was still a category 3. During the storm every window in the back of the house broke and came flying inside. I have no roof on the back half of the house and we are living in about 3 inches of water. My car is under the lady next door's oak tree which is half on my car and half inside the garage. The fence around the yard is gone. I found part of the metal frame to the greenhouse in the street-still haven't seen the plants yet. And I feel lucky - my house wasn't as badly damaged as some of the houses around here. Apparently the sustained winds were measured at 77mph with gusts up to 105mph.But enough of my problems, what really bothers me is that they kept advising everyone in Tampa and St. Petersburgh to come to the Orlando area for safety and ended up sending almost 500,000 people into the storm. I know the path is unpredictable but that ended up being downright dangerous. The shelters were filled up early Friday morning and they had to scramble to find places for all of these people. Keep the happy thoughts coming for all the Floridians that still don't have electricity and there are places where the water mains broke so there isn't even water. Oh and yes, they are already warning (or threatening I guess) us about they new storms that are developing.
 
  • #14
I was right in the middle of hurricane george. Now that was a bad hurricane. I was in the Dominican Republic at the time and when they announced it was coming i thought "cool a hurricane is coming!!!" but the damage done to houses around us was extensive. Some of the people in houses around us that we KNEW wouldn't make it through, invited them into out house. I guess it is "cool" but not when you take into account the lives, damage, and phycological damage it inflicts. George "followed" me home, (lol) i left shortly after and i had been back for a day when it reached new york, but much weaker. Its really amazing to think something that once had 180mph winds, turned into a little thunderstorm by the time it got here. Makes you feel like you sort of "defeated" it.
 
  • #15
Well, I am home. We were on the last flight out of Orlando. The pilot told us that he was going to taxi out and hope for a hole. He stated that he would do everything he could to keep us safe. Of course, I'm thinking "like staying on the ground" Anyway there was a hole and we made it out. I hope everyone is alright.
 
  • #16
Its a good thing you left when you did, I heard on the radio (battery powered - I was good and prepared for the worst early) that the airport sustained "major damage" - don't know what that means but it doesn't sound good. Unconfirmed rumors have it that planes flipped over in the storm.
 
  • #18
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jaje61 @ Aug. 14 2004,8:14)]But usually they aren't a serious danger to inland Florida like this one was to Orlando and other areas in its path.
There are two reasons that Charlie was stronger inland than other storms. One, Charlie was a fast moving storm. Fast moving storms holds their strength farther inland. The second and biggest reason was that it was such a strong storm to begin with. Anytime a hurricane hits land it starts weakening, because it is cut off from it's fuel supply, warm water. Charlie went from a cat4 to a cat3 by the time it reached Orlando and to a cat1 by the time it left Fla. Crossing Fla did weak this storm alot. It didn't loose the amount of steam if it hit the east coast and then had to climb uphill toward the mountains.

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]what really bothers me is that they kept advising everyone in Tampa and St. Petersburgh to come to the Orlando area for safety and ended up sending almost 500,000 people into the storm. I know the path is unpredictable but that ended up being downright dangerous.
Where else could they have sent them? It may have put people in the path of the storm but it protected them from a hurricanes biggest killer, the storm surge. I think I heard that 2/3 of all hurricane deaths are from drowning. During Hurricane Hugo they predicted the eye to hit some where just below Wilmington NC, So alot of people left for Charlotte. Hugo Hit Charleston SC and went inland 300 miles and hit Charlotte pretty hard. This happens with most hurricanes. When Floyd skirted the coast of Fla, they evacuated the east coast of Fla. It cost 1 million dollars for every mile they evacuated. I think we're a long way away from being able to predict these storms with 100% accuracy.

I hope that all the people of Fla comes though this ok. I still have friends there I haven't heard from since the storm.
Good luck to you all.
 
  • #19
other then really messing up the smooth ride conditions and routes for aircraft for us air traffic controllers around raleigh, charley was nothing but a pain.
 
  • #20
Are you saying the unpredictability (is that even a word?  - you know what I mean) of the hurricanes is only a minor annoyance for the airlines?  I would think that such a major disturbance in the air would really mess things up.
 
Back
Top