Hurricane FRANCES


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Previous # Next ] [ Start New Thread ] [ TarBoard ]

Posted by Ed Kiser on September 07, 2004 at 07:30:12 from 64.12.116.8 user Kisered.

In Reply to: Gamekeepers posted by Ed Kiser on August 31, 2004 at 05:18:41:

For those of you that have expressed some concerns...

The Hurricane Frances is finally out of here (south Florida). It was a rather slow-moving storm, so once it hit, it just seemed to sit there and continue to pound away. It came across the Bahama Islands as a Class FOUR hurricane, hitting at 145 MPH. By the time it hit Florida, about a hundred miles to the north of me, it was a CLASS TWO with wind speed of about 105 MPH. Thank goodness it was diminished in strength. It was a BIG one, with the grand circle of storm clouds covering everything from GEORGIA (North of Florida) across my state and down to and including western CUBA to the South of the Florida Keys, and extending into the Gulf of Mexico in the west of Florida all the way to still include the Bahama Islands some hundred miles offshore to the east. A huge storm, the size of Texas. The winds were thankfully reduced from their previous power, but the rains were enough to flood major areas, including washing out a piece of the interstate highway, I95 in Palm Beach County (just north of me). Some five million homes are without electrical power. As luck would have it, for some strange reason, we never lost electricity in my house, so we had air conditioner, refregeration, electric stove for cooking, and the microwave oven also, along with electric appliances, like coffee maker and TV so we could watch the weather reports.

As for damage - it did blow out several screen panels in the screen enclosure that is over my swimming pool out back. A metal gutter was ripped from the edge of the room and tossed over the house. Several limbs were twisted from several trees on the lot and left lying about. There were a lot of leaves blown from the trees. It seems many of those leaves managed to find those places where the screen panels were now missing and wound up in my pool, so all that has to be fished out of there. We did lose the cable to the TV for several hours, but it came back on ok. Got my electric power saw and cut up the severed tree limbs and piled the shortened pieces up at the side of the street where cleaning crews will be coming by Tuesday to pick up that trash.

Many places had trees to blow down and crush a car, or smash through a roof letting the rain soak the interior of the home. Mine managed to stay upright, with only the loss of a few limbs. The rain filled the canal beside the house to be quite full, but it did not overflow and flood the yard or my car. The car did not take any damage from flying objects, even though it was sitting out in the driveway.

All in all, we feel very fortunate to have come through with as little damage as it was, especially compared to what damages were done in other communities so near by. It was a long time listening to the wind rattle my hurricane shutters that we pulled across the windows and across the sliding glass doors in preparation for the storm. Always knew those shutters would come in handy when we had that installed beside the doors/windows many years ago, just waiting to be pulled across.

It was a frightening experience, but afterwards, I can really count my blessings for being spared the horror and damage that so many others have endured.

I wish to thank all you TARBOARD members for your personal emails of encouragement regarding this trying period. Your support and your prayers are indeed appreciated. Thanks to still having electricity, I can get on this forum and continue sharing with you all the wonders of All Things Ransome.

Now about this next hurricane, IVAN, coming across the Atlantic, heading straight for me. Sigh... Here we go again... Think I'll leave those shutters closed for several more days and see just where this thing will go to perform its havoc.

The major damage I will have to endure is when I get my next bill from the insurance companies that have to pay for all this damage across the entire state. In the final analysys, they won't pay a thing; we policy holders will do the ultimate payment. They are not in business to lose money. And for a retiree on fixed income, huge jumps in insurance rates just don't fit the limited budget.

The best news of all is about the private sailing yacht. There is not one bit of damage there, all due to the precaution I have taken with that little delightful item by not owning one. Solves that problem...

Ed Kiser, South Florida, a major target area for Nature...


Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
Eel-Mail:

Existing subject (please edit appropriately) :

Comments:

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:

post direct to TarBoard test post first

Before posting it is necessary to be a registered user.


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TarBoard ]

Courtesy of Environmental Science, Lancaster

space