Now for Frances???

“No hurricanes in Utah or Arizona. ;-)”

“No critters in the tidal pools. Just lots of seafoam that Laurel needed to get used to. She and a collie puppy were both a little leery of the foam at first but then they started playing in it. Laurel watched me go out to the water, not just in the tide pool. After a while she joined me, but she wanted to go out further. No damn way that was happening, and she was already soaked. We got rinsed off at a shower there and headed home. I forgot how uncomfortable salt water soaked clothes are. Icky.”

“Pathman, great minds think alike! I almost typed that!

Gotta wash the doggie now.”

“I ate my last banana popsicle! Hope I don't go into dt's later.”

“Looks like Frances wants to go visit Crazy Mike.”

“Surf's up in Jax Beach!

The Suunto says all is fine...”

“They are forecasting the eye to come ashore between West Palm Beach and Melbourne, and given the size of the eye they think it will cover that entire area. ETA in the evening sometime.

Just heard from my son Paul, and Zack is in Delray Beach, which will likely get pounded by winds on the south side of the eye.”

“From the Weather Channel, here's the latest projected path:

”

“If that holds up, Orlando will be on the north side of the storm. Tampa Bay is in the center.”

“The eye at 1:50 p.m. is just off West Palm Beach and is about to clear the northernmost island of the Bahamas. It sure is a big sucker!”

“The bitty has STOPPED! They are now saying that Frances has stalled out (bad).”

“AT 2 PM EDT...1800Z...THE LARGE EYE OF HURRICANE FRANCES WAS LOCATED
BY RADAR AND RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT NEAR LATITUDE 26.9 NORTH...
LONGITUDE 79.0 WEST OR ABOUT 70 MILES...115 KM...EAST OF PALM BEACH
FLORIDA.

DATA FROM RADAR AND A RECONNAISSANCE PLANE INDICATE THAT FRANCES HAS
BARELY MOVED DURING THE PAST HOUR. HOWEVER THE HURRICANE IS
EXPECTED TO RESUME A WEST TO WEST-NORTHWEST TRACK NEAR 5 MPH...7
KM/HR TODAY. ON THE FORECAST TRACK...THE CENTER OF THE LARGE EYE
OF HURRICANE FRANCES WILL BE VERY NEAR THE FLORIDA EAST COAST BY
LATE TONIGHT OR EARLY SUNDAY MORNING.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 105 MPH...165 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. STRONGER WINDS...ESPECIALLY IN GUSTS...ARE POSSIBLE ON
HIGH RISE BUILDINGS. SOME STRENGTHENING IS POSSIBLE BEFORE LANDFALL.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 105 MILES...165 KM...
FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP
TO 185 MILES...295 KM. STRONG WINDS ARE ALREADY AFFECTING THE EAST
COAST OF FLORIDA AND WILL BE SPREADING INLAND...WHERE WARNINGS FOR
HURRICANE AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS HAVE BEEN ISSUED. FOR STORM
INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE. SUSTAINED WINDS OF 80 MPH WERE
RECENTLY REPORTED AT JUPITER INLET.

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY A RECONNAISSANCE PLANE WAS 962
MB...28.41 INCHES.

STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 3 TO 5 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS CAN BE
EXPECTED ON THE WEST SIDE OF ISLANDS OF THE NORTHERN BAHAMAS.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 4 TO 6 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE
LEVELS...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...IS
EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE NORTH OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL
IN FLORIDA. STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 5 FEET ABOVE NORMAL LEVELS IS
EXPECTED IN LAKE OKEECHOBEE. ALONG THE SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
COAST...STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 1 TO 3 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE
LEVELS IS EXPECTED SOUTH OF THE PATH OF FRANCES.

STORM TOTAL RAINFALL AMOUNTS COULD REACH 20 INCHES IN THE NORTHWEST
BAHAMAS. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 8 TO 12 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER
AMOUNTS...ARE EXPECTED OVER THE FLORIDA PENINSULA IN ASSOCIATION
WITH FRANCES.

ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE OVER CENTRAL FLORIDA TODAY AND
TONIGHT.”

“I'm outa here. Stay safe Floridians, Tango, and Zack!”

“My power was off for an hour. We've also had a tornado somewhere near me.

Later Geo.

Cool Coop.”

“Power out now would be a bummer - This is gonna be a long storm - made even longer without the TV.”

“the CNN people look like they're having a good time down there.

hope everybody's still intact”

“It's quiet here now. Unfortunately some of the worst of the storm is hitting in the middle of the night - little sleep and darkness make it tougher to deal with.”

“Hang tough everyone.”

“Hold tight
Good Luck”

“Coop since Frances has been stationary for the past few hours it may just wait till the A.M. for Orlando area.

Some levity:

”

“It's heading for Tampa? I hope NS and his daughter will be ok holed up over there.

Tango-That boards' statement is true for all FLoridians.”

“trerebait, you don't have a phone # for nowslimmer do you? he was suppose to go to clearwater and i thought i would check in with him to see if they needed anything.”

“well just heard on the new that there are 15,000 people in st petersburg that are without power. treasure island which is just over johns pass bridge from me. well atleast i got the large shutters that are electric down, the others i am going to wait until later to put down, they are our smaller windows.”

“wow, stalled out. that sucks.

I heard through a grapevine that power is out in my area back home.”

“No I don't have his number, and I wish I did.”

“Tango - that would be nice - maybe I'll grab some shuteye before it hits.”

“o/~ "the waiting is the hardest part.." tom petty song

hey tango, coop, cyndee, ns and the rest of you southcentral floridians and the hpm family.....~om shanti om~~~~
chanting "unchained melody" for u tonite”

“watched the weather channel right now. boy....hope you are all okay.

someone saw this one guy swimming in the ocean? What a nut. Wasn't by any coincidence a TTer, eh??”

“Thanks for the good vibes om!

Winds are picking up. They are prolly about 30-40 mph gusts - still low enough for me to think "it would be cool to hike in this" as opposed to "get the kids in the closet!"”

“gemini....i grew up in tampa and have been thru quite a few hurricanes....
i remember during the teen years....we used to love when hurrincanes were coming....we would go over to Clearwater beach and go surfing...the only time you can surf in the usually calm gulf waters...we would surf like crazy until the police made us leave
...ahh...youth....sometimes i wonder how we all survived doing stuff stupid stuff like that....the thrills....”

“hmm - om's youth sounds suspiciously like Coop's youth. Only we would go to John's Pass or Ft. Desoto.”

“Power's still on...”

“looks like it's still stalld over my apartment.

this sux

I live on the first floor and I'm pretty sure that 20 inches of rain overnight will flood me out.”

“well, she is moving again, very slowly though.

The center seems to have passed pretty much directly over me.

Gotta get in touch with some local folks and see what happened.”

“I hope it went ok for your place Roam. It looked like a nasty night down there.”

“Hey - where's my damn newspaper?”

“The Suunto Vector now indicates that a storm may be approaching.”

“Transformers (or whatever they are) are blowing around the neighborhood - power loss ain't far away. I wouldn't be surprised if Tango is already down.”

“Hold on tight Coop!

I think I saw your newspaper come down the street up here! (I'm up in Greenville, SC)

lol”

“Idd'n she perty?

We're okay here. I'm a little nervous about the way all the trees around my house and over my car are swaying. 30 mph sustained winds here with higher gusts, so it's not too bad yet. We just saw footage of boats down in Green Cove Springs that weren't properly secured. They're scrwed. We also saw a foxnews local reporter who was less than a foot from being squashed by a falling palm tree. It brushed against his back as it fell. Lucky guy there.”

“kinda quite down there. Are you Floridians still online?”

“I'm posting from my parents' house now. THe roads are clear of all traffic, I love it! The Dames Pt. bridge (big 'un) is closed to high profile vehicles now, including certain suv's. I'd be guaranteed a hummer H2 free drive there. Those things are such garbage, with particularly poor drivers behind the wheel.”

“Just a quick hello to say I am thinking about y'all...BE SAFE and keep checking in...hugs.....”

“Pathman, we're all watching tv, waiting to see reporter get squished out in the storm. A couple of 'em have already almost bought it. HPM's painting the bathroom still. Over 1.5 million people are without power in central Fla., so that could account for the quiet.”

“those reporters kill me. "it is so dangerous out here that nobody in their right mind should be out". Duh.

My sister is in the path of Frances on the north Gulf Coast. If it strenthens over the Gulf, they could get smacked. You can still see evidence of Opal there.”

“About 6500 people here in Atlantic Beach are without power. Ours keeps flickering and the ups keeps complaining. I'll probably shut the box down soon. It's only breezy here under the trees, not even enough to keep mosquitos down. Get out in the open however, and you can't see because of the horizontal rain. The wind is howling along the main roads, where they removed all the trees and there's 7 lanes of roadway to contend with. I drove around for a little bit. The weather didn't bother my car too much, but the big vans and especially suvs are all over the place. I nearly got slammed by the moron behind me who wanted to go much faster, when he hit his brakes at the last minute and pretty much went off the road. The speed limit was 35, by the way. This dude was doing at least 55. I saw lots of people out enjoying the weather as it were. Lots of people and their dogs at a little park up the road from my parents' house. My dad, however, was afraid to take his dog out for a walk. The longer he puts it off, the higher the wind and heavier the rain. Hopefully he's already gone and back. He needs the exercise really bad. So does the dog. Take care everyone. Toodles.”

“reporting in from madeira beach: we still have powerand not much rain. the hubby got in at 930 this morning and will be back at work at 6 tonight. tood a walk to john's pass(hey coop i'm about 4 blocks away from the pass). the sand is whipping off the beach and it looks like clouds. it really stung our legs as we walked to the pass, the wind is blowing 40 to 50 mph. one of the beach bridges is closed because of a power pole falling down. sunshine skyway bridge is closed to all traffic.”