Oh Lord, Here comes Jeanne!!!

“yeah, just a tad bit nervous here too.”

“Be careful Roam, the weatherheads up here are saying it could break the Cat 4 level before the eye comes ashore.
I've got the sneaking suspicion we'll lose water this time, too. I've got bottled water all over the place now, and I'll probably fill all the nalgenes, our 6 liter water bag, and whatever else I can as a precaution. My mom really wants us to evacuate; she's lower elevation wisethan us, closer to a creek that's still riding high from Frances, and has some really big freaking trees (huge lovely magnolias) starting to lean out over the road. My parents'll be hated if those trees fall because they'll block the only road in and out of that little neighborhood.”

“well, the eye should pass just north of me, but still awfully close.

i heard the same thing about becomeng cat 4 maybe. hope not.”

“i'm signing this thing out, see yall on the other side.”

“Good luck!”

“God watch you and your families, Roam, Nowslimmer and everyone else down that a way.”

“Amen tree.”

“Good luck to all of you!

Prayers and good thoughts.”

“I still haven't gone to bed, even though I've been up since 6 am with less tha n6 hours of sleep the night before. JEA annouced there's already over 3000 people here without power, and it's been relatively mild so far, with some good gusts and rain. Not even a burp for us yet, which is good because all the containers of water I put in the freezer aren't solid yet. I'm clearing out the fridge a bit, so I had the bro in law over for dinner too. Country style spicy barbecued ribs, spinach, green beans, mac and cheese (it's microwave or oven only, neither of which is available during an outage) leftover tortelloni, and biscuits. THat cleared out the leftovers.”

“all of you take care, you are on our minds. Stay safe and check in as soon as you can.”

“Melbourne is looking pretty rough right now. Still fairly calm here in Orlando.

Nowslimmer and Roam Around - hope you are safe and sound.”

“THe eye is coming ashore now, as a strong Cat 3. Yikes.”

“My mom lives in Boca and so far, their plywood came off the front windows(they face west, and there is some roof damage. Will know in the morning what else but it is still very windy and rainy right now there. Stepdad says it is worse than Frances. Also, one palm tree in front yard is leaning towards the house a lot more than it should be.”

“Roam lost power at 6. Still has his phone and H20. He and his daughter are camped out in the bathroom”

“Somehow the power is still on here. Transformers have been blowing around us, but we're still out. Gusting winds are kicking trees around, but so far none have fallen. Then again - these are the ones that survived two previous storms.

Hope everyone is doing ok.”

“Lost power at my house, don't even know if it is still there. I am hoping so. The wind is swaying our 15 story building! Yikes!”

“Just talked to my brother in Tampa, which is now going to get hit with the southern part of the storm. He lives on high ground, and basically doesn't care too much because hurricanes have been quite routine this year.

Stay safe all. Glad I'm not down there anymore.”

“I feel like I'm in the movie "Groundhog Day."”

“They just announced on the news here that the seniors shelter in Melbourne had its roof ripped off last night and they had to evacuate everyone elsewhere. Paul, I hope you weren't there.”

“The news station I used to work for is one against simulcasting their air over the internet.

It's interesting to watch, even if you're not from the area.

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/live.asp”

“Thanks Artex, that's cool.”

“Roam survived the storm, and so did his telephone connection,
he was in the eye of the storm
he can tell you all about it, about 1am there was dead calm, no wind and no rain
FREAKY”

“I talked to Roam Around just now. He has no power, but he still has water, sewer and phone service. He only had a little water blow in the front and back doors, so no damamge. He went outside when the eye passed over, about 1am. It was dead still and quiet and very eerie. He was thinking of trying to drive down to Ft. Pierce a little later, to check damamge at his office.”

“Gteat news about Roam!
Hope we get the same from nowslimmer.
Looks like it's finally starting to turn more northward.

Look out om! Looks like you may get another spanking!”

“yeah worried about nowslimmer, he's good people!”

“I just got an e-mail from my brother in Tampa. He still has power, but for how long remains to be seen. He must be bored because he expressed excitement about lighting one of his farts on fire.”

“Obviously it runs in the family.”

“lmao @artex. Now I would like to see that!”

“A cut and paste of the e-mail I got from my brother about an hour ago.

I always heard the urban legend that you can light a fart on fire.

It have tried it before, and with no luck, but today it worked!!!

Its 11:30 and I just got back from a crowded 7-11 in line with a bunch of people, we were all buying beer. Several people in the area have no power, but I do.

Cold beer, power on, farts on fire. A good day so far.”

“Wow - power never went out at my house. Wind is dying down to regular storm levels now. Curfew until 5pm - luckily the local channels know that football is more important than hurricane coverage right now.”

“Winds are really starting to pick up here. We went in to town to hit the Barnes and Noble, putzed around, and came home. THe cops are standing on top of the bridges around here with wind gauges. WHen it hits 45 mph., they close the bridges.”

“LOL.@ Artex's Brother...LOL....”

“We still have power but we have alot of burps, just enough for the UPS to start beeping. THey're saying the worst ofthis will pass in 2-5 hours. Goodie. I already went for a walk in this mess because I was dangerously bored and feeling cooped up. My waterproof boots hold water in nicely. Glad I have to replace them. My raingear performed very well as usual. WHen I walk in these conditions I try to avoid overhanging trees and wires. I thought, "okay, I'll go for a walk around the block." Well, I get up to the next road and its nothing but violently swaying overhanging trees and wires. Guess I'll just walk up and down my road instead!”

“glad treebait is so smart!

I made it and power just came back on. Lemme tellya A/C is man's greatest invention.

Power went out last night around 9:00 ish and came back at 10:00. Not sure who paid off whom, but I'll gladly chip in if I find out.

Winds were reportedly around 115 mph and it sounded like a freight train roaring past in the yard for about 3 hours up until around 12:30 when the eye arrived. The building shuddered some and the big sliding glass door vibrated like a plucked guitar string but never broke.

It was slightly scarey the whole time. My daughter and I huddled in the interior bathroom and would have been safe there even if all the glass broke out, (but it never did)

Strangely, I never lost phone service until this afternoon, assume it'll be sporadic like it was after Frances.

I did go outside and check out the building during the eye - lost a gutter downspout that was hanging off the side of the roof, lost some stucco on the top of the building, but no major damage. All the little trees in the lawn (10 footers) are laid over and street signs were twisted.

The first half was the worst because of the direction my unit faces (east, northeast). once the eye passed and the wind direction changed, it wasn't nearly as loud and didn't feel so violent. But the first half of the storm was like hell'f fury unleashed. Transformers were blowing out and lighting the sky with an eerie blue flash, i think there were at least 5 or 6 in quick succession at one point that I saw.

Woke up around 6:00 am and the wind was STILL going around 35 or 40 in gusts. At 7:30 it had slowed slightly but it wasn't until around 10:00 am that we had normal weather again. Blue sky reapperared around 4:00 this afternoon.

Glad its over, glad noone that I know of got hurt. My whole complex seems to be pretty much ok, some units took in more water than others, my upstairs neighbors had water coming thru the ceiling in places, but noone got hurt.

Thanks for everyone that checked in on me - nice to know that folks care.”

“Glad you are OK Roam.

The storm just went right over om's house about 30 minutes ago. She should be fine if she's staying in the lab at UF.”

“Glad you're okay Roam! Sounds like an experience!”

“Glad you guys have weathered it well! Now lets hear from NS, all safe and sound!”

“So glad to hear everything is ok......was NS at his place during the storm???”

“anyone hear from nowslimmer yet or om?”

“Nothing from NS or Om yet.”

“Has Tango checked in yet? Looked like she was right in the direct path.”

“She checked in from work.”

“Thanks. I guess she'll be busy for the next week or two.”

“I find it funny that most floridians can accurately describe an exploding transformer.”

“hpm - The transformers do not explode. A safety device called a Lightning Arrester is mounted on the transformer and the high voltage line is clipped to it.
The Lighting Arresters have a large 'fuse' in them that blows when a large surge hits.
This makes all the sparks and noise you hear when it 'explodes'. It's designed to do this. A big replaceable fuse is way cheaper than a transformer.
A lineman takes a long pole with a gripper on the end and can replace the 'fuse' in the Lightning Arrester from the ground.
Easy power fix.”

“SS, I have seen a transformer explode. THe fluid inside was everywhere. A tow truck carrying a jacked up pickup truck clipped it, killed the power for my dad's biz, and that sum#&%!$ did indeed explode. It started a very nice brush fire too. It left a nice burn mark on the pickup as well.”

“I see HPM now has web access at work.”

“Yes, in rair cases a transformer can break up. The fluid inside is flamable. The explodeing Lightning Arrester probably set the fluid on fire as the truck knocked it down.
Very unusual though.”

“Well dang - power went out at around 2:30 yesterday for seemingly no reason - no explosions heard and winds were down around 30mph gusts. Still out of power at home, but at work now.

SS are those the grey canisters up on the poles? Some of them are black this morning and some have red stuff on them that almost looks like rust - I assumed that when I saw the green flashes of light and heard the big pow that it was these things blwoing up.

Things Floridians have learned over their summer break:
Their latitude
Many new obscure coastal cities
Cat 3
Cat 4
Cat 5
WWW.NOAA.COM at 11 and 5
Their local emergency management officials
FEMA
Pop-tarts
Why Florida wasn't popular before AC
Their neighbors”

“what the heck is going on? they are closing schools here in columbia, sc...
i can't see the weather getting that bad.”