Patrick? Eric? Joe?

It never even came close to us, (Eric and myself)

Glad to hear it! The news had nothing but horror-story what-ifs about New Orleans, claiming it was just a matter of time before a hurricane DID hit the city, rendering it useless. Fascinating situation down there. I knew it was below sea level, but didn't realize just what a fragile state it was in.

Now waiting to hear from Patrick, who was closer to the mess...

dwight

"dwight" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

We already had our days of reconing, what with Charley and Frances. The only thing we saw from Ivan was about 3 cloudy, rainy days.

After listening to news blurbs during the commute, I'd guess that Patrick will be without power for at least a week. I really hope he fared ok. I heard that the entire city of Pensacola was without power today.

New Orleans was lucky as hell. If Ivan had been 100 miles west, things would've been a helluva lot different.

Now we're watching Jeanne (no pun intended, dwight). What a freakin' summer down here!

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

DAMN! I'm glad that we chose the area we are in... completely by accident... prolly that guardian angel working overtime.

Kate

| >>> You guys still out there? | >>>

| >>> dwight | >>

| >> It never even came close to us, (Eric and myself) | >

| > Glad to hear it! The news had nothing but horror-story what-ifs | > about New Orleans, claiming it was just a matter of time before a | > hurricane DID hit the city, rendering it useless. Fascinating | > situation down there. I knew it was below sea level, but didn't | > realize just what a fragile state it was in. | >

| > Now waiting to hear from Patrick, who was closer to the mess... | >

| > dwight | | We already had our days of reconing, what with Charley and Frances. | The only thing we saw from Ivan was about 3 cloudy, rainy days. | | After listening to news blurbs during the commute, I'd guess that | Patrick will be without power for at least a week. I really hope he | fared ok. I heard that the entire city of Pensacola was without power | today. | | New Orleans was lucky as hell. If Ivan had been 100 miles west, | things would've been a helluva lot different. | | Now we're watching Jeanne (no pun intended, dwight). What a freakin' | summer down here! | | Joe | Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies | Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

I'll be you're getting your share of rain from Ivan right now..

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

"SVTKate" wrote in news:o1q2d.4020 $ snipped-for-privacy@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net:

freakin'

I told Jean she'd been upgraded to hurricane status, and she seemed pleased. Now if they'd only spell the name right.

dwight (Jean got me two tickets to the Monday Night game, Vikings @ Eagles. I think she really likes me.)

Sounds like she might have a little crush on ya ;¬D

| >>>> You guys still out there? | >>>>

| >>>> dwight | >>>

| >>> It never even came close to us, (Eric and myself) | >>

| >> Glad to hear it! The news had nothing but horror-story what-ifs | >> about New Orleans, claiming it was just a matter of time before a | >> hurricane DID hit the city, rendering it useless. Fascinating | >> situation down there. I knew it was below sea level, but didn't | >> realize just what a fragile state it was in. | >>

| >> Now waiting to hear from Patrick, who was closer to the mess... | >>

| >> dwight | >

| > We already had our days of reconing, what with Charley and Frances. | > The only thing we saw from Ivan was about 3 cloudy, rainy days. | >

| > After listening to news blurbs during the commute, I'd guess that | > Patrick will be without power for at least a week. I really hope he | > fared ok. I heard that the entire city of Pensacola was without power | > today. | >

| > New Orleans was lucky as hell. If Ivan had been 100 miles west, | > things would've been a helluva lot different. | >

| > Now we're watching Jeanne (no pun intended, dwight). What a freakin' | > summer down here! | >

| > Joe | > Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies | > Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC | | I told Jean she'd been upgraded to hurricane status, and she seemed pleased. | Now if they'd only spell the name right. | | dwight | (Jean got me two tickets to the Monday Night game, Vikings @ Eagles. I think | she really likes me.) | |

I'm still here. We tried to evacuate but it was a mess. We ended up staying in Hammond for a night cause it took us 5 hours to get there. Normally its about 40 minutes. We ended up coming home on wednesday and riding the storm out here. We just got a little rain and a little winds. I've seen much worse here, but i'm glad the storm went where it did. I feel bad for the people it hit, but New Orleans would be the worse possible place a storm of that size could hit. Erik D. '94 white lightning

Saw a bit on the Weather Channel (I think it was) about New Orleans having a

15' dirt wall separating the city from the bay. Ivan could have easily gotten over that.

The problem with the retaining wall is that if it can't keep the water out, it surely can keep the water in. No drainage.

Yeah, you guys dodged a bullet, alright.

dwight

Well thats ONE thing I like about California ....... I'll take the damn eathquakes ANY day compared to all the Hurricanes and Tornadoes

TIM -aka- MUSTTANGUY "at" AOL "dot" COM

I'm actually in Baton Rouge, but as I understand it as New Orleans has grown the pump system has not and apparently they could not keep up if such a storm moved through.

Rain? You got rain??? See, if you had just spent anothinr 8 hours on the road you could have been here and got NO rain :-p OMG the traffic is still a nightmare, would you people go home already??! :-D

What about the mudslides and wild fires? Mmmm, naaah, I'll keep the occasional possible hurricane... :-p

There are people riding jet skis down the street in a few towns near Pittsburgh (I live 20 miles NE). I just tried to escape from the city and it took 3 times as long to get home due to all of the road closures... the road I usually drive home on was part of the new jet ski facility. People are stranded in the second floor of their homes, bridges have been completely washed out, and on the way home, I could see the docks on the river that's a block from my house... from the street which is probably a good 25+ feet above normal water level. It's got another 10 to go I think... but it's still closer than I like to see it.

I'm amazed that it took a week to go through the gulf, and 24 hours to get to us... and another 30 hours to leave. It's still raining....

JS

Yes, Dwight we made it. But I must admit I've never been so scared, for so long, in all my life. While our city wasn't devastated like those on the coastline, we still suffered a good deal of damage. Lots of trees, signs, and power lines were downed, and most houses and buildings were tore up. Winds gusts clocked at our airport ran as high as 102 mph. And our house caught the brunt of those winds because it sits on the edge of a crest facing south and sitting above the tree tops. Besides three trees at the end our downward sloping backyard, there wasn't much between us and Ivan. (Our city is only about 100 miles from where Ivan made landfall.) Surprisingly, our house faired very well, though in preperation I did board up our windows and braced our south facing sliding double door with my son's dresser drawer and a heavy chair. The latter action maybe saved our house. I've heard glass sliding double doors often blow in during hurricanes, and once any wind penetrates the house, the house can pressurize, which causes the roof to blow off and then the walls get pushed over. When Ivan's winds blew against our double doors you could really feel the door's frames vibrate against my son's dresser. Makes me wonder if that constant vibration over the course of hours would have pushed our doors in.

While Ivan wasn't able to blow our house down, he did find other ways of making his presence remembered. Like ripping a number of shingles off the back of our roof, throwing them over the top of our house, and landing them clear a crossed the street and into my neighbor's front yard. He also, somehow, knocked down two nice mature trees that stood, one on the front corner, and the other right in the middle and right up close to our house. How the wind was able to go over the peak of our house, quickly drop down, and flatten those two healthy trees is beyond me. Ivan also pushed over (it's now leaning at about a 30-degree angle) a nice healthy mature Oak tree in our backyard. Luckily he stopped short of pushing it completely down and on top of our kitchen's breakfast nook! The fence around our yard also got beat up. The front side of the fence on both sides of the house got pushed over and the back fence would have gone over, but one of the other trees in my backyard prevented it. Instead, the top rail of the back fence and the side of the tree was all gouged up from the constant push off the winds. One of our nice 5-foot high shrubs was somehow nearly uprooted, and most of trees and plants in our yard were completely "defoliated".

The most frightening thing of the night was a sudden VERY LOUD howling sound. Scared the living shit out of us!! It lasted about 10 seconds and sounded like a cross between a siren and a vacuum. A few of our neighbors heard it too, and a couple of houses over a guy's fence wasn't just pushed over, its 4x4 post were snapped off at ground level, and another guy's pool canopy which was nearby was completely mangled. Could the howling sound we heard have come from a tornado quickly touching down?

Another sign of Ivan's strength happened in my neighbor's house that sits right next to ours. His backyard doesn't have any tall trees in the backyard, so Ivan's winds had a clean shot at his house. Anyways, the winds vibrated his house so much over the course of the night that one of his curtain rods on a back interior wall fell off. Wild, huh?

I'm just glad it's all over with. The wondering if it's going to hit near you, or worse just west of you, waiting for it to hit, and then waiting about 18 hours for the wind and rain to stop is nerve racking as hell. I think next time, we'll just prep the house, then get the hell out of hurricane's path.

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD

Glad you and the family are safe Patrict. Sounds like you'll be busy cleaning up. Consider yourself lucky in the aftermath. That leaning Oak tree sounds scary though and a potential threat. Mother nature once again reminds us who's boss.

Hang in there bud...

-- Mike

93 Cobra

Yea, but remember that flood a few years back? The water was lapping on our neighbors garage door. Fortunately it was quite a bit lower than ours. The water just barely started creeping up our driveway.

Kate

and you forgot... all of those angry people. ALL of the time (Tim excluded of course)

Kate

| >

| >>DAMN! I'm glad that we chose the area >we are in... completely by accident... | >

| >

| > Well thats ONE thing I like about California ....... I'll take the damn | > eathquakes ANY day compared to all the Hurricanes and Tornadoes | >

| | | What about the mudslides and wild fires? Mmmm, naaah, I'll keep | the occasional possible hurricane... :-p | -- |

Dang Patrick, You much brave!

Glad to hear that you made it through though. Does this happen often in your neck of the woods?

Kate