Patrick? Eric? Joe?

eh, good thing you (and family) are alright. To stay on topic, how did the Cobra come out of the battle ??

Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

Wow. Makes me think having a couple of tarps and some plywood for the Northiish and Southish windows stored away is good. I think I may get some two bys and make sure the chimney thingie is secured all the way through also, right now it's only connected to the roof. It needs to go all the way down and connect to the joists.

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Patrick) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Glad to year you're ok. Could've been a lot worse.

That's exactly what we said about Andrew.

Gusts over 100 implies that your sustained winds were around 70 or so. Not fun at all.

You were really lucky, Patrick. If Ivan had jogged only 50 miles towards you, you would've felt the full hurricane force winds of around 130.

Exactly. This is why you must keep everything closed and sealed while the winds are there. If the inside is breached, you can kiss the roof goodbye. The idea that it's good to open windows on opposing sides of the house can be deadly. FWIW, you might want to consider getting boards or panels for the sliding doors as well as your front door (especially if it opens inward). The sliders and your front door are two of the most vulnerable spots.

It certainly would've weakened them.

Go figure, right? We lost a huge bottle brush in back from Frances. Same deal - the tree was thrown into the screen porch, but everything around it was basically fine. Just goes to show you that you can't predict what hurricane winds will do. Gusts can be anywhere.

You might want to either right the tree or cut it down so it doesn't fall into the house. Several of our trees were "bent" after Frances.

I just spent the day cutting off all the beat up fronds from our palms in front. Must've cut over 3 dozen fronds.

Could've been mini-twisters or it could've been intense wind gusts. We heard the same sound (I described it like a freight train coming through the house) through most of Andrew. It lasted for hours.

The pressures generated by 70-80 mph winds are intense on a structure. Considering that your inside pressure is fairly constant, the outside pressure is constantly pushing and pulling with violent force. At times I could actually see the house vibrating and shaking during Andrew.

Not to say I told you so, but I told you so. The storm itself is one thing, but the length of it is an entirely different thing. It's not bad to endure an hour or so, but a slow mover like Ivan is just sheer torture. Hurricane panels and boards and all the precautions sometimes seem like overkill, but when you consider what the house has to endure and for how long, it's amazing that any structure is left standing.

At any rate, I'm very glad you came out with only a few bruises. I'm actually surprised that you posted so quickly, too. I thought you would've been without power for at least a week. Did it go out at all?

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

We're only halfway through the season, Patrick. When I saw Ivan bearing down on the Panhandle, I sent out my best thoughts, hoping you and yours would be okay. Keep that plywood handy.

dwight (Ivan's overhead today, but now nothing more than an annoying rain with gusts to 20mph. Ooooh, I've got leaves and small dead branches down. Looks like we'll start the big cleanup tomorrow. An hour or so should do it.)

"dwight" wrote in a message:

North of Harrisburg, we got just shy of 8" of rain from late Friday night, till mid morning Saturday. A lot of road closures due to creeks & streams flooding, and a few mud slides. One RV park that's located along a creek, had waist deep water around the RV's. This was almost as bad as the 72 flood we had in this area, only very little damage this time.

Gary

Rein,

Not even a scratch. It was snuggled up in the garage. However, the LTD was parked in the driveway and was almost knocked out. One of the trees that fell in our front yard missed it by mere inches.

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD

Kate,

Either brave or stupid. There's a fine line between the two.

I'm a just transplant. Even though I own a house here I still don't consider Florida "my neck of the woods." I feel more at home in New Mexico/Colorado or even Michigan. To answer your question though, living in Florida I think a fairly decent size storm will hit somewhere near you every few years, and fairly big storm about every ten, and a good size storm every twenty to thirty.

Any native Floridians care to confirm my estimates?

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD

I'm sure the 'tank' would have held up. :-)

Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Patrick) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

I'm not a true native, but I've been here 15 years and I'll tell you this: You never know when you'll get slammed. There could be nothing for 10 years (like the last 10), or there could be three bad ones in one year (this year). There's just no telling. Trying to reason out the timing is an exercise in futility.

As for brave vs. stupid, check this: A newscaster interviewed some people from Texas coming INTO the panhandle "just to be in a hurricane". They said they just had to experience it. Bravery had nothing to do with it, so I guess there's only one other choice for them.

I've heard some forecasters down here say that we're supposedly going from a long period of relative inactivity to a period of heavier activity. But at least you have plenty of warning to board up and/or get out. It's not like a tornado where you have about 2 minutes to do something, or an earthquake where you just deal with it as it happens.

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

Reminds me of a few winters ago when the 97 Cobra I had got the driver's side mirror taken off by a tree limb in an ice storm. Luckily it missed the body alltogether, just took out the mirror.

///Mike TS #63

At least it was no bodily harm and that's good. I can't imagine what it was like actually on the coast. Yikes.