Hurricane Charley

Post by **Jay** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:54 am

Well, Friday the 13th could have been much worse for me, and it was much worse for many people. However, I wish it was a better day for me.

I live in Orlando, Florida. Hurricane Charley went through Orlando with windspeeds at 105 mph. Although that is not the worst storm I've been in, that is the highest windspeed I've ever had to experience. Since Orlando is so far inland, I never worry about hurricanes directly... just tornados that any big storm might spawn plus dealing with the aftereffects. But the storm moved through so fast, it was not something I had to worry about for long. Our power was out from 8:30PM Friday through 4PM Saturday. There were a couple of brownouts after that. The biggest problem with the outage was no AC, so it was hot and muggy. Most of the county (and the counties north and south of us) had no electricity. It may take 2 weeks to restore power to some people. The lack of electricity has caused problems at intersections with traffic lights being out. People are supposed to treat them as 4 way stops, but most people are not stopping. Crews were out at night within a few hours of the hurricane. I could hear their chainsaws as they were cutting trees that were on the road. But there were many others when I went out Saturday morning. I think they only cut trees at night that they were absolutely sure had no power lines in them. There is no boil water advisories where we are (at least, I don't think so). But there are some areas that have boil water advisories. I don't know about the natural gas situation (water heater) yet. Some tiles on my roof slid, leaving large holes in the roof. This caused leaks into the attic and large water spots near the door leading into the garage and in the garage itself. We moved the tiles back for now, but will have to do something permanently. I cleaned the lawn of branches Saturday. Sunday I'll have to go through the frig and freezer. I think nearly 2 million people came to Orlando from the coast and the hurricane ends up going through here. Still, that was the right thing. You never want to be on the coast. There is an island called Captiva Island. That is where the hurricane came ashore. It is now 2 islands. Surprisingly, most of the theme parks were open Saturday. They were closed Friday, however. The third time in their history.

I watch a numbr of various sandhill crane groups and a pair of swans. I checked them Saturday morning. All appear to be OK after the hurricane, even though trees are down in their various areas and water levels are high. Crickets and frogs really enjoyed the storm also. They were extremely noisy at night after the hurricane went through.

Capt.Rutlinger · Post by **Capt.Rutlinger** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 5:26 am

I've heard about it on the news. They said the hurricane came ashore further north then they expected, actually I think you're lucky because I've seen whole towns destroyed.

Post by **jwa1107** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 8:18 am

i'm glad you are okay, Jay

i hope everyone in Florida gets their lives back in order soon!

Post by **Quicksilver** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 8:57 am

I'm glad to hear that you're ok. I can't imagine what 105mph winds must have been like.....we get occasional wind gusts of 75mph but 105mph sustained? Wow! Being without power can be pretty unbearable, I hate it because just about everything you do is dependent on it. That's good you weren't out for too terribly long.

Post by **cosmichedgehog** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 8:04 pm

Glad you are okay.

Post by **Jay** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:40 am

The county where the hurricane came ashore will probably take a long time to get back to normal. For the central Florida area, I think everyone has their power in our county. There are still a couple thousand without power in the county to the south. It was amazing how they were restoring power here to 200,000 people a day. There were a number of stop signs and traffic lights that were destroyed. It looks like they have been replaced everywhere, even on side streets that are rarely used. (However, for street lights, there used to be 1 per lane. Now, sometimes, the new lights are for multiple lanes. But it is still amazing how fast the new ones were put in.) Schools started yesterday in our county. I think the schools in our county were hit the most of the central Florida counties; they will have to make up the most days: 7, although they will be made up by January. It can take a couple months to clear all of the branch debris. To help remind people and children to be safe among the debris, fire department personnel were out all over as the children went to school.

There have been a number of avoidable injuries. It is tough to think straight in unusual circumstances. But try to remember... Do not go outside after a storm when it is dark. Generators get hot, so do not touch them while running. They produce carbon monoxide, so don't use indoors. Be careful of what food you can eat and what food should be thrown out after power has been out for more than 2 hours. Do not drink tap water in areas that have boil water alerts. Be careful and extremely attentive with chainsaws. All of these apply after any kind of storm, not just hurricanes.

There was one unusual casualty. There is an alligator farm / tourist attraction here. They had a very young alligator that was born with a rare genetic mutation. It was blue and called Cobalt the Alligator. Unfortunately, the mutation also made it extremely sensitive to things and it died from a heart attack due to the hurricane.

ZTFan · Post by **ZTFan** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:45 am

Aww, poor little guy,

Bad Hurricane Charley!!!

firelupe · Post by **firelupe** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 1:08 pm

Glad your ok Jay, that mustve been horrible, waiting and watching as your whole world was being ripped apart. But everything will be ok now that the hurricanes gone. Some people may have lost their homes, but they know there will be a brighter tomorrow now that the treachery's gone. As for those who choose to live on the coast, we can only pray. For the animals too, there is no reason why we should live while they die in the hurricanes path.
Hey now, you look like you need a hug,

, now smile

, put that chin up, and try to be ready for a brighter tomorrow. Even if you can't, seek solace from a good friend, or go ahead and cry, somethings you have to cry about, and for me this would be one of them.

great, now you made me cry.....sniff.....ok, better, I have a story kinda like yours, only diffrent. Maybe you can compare them and see what makes yours seem better if that would help.
Even here in Asheville, North Carolina, we are getting the affects of a hurricane. There will be no running water for some time, and that means no bathing, going to the bathroom, and no watering plants, animals , and ourselfs. This is a really bad time for this to happen, I'm taking care of my neighbors cat and plants that need a good amount of water every day. Everything and everyone seems really tense, we don't know for how long this water drought will happen, and my dad's at home right now filling up the tub so we can go to the bathroom. But worst of all, I'm afraid for my mothers safty. She is driving right up close to were the hurricane/really bad storm is going, and its for WORK. I'm afraid she might never come back, like my grandfather did.
................................................................................
Firelupe

Post by **jwa1107** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 4:52 pm

now it would be time for a Hurricane Frances thread...

firelupe · Post by **firelupe** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:04 pm

Is that what hurricane it is, well, properly named, no doubt. Thats the name of my sister and grandmother, funny, huh?

Post by **okapi_07** » Wed Sep 08, 2004 8:00 pm

well were getting effects of the huricanes up here in ohio about now i had a golf match today and played horribly

but the wind was so strong that it blew my golf bag over several times (and it has a very sturdy graphite stand) so just think what it did to my ball

well i hope everyone has done ok throughout these storms and i wish you the best of luck with the next (and hopefully last) one (hopefully it will miss florida completely they could use a break from this weather)

Post by **Jay** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:19 am

I think Gaston affected the Carolinas the most.

Frances affected more people. It left 6 million people in Florida without power. The Red Cross expects their relief effort to be the largest in American history. 2.8 million people evacuated (many coming to Orlando; many going to other states), the largest evacuation in Florida history. However, the affects of Frances was spotty. By the time it got close to Orlando, it was only a tropical storm. That still caused power outages, but again it was spotty. I never lost power. Meanwhile, a grocery store a few blocks away lost power. So, for me and most of Orlando, Charley was worse. Now we have to watch Ivan. Unfortunately, though it started at a different place, it looks like it is currently following Charley's track. I hope that changes for the better.

Each of these hurricanes has done something unprecedented. And the hurricane season isn't even half over. It has caused me to wonder if global warming is involved in some way.

Post by **Quicksilver** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 9:26 am

I'll be crossing my fingers that Ivan changes course and spins back out into the Atlantic. I see it's now up to a Category 5. :XP: I feel sorry for you guys down there.

They were saying the reason Frances stalled and moved so slowly is because of a high pressure system that was in place over the northern plains states (ie, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota). The atmosphere was pressing down and keeping Frances from moving very quickly. We had absolutely gorgeous weather here on Saturday and Sunday, and all I could think about was the reason Frances was battering Florida so much was because of the weather I was currently enjoying. Crazy.

Capt.Rutlinger · Post by **Capt.Rutlinger** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 10:13 am

Is it every year this bad?

I think global warming is effecting our weather, In Europe we already have more hot summers.

Post by **Jay** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 9:14 pm

No, other years have not been this bad with hurricanes. Although there were some scares, only one small hurricane went through Orlando in the 15 years before this year. And that was at night, so the theme parks did not close during the day. In 32 years that Disney World and Sea World have been here, they only closed once for a hurricane before this year, and that hurricane never came ashore. So this is a very unusual and unprecedented year.

As for Frances and the high pressure system over the "northern plains states"... Actually, that system was over all of the eastern US except Florida. It did cause Frances to move very slow. That meant the Vero Beach area got constant bombardment of huge waves for nearly 2 days. However, for everyone else, that system was a good thing. It contained huge amounts of dry air. That caused Frances to reduce in strength so that it was only a tropical storm by the time it got close to Orlando. Otherwise, we were looking at a category 2 here (the strength of Charley going through here). There is a satellite that can show an image of how much moisture is in the air. It was interesting to watch those moving images. Dryness was shown in red. In the images, the red from the entire eastern US was being sucked into Florida and Frances. There is a local television station that has its own sets of radar stations and hurricane predicting computers. They were confused why the national weather service kept saying Frances was going to slow and weaken. But, eventually, they found out about the dryness images.