It's official - his name is Ernesto and it's not looking pretty

[LynneSin]

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/tropical/?from=wxcenter_news

BTW - first target will be Gitmo



http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT05/refresh/AL0506W5_sm2+gif/204939W_sm.gif

August, Tropical Storms and Warm Gulf Waters is not a good combination

Let's just hope he curves to the right >>>>

New Orleans doesn't need another one of these :cry:

[graywarrior]

1. Even tho I don't live on the Gulf Coast anymore, I still get stressed

watching this stuff.

[LynneSin]

2. Same here

:cry:

[Radio_Lady]

6. I'd be right in its projected path to the west coast of Florida --

if that hurricane were heading that way the first week of October. That's when we're flying to Ft. Myers and then proceeding to Orlando, Florida, for my 50th High School reunion.

Honestly, LynneSin, I don't think I could ever live in "hurricane alley" anymore. Just too stressful. I hope all goes well for any other DUers who have to deal with this, on top of everything else that is happening in this crazy world. In Oregon, we're already supposed to accept our fate of a 9.0 earthquake SOMEDAY... and another BIG eruption of Mount St. Helens SOMEDAY, and then there's Mt. Rainier (we were up in Seattle a few weeks ago).

I don't believe in the power of personal prayer, but I'll think about all affected DUers if this one or others make landfall in the next few days and months. And if YOU believe in prayer, then pray for me starting October 6 through 22.

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[Jamastiene]

18. I normally don't believe in prayer either, but

I find myself begging for forgiveness and mercy every time severe weather hits this area. I'm in NC, but close enough to the coast that we get some of the Hugo's and other named hurricanes. They really do make you wonder about the existence of any higher power who will protect you. It makes you feel so small and :scared:. I hope it settles down a lot before it makes landfall. We don't need any more of those types of storms.

[bridgit]

3. doesn't look good...

x(

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Damn!

:cry:

[liberaltrucker]

7. 'Caines are somewhat predictible

Giving one a chance. Them 'quakes hit you with no warning.

Having said that, OMFG not again! :cry:

[Jamastiene]

19. I don't think they are that predictable, actually.

I have seen them move around and look like they are not much of a threat any more only to come back, wipe out and flood entire cities and I have seen them look like a major threat and then blow themselves out. I have also seen them make landfall off course and hit the people who THOUGHT they were in a safer area. I don't think they are very predictable. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this certain topic. I don't trust a hurricane OR a tornado as far as I can throw them, keeping in mind that they have all the power to throw me and I have NONE in their presence.

I agree with your last part wholeheartedly though. No, please not again.

[liberaltrucker]

21. Point taken

I live in Tornado Alley-North Alabama.
My hometown was devastated by an F3 in
Nov '02. Have pics, just not uploaded to
photobucket.

[Jamastiene]

24. It never fails to amaze me

what power wind can have. They tell us we rarely have tornadoes where I live, but we see several per year. I'd freak if I lived in any of the "tornado alley" areas. I am scared silly of a run-of-the-mill thunderstorm with winds in excess of 30 mph. :scared:

[Blue_In_AK]

29. But the nice thing about earthquakes

is that you don't have to worry about them for days in advance, and they only last a few minutes at the most. I don't mind living in earthquake country, but you couldn't pay me to live where the hurricanes strike.

[cobalt1999]

5. Hey, I'm to the right!

We've been hit by Ivan & Dennis lately and we don't need another one either!

[LynneSin]

8. This sounds like the stupidest idea

But we know that warm water will increase the strength of a hurricane. Couldn't we dump planeloads of near frozen water in the hurricane to help slow it down.

[Radio_Lady]

9. Sorry, the fierce energy in a massive hurricane can't be stopped by any

means now known to humans.

Your suggestions sounds good, but it would be like a gnat trying to take a swat at an elephant.

There was this one guy from 2004 and an interesting story, but I don't know what happened to him.

http://www.wesh.com/news/3963137/detail.html

For those of you who suggest dropping a nuclear bomb on a hurricane, I'll tell you what one meteorologist once said to me. "We have enough problems with a big hurricane without making it RADIOACTIVE!"

[LynneSin]

10. Yeah, I know

:cry:

I wish something would work.

Perhaps if we actually did something about Global Warming.

Better go fill up my gastank while gas is still $2.75

[Common Sense Party]

32. Hurricanes are caused by global warming?

Really?

[nickgutierrez]

41. Well...

Global warming --> warmer water --> more frequent and more powerful hurricanes. So, yeah.

[cobalt1999]

11. The issue is scale.

An average hurricane absorbs and releases the equivalent energy of ten megaton nuclear bomb - every 20 minutes. Even if you had a fleet of 747's dropping ice for a month, you wouldn't accomplish anything.

You really have to sit through one to get an appreciation of the power of one of these things. They boggle your mind.

[LynneSin]

12. No thank you to that

:cry:

[Jamastiene]

20. Yes, they are POWERFUL.

I always find myself astonished at how far limbs can snap and fly through the air. I have seen limbs from ornamental trees snap in one neighbor's yard and skip a yard or two and land 100's of feet away. I usually associate the whole "winds that can throw an egg through a barn door, two of them if one is open" concept with tornadoes, but hurricanes are mighty powerful too. I always cringe when I hear the words "tropical depression that we are watching closely" on the weather forecast. If they just say they are watching, I only worry a little. If they say they are watching it closely, it means something is gonna happen.

[Radio_Lady]

35. Growing up in Florida, we faced them frequently. Of course, many

tracked completely away from south Florida, where I grew up.

These days, my understanding is that the warming of the Caribbean, even a few degrees, will have an impace on the growth and dispersion of a herricane.

[SoyCat]

15. I live in NW FL as well and don't look forward to yet another evacuation.

Even worse would be another strike on MS or LA. I've been glued to all the weather websites for two days. Let's hope for the best.

[cobalt1999]

26. Get your supplies tomorrow.

Any later and things will get hectic. Fill up the cars, test the flashlights, buy your canned goods and start eating up what's in the freezer now.

I haven't evacuated yet for one, but I really wished I had during Ivan though. Living on the water is fun except when it rises up and surrounds you.

Keep your fingers crossed this thing wanders over Cuba for a long time and gets the hell knocked out of it.

[SoyCat]

30. We've already got most of our supplies but the main thing I need

to do is eat a few things in the freezer. The refrigerator is unusually empty right now. We do need to gas up the car in anticipation of either leaving or staying. We rarely stay because my mom is 76 and my FIL is 85. The lack of AC would be way too much for them. Please don't stay if it gets worse than a strong Cat. 2. You never know how many tornadoes will be spawned, either. **Be careful**

[In_The_Wind]

13. Looks like it's gonna get wet down there!

[graywarrior]

14. Even tho I'm up in in NH, I'm still there with you guys.

What can you say when you can see the thing coming straight at you? Good luck?

[Jamastiene]

22. "What can you say when you can see the thing coming straight at you?"

I have a two word answer to your question: "Oh shit."

and I have a one word reply too: "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

Then there is my usual reply when one is headed my way: *whimper*

[graywarrior]

28. I hear you loud and clear.

Can't tell you how many times I whimpered when I lived in Florida the past 2 years.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

16. Louisiana is just starting to get off their ass...

And get people's info to get them their grant money. If that thing hits, they can just say good-bye to those billions of dollars. Louisiana will think of something better to do with the money, and they will never get that money they so desperately need. Oh this is so frustrating. And Mississippi is screwed now too. SON OF A BITCH. See, we've been working on helping our mortgagors get repaired and cleaned up. Still. A year later. This is the LAST thing they need. :cry: :grr:
Duckie

[Jamastiene]

23. Not to mention State Farm allegedly altering documents from

wind damage to flood or water damage to keep from having to pay for destroyed homes. From most of the reports I have seen, those people in both Louisiana and Mississippi are getting screwed. It's a damn shame. What the hurricane didn't destroy, the sorriness of our government mixed with corporate fraud is destroying. From all I have read and seen about Katrina, the hurricane did very little damage compared to the damage done after the fact by the corruption of our government and the corporations.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

39. Well, that explains why they won't talk to us.

We can't get any info from that insurance company at all. It's pissing us all off. Holy crap. This place is starting to stink, and those fucking republicans are so freaking greedy, they don't care who's lives they ruin.
Duckie

[Jamastiene]

17. Nooooooooo!!!

That does it. As soon as I start earning anything over what I need to live, I am building a kick ass storm shelter complete with access from a trapdoor somewhere inside this place. I'll need elevator mechanical help to put in an elevator for my aunt, who cannot walk and will need a "lift" down in case of emergency.

I was hoping all the experts would be wrong and we would have no more really devastating hurricanes this year and I hoped we could go hurricane free this year honestly. I hate those things.

Mother Nature sure has a way of cutting us down to size without prejudice. She'll wipe out a church as easily as a crack house. She'll kick ass and leave with no regrets. I tremble at her power and I start nervousing every time she decides to clean house. It is just all so random and horrific when those storms come at us. :scared:

What gets me is that the hurricanes, tornadoes, and other bad weather seem to all have a very unpredictable nature. One minute everything is sunny and nice. The next minute I find myself cowering on the living room floor in terror. :scared:

It's odd how the same survival instructions they always gave us during the cold war still sorta apply for severe weather. I was looking through some of my old vhs tapes from storage today and found the movie, "The Day After," an old cold war movie about complete nuclear annihilation. I would recommend that movie to anyone who wonders what we should really do to prepare ourselves in case of disaster as opposed to buying plastic sheeting and duct tape. I digress on the duct tape. I swear by duct tape, but there are plenty of other things that are way more important to have such as water (and lots of it) and something to live in at least temporarily underground. I want a bomb/storm shelter asap, if for no other reason than to have a cool club house to work on that will make me feel safe and allow me to have fun building something again. :)

[greatauntoftriplets]

25. It looks like hell approaching.

My niece, who is a psych nurse, went to Louisiana last year about the last two weeks of October as a volunteer. She never got to New Orleans, but spent two weeks working in the Find Family Call Center, counselling people who were looking for family members. It was an awesome experience for her, and she came back with a great photo album. It included photos from New Orleans from someone who did get to NO.

She brought it to show us on Thanksgiving. My mother grabbed the album before I could look at it and took in every image (I cried when I finally got the chance to look at the photos).

When my mother had a heart attack three days before Christmas, and died three days after Christmas, the memory of her with that photo album was a wonderful one. My entire Chicago family loved our trips to New Orleans and wanted to see what had happened to that terrific city. I hope that this storm fizzles out.

[Shakespeare]

27. Aw, shit. My parents live in Pensacola.

They still haven't recovered completely from Ivan two years ago. :-(

[nytemare]

34. Pensacola is always getting hit by these things.

They seem to get at least one a year. In 2004, they got Bonnie, and I think Francis and Jeanne passed over them before Ivan.

That poor town seems to be a bullseye.

[NewWaveChick1981]

37. My stepfather's house is in Gulf Breeze, and

they say the same thing. The house wasn't destroyed, but they're still finding things that Ivan did. :( Many of their neighbors have still not completely recovered either.

[idgiehkt]

42. wow.

my brother used to live in Gulf Breeze. Not sure if he's still there. Don't know where he is, unfortunately. Gulf Breeze is not somewhere you want to be during a hurricane. They stayed for one pre-Katrina that was pretty scary. It might have been Ivan, I don't remember. But their living room ceiling fell in.

[NewWaveChick1981]

44. Ivan was indeed Ivan the Terrible, especially in that area.

Mom and her husband rode the storm out in Selma, AL, and then when they realized they couldn't go back to his house, they made it to her house in NC. (They split their time between the two.) They were in NC for almost two months before they could go back. Their house had some damage (mostly the roof and rafters as well as the swimming pool), but not like most of their neighbors. Their house is about twelve feet from a canal, but they are at about two feet higher elevation than the rest of the neighborhood, which saved them any water damage except at the far edge of the garage.

Sorry about your brother. I hope you hear from him soon. :hug:

[nickgutierrez]

31. Nobody needs one of these

Florida's west coast is really still affected by the big one that hit last year. Another big storm definitely wouldn't do us any favors either.

[New Earth]

33. whoops, not to put down those who have to endure it but...

Tropical Storm Ernie. How cute. This guy I've liked for like 5 years is named Ernie. (Ernest without the O though)

:loveya:

[peekaloo]

36. Doesn't look good for the Tampa Bay area.

Go west ye bastid!

[flvegan]

45. Tell me about it. From the info I've seen thus far,

it's coming down my street.

[In_The_Wind]

38. It looks like Florida is going to get hit!

[TheMightyFavog]

40. I think we've done something to royally piss this guy off:

I think *'s presidency may have something to do with this.

[ContraBass Black]

43. The people in Florida are probably hoping this one curves left.