Heads Up Eastern Seaboard -- Hurricane Frances

[chequita guevara]

Damn, there's still an almost 20% chance of it striking Jax.

[chequita guevara]

Look at the size of the hurricane force winds area

[chequita guevara]

Makes you feel kinda small

[The Mad Monk]

Che, when did you put up that sig?

[The Mad Monk]

Monster Storm Roars Toward Florida


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Sep 2, 7:11 PM (ET)

By Jane Sutton
MIAMI (Reuters) - Some 2.5 million people were urged to leave their homes and Florida residents jammed the roads on Thursday as powerful hurricane Frances roared toward the crowded southeast U.S. coast with enough force to cause major harm.

Frances lashed the southeastern Bahamas with 140 mph winds on Thursday and was expected to slam into the capital Nassau on Friday. It threatens to deliver a huge blow to Florida by Saturday morning, just three weeks after Hurricane Charley hit the state's west coast.

A total of 2.5 million people were being told to evacuate barrier islands, low-lying coastal areas and mobile homes in the path of the storm, Craig Fugate, director of the state's Division of Emergency Management, told reporters.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 14.6 million Floridians live in the storm warning area.

Highway tolls were suspended and on the Beeline Expressway in central Florida, lanes were reversed to speed the long lines of traffic fleeing the coast. Traffic clogged major arteries in parts of the state.

"We really don't see anything to significantly weaken this hurricane," said U.S. Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield. "This is going to impact a lot of people."

Almost the entire east coast of Florida was under a hurricane warning, reviving memories of Hurricane Andrew, the most costly U.S. storm in history, which ravaged the Miami area in 1992.

Frances was a powerful Category 4 storm on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity, the same as Charley, which slammed into southwest Florida on Aug. 13. But Frances was twice as wide and capable of savaging a much broader area.

"You cannot hope this off, you cannot walk away. It is not time to hope, it is time to act," Fugate said.

Frances carried a potential storm surge of up to 14 feet above normal tides, and was expected to pour 10 to 20 inches of rain on Florida.

Schools, courts and offices closed along the Florida east coast. Residents rushed to secure their homes, snatching plywood, flashlights and bottled water off store shelves. Gas pumps ran dry and automatic teller machines ran out of cash.

CLOGGED ROADS

State officials said 8 hospitals and 19 nursing homes were being evacuated.

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Charlie Bronson estimated that 5.7 million acres and 19,000 farms were in harm's way. Growers braced for yet another blow to the state's $9.1 billion citrus industry, which lost 20 percent of its crop when Charley felled trees and stripped them of fruit.

Florida's most populous areas were at risk, including Tampa and tourist center Orlando, home of Disney World . On the coast east of Orlando, the three space shuttles and other equipment were secured at the Kennedy Space Center.

Gov. Jeb Bush declared the state a disaster area on Wednesday to speed aid after the storm hits.

"I have no doubt that there will be tragedy associated with a storm like this, but I also have no doubt there will be miracles," said Dr. John Agwunobi, Florida's health secretary.

The two major arteries leading out of South Florida, Interstate 95 and the Florida Turnpike, were both clogged by midday on Thursday, with traffic shuffling along at 15 mph, or stopped altogether at times.

"There are more people on the road than we anticipated. People have started to evacuate without being told," said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kim Miller.

The hurricane skirted the tiny British colony of Turks and Caicos on Wednesday, toppling trees, knocking out power and phone lines and ripping off a few roofs but causing little structural damage.

It moved up over the Bahamas chain of 700 islands that are home to 300,000 people and was expected to hit the capital, Nassau, full blast on Friday.

Prime Minister Perry Christie told Bahamians they faced one of the most intense hurricanes in their history. "We have made every human effort to prepare ... we are ultimately in the hands of God," Christie said.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the eye of the hurricane was near San Salvador Island in central Bahamas, and 375 miles east-southeast of the south Florida coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Frances was moving slowly northwest at 10 mph (16 kph) on a course that the hurricane center predicted could bring the eye near the central Florida coast on Saturday morning. But the storm was so huge that hurricane conditions were expected six to eight hours before then and over a wide swath of the coast.

Charley caused about $7.4 billion in insured losses, the second-highest hurricane damage toll in U.S. history behind Hurricane Andrew's $25 billion tab in 1992. (Additional reporting by John Marquis in Nassau, Jim Loney and Frances Kerry in Miami, Michael Peltier in Tallahassee and Broward Liston in Daytona Beach)

http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/424763|top|09-02-2004::19:26|reuters.html

It's a thousand miles across, now!

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Che, when did you put up that sig?

Last year, IIRC.

It's downgraded to a Cat 3 storm, but it's slowed to 9mph. That means bigger storm surge.

[chequita guevara]

We've been issued a hurricane watch.

[The Mad Monk]

Does it have a nice wristband?

[The Mad Monk]

It's been knocked down to 115 mph -- I guess the Bahamas made good speedbumps.

[The Mad Monk]

Hasen't been too bad so far -- let's hope that trend continues.

Hurricane Frances Hits Bahamas; Man Dies
Hurricane Frances Rips Into Bahamas, Leaves Destruction in Its Wake; Man Electrocuted in Storm

The Associated Press



NASSAU, Bahamas Sept. 3, 2004 — Hurricane Frances battered the main tourist hub in the Bahamas on Friday, unleashing powerful winds that ripped apart roofs and shattered windows in highrises. The storm's violence drove thousands to flee and left one man electrocuted.
Though still powerful, the storm weakened to a Category 2 with sustained winds easing to 105 mph. Frances churned slowly toward Florida, but forecasters warned it could strengthen.






Streets were almost deserted in Nassau, the capital on New Providence Island, which is home to more than two-thirds of the island nation's 300,000 people. Many boarded up their homes and hunkered down inside to ride out the expansive storm that was headed toward Florida.

Fallen trees, debris and downed satellite dishes littered roads and power was knocked out in many parts of the city. At least three boats were destroyed. There were scattered reports of looting, police said, including one man who broke into a Texaco gas station and another who was arrested for stealing appliances.

The hurricane was expected to reach Freeport, the second but smaller commercial center, by late Friday or early Saturday. Street signs were already blowing off poles and palms were bending in the strong gusts. Officials urged all residents to stay inside.

Kenrad Delaney, 18, was electrocuted in Nassau on Friday morning while filling a generator with diesel, police said. The family heard a scream and found him lying on the floor. He died after being taken to the hospital, police said.

The U.S. Embassy in Nassau evacuated about 200 non-emergency employees and their families as Frances neared.

Potent wind gusts whipped through the city streets and downpours already were pelting the second commercial center of Freeport on Grand Bahama Island, where emergency administrator Alexander E. Williams said about 600 people had checked in to shelters.

Unlike Nassau, Freeport has fewer skyscrapers and its buildings are better built. Officials, however, warned of potential damage to wooden homes and coastal areas.

Police drove through low-lying neighborhoods urging people to evacuate.

Gordon King said he planned to stay in his boarded-up home in Freeport, even though it was only about 5 feet above sea level.

"I hope it's strong. It's been through a couple of hurricanes," said the 36-year-old cook. "If things get bad, I'll probably go inland."

About 20 evacuees half of them children dozed on pews in the Central Zion Baptist Church outside Freeport.

"I'm trying to save myself. I'm scared," said Elianise Jean, a 40-year-old Haitian immigrant who came with her six children. She brought blankets but no food.

Meanwhile, tourists at the 2,300-room Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, outside of Nassau, were told to leave their rooms and stay in a conference room. No structural damage had been reported, but the hotel's landscape suffered significant damage.

"I came for a week of sunshine and beaches in the Bahamas and can't believe this is happening," said Jo Pain, 37, of London. "It's frightening. The rain is pelting down, the winds are incredible and it's so loud out there."

Telephones lines on the southern islands of Abaco, Mayaguana and Acklins were lost.

The hurricane hit the sparsely populated southeastern Bahamas on Thursday.

Earlier, 15-foot waves and winds of 120 mph were reported on San Salvador Island, which is home to more than 900 people, but no major damage or deaths were reported. Electricity and phone services were down on Long Island, which has about 3,000 residents.

Emergency officials said the roof of a high school on Long Island had been ripped off and residents were reporting severe damage to crops.

Cruise ships were diverted out of Frances' path and many beachfront hotels were evacuated across the chain of more than 700 islands.

Nassau's Doctors Hospital treated about 40 people who suffered minor injuries during preparations for Frances in recent days, said Charles Sealy, vice president of operations. As the hurricane passed, patients and staff member were playing board games and singing on a karaoke machine, Sealy said. More than 40 doctors would be on call during the storm.

Frances brushed past Crooked Island and Acklins Island home to about 1,100 people late Thursday, knocking out power and phones but doing only minimal damage, said Alfred Gray, the agriculture and fisheries minister.

Officials said Frances also left only minor damage in the Turks and Caicos Islands on Wednesday, damaging more than a dozen houses. One woman was rescued when her roof blew off, but the hurricane's eye missed the heart of the British territory.

At 8 p.m. Friday, the hurricane's eye was about 90 miles east-southeast of Freeport and 200 miles east-southeast of Florida, moving west-northwest at 8 mph.

A hurricane warning was up for most of Florida's east coast, stretching more than 300 miles. About 2.5 million residents were told to clear out the biggest evacuation request in the state's history.

Forecasters said the brunt of the hurricane could begin to hit Florida early Saturday, less than three weeks after Hurricane Charley raked Florida's western coast with 145 mph winds, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing 27 people.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard was searching for a Fort Lauderdale-bound pleasure boat that made a distress call about 12 miles west of Bimini in the Bahamas.

Three people were reported to be aboard the boat stuck in 9-foot swells.


Associated Press writers Dominic Duncombe and Adam Jankiewicz in Nassau contributed to this report.


On the Net:

National Hurricane Center,

Crown Weather Services

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040903_1943.html

[The Mad Monk]

Periodically-updating doppler radar image:


IT'S MOVING AT SIX MILES AN HOUR!?

Holy crap, it'll take eighteen hours for the eye to reach shore!!!

[The Mad Monk]

Anyone remember that old toy, the Sit N' Spin?

Wind map -- it's winding down further, but it's covering such a large area for so long, that it may not result in reduced damage...

[Grandpa Troll]

where did you get it?

I like it never seen before though?

Peace

GT

[chequita guevara]

My dad just called. They said on the radio it's stopped moving. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . it'll blow back out to sea.

Already feeling some of the storm. It's very windy here. I've taken everything off the balcony, just in case. No need to add fuel to the fire.

[Grandpa Troll]

I saw also where 8-12 inches of rain could fall

I hate it for everyone having to go through it, I hate it and glad i am sitting this one out..

Prayers to those whom are in the path

Che...looks as if it may go to the south of you..