I don't know noth'in bout birthen no hurricane - Page 2

Billy · 09-02-2004, 05:05 AM

XO. Thank you. I saw your pix. It is a real big damage.

xoxoxoBruce · 09-02-2004, 08:37 PM

Your welcome, Billy. Yeah, some of those pictures were amazing.

Kitsune · 09-07-2004, 08:40 AM

I have returned from the mass evacuation! What a hellish, exhausting drive both out and back. I never want to have to do it, again.

Oh, what's that? I should keep my bags packed? Shit.

tw · 09-07-2004, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitsune

Oh, what's that? I should keep my bags packed? Shit.

First the old news. A summary of where the rain fell as provided by Intellicast.com:

tw · 09-07-2004, 07:52 PM

And where is the next one(s)? Ivan is just entering the Carribean Sea. Behind him is another? I don't think so. It never remained stable after leaving Africa. So maybe we have had enough fun this year at the expense of Kitsune?

Kitsune · 09-07-2004, 08:41 PM

While this has a chance of hitting the Tampa Bay area, its still far too early to tell. Still, it is on the same track as Charley.

Kitsune · 09-07-2004, 08:54 PM

12:24 pm - Remaining Residents Defiant As Florida Braces For More
October 30, 2004

ORLANDO, Florida -- After being ravaged by a total of 17 different hurricanes in the course of a single season, five of which reached Category 5, the highest wind speed rating, remaining residents are battening down the hatches yet again as Hurricane Zoe approaches.

"Hurricane Zoe breaks the mold in several ways," said Dr. Harmon Gale, acting director of the National Hurricane Center's new Orlando office, the Miami office having been damaged beyond repair in Hurricane Nicole weeks earlier. "For one thing, after Hurricane Walter appeared, we realized we'd run out of names for Atlantic storms, so in a pinch we adopted Xenia, Yuri and Zoe. This will be the first time we've ever used all the letters. It's a good thing the tropical storm season is ending, or we'd have to go back and pick up Q and U as well.

"For another, Hurricane Zoe is so powerful that we have assigned it to a new Category 6, defined as having sustained winds of 250 miles per hour or higher. After Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl, Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tomas, Virginie, Walter, Xenia and Yuri all bowled through Florida at approximately four-day intervals, we thought we'd seen everything. But Zoe is shaping up to be the worst storm in all of human history. I would strongly recommend evacuating to someplace safe, like central Asia."

And Floridians have been taking that advice: of the estimated 20 million state residents at the beginning of 2004, at least 80 percent have abandoned their homes. Hurricane-related deaths this year are estimated in the tens of thousands. Every square mile of Florida has been assaulted by hurricane-force winds on multiple occasions in the last few weeks. Heavily populated regions such as West Palm Beach and St. Petersburg are still substantially submerged, and the transformation of the Everglades into huge salt marshes has made most of southern Florida effectively impassable by automobile. Damage is estimated at over 5 trillion dollars, insurance companies are refusing to do any further business in the state even on pain of federal litigation, and due to the rapid succession of storms, there has been no time to perform any but the crudest of repairs to utilities. Florida is a wasteland, and experts estimate it will remain one for decades to come. Many of those we interviewed at the refugee camps in the hills of northern Georgia, when we asked if they would be going back, screamed curses at us, or simply wept.

Despite all this, a few hardy souls have hung on through it all.

We found one man (who refused to give his name) in the Orlando area who decided he was staying, no matter what. In exchange for several cans of gasoline, he agreed to an interview.

"I have nowhere else to go," he said, sitting in a lounge chair on his driveway, a wall of sandbags surrounding his property, wearing a bandolier of shotgun shells. "And after Karl passed through, I figured it was too late to go anywhere anyway. Insurance won't pay, and the house isn't worth a dime on the dollar now."

And how was he able to survive all this time? "Believe it or not, after Karl it got a lot easier. People had had enough, so they loaded up their cars with whatever they had and made a run for it. When they heard I was staying, they gave me whatever they couldn't bring along. I don't know how many of them made it, though, since Lisa and Matthew crossed one another in north Florida while they were all parked on I-75.

"Anyway, a lot of the stores were abandoned, too. I've got enough food and equipment here for the duration thanks to them. All the levelled houses around here have provided me with enough scrap building materials to reinforce my own house. And did I mention that there's no traffic problems for a change?"

And what of the dangers? "Well, yeah, a lot of crazy people out there. All the stinkin' looters somehow find their way here, that and the diseased and the just plain crazy. I hate to have to kill 'em all, but there hasn't been police or emergency service out here for a month.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard about Zoe on the shortwave. Ever since Ivan made three, I figured, what the heck?" he said, scratching at his beard, grinning. "Might as well collect 'em all."

Clodfobble · 09-07-2004, 09:13 PM

Um... what? October 30th, 2004 hasn't happened yet...

It's not funny enough to be The Onion, but I can't really figure out who else would write it.

Cyber Wolf · 09-08-2004, 07:41 AM

It's disturbingly hilarious, that is.

wolf · 09-08-2004, 11:34 PM

My boss is leaving this weekend to visit his in-laws. He should arrive in Florida just in time for he, his wife, and her parents to be evacuated.

xoxoxoBruce · 09-09-2004, 08:57 PM

Oh oh.

Kitsune · 09-09-2004, 10:00 PM

It is somehow custom or mandatory to write something witty on the back window of your car when you're running away from a hurricane. Suggestions appreciated! With this current track, I should be booking it North on I-75 sometime Sunday morning.

"I'm not scared, there's just a bigger party up North" won't fit. Damn.

Clodfobble · 09-09-2004, 10:28 PM

"How's My Driving? Call 1-800-ITSAFUCKINGEVACUATIONYOUDUMBASS"

That probably won't fit either. How about:

"Yeah, but it's a DRY heat."

Kitsune · 09-11-2004, 08:27 PM

We're all convinced Ivan is Russian. And drunk. We've not seen a track change this much, this frequently, in a long time.

All of this started getting stressful last night when I began sorting through things that are irreplacable. I suddenly realized that cramming all of it into the car isn't possible and you have to figure out what is the most important: family photographs, old books, etc. After I had packed it all into boxes, all it took was for me to look up and see what I was leaving behind before I reconsidered and began trading out items. A disaster that sneaks up on you and takes your home is difficult to deal with, but somehow knowing that the uncertain is just days away seems so much worse right now. One week from now I might be sitting on my couch enjoying more football, sitting in a shelter with no place to live, or, with the way this summer is going, watching another hurricane spiral towards us.

This afternoon, a shifting of gears. Packing things into plastic tubs got put on hold as we considered that driving North might be more dangerous than staying put as Ivan takes a Westerly course for the day. Food and water suddenly became important and I made sure I raided the stores, today. On the drive through town, I counted five out of six gas stations that were out of fuel thanks to yesterday's panic started by rumors of gasoline rationing, all of which were eventually dispelled by the govenor. Looking around, it also seemed impossible that we had the possibility of being hit by a catagory four hurricane.

During a commercial break on the radio, a correction: catagory five. Great.

And now I sit, trying to watch Georgia Tech battle Clemson, only to have the broadcast interrupted by the local news to update everyone on a prediction track that hasn't changed in the last three hours and won't update for at least another two. Once in the crosshairs, I'm now on the very edge of the "cone of probability", but even that will change after Ivan passes Cuba. Friends in New Orleans indicate that even they are getting a bad feeling from this beast and that residents there remain fairly nervous, thinking that the Westerly course might very will continue and throw their city into deep water.

Not everyone throws hurricane parties because they're fun. It seems, this season, that its one of the only things that keeps peoples' nerves calm.

Kitsune · 09-11-2004, 09:00 PM

Water, Milk, batteries, and flashlights were all thin but in stock, today. What sold out? Well, I managed to grab the last packet!

"Have Fun!"

09-02-2004, 08:37 PM	#17
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Your welcome, Billy. Yeah, some of those pictures were amazing. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

09-07-2004, 07:52 PM	#20
tw Read? I only know how to write. Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 11,933	And where is the next one(s)? Ivan is just entering the Carribean Sea. Behind him is another? I don't think so. It never remained stable after leaving Africa. So maybe we have had enough fun this year at the expense of Kitsune? Attached Images

09-08-2004, 07:41 AM	#24
Cyber Wolf As stable as a ring of PU-239 Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: On a huge rock covered in water, highly advanced moss and 7 billion parasites Posts: 1,264	It's disturbingly hilarious, that is. __________________ "I don't see what's so triffic about creating people as people and then getting' upset 'cos they act like people." ~Adam Young, Good Omens "I don't see why it matters what is written. Not when it's about people. It can always be crossed out." ~Adam Young, Good Omens

09-08-2004, 11:34 PM	#25
wolf lobber of scimitars Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Phila Burbs Posts: 20,774	My boss is leaving this weekend to visit his in-laws. He should arrive in Florida just in time for he, his wife, and her parents to be evacuated. __________________ wolf eht htiw og "Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis

09-09-2004, 08:57 PM	#26
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	Oh oh. __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump. Last edited by xoxoxoBruce; 04-07-2007 at 06:00 PM.

09-02-2004, 05:05 AM	#16
Billy Professor Join Date: May 2003 Location: Germany Posts: 1,462	XO. Thank you. I saw your pix. It is a real big damage.

09-07-2004, 08:40 AM	#18
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	I have returned from the mass evacuation! What a hellish, exhausting drive both out and back. I never want to have to do it, again. Oh, what's that? I should keep my bags packed? Shit.

09-07-2004, 08:41 PM	#21
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	While this has a chance of hitting the Tampa Bay area, its still far too early to tell. Still, it is on the same track as Charley.

09-07-2004, 08:54 PM	#22
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	12:24 pm - Remaining Residents Defiant As Florida Braces For More October 30, 2004 ORLANDO, Florida -- After being ravaged by a total of 17 different hurricanes in the course of a single season, five of which reached Category 5, the highest wind speed rating, remaining residents are battening down the hatches yet again as Hurricane Zoe approaches. "Hurricane Zoe breaks the mold in several ways," said Dr. Harmon Gale, acting director of the National Hurricane Center's new Orlando office, the Miami office having been damaged beyond repair in Hurricane Nicole weeks earlier. "For one thing, after Hurricane Walter appeared, we realized we'd run out of names for Atlantic storms, so in a pinch we adopted Xenia, Yuri and Zoe. This will be the first time we've ever used all the letters. It's a good thing the tropical storm season is ending, or we'd have to go back and pick up Q and U as well. "For another, Hurricane Zoe is so powerful that we have assigned it to a new Category 6, defined as having sustained winds of 250 miles per hour or higher. After Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Karl, Lisa, Matthew, Nicole, Otto, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tomas, Virginie, Walter, Xenia and Yuri all bowled through Florida at approximately four-day intervals, we thought we'd seen everything. But Zoe is shaping up to be the worst storm in all of human history. I would strongly recommend evacuating to someplace safe, like central Asia." And Floridians have been taking that advice: of the estimated 20 million state residents at the beginning of 2004, at least 80 percent have abandoned their homes. Hurricane-related deaths this year are estimated in the tens of thousands. Every square mile of Florida has been assaulted by hurricane-force winds on multiple occasions in the last few weeks. Heavily populated regions such as West Palm Beach and St. Petersburg are still substantially submerged, and the transformation of the Everglades into huge salt marshes has made most of southern Florida effectively impassable by automobile. Damage is estimated at over 5 trillion dollars, insurance companies are refusing to do any further business in the state even on pain of federal litigation, and due to the rapid succession of storms, there has been no time to perform any but the crudest of repairs to utilities. Florida is a wasteland, and experts estimate it will remain one for decades to come. Many of those we interviewed at the refugee camps in the hills of northern Georgia, when we asked if they would be going back, screamed curses at us, or simply wept. Despite all this, a few hardy souls have hung on through it all. We found one man (who refused to give his name) in the Orlando area who decided he was staying, no matter what. In exchange for several cans of gasoline, he agreed to an interview. "I have nowhere else to go," he said, sitting in a lounge chair on his driveway, a wall of sandbags surrounding his property, wearing a bandolier of shotgun shells. "And after Karl passed through, I figured it was too late to go anywhere anyway. Insurance won't pay, and the house isn't worth a dime on the dollar now." And how was he able to survive all this time? "Believe it or not, after Karl it got a lot easier. People had had enough, so they loaded up their cars with whatever they had and made a run for it. When they heard I was staying, they gave me whatever they couldn't bring along. I don't know how many of them made it, though, since Lisa and Matthew crossed one another in north Florida while they were all parked on I-75. "Anyway, a lot of the stores were abandoned, too. I've got enough food and equipment here for the duration thanks to them. All the levelled houses around here have provided me with enough scrap building materials to reinforce my own house. And did I mention that there's no traffic problems for a change?" And what of the dangers? "Well, yeah, a lot of crazy people out there. All the stinkin' looters somehow find their way here, that and the diseased and the just plain crazy. I hate to have to kill 'em all, but there hasn't been police or emergency service out here for a month. "Yeah, yeah, I've heard about Zoe on the shortwave. Ever since Ivan made three, I figured, what the heck?" he said, scratching at his beard, grinning. "Might as well collect 'em all."

09-07-2004, 09:13 PM	#23
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	Um... what? October 30th, 2004 hasn't happened yet... It's not funny enough to be The Onion, but I can't really figure out who else would write it.

09-09-2004, 10:00 PM	#27
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	It is somehow custom or mandatory to write something witty on the back window of your car when you're running away from a hurricane. Suggestions appreciated! With this current track, I should be booking it North on I-75 sometime Sunday morning. "I'm not scared, there's just a bigger party up North" won't fit. Damn.

09-09-2004, 10:28 PM	#28
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	"How's My Driving? Call 1-800-ITSAFUCKINGEVACUATIONYOUDUMBASS" That probably won't fit either. How about: "Yeah, but it's a DRY heat."

09-11-2004, 08:27 PM	#29
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	We're all convinced Ivan is Russian. And drunk. We've not seen a track change this much, this frequently, in a long time. All of this started getting stressful last night when I began sorting through things that are irreplacable. I suddenly realized that cramming all of it into the car isn't possible and you have to figure out what is the most important: family photographs, old books, etc. After I had packed it all into boxes, all it took was for me to look up and see what I was leaving behind before I reconsidered and began trading out items. A disaster that sneaks up on you and takes your home is difficult to deal with, but somehow knowing that the uncertain is just days away seems so much worse right now. One week from now I might be sitting on my couch enjoying more football, sitting in a shelter with no place to live, or, with the way this summer is going, watching another hurricane spiral towards us. This afternoon, a shifting of gears. Packing things into plastic tubs got put on hold as we considered that driving North might be more dangerous than staying put as Ivan takes a Westerly course for the day. Food and water suddenly became important and I made sure I raided the stores, today. On the drive through town, I counted five out of six gas stations that were out of fuel thanks to yesterday's panic started by rumors of gasoline rationing, all of which were eventually dispelled by the govenor. Looking around, it also seemed impossible that we had the possibility of being hit by a catagory four hurricane. During a commercial break on the radio, a correction: catagory five. Great. And now I sit, trying to watch Georgia Tech battle Clemson, only to have the broadcast interrupted by the local news to update everyone on a prediction track that hasn't changed in the last three hours and won't update for at least another two. Once in the crosshairs, I'm now on the very edge of the "cone of probability", but even that will change after Ivan passes Cuba. Friends in New Orleans indicate that even they are getting a bad feeling from this beast and that residents there remain fairly nervous, thinking that the Westerly course might very will continue and throw their city into deep water. Not everyone throws hurricane parties because they're fun. It seems, this season, that its one of the only things that keeps peoples' nerves calm. Last edited by Kitsune; 09-11-2004 at 09:09 PM.

09-11-2004, 09:00 PM	#30
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	Water, Milk, batteries, and flashlights were all thin but in stock, today. What sold out? Well, I managed to grab the last packet! "Have Fun!" Last edited by Kitsune; 09-11-2004 at 09:09 PM.

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