Hurricane Season that is. And what a season it was. Yesterday marked the official end of the 2004 hurricane season. Seemed like every restaurant was having a party about it, too. The Ale House had one of the most interesting ones, complete with free drinks for anyone with a Driver’s License named Charley, Franis, Jeanne, or Ivan.
And what, of course, happens on the last day? Mother nature gets one last blow in, with Tropical Storm Otto. Will it never end?
Well, I stayed in South Florida this time for HurricaneJeanne, and am happy to say I’m still alive 
It got a little windy, and I lost power Saturday night, but no damage to the apartment. In fact, I got a chance to go hang out with JeremyCaton & PrashantChopra and we all reminesced while we played games on their Super Nintendo and Original Nintendo! There’s no new storms on the horizon, and everyone down here hopes it stays that way. They say we’ve already set a new record, 4 storms in one season.
Last time that happened was Texas in 1830-something, I think.
According to the NOAA’s latest projections, we’re in the clear. Unfortunately, it looks like HurricaneIsabel is really gonna beat up on North Carolina and Virginia. It’s gonna be a rough end of the week for some people. I’ve archived all of the NHC’s projections on my HurricaneIsabel page for all of those interested in how it’s grown up.
Yup, I got word from JeremyCaton earlier today that HurricaneFrances has passed. From what I hear, it was relatively mild in our neck of Florida, and for that I’m thankful. Unfortunately, Now I have HurricaneIvan (pic) to worry about, but so far it looks too far south to be a problem… I sure hope it stays that way.
In the meantime, I’ve been able to meet some friends and play with Rhianna, who was spending a few weeks with the grandparents here anyway. I’ve finished up Wolves of the Calla, the 5th book in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I loved these books when I read the first 3 in high school. I’ve read the fourth long ago, but forgotten most of it. The 5th book didn’t disappoint in the least. From the return of the Mysterious Doors to the blazing gunfight at the end, it was another Gunslinger classic. I have the 6th, Song of Susannah in my hands and I’m going to start it soon. I’m anxious to see how it goes
As for when we’ll return to Florida, I can’t rightly say. We had originally planned to return tomorrow so I could go back to work on Tuesday, but it looks like HurricaneFrances will be flooding our road home (I10 along the gulf coast) most of tomorrow. Add to that the Florida Gas Shortage caused by the massive evacuations, and the fact that the pumps can’t pump gas anyway where the power’s out anyway, and I’m not sure we could get home if the weather was perfect until things are “cleaned up” a bit. So I guess I’m gonna call my boss and talk to him. I have my laptop here, and my dad has cable internet access, so I could do some work from here for a while anyway…
Wish me luck And pray that Ivan goes home…
Well, the latest NOAA projections on HurricaneFrances put it hitting far enough North of us that we shouldn’t have alot to worry about. There’ll definately be high winds at home, but they shouldn’t be strong enough to blow our place away.
Either way I suppose will have to do. Laura & I are in Meridian now. What should have been a 12-13 hour trip, took 22 hours. We thought it would be fine once we got past Palm Beach and such (the evacuation areas), but we were wrong. It was smooth 70mph sailing until we hit Orlando. Universal Studios & SeaWorld had both closed, so Orlando was jam packed. It took us 5 hours to get through orlando, at an average 10mph. Once, we clocked it taking 90minutes to go 8 miles on the Florida Turnpike.
We really considered turning around, but we finally got past the Beeline Expressway, and things cleared up a bit. We’ld to 5mph for a few minutes, then get up to 50 for a while. I70 was better, and I10 was pretty vacant (of course it was 10pm before we got to I10). So it was a long long long trip, but we made it. We’ll be waiting the hurricane out here, and hoping it leaves us a home to return to.
Well, HurricaneIvan inches closer by the day, but it seems like we might luck out on this one.
And if you’re interested, you can check my HurricaneFrances page and see the final result on it’s path.
Well, as I’m sure most of you know, HurricaneIsabel is getting closer every day. We’re still hoping it’s gonna miss us, or if we’re lucky it’ll just mysteriously vanish. Almost luckily, Laura and I are leaving mid next week to visit the folks in Mississippi. Hopefully it’ll hold out till then.
The NOAA has a nice graphic backing up some of my hopes. But it still looks like we might have to go buy some plastic wrap & duct tape this weekend.
*Update*
That is a “live” image, and it seems as though they update it two or three times a day. The 5:00 image they just posted even further reinforced the “gonna miss us, but not by much” theory.
According to the latest NOAA projections, looks like HurricaneIsabel is going to miss florida entirely. Can’t say I’m disappointed to hear that.
Well.. it’s that time again, and this year it’s HurricaneFrances .
Unfortunately, this one is looking alot worse than HurricaneIsabel. Yesterday they were saying it would head up towards Daytona beach or South Carolina, but they’ve adjusted it to come within only a few 100 miles of us. Might have to start boxing up stuff, and get ready to drive.
Well, just as I was relaxing from HurricaneIvan (sorry Mobile, better you than me) here comes “Jeanne”. With any luck, it’ll remain pretty weak (as it’s so close already), and just turn and head north and never make landfall.
