Libe reports from Floride - Hurricane Frances
 

I know there is another thread about this, but I thought that we could start a new one with <b><u>just</u></b> reports from any Fodoroties that are in the way of Frances. (Please reserve any comments or well wishes to the other thread). <b>Reports ONLY here.</b> Thanks.

I will start.

Siesta Key, Florida - on the Gulf side, about 50 miles south of Tampa. Offshore tropical paradise connected with 2 bridges with Sarasota.

Right now at about 1;15p we are starting to get cloudy and dark. Winds at about 10mph. No rain yet, sunshine still breaking through.

I suggest reports every 2-3 hours, so anybody not living here but possibly having relatives ot friends will be able to check on what's actually going on. Weather.com and The Weather channel are great, but this will be more of a personal observations.

Will a moderator please correct the spelling in the title?

<b>Live reports from Florida - Hurricane Frances</b>

Thanks!

Pinellas County (Clearwater to St Pete) have mandatory evacuation for mobile homes and those in low lying areas. Hillsborough (Tampa-Lakeland) has mandatory evacuation for mobile homes and voluntary for low lying areas, but she STRONGLY urged that you leave if you are in a flood prone area.

A beautiful morning suddenly got dark and cloudy just now, with some very strong gusts of wind. Convinced me I was wrong about not bringing in the patio furniture if these were just the first of the winds. And wrong about leaving things near the skylights.

<b>Duval County, Jacksonville, Florida</b>

The sun is shining, wind is blowing but not too hard, it is very warm and very humid.
Our mayor said that there would be no emergency measures taken, that the bridges will remain open to traffic (except the draw bridges) and that he would not even be giving another news conference. So from our Mayors mouth to someones Ears! I think we will just have some wind and a lot of rain.
I am sending all positive thoughts, vibes, be safe wishes to our friends South of here ((L)) Scarlett
*ps*
janeg
we were just in San Marco with Pup. We sat outside and had coffee at Starbucks, everyone is out and walking around. Some stores are closed for Labor Day but most are open and busy.

We're feeling pretty confident here in Naples that we aren't going to get too much major action. But we have had two really heavy rains so far today -- much more to come.

Bradenton - The first gusts of winds convinced us to throw the patio furniture back in to the pool for this storm. We got our first small band about 30 minutes ago. I'd guess we had wind gusts of about 25-30 mph, rain blowing horizontally and the sun still shining. These storms create some weird weather patterns.

Our electricity goes out if you blow hard, so good luck to all if we go dark.

The Skyway Bridge between St Pete and Bradenton/Sarasota is now closed to SUVs abd other large vehicles.

TIA still open.

OO-which station are you watching? We're going back and forth between Bay News 9 and Channel 8. Eight is showing damage on the east coast that's occuring before Frances even lands and saying that's what we'll be looking at as it approaches. Not good news.

Channel 8 Jayne...That mobile home roof peeling off that they've showed should convince anyone still in a mobile home park to leave!

Our rain and strong wind was about a 10 minute episode. The sun is out again.

Yep--that's the video--and they said about 20 residents have stayed in that park.

VIPIR is now showing it going right over Tampa Bay :@

I've been watching the Weather Channel (I'm sort of a Weather Channel junky).

I was given some advice from people who were in Punta Gorda. Buy only two days worth of food but fill your tank. After the two days you can head out and find more food in nearby places where the storm didn't hit. I've got a good book and am ready. All the patio furniture in the pool, anything that could become a projectile is inside.

I hear the storm is stalled. Oh, jeeeeeez.

Siesta Key,

So far so good. Nice sunny, beach day. Little windy but nothing serious. No rain.

Here's a neat site: http://www.intellicast.com On their homepage, click on the &quot;radar loop&quot; link under the picture on the right . (The actual url was so long I'd have stretched the screen with a cut and paste.) It's a live feed.

DH and his staff were watching the intellicast radar loop before that one serious rain and wind band we had, could see it coming and rushed out and took in the pool umbrellas and chairs, so nothing was damaged or blown around. In this stage anyway, it's helpful in predicting when the next big blow will begin.

Sky is getting darker, wind is picking up. Kids are riding by on bikes, looks like the wind at their backs is helping :)

Fort Myers report: I am near the Caloosahatchee River not on a barrier island. We have had a little rain but nothing much today but the winds have steadily increased this afternoon. They are nothing to speak of right now. Probably 15-25.

The sun even pokes its head out every so often. It looks like Frances may turn a little west and if so Ft. Myers may have a worse time of it than I have been thinking.

Re: the food and grocery stores. That presupposes that the stores can get deliveries from the northern distribution centers. I'm thinking of the main distribution center of Publix in Lakeland. I never got my frig and freezer restocked after losing it all to Charlie.

I'm ready and at home for the next 24 hrs. LMF

We've been taking 45 mph winds that hit us in bursts when the feeder bands of storms come through. And then, after they leave, it's all nice and pleasant. Even sunny. We're not expected to have wind speeds greater than 60 mph, as long as the storm doesn't intensify.

Live from Tampa, this is Tandoori Girl.

That last batch of wind/rain was pretty intense. I watched the tall thin Washingtonian palms swaying <i>wildly</i> from the safety of my little casita. OK, that's enough. :(

OO, are you in my friends' casita at the hotel? They had one for the Labor Day wknd. but were glad to give it up (they were just slumming from their Tpa. home). Or are you at your own casita? Wonder if those skinny Washingtonians fare better in these storms than the big fat date palms.

LMF, all I can say things have become progressively worse in Cape Coral,,,,very gusty wind and rain right now 6:20pm. We are most concerned about flooding here on the canals.