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.

slumming? I would like to spend the Hurricane slumming with OO then :D

We are getting small bursts of wind and it is grey but that is it for now.

Stay safe!!

Those casitas are muy bueno, esta es un casita grande!

(excusez-moi espagne malo).

Those palms were really whipping but I think that's part of the beauty of palms--they can take it. We'll know tomorrow!

Judy, I can't imagine how you all can handle more wind and rain with things still not repaired from Charley. I saw where you had gotten some stiff wind and rain too. You've got a lot to worry about between your two places! :(

TG, we have our own casita...this is home. Took a picture through one of our skylights during the last band which I think gives a capsulated sense of the feeling of the beginnings of this storm.

http://pages.prodigy.net/cmcdaniel/M...s/P1010009.JPG

Yikes, OO. Stay away from the skylight...seriously.

OO, that pic looks like the last bad perm I got! Eeeeeek! Really, that's a great photo.

Let the games begin--my dad's electricity is now out. He lives about 3 miles from us and we didn't even get a breeze from the squall that passed by him! He's 85, stubborn and refuses to leave his house. Very large sigh.

OO--don't stand under your skylights again until Monday!

My BIL is riding out the storm in his Delray Beach condo, DIRECTLY across the street from the Atlantic. He has the front part of the condo on A1A and his unit is behind it. He had already lost power around 10:30 this morning, and we haven't been able to reach him this evening by mobile or his plug-in phone.
I believe he will think his decision was not a wise one.
Driving on Gulf Blvd. in Indian Shores, there was a fire at the base of a telephone pole on the beach side across the street from Gallaches restaurant. The owner of Gallaches is a friend of ours so I called him and he said that the firemen said that they don't know how it started but that it wasn't an isolated incident as three other similar incidences had been reported in his district over the last hour. He said the wires were melting and things were popping all over the place. Doesn't make sense as it was around 6:00 about the time our first feeder ban was about to come through, so the winds weren't that bad yet, and it had barely rained.
Go figure.

Tallahassee has nothing yet. Expect it later on Sunday afternoon. Then tons of rain till Tuesday. AAFrequentF must be medicating with that title. hope it is a good vintage. :-!

Ok, I just got smacked in the face with a tiny little tree limb. Something hit our front door, and I peeked out to look at what it was. It was a small, little tree limb, and another one came flying at me and hit me above my eye./:)
Lesson learned! 8-|
It's been blowing real good for about an hour now. Seems to be consistent.

I've awakened to very steady wind at about 30-40 but some gusts are stronger. We have no rain at this moment and my lanai tileis dry (for those wondering, this is an outdoor terrace which in my case is covered with a screened cage.) My thoughts are with everyone north of here. Be safe and don't use up all those supplies. Ivan is on the way for next weekend. :-(( LMF

Siesta Key/Sarasota

Had one too many <i>hurricanes</i> last night at a hurricane party :-)

Anyway, we are getting some rain right now , and it is windy (between 20-40mph). No major damage as far as I could see, although I did see some small tree branches on the street as I was walking back to my house few hours ago. The worst is still coming, so it will be an interesting day. Stay tuned.

Any info on Stuart? I have family living there - I hope they evacuated. I heard Stuart is where Frances made landfall at 1:00 am. My best to all in the path of Frances. Peace.

Robyn

Hello! AAfrequentFlyer -- we are anxiously awaiting all info from you! My Folks are here in Boston but have a little trailer right near Siesta Key (Southwinds) . My VERY anxious dad is lookinh forward to any and all info!

Good morning!

High winds and no rain in Jacksonville.

A gekko has taken refuge in our great room, he is welcome to stay, but cannot share the wine.

Tree limbs are falling everywhere.
Hopefully, hibiscus, none will hit me on the head :)

Take Care!

Swell, we are under a Tornado watch now:(

CNN is reporting this to still be a cat. 1 hurricane as it exits over the top of my bruised head and out into the Gulf.
Ivan is a hurricane on a path to Hispanola.

Thanks so much for that news , hibiscus, my heart sank at the thought of another weekend like this ~

Very gusty winds now with some rain. Neighbor down the street had chest pains and the ambulance was here earlier. Too much anxiety for tooooo long, they said. Neigbor across the street's tarp is flapping like crazy, but it is still there, thank God. OO, in our paper they had pictures of FLL and A1A...flooded quite badly.....very nerve racking...our new place is not far from there.

My niece just phoned in from Boynton Beach (which is featured on AOL's home page) in West Palm Beach. It was a windy noisy night, the kids were up at 2 AM, but their up-to-code house and shutters held up. The water was rising up their driveway, but a neighbor diagnosed that the storm drain was clogged, went out and cleared it, and saved the day. They're without electricity, as are 4 million others (according to msnbc.com) so it might be quite a while before other Fodorites can check in, even if they're OK.

<b>crosbie</b>,

so far, so good. No heavy rains <b>yet</b> and the winds are not at a level to cause any structural damage.

Bob Harrington (<i>local weather man</i>(<b>ABC, channel 7-Sarasota</b>) <i>and a neighbor</i>) and a <b>good friend</b>, informed me that unless, there is some out of the ordinary shift in the movement of the storm, we will be spared (once again :-) )any significant damage. The guy is putting in some major overtime at the station.