H. Charley now a CAT 2 Hurricane, could hit Tampa as a CAT 3 Fri PM

NWS / Hurricane City / Local Tampa-Miami stations ^ | 8.12.04

[mhking]

The National Weather Service has just issued a Tornado Watch for most of south Florida until at least 8:00 Friday morning.

Hurricane City is streaming live coverage at http://hurricanecity.com/live.ram -- their coverage includes reports from The Weather Channel, from observers on the ground, plus streamed reports from local Miami television stations.

[nwctwx]

Real-Time Infrared Satellite Loop (Floater)
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/float2-ir4-loop.html

[Amelia]

I liked earthquakes better.

But there's no warning from those...and no way to prepare.

[Kewz1]

If I remember correctly, Elena never came ashore though. She just sat there in the Gulf before finally hitting Pascagoula, MS three days later.

[Gabz]

God Bless you.

Stay safe.

[Scenic Sounds]

Well, good luck. The rest of us out here are hoping for the best for all of you.

[Bahbah]

Thanks for the light moment.

[nwctwx]

Elana pulled a U-turn before hitting FL.

[bobwoodard]

Thanks for the thoughts, I'm watching the Bay from my apt and heading out before manadatory evacuation kicks at 6:00am.

BTW, it hasn't gone completely down the tubes yet, I'm starting to see political ads being aired!

[Bahbah]

Thanks.

[Gabz]

Not the last time I checked!!!!

[dawn53]

I agree. I'm on the computer, we have cable, so the teenager is watching ESPN.

Okay, my Donna story.

I was a kid, we lived in a neighborhood that wasn't evacuated, but my Dad was very concerned because we had a swingset in the backyard and he was afraid it would become flying debris....so, he took lots of chain and chained it to the biggest oak tree in the yard.

After the hurricane, we went outside. The swingset hadn't moved an inch, but the oak tree had been uprooted.

I now know how to tell when you've grown up. When I was a kid I can remember how much we looked forward to a hurricane. My teenager even has a sense of excitement about it...even though he's had to do lots of work today since his Dad was at work.

But you can tell you're an adult when you just keep hoping the storm will take an unexpected turn away from your location, and you're thinking about the hurricane deductible on your homeowner's instead of the food you're going to eat at the "hurricane party", LOL.

[oceanview]

Have you ever seen a storm surge push ashore? Its not like a flood from rain, that builds up slowly as the rain progressively falls. Its a dome of water, pushed ashore as part of the storm's movement. Its on you in an instant. During some of the long island hurricanes years ago, we would look outside the house - it was fine - 5 minutes later, ocean waves were breaking in our street.

[Gabz]

I'm having a lot of fun picking on him about the name of this storm - I got a great deal of grief in 2001 about Gabrielle............

[Gabz]

Good grief - a thread full of comics!!!!!!!

[Bahbah]

FR at its best.

[numberonepal]

I like the UKMet model, LOL!

I don't. It looks like the track of Frederick in 79. Frederick came right up the mouth of Mobile Bay (thankfully at low tide) as a Cat 4. The barrier islands of Dauphin Island and Gulf Shores/Perdido Key were completely submerged under a 20 ft wall of water.

I have to kind of agree with the model, though. I don't want to see this storm out in the Gulf. At least Frederick tracked right through the mountains of the DR and Cuber. Charley hasn't bothered himself with that. And that turn to the north hasn't happened as quickly as was expected. That little tip of Cuber won't do much to slow him down, and just on the other side is that warm and wide Gulf. The Panhandle may not have seen the worst of things yet.

[ovrtaxt]

Yep, she just sat out there and sent lots of rain and wind. The bands would blow through, lots of rain, then it would stop and the wind would keep blowing. Then more rain.

The air smelled really clean afterwards.

[ovrtaxt]

Yuk yuk yuk...

[dawn53]

Another hurricane story...I'm a native Floridian, so I have my share.

We were staying at a cottage on the beach for a couple weeks when I was a teenager. A storm was passing in the Gulf, wasn't supposed to come ashore, but the waves were getting pretty big, so we drove back in to our house in town to wait out the storm.

When we returned to the cottage there was 18 inches of standing water and sand in the cottage, and the width of the beach had been halfed.

[jwpjr]

We took a pretty similar hit in the 1920's to what they are projecting if the track follows the model that shows it coming ashore somewhere in the Tampa Bay area. I remember seeing pictures of streetcars piled up on a flooded Bayshore Blvd. and a steamship high and dry near downtown. Tampa and St. Pete, as well as Clearwater, Sarasota, Bradenton and a multitude of smaller cities are located directly on the intercoastal waterway or bays or rivers and a storm surge of 10 to 12 feet would result in a lot of damage. Tampa General Hospital is on an island just across a channel from downtown Tampa and it would be rendered totally unusable by any flooding at all. A lot of people have wondered since it was first built there in the early 1920's why they would not only leave it there, but turn it into one of the area's major medical centers. We seem to have managed to dodge the bullet so many times over the last 100 years that a lot of really foolish building has taken place along the water. Emergency operations people have been telling us for a long time that we are living on borrowed time and that it's only a matter of time until we are hit by the 'big' one. Thankfully, hundreds of thousands of residents along the Gulf and in areas that are less than 17 feet above sea level are taking the evacuation orders seriously and the roads leading out of the area to higher ground east of here are really clogged. They have asked Hillsborough (Tampa) residents not to evacuate until 6 AM tomorrow so as to give those from the farther side of the Bay who must travel directly through Tampa on the Interstate(s) a chance to get clear of the area. I must say I am very impressed by how seriously everyone seems to be taking the threat.