Gator & K-man

[RJ HEDLEY]

Are you guys with electrical power right now??

[DDGator]

So far, so good.  Lots of wind over here.  I heard a lot of things banging on my roof during the night.  And... its just starting...

[RJ HEDLEY]

If you can reply, that's a good sign.  

[DDGator]

Storm Report...

The worst has yet to get here.  The front eye wall is coming soon.  All my friends have lost power hours ago.  We have been luck.

Here is a pic of my stree approximately 5 houses away.  A large oak tree ripped out by the root ball, taking the sewer lines underneath with it.

[flyandscuba]

Sunny and clear here -- but not for much longer.  I spent today proactively cutting tree limbs away from the house.

Here's a shot of current conditions from my upper deck (direction of photograph is Northeast).  I'll try to make a photo chronology from the same position as the storm progresses. (Yes, I'm going to ride it out).



I've got my generator ready and 45 gallons of gas -- so, I should be able to retain power for vital items (refrigerator, lights, fans, stove, etc.) throughout the process.

I'm hoping the major portion of the storm will make landfall to the east, but I'll still get plenty of wind, rain, and the storm surge will be directly toward my shoreline.

[R9SCarry]

All the weather channel stuff i have been seeing shows this to have been extremely serious .... way too much rain too.

Thinking of you guys all the time .... look forward to you reporting in when possible once you have returned to some degree of normalcy.

(Lovely aspect there Fly .... )

[DDGator]

We still have power.  Don't know why.  None of my friends or family do.  Winds are gusting to about 55 mph -- supposed to stay around at least a few more hours.

[flyandscuba]

Well,

It looks like my part of the state has been spared once again.  We've got winds of 17mph with gusts to 30mph.  The view outside looks little different from my photo above...

So, guess my generator won't get a chance to perform this time.  Keeping an eye out on Ivan though.

[R9SCarry]

Duane - and Fly ..... relieved to hear that .... just hope RJ is coping too .... only 15 miles from you Duane IIRC.  Hope he'll check in soon tho sounds like he may be without power for a bit.

[RJ HEDLEY]

I have returned, just a few more grey hairs.  All is well..

[RJ HEDLEY]

Fly, that is a very nice view you have there,  what body of water is that?

[flyandscuba]

Thanks RJ,

I'm on Escambia Bay -- just north of I-10

A little trivia.... in 1978, this landed there:

National Airlines -- Boeing 727-200 -- Escambia Bay, Pensacola, Florida --- May 8th 1978
About 2120 local time, National Airlines Flight 193 crashed into Escambia Bay while executing a surveillance radar approach to runway 25 at Pensacola Regional Airport. The aircraft crashed about 3 nmi from the east end of runway 25 and came to rest in about 12 ft of water. There were 52 passengers and a crew of 6 on board; 3 passengers were drowned.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was the flightcrew's unprofessionally conducted nonprecision approach, in that the captain and the crew failed to monitor the descent rate and altitude, and the first officer failed to provide the captain with the required altitude and approach performance callouts. The crew failed to check and utilise all instruments available for altitude awareness, turned off the ground proximity warning system, and failed to configure the aircraft properly and in a timely manner for the approach.

Contributing to the accident was the radar controller's failure to provide advance notice of the start-descent point which accelerated the pace of the crew's cockpit activities after the passage of the final approach fix.

[R9SCarry]

Good to see you back in RJ!!

[DDGator]

All is well here too.  The cable modem went down briefly...  

Not much damage -- a few things broken outside.  Lots of mess to clean up.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone.