...and as far as I'm concerned, Hurricane Season can end right here. Tropical Storm Fay's path is looking suspiciously like that of Hurricane Charley, and most of us would just as soon not relive that part of 2004.
Thanks for your prayers.Summer's over -- Ha! Just kidding! Yesterday was the first day back at school for area kids...but they're on vacation again today and maybe tomorrow.
I understand the schools being closed, since some are used as shelters and it's apparently easier to shut down the whole system then just a small part of it.
What I don't understand is why I had to go to three places to find one open to give me a haircut. Many places of business are open, but a surprising number have "closed due to the weather" signs. Overhead must be great, as they could have gotten a good half day of business in, and probably much more. Although most of the signs say they'll reopen Wednesday, I doubt it, as the weather is supposed to be worse then.
We're under a tornado watch now. Wind's picking up a bit, but still sporadic and little rain. Radar looks as if that could chance soon, as the rain bands are just touching us.
Keep praying, please. It wouldn't take much of a change to the storm's path to take it right to us, and they're now predicting it will reach hurricane strength when it gets to the Atlantic Ocean. I've done some battening down of the hatches, but would really rather not have to make more drastic efforts.
We lost power once, but only briefly.
Maybe the smaller shops close because all the employees need to stay home to take care of the kids that aren't at school.
Possibly. Another possibility is that they didn't think they'd be doing much business anyway. The place I found to cut my hair said they were actually expecting more business than usual because of school being out, but mostly it seemed to be just regulars, plus me.
An update before I go to bed: so far just rain. It's a little scary to go to bed and not know what's going on while I sleep, but I'm not so scared I'll stay up all night. :) I wish Fay would just be on her way and gone -- I have plans for this week!
I think Janet got it right: Fay is on vacation, seeing the sights of Central Florida. And they said tourism is down this year!
It's been a quiet day. The rain's picking up now, but not as bad as it looks from the radar picture. :)
Oops, need to go turn off the pool. I'm draining it in preparation for the expected lots of rain, but don't want to go to far....
Draining the pool again.... The rain is now steady and the wind picking up a bit.
Fay is STILL south of Daytona Beach, sucking up water from the ocean, desalinizing it, and pouring it out on the land. Could be pretty handy -- we certainly need the water. But some places are getting it too much, too fast. We live on a hill, so the creek the next street over would have to flood the houses there to the second story to bother us. Roads are more likely to be a problem. They don't always drain well, so we'll have to be careful when we go out.
Some places nearer the East Coast had nearly TWO FEET of rain yesterday, and are dealing not only with flooded houses, but with sewage backing up into the streets. If all I have to do is drain the pool, I can't complain.
I don't know what our official rainfall numbers were, but apparently the only damages were a lot of shredded foliage spread all over the roof and yard, a broken piece on one of our pull-down porch shades that I forgot to take in from the storm, one screen panel (fortunately a lower one) blown in, and an awful lot of water pumped out of the pool. There are advantages to living on a hill.
Here's an interesting article on extreme weather damage and the primary cause of its rapid increase: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080904/us_time/whydisastersaregettingworse;_ylt=Ak2Cb0CJtvjwnlpEQU9JT6JH2ocA
Amen and amen! When we bought our house in Florida one of our concerns was vulnerability to flooding -- you'll note we live on a hill. (Okay, not a hill by Swiss or even Pennsylvanian standards, but sufficient.) If I recall right from my contact in the insurance business, we have just come out of a long, unusual lull in hurricane activity -- long enough to allow a couple of generations of us to indulge in poor construction and preparation practices and think we're getting away with it.
I'm all for rescuing and supporting those caught by disaster, but not for subsidizing subsequent careless behavior. Yet that is exactly what we are doing in Florida, by providing state-sponsored insurance coverage for ocean-front condominiums (paid for by the rest of us, most of whom can't afford ocean-front condominiums). I know insurance companies can be as greedy as anyone, but if they think a property is a poor risk, shouldn't we listen? Accurate risk assessment is the heart of their business!
Reason would tell us to listen, but tax return from those well-off ocean-front condomaximum dwellers probably has a stronger influence on policy.
Condomaximum -- I love it.
