IRENE

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Just heard on news flash that S florida being hit with very heavy rains. This at 1115PM EDT.

Anyone that way wish to report on their observations?

Think of it as a tiny microcosm of the chaos due when the Y2K panic starts.

-- profit_of_doom (doom@helltopay.ca), October 15, 1999

Answers

They said our electricity might go off here in Vero. Hmmm.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), October 15, 1999.

Mara,

Best of luck to you in the weather that is headed your way. Keep your stash dry. :)

-- (cannot-say@this.time), October 15, 1999.


Mara, was thinking about you when I was at Sam's today, wondering if you'd finished preparing since your move. The greatest of good luck to you and yours. Please keep us updated.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 15, 1999.

Hopefully, it's just "extra" water Mara, and NOT the NC deluge.

Good luck!

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), October 15, 1999.


Awesome picture:

http://www.intellicast.com/Tropical/World/UnitedStates/CaribbeanHIRES/

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 16, 1999.



Bullseye! ouch. Praying for you all. Thanks for posting that picture addy, Old Git.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 16, 1999.

Yikes!!!!

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), October 16, 1999.

Friday October 15, 1999 11:46 p.m. EDT

Hurricane Irene Knocks Out Power to 1.4 Million, Floods Streets of Miami

MIAMI (AP) -- Hurricane Irene unloaded up to 18 inches of rain on Florida, flooding the streets of Miami, stalling cars and knocking out power to 1.4 million people Friday. Five pedestrians were electrocuted by downed power lines.

With winds of 75 mph, Irene was a relatively weak hurricane, but its heavy rain and sluggish pace made it a menace. And forecasters warned it was on a path that could bring more misery to flood-ravaged North Carolina.

Scattered flooding was reported in a 200-mile area from Key West to West Palm Beach. In Miami, police listed at least 65 streets, including major intersections, with floodwaters at least 6 inches deep.

In neighboring Broward County, where streets also had 2 to 6 inches of water, three teen-agers and a woman in her 50s were electrocuted in an intersection after a power line fell, said Broward County Fire Rescue spokesman Todd LeDuc. Minutes later a child was electrocuted in another part of the county.

``We've been given out the message all day that you need to stay inside,'' LeDuc said. ``This is not the time to do damage assessment. We have lines down throughout the county.''

Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas urged employers to let workers go home early to ease traffic. ``It's like a permanent high tide,'' he said.

The floodwaters left cars stalled in the streets and thwarted drivers' attempts to get home. The county said 18 inches of rain fell on Friday.

Michael LaCombe, 21, was trying to drive from his job in Miami to his home 12 miles north in Aventura when his car conked out. ``This is ridiculous,'' a soaked LaCombe said after pushing his car out of shin-deep water. ``I should have called in sick.''

The storm moved through the Florida Keys and rolled ashore Friday afternoon near Cape Sable, 75 miles southwest of Miami.

At 11 p.m., it was about 25 miles southwest of West Palm Beach, moving north-northeast around 13 mph. It was expected to maintain that motion before leaving the state on the east coast near Cape Canaveral sometime Saturday.

Before striking Florida, Irene drenched Cuba's tobacco fields and collapsed buildings in Havana, where at least two people were killed.

In Florida, 1.4 million people lost power with no hope of getting it restored until Saturday, Florida Power & Light Co. said.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami had to switch over to backup generators when the power went out for about 30 seconds and blacked out computer screens. It took about 90 minutes to reboot all the computers, during which forecasters were able to get the data they needed from Kansas City, Mo., and Washington.

Area airports remained open, but Miami International Airport shut down at 6 p.m. Most airlines suspended service to South Florida until at least Saturday. The University of Miami closed its campus. High school football games were postponed, as were two $400,000 thoroughbred races scheduled for Saturday at Calder Race Course.

At the Clevelander Hotel on trendy South Beach, only four of 58 rooms were occupied. ``It's just nasty, windy and awful,'' manager Chris Barron said.

President Clinton declared a state of emergency in 28 counties from Key West to central Florida, making federal money available for cleanup.

Forecasters said they expected Irene to push into the Atlantic Ocean and then head inland again near the Georgia-South Carolina line. Heavy rain was a possibility across North Carolina, still recovering from Hurricane Floyd.

``Certainly it's too early to panic,'' said Tom Hegele of the North Carolina emergency management agency. ``If we need to change our focus from recovery to preparation and response for another event, that's what we'll do.''

Hurricane Floyd dumped 20 inches of rain on eastern North Carolina last month, killing at least 49 people and causing billions in damage in the state's costliest natural disaster.

The eye of the hurricane passed near Key West, where the floodwaters in the streets didn't stop the beer from flowing. At Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Cafe, loud cheers erupted when the lights came back on.

``We get busier when the power goes out,'' bartender Doug Gober said. ``There's nothing to do but drink.''

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 16, 1999.


I'm here in Sebastian, FL - very heavy rains and high winds all night lost power for 30 minutes, but back on now. My son in South Indian River county is flooded into his house at the moment. Many power lines and trees down and I hear extensive street flooding. Actually worse than Floyd. Expect this to last another few hours. At least I didn't have to go to the store, we are all stocked up.

-- Lornna Mitchell (doone@digital.net), October 16, 1999.

Went close by us. Windy and wet, but over-all not bad. Power out here for six or so hours, soon as I was ready to pull the starter cord on the Honda, on go the lights. Karma. I see that the banana trees are down out back. They come back fast though.

That was NOT a hurricane last night. That was really just a strong tropical storm. (for any newbies out there) A REAL hurricane will scare the crap out of you, and have you talking to Jesus.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), October 16, 1999.



Wet! Very wet!

Just got the power back on about 8:15 am this morning. It went out often last night, and finally stayed off about 9 pm.

All our plants are shredded, but they survived. Most of the trees in the area that went down were ornamental types, and those were planted along the roads. I forget the name, but they have beautiful bark and nice yellow flowers in season.

In Kendall, a suburb to the southwest of Miami, there are many flooded roads. One view from a news helicopter showed a guy in an airboat going down the street. There are horses standing in water there, and no dry land for them anywhere near. All water. Everywhere. And not drinkable, either.

The paper mentioned 675,000 customers without power. But crews are working fast to get them restored.

As with Floyd, we were glad we didn't have to go to the store for anything.

Wish we had the shutters that we have been waiting 4 months for! The company started putting up the tracks for them, and as a result had to take the boards down that we had up since Floyd. So no boards were up either!

Most people are very disappointed and angry that there weren't early advisories for us in Dade and Boward counties. The hurricane center and news stations kept saying it would go towards the west coast and then across the center of the state. We were only supposed to get some rains, and a little flooding. When they finally put us in a hurricane warning, it was just to the west of Miami!

Our county mayor was very active when Floyd threatened, and evacuated all the low lying areas along the coast and so forth. For Irene, however, he and the other PTB's didn't react as strongly or swiftly. I believe it was a direct result of all the complaining about the Floyd preparations that weren't needed. If they had announced that everyone should stay home yesterday, we wouldn't have had so many people on the roads during the height of the storm. As it was, the worst weather was when everyone was driving home from work. I heard that a lot of the high profile vehicles were being blown over. And traffic was 'hell on wheels' with all the wind, rain, puddles [lakes?] and missing trafic lights!

I heard a report that one guy in Kendall lost some windows just from the wind blowing. He said nothing hit them, it was just the wind.

We lost our satellite dish, which is, or rather was, on a pole above the top of the roof. All we have left is this crushed-up looking thing dangling there. At one time we thought it might go through the next-door neighbor's window, but thankfully it didn't. A couple of our windows decided to leak, but water damage was minimal.

Very glad the power is back on! It was dark here and nothing much to do except sleep. And that wasn't too easy to do! Our area is not flooded, although for a while it looked like it might! But its all gone in our neighborhood now. Even our driveway is dry, and that usually holds the water longer than anyone else's on the street.

So, the frozen food is suspect, a little drywall damage, and the satellite dish. Not bad, considering what could have happened!

One annoying thing was that they didn't cancel the garbage pick up until late in the day. As a result, we had garbage cans flying down the street all day! I dont know what the neighbors expected! Idjits! No, I did not put my trash out yesterday.

Well, at least we didn't have an earthquake, too! I read that LA had one this morning. Rolling type, not a sharp jolt. 7.1 or so. Lasted about a minute. This sure is 'interesting times!'

Look out Eastern North Carolina! Irene is a wet one!

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), October 16, 1999.


Glad Irene didn't hit y'all so badly. But we haven't heard from Mara yet--I think the storm is right about over where she lives right now. Taz is waiting for some rain and maybe a stiff breeze. Hope that's all it is, Taz. We haven't heard from Deano in Jacksonville--I expect he's busy getting outside stuff in.

The Weather Channel is showing a hige container barge,m stacked with loads of containers two high,whch escaped from its tug. You have to ask youself why the tug was out in that weather. And you have to look at the post above--because of all the whining from people who were incovenienced by evacuation warnings when Floyd approached, Florida officials soft-pedaled this one.

Some rivers are still out of their banks in eastern NC. Any rain more than an inch or two and there'll be more problems in the benighted east. The WC is talking about street and river flooding in Wilmington--thinking of you, Critt. The WC says it's still a bit too early to tell, but believe the heaviest rain is going to be right along the coastline and not much inland. That could change, of course, but that's how it looks at the moment.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 16, 1999.


OG,

I suspect that Mara is without power right now, but I'm sure she will be fine. The eye actually went over us last nite, errr... early this morning, but Unc was too sleepy to care at the time.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), October 16, 1999.


From Wilmington, North Carolina / Sunday, October, 1999 0920

Nothing significant to report here. The rain bands have been coming in, dumping their cargo of water. I haven't gotten any calls for equipment (UHaul trucks/trailers).

Will see what the 11am report and high tide (3pm) brings.

Critt
Third hurricane this year, sixth in four seasons.

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), October 17, 1999.

Actually Ol' Deano made one of the dumber decisions in his life during this storm. Had (previously) made plans to go to Flagler Beach to visit and party with friends over the weekend. Got down there Friday afternoon when Irene was SUPPOSED to go up the west coast of FL, cross mid-state and come out by Jacksonville (sometime Sat - we'll just watch it from the south - or so we thought).

Woke up Sat morning and Irene has decided to cross south-state and head up the east coast - right out the front door! Ran into town and grabbed the necessaties (sp?) - ie BEER, more BEER and FOOD.

4:00 that afternoon - it's high tide and RAGING outside. 60+ MPH winds are steady - fire station recorded a gust at 75MPH. And the wind does actually HOWL - that was eerie! Took a little stroll down the beach - it was AWESOME!! 10-12 foot waves, ground was shaking from them. As Forrest Gump said - little bitty stinging rain - does just that - it stings!! My little Doby didn't care for it either - first time I've ever seen him flinch.

Jacksonville was spared once again........

Won't be doing that again though - hurricanes (no matter how weak or strong) ain't meant for front row watchin'.

Deano - who is wiser (and wetter) from this experience.

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), October 19, 1999.



Deano -

Thought of you when I first saw the storm track, but figured you'd get missed by it up there in Jax. But noooooooo, you gotta drive down toward it and worry everyone (including BB) sick.

Ya just ain't got good sense, son, but I'm sure glad you (and the Doby) made it through. 8-}]

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), October 19, 1999.


Mac

Good to hear from you!

My first mistake was listening to the weathermen - they think they can predict Mother Nature. She does what she wants, when she wants, and she don't have to tell nobody beforehand.

BB thought I was crazy to go down there in the first place!! Wasn't supposed to be that way (we were supposed to be DODGING it!), but it was a neat experience. Glad it was only a Cat 1!

Hope things are going well.

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), October 19, 1999.


Odd response from all the emergency management types - up and down all coast praticially.

Granted that this was a lower intensity storm than the earlier one(s) - but it is strange that almost NOTHING was said about Irene - no exodus, no continuous coverage by beach-front reporters - thank Sir Deano for the comments, no national warning or national disaster declarations by the Clinton's, almost nothing at all.

Comparable number of deaths though - my sympathies to all who have lost loved ones, houses, and had property damaged - just no press around to report it ..... it's almost as if the emergency management agencies and press had their "drill" for the fall evacuation season, and didn't want to do it again.

Didn't want to bring attention back on themselves?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 19, 1999.


Robert

Have to agree. Floyd was the WHOLE WEEK and Irene was just THERE.

It seems the Atlantic coast folks are not as AWARE of the Gulf storms as we are the Atlantic storms. When you can see them tracking at you for a week, it gets your attention. Irene was a little depression one day and a hurricane the next, in the Gulf. No way will it hit the east coast.........yeah right!

They're still trying to figure out how to evacuate 6 million people on 3 roads. :-)

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), October 19, 1999.


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