Hurricane ophelia

[Ozzy]

Well it's alomst certain that this storm is headed straight form me. The eye is forcasted to come onshore in the area I live. I live about 1 mile from the ocean. This is not a real strong storm at the moment but they normaly streathen just before they move on shore here. This one did just that and got up to 85 mph, but it has weakened some since then. We have had high winds for the last two days. About an hour ago we had our first rain squall move in. The bad thing about this storm is that it is so slow. We are going to have at least tropical storm conditions for 2 whole days. That's a lot of rain. This may even be one of those events I warned could happen that would have over filled the landfill that I fought in the green swamp. You can find that in the conservation forum.
Any way I got some pics for you. Some of these are really erie.

Here's the beach yesterday afternoon. It wasn't too rough but you'll notice that the water is very high. Normaly the water is about 75 ft from where I took these pics. When I took these pics it was about 10 ft away.

 

[Ozzy]

These next pics were taken today about 5:30 pm.

You'll notice that the waves are bigger and rougher. In some of the pics you can see the wind blowing the whitetops.

Those were some awesome looking clouds.


As I was leaving the beach, I noticed a cactus and I thought I'd get a shot of it.

I took the next pics from my front door just as the rain squall was moving out of the area.

You think that was bad it got even worse.

 

[zac]

That's a nasty looking storm.
I spent last summer in florida and sat through some pretty rough
tropical storm. Is there alot of hype as far as people boarding windows
and stuff in light of recent events?

Zac

 

[Ozzy]

Not really, this area has had some very nasty storms in the recent past. This one so for will be nothing compared to them. In '99 we had 3 storms, one about this size, one about double this one and then Hurricane Floyd. Floyd cased the worst damage I had ever seen. t was a slow mover too, but faster than the current storm. At the time it was the second most costly disaster to hit the US, Of course Katrina bumped it to number 3. Two years before Floyd we had Hurricane Bertha and Fran. Fran was also a monster. It was almost as bad as Floyd. Where Floyd did most of it's damage with rain and flooding, Fran was really high winds.
I think the government is trying to cover their butts and don't want to make the same mistakes that New Orleans made. The governor issued a state of emergency yesterday and already has the National Guard deploying to the area. My mom called me while I was typing this and told me that she thinks she heard on the news that the county I live in has just ordered a mandatory evacuation of all the islands and low lying areas, and also all mobile homes in the county. I think that is also to cover their butt, so they can't be blamed like New Orleans.

 

[zac]

It's all political. Hopefully everyone stays safe.

Zac

 

[PlantAKiss]

Those are some awsome photos. I love storms...they are beautiful in their power. But I hate the damage they can cause. Are you sure you should be sitting there on the computer instead of packing to get out? Katrina was "only" a Cat 1 when she hit Florida but she caused 11 deaths and far more damage that had been expected for her level. So you can't really say "Pooh!" to a Cat 1.

I remember hurricane Fran too. Fran is the first hurricane I can remember to come inland as far as Richmond. I had company coming and Fran blew in and knocked out my power for 3 days. Bad timing! I lost everything in the fridge. It was a mess! However hurricane Isabel was far stronger and caused MUCH more damage here. I'll never forget that...trees down everywhere, homes and cars smashed, no power for 13 days...and hunting for ice like it was the Holy Grail. Ice was the hottest commodity (what an oxymoron) and nobody could get it in fast enough or keep it supplied long enough. And then only a year later the remnants of hurricane Gaston dropped 14" of rain in a few hours and caused devastating flooding. Seems to me hurricanes are getting further inland than they used to. They were never a cause for concern like they are now.

If you aren't going to evacuate, then batten down the hatches. Remember...better SAFE than SORRY! (Look at how many people rode out Katrina and didn't live to regret it...

)

And...I think you stuck that BIG cactus pic in there just to annoy me.

 

[buster1]

Actually, here are the current rankings - pre Katrina
Also, native cactus? or did someone plant it there?

Rank Hurricane Year Category Damage

1 Andrew (SE FL, SE LA) 1992 5 26,500,000,000
2 Charley (SW FL) 2004 4 15,000,000,000
3 Ivan (AL/NW FL) 2004 3 14,200,000,000
4 Frances (FL) 2004 2 8,900,000,000
5 Hugo (SC) 1989 4 7,000,000,000
6 Jeanne (FL) 2004 3 6,900,000,000
7 Allison (N TX) 2001 TSa 5,000,000,000
8 Floyd (Mid-Atlantic & NE U.S.) 1999 2 4,500,000,000
9 Isabel (Mid-Atlantic) 2003 2 3,370,000,000
10 Fran (NC) 1996

 

[Ozzy]

The worse of the storm is moving onto shore right now. It's all downhill from here. It's so slow that it'll take about 2 days to pass.
It's raining pretty hard and the wind is blowing but it's not that bad yet. The eye is projected to move onto shore tomorrow morning, with in a few miles of me either way. So I could get a direct hit. I'll try to keep posting updates as the conditions gets worse. But I could lose power at anytime.
I went back to the beach today and took some pics. It was alittle worse than than yeterday.

]

 

[Ozzy]

 

[Ozzy]

While I was near the beach I found a stash of fish skeletons under a bush. I thought it was weird.

The last pic is to give some idea that these were all large fish. I wear size 13 boots and they were a little longer than my boot. I just wonder who or what put them under the bush. I'd say it was a cat.

Just before the last squall moved onto shore I thought I would give my dog a chance to go outside while the weather was relatively calm. He didn't want to go out and I thought he looked so pitiful looking in.

 

[herenorthere]

He was probably afraid the fish eater was ready for something new and different.

 

[Finch]

good luck and hang tight~!

here in souuthdakota iv hade a few storms here eith 85 mph gusts, but definatly not theamount of rain your talking about! Our storms move fast so usually they dont put down more than 3 inches.

I cast imagin that kind of water here. the neiborhood would be devestated from pur poorly drained soil. Goodluck, and hope the basement stays dry!

 

[Ozzy]

We really don't have basements here. I have never seen a house with one in this area. The land here is very swampy and it can absorb a great amount of rain. Although the amount it can absorb is less and less everyday due to the draining of the swamps to build.
They are predicting 5 to 10 inches of rain with this storm. Although the winds are only 75 mph, it will cause a lot of trees to fall because of all the rain it's going to produce.

 

[Finch]

75 MPH and trees are falling? WOW! even the silver maples escape damage from winds that strong and very hevy rain here!

Your trees must be wussy  

 

[Ozzy]

Our trees are not wussy's the soil is. The soil is so soft and damp it won't hold up trees like your rock hard soil in SD. Another thing, if this was a fast moving storm, I wouldn't expect much damage. But we are going to have tropical storm winds for 3 days. And with all this rain, somethings got to give.
You want to talk about strong trees, our pine trees here NEVER get blown over. The have a root that goes straight down as far as the tree is high. They only break, they never fall over.

 

[7santiago]

wow what beatifull weather you are having

i love storms, i love to be out when they happen, the feeling of being barefoot in my bog(watching out for plants and unfortunate rotundifolia seedling) is my idea of fun... untill lightning, i have had bad expirience with lightning, airplanes street poles, and trees.

lightning, gods favorite dart game.

 

[Ozzy]

I feel like the gods favorite dart board sometimes.

 

[Finch]

LOL.  So...

I think we all feel tat way sometimes

 

[Finch]

Quote[/b] ]The have a root that goes straight down as far as the tree is high

Actually most eastern pine trees are shallow rooted and rarely penetrate more than 4 feet below the surface. Same with oaks. Theya re not taprooted around the east.


But your right about the winds.

 

[Ozzy]

It's really gotten a lot worse, but the worse is still yet to come. I'm surprised that we still have power. It could go out at anytime. We've already had 5 to 6 inches of rain, and expect 5 more.