Nicky and Stephen, Met June 8, 1998, Married June 8, 2000

Some minor damage caused by Jeanne.


We dodged another bullet. We've seen worse thunderstorms than what we got with this one. The eye was only 60 miles north of us. Frances seemed to have left a lot more damage than Jeanne in Broward County. Our shutters are finally down for the first time in over a month. Hopefully we won't have to put them up again for at least a year.

Since record-keeping began in 1851 this is the first time that four hurricanes have hit the same state during one hurricane season.


Only two more months left in the season.

 

Well, here we are again. Sitting out yet another hurricane. There isn't much happening yet. Just a little wind and rain. The storm is expected to make landfall around midnight.

Another weekend down the tubes.

 

Racing through the jellyfish forest.

www.salascove.com/phototime.html

 

A palm tree all by its lonesome.

www.moodymonday.org

 

www.i-gizmo.com

 

www.photofriday.com

 

We survived another one. Hurricane Frances came, blew some stuff around, and went. We didn't lose our power, phone, or our satellite signal. We were lucky since over half of Broward County had lost power. All she left behind for us is a lot of palm fronds on the ground, some downed trees, and a roughed up beach.















Now our attention is turned to the next storm headed our way. We're still prepared. We only took down a few of our shutter panels to minimize the cave-like atmosphere.


If it were only that easy.

 

Our first image of some damage. It's only a downed stop sign but I'm sure there will be more. The 2:00 report just came out and says that the storm is stationary. Frances is trying to redevelop as it is going over the gulf stream. The air pressure here is now at 997 mb (29.44 inches). An additional 1.5 inches of rain in our gauge. 90 mph winds in Palm Beach. We're still gusting at 40 mph. It may be higher but I'm not about to go out and measure it. We still have power and it is pretty stable.

 

The pressure is now at 999 mb (29.50 inches). We have had 2.5 inches of rain so far. I observed a 22 mph wind a while ago. Gusts are reported as high as 40 in spots. There is a sizeable band of rain headed our way. They're saying we may get 1 to 2 feet of rain. We still have power. The TV is reporting 68,000 customers are without power here in Broward County. They're showing pictures of downed lines. Lucky us, I suppose.

 

Hurricane Frances is inching closer and closer. We observed winds of 20 mph and up with our handheld anemometer. The air pressure is at 1001 mb (29.56 inches). There isn't much rain yet. The power has been flickering as of late. It won't be long before it goes out completely.

 

This sign was on a McDonald's window. That may explain the spelling.


The sentiment expressed here is probably being felt by a lot of business owners in the community.


We've had a couple good rain bands so far. Winds are reported to be as high as 60 mph with the last band. We only lost power for a couple minutes. I'm sure there will be more outages.

 

Ready or not, here she comes! I guess being Floridians that sooner or later we'd get the "Big One."


The grocery stores are emptied of the necessities such as water, bread, and beer. There's no gas either. The gas stations all have signs that say "No Gas." Hardware stores can't keep plywood in stock. You can't find batteries, flashlights, or generators. People wait in long lines for all of the above.


The last time we had to put our shutters up was in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd was barrelling our way. Floyd turned at the last minute and headed for North Carolina. We went through Hurricane Irene that same year. It went right over our heads as a category 1 storm with winds at 80 mph. We didn't put shutters up because it did what Charley did three weeks ago and turned east at the last minute.

Hurricane Irene dumped 21 inches of rain on us. The lake behind our house crept up our back yard to within inches of our house. We were without power for 29 hours. With every gust of wind we watched in horror and fascination as our sliding glass doors bowed inward. Every couple minutes you'd see a bright blue flash followed by the sound of another transformer blowing. We learned from Irene that any category of hurricane shouldn't be ignored.

We'll try to keep blogging until our internet connection dies, or the power goes out, whichever comes first. More to come.