Early forecasts show Wilma aiming for US Gulf Coast

[TonyCooper]

Too early to start worrying but... If I were living in the area I'd start monitoring this storm a little more closely.

take a peek here
and a good general explanation is here

[madjack]

...here is the present computer modeling



and here is the historical tracks of hurricanes formed in this area at this time of year



this info is from wunderground.com

madjack

[mikeschn]

Looks to me like if you live in FL, you'd better get your teardrop stocked up and ready to move out...

Then again, maybe mother nature is hunting down someone in N.O. ???

Mike...

[Woody]

Not that big of a deal for Florida yet, Let's see where it wants to go first before we panic here, at least here when you are told to leave YOU DO. Still a little to early to tell just where it will hit. The teardrops are ready though here for whatever happens

[madjack]

...hey Woody 1.3 million folks got up and left the SE La area BEFORE hand...the 10% who stayed, well........................
How many stayed in the Miami/Homestead area during Andrew, if I remember correctly the faces looked much the same...dazed, confused and needy.
Let's just hope an Alberta Clipper come roaring outta Canadia and kills this one before it gets anywhere near any of us...as THEY say "enough is enough"
Like Rita, if Wilma causes an evacuation I bet 99% get up and go
y'all take care and keep an eye out
madjack

[Chris C]

Woody,

If I tol ya wonce, I tol ya a hunert times. I'd be glad to take care of one of your teardrops. It really needs a safe home where it would be loved. Seriously, keep your powder dry, fellow.

[Woody]

Well I tell ya Madjack, Ya see before Andrew, way too many complacent people were living here also and many whom never experienced something of that magnitude either. And yes there were many stunned and deer in the headlight looking people here and I was one of them (being from the Midwest ). A Major hurricane is very hard to put to words the exact experince as a whole Since they are all different in their own way, you have to experience it, to live thru one or many. To have a new appreciation of the power and the destructive force Mother Nature has and the way it relates to mankinds puny meager parasitic exsistance on the planet. After Andrew , which I DID endure and survived and every storm since then, many people here perk up and plan like they are supposed too. Millions leave now and a few "Die Hards" stay and they die even harder( You would think that there numbers would decrease over time because of the kill rate, , but it doesn't). Most people listen and prepare for them and do what they are told since then. That is why they call Florida the "PLYWOOD STATE". People here buy millions and millions of sheets of plywood here literally every storm, ( I have no clue what happens to the plywood between storms or the records sales of it every year, must be a whole lot of teardrops being built)) As I recall, after the brush with Ivan the terrible last year and the statistically the odds increase of a direct hit every year that passes you don't have one in your neighborhood. You would think that people in the gulf region would have thought a little more of these situations. Especially after watching last years Tropical season hitting and criss-crossing Florida and else where like it did. I guess in this case many people just have to live it or see it first hand to grasp the scope of what it is really like and things that are taken for granted liked electricity and running water and A/C etc. etc. are gone for weeks and months sometimes. Remember that all those Old 'timer's stories, we all heard about these growing up and those storms we all have have heard them talk about, but never heeded as outlandish embellished fabrications of a past time gone by. Their is now a new generation of storytellers has been initated to keep the tradition alive and hopefully a new generation will learn from them. I'll bet this one where ever it goes or ends up, people will give it a wide berth and take heed the warnings that are given. Trust me, we are watching it here like a Hawk

[madjack]

Woody that could not have been said any better, as I explain it to people it is a form of N.I.M.B.Y(not in my back yard). I think for the next several years because of Ivan and the Florida 4 and Katrina/Rita people will get up and move when they are warned/ordered. As Gov Blanco said when Rita came in "if your gonna stay tattoo your name and social on your arm so we know who ya are"
keep on watchin' and keep that powder dry
madjack

[Woody]

Well I typed it fast and after reading it again sorry about the typos and grammer, Oh well I guess I should proof read better, maybe next time Ya right who am I kidding

[madjack]

..it always helps if the reader can read and interpret typonese
madjack

[Woody]

You way too funny, anyway I hope it gets the point across some what

[IraRat]

Woody, two things:

With this coming from the west, is this a very big deal for us, since it's going over land first?

Also, what the hell is up with all of these python stories? I've been in Florida 12 years and this is the first I've heard of them.

[cracker39]

We're watching it. The latest projection we saw this morning seems to take it toward the lower east coast, towards Woody and Ira. But, there are different projections, depending on where you look. We live between Tampa and Orlando, and hopefully, we will only get some wind and rain. Not like last year, then the eyes of 3 of the 4 to hit Florida came within 20 miles of us, one right over us and another only a few miles west of us. Yep, we got hammered.

But, we have a really sturdy house, and had no major damage, just lots of limbs and debris all over the yard, my old steel utility shed got one corner crushed, and the tarp was ripped from my "portable garage". I'll build a new and sturdier shed soon and hope a big limb doesn't come down on it.

Being a native Floridian, I am used to hurricanes, and we know how to prepare. The only thing I need and don't have is a generator, and haven't gotten one yet. We keep candles and flashlights handy though, and have my camp stove for cooking if the power goes out. I can't ever remember evacuating, except to go to a neighbor's house when I was a kid. If I was in a mobile or manufactured home, I would seriously consider it.

If anyone saw the hurricane scenes in the opening episode of the TV program "Invasion", it was realistic to a point and the scenes were accurate with one exception. They added lots of thunder and lightning which you don't get with a hurricane. It's just extremely high winds and rain, whcih are noisy enough. We do get plenty of thunder and lighning with thunderstorms though, and Polk county, Florida, where we live is the lightning capitol of the world. (http://www.curiogrove.com/fulgurites/ bottom of 1st paragraph)

[cracker39]

I want to add that when I said we got hammered last year, I wasn't trying to make it sound like the disasters of the hurricanes that hit the Gulf coasts this year. My Dad is 91 and has seen the worst of the Florida hurricanes, and he readily admits that the one that hit New Orleans did far worse damage than anything he has seen. Just wanted to make that clear.

[TonyCooper]

I think the damage has to do with the angle of attack of the storm. Those perpendicular hits are devastating!. Witness Camille, Andrew, Hugo, and this year Katrina and Rita. All hit the coast at 90 degrees angles straight on.

Those happen more in the Gulf states when the storm is heading due north or on the Atlantic coast when the storm hits coming from the east heading due west.