Posted on 08/16/2004 11:08:09 AM PDT by tbpiper
I hope it's satire, if not...
I am a weather nut, always have been. I would probably be a meteorologist by now if I liked math more. That said, I should probably watch my facts with someone such as you around. ;-) Charley was quite a storm, I'm sure he will be studied intently for years to come.
Is Wilkinson going to retain John Edwards and sue someone over this?
Someone call this guy and say, "Duh!". There was a hurricane warning for the FL West coast. What does this guy not understand about that?
I'm suprised at all the shoddy construction that is allowed in the coastal areas. 40 years ago people built their houses in Florida with reinforced masonry block walls, roof systems anchored to the footings and storm shutters.
Preparing for storms was routine. Fill the bathtubs with water, fill up the milk jugs, throw all the patio and yard furniture into the swimming pool, gas up the cars, fill up a couple of jerrycans with gas, get some sterno and canned food then drop the storm shutters, get out the radio and hunker down.
I'm with you!
Thanks for adding the 'duh' to Floirduh.
This is exactly true. We live in Cape Coral and were following this storm and were all prepared. As we were watching the local news the local guys started noticing it was moving east of the projected track, and actually had a National Weather Service guy on the phone and asked him about it - he brushed them off and said that it moving east was "within the forecast track" and that this was forecast all along. But this late in the game any additional pinpointing would help. To us here in Ft. Myers/Cape Coral it is a BIG DEAL if it is heading straight for us. The NWS professionals wouldn't confirm the local guys observations.
Well, whatever.. but when the local guys said that it would hit Cape Coral head-on within a half hour as a Cat. 4 and the power then went out we all piled into the bathroom with a mattress over us and the battery operated radio. We were glued to the radio, it was our only means of knowing what was going on outside. The same local news channel we were watching on TV was being broadcast on radio.
While we were listening, and they said it would hit us within five minutes, the Emergency Alert System warning came on and preempted the local radio. The National Weather service message actually said that the storm was going to make landfall in an area "between Tampa and Naples." Well, duh.. but Tampa and Naples are more than two hours apart on the highway. I'd much rather listen to the local forecasters who were down to the minute with their forecast than have it preempted by an absolutely WORTHLESS message. At that point I felt the EAS was interfering with important info we could use.
After the message was over we caught them saying that the storm shifted a little north and was heading for Charlotte Harbor. So more than just the initial forecast being off the mark, I think the real problem was that they wouldn't admit it! The gov't shouldn't have interfered and used the EAS when they didn't have any useful info.
Anyway, we were within five minutes of this thing blasting us and it missed us by a hair. I feel VERY fortunate and a little guilty at this point. We did see QUITE a storm though.
How many times have we watched hurricanes take sudden turns (unpredicted)? Many many many. This guy's silly.
Well .. I'm glad you and your family are safe. I've only experienced one hurricane (in NY). I was at a school dance when the storm hit unexpectedly. The power went out and we had a few broken windows. Pretty mild compared to Charley.
If you have all this info about the storm, you should contact Shep; he seemed very concerned about that situation. I think he's still in Florida.
I'm impressed with your parsing ability. Let me try:
snapper...hmmm. Oh, I know...it's just a fish. And
jk....this one's easy....abreviation for 'jerk'.
tbpiper,
Very good! Peace.
Born in Tampa some 50+ years ago, raised on the panhandle coast, we know that hurricanes often take unexpected turns. OTOH, it is darned if you do and darned if you don't when it comes to safety precautions for a major metropolitan area like Tampa. If you don't leave early, you don't get out and could be stuck on the road during the storm.
It was Bush's fault.
Journalistic malpractice of the worst sort.
The writer is a poorly educated soul whose science and math stopped at the third grade level.
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