[lizardlady]

There's a tropical storm in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The worst of the storm is supposed to hit the central part of Florida late Monday into early Tuesday. We got hit with an early band of storms this afternoon. It spooked me and I don't know why. We get worse weather in summer thunderstorms than what hit this afternoon. Still, it spooked me. Spooked the cats too. They normally ignore summer storms. They were all in full "this is scary" mode during the storm. The ones that weren't hiding under the furniture were bug eyed and spooky acting.

I know we have members who live in Florida. Be careful, okay folks?

[~Christina]

My daughter lives in the Tampa Bay area and is not overly thrilled about this storm. She works at a Music store and it floods damn near every time there is a decent amount of rain , so tomorrow " Monday" most of the morning will be spent with all employees called in to haul all the instruments and a gazillion drums sets up on risers to deal with the possibilty of flooding.

I lived there for 32 years .. I miss the Pelicans ... but thats about it lol .. The yearly depressions and Tropical storms just annoyed me.. let alone threats of hurricaines and the every increasing home owners insurance. Gah .

Altho where I live now.... the storms that blow through are actually much worse than the stuff in Florida.. go figure.

Stay safe Liz and anyone effected by this.

[lizardlady]

It's weird.The storm is scheduled to make landfall north of me. I'm still spooked by this one and have no idea why.

[seesaw]

I live in Jacksonville and the storm is hitting us now. Early today we had a tornado warning because of the storm and had to evacuate out of our offices for about 30 minutes. It's been a little scary, but it could be worse.

Seesaw

I live in the Tampa Bay Area, and I'm finding that the storm is much weaker than originally projected. The reason for this is strong wind shear over the Gulf (thank God for wind shear). Wind shear literally breaks the storm into separate pieces (the eye of the storm was torn off early Monday morning and currently is just south of Louisiana).

I think we dodged a bullet.

[lizardlady]

Glad to hear everyone is okay.

This kind of storm does not usually spook me. I have my hurricane kit ready if I need it. Well, this storm reminded me I need to restock a few things. Don't know why, but this one really spooked me. I still have the jitters today with the squall lines that keep moving through. Fear is not always a rational beast, is it?

Storm had the critters nervous too. The real fraidy cats were hiding under the bed. Mikey, who is not usually bothered by storms, was nervous, jumpy and wanted to be near me. The horses didn't like it either. BG kept hiding under the truck. If I went outside he would slink out with his ears and tail down. Poor babies. No way to reassure them, 'specially since I was jumpy myself.

I heard some people interviewed on TV last night that wondered what all the fuss was about. Obviously they've never lived through a bad storm. I agree with the emergency management folks who viewed it as good practice for when a big one hits.

[Cat_Lover_58]

My sister and my dad live in Naples and I've not heard anything frightening on their end. They're inland by a few miles. Our local paper of yesterday made it look more ominous than it really is...

[Clone_My_DNA]

I love thunderstorms.

Originally Posted by Clone_My_DNA

I love thunderstorms.

I admit I do too. I love the rain and lightening. When I lived with my aunt many years ago she would hide in the middle of the room cowering. How unpleasant and terrifying it was for her and I only made her fear worse by dancing about outside.

I live in Central Saskatchewan, Canada. We are, usually, far outside the traditional tornado zone. However, they have begun to appear the last few years with increasing frequency. It terrifies me. Global Warming I figure.

[lizardlady]

A tropical storm is a thunderstorm on steroids. They kill people and damage property.

I live in an area that was in the crosshairs of FIVE hurricanes in 2004. They caused extensive damage in this area. People lost their homes. My house was damaged enough I ended up having to replace it. Sorry, not my idea of fun.

I will admit many, many years ago I enjoyed thunderstorms too, not tropical storms, plain old thunderstorms. Then I had several near misses with lightening, including watching it hit our power pole outside the house. There were flames shooting out of the box on the pole. It blew out the wiring in the house. Then there was the time lightening hit a pine tree near me. Blew the tree to bits. I stopped thinking thunderstorms were fun.

[IchbinkeinTeufel]

tornado hq - tornado tracker and current tornado warnings

I find that handy when I get worried about my American friends. xD Hope y'all survived the storms.

Originally Posted by lizardlady

A tropical storm is a thunderstorm on steroids. They kill people and damage property.

I live in an area that was in the crosshairs of FIVE hurricanes in 2004. They caused extensive damage in this area. People lost their homes. My house was damaged enough I ended up having to replace it. Sorry, not my idea of fun.

I will admit many, many years ago I enjoyed thunderstorms too, not tropical storms, plain old thunderstorms. Then I had several near misses with lightening, including watching it hit our power pole outside the house. There were flames shooting out of the box on the pole. It blew out the wiring in the house. Then there was the time lightening hit a pine tree near me. Blew the tree to bits. I stopped thinking thunderstorms were fun.

The Tampa Bay Area is sitting on a powder keg. In 2004, we had 4 (maybe 5) hurricanes that were indirect hits. We haven't had a direct hit since 1960. The Florida of 1960 is much different than the Florida of today. Our population is probably 10X greater than the population of 1960, but our roads haven't kept up with our increase in population.

The only good thing about a hurricane (if there is a good thing) is the advanced warning. However, the evacuation routes cannot handle the volume. For example, I'm told to go to the nearest State Road (but that won't work because State Roads have traffic lights on them), drive to an Interstate to either go north on I-75 or Northeast on I-4.

I don't want to come off like Chicken Little, but if a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane directly hits the Tampa Bay Area, we're going to have billions of dollars in property damage, and much more importantly, hundreds (if not thousands) of lives lost.

It's time for the Tampa Bay Area to wake up before it's too late.

[cakeladie]

I feel for all of you. I live in California the the San Francisco Bay Area and when we have an earth quake you don't have time to react.

We had one right before halloween years ago. My husband me, brother in law and my sister in law were all in the front room kitchen where I was making cupcakes it was like someone shook the house and I just heard my daughter scream but it was over before we could even wrap our head around it

Keep safe everyone

[lizardlady]

Kindness, if you are Chicken Little then so am I. When, not if, a storm makes a direct hit on the Bay area it is going to be devastating.

You are soooo right about the evacuation routes. Infrastructure development, especially roadways, has not kept up with population growth. I could do a whole rant on what so called "development" has done to the state, but would be a ranting raving tangent to the topic. The roads in the stat turn into long parking lots when people try to evacuate.

Do you remember the fear when it looked like Charlie was going to make landfall right up the middle of Tampa Bay? If it had I have trouble conceiving the damage that would have taken place. We are 12 years down the road, with 12 years worth of growth in the area. The effects would be catastrophic.

I mentioned before that I live in the area that was in the cross hairs of the 2004 storms. Many of the clients I work with were in the direct path of the storms. Many did not evacuate for Charlie because it was supposed to make landfall north of them. One family I worked with the mother and her four boys huddled under a mattress they carried to the living room as a tree crashed down on top of the house. They lost everything. Thankfully none of them were physically injured.

Remember "Florida blue roofs" from that year? For those who don't live here, people put blue tarps over roof damage until they could get the roof repaired. The area where I live and work is very low income. Some of those houses had "blue roofs" for years because the owners didn't have insurance and could not afford to have the roof fixed.

The power was out in my area for almost two weeks after Charlie. I couldn't get back to my house for almost a week because of local flooding. I'll let you guess what the house smelled like with a fridge and freezer full of rotten food. Once I was able to get home, I'd leave work, drive to my mother's house to fill every bucket and trash can I owned to haul water home to the horses. I'd dump the water, feed the beasts, then drive like a demon to get back to my mother's house because of the curfew.

[lizardlady]

Cake, I don't know how you guys deal with earthquakes. The unpredictability would make me buggy. At least with TSs and hurricanes we have days warning to prepare or evacuate.

I laugh at myself. Years ago I was one of those die hards who said the only way I would evacuate was when the police came and hauled me off. They actually used to do that. Now if there is an order to evacuate law enforcement not only doesn't force people to evacuate, they tell people once the storm hits don't call us for help. Anyway, I changed my mind about evacuating after I saw the damage Andrew did in South Florida in '91. Now I say I'll lead the parade out of town if we are told to evacuate. I have my evacuation kit ready to go. If the time comes, the cats, dog and I are getting in the truck and getting the hell out of Dodge.

[cakeladie]

Liz what do you do about your animals ? How do the cats handle the storms

My cousin was born and raised in Tulsa. Her husband had to transfer for a little over a year to the LA area. So they moved their family to the LA area. Well LA had a big earth quake (this was years ago ). My cousin was so scared she packed up her car and the kids and said she would see her hubby back in Tulsa when his assignment was over. She only came back to California when my grandmother died and that was 15 years ago.

So I feel for you guys.

Liz,

I'm with you as far as those idiots go who refuse to evacuate even if a Cat 5, with sustained winds of 200 mph and 20+ inches of rain, is going to directly hit.

First responders, like you said, will not risk their lives in that situation. All they can do is tell these people "good luck."

[cakeladie]

With Florida being such a tourist state to bad they could not do a special tax on hotels or something for the roads and evacuation routes

My husband lived in Florida for a while and would like us to move there in a few years but the hurricanes scare me

[lizardlady]

Cake, if I evacuate the cats and dog go with me. The cats each have a carrier. All of us load up in the truck and take off. The horses are on their own. With ten acres of open pasture I'm hoping they can dodge flying debris.

Funny story about the horses following Hurricane Charlie in 2004. Charlie was the first of the storms that hit that year. I had four horses at the time. Most of them were not close buddies. It was days following the storms before I could get home. The roads were flooded. When I finally got home all of the horses were huddled together in the pasture. They looked like some strange 16 legged critter. They all stayed huddled together when they came up to the barn. I guess the storm spooked them. Because they stay behind we leave breakaway halters on them with my phone number written on the halters in case they get out. That reminds me. I need to talk to the vet about microchipping Kieran.

The cats and BG are all microchipped too, just in case they get lost during evacuation.

Cake, I'll take our hurricanes instead of earthquakes. At least with hurricanes we get days of warning.

You asked how the animals react. During the storm earlier this week the cats either hide under the bed or clung to me. BG acted nervous too. Kieran kept coming up and putting his nose in my stomach which is a sign he wanted reassurance.