Hurricane Frances Updates & News

[Fruitcake]

Just checking in from Northwest Broward County. Things have seemed to calmed down, but the shutters are still up and last night we received minimum hurricane force wind gusts, as well as sustained tropical storm force winds. A tree is down across the street as well as many more in our development. I believe the worst has gone through, although we are still expecting some more nasty weather as Frances passes through the state.

Unfortunately, my grandparents as well as a couple of my aunts and uncles, live in Port St. Lucie in manufactured (mobile) homes, and I don't believe that they will have a home to return to. They all evacuated the area, thank goodness, but I am very concerned about their homes. My grandparents live in Savannah Club in Port St. Lucie, so if anyone has any info about what is going on in regards to damage, please let me know. Thanks for the pixie dust and prayers. It looks as if we will need it for quite awhile.

14 days till our 10th anniversary trip to WDW! [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]

[ September 05, 2004, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: Fruitcake ]

[Ed]

Originally posted by Meryl70:
Tune into the weather channel. They have someone on location near downtown Orlando giving reports. Anyone there who can give us a Sunday morning update on the area around the parks?

Talked to my DW a little while ago; she's a CM who's on the hurricane "ride-out" team (she's been there since Friday! ) - - - she reports intermittent very heavy bands of rain, heavy winds, but no immediate reports of major damage on property.
________
NH80

[Calamity Jane]

I live pretty close to property and we haven't had anything majorly bad. Lots of wind and rain but no big damage as I can see. We've got lots of branches and junk in our yard but it doesn't look like anyone's roof has blown off yet. And we seem to be in a good area for power...we only lost it for a little bit during Charley and haven't lost it thus far in Frances. They keep flickering every so often but no complete outage.

It's so weird not working at all this weekend...

[WDWdriver]

Originally posted by Meryl70:
Tune into the weather channel. They have someone on location near downtown Orlando giving reports. Anyone there who can give us a Sunday morning update on the area around the parks?

I live a few minutes southwest of WDW. We are experiencing strong gusty winds (40 - 60 mph) and occasional heavy rain. This will continue most of the day. So far there has been nothing that would likely cause structural damage at Disney. AK will be hardest hit with trees down and a lot of debris.

[ September 05, 2004, 10:05 AM: Message edited by: WDWdriver ]

[goofygirl67]

JoDisney, we are getting alot more winds now. We even lost power for about 2hrs. There are some trees down blocking roads.
Right now we are not getting much rain but the winds are what's doing the damage. Our beaches are getting blasted.
Is it me or did the last satalite pictures show Frances moving north?

[TiggerRPh]

Got off the phone with Dining...so apparently, they're working.

[Zebra]

I'm here. I managed to get to sleep around 3:30. I guess we lost power for a bit but it's back on. The cable went out for a bit, too but the modem stayed on. Right now we're getting pretty big gusts (I live 20 minutes from WDW in the Ocoee area)and quite a bit of rain. None of the trees in my complex have gone down yet. We still have many hours of this.

[ September 05, 2004, 12:29 PM: Message edited by: Zebra ]

[Tink19]

The wind is really picking up here in Bradenton. The eye is going to come really close to me . We had power go out a few times lastnight and once this morning. The wind is mostly what we have right now. Didn't get sleep till about 3 in the morning. I hope it misses me! I'll be back in a little bit. Thanks for all the pixie dust guys. Looks like next weekend we might have another storm to worry about [img]graemlins/shakehead.gif[/img] . Don't know how much more I can take of this!

[Zebra]

It's still just rainy and gusty here. No damage as of yet. They're telling us we should be feeling the worst of it in about a half hour or so.

[[BS]Mickey]

Currently WDW is about 40-50miles north of what was left of the eye. Winds are about 35-55mph with occasional gusts above 60. Some damage, but nothing really major. The power here hasn't gone out longer than a few seconds. Our water is out, though. It went out after Charley too, so we had a boil water notice for 5 days.

So far so good..... [img]graemlins/silly.gif[/img]

[JoDisney]

Brenda, Check out www.wesh.com for the projected path of Frances. I hate to tell you, but there is a category 2 or 3 coming right behind. It is Ivan. I am calling it Ivan the Terrible. Orlando channel 2 had 5 day predicted path that they could not bring themselves to tell the viewers. I cannot believe it. JoAnn

[ September 05, 2004, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: JoDisney ]

[Harriet]

I am posting this for all to read and help if you can.
Sunday, September 5, 2004 - 2:00PM

It appears as though Orlando has dodged a bullet, at least thus far. Our maximum sustained winds here right now are 41MPH, with the highest reported gust at 64MPH. The Space Coast (Kennedy Space Center / NASA Launch Complex), is reporting the higest gust of the storm at 124MPH. They have been particularly hard hit, along with the rest of the coast line.

Right now it appears as though the southeastern part of the state has been hardest hit by Frances. More than 2 million are without power.

To be honest, this is far less than we anticipated. I know we're only halfway through the storm, and that some more severe weather could be coming up on us, but we're all pretty amazed thus far.

Of course, now they are talking about Hurricane Ivan, who is projected to come ashore on Friday. Yes, ANOTHER **** HURRICANE. This one went from a Categor 1 storm earlier today to a Category 3 storm this afternoon.

I would really like to ask everyone who can, to please make a donation to the American Red Cross. They are about to embark on the largest deployment of their history in Florida to support those who are without homes, power, etc.

Let me add a personal plea on this matter. We just got done spending 6 days without power. We were very fortunate that we were able to get to a hotel and ride it out there. That is not the case for many. Your house becomes unlivable. After 2 days in the Florida heat, the interior temperature can be as high as 80 or 90 degrees, with at least 90% humidity. There are those whose houses have been destroyed. You can go to:

www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

You can donate cash, products, even spare change. You can donate online, by phone, or by mail. Please, give what you can and help out all the families in Florida who are going without because of Frances.

[DisneyMomof3]

I was suppose to be in Florida this Labor Day weekend, but my plans were changed and I am glad. My family is now safe. I am now due to arrive in Orlando Thurs. Sept 9th. Because I booked and off site hotel this was the only weekend I could get or lose my money. My husband and I worked really hard to get the money to take our children to WDW. With these financally straining times we picked the value season to save a little money. We wanted to give our children a little bit of happiness. My question is this: Will Ivan be upon Florida between Sept. 9th - 13th. Should I just call it a day and cut my losses and thank God my family is safe and will continue to be? Or should I forge ahead and go? I didn't think it could be possible for two such powerful hurricanes to hit within a week of each other(Ivan now has powerful winds). By the tracking systems it seems that Ivan might just pass into the gulf or hit the lower part of Flordia. I feel so badly for the residence there. I really value everyones opinion on these boards. What should I do?

[pjbs35a]

Check here For Ivan updates. Still too early to tell.

[Main Street Jim]

We're alright here where we're at, just SE of the Magic Kingdom, near Downtown Disney. Haven't been outside recently, but saw some downed trees earlier. We briefly lost power this morning, but came back up around noon and been up ever since.

Watching the news, Vero got hit pretty hard. Been trying to get a hold of my dad down there, but not getting an answer. When I talked to my step-mom last night, she told me that the *HUGE* tree they had in the front yard - that's been there ever since we built the house almost 30 years ago - is down. Luckily it fell away from the house and driveway and out toward the street. Called my mom this morning, and she said she talked to her friends down there, that said some of the old beachfront restaurants and hotels that were there when I was growing up, are GONE - due to the beach eroding so bad with this storm. I'm hoping everything is alright with them down there. I *may* call into work tomorrow and drive down and make sure everything's alright down there.

Funny thing is, I *was* on vacation this week, but Frances killed those plans...LOLOL

[pjbs35a]

Thanks for the update.


TROPICAL STORM FRANCES ADVISORY NUMBER 48
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
5 PM EDT SUN SEP 05 2004

...FRANCES HEADING FOR THE NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO...COULD
REGAIN HURRICANE STRENGTH...

AT 5 PM EDT...2100Z...THE HURRICANE WARNING HAS BEEN EXTENDED
SOUTHWARD FROM THE MOUTH OF THE SUWANNEE RIVER TO ANNA MARIA
ISLAND. A HURRICANE WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT FOR THE GULF COAST OF
FLORIDA FROM ANNA MARIA ISLAND TO DESTIN.

AT 5 PM EDT...2100Z...THE HURRICANE WARNING HAS BEEN DOWNGRADED TO A
TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR THE EAST COAST OF FLORIDA FROM NORTH OF
JUPITER INLET NORTHWARD TO FLAGLER BEACH...INCLUDING LAKE
OKEECHOBEE.

AT 5 PM EDT...2100Z...ALL WARNINGS FROM JUPITER INLET SOUTHWARD TO
FLORIDA CITY HAVE BEEN DISCONTINUED. A TROPICAL STORM WARNING
REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE FLORIDA PENINSULA...ON THE WEST
COAST...FROM SOUTH OF ANNA MARIA ISLAND SOUTHWARD AROUND THE
PENINSULA TO OCEAN REEF...AND FOR ALL OF THE FLORIDA KEYS...
INCLUDING FLORIDA BAY AND THE DRY TORTUGAS. A TROPICAL STORM
WARNING ALSO REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NORTH OF FLAGLER BEACH TO
ALTAMAHA SOUND.

AT 5 PM EDT...2100Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM FRANCES WAS
LOCATED BY RADAR AND SURFACE OBSERVATIONS NEAR LATITUDE 28.0
NORTH...LONGITUDE 82.2 WEST OR ABOUT 20 MILES EAST OF TAMPA
FLORIDA.

FRANCES IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 10 MPH AND THIS
MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS. THE CENTER OF
FRANCES SHOULD MOVE OVER THE NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO LATER
TONIGHT OR EARLY MONDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE DECREASED TO NEAR 70 MPH GUSTS BUT
FRANCES COULD REGAIN HURRICANE STRENGTH OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 230 MILES...370 KM
FROM THE CENTER.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE FROM SURFACE OBSERVATIONS IS 975
MB...28.79 INCHES.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS
BATTERING WAVES CONTINUE ALONG THE NORTH FLORIDA EAST COAST BUT
SHOULD GRADUALLY SUBSIDE. STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 5 FEET ABOVE
NORMAL LEVELS IS EXPECTED IN LAKE OKEECHOBEE. ALONG THE SOUTHWEST
FLORIDA COAST...STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 1 TO 3 FEET ABOVE NORMAL
TIDE LEVELS IS EXPECTED SOUTH OF THE PATH OF FRANCES. STORM SURGE
FLOODING OF UP TO 4 TO 6 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS IS EXPECTED
ALONG THE NORTHEAST GULF COAST OF FLORIDA.

RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 8 TO 12 INCHES...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS...
TO NEAR 20 INCHES...ARE EXPECTED OVER THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES
IN ASSOCIATION WITH FRANCES.

ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE OVER PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND NORTH
FLORIDA TODAY.

REPEATING THE 5 PM EDT POSITION...28.0 N... 82.2 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 10 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED
WINDS... 70 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE... 975 MB.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...PLEASE MONITOR
PRODUCTS ISSUED BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE
CENTER AT 8 PM EDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 11 PM
EDT.

[ September 05, 2004, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: pjbs35a ]

[J9]

any word yet on whether or nt MCO is going to be open tomorrow afternoon? I gotta catch my flight back to Orlando!!!

[SallyP]

MCO site says to contact your airline. Of course the airline will say to contact MCO
Orlando Airport MCO

[ September 05, 2004, 06:56 PM: Message edited by: SallyP ]

[TiggerRPh]

Originally posted by J9:
any word yet on whether or nt MCO is going to be open tomorrow afternoon? I gotta catch my flight back to Orlando!!!

No word yet from our onsite sources.

[Calamity Jane]

Hey....getting another bout of wind and rain here. It was pretty calm for awhile and I took my friend up to MGM to pick up her cat before the curfew hit. Didn't hear anything about damage...but I did see some trees down in the roadways from the parking lot. Once this thing seems to have died down for good I'm gonna see if they need help cleaning things up there...we're hopefully still opening tomorrow.

And ~knock on wood~ I haven't lost power yet.