About 2.5 million residents were told to evacuate their homes Thursday ahead
of what could be the most powerful storm to hit Florida in a decade. Other
people in the 300-mile stretch covered by the hurricane warning rushed to
fortify their homes with plywood and storm shutters, and buy water, gas and
canned food.
Residents and tourists in cars, trucks and campers clogged highways in
the biggest evacuation ever ordered in Florida, fleeing inland as mighty
Hurricane Frances threatened the state with its second battering in three
weeks.
Already a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds and the potential to push
ashore waves up to 15 feet high, Frances could make itself felt in the state
by midmorning Friday.
At 5 p.m. EDT, the hurricane was centered 375 miles southeast of West
Palm Beach and was moving northwest at close to 10 mph. Hurricane-force
winds extended up to 80 miles from its center.
This could be the first time since 1950 that two major storms have hit
Florida so close together. On Aug. 13, Hurricane Charley splintered billions
of dollars worth of homes, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and
killed 27 people when it tore across the state.
Charley's example - and Frances' tremendous size, at 1,000 miles
across, or about as big as the state of Texas - prodded people like Linda
Silvestri, 58, to get out of the way. Silvestri, who lives in Palm Bay on
the central Florida coast, headed inland to Gainesville to be near a
hospital because she just received a kidney transplant.
"I hope I have a house when I get back," she said.
The hurricane warning covered most of the state's eastern coast, from
Florida City, near the state's southern tip, to Flagler Beach, north of
Daytona Beach. Forecasters couldn't say with certainty where Frances would
come ashore, just that it would strike late Friday or early Saturday.
About 14.6 million of Florida's 17 million people live in the areas
under hurricane watches and warnings.
Residents and tourists streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Traffic backed up for miles on sections of Interstate 95, the main
north-south highway along the state's east coast, and was also heavy on
parts of I-4, which crosses the peninsula to connect Daytona Beach, Orlando
and Tampa.
Geoff Connors of Fort Pierce sat in a line of about 50 cars slowly
merging onto I-95 in Fort Pierce. He had enough cash and clothes to get
through about five days, though he wasn't sure where he would end up.
"I figured it was smarter to get out of here now. It was a snap
decision," Connors said.
Most people who were told to leave were in South Florida - 300,000 in
Palm Beach County, 250,000 in Broward County and 320,000 in Miami-Dade
County. All of Miami Beach, with its Art Deco hotels and flashy nightclubs
and restaurants, was under an evacuation order.
The storm and the evacuations it forces are certain to spoil Labor Day
outings and make a mess of holiday travel across the Southeast.
Erika and Brian Marwood, who moved from Colorado to Orlando two months
ago and huddled in their bathroom with glow sticks and candles while Charley
rushed overhead, made their way this time to a Holiday Inn in Tifton, Ga.
"We thought we were doing a good thing getting away from the snow, but
there are no hurricanes in Colorado," Erika Marwood said.
Gov. Jeb Bush asked his brother President George W. Bush to declare
Florida a federal disaster area and make storm victims eligible for recovery
aid.
Federal officials promised they had enough people and supplies in the
state to handle two disaster-relief operations at once.
"We were successful with Charley because we were massive, overwhelming
and fast. For this event I want us to be massive, overwhelming and fast
squared," said Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
People flocked to airports, hoping to get out before all flights were
grounded. Some trudged through long lines at ticket counters only to find
their flights had been canceled. Hotels and motels inland filled up, and gas
stations ran dry.
Florida rescinded tolls on major roads and said lanes on some highways
may be reversed to handle the evacuation traffic. State officials hoped to
avoid a repeat of the mess during Hurricane Floyd in 1999, when 1.3 million
people were told to evacuate the state's east coast and traffic backed up 30
miles or more.
The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral was ordered completely
evacuated for the first time because of the dual threats of high wind and
storm surge.
Many businesses along the Atlantic coast began closing Wednesday.
Stores that were open were stripped of bottled water and canned goods, and
long lines formed outside home supply stores as people hoped for a chance to
buy scarce plywood or generators. The arrival of a delivery truck was met
with raucous applause in Palm Beach County.
Frances is as strong as Charley, and twice its size, with
hurricane-force wind extending up to 80 miles from its center, said Stephen
Baig, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Frances is
also about twice the size of 1992's Hurricane Andrew, the Category 5 storm
that destroyed much of southern Miami-Dade County.
The last time two major storms hit Florida so close together was 54
years ago, when Hurricane Easy hit the Tampa area and Hurricane King struck
Miami about six weeks later. Neither storm was as powerful as Charley or
Frances.

Hardly the choicest choice of words.

pe

On Thu, 2 Sep 2004 23:29:43 +0100, Brendan DJ Murphy wrote:

rushed to fortify their homes with plywood and storm shutters,

I'm sure a bit of ply nailed over a window is going to help stop
100mph+ average winds... Might slow down debris a bit though and save
the glass I guess.

and buy water, gas and canned food.

This I don't understand, they live in an area that gets hit by
hurricanes (huge or small) fairly frequently. Would it not be prudent
to stock up with this stuff at the start of the season? Canned/dried
food has "Best Before" dates 12 to 24+ months into the future and will
be edible long after that, not that is particulary relevant as you'd
rotate the stock in the off season anyway.

I'm gradually checking and building up the winter supplies here "just
in case".

He had enough cash and clothes to get through about five days,

Cash? Well I guess if people stop taking plastic when the power goes
dollar bills are the only useable alternative. Clothes, funny mine
don't fall apart or wear out in 5 days. Might get a bit smelly but a
bucket, soap and water will cure that for me and the clothes...

"I figured it was smarter to get out of here now. It was a snap
decision,"

Following the evacuation shouldn't really be a snap decision, you
should be taking with you at least the essentials for survival, like
your own food, water and warmth (blankets etc). This needs a little
bit of planning, just leaping into your car with your wallet and a bag
of clothes is not responsible behaviour.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Dave Liquorice wrote:

I'm sure a bit of ply nailed over a window is going to help stop
100mph+ average winds... Might slow down debris a bit though and save
the glass I guess.


It's seeing people seal their homes up with ply that suprises me. As the
windspeed increases the air presure drops outside the building, and if there
is no escape for the high presure air inside the building they actually blow
up instead of being blown down.
Protect the glass from flying debris but leave vents open round the house
to equalise the presures....

Les


--
http://www.physics911.org/

"Brendan DJ Murphy" wrote in
:

About 2.5 million residents were told to evacuate their homes Thursday
ahead of what could be the most powerful storm to hit Florida in a
decade. Other people in the 300-mile stretch covered by the hurricane
warning rushed to fortify their homes with plywood and storm shutters,
and buy water, gas and canned food.

Once again we have the interesting situation with the NOAA wind analysis
team suggesting a peak wind of 94kts in the storm at 0130Z today and the NHC
keeping their estimates at 110kts at 0300Z- as their forecasts are in the
public and not scientific interest.

Better to be safe than sorry I suppose !

Richard

"Les &/or Claire" wrote in message
...


It's seeing people seal their homes up with ply that suprises me. As the
windspeed increases the air presure drops outside the building, and if there
is no escape for the high presure air inside the building they actually blow
up instead of being blown down.
Protect the glass from flying debris but leave vents open round the house
to equalise the presures....

I suspect part of the reason is a precaution against looters.
The higher pressure inside effect is one most people are probably
not aware of. During severe gales here you often hear of gable ends
being blown down, but they always fall away from the building.
And on a windy day open a window and watch the curtains. They will
nearly always be sucked towards the window rather than being
blown into the room, as one might expect.

Col
--
Bolton, Lancashire.
160m asl.
http://www.reddwarfer.btinternet.co.uk
http://www.reddwarfer.btinternet.co....rPictures.html

Let me guess.. from the BBC?

---------------------------------------------------------
Hardly the choicest choice of words.

pe