Hurricane Frances blog 9/6/04 7:55AM At about 2AM, I heard the sounds of power lines shorting and the lights were out again. I was amazed they stayed on as long as they did initially and even more amazed that they came on last night before going off again this morning. While we were in the calm of the eye (which is huge, probably 50+ miles wide), apparently the power crews were able to restore power to a large area including the house. The 2AM outage is clearly only a few dozen houses, unlike the earlier outage, as I can see some houses on other streets that are lit. The winds are out of the south now along with sheets of rain. The winds vary from 10 to 40 MPH – that’s where it rains sideways. Fortunately, no hurricane force winds. The side yard is a pool, but the lake is at a normal level so it will drain off. The boats are OK. So far, only the big satellite dish is the major damage. I’ll get more pix after there’s more sun. We took down two of the North side sliding door panels because it’s real calm on that side. …and that’s where the grill is for making breakfast. Deb was so eager for coffee that she got out the camping coffee pot that runs off of 12 volts and plugged it into the truck. The transformation back to human is complete. We are now on generator: small a/c unit (#1 priority), tv, computer and the remaining power is rotated among the freezer and two refrigerators. The floor in the office is a maze of wires that are easy to trip over. It’s called power management – the generator can take only so much and if the lights start to dim you have to quickly disconnect something or it stops. Here’s a lesson for those considering Voice Over IP phone service (“VOIP”, like vonage.com or possibly your cable company): if the power goes out for the whole neighborhood, it means that the cable company equipment for that neighborhood goes out too. That means the phone goes down. I noticed that the first power outage which covered at least this neighborhood, caused the cable modem/tv service to go out. The more localized outage has the service up and allows me to connect to you now. I don’t have VOIP myself, but I’ve been very tempted by the low rates and the opportunity to stop paying the local phone company. We’re still getting news reports via small dish satellite and off-air antenna. It’s amazing that the 60’ tv tower has not been blown over. There’s still plenty of red splotches on the radar – take a look for yourself at wtvt.com, wfla.com and wtsp.com . Don’t forget the pictures at Kempter.com . It looks like we’re just going to get more soaking from here on in and everyone is OK. Lots of cleanup to do. Ugh. Paul ---------------- Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 11:18 PM We are in the eye of the hurricane/tropical storm; winds are calm; power was just restored after being out for 7 hours. Frances will now move off shore (at what seems like walking speed) and pick up strength. I expect wind and rain to come from the West and Southwest later tonight. This is good news, as this hits the house from the landside and neighboring houses will buffer us from the full effect of the winds. Earlier today we were exposed to the winds from the lakeside (facing North) and we were at the complete mercy of the storm. The big satellite dish was wrenched around, breaking it’s mounting frame but not falling down. The yard is littered with leaves and branches. Our neighbor’s metal shed tore apart. Yesterday the water management district opened the dam and lowered the lake about 2’, leaving room for all the rain we expect. This also prevented the waves from coming over the seawall. It was tempting to get on the Sea Doo and go play in the waves, but I didn’t. See Kempter.com for some pictures. Paul _____________________________________________ Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 6:38 AM It looks like we’re going to get a direct hit from Hurricane Frances later today. Fortunately, it has to cross the state very slowly and lose energy on the way, so it will be a tropical storm by the time it gets here. The storm is as big as the state, so we’re getting some very strong winds now. To watch the path, check www.noaa.gov “5 day tracking map” We boarded up all the sliding glass doors facing North, where the wind is coming from and we have total exposure for 2.5 miles of water. We didn’t have an easy way to board up the upstairs windows, so if anything is going to fail, it’s there. The winds should turn to be from the East as it passes by tonight. The house has no windows on the East side, but the boat and other things are then exposed. The generator and fuel are ready, along with a window AC unit. Since it’s sub-hurricane winds, I’m not concerned about personal harm, only property damage. Obviously we still have power, but I don’t expect that to last. I’ll update later if power is still on. I doubt that the hurricane will turn like Charley did. Charley was supposed to come within 5 miles of the house but turned away so we had no storm at all. It was a tightly packed storm so we never got any rain. The eye was only a few miles wide. Frances has a 50 mile wide eye. Paul