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The Official Hurricane Frances thread...
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Tim G
Well-Known Member
Turnpike torments travelers, but I-95 flows
Florida's Turnpike turned into more than 50 miles of two-lane torment heading toward Central Florida on Thursday as much of Florida's East Coast used it to flee in advance of Hurricane Frances.
Interstate 95, the bane of evacuees from 1999's Hurricane Floyd, filled with traffic but moved far better, at least through Brevard and Volusia counties. East-west roads from there toward Orlando also moved well, though sometimes in starts and stops.
The turnpike became the first choice of many coastal evacuees Thursday as Frances' projected target wobbled between West Palm Beach and Melbourne, said Chris Warren, chief executive officer of Turnpike Enterprise. Also, many people chose to flee inland, rather than north, as they did when Floyd threatened.
Starting with a backup early in the day near the Bee Line Expressway in Orlando, traffic built up until the turnpike became one long jam from Clermont south to the Canoe Creek Service Plaza in Osceola County. Traffic also backed up for miles off the ramp to Interstate 75 and at such critical junctions as State Road 60 in Yeehaw Junction.
Even with the delays, Warren said he was pleased with the turnpike's performance, which matched a state's computer model based on an evacuation of 1.5 million people.
"We're moving vehicles," Warren said. "We've had some minor fender-benders that we know of and people are being really good and real courteous drivers, so that's good."
Assisting the evacuation, the Turnpike Enterprise waived tolls on all its roads in Florida early Thursday. The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority did the same with its toll roads.
Elsewhere, I-95 appeared to move at a steady clip of 30-40 mph through Brevard and Volusia. The Bee Line (State Road 528) filled to capacity but moved steadily from I-95 toward Orlando. State Roads 520, 50 and 408 (the East-West Expressway) did even better, showing little more than routine workday traffic.
As a result, state officials held off on emergency plans to convert one of two eastbound lanes into a third westbound lane on the Bee Line or S.R. 50.
"We actually had a very good day, less crashes than we expected and everything," said Trooper Kim Miller, spokeswoman for the Florida Highway Patrol. "We didn't have to one-lane anything because everything is running smoothly."
It might not have seemed so smooth to evacuees, she conceded. But the key question for many was not traffic jams, but where to go.
Three hours before Brevard County's mandatory evacuation went into effect Thursday, Kris Nighswonger, 34, strapped her 5-year-old son, Nathan, in his car seat among clothes, scrapbooks and photo albums, and headed out of Cape Canaveral.
"I'm very concerned," said Nighswonger, whose apartment is less than a block from the Atlantic Ocean.
As Frances wobbled toward the state, Nighswonger wondered exactly where she should head. She finally decided to drive just a little north to her father's house in New Smyrna Beach.
"He has a generator and is pretty prepared," she said. "Plus, there's a church right behind his house where we could go if we have to."Nearby, John and Nancy LaBella of Avon-by-the-Sea loaded their sport utility vehicle with belongings and a little doubt.After living in Florida for years, John LaBella said he seriously doubted the storm would hit the Space Coast.
"They just don't," he said. "That's why they built Kennedy Space Center here."Warren said he expected the turnpike to do well again today as the evacuation concludes.
Florida's Turnpike turned into more than 50 miles of two-lane torment heading toward Central Florida on Thursday as much of Florida's East Coast used it to flee in advance of Hurricane Frances.
Interstate 95, the bane of evacuees from 1999's Hurricane Floyd, filled with traffic but moved far better, at least through Brevard and Volusia counties. East-west roads from there toward Orlando also moved well, though sometimes in starts and stops.
The turnpike became the first choice of many coastal evacuees Thursday as Frances' projected target wobbled between West Palm Beach and Melbourne, said Chris Warren, chief executive officer of Turnpike Enterprise. Also, many people chose to flee inland, rather than north, as they did when Floyd threatened.
Starting with a backup early in the day near the Bee Line Expressway in Orlando, traffic built up until the turnpike became one long jam from Clermont south to the Canoe Creek Service Plaza in Osceola County. Traffic also backed up for miles off the ramp to Interstate 75 and at such critical junctions as State Road 60 in Yeehaw Junction.
Even with the delays, Warren said he was pleased with the turnpike's performance, which matched a state's computer model based on an evacuation of 1.5 million people.
"We're moving vehicles," Warren said. "We've had some minor fender-benders that we know of and people are being really good and real courteous drivers, so that's good."
Assisting the evacuation, the Turnpike Enterprise waived tolls on all its roads in Florida early Thursday. The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority did the same with its toll roads.
Elsewhere, I-95 appeared to move at a steady clip of 30-40 mph through Brevard and Volusia. The Bee Line (State Road 528) filled to capacity but moved steadily from I-95 toward Orlando. State Roads 520, 50 and 408 (the East-West Expressway) did even better, showing little more than routine workday traffic.
As a result, state officials held off on emergency plans to convert one of two eastbound lanes into a third westbound lane on the Bee Line or S.R. 50.
"We actually had a very good day, less crashes than we expected and everything," said Trooper Kim Miller, spokeswoman for the Florida Highway Patrol. "We didn't have to one-lane anything because everything is running smoothly."
It might not have seemed so smooth to evacuees, she conceded. But the key question for many was not traffic jams, but where to go.
Three hours before Brevard County's mandatory evacuation went into effect Thursday, Kris Nighswonger, 34, strapped her 5-year-old son, Nathan, in his car seat among clothes, scrapbooks and photo albums, and headed out of Cape Canaveral.
"I'm very concerned," said Nighswonger, whose apartment is less than a block from the Atlantic Ocean.
As Frances wobbled toward the state, Nighswonger wondered exactly where she should head. She finally decided to drive just a little north to her father's house in New Smyrna Beach.
"He has a generator and is pretty prepared," she said. "Plus, there's a church right behind his house where we could go if we have to."Nearby, John and Nancy LaBella of Avon-by-the-Sea loaded their sport utility vehicle with belongings and a little doubt.After living in Florida for years, John LaBella said he seriously doubted the storm would hit the Space Coast.
"They just don't," he said. "That's why they built Kennedy Space Center here."Warren said he expected the turnpike to do well again today as the evacuation concludes.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Workers lower lakes and drain marshes
Water experts are moving out as much water as they can, bracing for rain.
A five-minute airboat ride Thursday brought Marvin Montgomery and Curtis Phillips to a metal grate sitting on an overgrown shore of Lake Underhill.
Lying face down on the grate, the two City of Orlando workers used pitchforks to pull up 2-by-6 and 2-by-4 wooden boards stacked on top of one another, forming a dam that kept the lake from draining down a pipe connected to the Upper Floridan Aquifer. Minutes later, with the slats pulled out, water was rushing into the pipe -- and the lake level started to drop.
That ancient system -- similar dams date to Mesopotamia -- is one element of a storm drainage system that will help Orlando cope with the downpour expected this weekend from Hurricane Frances.
Across Central Florida, governments and water managers are lowering lakes, draining marshes and cleaning drainage ditches so they can handle the 10 to 20 inches of rain forecast to fall from Frances in a day's time.But drawing down the region can be slow work -- like draining a bathtub with a straw. And water managers acknowledge that they wish they had more time to get ready.
"We're pushing the system as hard as we can," said Randy Smith, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, which was lowering lake levels Thursday along the Kissimmee River in Osceola County.
Three weeks after Hurricane Charley dropped 4 or more inches of rain on the region, local government officials are bracing for at least three times that much from Frances. So they're moving as much water as possible out of the region, shifting it out of lakes and retention ponds into canals, creeks and -- ultimately -- rivers such as the St. Johns and Kissimmee. Or, if the lake is landlocked, the water is diverted down the kind of deep well that drains Lake Underhill, just south of Orlando Executive Airport.
That's why Montgomery and Phillips were "pulling boards" Thursday, a process other workers repeated at 33 of the city's 94 lakes. "It [the lake] will probably be down 2 feet by Saturday," said John Evertsen, Orlando's assistant supervisor of lake enhancement.
Before Hurricane Charley, city crews "pulled boards" to lower 33 lakes by anywhere from 8 inches to a foot. This week, they drained them another 8 inches to 2 feet, Evertsen said.
"It's like a swimming pool," he said. "If you don't drain it and it rains, it will keep overflowing."
Orlando City Engineer Rick Howard said most lakes are now in the normal-high range or below. The city's priority Thursday was cleaning out stormwater drains clogged by leaves and debris from Hurricane Charley, he said.
In Orange County, officials have drained Lake Conway, Lake Mary Prairie and Lake Orlando by 6 inches to free up more water storage, said Ron Ribaric, assistant project manager for Orange County Public Works Department. Other lakes are at normal or below levels, he said.
In Central Florida, Lake County may have the greatest chance of flooding. Lakes tied to the Ocklawaha River, including lakes Apopka, Harris, Eustis and Griffin, were raised by last month's hurricane. "We cannot get enough water out of those lakes fast enough," said water resources director Jeff Elledge of the St. Johns River Water Management District. He warned that rainfall from Frances likely will trigger flooding of lakefront yards. Earlier this week, water levels along the Clermont Chain were within normal levels for this time of the year. However, several inches of rain could bring water levels up -- too quickly for some lake residents.
Sandbags surrounded grates outside the Smith home in Clermont's Emerald Lakes mobile-home park Thursday. The low-lying park -- one of the most flood-prone spots in the county -- already is soggy.
"We're in trouble," said Joan Smith, 62, who moved to her mobile home in May.
Marshes along the St. Johns River in Brevard and Indian River counties are being lowered to help buffer the waterway from flooding, a major concern for the downstream city of Sanford.
In Osceola County, water managers are dumping water from the lakes tied to the Kissimmee River. Wide-open floodgates at East Lake Tohopekaliga are releasing 3,000 gallons a second. Downstream at Lake Tohopekaliga near Kissimmee, discharge is about 5,500 gallons a second. Farther south, Lake Kissimmee is draining more than enough water every second -- about 22,000 gallons -- to fill a backyard swimming pool.
But the district isn't certain that the Osceola County lakes -- kept in check by drainage controls built a half-century ago -- can be lowered fast enough to absorb a prolonged deluge from Hurricane Frances.
"I couldn't even really speculate," district spokesman Smith said. "The intent is to do everything possible."
Water experts are moving out as much water as they can, bracing for rain.
A five-minute airboat ride Thursday brought Marvin Montgomery and Curtis Phillips to a metal grate sitting on an overgrown shore of Lake Underhill.
Lying face down on the grate, the two City of Orlando workers used pitchforks to pull up 2-by-6 and 2-by-4 wooden boards stacked on top of one another, forming a dam that kept the lake from draining down a pipe connected to the Upper Floridan Aquifer. Minutes later, with the slats pulled out, water was rushing into the pipe -- and the lake level started to drop.
That ancient system -- similar dams date to Mesopotamia -- is one element of a storm drainage system that will help Orlando cope with the downpour expected this weekend from Hurricane Frances.
Across Central Florida, governments and water managers are lowering lakes, draining marshes and cleaning drainage ditches so they can handle the 10 to 20 inches of rain forecast to fall from Frances in a day's time.But drawing down the region can be slow work -- like draining a bathtub with a straw. And water managers acknowledge that they wish they had more time to get ready.
"We're pushing the system as hard as we can," said Randy Smith, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, which was lowering lake levels Thursday along the Kissimmee River in Osceola County.
Three weeks after Hurricane Charley dropped 4 or more inches of rain on the region, local government officials are bracing for at least three times that much from Frances. So they're moving as much water as possible out of the region, shifting it out of lakes and retention ponds into canals, creeks and -- ultimately -- rivers such as the St. Johns and Kissimmee. Or, if the lake is landlocked, the water is diverted down the kind of deep well that drains Lake Underhill, just south of Orlando Executive Airport.
That's why Montgomery and Phillips were "pulling boards" Thursday, a process other workers repeated at 33 of the city's 94 lakes. "It [the lake] will probably be down 2 feet by Saturday," said John Evertsen, Orlando's assistant supervisor of lake enhancement.
Before Hurricane Charley, city crews "pulled boards" to lower 33 lakes by anywhere from 8 inches to a foot. This week, they drained them another 8 inches to 2 feet, Evertsen said.
"It's like a swimming pool," he said. "If you don't drain it and it rains, it will keep overflowing."
Orlando City Engineer Rick Howard said most lakes are now in the normal-high range or below. The city's priority Thursday was cleaning out stormwater drains clogged by leaves and debris from Hurricane Charley, he said.
In Orange County, officials have drained Lake Conway, Lake Mary Prairie and Lake Orlando by 6 inches to free up more water storage, said Ron Ribaric, assistant project manager for Orange County Public Works Department. Other lakes are at normal or below levels, he said.
In Central Florida, Lake County may have the greatest chance of flooding. Lakes tied to the Ocklawaha River, including lakes Apopka, Harris, Eustis and Griffin, were raised by last month's hurricane. "We cannot get enough water out of those lakes fast enough," said water resources director Jeff Elledge of the St. Johns River Water Management District. He warned that rainfall from Frances likely will trigger flooding of lakefront yards. Earlier this week, water levels along the Clermont Chain were within normal levels for this time of the year. However, several inches of rain could bring water levels up -- too quickly for some lake residents.
Sandbags surrounded grates outside the Smith home in Clermont's Emerald Lakes mobile-home park Thursday. The low-lying park -- one of the most flood-prone spots in the county -- already is soggy.
"We're in trouble," said Joan Smith, 62, who moved to her mobile home in May.
Marshes along the St. Johns River in Brevard and Indian River counties are being lowered to help buffer the waterway from flooding, a major concern for the downstream city of Sanford.
In Osceola County, water managers are dumping water from the lakes tied to the Kissimmee River. Wide-open floodgates at East Lake Tohopekaliga are releasing 3,000 gallons a second. Downstream at Lake Tohopekaliga near Kissimmee, discharge is about 5,500 gallons a second. Farther south, Lake Kissimmee is draining more than enough water every second -- about 22,000 gallons -- to fill a backyard swimming pool.
But the district isn't certain that the Osceola County lakes -- kept in check by drainage controls built a half-century ago -- can be lowered fast enough to absorb a prolonged deluge from Hurricane Frances.
"I couldn't even really speculate," district spokesman Smith said. "The intent is to do everything possible."
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Many people hurry, wait to buy supplies
Fear and panic waited in line with everyone else for plywood and candles across Central Florida on Thursday as the maw of Hurricane Frances moved closer to land.
"People are scared," said Barbara Strayton, assistant manager of the West Marine boating-supply store near Winter Park as she pointed to piles of batteries to help a customer.
"Some of them we've seen in here three or four times, just in a day. I think Charley spooked them. And none of us have ever seen anything as big as this come our way."
Throughout Central Florida the scene was the same: long lines of people and cars, inching forward in sweltering heat for something -- anything -- that might come in handy during or after the storm. The fear of doing without was fueled by the expected early closings today of businesses including most banks, malls, many retail stores and even big companies such as Lockheed Martin.
Marlene Martin, 30, made her second trip in as many days to The Home Depot at Waterford Lakes. She waited two hours for plywood Wednesday, and was back Thursday for a five-hour wait for 2-by-4s.
"I have big windows and sliding-glass doors. I'm worried to death about broken glass. I have three kids."
Anna Bachman of Chuluota -- a "nervous wreck over all this" -- was searching for a tarp for her damaged roof.
But her fears were stoked by small mountains of pine-tree debris near her Seminole County home -- limbs and jagged shards that could become wind-borne missiles. "Are they flying into my house now because the county didn't get to us?"
Orlando police officers were on hand to monitor the pre-dawn crowd at Ace Hardware on Edgewater Drive in College Park, where customers lined up two hours before the store opened at 6 a.m.
Within an hour, the store sold out of tarps, vinyl sheeting and heavy garbage bags, but an employee praised the patience of customers.
"Everyone has been outstanding," sales clerk Chuck Tobin said.
Battery inverters, which allow people to power small appliances by tapping into an automobile or marine electrical system, were hot sellers at West Marine. Jim Huckabe of Winter Park got the next-to-last one.
"I can stand to lose the stuff in the fridge and to be without TV or AC," he said. "But I've got to have a fan, a little wind blowing on my face. I guess I'm not the pioneer I thought I was."
After Charley, most residents were not caught off guard by Frances and moved fast to stock up.
Still, the preparation was often like a jigsaw puzzle: At The Home Depot at Good Homes Road and West Colonial Drive, shoppers found stacks of D batteries but no flashlights.
At The Home Depot on State Road 436 in Altamonte Springs, a shopper who had bought an expensive gas-powered generator was looking unsuccessfully for a $20 adapter cord to run it.
"I waited in line at Costco for three days for a generator, then had to buy it at a lawnmower shop for three times as much," said Hap Clark, 62, a plant broker from Longwood. "Now I'm looking for a gas can and a wire to hook it up."
Clark said he waited too long. "There's a state of denial, too," he said. "Who expected another hurricane?"
Wal-Mart's 209 stores in Florida have been serviced for the past several days by a steady stream of big rigs hauling batteries and other supplies, but the flow is ending fast as the storm approaches.
"We will serve our customers as long as we can, but some of our stores are starting to close," said Sharon Weber, spokeswoman for Wal-Mart in its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. Outlets in Melbourne and other coastal communities closed Thursday, and more will shut down today as the path of the storm becomes clearer.
"We will play it by ear," Weber said, with safety of employees and shoppers in mind for individual store closings. "Then we will open as soon as possible" after the storm "because we know there will be a lot of needs."
Lowe's has shipped 200 truckloads of supplies to Florida since Monday, and another 100 truckloads of plywood reached stores by Thursday, said company spokeswoman Chris Ahearn.
A Home Depot in Florida City, where Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, sold $50,000 worth of lumber in a single day.
All of the major home-supply and retail chains said they would make case-by-case decisions on closings based on official hurricane warnings.
"We're kind of waiting on the government advisories to decide what we're going to do," said Paul Raines, The Home Depot's vice president of Florida operations.
At Ace Hardware on State Road 50 in Clermont, manager Bill Riffle said his customers clearly were tense as they snapped up the last of his generators, gas cans and batteries. But Riffle could relate to the tension because he had no time to secure his own home's windows with plywood.
"Is there a word for busier than busy? That's what we are."
Fear and panic waited in line with everyone else for plywood and candles across Central Florida on Thursday as the maw of Hurricane Frances moved closer to land.
"People are scared," said Barbara Strayton, assistant manager of the West Marine boating-supply store near Winter Park as she pointed to piles of batteries to help a customer.
"Some of them we've seen in here three or four times, just in a day. I think Charley spooked them. And none of us have ever seen anything as big as this come our way."
Throughout Central Florida the scene was the same: long lines of people and cars, inching forward in sweltering heat for something -- anything -- that might come in handy during or after the storm. The fear of doing without was fueled by the expected early closings today of businesses including most banks, malls, many retail stores and even big companies such as Lockheed Martin.
Marlene Martin, 30, made her second trip in as many days to The Home Depot at Waterford Lakes. She waited two hours for plywood Wednesday, and was back Thursday for a five-hour wait for 2-by-4s.
"I have big windows and sliding-glass doors. I'm worried to death about broken glass. I have three kids."
Anna Bachman of Chuluota -- a "nervous wreck over all this" -- was searching for a tarp for her damaged roof.
But her fears were stoked by small mountains of pine-tree debris near her Seminole County home -- limbs and jagged shards that could become wind-borne missiles. "Are they flying into my house now because the county didn't get to us?"
Orlando police officers were on hand to monitor the pre-dawn crowd at Ace Hardware on Edgewater Drive in College Park, where customers lined up two hours before the store opened at 6 a.m.
Within an hour, the store sold out of tarps, vinyl sheeting and heavy garbage bags, but an employee praised the patience of customers.
"Everyone has been outstanding," sales clerk Chuck Tobin said.
Battery inverters, which allow people to power small appliances by tapping into an automobile or marine electrical system, were hot sellers at West Marine. Jim Huckabe of Winter Park got the next-to-last one.
"I can stand to lose the stuff in the fridge and to be without TV or AC," he said. "But I've got to have a fan, a little wind blowing on my face. I guess I'm not the pioneer I thought I was."
After Charley, most residents were not caught off guard by Frances and moved fast to stock up.
Still, the preparation was often like a jigsaw puzzle: At The Home Depot at Good Homes Road and West Colonial Drive, shoppers found stacks of D batteries but no flashlights.
At The Home Depot on State Road 436 in Altamonte Springs, a shopper who had bought an expensive gas-powered generator was looking unsuccessfully for a $20 adapter cord to run it.
"I waited in line at Costco for three days for a generator, then had to buy it at a lawnmower shop for three times as much," said Hap Clark, 62, a plant broker from Longwood. "Now I'm looking for a gas can and a wire to hook it up."
Clark said he waited too long. "There's a state of denial, too," he said. "Who expected another hurricane?"
Wal-Mart's 209 stores in Florida have been serviced for the past several days by a steady stream of big rigs hauling batteries and other supplies, but the flow is ending fast as the storm approaches.
"We will serve our customers as long as we can, but some of our stores are starting to close," said Sharon Weber, spokeswoman for Wal-Mart in its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters. Outlets in Melbourne and other coastal communities closed Thursday, and more will shut down today as the path of the storm becomes clearer.
"We will play it by ear," Weber said, with safety of employees and shoppers in mind for individual store closings. "Then we will open as soon as possible" after the storm "because we know there will be a lot of needs."
Lowe's has shipped 200 truckloads of supplies to Florida since Monday, and another 100 truckloads of plywood reached stores by Thursday, said company spokeswoman Chris Ahearn.
A Home Depot in Florida City, where Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, sold $50,000 worth of lumber in a single day.
All of the major home-supply and retail chains said they would make case-by-case decisions on closings based on official hurricane warnings.
"We're kind of waiting on the government advisories to decide what we're going to do," said Paul Raines, The Home Depot's vice president of Florida operations.
At Ace Hardware on State Road 50 in Clermont, manager Bill Riffle said his customers clearly were tense as they snapped up the last of his generators, gas cans and batteries. But Riffle could relate to the tension because he had no time to secure his own home's windows with plywood.
"Is there a word for busier than busy? That's what we are."
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Frances could join Andrew in history books
MIAMI -- Nobody can say exactly where one of the largest, most powerful storms to threaten the state will come ashore, but it's likely Floridians will never see another Hurricane Frances.
Unfortunately, that's only because the name Frances will almost certainly be retired after this 2004 hurricane season.
Enormous in breadth and sluggish in speed, Frances could eclipse Charley, a powerful Category 4 storm that lashed Florida just three weeks ago from the other coast.
No matter where it strikes, Frances is going to be big, bad and ugly, a slow-moving behemoth of churning winds that could dump as much as 10 to 20 inches of rain, last more than a day and leave a wide swath of destruction in its wake.
If it retains its size and intensity before landfall and follows the path on which it was projected Thursday night, Central Floridians as far inland as west Orange County will begin to feel tropical-storm-force winds of 40 mph or more as the eye comes ashore somewhere between Palm Beach and Cape Canaveral early Saturday.
Brevard County may get winds of more than 60 mph.
As the front edge makes its agonizingly slow march across the state, stronger winds from the center will follow. As much as 14 hours later, hurricane-force winds could reach Orlando and perhaps punish Osceola County with its strongest winds, those around the eye wall.
Frances is expected to move at half the speed of Charley, which zipped across the peninsula at 20 mph.
At Frances' less-than-10 mph pace, Central Floridians will not only be exposed to its fury for an eternity compared with Charley, but to relentless rains.
"The winds, of course, will die down as it moves across, but the rain will not," said James Franklin, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center west of Miami. "Right now, it's a tossup whether Central Florida is going to be dealing with more of a wind threat or a rainfall threat. Ultimately, I think it's going to be the rainfall people are talking about as far as inland effects."
As friction from the earth grinds away at the slower storm, Frances will diminish in strength, leaving it less than a hurricane as it departs the state into the Gulf of Mexico, as forecasters expect it to do.
But then there's the matter of size. Nearly 300 miles in diameter, Frances is two to three times larger than Charley. Its eye is more than five times that of Charley's center, which was 5 miles across when it made landfall in Charlotte County.
As such, Frances is expected to leave a much broader swath of damage as it makes its diagonal passage through Florida.
How much will depend on its exact course and its intensity at landfall.
So whether it will eclipse Hurricane Andrew, in terms of damage, remains to be seen.
A mighty Category 5 when it plowed into south Miami-Dade County 12 years ago, Andrew was the costliest hurricane on record, leaving more than $25 billion of damage in its wake.
But Andrew was small, compact and fast-moving, producing little rain -- in other words, far different from Frances.
All three storms may, however, have one thing in common: Like Andrew, Frances and Charley will likely be retired from the recycled list of names used by the World Meteorological Organization to identify tropical cyclones.
Scientists do that so as not to confuse storms in scientific literature, but members of the public likely won't complain.
They will no doubt have had their fill of Frances.
MIAMI -- Nobody can say exactly where one of the largest, most powerful storms to threaten the state will come ashore, but it's likely Floridians will never see another Hurricane Frances.
Unfortunately, that's only because the name Frances will almost certainly be retired after this 2004 hurricane season.
Enormous in breadth and sluggish in speed, Frances could eclipse Charley, a powerful Category 4 storm that lashed Florida just three weeks ago from the other coast.
No matter where it strikes, Frances is going to be big, bad and ugly, a slow-moving behemoth of churning winds that could dump as much as 10 to 20 inches of rain, last more than a day and leave a wide swath of destruction in its wake.
If it retains its size and intensity before landfall and follows the path on which it was projected Thursday night, Central Floridians as far inland as west Orange County will begin to feel tropical-storm-force winds of 40 mph or more as the eye comes ashore somewhere between Palm Beach and Cape Canaveral early Saturday.
Brevard County may get winds of more than 60 mph.
As the front edge makes its agonizingly slow march across the state, stronger winds from the center will follow. As much as 14 hours later, hurricane-force winds could reach Orlando and perhaps punish Osceola County with its strongest winds, those around the eye wall.
Frances is expected to move at half the speed of Charley, which zipped across the peninsula at 20 mph.
At Frances' less-than-10 mph pace, Central Floridians will not only be exposed to its fury for an eternity compared with Charley, but to relentless rains.
"The winds, of course, will die down as it moves across, but the rain will not," said James Franklin, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center west of Miami. "Right now, it's a tossup whether Central Florida is going to be dealing with more of a wind threat or a rainfall threat. Ultimately, I think it's going to be the rainfall people are talking about as far as inland effects."
As friction from the earth grinds away at the slower storm, Frances will diminish in strength, leaving it less than a hurricane as it departs the state into the Gulf of Mexico, as forecasters expect it to do.
But then there's the matter of size. Nearly 300 miles in diameter, Frances is two to three times larger than Charley. Its eye is more than five times that of Charley's center, which was 5 miles across when it made landfall in Charlotte County.
As such, Frances is expected to leave a much broader swath of damage as it makes its diagonal passage through Florida.
How much will depend on its exact course and its intensity at landfall.
So whether it will eclipse Hurricane Andrew, in terms of damage, remains to be seen.
A mighty Category 5 when it plowed into south Miami-Dade County 12 years ago, Andrew was the costliest hurricane on record, leaving more than $25 billion of damage in its wake.
But Andrew was small, compact and fast-moving, producing little rain -- in other words, far different from Frances.
All three storms may, however, have one thing in common: Like Andrew, Frances and Charley will likely be retired from the recycled list of names used by the World Meteorological Organization to identify tropical cyclones.
Scientists do that so as not to confuse storms in scientific literature, but members of the public likely won't complain.
They will no doubt have had their fill of Frances.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
100-year rains may overwhelm drain systems
Hurricane Frances is about to give Central Florida the kind of drenching that comes around only once every 100 years or so, a deluge that will likely produce widespread flooding in the region.
Local officials say there is no way to prepare for the amount of rain -- 10 to 20 inches in about a day -- that parts of the region could receive this weekend. Even the newest, best-designed stormwater systems aren't ready, they say. And even if they were, debris from Hurricane Charley has clogged many drainage ditches.
The result: Neighborhoods that have never seen flooded streets could find themselves under water by Saturday evening as the massive storm moves slowly through the region.
"We're kind of looking at a record event," said Dennis Decker, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Melbourne.
"There are areas that are going to flood with this that will take people by surprise. And we can't tell you where those areas are going to be."
In Orange County, officials are looking nervously at the Four Corners area -- where Orange, Osceola, Polk and Lake counties come together -- and the rural eastern sections of the county, which slope down to the St. Johns River. Both are fast-growing areas, where pasture and groves are being turned into subdivisions.
In Osceola and Polk, where the broad, flat topography means heavy rainfall tends to pool rather than run off, officials are concerned about subdivisions like Poinciana and new growth south of Four Corners.
But older areas are also threatened -- such as downtown Sanford in Seminole County and Deltona in Volusia County.
Frances will pose a major test for the region's flood-control system, as well as for the drainage systems and retention ponds in the hundreds of subdivisions -- encompassing thousands of homes -- that have been built in the past few decades.
Some of Central Florida's decisions to allow home construction in wetlands and low-lying areas could come back to haunt it this weekend, said environmentalist Pat Harden, a former member of the St. Johns River Water Management District Board.
"Probably a lot of those places we thought they shouldn't have built, we'll find out if they should have built them," she said, alluding specifically to new subdivisions around the Econ and Wekiva rivers in eastern Orange and Seminole counties.
William Carlie, a permitting official with the water district, said that new subdivisions are engineered to handle 7 inches of rain in a 24-hour period -- the kind of storm that hits once every 25 years.
A "1-in-100-year storm" would deliver 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. Frances, which is projected to spend a full day over Central Florida, could double that amount of rain in some places, forecasters say.
"There's really not that much these [stormwater] systems will do for you with that kind of storm," Carlie said. "There's nothing I'm aware of that is designed for that."
Those most likely to see waters rise are people whose homes or apartments are near ponds, lakes, creeks, waterways and wetlands, said Decker, the weather service meteorologist.
In addition, anyone near the St. Johns River or its tributaries should expect water to rise for days after Frances passes, as the rainfall that drains into the waterway backs up because the system is full. Some of the most vulnerable areas are those near the river."Unfortunately there are people who have no idea it's possible for their area to flood, and it's going to flood," Decker said. "It's going to cause major problems."
City officials across the region were preparing for the worst. In Oviedo in Seminole County, the city brought in pumps to divert water near the downtown area. Other flood-prone spots include Alafaya Woods and Mead Manor, where runoff from newer development has exacerbated drainage problems, Mayor Tom Walters said.
"We know there's going to be high water in a lot of places," City Manager Jerry Seeber said. "Nobody's system anywhere is designed to handle 10 inches in quick order, and that's what we've been told to expect. Whether there's going to be actual property damage or not is going to be hard to predict."
On Thursday, some counties told residents in low-lying areas to begin evacuating. Seminole County ordered about 7,000 residents out of flood-prone areas, alerting them by using the county's emergency 911 system. Osceola County issued a voluntary evacuation order for low-lying areas, while Orange County said it would make a decision about evacuations this morning.
Most residents should know if they're in a low-lying area based on whether they've experienced flooding problems after big thunderstorms, said Alan Oyler, Orlando's deputy public-works director.
"I think most folks -- unless they've moved in in the last week -- have a pretty good idea that they've got flooding problems," Oyler said.
But some neighborhoods that normally don't flood could have problems because their street drains are clogged with debris left over from Hurricane Charley, Oyler said.
Older neighborhoods that were built before today's engineering standards are also at risk. Some of those communities, such as Deltona in Volusia County, have had chronic flooding problems in recent years.
Residents did what they could to prepare.
Deltona newcomer Jose Martinez, who moved to the south Volusia city three weeks ago from New York, filled sandbags to protect his Bavon Drive home.
"I'm sure this time there will be flooding," Martinez, 27, said as he packed his 11th bag in 20 minutes.
Luis and Jennifer Gonzalez, who live three miles from the St. Johns River in Sanford, said they were concerned about their back yard flooding but could not find sandbags in their area.
They stumbled onto a Deltona sandbag site during a visit to Luis Gonzalez' mother's house to get a generator and quickly doubled back to get a shovel.
"It'll give us a little peace of mind," Jennifer Gonzalez said.
Hurricane Frances is about to give Central Florida the kind of drenching that comes around only once every 100 years or so, a deluge that will likely produce widespread flooding in the region.
Local officials say there is no way to prepare for the amount of rain -- 10 to 20 inches in about a day -- that parts of the region could receive this weekend. Even the newest, best-designed stormwater systems aren't ready, they say. And even if they were, debris from Hurricane Charley has clogged many drainage ditches.
The result: Neighborhoods that have never seen flooded streets could find themselves under water by Saturday evening as the massive storm moves slowly through the region.
"We're kind of looking at a record event," said Dennis Decker, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Melbourne.
"There are areas that are going to flood with this that will take people by surprise. And we can't tell you where those areas are going to be."
In Orange County, officials are looking nervously at the Four Corners area -- where Orange, Osceola, Polk and Lake counties come together -- and the rural eastern sections of the county, which slope down to the St. Johns River. Both are fast-growing areas, where pasture and groves are being turned into subdivisions.
In Osceola and Polk, where the broad, flat topography means heavy rainfall tends to pool rather than run off, officials are concerned about subdivisions like Poinciana and new growth south of Four Corners.
But older areas are also threatened -- such as downtown Sanford in Seminole County and Deltona in Volusia County.
Frances will pose a major test for the region's flood-control system, as well as for the drainage systems and retention ponds in the hundreds of subdivisions -- encompassing thousands of homes -- that have been built in the past few decades.
Some of Central Florida's decisions to allow home construction in wetlands and low-lying areas could come back to haunt it this weekend, said environmentalist Pat Harden, a former member of the St. Johns River Water Management District Board.
"Probably a lot of those places we thought they shouldn't have built, we'll find out if they should have built them," she said, alluding specifically to new subdivisions around the Econ and Wekiva rivers in eastern Orange and Seminole counties.
William Carlie, a permitting official with the water district, said that new subdivisions are engineered to handle 7 inches of rain in a 24-hour period -- the kind of storm that hits once every 25 years.
A "1-in-100-year storm" would deliver 10 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. Frances, which is projected to spend a full day over Central Florida, could double that amount of rain in some places, forecasters say.
"There's really not that much these [stormwater] systems will do for you with that kind of storm," Carlie said. "There's nothing I'm aware of that is designed for that."
Those most likely to see waters rise are people whose homes or apartments are near ponds, lakes, creeks, waterways and wetlands, said Decker, the weather service meteorologist.
In addition, anyone near the St. Johns River or its tributaries should expect water to rise for days after Frances passes, as the rainfall that drains into the waterway backs up because the system is full. Some of the most vulnerable areas are those near the river."Unfortunately there are people who have no idea it's possible for their area to flood, and it's going to flood," Decker said. "It's going to cause major problems."
City officials across the region were preparing for the worst. In Oviedo in Seminole County, the city brought in pumps to divert water near the downtown area. Other flood-prone spots include Alafaya Woods and Mead Manor, where runoff from newer development has exacerbated drainage problems, Mayor Tom Walters said.
"We know there's going to be high water in a lot of places," City Manager Jerry Seeber said. "Nobody's system anywhere is designed to handle 10 inches in quick order, and that's what we've been told to expect. Whether there's going to be actual property damage or not is going to be hard to predict."
On Thursday, some counties told residents in low-lying areas to begin evacuating. Seminole County ordered about 7,000 residents out of flood-prone areas, alerting them by using the county's emergency 911 system. Osceola County issued a voluntary evacuation order for low-lying areas, while Orange County said it would make a decision about evacuations this morning.
Most residents should know if they're in a low-lying area based on whether they've experienced flooding problems after big thunderstorms, said Alan Oyler, Orlando's deputy public-works director.
"I think most folks -- unless they've moved in in the last week -- have a pretty good idea that they've got flooding problems," Oyler said.
But some neighborhoods that normally don't flood could have problems because their street drains are clogged with debris left over from Hurricane Charley, Oyler said.
Older neighborhoods that were built before today's engineering standards are also at risk. Some of those communities, such as Deltona in Volusia County, have had chronic flooding problems in recent years.
Residents did what they could to prepare.
Deltona newcomer Jose Martinez, who moved to the south Volusia city three weeks ago from New York, filled sandbags to protect his Bavon Drive home.
"I'm sure this time there will be flooding," Martinez, 27, said as he packed his 11th bag in 20 minutes.
Luis and Jennifer Gonzalez, who live three miles from the St. Johns River in Sanford, said they were concerned about their back yard flooding but could not find sandbags in their area.
They stumbled onto a Deltona sandbag site during a visit to Luis Gonzalez' mother's house to get a generator and quickly doubled back to get a shovel.
"It'll give us a little peace of mind," Jennifer Gonzalez said.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Storm could leave much of area in dark
The high winds and drenching rains promised by Hurricane Frances could black out large sections of Central Florida and keep the power off for even longer than the two-week outage caused by Charley.
"We just are planning for the worst. We've told everybody to get ready for a long, long haul," said Roseann Harrington, a spokeswoman for the Orlando Utilities Commission.
Frances, with hurricane-force winds extending 80 miles from its center, has the potential to sweep through much of the state, coming ashore on the East Coast and howling through Central Florida. Along the way, it could damage power plants, knock out electrical transmission and distribution lines and hurl debris left by Charley.
Adding to the havoc could be 10 to 20 inches of a rain in a period of about a day -- a deluge that could cause widespread flooding. That would severely hamper efforts to repair buried power lines, plus keep crews away from sliced overhead lines.
"This has got to be a nightmare scenario for these guys," said Bruce Johnson, an independent energy consultant and former power company executive who studies how utilities handle hurricanes.
The four main power companies serving Central Florida -- OUC, Progress Energy Florida, Florida Power & Light and Kissimmee Utility Authority -- spent Thursday lining up extra help and battening down power plants that could be in the path of Frances.
FP&L, alone, has at least seven plants that could be affected. OUC's main source of power, the Curtis Stanton Energy Center, could be in the way of Frances, too. Progress has five plants potentially at risk, while KUA has two.
The main fear is not that the plants would be knocked out of commission, but that the high winds could knock over the large transmission lines. Those take the power generated by the plants and feed it to the rest of the system.
"The big worry is that the storm is coming up our transmission corridor," said OUC interim general manager Ken Ksionek. "This storm will walk right across it. Before, we only lost four transmission lines."
Downed transmission lines, especially if they are surrounded by floodwaters, would be difficult, if not impossible to repair.
If that happens, "we should not be surprised" if power is not restored for weeks, said Orange County Administrator Ajit Lalchandani.
Underground lines would be difficult to repair, too. They are the exact opposite of overhead lines, where a break is easy to see.
OUC, for example, has 56 percent of its 190,000 customers served by underground lines. Either the utility will have to de-energize systems in flood areas or automatic safety features will shut them down.
During Charley, about 50,000 customers were restored to power within 10 hours because their underground systems weren't damaged by the winds. But if there is a lot of flooding, that could prevent those customers from coming back on line as quickly, Ksionek said.
Power officials said it is pointless to guess how long power will be interrupted because it's impossible to forecast damage.
"We're confident we're going to meet the challenges. It may take awhile . . . but at the end of the day, we're going to do our jobs the best we can. That's the business we're in," said C.J. Drake, a Progress Energy spokesman.
The utilities, however, will not purposely turn off the electrical grids serving the state. That means people should not walk in standing water where there is a downed line. It could be live, making it potentially deadly.
Charley, which blew through greater Orlando in about 45 minutes, knocked out power to more than 800,000 customers. The vast majority had the lights back on within two weeks.
But that storm, which caused most of its damage within about a three-mile corridor while flying up Interstate 4 from Punta Gorda on Florida's west coast, dropped only 1 to 3 inches of rain.
Frances could spend nearly a day in Central Florida, with hurricane-force winds and large amounts of rain. That combination could have devastating consequences, power and government officials said.
The utilities have hired extra crews to come in and restore power, but they are reluctant to bring them into Florida before they know Frances' path. The crews are amassing in Georgia and Louisiana, waiting for the all-clear sign to head into Florida.
KUA, however, already has 24 extra line and tree-trimming crews in Osceola County, waiting for Frances to pass. All the crews were in rest mode Thursday, KUA spokesman Chris Gent said.
"For most of our linemen, this is the first day they've had off since Aug. 9," he said.
The high winds and drenching rains promised by Hurricane Frances could black out large sections of Central Florida and keep the power off for even longer than the two-week outage caused by Charley.
"We just are planning for the worst. We've told everybody to get ready for a long, long haul," said Roseann Harrington, a spokeswoman for the Orlando Utilities Commission.
Frances, with hurricane-force winds extending 80 miles from its center, has the potential to sweep through much of the state, coming ashore on the East Coast and howling through Central Florida. Along the way, it could damage power plants, knock out electrical transmission and distribution lines and hurl debris left by Charley.
Adding to the havoc could be 10 to 20 inches of a rain in a period of about a day -- a deluge that could cause widespread flooding. That would severely hamper efforts to repair buried power lines, plus keep crews away from sliced overhead lines.
"This has got to be a nightmare scenario for these guys," said Bruce Johnson, an independent energy consultant and former power company executive who studies how utilities handle hurricanes.
The four main power companies serving Central Florida -- OUC, Progress Energy Florida, Florida Power & Light and Kissimmee Utility Authority -- spent Thursday lining up extra help and battening down power plants that could be in the path of Frances.
FP&L, alone, has at least seven plants that could be affected. OUC's main source of power, the Curtis Stanton Energy Center, could be in the way of Frances, too. Progress has five plants potentially at risk, while KUA has two.
The main fear is not that the plants would be knocked out of commission, but that the high winds could knock over the large transmission lines. Those take the power generated by the plants and feed it to the rest of the system.
"The big worry is that the storm is coming up our transmission corridor," said OUC interim general manager Ken Ksionek. "This storm will walk right across it. Before, we only lost four transmission lines."
Downed transmission lines, especially if they are surrounded by floodwaters, would be difficult, if not impossible to repair.
If that happens, "we should not be surprised" if power is not restored for weeks, said Orange County Administrator Ajit Lalchandani.
Underground lines would be difficult to repair, too. They are the exact opposite of overhead lines, where a break is easy to see.
OUC, for example, has 56 percent of its 190,000 customers served by underground lines. Either the utility will have to de-energize systems in flood areas or automatic safety features will shut them down.
During Charley, about 50,000 customers were restored to power within 10 hours because their underground systems weren't damaged by the winds. But if there is a lot of flooding, that could prevent those customers from coming back on line as quickly, Ksionek said.
Power officials said it is pointless to guess how long power will be interrupted because it's impossible to forecast damage.
"We're confident we're going to meet the challenges. It may take awhile . . . but at the end of the day, we're going to do our jobs the best we can. That's the business we're in," said C.J. Drake, a Progress Energy spokesman.
The utilities, however, will not purposely turn off the electrical grids serving the state. That means people should not walk in standing water where there is a downed line. It could be live, making it potentially deadly.
Charley, which blew through greater Orlando in about 45 minutes, knocked out power to more than 800,000 customers. The vast majority had the lights back on within two weeks.
But that storm, which caused most of its damage within about a three-mile corridor while flying up Interstate 4 from Punta Gorda on Florida's west coast, dropped only 1 to 3 inches of rain.
Frances could spend nearly a day in Central Florida, with hurricane-force winds and large amounts of rain. That combination could have devastating consequences, power and government officials said.
The utilities have hired extra crews to come in and restore power, but they are reluctant to bring them into Florida before they know Frances' path. The crews are amassing in Georgia and Louisiana, waiting for the all-clear sign to head into Florida.
KUA, however, already has 24 extra line and tree-trimming crews in Osceola County, waiting for Frances to pass. All the crews were in rest mode Thursday, KUA spokesman Chris Gent said.
"For most of our linemen, this is the first day they've had off since Aug. 9," he said.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Hospitals prepare for surge in patients
Central Florida hospitals beef up numbers of staff for the weekend.
Coastal health-care facilities moved patients to safer locations Thursday, as Orlando-area hospitals readied for a potential onslaught of people this weekend after Hurricane Frances.
Hospitals ordered more blood, scheduled extra workers and otherwise prepared for the kind of deluge in emergency-room patients that followed Hurricane Charley last month.
"We are prepared to meet whatever emergency cases" result from the storm, said Joe Brown, a spokesman for Orlando Regional Healthcare, which has seven hospitals in the region.
Both large hospital chains in Central Florida are increasing their staffing, with Orlando Regional adding 20 percent more people and Florida Hospital doubling its usual numbers.
Florida Hospital will keep two full shifts of workers in house. While one group works, the other will rest.
Some employees balked Thursday at that plan because the resting group won't be paid for every hour spent at the hospital. Florida Hospital will pay the off-duty group for the first four hours, then for one of every two subsequent hours.
"Basically, the way we see it is that the hospital is a first responder, just like the police or the fire department, and we have to be prepared to handle an emergency," said Samantha O'Lenick, Florida Hospital spokeswoman.
"We'll be ready to take care of anything that comes our way," O'Lenick said.
Pregnant women who are more than 30 weeks along are not being asked to go to the hospital, officials said Thursday, refuting a rumor that had generated phone inquiries. Officials at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women said they are not recommending women in their final trimesters weather the storm at a hospital, which should be used only for those in active labor.
Hospitals and nursing homes in Brevard and Volusia counties moved patients at coastal sites farther inland. Cape Canaveral Hospital and Wuesthoff Medical Center in Rockledge were among the facilities evacuated.
Central Florida hospitals beef up numbers of staff for the weekend.
Coastal health-care facilities moved patients to safer locations Thursday, as Orlando-area hospitals readied for a potential onslaught of people this weekend after Hurricane Frances.
Hospitals ordered more blood, scheduled extra workers and otherwise prepared for the kind of deluge in emergency-room patients that followed Hurricane Charley last month.
"We are prepared to meet whatever emergency cases" result from the storm, said Joe Brown, a spokesman for Orlando Regional Healthcare, which has seven hospitals in the region.
Both large hospital chains in Central Florida are increasing their staffing, with Orlando Regional adding 20 percent more people and Florida Hospital doubling its usual numbers.
Florida Hospital will keep two full shifts of workers in house. While one group works, the other will rest.
Some employees balked Thursday at that plan because the resting group won't be paid for every hour spent at the hospital. Florida Hospital will pay the off-duty group for the first four hours, then for one of every two subsequent hours.
"Basically, the way we see it is that the hospital is a first responder, just like the police or the fire department, and we have to be prepared to handle an emergency," said Samantha O'Lenick, Florida Hospital spokeswoman.
"We'll be ready to take care of anything that comes our way," O'Lenick said.
Pregnant women who are more than 30 weeks along are not being asked to go to the hospital, officials said Thursday, refuting a rumor that had generated phone inquiries. Officials at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women said they are not recommending women in their final trimesters weather the storm at a hospital, which should be used only for those in active labor.
Hospitals and nursing homes in Brevard and Volusia counties moved patients at coastal sites farther inland. Cape Canaveral Hospital and Wuesthoff Medical Center in Rockledge were among the facilities evacuated.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Taking no chances
In fights with nature, homeowner in Palm Coast says he's `a warrior'
PALM COAST -- Paul Sammartano remembers the despair he felt returning from his grandson's grade-school graduation and seeing his dream home burned to the ground. The only thing left standing was his mailbox.
That was the summer of 1998, a summer forever seared into his brain. His home was one of 20 destroyed in the Seminole Woods blaze, the first of many devastating wildfires to strike Flagler and Volusia counties that summer. After losing what he had worked his entire life to build, the retired railroad foreman from Long Island fell into a deep depression.
"I was a basket case," Sammartano said Thursday at his rebuilt home off Seminole Woods Parkway. "I didn't want to live anymore. I wanted to die."
He'll never go through that again.
The 75-year-old, physically fit Queens native spent Thursday covering his dome-shaped windows with thick tin sheeting, metal bars and bolts. He custom-made the covers after Hurricane Floyd damaged his home in 1999.
Before Hurricane Charley, he bolted the sheeting over the windows. He was starting to wonder whether his house number -- 13 -- might have something to do with his home's ill fate. But he considered himself lucky that Charley's damage was limited to blowing off his satellite dish, which bounced across his roof.
After Charley, he started removing the tin protectors, but something inside told him otherwise. He left some of them up.
"My son asked me, 'What are you doing? I'll take them down for you,' " Sammartano said. "I told him, 'I don't know. I've got a funny vibe.' And I was right. I have a sixth sense about these things."
Sammartano and his wife, Jenetha, are staying put during the hurricane. If water starts pouring through the roof, Sammartano said, he wants to be there to protect his belongings.
Many others in Flagler County were preparing to take refuge in shelters that will open at noon today. A mandatory evacuation of mobile homes and homes in flood-prone areas will take effect then.
Sammartano was relieved that all other mandatory evacuations in the county had been canceled. He said that even if he were ordered to leave, he would stay to protect his home about 3 1/2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
"After what I've been though, I'm a warrior," he said. "I've learned that a man's home is his castle."
In fights with nature, homeowner in Palm Coast says he's `a warrior'
PALM COAST -- Paul Sammartano remembers the despair he felt returning from his grandson's grade-school graduation and seeing his dream home burned to the ground. The only thing left standing was his mailbox.
That was the summer of 1998, a summer forever seared into his brain. His home was one of 20 destroyed in the Seminole Woods blaze, the first of many devastating wildfires to strike Flagler and Volusia counties that summer. After losing what he had worked his entire life to build, the retired railroad foreman from Long Island fell into a deep depression.
"I was a basket case," Sammartano said Thursday at his rebuilt home off Seminole Woods Parkway. "I didn't want to live anymore. I wanted to die."
He'll never go through that again.
The 75-year-old, physically fit Queens native spent Thursday covering his dome-shaped windows with thick tin sheeting, metal bars and bolts. He custom-made the covers after Hurricane Floyd damaged his home in 1999.
Before Hurricane Charley, he bolted the sheeting over the windows. He was starting to wonder whether his house number -- 13 -- might have something to do with his home's ill fate. But he considered himself lucky that Charley's damage was limited to blowing off his satellite dish, which bounced across his roof.
After Charley, he started removing the tin protectors, but something inside told him otherwise. He left some of them up.
"My son asked me, 'What are you doing? I'll take them down for you,' " Sammartano said. "I told him, 'I don't know. I've got a funny vibe.' And I was right. I have a sixth sense about these things."
Sammartano and his wife, Jenetha, are staying put during the hurricane. If water starts pouring through the roof, Sammartano said, he wants to be there to protect his belongings.
Many others in Flagler County were preparing to take refuge in shelters that will open at noon today. A mandatory evacuation of mobile homes and homes in flood-prone areas will take effect then.
Sammartano was relieved that all other mandatory evacuations in the county had been canceled. He said that even if he were ordered to leave, he would stay to protect his home about 3 1/2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
"After what I've been though, I'm a warrior," he said. "I've learned that a man's home is his castle."
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Flash-flood safety tips
Flash floods can destroy buildings, move large pieces of debris, tear down trees and destroy roads and bridges. Here are safety tips to help prepare:
Before the storm
<LI>Have different evacuation routes. If a road is underwater, try a different route.
<LI>Stock up on food and supplies in case you can't get to stores for several days.
<LI>Put important documents in a waterproof container or a safety-deposit box.
During a flood
<LI>Do not walk or drive on roads covered by water. Drowning is the No. 1 cause of flood deaths.
<LI>Do not allow children to play near storm drains, reservoirs or creeks.
<LI>Watch rising water levels during heavy rains.
<LI>Be prepared to move to higher ground.
<LI>If advised to evacuate by authorities, do so immediately.
<LI>Do not attempt to move a stalled vehicle. Abandon it and seek higher ground.
<LI>Stay away from power lines and electrical wires.
<LI>Watch where you step. Dangerous debris may be in the water.
SOURCE: Orange County Emergency Operations Center
Flash floods can destroy buildings, move large pieces of debris, tear down trees and destroy roads and bridges. Here are safety tips to help prepare:
Before the storm
<LI>Have different evacuation routes. If a road is underwater, try a different route.
<LI>Stock up on food and supplies in case you can't get to stores for several days.
<LI>Put important documents in a waterproof container or a safety-deposit box.
During a flood
<LI>Do not walk or drive on roads covered by water. Drowning is the No. 1 cause of flood deaths.
<LI>Do not allow children to play near storm drains, reservoirs or creeks.
<LI>Watch rising water levels during heavy rains.
<LI>Be prepared to move to higher ground.
<LI>If advised to evacuate by authorities, do so immediately.
<LI>Do not attempt to move a stalled vehicle. Abandon it and seek higher ground.
<LI>Stay away from power lines and electrical wires.
<LI>Watch where you step. Dangerous debris may be in the water.
SOURCE: Orange County Emergency Operations Center
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Empty space center greets out-of-towners
NASA houses its space shuttles and sends its thousands of employees home.
TITUSVILLE -- It should have been a busy Labor Day weekend for tourism on Florida's Space Coast.
But NASA ordered the Kennedy Space Center closed Wednesday as Hurricane Frances closed in. It locked the three space shuttles in hangars and sent its thousands of employees home.
And on Thursday, just as the holiday weekend should have started, the base was eerily empty. The gates around KSC's Visitor Complex were closed. A pile of sandbags leaned against the locked front door of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
A few fluorescent green signs marked "Hurricane Condition II" told visitors why.
"We came to look at this," said a disappointed Klara Miletics, 48, staring over the Visitor Complex fence at a replica of the space shuttle. Miletics, who lives in Phoenix, was vacationing with family from Hungary. The space center was to have been the highlight of the trip.
"In Hungary, there are no rockets," said Istvan Miletics, 48, Klara's husband.
The Miletics heard that a hurricane was coming, but they figured they had one more day to enjoy themselves before heading south for a hotel room they had reserved in Miami.
With the space center closed, they settled for looking for alligators in the creeks along the road.
"I have to take a picture," Klara Miletics said.
Managers at a nearby Holiday Inn had expected to rent at least half the motel's 117 rooms this weekend. Instead, they were told to evacuate Thursday afternoon.
"It's a little disappointing," said Thomas Bates, the motel's manager, as an employee covered the front counter in plastic. "But you can't take a chance with a hurricane this massive."
At least the early closing gave people more time to prepare. April Dunbar, the hotel's bookkeeper, planned to make some last-second repairs to her home. Hurricane Charley struck a hole in her roof three weeks ago.
Dunbar, 24, said she still wasn't sure whether she and her fiancé would try to ride out Frances in the house or head for a nearby elementary-school shelter.
"We rode out Charley here," she said, "but this is a big one."
NASA houses its space shuttles and sends its thousands of employees home.
TITUSVILLE -- It should have been a busy Labor Day weekend for tourism on Florida's Space Coast.
But NASA ordered the Kennedy Space Center closed Wednesday as Hurricane Frances closed in. It locked the three space shuttles in hangars and sent its thousands of employees home.
And on Thursday, just as the holiday weekend should have started, the base was eerily empty. The gates around KSC's Visitor Complex were closed. A pile of sandbags leaned against the locked front door of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
A few fluorescent green signs marked "Hurricane Condition II" told visitors why.
"We came to look at this," said a disappointed Klara Miletics, 48, staring over the Visitor Complex fence at a replica of the space shuttle. Miletics, who lives in Phoenix, was vacationing with family from Hungary. The space center was to have been the highlight of the trip.
"In Hungary, there are no rockets," said Istvan Miletics, 48, Klara's husband.
The Miletics heard that a hurricane was coming, but they figured they had one more day to enjoy themselves before heading south for a hotel room they had reserved in Miami.
With the space center closed, they settled for looking for alligators in the creeks along the road.
"I have to take a picture," Klara Miletics said.
Managers at a nearby Holiday Inn had expected to rent at least half the motel's 117 rooms this weekend. Instead, they were told to evacuate Thursday afternoon.
"It's a little disappointing," said Thomas Bates, the motel's manager, as an employee covered the front counter in plastic. "But you can't take a chance with a hurricane this massive."
At least the early closing gave people more time to prepare. April Dunbar, the hotel's bookkeeper, planned to make some last-second repairs to her home. Hurricane Charley struck a hole in her roof three weeks ago.
Dunbar, 24, said she still wasn't sure whether she and her fiancé would try to ride out Frances in the house or head for a nearby elementary-school shelter.
"We rode out Charley here," she said, "but this is a big one."
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Brevard's elderly, others head for shelters
Scores of residents hotfoot it from the sprawling Barefoot Bay community
BAREFOOT BAY -- Scores of elderly residents from this sprawling manufactured-home community in Brevard County came across the sunbaked parking lot all day Thursday in search of buses to shelters.
Some limped slightly. Others used canes, walkers or wheelchairs. Yet, because of a mandatory-evacuation order, most moved with an urgency unusual for this usually serene place where more than 15,000 spend the winter or live year-round.
Nearly 10 years ago, a tornado came off the bay across U.S. Highway 1 and raked through homes along Barefoot Boulevard, killing one. Hurricanes Floyd and Irene also left lasting impressions here, so the approach of Hurricane Frances has provoked fear.
"This is my third big storm here, and I'm a little bit worried about this one," said Dominic Carrando, 79, who serves coffee and charms the customers at Georgette's Hair & Nail Studio within Barefoot Bay. "They say it's the size of Texas, so I keep picturing Texas moving into Florida. What are you going to do?"
Five shelters in Brevard were filled Thursday night. Two more will open this morning: Bayside High School and Meadowlane Elementary School.
Deputies combed the winding streets of this south Brevard community Thursday afternoon to "strongly encourage" holdouts to stage strategic retreats.
Volunteer bus drivers from Brevard schools picked up hundreds of other elderly residents who reported to a boarding area at the Barefoot Bay Community Center, lining up with belongings in 90-degree heat.
"We were surprised when we got here at 8 this morning to find a bunch of people who'd already been waiting hours and hours for the bus," said driver David Graham.
From his wheelchair, Henry Lysniewski, 84, noted to his wife, Matilda, 85, that in his more ambulatory days they would make a party of hurricane evacuations by driving to Sebring and playing golf.
"We've been here 16 years already, and I've always said we live on borrowed time -- year-wise and hurricane-wise," he said.
Younger residents of Barefoot Bay were making their own getaways. Susie Bell, 28, stood outside her home waiting for her parents to pick up her as well as two dogs, a parrot and a couple of goldfish.
She, her parents and their bulldog, Harley, were bound for a pet-friendly Motel 6 in Valdosta, Ga.
"I might not have a house when I get back, but I figure it's better to return to a broken home than to be pulled out of one," Bell said.
Scores of residents hotfoot it from the sprawling Barefoot Bay community
BAREFOOT BAY -- Scores of elderly residents from this sprawling manufactured-home community in Brevard County came across the sunbaked parking lot all day Thursday in search of buses to shelters.
Some limped slightly. Others used canes, walkers or wheelchairs. Yet, because of a mandatory-evacuation order, most moved with an urgency unusual for this usually serene place where more than 15,000 spend the winter or live year-round.
Nearly 10 years ago, a tornado came off the bay across U.S. Highway 1 and raked through homes along Barefoot Boulevard, killing one. Hurricanes Floyd and Irene also left lasting impressions here, so the approach of Hurricane Frances has provoked fear.
"This is my third big storm here, and I'm a little bit worried about this one," said Dominic Carrando, 79, who serves coffee and charms the customers at Georgette's Hair & Nail Studio within Barefoot Bay. "They say it's the size of Texas, so I keep picturing Texas moving into Florida. What are you going to do?"
Five shelters in Brevard were filled Thursday night. Two more will open this morning: Bayside High School and Meadowlane Elementary School.
Deputies combed the winding streets of this south Brevard community Thursday afternoon to "strongly encourage" holdouts to stage strategic retreats.
Volunteer bus drivers from Brevard schools picked up hundreds of other elderly residents who reported to a boarding area at the Barefoot Bay Community Center, lining up with belongings in 90-degree heat.
"We were surprised when we got here at 8 this morning to find a bunch of people who'd already been waiting hours and hours for the bus," said driver David Graham.
From his wheelchair, Henry Lysniewski, 84, noted to his wife, Matilda, 85, that in his more ambulatory days they would make a party of hurricane evacuations by driving to Sebring and playing golf.
"We've been here 16 years already, and I've always said we live on borrowed time -- year-wise and hurricane-wise," he said.
Younger residents of Barefoot Bay were making their own getaways. Susie Bell, 28, stood outside her home waiting for her parents to pick up her as well as two dogs, a parrot and a couple of goldfish.
She, her parents and their bulldog, Harley, were bound for a pet-friendly Motel 6 in Valdosta, Ga.
"I might not have a house when I get back, but I figure it's better to return to a broken home than to be pulled out of one," Bell said.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
St. Augustine boards up, worries
ST. AUGUSTINE -- Even as they boarded up their homes and businesses -- some in centuries-old buildings -- residents of America's oldest city Thursday hoped that Hurricane Frances stays on a track that will spare them.
"Please, God, don't let it come here," said Cathy Tompkins as she watched sheets of plywood being fastened over the windows of her storefront on San Marco Avenue in the city's historic downtown.
Tompkins and her husband, Lloyd, a retired New York police chief, were pitching in with the owners of neighboring businesses to cover their shop windows with ready-made plywood sheets already cut and numbered. It was the second time in three weeks they had done so.
"We did this before Charley came," said Cathy Tompkins, 57.
Charley caused no damage, and Frances might also pass the city by. A major hurricane hasn't struck the coast here in decades, but many said they were taking no chances.
"I was in Orlando after Charley, and I saw what it did there," said Tompkins, who has run an art and memorabilia shop with her husband since 1991.
At the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, just inland from the Intracoastal Waterway, students were bused inland Wednesday.
The massive, centuries-old stone fort of Castillo de San Marcos, which stands guard over the bay and the Bridge of Lions leading to the beaches on Anastasia Island, was closed.
Schools in St. Johns County were ordered closed Thursday and Friday, and beachside residents were being issued passes that would allow them to return to their homes if they're forced to evacuate.
Like many residents, the Tompkinses said they planned to seek safer quarters. Their home is on the beach north of St. Augustine on a narrow island.
Waiting out two hurricanes in such a short time was unnerving, Cathy Tompkins said, but looking up and down the sunny, tree-lined street with its quaint historic buildings reminded her why she and husband are still glad they moved here.
"It's just so beautiful here," she said. "That's why we're willing to put up with all of this."
ST. AUGUSTINE -- Even as they boarded up their homes and businesses -- some in centuries-old buildings -- residents of America's oldest city Thursday hoped that Hurricane Frances stays on a track that will spare them.
"Please, God, don't let it come here," said Cathy Tompkins as she watched sheets of plywood being fastened over the windows of her storefront on San Marco Avenue in the city's historic downtown.
Tompkins and her husband, Lloyd, a retired New York police chief, were pitching in with the owners of neighboring businesses to cover their shop windows with ready-made plywood sheets already cut and numbered. It was the second time in three weeks they had done so.
"We did this before Charley came," said Cathy Tompkins, 57.
Charley caused no damage, and Frances might also pass the city by. A major hurricane hasn't struck the coast here in decades, but many said they were taking no chances.
"I was in Orlando after Charley, and I saw what it did there," said Tompkins, who has run an art and memorabilia shop with her husband since 1991.
At the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, just inland from the Intracoastal Waterway, students were bused inland Wednesday.
The massive, centuries-old stone fort of Castillo de San Marcos, which stands guard over the bay and the Bridge of Lions leading to the beaches on Anastasia Island, was closed.
Schools in St. Johns County were ordered closed Thursday and Friday, and beachside residents were being issued passes that would allow them to return to their homes if they're forced to evacuate.
Like many residents, the Tompkinses said they planned to seek safer quarters. Their home is on the beach north of St. Augustine on a narrow island.
Waiting out two hurricanes in such a short time was unnerving, Cathy Tompkins said, but looking up and down the sunny, tree-lined street with its quaint historic buildings reminded her why she and husband are still glad they moved here.
"It's just so beautiful here," she said. "That's why we're willing to put up with all of this."
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Jacksonville gets ready, just in case
JACKSONVILLE -- This area Thursday found itself in a hurricane netherworld.
On the one hand, forecasters were suggesting with some certainty that this region of about 1 million would be spared the worst of Hurricane Frances.
On the other hand, those same forecasters and officials urged everyone not to let their guard down. Hurricanes are tricky things, they pointed out.
So business owners and residents continued preparing for the storm, all the while wondering if the work was really necessary. They gassed up but went to their jobs. They boarded up windows on fast-food restaurants but spray-painted "OPEN" in blaze orange on the plywood.
"It might never come here, but people are still worried," said Jim Novelly, a handyman working in Atlantic Beach. "And they should be. This thing is so much bigger than Charley."
Just a mile south or so, a steady stream of residents filed into the Neptune Beach Public Safety Building to pick up tags that would allow them to return to their homes if an evacuation order were issued in this city of about 7,300 people.
That looked far less likely Thursday, but Ken Lucius wasn't taking any chances. Like most everyone, Lucius had been following every wobble of Frances. Difference is, Lucius is a ringer. He's a retired Air Force meteorologist.
Lucius said the average person probably doesn't understand just how hard it can be to forecast the movement of a hurricane.
"These things have so much energy, they almost create their own atmosphere," Lucius said, "so it's really hard to predict the exact path. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to do that."
Even if Frances continues along its southerly route, Jacksonville has already felt its impact. Officials reported heavy traffic on highways leading into the city from the south, as evacuees sought safer ground.
Hotels saw a churn of cancellations and new reservations. Tourists who had planned a Labor Day weekend getaway to the area began backing out, but those slots were quickly filled by people trying to escape the storm.
"We're seeing that all over the city," said Fred Pozin, president of the Jacksonville Hotel & Motel Association and general manager of a Jacksonville Ramada Inn.
Pozin said his hotel is booked solid through the weekend. And it's already beginning to fill up for next week.
The groups making those reservations? Out-of-state cleanup and recovery crews.
JACKSONVILLE -- This area Thursday found itself in a hurricane netherworld.
On the one hand, forecasters were suggesting with some certainty that this region of about 1 million would be spared the worst of Hurricane Frances.
On the other hand, those same forecasters and officials urged everyone not to let their guard down. Hurricanes are tricky things, they pointed out.
So business owners and residents continued preparing for the storm, all the while wondering if the work was really necessary. They gassed up but went to their jobs. They boarded up windows on fast-food restaurants but spray-painted "OPEN" in blaze orange on the plywood.
"It might never come here, but people are still worried," said Jim Novelly, a handyman working in Atlantic Beach. "And they should be. This thing is so much bigger than Charley."
Just a mile south or so, a steady stream of residents filed into the Neptune Beach Public Safety Building to pick up tags that would allow them to return to their homes if an evacuation order were issued in this city of about 7,300 people.
That looked far less likely Thursday, but Ken Lucius wasn't taking any chances. Like most everyone, Lucius had been following every wobble of Frances. Difference is, Lucius is a ringer. He's a retired Air Force meteorologist.
Lucius said the average person probably doesn't understand just how hard it can be to forecast the movement of a hurricane.
"These things have so much energy, they almost create their own atmosphere," Lucius said, "so it's really hard to predict the exact path. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to do that."
Even if Frances continues along its southerly route, Jacksonville has already felt its impact. Officials reported heavy traffic on highways leading into the city from the south, as evacuees sought safer ground.
Hotels saw a churn of cancellations and new reservations. Tourists who had planned a Labor Day weekend getaway to the area began backing out, but those slots were quickly filled by people trying to escape the storm.
"We're seeing that all over the city," said Fred Pozin, president of the Jacksonville Hotel & Motel Association and general manager of a Jacksonville Ramada Inn.
Pozin said his hotel is booked solid through the weekend. And it's already beginning to fill up for next week.
The groups making those reservations? Out-of-state cleanup and recovery crews.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Passengers compete for last flights out
Orlando International Airport will cease operations at noon today, stranding thousands of travelers as Hurricane Frances churns toward the Florida coast.
Though the airport terminal will remain open, commercial flights will cease until the storm passes. As passengers learned about the shutdown Thursday, some scrambled to find earlier flights.
Andrew Portillo, a college student hoping to return home to San Diego to avoid Frances, was part of a long line waiting at the United Airlines check-in counter. He said he would stay at the airport as long as it took to find a flight.
"I had a flight for 6 p.m. tomorrow [Friday]," Portillo said. "Obviously, that's not going. Really, I don't care where I fly to, as long as it's not in Florida. I sat through the last hurricane, and I said never again."
Most departing flights were solidly booked Thursday. Sara Fredrickson of Daytona Beach, who was waiting to board a flight on ATA Airlines, said her fiancé wanted to leave the region but couldn't find a seat.
"He really tried hard to find a flight out, and he checked a number of airlines, but he found nothing," Fredrickson said.
Air carriers were preparing for the shutdown Thursday. Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King said the last flight would depart at 8:40 this morning, and that passengers whose flights were canceled could apply for refunds or reschedule.
"We are doing our best to accommodate everyone," King said. "Passengers across our system understand the weather situation in Florida, and they are being understanding."
Delta Air Lines, Orlando International's No. 1 carrier, said it would stop flying in and out of Florida as early as this morning and offered refunds or ticket changes to those whose flights are canceled.
Orlando International Executive Director Bill Jennings said the airport would assess damage Sunday and could reopen as early as Monday. He said ceasing flights before the storm would give ground crews an opportunity to secure equipment and aircraft jet-bridges.
Three weeks ago, Hurricane Charley pummeled Orlando International with gusts that reached 105 mph, tearing roofs from its satellite passenger-boarding terminals and breaking glass. Jennings said the airport has stockpiled roofing material and that as many as 200 repair workers would remain at the airport during Frances, ready to begin work as soon as it passes.
As the storm pushed across the Atlantic on Thursday, airports throughout Florida advised passengers to check with airlines for flight updates. In South Florida, Fort Lauderdale Hollywood-International Airport officials said they planned to close the airport at 10 this morning. Palm Beach International Airport said it would be open until at least noon, but officials said plans could change.
At Miami International, officials said Thursday that they had no plans to close the airport.
In Central Florida, Delta Air Lines will continue regular flight schedules through 7:30 p.m. today at Daytona Beach International Airport. Continental Airlines has not announced changes at Daytona.
Two other Central Florida airports, Orlando Sanford International and Melbourne International, announced plans to close this morning.
Orlando Sanford President Larry Dale said flights would be suspended at midnight Thursday and resume Monday at the earliest.
About 3,000 passengers were stranded at the airport during Charley as the terminal was battered and power went out. Dale said the terminal would be closed this time.
In fact, the airport entrance will be barricaded at 5:30 a.m. today to prevent anyone from trying to get in.
Dale said arrangements have been made at a nearby condominium to house a few passengers who needed a place to stay. Airlines and tour companies are arranging for others to extend their stays until the flights resume.
General aviation traffic will be allowed to continue until the tower closes when winds reach 55 mph, anticipated about noon Saturday, Dale said.
He ordered all planes to be flown out of the airport before the storm to prevent damage.
As the airports battened down for the big one, some travelers remained oblivious to the drastic changes in schedules.
Ramon Hernandez was so focused on his weeklong Florida vacation that he wasn't aware a hurricane was approaching. He had planned to board an American Airlines flight Saturday afternoon to his home in Los Angeles. Informed of the airport closing that would likely force him to stay behind in Orlando or find an earlier flight, he appeared shocked.
"I don't know what we'll do," he said. "I guess I should go call my airline and find out what's happening," he said, heading off in search of a phone.
Orlando International Airport will cease operations at noon today, stranding thousands of travelers as Hurricane Frances churns toward the Florida coast.
Though the airport terminal will remain open, commercial flights will cease until the storm passes. As passengers learned about the shutdown Thursday, some scrambled to find earlier flights.
Andrew Portillo, a college student hoping to return home to San Diego to avoid Frances, was part of a long line waiting at the United Airlines check-in counter. He said he would stay at the airport as long as it took to find a flight.
"I had a flight for 6 p.m. tomorrow [Friday]," Portillo said. "Obviously, that's not going. Really, I don't care where I fly to, as long as it's not in Florida. I sat through the last hurricane, and I said never again."
Most departing flights were solidly booked Thursday. Sara Fredrickson of Daytona Beach, who was waiting to board a flight on ATA Airlines, said her fiancé wanted to leave the region but couldn't find a seat.
"He really tried hard to find a flight out, and he checked a number of airlines, but he found nothing," Fredrickson said.
Air carriers were preparing for the shutdown Thursday. Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King said the last flight would depart at 8:40 this morning, and that passengers whose flights were canceled could apply for refunds or reschedule.
"We are doing our best to accommodate everyone," King said. "Passengers across our system understand the weather situation in Florida, and they are being understanding."
Delta Air Lines, Orlando International's No. 1 carrier, said it would stop flying in and out of Florida as early as this morning and offered refunds or ticket changes to those whose flights are canceled.
Orlando International Executive Director Bill Jennings said the airport would assess damage Sunday and could reopen as early as Monday. He said ceasing flights before the storm would give ground crews an opportunity to secure equipment and aircraft jet-bridges.
Three weeks ago, Hurricane Charley pummeled Orlando International with gusts that reached 105 mph, tearing roofs from its satellite passenger-boarding terminals and breaking glass. Jennings said the airport has stockpiled roofing material and that as many as 200 repair workers would remain at the airport during Frances, ready to begin work as soon as it passes.
As the storm pushed across the Atlantic on Thursday, airports throughout Florida advised passengers to check with airlines for flight updates. In South Florida, Fort Lauderdale Hollywood-International Airport officials said they planned to close the airport at 10 this morning. Palm Beach International Airport said it would be open until at least noon, but officials said plans could change.
At Miami International, officials said Thursday that they had no plans to close the airport.
In Central Florida, Delta Air Lines will continue regular flight schedules through 7:30 p.m. today at Daytona Beach International Airport. Continental Airlines has not announced changes at Daytona.
Two other Central Florida airports, Orlando Sanford International and Melbourne International, announced plans to close this morning.
Orlando Sanford President Larry Dale said flights would be suspended at midnight Thursday and resume Monday at the earliest.
About 3,000 passengers were stranded at the airport during Charley as the terminal was battered and power went out. Dale said the terminal would be closed this time.
In fact, the airport entrance will be barricaded at 5:30 a.m. today to prevent anyone from trying to get in.
Dale said arrangements have been made at a nearby condominium to house a few passengers who needed a place to stay. Airlines and tour companies are arranging for others to extend their stays until the flights resume.
General aviation traffic will be allowed to continue until the tower closes when winds reach 55 mph, anticipated about noon Saturday, Dale said.
He ordered all planes to be flown out of the airport before the storm to prevent damage.
As the airports battened down for the big one, some travelers remained oblivious to the drastic changes in schedules.
Ramon Hernandez was so focused on his weeklong Florida vacation that he wasn't aware a hurricane was approaching. He had planned to board an American Airlines flight Saturday afternoon to his home in Los Angeles. Informed of the airport closing that would likely force him to stay behind in Orlando or find an earlier flight, he appeared shocked.
"I don't know what we'll do," he said. "I guess I should go call my airline and find out what's happening," he said, heading off in search of a phone.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
In search of medicines
Residents seek refills, shelters for special needs
Stacy Browning spent Thursday morning buying batteries and flashlights. In the afternoon, she was standing in line at an Altamonte Springs drugstore, waiting to refill two prescriptions.
"I didn't have to refill them yet, but it seemed like a good idea to do it now," said Browning, 37, of Apopka.
At drugstores throughout Central Florida, customers flocked to fill prescriptions Thursday, and county emergency numbers were jammed by callers seeking information on special-needs shelters.
At the Medicine Shoppe in downtown Kissimmee, pharmacist Sam Amin said he expected the store to fill at least 400 prescriptions Thursday -- twice as many as usual. Amin was working with six pharmacy technicians to fill the orders and planned to use generator power to stay up and running today and Saturday even if Frances hits hard.
"It's been crazy," Amin said as he put down the telephone. "We've never had so many calls in our life."
Meanwhile, county emergency-preparedness officials rushed to open special-needs shelters for the elderly and people who rely on electrically operated medical devices.
In Orange County, phone lines were jammed with callers trying to preregister for a spot in the county's three special-needs shelters.
"The problem now is, we're getting so many calls, we can't register everybody," said Pam Steinke, who was coordinating the sites. "The only ones who should call now are those who need transportation to a shelter."
"But a special-needs shelter should be a last resort," Steinke said. "It's for people who can walk without assistance, people on oxygen or people without high-care demands." Special-needs shelters cannot handle those who require round-the-clock care.
Although doctors faced waves of cancellations Thursday, some spent the day counseling nervous patients.
"If people have expressed concern, we're referring them to special-needs shelters," said David Simmons, an Orlando internist. But he noted that, for older patients with heart and lung problems, heat is the greatest threat they face from Frances.
"One of the most important medical devices is an air-conditioning unit," Simmons said. After the long power outages caused by Hurricane Charley, Simmons sent several patients to hospitals for heat exhaustion and heat-related complications.
Richard Baxley, an Orlando family-practice physician, urged his patients to make sure they had adequate supplies of prescription medication. And those on oxygen should get an extra portable oxygen tank.
Meanwhile, at a Walgreens drugstore on Colonial Drive in Orlando, pharmacists tried to handle two or three times the number of prescriptions they usually process.
"I think someone spread the word that people they should have a 30-day supply of medicine, and that triggered it," pharmacist Alan Greber said.
Despite a six-hour wait for prescriptions, people were being patient, Greber said.
Carol Hively, spokesperson for Walgreens, said customers can streamline the process by submitting prescription orders online at walgreens.com and by bringing insurance cards and prescription bottles with them for refills.
CVS and Walgreens operate some 24-hour stores, and both companies said they would try to stay open as long as possible.
But some patients ran into complications when they tried to refill prescriptions while they still had medicine left.
Patricia Morney of Orlando spent Wednesday and Thursday trying to get her prescription for anti-hemorraghing medication refilled. She has a five-day supply left, but her insurance company balked at refilling the prescription early.
That's a common scenario, CVS Pharmacy spokesman Mike DeAngelis said, but he urged patients to talk to their pharmacists.
"Pharmacists may give customers a few pills to get them through, though they may not be able to fill a complete prescription," DeAngelis said.
In the crush to fill their needs, some people remembered their pets, too. Winter Park resident Ross Osterman, 45, stood in line at an Orlando drugstore to refill a sedative prescription -- for his dog.
"He doesn't do well in storms," Osterman said of his 4-year-old greyhound, Cody. "I just wanted to make sure he has enough pills."
Residents seek refills, shelters for special needs
Stacy Browning spent Thursday morning buying batteries and flashlights. In the afternoon, she was standing in line at an Altamonte Springs drugstore, waiting to refill two prescriptions.
"I didn't have to refill them yet, but it seemed like a good idea to do it now," said Browning, 37, of Apopka.
At drugstores throughout Central Florida, customers flocked to fill prescriptions Thursday, and county emergency numbers were jammed by callers seeking information on special-needs shelters.
At the Medicine Shoppe in downtown Kissimmee, pharmacist Sam Amin said he expected the store to fill at least 400 prescriptions Thursday -- twice as many as usual. Amin was working with six pharmacy technicians to fill the orders and planned to use generator power to stay up and running today and Saturday even if Frances hits hard.
"It's been crazy," Amin said as he put down the telephone. "We've never had so many calls in our life."
Meanwhile, county emergency-preparedness officials rushed to open special-needs shelters for the elderly and people who rely on electrically operated medical devices.
In Orange County, phone lines were jammed with callers trying to preregister for a spot in the county's three special-needs shelters.
"The problem now is, we're getting so many calls, we can't register everybody," said Pam Steinke, who was coordinating the sites. "The only ones who should call now are those who need transportation to a shelter."
"But a special-needs shelter should be a last resort," Steinke said. "It's for people who can walk without assistance, people on oxygen or people without high-care demands." Special-needs shelters cannot handle those who require round-the-clock care.
Although doctors faced waves of cancellations Thursday, some spent the day counseling nervous patients.
"If people have expressed concern, we're referring them to special-needs shelters," said David Simmons, an Orlando internist. But he noted that, for older patients with heart and lung problems, heat is the greatest threat they face from Frances.
"One of the most important medical devices is an air-conditioning unit," Simmons said. After the long power outages caused by Hurricane Charley, Simmons sent several patients to hospitals for heat exhaustion and heat-related complications.
Richard Baxley, an Orlando family-practice physician, urged his patients to make sure they had adequate supplies of prescription medication. And those on oxygen should get an extra portable oxygen tank.
Meanwhile, at a Walgreens drugstore on Colonial Drive in Orlando, pharmacists tried to handle two or three times the number of prescriptions they usually process.
"I think someone spread the word that people they should have a 30-day supply of medicine, and that triggered it," pharmacist Alan Greber said.
Despite a six-hour wait for prescriptions, people were being patient, Greber said.
Carol Hively, spokesperson for Walgreens, said customers can streamline the process by submitting prescription orders online at walgreens.com and by bringing insurance cards and prescription bottles with them for refills.
CVS and Walgreens operate some 24-hour stores, and both companies said they would try to stay open as long as possible.
But some patients ran into complications when they tried to refill prescriptions while they still had medicine left.
Patricia Morney of Orlando spent Wednesday and Thursday trying to get her prescription for anti-hemorraghing medication refilled. She has a five-day supply left, but her insurance company balked at refilling the prescription early.
That's a common scenario, CVS Pharmacy spokesman Mike DeAngelis said, but he urged patients to talk to their pharmacists.
"Pharmacists may give customers a few pills to get them through, though they may not be able to fill a complete prescription," DeAngelis said.
In the crush to fill their needs, some people remembered their pets, too. Winter Park resident Ross Osterman, 45, stood in line at an Orlando drugstore to refill a sedative prescription -- for his dog.
"He doesn't do well in storms," Osterman said of his 4-year-old greyhound, Cody. "I just wanted to make sure he has enough pills."
Tim G
Well-Known Member
Preparing your pool or spa
Homeowners with pools and spas should prepare for high winds and heavy rains. Here's what to do.
Water. Some pool professionals say to drain the water level no farther than the bottom of the pool tiles. Others say to leave the level where it is. All agree to superchlorinate the water.
Pump and filtering system. Hose off cartridge filters. Turn off power at the circuit breakers. For gas heaters, turn off the valve at the propane tank.
Screened enclosures. Make sure gutters and downspouts are clear of debris. Check and tighten guide wires. If bolts that fasten the bottom plate of the enclosure to the pool deck are rusted, replace them with hex concrete screws available at building-supply stores. If the hurricane is expected to have a heavy impact on your neighborhood, cut out the screening from the large panels on all the walls of your enclosure; this will allow the wind to blow through.
Patio furnishings. Store toys, potted plants, furniture, safety fences and loose items that could become projectiles.
Above-ground pools. Maintain normal water levels; superchlorinate with about 25 percent more chlorine than normal. Store removable ladders. Disconnect the power supply. Protect the pump and power supply from standing water.
SOURCES: Dennis Rupert, owner of Specialty Construction and Design in Sanford; Bob Harriss, owner of Harriss Pools Inc. in Apopka; Keith Johnson, owner of Pool Works in Auburndale.
Homeowners with pools and spas should prepare for high winds and heavy rains. Here's what to do.
Water. Some pool professionals say to drain the water level no farther than the bottom of the pool tiles. Others say to leave the level where it is. All agree to superchlorinate the water.
Pump and filtering system. Hose off cartridge filters. Turn off power at the circuit breakers. For gas heaters, turn off the valve at the propane tank.
Screened enclosures. Make sure gutters and downspouts are clear of debris. Check and tighten guide wires. If bolts that fasten the bottom plate of the enclosure to the pool deck are rusted, replace them with hex concrete screws available at building-supply stores. If the hurricane is expected to have a heavy impact on your neighborhood, cut out the screening from the large panels on all the walls of your enclosure; this will allow the wind to blow through.
Patio furnishings. Store toys, potted plants, furniture, safety fences and loose items that could become projectiles.
Above-ground pools. Maintain normal water levels; superchlorinate with about 25 percent more chlorine than normal. Store removable ladders. Disconnect the power supply. Protect the pump and power supply from standing water.
SOURCES: Dennis Rupert, owner of Specialty Construction and Design in Sanford; Bob Harriss, owner of Harriss Pools Inc. in Apopka; Keith Johnson, owner of Pool Works in Auburndale.
Tim G
Well-Known Member
<TABLE borderColor=#000000 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="98%" border=1><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#ff0000><TABLE width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=large>STORM STATUS</TD><TD class=small align=right>September 3, 4:37 AM EDT</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#cccccc><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="95%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>Name: Hurricane Frances</TD></TR><TR><TD class=small vAlign=top>Location: Just east of eleuthera island. This position is also about 285 miles, 460 km, East-Southeast of The Florida Lower East Coast.
Lat/Long: 24.9N, 76.0W
Max Winds: 120 mph
Category: 3
</TD><TD class=small vAlign=top noWrap>Heading: West-Northwest
Speed: 9 mph
Pressure: 28.17 inches
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=small align=middle colSpan=2></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Lat/Long: 24.9N, 76.0W
Max Winds: 120 mph
Category: 3
</TD><TD class=small vAlign=top noWrap>Heading: West-Northwest
Speed: 9 mph
Pressure: 28.17 inches
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=small align=middle colSpan=2></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
chancellor
Member
For those of you trying to make travel plans, it looks like the recent slow down in forward progress (5am advisory) is going to make Sunday the day the storm crosses the state, rather than Saturday. If you're still trying to get out, you may have gotten a break (though the traffic is another story).
barnum42
New Member
Found a new flight in
Looks like I'll now make it in after Frances - Now booked on scheduled US Airways flights from Gatwick to Chartlotte then Orlando. Coming in on Tuesday Evening and back out on the 20th.
Fingers crossed for everyone riding out the storm on the ground. I'll catch up with you next week.
Looks like I'll now make it in after Frances - Now booked on scheduled US Airways flights from Gatwick to Chartlotte then Orlando. Coming in on Tuesday Evening and back out on the 20th.
Fingers crossed for everyone riding out the storm on the ground. I'll catch up with you next week.