Outter bands starting hitting this morning

[FLfinfan]

Got woke up this morning by what sounded like someone rolling a metal wheeled wagon across my roof. Went to the front door to look out the tall narrow pane of class beside the door. It is covered on the outside with a thick sheet of plexiglass. That area, the front door itself (steel door), and the garage door (metal with reinforcement braces) are the only areas without metal hurricane shutters attached to them. That is also where the winds and rain are coming from at this time.

We are getting intermitant bands every so often and they are getting stronger each time. There has been about 15 min to 30 min between each one. But the gap between is getting shorter.

I could not see my neighbors house across the street it was raining so hard. The front door is braced now with a special brace that fits under the door knob and goes down at an angle to the floor where the rubber feet of it prop/force it against the door preventing it from opening even if the door was unlocked. I put this on this morning because the door was moving slightly inward with the wind pressure. About 60 to 65 mph winds, which is nothing yet. There is also a storm door over the front door with a heavy metal frame and storm windows that slide up and down. We rolled up 3 towels, put them in a garbage bag and duck taped the bag. Then we put that down at the foot of the door, between the 2 doors to prevent water from being driven up under the door. Has never happened with the other canes we have been through, but just getting ready. It has happened to a friend before.

Put a big sheet of plywood across the reinforced garage door, on the inside, and backed the Xterra up to it snug. Put the e-brake on also. Put "C" clamps on 3 areas where the garage door folds normally. There are reinforcement braces all across the door, but I am not gonna wait for problems. Alittle rain was driven between the door sections (thats never happened), but not even enough to make the floor wet. Also backed the lawn tractor up to the door and set its brake and put it reverse.

Moved the Titan to the back side of the house. Had to have the GF hold open the double door gate (wood privacy fence) to drive it in behind the back side of the house. Parked as close to the house as possible. Might or might not help, but the front driveway will have a big palm across it by tonight or tomorrow I'm betting, so she got moved. Will switch sides of the house if possible later when needed.

Flash lights in almost every room. Battery operated gadget with a lantern, flashlight, radio, tv etc.... ready for loss of power. Good amount of batteries for everything.

Am updating post every couple of minutes while typing to get most of it out in case I lose power. So it will look edited every so often.

Getting the dog out inbetween bands to use the bathroom. Can hear my soffeting and trim groaning on the house. Had to go out inbetween the 1st 2 bands and unclog a few areas of drainage I set up for the yard after the 1st cane went through years ago. Helped alot. Had to dig a couple of quick trenches to direct water away from the house and towards the drainage areas I set up to flow towards the street. not really too close but trying to keep it that way. I don't think my efforts will matter when the meat of this thing hits though.

I will probably get roof damage (shingles, trim, soffeting only I hope) some flooding of the lot I'm on, hopefully not the house. Never happened (flooding) before even with all day long FL thunder storms, but this baby is not typical. Hopefully the Titan will be alright, might need her to move to another home if this one gets wasted.

Both cars are pretty much full with gas, and thats good cause FL has almost none right now and won't get any for awhile.

Have a X-Power Pack Plus (power source) that will let us have alittle power if we lose power, basically a big car/truck battery that lets you plug in car accessories and house plug items. But I think we will save it for the fans we have to make sleeping alittle more comfortable, if we lose (probably will happen) power.

Just went outside between to big bands and filmed the wind, houses around mine, stop sign twisting (the intersection street sign on top of it is gone). Stayed in my front entryway, some small debris moving around, not to bad, but don't wanna have to go to the hospital right now for a stupid cut or break or whatever.
Starting to lose power alittle.

Back on now, flickerd a few times. Got the tub full of water, and a bucket, to use in the toilet if we lose water pressure. Parents said you can fill up the tank and the bowel with the bucket and gravity will do the rest. I hope so.

The brunt of this will hit after dark (@#&*), they always seem to. Crap, I hate that. We lucked out and found a open resteraunt last night and got a great big pizza pie and a couple of cold pitchers, never tasted so good. Might be my last warm meal and cold beer for awhile.

Gonna get off now and set up our panic room. Basically the master bedroom walkin closet on the more sheltered side of the house. Gonna get the 2 cats in their car carriers and the dog in his harness. Gonna put up a sheet of plywood over us, Lean-2 style supported by a huge solid old dresser just in case the roof caves in...off...whatever. Will have battery TV, radio, water, flashlight, cell phone ready to go. Wish us luck.

Don't think I will be going outside again. Can you believe there are actually people driving around sight seeing and taking a walk with rain suits on. Hope they don't catch that street intersection sign. It's like a big metal plus sign.

Disclaimer........................................ ........................................... (Directed to my new special friend). I do not think, wish, want or mean to imply, in anyway, that I am a "Hurricane Hunter" or meteorologist because I am talking about a hurricane.

Note: not gonna even try to go read the Overtime thread to see what is there. Don't need that garbage right now.

[PHOEBISIS]

Flfinfan,you sound ready!Say,how close are you to the ocean-well back-10-20 miles or so,I hope?Guess you would have hit the bricks if you were close to the Atlantic.
Pretty impressive preps.We just throw on a little 3/8th plywood,and hunker down by the radio (too thin,but much easier to manhandle into place).
Yeah,they always come at night-makes it even scarier.When Betsy( direct hit),and Camille(just brushed us) came in 1965 I was a kid (14-18) and really got a kick out of them.Now,53 with a kid,wife,animals,house,cars,etc it is not the thrill it once was. Now it is strictly-"S_ _ _,here come another one ".
Good luck,stay in touch if possible.Charlie

[avroflyer]

Good luck man! She has weakened, but she has stalled out too so more loitering time is bad news. God bless and keep safe!

[chazz1202]

Good prep. sounds like. I too am a floridian but in Gatorville (Gainesville), wind is around 20 MPH for us and its really really dark already- kinda weird since the storm is stationary but I swear it looks like it's getting worse by the hour. Waiting for another update to see if it's moving again- Good luck and stay safe.

[CaliforniaTitan]

Stay safe !

Chris

[PHOEBISIS]

Guess you Fla folks won't sleep much tonight.Hard to sleep with the wind ripping outside.I hate it when they stall out.Luck,Charlie PS Lost power yet(guess you can't say yes!)

[chazz1202]

Winds and rain in G'ville staying pretty constant since about 4 AM. Just took the TITAN to a local elementary school for safe keeping since we have a lot of pines in our yard, even streets up here are E-M-P-T-Y. Guess the 'pala is on its own!

[jd1973]

All
We got no damage from this one either but still have a third one on (Ivan) on the way this week. I hope these storms convince all our new arrivals to move back home or not move down here in the first place. There's way too many people here. And maybe all the people living in mobile homes on the beach will move out of there. When tempting mother nature you usually don't win.
JD

[mick3643]

You guy's take care and keep yer head down. my brother is an insurance adjuster from corpus christi tx and he called me from somewhere in La. on his way to florida. I guess the insurance company's are pulling in everybody they can to take care of folks.

[chazz1202]

Afternoon all, just got my power back today, man I can't believe how much damage was caused by Frances even up here in the panhandle. We were out of power for 12 days and had about 3 grand worth of roof and house damage. Just found out about the dandy hurricane clause that makes my deductible around $2,000. I'll consider myself very lucky compared to a lot of my neighbors though. Hope everyone stays safe through Ivan and now we have jeanne to worry about gracious!

[FLfinfan]

Chazz1202, sorry to hear about you damage. Hope all turns out alright. Glad everyone is ok.