I know. It's not looking good. My dad lives exactly under the "8AM Wednesday" spot. Thankfully it's not expected to be of a very high severity. But you know what happens when it hits the warm gulf waters. We should get some of the rain up here in north/central Alabama.

Yep ready to lower the swimming pool when that happens ! Looks like may go in at Apalachicola...there go the oyster beds..sigh...hope your Dad will be fine and that indeed it stays small....as you say the warm gulf can do its tricks though. c

Hope it's not a bad one... I haven't had time to watch the weather.

Looks like we will get rain, and be on the west side of storm. Oh, joy.

Keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers. My elderly parents are, thankfully, not back at their Winter home north of Tampa yet, so I don't have to be concerned for them . . . at least, this time. Just for their house (sigh!). Did you experience any flooding from that recent bout of heavy heavy rain? All around their home flooded, but thankfully stayed in the streets and some of the yards, but never made it into their homes. Their neighbors down their were keeping them posted. I was thinking about you, too, then.

We didn't get any of the torrential rain here in Central AL. SIL is in Destin and she said it has rained there most of the past 50 days. We are almost on the line between GA and AL.

A hurricane is worse on the "right" side which is relative to the direction it is moving. So if it is moving West the right is North and if it is moving North the right is East...hope that makes sense !

Just have to keep an eye out...we will have rain for sure it just remains to be seen how much it strengthens in the warm water of the Gulf...Cat 3 would be pretty bad . c

Lynn glad your folks are still up North. c

Hope everyone stays safe (and able to stay home, Trail-you are so good to prepare a place for them, just in case!). Sure would love to see some rain from it up here. Starting to think we live in a desert habitat.

I will stay in the house for a cat 1 or cat 2 but never a cat 3 again! My house was built with some of the latest roof straps and such. However, my young cousins who are new to Florida are welcome here as they are expecting a baby and live about 37 miles off the west coast. So far it doesn't look too hostile, unless of course if you are on low lying flood zones. You have to be real carful of wading through flood waters down here with water snakes and gators. The last big storm a few years ago left us with a huge gator under our driveway culvert. It was a pain because we have dogs. A lot of the neighbors came over donning their flood boots to have a look which led to a party which led to the guys getting brave with sticks trying to get the gator to move on. It did move on.

I didn't keep track of where it actually went once it moved thru their area, but thought it was heading up your way, C. I'm glad you missed that one!

Hope everyone weathers the storm OK!

I'm just below where the L is in FL. I picked up batteries and weather radio yesterday while at Wal-Mart.
Got the last radio and last set of batteries (at that display but there were others throughout the store). I have been bagging ice to pack the freezer. However, I doubt we will get much as far inland as we are.

Poor Tampa though - the RNC has all the hotels booked and so people in flooding areas won't be able to find a place to stay anywhere nearby. Even some of our hotels have been booked for months for all the extra police that are being brought in for security reasons. We are 30-45 min from Tampa, just off I-4.

I'm glad I don't have a reason to head that way over the next week or so. A friend of mine has to take her daughter to the airport for a flight Tues., which may or may not be scheduled depending on the storm and I know someone else who has to go have some surgery there on Monday. Traffic is bad there anyway - can't imagine what it will be like next week.

I hope everyone stays safe. Do check-in after and let us know how you fared through the storm.

Trailrunner - if it moves west will you still be ok? (I was thinking about you today - glad to see you)

bl...we will be OK no matter what...even when we had Opal , it was wind and water and fallen trees and power out but all doable.

It is highly unlikely it will move west...appears to be curving more and more east as they usually do. At this point in time it will pass right over us and then DD in Atlanta ! So family will not be coming HERE !! We will have a lot of rain and wind. We have old old trees and that can be a big problem. We were in another home during Opal so we had minimal impact. In this house it will be much more likely we lose power and trees come down. With the drought over the past 4-5 yrs the root systems on the trees is very poor.

I am stocked up on candles and will fill the bathtub with water. I have gas cook top and the freezer has very little in it. Ice chest ready and waiting. So all I have to do is stock up on beverages of choice :) DH is NOT happy that I am here alone ....thanks for thinking of me ... c

Oh jeez! You stay safe C!!!

Hope it's not as bad as you fear, Caroline. We've had a lot of rain, but not the last week. So ground won't be saturated.

bl...we will be OK no matter what...even when we had Opal , it was wind and water and fallen trees and power out but all doable.

Opal was the worst hurricane we've had in our area. We lost 18 trees - all huge hardwoods. Thank goodness nothing hit the house, especially the first one that fell. Right next to the house, fell across the driveway. Had the wind not been rotating in that direction it would have been worse. Much worse. No power for 2 weeks, but we had a whole house generator. I think the cable was out a month.

After Opal, I couldn't sleep upstairs when the wind blew hard enough for me to hear. Scared a giant oak tree was going to cut the house in half.

Caroline,
A great tip I learned when we went two weeks without power (thank you Ike)... put solar lights outside during the day, and then bring them in to use for lighting at night.

Stay safe....

allison that is much the way our area was after Opal. we were lucky that the part of Auburn we lived in at that time had buried electrical and also no large old trees...we were w/o power a few hours and nothing but some branches down.

At present they are saying 3" rain and 25 mph winds here with Isaac but that is all speculation as it needs to get into the Gulf and then see what it becomes and where it goes. I will start to pay attn on Tuesday.

Best...thanks for the tip !! I have camping stuff so all set with batteries and lanterns. c

Keeping an eye on Isaac as our DS#3 returned to school in NOLA last week.

Trailrunner, it was Opal that made us realize the necessity of getting the heck out of NOLA for a Cat 3 or more storm. We lived a block from the Lake Pontchartrain levee, and the storm surge was half way up the levee. We figured if there was that much water & wind from a distant Cat 3 hurricane, the weak side no less, we would be fools to try to ride out anything closer or stronger. (As it turned out, we were transferred to New England the following year.)

Well, its 3:15 pm Sun. afternoon in Lakeland FL and the only sight of Issac that we have had is a couple rain bands and some breeze. Our school district has cancelled school for tomorrow as our county is VERY large and covers rural areas as well as larger towns. Many kids ride buses and would have to wait out in the rain and storms. We are supposed to get some tropical winds and rain later tonight into tomorrow. Guess they had to go ahead and make a decision. Neighboring counties west and south have also done the same.

Storm has yet to become what it will be until it spends time over the Gulf. Until then it is anybody's guess what it will do. One thing is for sure , it is a very large storm and the Gulf is very warm this time of year. It is predicted to edge further West so we will get only a tiny part of the rain here in Opelika. My SIL has decided she is staying put. She is in a condo right on the water outside of Destin, 3rd floor. My nephew is right on the River in NOLA. He has options to go to the North shore with friends or stay put. They are not coming here. I guess we will see .

I was home when Betsy hit NOLA in 1965. It was a wild night. Slate blew off of the old roofs in the Quarter and the wind blew so hard it came in around our picture window. We were in Gentilly a few blocks from the Lake. I was also in that same home during Camille...1969. It hit the Gulf shore more than it did NOLA. Blew apart condos and killed folks that stayed and were partying. Opal was nothing compared to those where we were in Auburn in 1995...we were very very lucky.

My brother and his family as well as SIL and nephew all came here for Katrina. There lives were all changed by that storm. Ultimately only nephew returned for good. DB and SIL and her Mom all relocated..now in NYC, due to lack of health care for the ladies and my DB commuted from NYC to NOLA for 2 years after the storm so he could keep his health insurance . His health finally gave out from the stress and he took early retirement. SIL's home was only under 6inches of water but it was enough to ruin the whole home and she gave up trying to get anyone to fix it and couldn't live in a Katrina trailer in her yard any longer.

These storms are nothing to fool around with,that is for sure. awm...you were so right...better safe than sorry. Unfortunately it takes money and transportation to be able to flee the storms. Many who stay simply have no practical way to leave and end up in shelters or stay in their homes and wait it out. c

trailrunner, your DB commuted from NYC to NOLA?! That's a long trip, even if you take a direct flight. I can't imagine doing that. How sad to hear of his health issues from the stress of it all.

So you grew up in Gentilly! I'll bet it was really nice back in it's day. We bought a fixer upper in East Lakeshore in the late 80s when the area had lost some of its cachet. It was being rediscovered when we left in the late 90s and was filling up with young families again. We loved living there and just hated to leave. My youngest son has decided to move back and is wrapping up his B.A. at UNO -- right on the lake :(

We lost a very dear friend in Katrina. No one knows for sure what happened, but seems that he had gone out for a walk to survey neighborhood damage right when the levee broke. He was found floating 3 weeks later. Other close friends lived in a house right next to the 17th Street Canal breech. She's a nurse & he's a fire captain, & both stayed in NOLA to work in emergency services. They debated whether to stay in their brand new home, but opted to ride out the storm in her hospital because there would be electricity back-up in case of power failure. She said if they hadn't left, they would have been killed -- the water rushed through the levee break like a tsunami, crushing their house & sweeping cars away for blocks. Afterwards, they couldn't rebuild for well over a year because the Army Corps of Engineers impounded their property to make repairs on the levee. They were displaced for a total of two years.

Yes we moved to NOLA in 1963...my Dad had been going down there for his business for a couple years before that. We lived on Cartier St. Gentilly was a very very nice area back in the day. I graduated from Kennedy HS in 1968. It was destroyed and not rebuilt after Katrina. I then went to Loyola and met my DH who graduated from NELC and was working at Tulane Med school in 1970.We married in Feb 1971 and lived on the corner of Esplande and Chartres on the 2nd floor. Used to eat burgers at Port of Call when we had a few bucks LOL ! Moved to Mirabeau Apts then and then to Gen Haig a duplex right on the park..that was 1973 and then we left and never went back. DH started graduate school at LSUNO and then decided to move to Johns Hopkins and then Chapel Hill and then U of U in SLC and then Auburn !! Lots of moves for that man :)

That is horrible about your friend ...really sad. The break was right by DH's old home ...could see it from where he grew up on Miles Dr. His house was completely redone and we went by 2 yrs after the storm. My old house was never rebuilt and to this day the neighborhood has never come back.

Yes my DB was able commute . He first travelled back and forth from here and was down there just a couple days after the storm. He had an executive position that required him being there right after and during the weeks and months after the storm. He would stay 2 weeks and then go back to NYC for 2 weeks. He has never been the same as far as health...breathed in all that crap and the stress. They have made a good life though in NYC...SIL graduated 2nd in her law school class from NYU so had ties to the city...she was a Gentilly girl too. She and my DB both graduated from Ben Franklin HS. Her Mom is still with them and turned 91 in May...she was a Gentilly girl too LOL. So there you have it.

Nephew is staying in the area . Storm looks like will be cat 1 or low cat 2. So he is heading to the north shore with his gf and her DD and they will stay there with friends. SIL is staying in Destin at condo as the storm isn't going to be as bad there. We will get nothing but some much needed rain. Breezy and 72 this AM here. c

Nice to connect with you !! c

Oh gosh, trailrunner, you are making me homesick, LOL! I can picture all those places in my mind. When DH came home and said we were moving to Connecticut, I burst into tears because my kids wouldn't go to Ben Franklin. That was the first thing that crossed my mind. All their old friends when on to Franklin, and my best friend works there now.

Got an email from DH, whose company has a private forecaster. He's saying the wind field is unusually large & to expect storm surges stronger than a normal cat 2 storm.

I need to call DS & find out his plans. He has a ground floor dorm room :(

Good, he's evacuating. He'll stay with a friend's family farther north.

Oh good..glad to hear it ! The storm surge is the problem with the wind too. And with the old Mississippi so low there is now the added problem of the salt water in the river and the area that the Army corps had just started working on to prevent contamination of the water supply. Eventually the higher water that goes up the river will all wash back down but in the meantime...just a mess as per usual in NOLA !!

ps...I wasn't smart enough to go to BF :)

I'll bet you were smart enough to go to BF, but your brain was still developing at the time :)

haha..what it was developing was a craze for boys and not studying LOL !! When I went to college...and then got my RN 15 years later it was a whole different story so maybe you are right. Has been a fun chat . c

I'm all the way over on the other coast of Florida. Our monthly average of rainfall for Aug is 7.29 inches. Since yesterday we have had 9 to 13 inches so far and with more coming. We already had a surplus beyond the norm this year unfortunately. However, Palm Beach County's mean elevation is 15 feet above sea level so for those in the line of fire of this very wet almost hurricane...well it's not going to be pretty on just the flooding alone for the low lying areas.

I haven't noticed any recent posts from Natal. Isn't she also in the storm path/area?

I hope you all batten down the hatches and are safe & sound.

latest update on my family. Nephew is in a hotel on Toulouse St. His GF's family has 3 in the Quarter and they have ALL moved down there. He secured his apt and put his car up high in a parking garage so he is all set. Power rarely goes out in the Quarter and not for long.

SIL is still in her condo in Destin area. The storm has curved so far to the west that her surge will be 3-6 ft. She is on the other side of the road so even at 6 ft with her on the 3rd floor should have no water and the wind is way less than they thought it would be.

It rained some here at 5 AM but that is all so far. We had a good 12 mph breeze last night and some light sprinkles. It was lovely sitting on the porch:) We need way more rain so I am hopeful that we will get controlled steady rain for 2 days.

I hope those in the 12 ft surge area are gone !! That is WAY more than anyone can prepare for. Looks like Mobile is in for it in that respect and low lying LA areas. The storm is moving 1/2 as fast as it was which is very bad as it is picking up water...it has to dump it somewhere. Let's all hope that noone is injured in this. c

I was just scrolling through all these posts to see if Natal checked in here, too. Natal, keeping you and your DH in my prayers. Stay safe and check in with us when you can to let us know that you're ok, please!
Lynn

Praying for everyone in the path of the storm and feeling special concern for the vulnerable city of New Orleans. So eerie that the 7th anniversary of Katrina is tomorrow. Praying for safety and refuge for all.

Well said, SG!

I agree Stinky!!! Hoping that the new seawall and other precautions work well and that everyone stays safe!

tina

Prayers and good Mojo being sent as issac has been upgraded to Hurricane status. Please stay safe!

Hoping and praying that everyone stays safe! I have family who cut short a Disney trip in order to come back home ahead of the storm. They were in Destin day-before-yesterday, and eager to return to that beautiful location when the weather doesn't threaten.

Best wishes to everyone in the path!

Thinking of you all with hopeful heart.
Marti

Enough already! Come on, Isaac, move up to Arkansas where they need the rain, sheesh...

DS got flooded out of the house he had evacuated to in Laplace & was taken to a shelter. Ugh.

I am sorry...yes my BIL and SIL are in River Forest...or they were...3 ft of water in their home and St John parrish had the water cut off yesterday in preparation for contamination. These are DH's brother and SIL.

A story about this. My BIL said that if they fixed the levees the way they did after Katrina then they folks in St Johns were screwed the next time a big wet storm came. Fast forward to now. The money was there and still is for a levee in St John's but it hasn't been built. So there you go. They saved the main city of New Orleans from really bad flooding but they doomed the outlying areas.

Another piece of info. Due to my DB's job I know that they drains in NOLA were in extremely poor condition to the point of being useless before Katrina. They then filled up with debris even worse than they were. Then the new levees were built. These are made by filling baskets with sand. Before they could get them to securely filled and planted the sand was washed out of many many of these baskets..especially in Metairie . The sand filled the drains in the streets thus clogging them even more.

It is no wonder that the streets are flooded with only a cat 1 ..albeit a very wet and slow storm. I hope the residents and powers that be in the city are taking note of the fact that if they had had a really bad storm on a scale of Katrina the city would be gone...all gone. The pump station at the 17th st wasn't even working right this AM ! This is why we would never ever move back there...even though we have talked about it a lot of times. The money goes into pockets and not into projects...and the land was reclaimed from the water and it is going to go BACK to the water and there is nothing anyone will ever be able to do about it.

awm...I am really really sorry about your DS. I hope he will be well taken care of ! Keep up posted. c

My son was staying near your BIL & SIL, trailrunner, what a coinicidence! I only got a cryptic message relayed through a friend that he's in a shelter. His phone's out of power, so that's all I know. He'll be fine there for the next 24 hours. Maybe his laptop got wet, not quite the same magnitude of trouble that your BIL & SIL are going through. I'm so, so sorry their home got three feet of water. How miserable.

"The money goes into pockets and not into projects..."
It's the same everywhere, actually.

DS finally called, exhausted & soggy, but fine. He's in a hotel in Shreveport, as he's had enough of the noisy, chaotic, chilly shelters. It's been an ordeal, and he's been cold, wet & foul smelling since noon yesterday. He waded through thigh-high water until he found someone in a boat, who took him to a truck, which took him to another truck, which took him to the first shelter. No one knew what was going on there, and in the meantime, bus after bus arrived to drop off people. The waters were threatening the shelter as well. Finally at 10 pm, some buses came to take them to Alexandria. He endured two bus transfers which entailed waiting in parking lots for two hours per transfer, only to find there was no room at the intended destinations. So he ended up in a shelter in Shreveport, but ditched it for the hotel down the street. Sensible boy. He was surprised at the amount of confusion & disorganization & misinformation all around. Not sure how or when he'll get back to UNO, but at least he's safe, warm & dry now (or will be after he walks to Wal-mart for some new clothes & shoes). And he can finally charge his phone.

Oh my...that is a terrible situation . A lot of it has been complicated by the notion that this " is just a little storm cat1". That was the prevailing attitude of many..scoff at the storm. I know my nephew and his friends were taking that attitude on Monday. As the reality set in then folks became more serious. Many won't leave their homes due to looters. I know that the police presence is supposed to stop it but the homeowners in the subdivisions, my BIL and SIL included, aren't about to trust anyone. These same folks then put themselves and the rescuers in danger as they have to be hauled out in treacherous conditions.

I am sorry the shelters were in such bad condition. As you noted it was the water threatening them that at least partially caused the problem. Of course that is another reason BIL and SIL wouldn't leave their home...but they have sons in Baton Rouge and had plenty of time to go there. Ah well...it will hopefully all be better after the weekend. Maybe they will learn from this "little" storm !

I sure hope your DS gets home asap. Clean and rested and fed is GOOD !! c

Praying for everyone as My eyes are peeled on CNN. What a sad situation.
Glad everyone's loved ones are safe for now.