Katrina (a storm)
 

Well, as of now it's a Tropical Storm, and it's heading towards South Florida, where I call home.

Glad I have money saved up for such an emergency (too bad I'll have to delay the new floors and kitchen in my condo).

Be safe, to my fellow Floridians and anyone else in the path!

heath

Here we go again!
 

Ironically, I just sent 'MY" Katrina back to college and lo and behold...here she comes again!!!

RB

I'm with you Heath. Everyone stay safe. Watch the path, it is changing.

Mike

It's slowed down and looks to be hitting Broward (south of Palm Beach, north of Miami-Dade) County. Ugh...

I'm gonna play Xbox, watch DVDs, relax and know that I have prepped the best I could. I spent a LOT of money on water, Gatorade, juice, some canned goods (whoops, probably needed to do more) and a million batteries and flashlights.

They say it may hit category 1, a weak one at that. At my old job, Channel 5 we got hit with hurricane Irene in mid-October 1999. Out of the blue, I might add! I was outside in the thick of it, next to the station, helping to do live remotes. Why? I dunno, but TV stations and networks and cable news stations are a bit...risky, I suppose, with their storm coverage.

heath

What's crazy is after all the hurricanes last year, we Floridians almost scoff in the face of a Category 1. 75mph winds? Shoot, we Floridians f@rt stronger than that. 'Specially down south with all that Cuban food...

I just bought a house near Orlando, and I was warned to have the home owners insurance guaranteed before we close in September. Because the Insurance companies will not see insurance with a Hurricane heading toward the house on the day we close. If the promise is made and arranged for before the Hurricane is known about, they are OK with that.

Also, I don't think any mortgage companies will close with a hurricane threatening. But, you should be OK as this will be done in no time, and is not even a hurricane yet.

Hey, welcome to Florida!!!!!!!!

Mike

You can't close without insurance, and they won't with any storm bearing down.

Hello, higher (much, much higher) rates!

heath

I'm still trying to get my house finished from last year. I'm hoping to be able to move back in before the first hurricane actually hits.

Man, that stinks! Where are you at now?

heath

I had about $9,000.00 in damage last year. All repaired finally. Old roof was about 18 years old, new one should take just about any storm this year.

I just hope for shorter power outages and NO CURFEWS!!! The curfews were worse than the hurricanes. Nearly two weeks last year after the first hurricane to simply go out and get a drink and something to eat. Power was on, but because of the curfews, employees could not get to work or stay there long enough to open a business.

OOOOH, they just said that Katrina is now a hurricane! Time to go out and get a burger and a beer now.

R J Gator's here I come.

Mike

The insurance is already arranged - we are staying with the same company our current house is insured by. That helps.

Also, we want to paint the entire inside of the house and install storage in the garage, so we are bringing our own crew in from Texas. There is nobody available to paint of do any kind of work sonce they are all involved in building new houses, or fixing hurricane damage from last year.

It will cost $700 in transportation (gas mostly) and lodging for the week for the crew, and we pay $340 per day for 4 guys for 6 days. That ought to be enough time to get it all done.

The Perfect Storm
 

Well, I must say that for me this is the perfect storm. Enough sound and fury to cancel work tomorrow but not enough to cause damage and cut off pow

RJ Gators is closed here, as is Duffy's. Darn!

Composition roofing is very common down here, and was once $10,000 to do an average house. It's doubled after the hurricanes. And in July, they were FINALLY replacing roofs all over my town of Wellington.

A house we walked away from has a wooden cedar shake roof that had a LOT of damage. They raised the price $10,000 after we walked but won't replace the roof. I've noticed more and more houses in that neighborhood are on the market. Probably because $350,000 is too much for a home that cost $120,000 4 years ago.

I wanted to invest in real estate, but the taxes are too high. The market's slowing down, which is good for me to buy a house I can afford, but bad for investing right now. Plus, hurricanes are bad for business in real estate.

STAY SAFE!

heath

Actually just the opposite as far a sales go. After last years hurricanes, the people buying and the price of homes, even on the vulnerable island areas went higher. I was working on Hutchenson Island and the prices of the condos I was working at went up by 10% almost immeadiately. No one understood it, but it did. The condos where I worked went from about $650,000 to right at a even million in only two months. Go figure!

Oh, just got back fro R. J. Gators, and the burger was great! Got more beers at home here. Stay safe everyone.

Mike

I sold my home to my son and his fiance. It's right on the broward county line west of Boca proper. Good thing my wife made sure we replaced the roof with better wind resitant shingles after the damage we had last year. Problem is he may be in the northern part of the eye after landfall.

Still, Imran is right. Cat1? how boring. Watch out for lots and lots of rain though. Flat land with full canals means heavy flooding.

I expect some great video from you FL folks.

Here's a good "investment" ;-)

http://www.t-shirthumor.com/Merchant...gory_Code=newr

I'll just get another beer before I answer this post, oops, I already am. Oh, well, just give me a extra large.

Mike

I want burgers and beer!

heath

For Heath and all of our other Floridian members of DV Info Net, here's hoping that Katrina and the waves leave you alone, and that you're all walking on sunshine (and don't it feel good)!

We're golden, no lost power--it went southwest of us and did some serious damage to Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and the Keys. It's a cat 2 now, heading for where Ivan hit last year, and that one storm (forget the name) that hit last month. Alabama/Florida panhandle. Might be a cat 4 by then.

Dang, no break for us!

heath

Ya, I made it through this one just fine, but Katrina is now a cat 3 in the gulf. For the state as a whole, it would have been better if it had hit us higher the first time a scrubbed off a little more energy. It went so low that it didn't hit as much land in the way. We could have taken it ok, now it is just more powerful.

Guess we just can't win, eh.

Good luck to all.

Mike

All the models now have her coming ashore near the mouth of the Mississippi. One of the models that NOAA refers to is forecasting it to be a Category 5. It just went to Catergory 3 overnight.

Now our Louisiana members have to be on the lookout.

-gb-

If a cat 5 hit New Orleans, it would be bad...Very bad...

heath

Yes, CNN just did a story about what a CAT 5 might do to New Orleans. Scary. 6 months under water, no power, no way to dispose of sewage...
bad, bad, bad.

From what I've been seeing on the weather channel, lots of areas of Europe are having severe flooding themselves. Torrential rains and all of it coming down off the mountains. Seams just as bad as the effects we get from Hurricanes, but happening a lot quicker.

Seems to be either too dry or too wet.

That was freaky how the Katrina turned south and hit the Keys though. I guess it picked up enough moisture from the everglades to keep going.

Like I said, it would have been better in general if it had hit higher in Florida the first time through, and lost a lot of power.

I love New Orleans, I hope I get to go there again!

Mike

I'm still waiting to hear a word from my pal in Miami. Hope everything's okay with ya, Rick!!!

News reports say it's gonna hit New Orleans. Judging by wind speed, I believe it's at a cat 4 because of the very warm water in the Gulf. I really hope it would sputter out, but no luck.

heath

It's now a cat 5 at 175 mhp, man this is gonna hurt New Orleans.

Be safe people and get out if you can.

Mike

I live just north of Lake Charles, in the Southwestern part of Louisiana, so we won't get much wind or rain here. But, the people in the eastern part of the state are gonna get hammered - bad.
I-10 westbound is bumper to bumper right now and we are typically a 4 hour drive from New Orleans. The traffic must be horrible farther to the east.

Uninhabitable for weeks, 1 million homeless, gas prices are rising, 25% of domestic oil is produced there...This is scary. "Super, catastrophic hurricane." The 4th strongest Atlantic storm ever. That's what I'm reading on the news sites and wires.

I hope EVERYONE is going to be okay.

heath

Another not-so-pretty scenario pointed out by a researcher at LSU says that the fuel storage, which is all above ground, could be ripped away from moorings and then you have all the chemical plants which could result in a release of Benzene among other things. Also, bodies are buried above ground because they have to and it's possible there will be a bunch of those floating around. In short, both the air and water would be too contaminated for inhabitation for quite some time.

My thoughts and prayers for those in and around the strike zone.

-gb-

I really hope it doesn't come to that, guess we'll know soon. Honestly, the media coverage of this is making me sick. Starting last night the networks ratcheted up all the doom and gloom predictions with stories like these. It seemed like CNN, MSNBC and FOX were all trying to outdo the others dire predictions. At least the weather channel was being a little more objective and pointed out that an air mass to the West might slow the storm down a little.

The news right now says New Orleans was spared, but hit east Louisiana/west Mississippi.

heath

Very true Boyd. However, New Orleans is more vulnerable to a major hurricane than other cities because of it being below sea level. The fact that they now appear to have been spared the worst is only by natural forces. Had the eye have come 50 miles further west, those predictions may have come to fruition. The video feeds coming in now as I type this message still show that New Orleans has been hit pretty hard.

-gb-

Oh I wasn't making light of the situation at all, obviously the potential for a huge disaster was there. What bothered me was the sensationalism, which kept getting kicked up another notch with each passing hour last night in the hopes that you would stayed tuned....

Yeah, I guess we should expect that in this day and age. Back when we had no internet, cable, xm radio, and only 3 or 4 local tv channels there wasn't that much competition. We were pretty much a captive audience.

I guess the upside to having this many news outlets in current day is that we have video of things we would never have had 35 years ago. That of course, always helps pull us into the story a little more. Perhaps it even helps more of us that are unaffected feel moved to reach out and help in some way. At least I hope so.

-gb-

Only in New Orleans...
 

One of the hotels in town apologized for only being able to serve a hot breakfast of sausage, eggs and croisants.

Now thats riding a storm with style.

Just saw videos of New Orleans on CNN. Oh man what a mess!!!!
Prayer and hope for those living there.

And the water is still rising.

50 deaths in Mississippi alone...

heath