Very shortly will arrive our third hurricane (IVAN) for the season to hit the Great state of Florida. I hope all my Fourm friends make out well. Stay safe, we will be praying and awating your posts.

Prayers are going out to all Floridians as well as those who live on the northern gulf coast.

Prayers to everyone in Ivan's path. This is going to be a bad one.

Hadn't heard from Shortcake (Stephanie) in a while and I knew she lived in the neighborhood of where Ivan came ashore, so I gave her a call this afternoon. She reported she is fine, they lost some roof shingles and part of their privacy fence but that was about it. Still doesn't have power and she is not enjoying the heat/humidity. Suggested maybe she could go purchase a wading pool, set ip up out front and spend the day relaxing in it while sipping a brew.

Glad to hear news of Stephanie. Have been wondering about how she fared.

I got to IM with her this evening - She reports the power is back on after a week!

I asked her whether she missed the AC or the Collector Forums the most while the power was off.

She'll come along here and give you the answer...

That's a tough one John! The heat and humidity was unbarable! And the fact that I couldn't make my morning coffee was real tough too. But Forum Withdrawals are a killer!!!!!! You gotta remember that I suffered forum withdrawals not for one week but two, because of my time down in South Florida!


I will write more tomarrow, it's been a long day!

But THANKS to all of you for your concern and prayers!

So, did you hear? Ivan's BACK! It reformed in the Gulf and may make landfall in either Texas or Louisiana! I swear this is the storm that would not die.

Glad to hear you made it through the first version of Ivan okay, Stephanie!

OK, so I wasn't in a half-asleep/dreaming state when I saw that this morning at 6:15. I can't believe it! Will Ivan just go in a circle, from the Gulf up the Appalachians out Delaware Bay and back again eternally? I have never seen anything like this.

Not only did Ivan make a complete circle and loop back around to the Gulf coast, but it seems that it actually split in two in the Virginia area on Saturday with part of the storm going to the northeast and the other part looping back to the south. Figure that one out. I have been tracking storms for about 30 years. I have seen some do the loop around, but never split in two and go in opposite directions.

To check out some of the damage along the Gulf Coast, check out this web site.
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/ivan/IVAN00.HTM

Here is the link to a picture of Pensacola Lighthouse. She is in the middle on the far rigth edge.

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/ivan/PHOTOS/26284246.jpg

Would you believe my mother is in the path for the THIRD hurricane in a little over a month?

Yep, she'll be spending the day tomorrow boarding up the house AGAIN!

:rolleyes:

Here are a few pics of my neighborhood the day of the storm. (West Mobile)

It has now been two weeks sense the storm. And today I went for a sightseeing trip down to Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and over to Pensacola. I wanted to post lots of pics but so much of it was the same same everywhere I looked. Trees down by the thousands and how many pictures of trees can you take? But here are a few. This is what you see everywhere!!!!!!!

Do you have a pickup truck, a utility trailer and a chainsaw? If so come on down!!!! There are trucks here by the hundereds and more needed.





And here is one of the many tempory debris dump sites. This one is in Orange Beach.

Have you wondered why so many are still without power? Here's one of many reasons. This was taken today in Orange Beach right in front of City Hall. I know it's hard to tell but this is not one of your ordanary street powerlines, but rather one of the main systems lines. You can't see it so well because it is laying down on top of all those trees.



And remember my boys from Pike Electric who were down in Palm Bay from North Carolina. Well I found them in Pensacola today.




I tryed to get out to Ft. Morgan to check on Sand Island and Mobile Point lights. But could not get throuht the road block. Also couln't get out on the beach front at Gulf Shores. I tryed, but the national gard made me turn around and go back. I also went to NAS Pensacola to see about the Pensacola Lighthouse and again was stoped at the gate. But I did ask the gard about the light and he told me that it was ok and that the light was in operation last night.

Well that's all that I have to post for now. I hope you injoyed seeing the pics.

This may sound like an odd question, but what about the marinas along the coast? Many Northerners send their boats south for the winter and I'm sure some of the places they normally visit may not be docking boats for awhile.

I'm sure the priority repairs are to restore power and phone service, along with making homes liveable again. Then there's the "snowbirds" who may not be able to go where they want to when the cold weather begins to set in up here.

Are they giving any estimates to how long before Florida may be back to normal?

Bob

Bob, I'll make this short as I'm heading out the door going to Jacksonville for the weekend. Going to see Kim and my hubby!

All marinas east of Mobile Bay got hit hard due to the storm surge. I saw several yachts worth more than 4 times the cost of my home totaly trashed. Here's one that may be salvageable.



No it's not in the water, it's on land almost on the highway. Sorry that it's not a better pic, this too was taken in Orange Beach. Will try to get you more and better boat pics when I return home next week.

As for when things will be back to normal. I haven't heard any time frame but I would say years! It's bad along the coast!

Bob,
I got you some marina pics today as I drove through Pensacola or rather around it. Only got to two marinas, will post the pics when I get back home Tue. You are not going to like what you see!

Some positive things actually came out of Ivan for us. I am in the Air Force serving in Ft Walton Beach, FL and since we live on the base, we can be made to evacuate, which we did. We went to St Augustine and while there, visited the St Augustine Light and Ponce De Leon Light further south. It was a beautiful part of Florida that I might not have gotten to see otherwise.