Is Irene going to hit you?

I would welcome a hurricane right now. Something to take my mind off the Cat 5 that hit me last month. Now I know why these storms were historically named after women.

Just something to fill up Lake Okechobee would be nice!

Hmmmmm. Irene, has within the last 24 hours been upgraded from "tropical storm" to "hurricane Cat. 1" status and is the 1st hurricane of the 2011 season. One surmises therefore, that Carl is alluding to something else entirely...

Feel free to share if you so wish...

So true. Carl, hope your thinking about this advice. There's no shortage for a kid your age in So. Fl. although Irene could have them hiding under slickers in a few days.

With a nod to Steve Martin's Wild and Crazy Guys SNL routine, it's time to head to the bar and look for girls with dog poop on their shoes.

While it looks like Irene is drifting east of South Florida, we are still in the Cone of Death. We should all check on our stock of canned tuna and rum.

Yeah, I think by tommorow morning we'll have a better idea of it's direction........

The latest forecast has it landing at Charleston right about at high tide.

Hugo in 1989...

way too early to know if it's going to hit the carolinas or recurve out to sea...

I came through there about 6 months after, and there wasn't much left on either side of the ICW. So far this one doesn't look anywhere near as powerful (famous last words), and that area is more prepared with new buildings mostly on stilts. Once in a lifetime is more than enough for any area.

Flew out of Providensiales in the Turks and Caicos 4 hours ago:
Loong lines at the gas stations and tourists are filling up the airliners as tomorrows flights are cancelled.
Flew into and out of St. Thomas yesterday and got to experience the outer "bands" of the storm, wind-gusts up to 31 knots and heavy rain.

Crossing fingers that she is really turning East, but starting to prepare boats in the canal as the forcasters are betting on a Cat III by the time she gets up here to Florida.

Absolutely correct. The slighest change in the projected path could mean it goes elsewhere. It is a lil too early to say definitively, probably when it gets up by the Northern Bahamas.

5 day fcast has shifted a little bit east into NC, still early but I always look at the forecast track trend, not actual forecast. Let s hope it continues to trend that way.

Just what are the "3 F's"?

Whatever, Irene (currently Cat. 2) looks as if it's going to hit Florida "big time", perhaps developing into a Cat. 3/4. If worse comes to worst, hopefully (and unlike Katrina), there won't be "vigilante" police officers in neighbouring counties somehow impeding those trying to escape Irene (before or afterwards).

PS. I'd love to witness a Cat. 3-5 hurricane "live" as it were. Preferably from within a US Army Abrams main battle tank and situated on high-ground. Yeeeeeehaaaaaaaa?!

PPS. Thinking of Carl. You never really get over it. If you're lucky you might eventually come to terms with it. And then you're faced with the long, hard uphill struggle, most often alone and without friends (unless they're a dog or cat) to make it back upto where you once literally fell off the cliff. I'm still struggling. Dunno about you. My best wishes go out to you nevertheless. I find myself on a planet amongst fellow human-beings who continue to abuse their hegemony over their own and all other species. Like the older scarred lion which lost the fight protecting his pride or a young but fatally-mauled cheetah on the African savannah, I perferably seek the shade of a small tree or bush, under which I can lie quietly until life slips quietly away. As opposed to being torn apart whilst still alive (and why I've stopped contributing to most internet forums).