Tropical Storm Arlene

Hold on to your hats "here she comes".

Yep looks like she is aimed right at mobile..

There's not a chance of it hitting Mobile with Pensacola just 50 miles to the east. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Another season begins...

Gosh I hope everybody's ok this time around.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grouphug.gif

This one shouldn't be too scary. It might be a small cat. 1 if it even makes it that high. I would take 3 cat 1's head on every year for 20 years in lieu of 1 more cat 4.

The timing is good for me. My tree guy just finished getting the last pine off my property. I lost 12 in the storm and he took out the remaining 21. All he has left to do is grind stumps. I have a contract with a roof guy to replace my roof in 2 weeks and I NOW have every conceivable Ins. and lots of it. I am so prepared with equipment it would seem bizarre to many. 2 very nice chainsaws, 3 generators, (8) 5 gallon gas cans and (4-5) 1-3 gallon cans. 6 or more ice chest, Cordless tools of every type, compressor, nail guns, plywood, a food and drink list and of course a nice selection of torches.

If anyone finds himself or herself in the path of a serious cat. 2-5 storm this year feel free to e-mail me 48 hours or more prior to its forecast impact if you haven't been through one. I have some trial by fire tips that might keep you from making my same mistakes. Here is the best tip…Move away from the coast or evacuate at least 48 hours prior to impact, 72 hours is better. At 36 hours prior it's no fun to leave because you don't move. Make a hotel reservation you can cancel with 24 hours notice 72-96 hours prior to impact.

DD, glad to hear that this time around you're fully equipped and ready for whatever it throws your way.

We heard your story last year and what it took to get through that - and there is NO such thing as "too much equipment". May I make one more recommendation.. the Energizer 15 minute charger system. I tested this one out and it is fantastic. It's my main AA charger now and usually gets the job done in less than 10 minutes. Perfect for generator use, and it accepts 11-16V for automotive use with a hacked up third party plug (NOT manufacturer approved). The primary benefit of the Energizer over the ROV 15 min system is that the Energizer charges just about everything else I throw at it - any normal cell >2000mAH.

I've taken flak in the past (more times than I can recall) from people who give me the "Why would you ever bother to bring that? Why would you need that?" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif well, when they're up s%$t's creek and their paddle has broken, that backup will be worth MORE than half the gold in the world!!

Stay safe. Better to have the gear and not need it.

The rain from this storm is currently ruining the last day of my vacation /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Oh well... Better than the storm itself ruining my vacation and making us flee!

My favorite part about this particular storm is that it's named after my mother-in-law /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif she's enjoying that...

This may be the year that I get a small generator and a transfer switch for the well pump and a few other circuits. Wish I could afford one big enough to run the AC... If you get hit for an extended period of time and can run your AC a little then you can keep your house from filling with black mold at the humidity after the storm. Thats if it hasn't filled with water anyway...

6:45 in the evening and its party cloudy, very light winds, a beautiful afternoon. Makes me wonder about people 100 years ago living near the water. They didn't have a clue a serious storm was approaching. It would start out as a strong thunderstorm and by the time they figured it was a tropical storm or hurricane it would be too late to do anything. Between the military, aviation and weather reporting I wonder how many lives have been saved by radar and satellites?

We would not turn down some rain!

we're about to get hit by another large storm band here. It's really been amazingly windy on the beach today. No sun of course, and periodic horrible rain as the storm bands go through. I know it's nothing like last year when the real thing went over where I'm sitting now, but it's still impressive.

And I'll be driving through it all day tomorrow. at 2pm Arlene and I will still be parallel on the map, even if I will be many hundreds of miles to the east.

exciting though, get to test the water tightness of the new weather stripping I put on the overhead luggage carrier

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9:45 and I can still see stars. The winds are very light, maybe 5mph. I think landfall will be a little more east than the forecast, somewhere between Destin and Panama City. I believe we will be spared a cleanup.

Stay safe, Dave.

Track this Puppy at NASA's Storm Tracker

Much to our pleasure this is turning into a non-event.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

What would be considered the eye is just coming over us right now. The sun is shining through a partly cloudy sky. The backside should be here in an hour or so but I don't expect much out of it as far as wind goes. We probably had gust of 50-60 but most of the time it's down around 20-30. We haven't even had as much rain as South Florida, maybe 2". Someone is getting the 60 MPH sustained winds but it's not here on the east side of the eye as it normally is. I will probably have my hurricane gear stored away by this evening.

This has been your CPF on scene weather observer reporting. Now back to you... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

Dave, your updates are indeed interesting and appreciated. They're keeping us informed as to your situation...afterall - you are family to us and we are concerned!

Another thing that's good is that you're able to keep us posted, instead of getting ready as you had to "last time"!

Sooooo, thanks sir!