Best Wishes to Florida Ohana...

Serious stuff going on down there this week... hope you are all safe and if you're in the path of the storms that damage to your property is at a minimum or non existent...

Hurricane season heating up fast and serious... hope things calm down before Hukilau time!

Stay safe Florida!

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer on 2004-08-13 11:53 ]

I just heard on CNN it went up to category 4.
Friday the 13th at it's best/worst.
Good luck Florida!

Thanks. It's starting to look like this could get really bad.

Are there still "hurricane parties" in Florida?

When I was a little kid living in Tampa and Sarasota, there were hurricane parties whenever one came stomping up from the Gulf, i.e., neighbors would gather in one house, batten down the hatches, fire up the kerosene lanterns and battery radios and try to make the best of it. Power and water would almost invariably be cut off at some point during the storm.

"Small" hurricanes were kind of fun. "Big" ones -- like the one you're apparently having now -- were nothing to screw around with. Best of luck.

I've got an aunt in Punta Gorda - that's the expected landfall. Not good.

Time to mix up a batch of hurricanes!

Everybody, sing!

"oh I don't know,
I don't know,
I don't know where I'm gonna go
when the hurricane blows!"

(Ohhhhh, I'm gonna get flogged for that!)

Bonnie turned out to be a flop up our way, I'm sending out good vibes to the folks down in Ft Meyers!

Downtown Orlando is expected to get hit with 90 mile an hour winds between 8-10 pm tonight.

I made a run to the liquor store early in the day. We're hiding out in my bedroom with tiki mugs and drinks until the worst is over!

Batten down the hatches, secure the cargo and lash yerselves down! Yer in for a helluva blow. Best o' luck.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRR!

(with nods to Rev. Bamboo Ben)

Kono, Philot, Pomaikai ~
i thought there was a huge evacuation!? and you're staying home? hopefully you've got power, so you can blend drinks!
take care.. report back when you can..
elicia

On 2004-08-13 15:45, dogbytes wrote:
Kono, Philot, Pomaikai ~
i thought there was a huge evacuation!? and you're staying home? hopefully you've got power, so you can blend drinks!
take care.. report back when you can..
elicia

The evacuation was over by where Pablus lives and all those evacuees came over here! The storm changed direction early this afternoon. The worst thing about it is that it is going to take hours to pass. It's starting right now (~6pm EST) and the center isn't expected until 10pm. Then we get the back end of the storm after that. Tonight is gonna suck. But not as bad as for the folks in SW Florida. Best of luck to them.

I can't decide whether to start drinking or not. It does make the time go faster but what if I have to do something responsible? Maybe I'll just drink beer. Drinking beer's not really drinking is it? :wink:

To all of our Florida folks-take care and be careful-our thoughts are with you.

Ahhh I'm glad I don't live in Orlando anymore. Although the damn thing seems to want to come this way towards Cocoa and we did just dodge a tornado by a few miles around 4:30 today.

So... I'm suppose to fill my bathtub with water for a hurricane and I'm suppose to get in the bathtub in a tornado?!?!? I think it's time for a drink.

Were are you at Pablus? Still in Tampa?

Hello all...
The news looks very scary here.
Big 'ol hurricane a'coming.
We are right near downtown Orlando and its supposed to come directly at us.
Well, if those little Pacific Islands survive all those Cyclones, we'll make it through...
Thanks for all the good thoughts!

Thanks for the thoughts of us here in Florida, much appreciated. My poor Grandfather is in Ft Myers, and lives in a mobile home, but evacuated to a friend's house in Cape Coral. everyone pray to the Tiki Gods that we all remain safe here in the "Sunshine State".

Dogbytes:
Don't worry about me, I'm up in the capitol. We didn't even get flooded out by Bonnie.

My parents skipped stopping to visit on their way home from vacation, they wanted to get back home to KW to batten down the iguana cages. (NO, I'm not making that up!). I tried calling this evening but can't get them. I don't know if they stopped short, stayed put or evacuated. (But then, they do things like that.). So I'm watching the weather channel trying to see if they got on TV.

I'm kind of shocked that it looks like Charley's going to make it all the way to the Atlantic without dissipating. Brown pantaloons time if he gets back over open water.

[ Edited by: Philot on 2004-08-13 19:27 ]

Orlando... are you still there? Read a report of a wind reading at Orlando International Airport hit 105 mph. Another reading in Orlando hit 90 mph and the wind meter broke...

Looks like he's heading back to the water to muster up more strength...

Also... looks like Tropical Depression 5 is heading the same way according to forecasters...
Dolly is due to hook towards the northeast...

How is every one down south?!?!? I hope everyone is making it through. Stay safe all of you tiki folk.

Lots of power outages in Orlando and surrounding areas.

We barely got a strong breeze here in Tampa.

I wasn't in the evac-zone.
That was more coastal.

FLA ohana OK?

Thanks, I am near Ft lauderdale, and everything is OK here. We only got some heavy rain. My grandfather is on the West Coast in ft myers and had some minimal damage to his mobile home yesterday afternoon. I fell awful for the poor families who lost loved ones in Punta Gorda.

I'm checking in and OK. Folks on the lower west coast were not so luckie . I've heard maybe 200 DOA or more.
Flounder, You OK? you didn't drown in your bathtub did you? , Pablus good to hear from you. Daytona??? Haven't heard from Kelugeoff(spell it for me?)
All the south east coast is fine but for the Keys.
GOOD Morning TC

I talked with my aunt in Punta Gorda yesterday shortly after the main storm had passed. At that point, all power was out, but they had phone service. She was doing fine, but she'd lost a lot. Her house is pretty sturdy and made it through ok, but she lost just about everything outside the main structure: the pool, pool cage (?), the deck, patio (and everything on them), all awnings and screens, lots of roof damage, her entire garage door - all destroyed. But the most frightening thing is that she says that EVERY TREE on her entire street - short, tall, palm, fruit, whatever - is simply GONE! Not knocked down or blown over - GONE! Z-Girl and I drove across the peninsula to visit her after Hukilau last year, and I remember what her neighborhood looked like, and it had plenty of trees. She says many folks around here weren't so lucky and appear to have lost everything. We didn't talk for long, and I'm going to call her back later today and see how she weathered the 'tidal surge'.

Glad to hear that our TCers made it through as well!

I was just reading about the damage Charley caused and just wanted to say keep your chins up down there. We're all thinking of you and have our fingers double crossed for a speedy recovery. Take care

Just got the usual summer thunderstorm here (east part of Tampa) though a friend in Arcadia, where the eye marched straight through, lost his roof and chimney. Yikes!

On 2004-08-14 11:14, Doctor Z wrote:
my aunt in Punta Gorda...and I'm going to call her back later today and see how she weathered the 'tidal surge'.

How is she Z? I hope things turn out ok for her and all of the rest of the people that are down there.

I hope all da great peopo I met from Florida are ok. I know all about what your going threw as we get'em here also. Except we call'em Sunamis(sp?).

Well, didn't enjoy that at all.

Power just came on (10am Sunday) for me but some parts of the area are told not to expect power for up to two weeks.

Orlando has a lot of large old oak trees and most of the damage was caused by them falling over. Trees are down everywhere. I live in an apartment complex and we suffered no damage other than the trees.

Carvers: I rode my mountain bike all over Orlando yesterday and though there's plenty of carving material strewn about I did not see one fallen palm tree! I guess they're designed to withstand gale force winds. I rode by Wai Tiki and it didn't have a scratch.

Dr Z: good to hear your aunt is OK. Those people suffered tremendously in Punta Gorda.

This was my first (and hopefully last) hurricane. It was like a 90ft T-Rex screaming and humping your building for an hour or so. Not fun. Hope everyone else is A-OK.

Good to hear you all checking in on Tiki Central. It's a major news story over here, too, so that storm must have been an absolute bastard.

Hope things are ok for all the Florida Tiki Centralites.

Trader Woody

Nothing happened to my apartment. I still don't have phone service but fortunately my power came back on in less than 24 hours. The chimneys blew off the roofs of some of the apartments in my complex by my building was mostly okay.

I had to go to work today and some of our buildings are missing roofs and awnings. Scary times!

Anyone ever try sleeping a Summer Florida night without air condition or a fan? Trust me when I say it's like sleeping in a moist ziplock bag full of ass.

Electric didn't come on till Sunday afternoon. The pisser of it is that the other side of my street never lost power. I could see their tv's flickering and could hear their air conditioners running. Bastards!

What a mess, and I was on the outside of the storm.

Boy Flounder, thatIS a Bitch. I know what you mean with no AC. We never lost our power, thank god. 3 cats and 3 dogs and 4 people would really hurt.
Anyway, I'm glad you came out of it without any problems

On 2004-08-16 08:30, FLOUNDERart wrote:
Trust me when I say it's like sleeping in a moist ziplock bag full of ass.

Speaking from experience?
... LMAO ... Time for another drink!
:)

Cheers!

Our power here came on on Thursday, almost a week after the storm.
A large tree in our front yard blew down across the street, luckily missing a few cars and effectively making us live on a cul-de-sac for a time.
Its amazing to see all the crews from other states come in to help. Trucks from Texas, North Carolina and New Jersey were on our street last week.
We had no power, no cable, no phone (they say we'll be getting phone service by mid-September), but at least we had water. So many people down here were so much worse...
I agrees with Flounder's comments. At first the 90 degree weather and the general moistness was unnerving, but after a day or so "bag of ass" just about hits it on the head.
I'll tell you one thing... I have never drank so much alcohol in all my life. Alternating waters and beers, with a gererous amount of Cuba Libres and tropical drinks (sans ingredients that needed refridgeration) we drank from dawn to dusk just so we wouldn't mind the heat. Screw the open container laws. We wandered the streets (on foot of course, no drivey and drinkey) assessing the damage and toasting the good fortune of those who would not have to make an insurance claim and cheering for the utility trucks and tree crews. Made us feel better, thinking that they could use a bit of moral support (although they were probably wondering why they were working so hard to get the power back on for those drunken idiots).
I wanted to get a t-shirt printed up that said "Charley missed my house... But he killed my liver!"
Glad to be back in the land of the freon-dependant.

Email [email protected] regarding getting a shirt designed. Lisa will take care of you!

OOOOOOOHHHHHHH SHIT!

Frances is going to make Charlie look like a chump. This thing is HUGE.

Twice the size of Charlie and coming right at my house. I'm starting to freak out.

Seriously this could be the big one that they always talk about.

hope everyone in the tc family stays safe. this one looks like it could be pretty bad.

Best wishes everyone! I hope everything will be ok.

Damn, they just said that the eye of Charlie was 6 miles wide. The eye of Frances is 35 miles wide.

That's how large this thing is!!!

Also where Charlie lasted a couple hours, Frances may last up to 12 hours.

Goto go......

Flounder and fellow Floridians, GOOD LUCK!!! I'll be checking the news broadcasts and hoping the monster misses you...

tikivixen, not even thinking about earthquakes for once

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you guys. (Well, not really, of course, it would make it too hard to type.) This one looks pretty scary, especially since supplies are already depleted in some parts of the state. I really hope everyone makes it through okay.

Flounder - why don't you and maikainagirl come on over?

Bring a mug.

Thanks to all for keeping Florida in your thoughts and/or prayers. We have a lot of Florida central east coasters on TC. Not only are Benzart, Fatu-hiva, Flounder, Wayne and Becki Coombs, and the gang from Teauila's on the front line for this storm, Frances Langford's Outrigger, the Mai-Tiki Gallery, the Hawaiian Inn, the Aku-Tiki Inn and Julian's are all at risk. We've already lost one tiki to Charley. Hopefully the gods will be satisfied with the sacrifice already made by the Aku Tiki.
The rest of us further inland should weather this a little better (if it stays on its present course).

[ Edited by: Kailuageoff on 2004-09-01 14:42 ]

Trying to decide if we want to hit the road and get out of town. We're thinking of loading up my basenji dog and heading up to Atlanta. Hey, at least we could check out Trader Vic's, we're never been!

I hope every one is ok! It really worries me to hear about the impending storm.
Good luck everyone, I'll be thinking about you!

Thanks for thinking of us in Florida. I live in Ft Lauderdale. I hope Scott(Flounder), Pablus, Benzart, and McDougall(Tim), and all of the other TC Ohana stay safe. I hate living in a damn Hurricane zone, this crap is getting annoying already.

If that thing turns westward a couple notches you might have to evac., RR.

Come on over. We got room.

Good luck everyone.

(We'll probably have 10 TC members with us when it lurches into the gulf then turns around and grinds Tampa to powder.)

Time to hit the store for some supplies.
You know what I'm talking about:

Rum
Dark Rum
Demarara Rum
Pineapple Juice
Limes
Lemons
Wasabi Peas
Bananas

ALL that survival stuff.

Pablus

I like the way you think. If Frances is everything they're predicting, Hukilau may suffer as well. I'm wondering where the dinner cruise boat "Tikki Beach" is at at the moment. Hopefully they get it on shore. First and foremost of course is that all you TC'ers and the rest of Florida is safe. You get hit and turn the other cheek only to find another hurricane coming from the other direction. Keep your chins up down there.