Hurricane Charley-here we go!-OT

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 11:38AM

Well, it's the first big hurricane to hit the Gulf coast this year and yours truly is in its direct path! As a Home Depot hardware manager I saw my sales increase seven fold over the last two days. We expect Charley to strike the Tampa area as a category three with sustained winds of up to 130 MPH and 6 to 10 inches of rain. I'm a block away ofrom the intercoastal waterway here in Venice, less than 70 miles from Tampa.

We'll ride this one out at home although it's strarting to get a little scary here. No gas, canned goods, batteries, flashlights, etc.

Wish me luck!

mojo

kieferscoins · August 12, 2004 11:40AM

This belongs in the open forum.

Good Luck.

Cameron Kiefer

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 11:41AM

Thank you Cameron. Yes, it does. But I know you care.

mojo

LucyBop · August 12, 2004 11:42AM

grab the one you love and hang on tight daddy-o!!!!

Louis · August 12, 2004 11:43AM

Good luck with the hurricane and don't pay any attention to the self appointed forum cop.

LucyBop · August 12, 2004 11:46AM

<< This belongs in the open forum.

Good Luck.

Cameron Kiefer >>

Cameron, you better shut your mouth already, it didn't take long for me to get sick of you.....

Not everybody goes to the open forum, and a hurricane is serious stuff and mojorizn was sharing...

keep you mouth shut cammie, you don't want to deal with fonzie do you?

coinguy89 · August 12, 2004 11:48AM

Good luck with the Hurricane.

SportsModerator · August 12, 2004 11:49AM

Fonzie doesn't scare me!

I never forgave him for dumping Pinky Tuscadero!

TUMUSS · August 12, 2004 11:50AM

Good luck Major! I live on Harbor Island in Tampa...I have decided to ride this one out. It will certainly be an interesting 24 hours.

BowTieCoins · August 12, 2004 11:51AM

Good Luck!! My thoughts are with you!!

Katrina

kieferscoins · August 12, 2004 11:51AM

I care about him and I know huricanes are serious stuff. Thats why I said Good luck. I meant it Lucy.

<< keep you mouth shut cammie, you don't want to deal with fonzie do you? >>

It's 100 degrees here right now and I'm hot. I don't want to say anything that I'll regret and I'm going to log of and chill..... but Lucy don't threaten me with Fonz every time you don't agree with my posts.

Cameron Kiefer

SportsModerator · August 12, 2004 11:52AM

BTW

Good luck with the Hurricane.

and in order to get this thread semi-coin related

"Wow, those waves will wash away tons of sand revealing lots of 8 Real coins...America's first Silver Dollar!"

Pretty good effort at getting this US coin related, eh?

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 11:52AM

Pinky Tuscadero was hot!

mojo

LucyBop · August 12, 2004 11:53AM

well camie was told by fonzie in person if he had the guts to police him... of course cammie wimped out...

sportsdaddy, cammie better shut his trap once and for all, or you can ban me here and now.....

cammie isnt crap here and has no say so about what anybody posts...

cammie..... that last post will be remembered....

see you at a show soon...

LanLord · August 12, 2004 11:53AM

Best of luck to you and your family.

Keep your head down, but do try to get some pics to post.

Stay safe.

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 11:55AM

Yes! Gold doubloons and pieces of eight. Get Lordmarcovan down here with his metal detector!

Thanks y'all for the support. We'll be fine! Might lose power for a bit so it might get quiet on my end for a few days.

mojo

lablover · August 12, 2004 11:59AM

Good luck all and stay safe.

I too am in it's path...although more inland in Orlando. Still, we'll have strong winds in the 75-85 mph and heavy rain.

Get this, my employer expects all of us at work tomorrow. Go figure.

Keeping all of you in my prayers.

mbcoin · August 12, 2004 12:01PM

Good Luck over there on the West Coast guys.
I am here on the East Coast and we are also preparing.
Schools are already closed. Most big business and offices
are also closed. DO NOT TAKE THIS LIGHTY. Storms like this
are very very dangerous.
Again,
Be safe.
Mike

cointagious · August 12, 2004 12:04PM

Latest radar summary

Good luck to those in the Charley's path.

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 12:06PM

When is the last time you heard of Home Depot closing in the middle of the week? I have tomorrow off! First time in six years that's happened.

mojo

mercurynut · August 12, 2004 12:07PM

Hang in there it will be over soon!

dpoole · August 12, 2004 12:10PM

Ride 'em, Mojo! We'll be watching you on TV.

1907Quarter · August 12, 2004 12:14PM

my sincerest wishes as well for a safe passage...here in Havertown PA last sunday we had 3" in 2 hours, a bad weather cell, and the folks down the street had 2 cars float away and homes flooded, I can't even begin to imagine being in a hurricane belt-good luck!

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 12:15PM

As a matter of fact, I was on TV yesterday on WWSB (ABC) 40. The local news boys showed up and did a live remote from the store. I was the guy loading a generator in the back of some ungrateful guy's truck!

mojo

rkfish · August 12, 2004 12:17PM

Good luck mojo.......but take my advice.....if you think you're even close to the direct path,
LEAVE......after riding Hurricane Hugo out in SC 30 miles from the coast all I can say is you
don't want to be there.....

GOOD LUCK and let us know how you fare.....take care !!

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 12:20PM

Thanks Steve. If this thing turns into a three before it makes land I'm heading east with the wife and tater tots!

mojo

SemperFI · August 12, 2004 12:24PM

Hey Mojo,
I am sure you guys will be fine but be careful. Take some pictures of the storm if you have a digital camera handy and post them so we can see. Once the storm is over go out and get a metal detector. I am sure you will find some neat coins from the old shipwrecks from back in the day.

http://www.weather.com/maps/news/atlstorm3/charleyirsatellite_large.html

Bear · August 12, 2004 12:24PM

Mojo, you and the family be safe. We will say a prayer for all you folks in harms way.

DesertRat · August 12, 2004 12:26PM

Good luck! Hey can you do me a favor and send me some rain? We are opening a new museum in town and a jar of rain would be great to teach our kids that yes..once upon a time water fell from the sky! Of course they won't believe us but we have got to try.

MSD61 · August 12, 2004 12:30PM

I grew up and spent most of my life in Madeira Beach (one of the Pinellas beaches) which is one of the areas being evacuated and 3 years ago I moved to NH. It's been almost 80 years since the suncoast had a land falling hurricane. My son lives in Seminole and is away from the storm surge but the winds concern me. All I can hope is that you and my son will come out fine. Stay safe and hope to hear from you when the blow is over.

earlwbollinger · August 12, 2004 12:35PM

Good luck, and keep your coins waterproof and safe.

Crazy4Coins · August 12, 2004 12:40PM

Hey mojo,

I'm getting ready myself.I am in Clearwater.Not looking so good for us up here right now.I install air cond. systems for the Home Depot stores up here.Thing were pretty busy today in the stores thats for sure.

All I got left to do is make sure my coins are ready to ride out Charlie.

Randy

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 12:42PM

Hang in there, Randy! Any hurricane parties your way?

mojo

RickMilauskas · August 12, 2004 12:45PM

Hold on tight Mojo...

I'm up near Washington DC and they tell us we will be getting 3 - 6 inches of rain on Saturday/Sunday from good old Charlie after you guys are done with him.
Stay safe and keep us posted!!

Crazy4Coins · August 12, 2004 12:49PM

Mojo
I probably could have a party.It looks like I am going to end up with quite a few family members staying at my house during the storm.I have a lot of family in the area that are in evac zones and since my house is located on the highest point in the county I was chosen. I guess I could break out the 10,000 wheat pennies that I have a let everybody start searching

Randy

techeff · August 12, 2004 12:56PM

Good luck Mojo!

I grew up on the East Coast of Florida (Indialantic) and have gone through my share of hurricanes. The worst being David, which threw a tornado through the middle of our house. We were all lucky to survive that one...

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 12:58PM

My mom is visiting from IL. Talk about poor timing! She'll be staying here with me as they have evacuated the island that her motel was on.

I wonder if Mom drinks beer.

mojo

MadMarty · August 12, 2004 1:26PM

Just hang on!!! It will be over in a day or two!!!

mojorizn · August 12, 2004 1:34PM

Hey Marty! Hope you don't have any AU58's sitting at NGC in Sarasota!

mojo

mrearlygold · August 12, 2004 1:46PM

Good luck!

We're in Port Charlotte and are as prepared as we can be. They just announced Punta Gorda is strongly recommended to evacuate. We're 2 miles from Charlotte Harbor and across the bridge is PG.

Figured we'd wait till morning to decide whether or not to make a run for it. But now seeing the backed up traffic on 75 and I wonder if we would just get stuck there.

Does anyone know anything about these giant Heritage Oaks? We have 2 of em in front of this house. It was one of the main draws for this part of FLA. These are huge....cannot get my arms around the base. Do they snap branches in 120MPH winds?

Thanks and rgrds
Tom

mrearlygold · August 12, 2004 1:51PM

Ok to keep this quasi coin related. I was unable to clean out the safe completely before the bank closed. I was redoing inventory this week and DID put the bog stuff in the bank box when I heard of good ol charlie forming. And sent several express mails out today. Still........ The police have announced they will not respond to 911 calls after the winds get above 45MPH. So we are on our own.

Yes, I have guns and they are loaded.

Tom

SDCollector · August 12, 2004 2:01PM

Dumb question but why do people ride out hurricanes? I'm from California and I'd never "ride out" an earthquake if I knew it was coming.

MoeSzyslak · August 12, 2004 2:09PM

<< Good luck!
Does anyone know anything about these giant Heritage Oaks? We have 2 of em in front of this house. It was one of the main draws for this part of FLA. These are huge....cannot get my arms around the base. Do they snap branches in 120MPH winds? >>

Damn near anything will snap branches in 120 MPH winds, and a surprising number of big oaks are hollow inside. Not to scare you, just a heads-up.

--

Prayers and best wishes from this newbie to anyone and everyone in Charlie's path. Go wherever you need to be to make sure you and your family are safe. Posessions are a distant second in things to consider. Charley ain't Andrew, but he could still be one mean SOB.

mrearlygold · August 12, 2004 2:27PM

Thanks Moe, jeez, the trees have been here for over 100 years.

I hope you're wrong.

Rgrds
Tom
Port Charlotte

richbeat · August 12, 2004 3:02PM

Good luck to you, and to all members in the area. May the damage be as minimal as possible.

mrearlygold · August 12, 2004 3:07PM

Thanks Rich!

Rgrds
Tom

doop · August 12, 2004 3:08PM

<< Fonzie doesn't scare me!

I never forgave him for dumping Pinky Tuscadero! >>

hey, and Pinky was a wicked chick...

BigE · August 12, 2004 3:09PM

See you on Troll Island!----------------------BigE

MoeSzyslak · August 12, 2004 3:32PM

<< Thanks Moe, jeez, the trees have been here for over 100 years.

I hope you're wrong.
>>

My father recently purchased a small piece of property which allegedly includes the second-largest post oak in Texas. It's nearly 6 feet in diameter and probably 700-900 years old. In the middle, there's 2-3 foot diameter hole, discovered by the arborists he had come out to look at it.

Still, I hope I'm wrong, too. If your trees are only a century or so old, I almost certainly am. Living wood is concentrated around the outside of a tree, but it takes an awful looong time for the dead stuff in the center to rot since it's so well-protected.

I'd sure like to see all of you Southwest Florida folks posting again on Saturday morning. Here's hoping for the best possible outcome of this bad situation. With any luck, Bonnie helped to cool and stabilze the atmosphere in front of Charley and took some of his steam away.

Neptune · August 12, 2004 3:45PM

About those trees ................... I moved away from Galveston area in '99, for one reason because I was sick of hurricanes. The last bad one I road out was Alicia. We looked out the window at this tree that was bent almost all the way over the house ............ the next day we found it had fallen the OTHER way. The wind just whips them around swirling in all directions. YES branches can snap and trees can be totally uprooted. Be careful. There is no telling which way they will fall once that wind swirls at high speeds - not to mention tornadoes. I will never ride out another one, if I have a choice. Been through too many.

About those parties .......... Everyone wanted to have a 'hurricane party' and they all got drunk. I was the only one who stayed sober, and filled up the bathtub, rolled kids into hallways, etc. Last thing I heard on the radio was "Oh my God, Take cover", then the radio went dead ........ for a week.

Ice was a precious commodity and they were overcharging for it. Payphone lines were longggggggggg, because nobody had phones, and it was HOT - no electricity. Couldn't drink water/contaminated. Hurricanes SUCK! Be safe!!!!!

Deadhorse · August 12, 2004 3:49PM

A category one or two isn't too big a deal to ride out if you plan accordingly. Be able to cook outside as you may be without power for a few days. A generator helps alot.

Once it gets to a 3, consider leaving if you have a clear path to get away. A 4 you don't even want to be anywhere near unless you have an underground concrete bunker. I've only known of one 5 and it churned and churned and then turned into south Texas at the border. Stay inside!! I had to venture out into 125 mph winds with higher gusts briefly, only by crawling and holding onto solid objects could I make it, even then it was rough, very rough. The debris is blinding, the rain stings like paintballs and if it lifts you up, you're toast.

I've been through 3 hurricanes and more tornadoes than I can count. I atually kind of like them. I did hunker down with the family and kids through a serious category 3 several years ago. We were more fortunate than most of our neighbors. Had no power for 9 days. Gasoline and potable water were getting mighty rare the last few days.

Don't count on the authorities, you are on your own. Good luck to all in Florida.

Hurricane Charley-here we go!-OT

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