[Chipmaker]

Those folks on the coast are catching hell and its just getting started. Pensacola is without power in over 75 % of the city, One shelter is already starting to flood with over 2700 folks in it, and water pressure is steadily dropping. The have the city sewer system hooked up to secondary power already but are not too sure its gonna stay up to long at the rate things are failing.

All of Santa Rosa county in Florida is without power.

6 Tornadoes so far have touched down in and around Panama City.

Mobile is not in any better condition either...Massive flooding already and huge waves........and most of the town is without power.

From whats said on the news they believe Ivan is in the top 5 of the most powerfull storms to hit the Gulf Coast in 50 years, and its not even ashore yet, and that to me is pretty darn awesome. As much as I like adventure, those fools fooling around near the beaches are crazy, and those news teams, even though they get paid for their stunts, no way would I want to cover those areas, just to get a rating.

I was talking to a friend in Loxley, Alabama < 20 miles from coast a short while ago and he said they lost power long ago when the winds got up around 45 miles per hour, and already have lost lots of roofing off the garage and house. Had to hang up as he had to conserve his cellphone batteries just in case!

So far in this area all we got is a pretty fair amount of rain (more than we got all year so far) and winds of up to 35 miles per hour with some prettty stiff gusts. Right now its still outside but its still raining pretty good.

All these Hurricanes in the south are sure causing others besides the inhabitants problems.......It looks like the Canadians are gonna have to find some other place to go for the winter months Usually around now the south starts filling up with the Canadian migration. They just may have to stay at home and shovel snow this year........

 

[memmurphy]

Glad to hear from you Chip. Some drier air seems to be pulling into the southern edge of the storm. Looks like it will get worse before it gets better though in your area. Hang in there!

Mark

 

[Stewart]

Hope everything stays where you put it there Chip! Rain is good but you don't need that much that quick, or the wind that is coming along with it. Batten down the hatches! (sorry for the navy term!) :thumbsup:

 

[guest]

sounds scarey.. mother nature at her fiercest.....

good luck to all you guys down there..

 

[Chipmaker]

So far so good.......we lost power last night about 1030, so we have been running on a gen set since.........Winds right now are in ther 50 to 60 mph range with gusts to the 70's and they say we won;t start to get any subsiding winds until late this afternoon sometime. Old Ivan is just donw the road now moving slow as can be, and bringing all kinds of wind and rain, and a heap of tornadoes thats forming in the outer bands only. (Thank goodness were not in the outer bands as it seem about every 15 minutes the alert radio goes off warning of yet another tornado, but luckily most of these will only be a F0 or F1 catagory.....

Lots of limbs and tops down, and its a real thrill. Been telling us were still in for winds in the 90's and possibly up to 115 mph yet so it still is getting more interesting every minute.

Over 8" of rainfall now.........and from what I can tell........."My Pond is FULL!"

I promise..... you won't hear me complain about not getting any rain anymore, at least not the rest of this year!

Get ready Chief, your gonna get wet probably late this PM or early tomorrow sometime but its cooming up your way slow as a snail and dumping lots of H2O in its path

 

[guest]

chip how are you on line? phones are still up?

 

[Chipmaker]

Originally posted by simple_john
chip how are you on line? phones are still up?

Yep, phone lines never went out at leat not in my section. No water or power and they said it probably will be at least 2 weeks until power is up and they should have water back up in a day or two.

 

[Live Oak]

Chip, we have had a few sprinkles but not much else more than some strong breezes. We are just on the outside of the outer most bands. We NEED the rain REAL bad. Hope you are doing alright an no damage.

 

[parts man]

Hang in there Chip!! I've been thinking of you, and praying for you and your families safety!
My aunt has a place down in Frot Myers Fla, she's been planning to head down in Nov, may have to wait a while!