We got another visit from President Bush today. It's really nice that he spent yesterday and today touring ruined orange groves and talking to hurricane victims rather than hanging out in Miami. I can only imagine that in Miami today there was a lot of nail buffing and eyebrow tweezing going in preparation for the big debate.
That the President has come down every time to see our troubles is going to win him this state come Election Day.
President Bush tours damage from Hurricane Jeanne at Mckenna Brothers orange groves in Lake Wales, Fla., Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2004. At right is Pat McKenna, the grove's owner. 'I know Florida's agricultural sector has been hit especially hard,' Bush said after inspecting orange groves devastated by three of the last four hurricanes.
U.S. President George W. Bush comforts Hurricane Jeanne victim Amy Elizabeth Gayle during a visit to a FEMA relief disaster center in Stuart, Fla., on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004.
If you'd like to get in on the Washington Post's big blog vote, INDC Journal is in the running and has the details for getting your voting fingers in shape before Election Day.
Wayne Huizenga is nobody's favorite businessman around these parts, but he gives his wife plenty of money to spend, and she puts it to good use. The $6,000,000 facility she built for the Humane Society is Club Fed to the County Animal Control's Sing Sing. For each hurricane, the Broward Humane Society has gone and collected animals from various shelters and brought them here for adoption. The Herald has a nice article on the canine refugees and the BHS website has a good write-up with pics about their latest journey; this one to Vero Beach.
Jennifer Acheson takes a dog from a Vero Beach shelter into the Humane Society of Broward building, where he will be available for adoption.
Also- an article that focuses on the positives that Floridians are experiencing from living without electricity. Really.
As someone who lived a long time without electricity, I'm trying to figure out how come glow sticks aren't all the rage right now. I loved the things- a cool cracking sound then a beautiful phial of long-lasting light.
Duane thinks something or other's funny.
Wail on, Skydog!
People in Florida are losing their minds after, to employ the precise terminology of big-league journalism, apparently being hit by four hurricanes in six weeks:
It's not just roofs that have come apart, not just siding that's failing and walls that are coming down. Emotions are unraveling across Florida, too.
Mental health centers are flooded with calls and officials are blaming a spike in suicides and family violence on the stress of four hurricanes that have left millions coping with ruined homes, lost work, blackouts and scarce supplies of food, water and ice.
...
At an enormous, crowded relief station at a fairgrounds, one woman climbed out of her car before she reached the end of the line and began screaming, ``I can't take this anymore. I don't want to do this anymore.''
Relief workers calmed her before taking her to a hospital for treatment, said Greg Croucher of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
I can believe there are a lot of people under stress, but most are coping.
Once I saw a woman have a screaming, crying, cursing, hysterical fit because she didn't know how to use a copy machine. Demonstrating another extreme, you'll find the tales in books like Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey of how, after wagon-training eight or nine months, some of those people would crack up. I read of one lady who one day just up and bashed all her kids' heads in. The journey was hideous for everybody, but that was too much stress for too long for that particular person. They left her standing out in the middle of the prairie and went on wagon-training without her.
This isn't as much stress as life has the possibility to dish out. The victims of Hurricane Jeanne in Haiti would probably be willing to trade places with any of us here in Florida, and I know of one boy in particular who would like to trade with the lady who can't take it any more.
Waiting in line for ice in Barefoot Bay
Waiting in line for food in Gonaives, Haiti
This hurricane season has kept the ASPCA busy with disaster relief efforts. I'll be donating to them this round and I hope you will too.
There's a strange and unusual story from the history of the ASPCA that I've always found interesting. Some of you may not know this, but ASPCA officers have the same force of law as deputies. The organization, the first humane organization in the country, was founded in 1866 by Henry Bergh, and came into being primarily because of the abuse of cart horses people witnessed on the streets of New York City. They were very active and got many laws passed to help stop animal abuse.
There still, however, were no laws on the books about child abuse.
In 1873, a janitress in a building in Hell's Kitchen told a church worker named Etta Wheeler about a little girl named Mary Ellen McCormack, who was living her life tied to a bed, neglected and beaten. With no laws on the books to allow intervention on her behalf, Etta went to the ASPCA, asking for their help on the grounds that the girl was a member of the Animal Kingdom. The ASPCA went to a judge who agreed to have the girl declared an animal so they could enter the house and remove her. After this, Henry Bergh founded the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the first child protection agency in the world.
So, let's hear it for the Etta Wheelers and Henry Berghs of the world.
Mary Ellen McCormack
Liberal Larry is hurricane blogging too!
If Dubya is also behind this spate of alligator attacks and the death of Duane Allman, I might have to take my vote elsewhere.
Last week when my brother and his wife were out at Fort Myers beach, he bought her a t-shirt that had three hurricanes on it and said "I survived the triple whammy." Yesterday he remarked how odd it was that the shirt was already obsolete.
I tuned out of most of the hurricane news yesterday and just talked to family. We were wondering what would possess that Miami man to pick up an electrical wire laying on the sidewalk. We had a good laugh at the man who drunk himself to death at a hurricane party. As for the two people killed here in Broward, the Sheriff's Office is already on the defensive as to why they didn't send divers to hunt in a canal in the middle of the storm after a Highway Patrolman found an SUV that had got blown off the Sawgrass Expressway and into the water. The patrolman was making the last sweep himself before he had to get off the road.
That SUV those people were riding in was big and heavy, but the winds were bigger and heavier. Why people are out on roads in a storm is beyond me.
So, basically we congratulated ourselves on our great escape.
Meanwhile, God bless all the rest of the people who did what they're supposed to do, and now their homes are wind-damaged or flooded, and they're having to rough it with no electricity.
For many of them it's the second or third hit.
UPDATE:
An extra hurricane day off for me. No electricity at work.
Let's hear it for the new building standards.
I love a good no-looting sign. This one's from Fort Pierce
A regal little 89-year-old lady in Seminole gets escorted to a shelter by a fireman.
It was her third time evacuating
A lucky escape in Tallahassee
The oak tree crashed onto his bed. Roommates rescued him through the window at right
UPDATE II:
So the looters have swung into action in Sebring. Nothing like a nice soft target like a mobile home park full of elderly hurricane victims to attract the jackals.
A gator got him another one in Lee County. This one was a 20-year-old girl from Georgia who was down visiting her grandparents with her dad. When she was missed, her dad went looking for her and he found her. She was a mess.
Poor her for the while it happened, but poor him for the rest of his life.
UPDATE:
The cause of death has been confirmed.
Good morning.
All is well here on my street. Here in SE Florida, because of Hurricane Andrew, structures have to be built according to the much stricter South Florida Building Code. So we have a lot of broken trees and people with no electricity, but besides trailers, people's homes are intact here in Broward. There's going to be more rain, and we are under a flood watch until tonight. Everything's good.
This morning we'll have the usual people getting electrocuted by downed power lines. One poor man met one at a bus stop this morning in Miami. When you see kids outside playing it just makes you cringe. We'll have the tail of the storm coming through throughout the day as the storm makes its way across Florida.
King Neptune Rules
The Orlando Sentinel has a link to live streaming TV coverage there and news of the storm for all of central Florida as Jeanne travels.
James Gillie, of Vero Beach, gestures as he signals he's glad to be alive
Jeanne has stayed on a westerly track for too long. Now when she makes her northern turn, it will be inland up the peninsula of Florida. Max Mayfield, the head of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, says to prepare for it to land as a Cat 3. They're saying it will be worse than Frances.
Idiot Weston officials have backed off from issuing citations to people for having hurricane shutters up. No matter what they say, it's not that they were worried about fire- it's just that they think shutters are ugly. Churls.
Kathy K. has a great list of Florida bloggers in Jeanne's road, AKA "The Usual Suspects". My favorite hurricane analyst is on the list and on the job
Frances debris on A1A waiting to be flung by Jeanne
UPDATE:
Cat 3. Do I hear a 4?
H_NK_R
Care to solve the puzzle?
Is that word going straight to your spine yet?
Here's the Miami radar.
It's quite windy out. Jeanne has inched one-tenth of a degree north, which is good for us here in Broward. They don't know if it's a wobble, or a trend. Any movement north decreases the wind damage we're going to receive here.
My mother-in-law who lives across the lake had heart surgery a couple of weeks ago, so my father-in-law has taken her far away. I feel sorry for all the frail, old people having to deal with this mess.
UPDATE III:
The first squalls have arrived.
I'll take some pictures before it gets dark. I know how much y'all love the pictures I take through the screens on my porch. ;)
Jeanne, get your fat ass out of town
The National Guard is on the way
UPDATE IV
The News-Press has the explanation as to how Jeanne was able to come back around to threaten Florida a second time. No, she didn't grope around until she caught sight of our coast and said "Oh, there's Florida!" It also says Ivan could reconstitute itself for a third time in the Gulf.
I hear things breaking outside, and the worst of the winds won't be for another three or four hours. My dog won't set one pad onto the patio. She wants nothing to do with this storm. It must be awful up in Fort Pierce and Stuart. The rain is coming down there like Niagara Falls.
Broward County mayor Ilene Lieberman got a little shock from Florida Power and Light when they told her that Broward residents who lose power (20,000 so far) may have to wait three weeks to get it restored. She said that was unacceptable and that she would ask Goveror Bush to intervene. That part made me laugh.
One of those silly surfers didn't make it out of the water in Miami. I know those guys love doing their thing, but people are having to put themselves in danger to search for this fellow. Some young guys think they have a big red 'S' on their chest.
Austin Grover, 9, from left, Will Tweedle, 11, Robert Grover and Jessica Grover, 10, advertise free hot chicken at C.R. Chicks on S.E. Monterey Road in Stuart Saturday morning. The owner decided to give away extra food before the restaurant lost power during Hurricane Jeanne.
The eyewall is coming ashore in Stuart, for those of you who want to watch the live streaming coverage. Cindy sends us a link for live web coverage from Fox. Thanks, Cindy.
UPDATE V:
As of 8:00, 186,000 homes were without power. FPL's warning of a three-week delay in restoring power is due to their being stretched thin from all the hurricanes, so Mayor Lieberman telling on them to the Governor isn't going to help.
Frances and Jeanne made landfall at the exact same coordinates. That must be one for the history books.
Somebody's condo
Hutchinson Island, Martin County
Belle Glade
UPDATE VI:
What is it with people trying to drive over bridges in the middle of a hurricane?
St. Lucie dispatchers told car went off South Bridge
FORT PIERCE -- St. Lucie County dispatchers received two calls Saturday evening reporting that a vehicle had fallen off the South Bridge to Hutchinson Island.
The U.S. Coast Guard may attempt to check out the report if the calm during the eye lasts long enough.
According to dispatchers, the vehicle was traveling east toward the island. Callers said the car drove up to the barricade, stopped and then tried speeding over the bridge before falling off, dispatch said.
Wind gusts over 100 mph were expected in the area.
County Administrator Doug Anderson said he visited near the bridge but did not go over because conditions were unsafe.
I hope it was one lone idiot who didn't take anybody with him.
We're back under a Hurricane Watch and may have an eventful weekend. Naturally, Texas holds the record for the most hurricane hits in one season - four in 1886. They should hold on to the record, as they're a big, proud state and have earned it. We don't want to steal their thunder.
By now, Governor Bush must be getting misty when he eyes Chattahoochee on the map: "Rest, yes. Rest and rainbows. And butterflies."
UPDATE:
"... I feel like I'm Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day."
- Governor Bush
UPDATE II:
If this is Friday, it must mean that I gas up the car and buy hurricane supplies.
At 5:00 they'll go to Hurricane Warning. The gas lines were interesting, and neither Publix nor Walgreen would do cash-back on debit cards.
I have a pile of branches out front that I know Mr. Cracker will want us to bag and store in the garage when he comes home. They've been out there all week and haven't been picked up. The broken-in-two palm is still hanging in the air next to my house. They say the trash/landscaping people have been dealing with three-year's-worth of debris in the last month. In Lee County, they're burning trash 24/7.
Sadly, there's been quite a few people killed in their homes by fire because the firemen were hindered by hurricane shutters. Leave a couple of exits, y'all.
An employee directs cars lined up to buy gasoline at the Costco membership warehouse in Altamonte Springs, Fla., on Sept. 24, as residents prepare for Hurricane Jeanne.
UPDATE III:
Eye of the Storm has set aside his schoolwork nonsense and is back on track for a direct hit on some hurricane analysis blogging. I'm glad to hear it.
I get a hurricane day off tomorrow. Mandatory evacuation is in effect and the shelters are opening tonight.
For those of you out of station range, here's some live streaming Bryan "Hurricane" Norcross on your desktop. Finally, something on CBS worth watching.
Here's a quiz: What's wrong with this cartoon?
Putting up shutters on South Dixie Highway
Newspapers covering Jeanne: Palm Beach Post, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald.
The officials in the town I live in here in Broward took time out their busy day to pass an ordinance that imposes a $250 fine for leaving your hurricane shutters up 10 days past a storm. I don't know where they've been the past six weeks.
The shelters are overrun with pets from the hurricanes. You can guess the rest.
Jeanne, the Etch-a-Sketch hurricane, has people scrambling as she threatens to hit Florida this weekend in pretty much the same spot as Frances did. Too bad we can't just shake her and make her disappear.
November 30th seems so far away still. I haven't been so anxious for time to pass since I was 9 1/2 going on 10.
Let's get this season behind us.
I don't always agree with Ann Coulter, but she's really on today and quite funny. Regarding Bill Burkett's response to questioning:
According to USA Today, an interview with Burkett ended when he "suffered a violent seizure and collapsed in his chair" – an exit strategy Dan Rather has been eyeing hungrily all week, I'm sure.
Sign in front of the west Gregory Street home of Robin Janda who has been providing meals and any other aide she can manage for people left in need by Hurricane Ivan.
Rusty Bowser, of San Antonio, Josh Lawson, of Pensacola, Jesse Scott of San Antonio and Jerry Ezell of Pensacola carry the stone cross that fell through the roof of Christ Church during the hurricane. They were able to salvage it from the rubble.
Trucks and work crews convoy into Penascola at the intersection of Woodbine Road and Highway 90 on Tuesday.
Our latest alligator news has Chucky the hungry Bama gator caught napping by a team brought in from our own Gatorland. Chucky has been brought down here to Florida and will reside at Gatorland until his old home in the land of the Crimson Tide is repaired.
The latest Swift Boat Veterans ad features Hanoi Jane. This one is going to get a rise out of people.
Here's Duane giving a little outdoor concert. Piedmont Park, maybe?
Wail on, Skydog!
I've been so busy with hurricanes, sometimes I forget there's an election on. Thankfully, Liberal Larry is covering the John "Breath of Fresh Air" Kerry campaign for me:
"It's time for America to decide whether they want a leader who smiles all the time and tells us 'our best days are ahead of us' just to stay in power, or one who will happily take a huge crap on national morale just to get into the White House," Kerry told reporters while riding atop a caravan of flag-draped coffins. "If you want a president who isn't afraid to lose a war in order to win the peace, then I'm John Kerry, reporting for duty."
This FR thread on Cat Stevens is cracking me up.
The guy must be getting used to being stopped from entering countries, as this isn't the first time. He's been barred twice from entering Israel.
Blogs of War has more.
A cartoon "Florida Cracker"? Close but no cigar.
Hey, where's that line where I can sign me up for more America?
Could Ivan make a comeback, reorganize in Gulf?
That rain out there -- would that make it Ivan II?
As you're already likely aware, after Ivan roared ashore and moved north last week, the storm then moved farther north and weakened but still caused flooding in mid-Atlantic states before returning to the ocean.
Then: Though most of Ivan drifted away, one part turned southward, growing slightly as it traveled over warmer waters before reaching Florida's southeastern coast. The storm dropped 1 to 2 inches on some parts of the southern part of the state on Monday.
Now: The remnant from Ivan that has circled back down to Florida is expected to pass into the Gulf of Mexico later Tuesday, forecasters said.
"We're going to wait and watch and see what happens," Brian Jarvinen, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center, told The Associated Press. "There's a chance that it may develop into a system, possibly into a depression.
"If the storm strengthens into a tropical depression, it likely will be renamed, Jarvinen said.
The hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
What's this November 2nd stuff I keep hearing about? The 30th is the day I'll be breaking out the party hats.
For some reason, even Slate has a great Dan Rather article. It's nice that there's at least one thing both the Left and Right can agree on: Dan Rather is batshit crazy:
When Rather quits—whether this week or at a moment of his own choosing—it will mark an enormous shift in American cultural life. For the first time in a generation, viewers will flip on Evening News, grab a snifter of brandy, and prepare to receive the day's stories from someone who isn't barking mad.
Lots of fighting going on between FEMA and Palm Beach County officials. It's looking like Palm Beach wants to be carried through life on a velvet pillow.
FEMA brings the goods, sets up main distribution points, and it's up to the county to set up smaller sites to disperse things. The town of Jupiter is feeling martyred that their officials had to go down and pick stuff up.
My brother would have liked a distribution point in the parking lot of the Publix two blocks from his house. There wasn't one so conveniently located, so he didn't go to any of them and just made do with what he had.
Don't expect FEMA to cut your meat up for you. They got enough to do as it is.
Florida lawmakers have nothing better to do with their time than worry about being PC. Cities and counties have until October 1 to show they're complying with the new law governing place names. Now towns have to investigate whether places like "Chink Rock" have anything to do with Chinese people (It doesn't.)
Thank goodness I don't have to ban myself:
Then there's "cracker," which can mean uneducated, poor, white people. In 1992, a Broward County judge was asked to decide whether the term is a racial epithet covered by Florida's hate crime law but decided it was not. Former Gov. Lawton Chiles embraced the word as a term of endearment for hard-working, Florida country folk.
Levy, Marion and Putnam counties will have to decide what they want to do with Crackertown, Cracker Landing and Cracker Swamp.
Why Florida's most native group's good name has to be dragged into this nonsense is beyond me.
Will Captain Dan the Newsman 'fess up or will CBS just issue a statement saying they were victimized by a source? Maybe Dan will say he was a victim too? It's pretty neat that Dan Rather got to investigate his own self.
Rather lobbed a grenade at the President and it was a dud. He'll make excuses and go on being news anchor of CBS.
As Uncle Walter said, "And that's the way it is."
If you've never checked out the Character Farm, you should do so. The guy doesn't write often, but when he does it's something terrific.
His latest character is a grill cook named Adolph. You won't want to miss it.
Israel just whacked some Hamas guy. When they do something like this, I bet myself that if I look at the crowd pics, before long I'll find some Palestinian brandishing a kidney or rolling in corpse goo. So far it's been a pretty safe bet.
Sometimes I think that mental health counsellors must be the weirdest people on earth:
A mental health counselor ordered his two pit bulls to attack a group of people who were riding out Hurricane Frances inside an office building, police said.
Ryan C. Moore, 54, was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated battery for allegedly releasing his dogs with the command ``Go get them'' while he and a group of people were riding out the Sept. 4-5 storm inside the A.G. Edwards building.
The people Moore sicced his dogs on weren't even stragglers from the outside; they worked in the building and he knew them. The police couldn't come right away because the storm was on, so after they fought off the dogs, the people hid in their offices and bound up their dog bites as best they could.
Moore specializes in anger management.
President Bush is visiting us again today to view the hurricane damage.
There are still 12 people in Santa Rosa County missing and at least that many in Escambia County. The Army Corps of Engineers is using sonar to search Escambia Bay. The looting is bad, with 72 cases so far. I don't know why Pensacola has attracted so many low-lifes. The Guard is there, but they're busy doing search and rescue and I don't think there are enough of them on the street to knock all the heads together that need it.
People are getting by as best they can:
Greg and Joanne DeLapp tried to salvage a few from things from their home Saturday near Santa Rosa Sound. The couple could not stay in the house because of the stench of sewage and amount of damage, and opted to stay at a nursing home where Greg DeLapp's mother-in-law lives.
"The old people are sitting in there with no generator. They've got water, (but) their food is rotting," Joanne DeLapp said.
"I've never seen anything like this. I did not expect it."
In Mississippi, the state Civil Defense director had to file a federal emergency protective request to get a beachfront nursing home evacuated. The owner was in Florida dealing with hurricane damage to his property down there, and refused to evacuate the people. The Feds got 40 ambulances and buses in there to move the people, but by that time branches were already flying through the air. What a wretched person to leave sick and feeble old folks in the lurch like that.
There are a lot of harrowing stories coming out of this storm. People punching holes in their ceilings to climb up in the attic so they don't drown in their own homes; a father choosing which of his daughters he had to let drown and which he would save.
Ivan gave out a lot of lessons in respect:
When they returned home from an aunt's house after the storm, the couple breathed a sigh of relief upon finding the front of their house intact. Even the plywood sign they had nailed to a window was still hanging, along with a taunting message: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot Ivan."
Then the couple walked around back, and saw the storm had answered their challenge.
The entire south side of the house is gone, as if someone took a chain saw from the roof to the foundation and cut it clean off.
"There's no saving this," said Michelle, 40, as she peered in at kitchen cupboards still stocked with Jif peanut butter and a can of Green Giant peas. A boat -- she has no idea whose -- is parked almost right beside the pantry, a blender sitting inside.
"It's ugly, isn't it?" 46-year-old Randy added. "You see things like hurricanes and tornadoes on TV, but it doesn't really make any sense until it's yours. You don't understand until you actually stand inside your house, and it's gone."
Despite most of the state being a disaster area, in the end, most people will pick up the pieces and go on:
“You’ve got to take the bad with the good,” said 42-year-old
Tracie Stitt, who stood in a pile of cinderblock and tile that once was the home she and her husband shared with her in-laws near Perdido Bay.
“If you live in California it’d be earthquakes, if you live in Kansas it’d be tornadoes, up north it’s snowstorms,” she said. “There’s not a perfect place on Earth. You’ve just got to take your losses and pray and go on.”
Someone's been taking pics of Dan Rather's office in his absence.
(Via INDC Journal.)
Never do a scene with Wilson. Such a well-rounded actor will upstage you every time.
(Via Country Store and FR.)
The people in the Panhandle have been dealt a horrible blow. Right now they're just visiting their homes and trying to salvage what they can from the rubble. They're going to need some help.
Reuben Lewis, 49, sifts through what's left of his living room after riding out Hurricane Ivan in Pensacola's Old East Hill district. He and his grandmother sought shelter in a car just before the roof collapsed.
Lillie Bogan stands by her destroyed house in Pensacola, Fla. At right, her granddaughter, Connie Hendrix, is helped down by Connie's boyfriend, Ken Shelby.
A news crew videotapes what's left of a tractor-trailer that fell over the edge of a missing bridge on Interstate 10 near Pensacola. The rest of the truck, and the driver, are missing.
Nikki Dawsey holds a dog in Blountstown, Fla., while trying to find its litter mate amid the rubble where her uncle and cousin died on Wednesday, when a tornado spawned by Hurricane Ivan picked up a mobile home and flung it 100 yards.
Among the wreckage Devon Rabon, 19, finds a photo of himself with his mother, Mary Marshall, who was killed late Wednesday when a tornado spawned by Hurricane Ivan destroyed their mobile home near Blountstown in the Florida Panhandle.
Here's the newest Swift Boat Veterans commercial, for those who haven't seen it yet.
We're starting to feel a little punchdrunk here.
Florida has borne the brunt of the storm which took the lives of 14 Floridians. Search and rescue workers are working hard to find people and the storm is putting my beautiful South temporarily under water.
What an awful month this has been. Again I thank Governor Bush for the job he's done and is doing. There are some other states who are wishing right now they had such a man in their governor's slot.
Hang in there, y'all. We'll get through.
UPDATE:
Much more info in the Pensacola News Journal.
Also, for a bit of humor, Chucky the hungry gator's your man:
"As long as Chucky's been fed, Chucky's happy," said Hall, wearing hip boots and wielding a plywood board in case she encountered water moccasins -- or Chucky. "Right now, I don't think he's happy."
--------
On Top of Alabama's Other Headaches, Gators Gone WildBy Michael Grunwald and Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 17, 2004; Page A10GULF SHORES, Ala., Sept. 16 -- Sometimes Chucky has three-chicken days, and sometimes Chucky has six-chicken days. But Chucky does not enjoy no-chicken days -- and Thursday was his second in a row.
So Chucky was hungry. And this was a problem, because Chucky, a 12-foot-long half-ton American alligator who had spent the past 15 years here at the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo, was nowhere to be found.
Hurricane Ivan's eye blasted through the resort town of Gulf Shores early Thursday, ripping down the fence around Chucky's pond. Zoo Director Patty Hall loves Chucky, as she loves every animal in her care, but she still dispatched a four-man crew with shotguns and pistols to kill him if necessary. The heavily armed men sloshed their way through the waist-deep water that Ivan deposited on the zoo grounds, bringing a raw mix of the Wild Kingdom and the Wild West to the aftermath of the storm.
"As long as Chucky's been fed, Chucky's happy," said Hall, wearing hip boots and wielding a plywood board in case she encountered water moccasins -- or Chucky. "Right now, I don't think he's happy."
Ivan's storm surges carried the Gulf of Mexico almost a mile inland, flinging boats into oak trees and oak trees into boats, converting the 67-acre zoo into waterfront property. It tore the roof off the zoo's gift shop, ripped down its oak trees, flooded its feed house and knocked down its perimeter fences. It also created an escape opportunity for Chucky, some fallow deer and a white peacock named Cameo, who is best known around the nonprofit zoo for knocking on Hall's office door every morning.
Thursday afternoon, Hall was hoping that Chucky had slipped into the state park behind his pond, returning to the freedom of the swampy jungle that had sustained his ancestors before condos, motels and waterfront grills invaded Gulf Shores. But she knew that if Chucky strayed into the floodwaters covering Route 59, or the nearby shopping plaza, or anywhere else within range of human civilization, he would have to be shot.
Mother Nature has her moments here in Gulf Shores, and Ivan was certainly one of them, but she no longer runs the place. And as Hall's husband Dan pointed out, a gator can "come up on a person real fast."
"We've got to think of human life first," said Patty Hall, 56, whose red bangs flopped out of her ZooLifer ball cap. "But this is just crushing. These animals are our family."
Around 1 p.m., four shots rang out in the zoo's parking lot, and Hall's crew dragged a dead gator out of the water. But the victim was only about five feet long. Chucky was still at large.
Chucky has lived at the zoo since it was founded in 1989. He is hand-fed chicken lunches every day, which has made him a bit fat and lazy, but he is still a popular attraction for the zoo's 60,000 annual visitors. Hall arrived at the zoo a few years after Chucky; she jokes that she left her job at a Connecticut publishing house because she was tired of working with animals and shoveling manure. The sign on her office door says "Yes, I Do Bite," but she is a softie when it comes to the rodents and reptiles in her care.
Hall and her staff managed to relocate 265 animals before Ivan's arrival -- including lions, tigers and bears, as well as kangaroos, monkeys and a 1,400-pound yak -- but they had to leave a few behind. Moving 1,400-pound yaks and Siberian tigers and Capuchin monkeys -- one of whom took a bite out of her left index finger -- is not an easy job. Hall even climbed onto a roof to try to catch Cameo, but the elegant bird just flew to the ground. Once Hall climbed down, Cameo returned to her rooftop perch.
Hall did not hold a grudge; she would do almost anything for her animals. In fact, she admits that she might have neglected to inform the proper authorities where she was taking them.
"They're at an undisclosed location," said the zoo's facilities manager, Rusty Gilbert. "I could tell you where, but then I'd have to shoot you."
Gilbert was joking, but he was also carrying a large shotgun, and was dragging an extremely cute little deer who had just been on its receiving end. "We used tranquilizers," Gilbert explained. "We're not going to kill the deer." A few minutes later, the guns were trained on another deer -- but it scampered away across Route 59, and the crew returned to the zoo grounds to search for Chucky.
Hall has no idea when she will be able to bring the animals back to the zoo, or what will happen to the animals while they are away, or whether the zoo will survive. It is going to need a lot more money to rebuild. But Thursday, her thoughts were with the missing. And when her husband whispered some news about one of the escapees through a chain-link fence, Hall dissolved into tears. "Okay," she said. "Okay."
Her crew had found Cameo, alive and well.
Chucky was still on the loose.
Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va.
Blogs of War wants to find out the identity of the union thug with a piece of the little girl's Bush-Cheney sign in his hand. If you feel like voicing an opinion to the IUPAT for Kerry people, here's the link. The local union contact info (PDF) for Huntington can be found here.
In their 'From the Campaign Trail' section, they describe themselves as providing crowd control. I doubt Kerry hired them to be his Hell's Angels- this looks like some self-appointed goonery.
It was nasty of this guy to attack a child. It was also wrong of the father to involve his daughter in his expression of free speech at the opponent's rally. She would have been much happier eating a sundae at Dairy Queen and could get the life-lesson at an older age.
Sophia has a good big brother, though. Look at his little balled-up fist in the pic.
UPDATE:
The President of IUPAT has issued a full and complete apology. For those who are trying to find some way to make it all right for someone to rip up a little girl's sign, read Michelle Malkin and weep. (My thanks to Joe for the tip.)
My own opinion is as already stated. The right to free speech is a lot like having the right of way when driving- you always have to watch out for the other guy. Leave little girls at home when you're going to insist on either.
UPDATE II:
President Bush and First Dog Barney weigh in. (Via a comment from Kyer.)
It hit in the middle of the night. When the sun comes up, we'll see what happened.
UPDATE:
So far eight have been killed in Florida and four in Louisiana.
UPDATE II:
The Sun-Sentinel has an oustanding article on the 'ecosystem' of a hurricane shelter. I wish all newspaper reporters could write like this guy:
Life in a hurricane shelter has a unique class structure, defined not by wealth or power but by the extent of one's preparations - sometimes the audacity of them. The paupers, sprawled on low-rent real estate near the bathrooms or the clattering exterior doors, might have a book and a pillow. The elite sleep in alcoves or private offices, outfitted with televisions, inflatable mattresses, portable refrigerators or DVD players.
UPDATE III:
The bridge over Escambia Bay in Pensacola now has a quarter-mile piece missing.
Three tornados have spun up in Panama City, killing two people.
Mobile begins its curfew in about 10 minutes. They'll bust the violators, but just issue them court dates, as they can't take them to jail at this time.
Eye of the Storm doesn't think it'll hit New Orleans, thank goodness. Mobile is looking like the spot, and Florida is on the worst side of the storm.
They just said on the news that Jeanne looks like it's going to hit Fort Lauderdale on Monday. LOL. One thing at a time, y'all. I don't think it's true, anyways.
Here's a link to Pensacola coverage of Ivan. Two more people have died, these in Louisiana. The traffic jam during the evacuation was too much for two sick and elderly evacuees.
Congrats to Robin of Beyond Salvage for his hurricane blogging Instalanche. Sorry about the circumstances.
BTW, Robin's also worth reading when there's no storm.
Teresa Kerry's now an expert on hurricane relief. Talking to volunteers packing supplies bound for the Caribbean, she somehow managed to come off sounding like an empress with her "Let them go naked" line. More and more she's reminding me of Karen on Will and Grace. I'd be worried meeting Teresa- she might pelt me with tic-tacs.
This NBC station in Mobile/Pensacola has live streaming coverage, but it won't work with Mozilla.
Please say a prayer for all the people in Ivan's path and remember to give assistance to our four-legged friends who can't help themselves.
Talent night at the Chester J. Zablocki Senior Center
This pic of Duane backstage at the Whiskey is one of my favorites. That guitar sound right yet?
Wail on, Skydog!
With the three-day forecast map having a big 'H' on Mobile Bay, Robin of Beyond Salvage is beginning to sweat.
Eye of the Storm has his customary excellent analysis of Ivan and also local news related to the storm's impending arrival.
Meanwhile, Paper Frog has the prettiest hurricane blogging going:
And getting out seems to be the order of the day. Pensacola officials are standing by to issue the most ambitious evacuation orders in the city’s history. It’s not as if people need much prompting, with the scars of 1995’s Hurricane Opal barely healed. Opal came ashore as a Category 3 storm, rudely shoving homes along Santa Rosa Island into the back bay. Scuba divers still come across large chunks of shattered houses: a submerged neighborhood now the province of crabs, stingrays, and the occasional reclusive grouper.
Whether the ghostly underwater subdivisions of Santa Rosa will be expanded by Hurricane Ivan now depends on the whim of wind and tides. Pensacola is likely to end up on the powerful northeastern quadrant of the storm, guaranteeing a blustery 24 hours along the Emerald Coast.
Well, this is a sad state of affairs. Australians, I'm sorry this despicable attack didn't get more and better coverage.
Searchers will find much better info here.
I didn't know this. According to Kitty Kelley's new book, Barbara Bush had the audacity to refuse to shake Jane Fonda's hand. Strangely enough, this is put forth as being a bad thing.
I hesitated linking this local story, but it can serve as setting a new standard for fatal dumbness.
Actually, I'm surprised Drudge didn't jump on this one. I guess some things are too retarded even for him.
I remember how it was, and I hope these guys get their licks in:
Satisfaction and hopefully peace will come when Vietnam vets see and hear John F. Kerry give his concession speech the night of November 2, 2004 with the knowledge that it was their votes that helped defeat him. There are approximately 2.5 million Vietnam veterans in America and they have not forgotten.
Kerry denied them their rightful place as heroes and they will deny him his dream of the presidency. Angry Vietnam veterans, silent for so long, will finally have their say. Payment in full will be delivered to John Kerry on November 2, 2004.
Revenge is indeed a dish best served cold.
Some Vietnam veterans, perturbed at having been maligned by John Kerry during his anti-war activist phase, held a rally against him today in Washington.
Before the rally, Tony McPeak, one of Kerry's advisors held a news conference there to say the vets were wrong-headed, and during the rally itself a speech was disrupted by "a lone Kerry supporter in a wheelchair, Vietnam veteran Bobby Mueller."
But there's a little more to Bobby than meets the eye. He was a prominent anti-war activist, the head of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (an organization I've talked about before), and a compadre of John Kerry.
UPDATE:
One of the speakers at the rally was local boy, Dexter Lehtinen.
Vietnam Veteran, Retired Capt. Larry Bailey, with the group, Vietnam Vets for the Truth, addresses the crowd representing men and women who served during Vietnam war, as they stage a 'John Kerry Lied' rally at Upper Senate Park, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004, in Washington.
Vietnam Veterans, from left to right, Mike O'Dea, of Carmel, Ind., Bill Brantley, of Miami, Fla., Marshall Huckaby, of Atlanta, Ga. and Rick Ellison, of Bluffton, S.C. gather with Vietnam Vets for the Truth, as they stage a 'John Kerry Lied' rally at Upper Senate Park, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004, in Washington.
Bobby Mueller, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, left, argues with a protester as he disrupts a 'John Kerry Lied' rally put on by Vietnam Vets for the Truth, at Upper Senate Park, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004, in Washington.
UPDATE II
8/8/05
Rick Ellison sent a lovely e-mail. Ellison, Brantley, and Huckaby served together in the 25th Division Long Range Reconnaissance patrol in 1966-1967.
Thanks for your service in Vietnam, y'all, and thanks for rattling your chains as John Kerry's Ghost of Christmas Past. You ruined his script.
That's twice we owe you.
President Bush has become the first President to visit the Russian Embassy in Washington. He also made a live broadcast heard across Russia.
I'm surprised he's the first President to get over there, as the Soviet Union's been gone for a while now. It was a good and decent thing for him to do, and sends a strong and clear message that we must stand together against terrorism.
President Bush signs the book of condolence as first lady Laura Bush, left, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Yuri Ushakov, obscured, and Mrs. Svetlana Ushakova, center, look on at the Russian Embassy, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004, in Washington. Bush made an unexpected visit to the Russian Embassy on Sunday where he signed a book of condolence for victims of the school hostage seizure and expressed outrage at the actions of 'evil terrorists.'
The hurricane needs to go just a little bit more west to get Lee County out of his zone. Ivan, make it so.
I don't want the storm to hit my state at all, but Robin of Beyond Salvage, who lives next door to Florida, up by Mobile, probably would like to avoid the hurricane blogging experience his own self.
Paper Frog has an outstanding list of Florida bloggers, and is himself up in the Panhandle in Pensacola.
In my opinion, Eye of the Storm, a meteorology student in Tallahassee, should just stock up on pop-tarts and hurricane blog for the duration of the season.
An interesting article in the News-Press has the disaster planners working on using planes, boats, and trains to bring supplies to Florida. There were difficulties in resupply after Frances, mainly I think because of Charley refugees streaming home and clogging the highways. They're considering an air bridge from Texas. Isn't that something?
While y'all are clicking around, have a look at the homepage of the Hurricane Hunters. I didn't know it, but those planes they use to punch in and out of hurricanes are not reinforced in any way.
Good luck to everyone in Ivan's road. Stay safe.
Bobby Pruitt, 8, waits to find out whether he and his family must evacuate their Port Charlotte trailer housing provided by FEMA to Hurricane Charley’s victims.
Three years ago as I was heading out to work, I turned on the TV for my dog and discovered I wasn't in Kansas anymore.
It was the worst day of my life and I don't want to dwell on it. Instead, I'll give a link I've given before, and those who perhaps haven't seen this can look at it and be reminded of the hope and comfort offered to us during those days by the rescue dogs of 9-11.
I gassed up the car and went hurricane grocery shopping. Never let it be said I don't do my part for the family's preservation. Mr. Cracker did the shopping last storm, so I wanted to be fair. Plus, It meant that I got to pick out the chips. He'd never think of getting the smoked-jalapeno ones. I could tell him, I suppose, but we've been married twenty-something years and only converse through telepathy, hand gestures, and under extreme circumstances, pidgen English.
At the store I managed to get 18 cans of dog food dropped on my face and a pair of broken glasses. They were little cans, though- three packs of six. This stuff happens all the time when you're short, and they had to get some poor kid to clean up the mess of rich and aromatic dog food gravy I left in my wake. Sorry, kid.
No trying to reason with hurricane season
I know all of you have been wondering, "What happens to alligators during a hurricane?" Luckily, the answer was right in today's newspaper:
Like most large wildlife, alligators instinctively seek the most protected areas of their habitat, said Harry Dutton, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Alligator Management Program. "They don't just float there and get whipped up by the waves," Dutton said. Beware of gators during floods, though. "When the floods come, they definitely disperse, and start showing up in places where you wouldn't normally see them," Dutton said. "They take advantage of the high waters to seek out new habitats."
So there you have it. They hide out during the storm, then come waltzing into your kitchen.
Bonus alligator coverage comes from the big cheese himself, Craig Fugate, the state director of emergency managment, who said:
"Disasters are like wrestling alligators. You don't quit when you get tired. You quit when the alligator gets tired. All I can tell you is, hang in there -- this gator ain't tired yet."
Somebody please dose the gator with a soporific. Or at least knock it in the head with a case of dog food.
Everyone's worrying about what Ivan will do with Frances' debris. There's still tons of stuff that hasn't been taken away yet, and no one wants it coming through their windows or punching holes in their roofs.
Right now Ivan is on the same track as Charley. Two things that I hope for is that it not go up the Caloosahatchee River in Lee County, because that's where all my kin are, and that it leaves the people of Hardee and DeSoto County alone because I really think they've had enough.
For all the shameful bitching and whining coming out of Palm Beach County, they're in clover compared to these counties.
UPDATE:
I don't want to leave things on that note.
My family is much better coordinated now for hurricanes than we were when Charley hit. Whoever still has electricity will get my parents. Since my brother-in-law can use his well-water pump to generate some power to the house, it might be him.
My radio station (Kiss Country) always has fun stuff. There are still lots of folk without power from Frances, so they encourage people to call in when they get their electricity back on. And they have to say "I got the powah!" while that silly song plays in the background.
Also, Donald Trump, enjoying any and all publicity, made a clip saying "Hurricane Ivan, you're fired."
That, and laughing at Dan Rather is how I've been keeping myself amused lately.
Dan Rather's behind must be feeling a little breezy right about now. Country Store has all the details.
What a hoot.
Well, hell, they're evacuating the Keys. If it's not going to fizzle out, then I think some other state should step up and take this one.
Be sure to check Eye of the Storm for analysis.
Terrorists have exploded a bomb in front of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
My condolences to the families of the victims and to the Australian people. Time to kick some terrorist butt.
Much more info here.
But not all the people are.
I enjoyed the President's visit today. Not enjoyed was an editorial masquerading as news by AP writer and pisser-on of cornflakes Scott Lindlaw:
As Bush peered into each car's passenger window, a Secret Service agent leaned into the driver's side, keeping a close eye. White House aides hovered nearby, ensuring that a mob of journalists captured the scene of the president as empathizer in chief.
That the governor has a brother who can hook us up with $2 billion in aid is a wonderful thing. Charley just about emptied our pockets; Frances is picking out the lint. Quite frankly, we could use a cash infusion.
This won't matter to those people who live here, but whose hearts lie elsewhere. It does to this Florida gal, though.
Thanks for coming down, Dubya. Thanks for that big ol' check. And thanks for helping out at the distribution center.
UPDATE:
Powerline is saying they believe it was this very same Scott Lindlaw who wrote the fake boo'ing story.
Lots of people are keeping their shutters up for the time being
No juice ever for sign-holding kid
Meanwhile, some folks are acting pissy and need to get on I-95 and head back north where they came from:
"If this was New York, they'd have it fixed in no time," groused Brooklyn native Ben Volaski, 80, of the Broward County Sunrise Lakes condominium community, whose building was still in darkness three days after the storm made landfall. FPL's refusal to send workers to repair downed power lines in winds of 35 mph over recent days, seemed cowardly to Volaski.
"They're chicken, chicken, chicken," he said.
Back before there was The Allman Brothers, there was a band called the Hourglass. This is their LA psychodelic phase. Duane's in the middle with the ruffled shirt, and the nutty-looking one on the end in the cape is baby brother. The other fellows got off the road and went into record producing.
Wail on, Skydog!
Frances' parting shot to Hillsborough County was a flood
The Coast Guard went house to house along the Alafia River asking people to come go with them
The houses are built on high foundations and this river's not done rising yet.
Snakes and rats will be moving in on top of people if they stay
The happiest pic from Hurricane Frances: a dog named Tiny enjoys riding off to dry land in style on a Coast Guard boat
Frances killed nine people in Florida, including a man in Lee County who got fatally knocked down by a gust of wind while walking his dog.
Broward County fared very well, but other counties took the hit. Thank goodness this one wasn't as bad as Charley.
People lining up for water and ice in Fort Pierce
Wading into flood waters to repair electrical lines in Tampa
Leaving home
Kyer has terrific posts on the Russian school siege and its aftermath, the Russian media, and anything else you'd want to know that's related to the topic. Just start at the top and work your way down.
Hats off to him for all the work it took to put that together.
The jig is up. Knock me over with a feather!
The fight for Kennewick Man is finally over. Science may resume its march now after escaping an eight-year half-nelson.
When Vanity Fair writer and Manhattanite James Wolcott says he roots for hurricanes, he's not talking about the University of Miami football team. He means real hurricanes. He gets a charge out of their smashing their way across Florida, crushing out life.
My mother calls people like that "life-haters." They're also called sociopaths.
I'm grateful that I can feel pain for people other than myself. Even people in New York.
It lets me know I'm still a human and not some empty shell.
Today's the big clean-up here in Crackerwood.
Last night I turned on FOX for the first time since the storm started. Good grief, that was some sensationalistic reporting. Geraldo Rivera? Come on, already. He was just an embarassment. They showed NBC Nightly News for the first time last night, and they did a pretty good job.
I'm grateful that Frances slowed her soggy butt down before coming ashore. Especially for all those people who were hit so bad by Charley. When I think of places like Arcadia I could just cry. They really don't need any more problems than what they already have. I'm afraid to even check on what this second storm did to our citrus industry. Two people got killed, both up in Gainesville. One man died when his car got blown off the road and a lady got crushed by tree caving in her roof.
Florida's emergency management is understandably running out of money and the Governor's having to call a special session to get more. Governor Bush has done everything humanly possible to help Florida and I'm very glad he's the guy in charge of things. He makes the trucks roll.
Shiloh assessing hurricane damage
One more of the infamous Palms of Death
UPDATE:
Two more have been killed, up by Tallahassee. Bobby Bowden's grandson and former son-in-law. As alumni of FSU, my husband and I wish to express our condolences to Coach Bowden and his family.
Good morning! Are we all in one piece?
First Frances shows up late for the party, then she overstays her welcome.
I feel so bad for the people who are getting hit twice.
Y'all be sure to check Eye of the Storm for all the latest Frances updates. He's on this hurricane like stink on a hippie, so to speak.
Local gal Suze is also blogging the hurricane.
Here are some pics from today. My neighbor's menacing palms:
It snapped in two. There's another palm directly behind it
It was thoughtful enough to aim for a roof other than mine
UPDATE:
People are coming from out of town to loot.
They've caught 11 of them so far.
Enforcing curfew in Fort Pierce
Looks like God used some extra yeast when He made this deputy's buns
The Mercury-Redstone rocket at the entrance to Cape Kennedy
Please remember the pets put in danger by Hurricane Frances and donate to the Humane Society's Disaster Relief Fund.
UPDATE II:
The National Guard is here and ready to roll:
Activated troops will grow to as many as 6,000, Burnett said. They'll be coming in on up to 300 Humvees, carrying 15,000 gallons of their own diesel fuel with them.
The troops are self-sufficient in other ways. "They don't need a Holiday Inn. They don't get tired until three hours after everybody else. They never look for that silver-wrapped chocolate on their pillow."
Go, Guard!
The best weather broadcast I've seen so far was today when they put Hurricane Ivan up on the chart. The weatherman took his white pencil, slashed a big "X" over Ivan, wrote "GO AWAY!", then scribbled the hurricane symbol out. The crew cheered.
I think they're all giddy from lack of sleep due to continuous hurricane coverage.
Almost Over
Greetings to German blogger Heike who is covering the storm, and to Paper Frog , who has the best list I've seen so far of Floridians blogging the hurricane. Good job.
The bad wind has arrived and it's going to stick around, as will the rain. As long as I don't get my neighbor's palm trees on my roof, I'm happy.
I've taken some pics and will take more as things progress. I'll post them if they're interesting. I don't think my neighbor's swirling palms will look quite as menacing to y'all as they do to me. ;)
The electricity is going off and on, but hopefully will mostly stay on.
Eye of the Storm, blogging from Tallahassee, is tracking the storm closely and has much scientific information.
Yeah, what he said.
If I'm loving my hurricane shutters now, I'm going to be asking for their hand in marriage tonight.
Let me again add Cindy's two links to live desktop TV hurricane coverage.
Florida Cracker is blogging from the secured war room at right.
Here's the Miami radar and the Florida/Bahamas satellite.
UPDATE II:
Palms of Evil and Menace
They've lowered the lake out back. They need to keep lowering it.
68,000 people in Broward are without power so far and FPL has suspended sending out teams. I hope mine stay on. When I talked to my niece in Lee County yesterday, she was taunting me: "Call us when your phone comes back on." "Call us when you get your lights back."
Kathy K. is Frances blogging from Lee.
Might I add that I'm not liking this wind.
UPDATE III:
248,000 people in Broward are without power.
Governor Bush says there are 13,000 electrical workers waiting in Alabama to come on down when the storm ends.
Mr. Cracker got tired of uploading pics for me. You're seeing everything on TV anyways. I'll take some more before it gets too dark. The winds are high and it's continuously raining, and it will stay like that until tomorrow. Eye of the Storm has more.
All in all, not too bad.
Rob of Pious Agnostic is also blogging Frances, from up in Orlando.
UPDATE IV:
I got some new pics after all:
The tree that wants to crush my head
Lake with silly duck in foreground
UPDATE V:
Outback is a mess, but nothing that we can't handle, so far. In additional to the Hurricane Warning, we're under a flood watch until tomorrow night because the feeder bands with rain (and wind), are going to keep coming.
One third of all Broward County households are without power (that's more than 260,000 homes), with more expected to lose power this evening.
Hopefully not us.
A car lies crushed by a fallen tree in Fort Lauderdale.
Highway A1A in Ft. Lauderdale
UPDATE VI:
Frances has finally come ashore.
They say our worst winds will be tonight and our worst rain will be tomorrow.
Good luck to all the people further north.
They're saying there will be a storm surge in the SE part of Lake Okeechobee. I hope all goes well with the levee.
An organized homeowner
I sense a theme
I see London, I see France
I see Frances' underpants
Florida Gothic
Good luck and a speedy recovery to Mr. Clinton.
Oh, and to certain lying, sh*t-stirring members of the media: Don't wonder why your profession is no longer held in high regard.
UPDATE:
To certain people on this thread: "Hello, lunatic fringe!"
UPDATE:
Those wishing to donate to the victims of terrorism in Beslan can visit this site.
Because Frances is heading to Palm Beach County, and is a slow-moving hurricane, there's a lot of talk about the 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane. After thousands of people were killed by the flooding from the lake, a levee was built. Now people are wondering if that levee will hold.
The memorial to the victims of that storm is in front of the Belle Glade public library.
Frances was downgraded to a Cat 3 overnight. Hopefully, she'll become a disorganized lump and wear herself out before she gets here.
Also, the timeline has changed, and she's not expected to make landfall now until Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
UPDATE:
We're now looking at serious flooding. Lee County is distributing sandbags and sand. Why isn't Broward?
UPDATE II:
South Beach
She's a-comin' .
Cindy sends another TV link (Click 'Live streaming video'). This one goes to Mr. Hurricane himself, Bryan Norcross. Why is he Mr. Hurricane? Because he was the only meteorologist who said Hurricane Andrew was going to hit Miami. While even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn, that would have been one big damn acorn.
Also here's the TV link given yesterday for those with browser trouble (Click on the red 'Tracking the Storm' logo).
UPDATE III:
Liberal Larry sees Republican machinations in this hurricane business.
UPDATE IV:
''Frances the mule,'' said Jim Lushine, the National Weather Service's severe weather expert for South Florida. ``It's slow, but it will have a big kick.''
I understand there's been problems with blabbering analysts talking over the convention. Tennis has the same problem. In any case, I've been watching it on C-SPAN the whole time. It's like mainlining the convention. Good stuff.
Franks: Didn't do much for me.
Pataki: Referring to Kerry, "This is a man who has to Google his own name to find out where he stands on the issues."
For a very low-key guy, he's doing all right.
President Bush: "If America shows uncertainty or weakness in this decade, America will drift toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch."
Permanent tax relief, stopping frivilous lawsuits, simplifying tax code...increase funding to Community Colleges? Every county have a community health center for poor people? Hey, that costs money.
Medical liability reform, No Child Left Behind versus the "Soft bigotry of low expectations", protection of marriage against activist judges, "If you think the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood, you are not the candidate of conservative values", he'll defend America whatever it takes, striking terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home...
Dumb ass protester getting led out, it looks like. Dubya doesn't miss a beat. Lists successes in War on Terror. 10 million Afghanis registered to vote for the October election. That really is impressive.
Ah, that Kerry "I voted for it before I voted against it" line never gets old. Actually, it does.
So far he's doing a great job. "The transformational power of liberty."
Wow! He's quoting from that 1946 NYT editorial that said Germany was a quagmire. Very cool.
Regarding his faults: "Some people look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called "walking".
A very good speech. Positive and uplifting. The guy dreams big: changing the world.
Here's a transcript of the speech via Blogs of War and the video is here.
Lee Ann Womack: Saving the best for last! Such a lovely voice.
Convention adjourned. Sine die.
