OT:Rita

I'm not doing well today expressing myself, I guess. I meant that I'd be in more danger than if I were 9 miles, so yes, with a hurricane coming, I'd rather have the nine miles. However, given a choice between MA and FL, I'd say Lucille got the short straw.

Elizabeth

Well so long as you have gas in the car, you and Bill are always welcome here. With making my own I can usually count on having nearly a 100 litres on hand at any one time lol

Not really, Port St. Lucie hadn't had anything more than a Tropical Storm for the 30 years preceding last year's mess. I have a feeling the only place you're really safe from rain is the desert and we all know there are lots of other problems to deal with there.

Personally I definitely would prefer to live in MA. At least there are seasons, unlike here where there are only two, hot and hot and wet..

I have kept meaning to pick up one of those torches (flashlights) that one can repower by waving them about, rather like the watches one could get prior to quartz that were self winding, based on the movements of your wrist per day. Not to mention a crank radio in case all batteries fail lol

I also meant to add that those propane stoves are safe to operate indoors, unlike some camping stoves.

Oh ok! No friends on the coast eh??? Pouting now.

Good Luck! If it gets round there, be sure to come back and tell us you are okay when you can.

Agreed!

I'll joke with another friend that in reality, I'm in a nice safe place. Earthquakes are small, I'm unlikely to have storm surge, hurricane or tsunami. Tornados are rare and I don't get 60+inches of snow. Yes, it gets cold, but not -30F; hot, but not 115F. Cheryl

Nah! running gag now!

Cheryl

Really???? That is rather dangerous! That's one of the things we were warned against during our flood....make sure you keep your generators

HTH

Joan

You think *you're* safe? HA! I've got you beat by about 2000 miles! LOL! I'm about as far as possible from any hurricane that might hit anywhere! :))))

Joan

Don`t you be too sure, Joan - even we get them sometimes (coming up to the Autumn Equinoctial Gales period now) - we had a humdinger in October 1988! Our favourite forest blown down, a church just up the road destroyed, and several houses ripped apart (and ours are mostly brick built) and no power for a week. We had quite a bad "blow" the day before Sheena arrived here about three years back, too.

Pat P

Yes! I am in the Sacramento Valley of California and we had several tornados hit in early spring. We never thought we would get a twister, and we got 2 or 3!

Jaenne

"sarcasm does not play on usenet. Sarcasm does not play on usenet. Sarcasm..."

Elizabeth

Takes one to know one! Rare :)

See, this is one of the times I disagree. I got it but chose to ignore it and tell my story like it is. :^}}}

Sarcasm plays very well.

"Joan E." wrote

Yes--such a comfort to be warm and dry in the middle of the prairies--until the blizzards roll in, anyway. Dawne

What other problems, pray tell? Well, except for the heat. After 35 years in Lizard Land, the heat was really the only truly big "problem" we had to deal with. I HATE the heat. I'm not terribly fond of the sun either but both can be dealt with if you have a parasol (a tree also works) and water. One thing you learn living in Lizard Land, you NEVER, EVER venture out of the house without a personal bottle of water -- NEVER!!! During monsoon, you *could* get flooding in the "dry" washes. Everyone knows where those are and only the touristas or the newbies to the Valley ignore the "do not enter when flooded" warnings. There aren't any earthquakes of any magnitude, no tornadoes, no "real floods" (you need a real river to have a real flood -- LOL), no real winter so no cold, ice or snow and the closest thing to an ocean is Big Surf and I don't think that "bathtub" is still open! Other than the heat (as experienced during Lizard Land's three seasons of Hot, Hotter and OH MY GOD!!!) there just isn't much in the way of natural disasters in the infamous "Desert Southwest". The mountains are another story all together! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

The latest report (11 pm EDT) really isn't looking good. The National Hurricane Center (US) says Rita has the potential to become a Cat 5 storm. Various computer models are in agreement that she *will* become a Cat 4--possibly within 36 hours--with winds up to 125 kts (about 144 mph). The biggest question is how much shear she will encounter before landfall. Until a better determination of shear can be made, landfall strength and the potential for Cat 5 become hard to estimate.