How about if we use this thread for live Hurricane Matthew updates for our friends on the East Coast to inform us on how they are doing?

As long as I have power I’ll try and give updates for Charleston SC. The bad stuff should be Friday.

Pool party on Friday for the homeschool playgroup was cancelled.

Seek… Isn’t that a good thing since you hate people?

Eh. It’s more a good thing because the party is at a state park that charges $6 a person to swim, and it’s a long drive.

The playgroup moms are actually not totally intolerable. For instance, Ian had a slumber party last night, and when I dropped him off there was pizza and beer for the grownups.

Big Beer Fest in my city was cancelled at the Fair Grounds. Three bands and pre-sold tickets were in the thousands. We are a hundred miles from ocean in central North Carolina.
Just checked mailbox and one of my neighbors is out front with a tree surgeon looking at the 75 foot standing dead oak tree, I hope they get it down before the storm winds get here tomorrow. The power lines are in within the drop zone of the tree.

Oh, yeah, the Orange County Convention Center closed down for the weekend, too, which means friends of mine who had an event there are out their deposits and all their sales for the weekend too. Not to mention the poor people running the event (which is only barely profitable) who are out all of their deposits. It sucks. I hope they had insurance for such a happenstance.

This reminds me of last month when I was holding my breath for a storm. Oh well, I’m following this thread to see how you jellies are doing.

TS Matthew rolled off the African coast and sat on me for a week, then the eye formed just west me in the south Caribbean. He blew up into a monster Cat 4–5 last Friday and made a move toward the Windwards around sunset, then changed to a northerly course toward Cuba and Haiti with nothing in between but warm water. I escaped with steady 12kt winds and 25kt gusts, choppy seas and lots of rain. I was lucky. Guantanamo and Port au Prince are a mess. I hope my luck holds for you guys. Please keep posting.

@Espiritus_Corvus

Where are you in relation to the current location of Matthew? How far are you from it and what are your approximate bearings- S, W, SW, etc?

@Mimishu1995

What storm was that?

I think I remember hearing about some monster typhoon with wind speeds approaching 230 MPH (384 KPH) about a month ago.

@Brian1946 Matthew is about 1,500 miles (2,400km) northwest of me now. I’m presently on Martinique in the Windward Islands. Matt sucked all the moisture and heat along with him and left us with the most beautiful weather I’ve seen all summer. Perfect sailing weather. It’s like autumn on the Gulf Coast.

Some friends have reported their kids’ schools are closed tomorrow. Unfortunately since the rest of the state still has to function when only slightly stronger-than-normal weather is happening, their workplaces have not closed. This is the third time this year that schools have closed for “inclement weather” that isn’t particularly inclement at all. Another reason I’m glad I homeschool and don’t have to find last-minute childcare whenever the school board decides it wants a free day off.

This former coastal Floridian is drinking ale and watching TV.

@Espiritus_Corvus Great idea!

Staying calm in NJ so far where it’s expected to miss. Hope so – don’t want to go through another Sandy but I have emergency supplies as SOP.

We’ve been lucky in the Central Pacific this season. We’ve had some near misses and got a lot of rain, but no catastrophes.

Best of luck to everyone in the storm’s path.

My Dad’s wife is in the direct path of it. She lives right on the beach, on the north east shore. She, and some friends, are evacuating to Macon as we speak.

Kansas and all states on east are in the same pressure system that spawned Matthew. It’s pouring rain, lightening, thundering….and I have a feeling we’re going to lose power. Dakota is scared too. :( And Rick’s out of town.

Huh? Matthew spawned in the Carribbean. You know… the tropics. If it had spawned in Kansas it wouldn’t be a Tropical Storm.

Stay safe my friends. I might not be feeling particularly patriotic at the moment but I am glad I live in mild weathered England

My dad’s wife made it safely to Macon. I don’t know how long it usually takes but it took ALL day. Bumper to bumper cars evacuating. Stop and go. Stop and go.

And my suspicions were right. We had 2 tornadoes in one hour. But we didn’t lose power.

@Brian1946 maybe that’s the one. It came straight to my city. The day before it came the whole city got panicked and every school was forced to close down. Luckily the storm already weakened by the time it reached my place And I still didn’t have to go to school :D But I saw the news and there was a lot of damage in the outskirt of the city and other cities, so the storm did accomplish something.

I’m not sure if that was the storm you are talking about, because shortly after that storm there was another huge one coming up, but it hit China.

Nobody panic. But I just got a Hurricane Warning on my cell.~

Thanks technology. ~

As a Cat 3, Matt was supposed to have hit the Canaveral/Cocoa Beach area a couple of hours ago. Jacksonville is expecting 120mph winds, something they haven’t seen since 1898. Georgia is bracing.

Good morning, everybody in the Southeast. How are you doing?

7:30 am, north of Tampa. Hardly any rain so far, and the dead tree in the yard is still standing.

Just saw a convoy of “power company trucks and equipment” from Virginia, headed south on I-95 in central North Carolina. About 25 vehicles all with their flashing light bars on the truck roofs. Only rain is a drizzle right now in my neighborhood, little or no wind.

According to my dad’s wife, the government is doing an amazing job controlling the evacuations. For example, sometimes cars run out of gas and move off to the side of the highway. They have trucks they send to give them enough gas to get to the next gas station. I bet they don’t even have to pay for it, but I don’t know for sure. Just guessing.

Hope everyone is safe, let us know what’s unfolding in your zone.

I expect to lose power tonight. My friends and I are taking a nap ,so we can be fresh for whatever tonight. We’ll be up around 11PM. Intend to be up all night. Won’t have my phone on. Good luck all.

Peace n love.

@MrGrimm888 Good luck to you!

I got my canoe and a bug out bag ready. Hopefully the night won’t be as interesting as I think. We should make it. Although the weather is supposed to be worse, we are prepared.

Like Lt. Dan on Forrester Gump. ‘Blow you son of a bitch ,BLOW…. ’.......

I saw a graphic consisting of Matthew superimposed over California. Matt’s diameter is 600 miles and CA’s greatest linear measurement is 840 miles. If Matt came ashore in CA, everything from Los Angeles to Eureka would get hit.

Matty’s area is about 565,000 square miles, (1,446,400 square Km), which makes it almost as large as Alaska and more than twice as large as TX.

Eh. The hurricane force winds only extend about 45 miles from the center, and he stayed 25 miles off shore the whole time. We got off easy this time, as far as wind and rain go. The storm surge is the real damage as far as I’ve seen. Coastal flooding.

Well. I survived. But.we had a decent flood. Lost almost everything. Last October I lost everything from a flood. This is getting old….

@MrGrimm888 Ugh! What is “everything”, clothes, furniture, etc. I’m sorry to hear this, bah humbug!

Sorry to hear that, @MrGrimm888.

Yup. All gone.Well soaked,so going to have to throw it all away.
I had just gotten some furniture from last flood….Sucks…

My family is ok, and my dog is ok. So, it could be worse.

Thanks for the concern. It makes it less shitty somehow.

@MrGrimm888 Maybe you should come out west, but here in these hills no floods just forest fires. Down the drain or up in smoke, your call. lol

^I was out in AZ a few years ago. Wasn’t a fan of the desert. But I had no allergies, and obviously, hurricanes aren’t an issue.

But yeah, pick your poison right.

They closed down the Interstate in my county and had to send out “emergency equipment” to rescue passengers of stranded autos and trucks. Water was a foot over road.

We’ve had 5.77 inches of rain since 12:01 AM today, 3 to 8 inches more in the forecast.

We still have power at least, there are small areas in town that have trees down and no power in those neighborhoods.

Sorry for the loss. @MrGrimm888.

Thanks @Tropical Willie .

Sorry you have to keep going through that, @MrGrimm888

Well, initial reports says my dad’s wife’s house is intact. She lives within walking distance of the beach so that’s major luck.
She should be heading home today, from Macon.
Not sure how long she’ll be without electricity though.

We have several highways and roads flooded in town. Two of them are state highways but not divided. Dams have let go and are undermining the bridge footings. Many shops, apartments and businesses are underwater. The Interstate 40 about 45 miles south of me is closed indefinitely. the roadbed is wiped out with a big gap in the pavement.

A nurse going home from second shift last night had her car swept off the road, State Police found her hanging on to a tree, out of her car, at daybreak. Her family missed her when they got up and they gave the State Police her route home from work.

We only had a couple of branches broken, all debris is at the curb already. Trash can and recycle bin have been retrieved from neighbor’s front yard. We were lucky.

They are comparing this storm to Hurricane Floyd in 1999. There was between 7 and 12 inches of rain since Friday midnight and Sunday 5 AM.

^^Wow. Sounds like you and @MrGrimm888.got nailed pretty badly. Thank you for the updates. I haven’t had any news of the storm for 2 days. I’m assuming its out to sea heading NE. There was talk of it coming back south again. What’s the update on that?

What is left of Matthew, is headed towards England going across the Atlantic.

…As they usually do. Thank you for the update, Will.

Jeez, not to make light of the storm but holy guacamole what CA. could do with 7–12 inches of rain right about now. Extinguish the 6 big wild fires and prevent new ones. Flood or fire, yep, pick your poison.

Dad’s wife is home safe and sound. Her house is completely intact.

Yeah. The wind wasn’t so bad. It was the rain.

We’re just about cleaned up now,after a long hard day. We used shop vacs to get most of the water up. Carpet guys will be here hopefully in a day or so.

I broke a finger and have lots of cuts and bruises from the flood water, but I’m still standing. Been throwing up all day, maybe from the stress.

It is what it is. Thanks for the support.

@MrGrimm888 Oy! Hope recovery goes well – for the house and the finger.

We’ve had a day and a half of rain and wind here in NJ but no damage that I can see.

@MrGrimm888 That’s terrible! Please take me seriously when I tell you to keep your cuts clean after being in that nasty flood water. Infection can set in quicker than you realize. Take care!

Thanks again.

How did you break your finger?

@MrGrimm888 Awwww….if I lived near you I’d bring you some of my delicious home made soup for your tummy ache. Feel better soon!

Duthchess , I was attempting to move things quickly, and I fell on the slippery tile in the room I was moving stuff to . I can’t guarantee my fingers broken, but it points a different direction now. By a centimeter or so. I apologize for a possible false diagnosis. I’ve broken a finger 4 times at least, and the doctor usually just splints it. So I don’t usually go to the ER for it anymore. It’ll be fine.

@Coloma , thanks. I bit my nails down to the quick Saturday night, I think I might have ingested flood water stuff under my nails. Wasn’t smart.

So. All the damage was done to myself probably.

I hope recovery is quick for you guys, @Tropical_Willie and @MrGrimm888 and things get back to normal as soon as possible. I’m just glad there wasn’t more damage.

Thank you for contrubuting, everybody.

Looks like the aftermath will go across continental Europe but will have lost much of its power by this point. Stay safe everyone.

My names not Duthchess! Actually, it’s not really Dutchess, either but….you know.

^I’m sorry. No matter how I spell it,it never turns out red. I’ve tried different spaces between the III’s, and everything. I suck at computers. My bad…..

I promise, no disrespect intended.

I have the same problem with Hypocrisy Central. It never works.

So I refer to him as HC a lot.

(The space is an underscore)

D u t c h e s s _ I I I << capital I’s.

Also, if you just type the @ sign, then put the first letter in it usually autofills with all of the users on that thread whose name starts with the letter D.

If he’s on Mobile that won’t work.

Oh. Well, on my phone I copy the name, paste it, then put the @ in front of it.

@Dutchess_III

Does the text for the @ and the name appear in red, when you use your phone?

@Dutchess_III

Ok. Got it. Thanks. Now I’ll seem slightly less stupid.

Yay!! You did it!

@Brian1946 I don’t think it does. That’s why I said that when I use my phone I have to copy and paste the name, then put the @ sign in front of it.

I just read that the beautiful dunes on the beaches between Melbourne and Daytona have been reduced to flat landscape. I had some really good times in those dunes on Cape Canaveral at all night campouts, beer and surfing parties around primal bonfires, after watching the space shuttle shots from across the Indian River.