Tropical Storm Fay Decides to Stay

We're hunkered down for Tropical Storm Fay, which has stalled over Daytona Beach and is sending massive amounts of rain to the Jacksonville area. The weather buoy on the St. Augustine Beach pier reported wind gusts as high as 49 mph in the middle of the night.

I pride myself on being the first person to evacuate Florida under threat of hurricane, but Fay wasn't predicted to become a category 1 hurricane until there was no time to flee, so we rode it out. The storm has stayed too close to shore to reach open water and strengthen, but it refuses to leave so we're getting from 5 to 15 inches of rain. Dozens of egrets showed up this morning to dine on frogs in the saturated field behind my house.

They're not the only ones who saw a dining opportunity. One of the perks of staying for a storm is eating at local restaurants that are impossible to get into otherwise. Last night we ate at O'Steens, a local seafood restaurant that's famous for its food and the wait time required to get a table. After eating way too much of the best fried shrimp on the planet, I waddled over to the beach and joined hundreds of people wandering around and watching crazy people surf.

Jacksonville · Florida · 2008/08/21 · 11 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

I blame Al Gore.

#1 · Bourne · 2008/08/21

I'm sure you'll be forgiven the schadenfreude experienced in being out in the storm, and whether it is labeled a 'hurricane' or not. While traveling to Vietnam on a troop transport ship, I got to enjoy being caught in the edge of a typhoon which we ran from for almost a week. After the first 2 days though, the typhoon became downgraded to 'tropical storm'. Still, the rollercoaster ride continued and we surfed into Okinawa just as the storm blew itself out.

Whatever the status of your storm, the inevitable damage(s) received by act of nature will demand an almost immediate redistribution of weath.

Now, the dependable ally of Democrats (the less ruthless Republicans still moralistically failing to take advantage of such tradgedy(s)) is going to be Nature and the inevitable loss of life and damage that can be attributed to such natural occurences. They will now invariably use any such disaster politically, if at all possible; blaming their fellow man for any natural horror that results, and denigrate any effort in response as inadequate, even malfeasant when under the leadership of Republicans, but not Democrats.

Meanwhile the leftist redistributionists (socialists) whine and moan about 'personal attacks' when any attempt is made to discover the background and experiences of their candidate ... as they fill out the emergency relief applications, and chuckling over the chance to get a new roof for a few lost shingles ...

Not that you will, or do, Rogers. I know you willingly accept responsibility for the choice of environment you choose to live in and have insurance to provide replacement of shingles, and won't do any gouging of state or federal government to get "freebies".

Of course, any governor of Florida, whatever party, now has to declare an emergency, and ask for federal assistance ... just to CYA ...

All thanks to partisan politics turning natural disasters into a tactic for politically profiting from non-partisan disaster in both votes and government "freebies" ... ever increasing and expensive, leftist spending demands. It seems as if it were purpuseful - a socialist tactic to bring down the USA, as Reagan broke the Soviet war economy ...

#2 · tadowe · 2008/08/21

Yea, what Tad said.

Btw, wtf did Tad just say?

#3 · King Rex · 2008/08/21

Rex scratches head, "Btw, wtf did Tad just say?"

Rogers cringed when he read that, Rex, and since he knows I usually take such sarcasm in its literal sense, and repeat for those who insist on raising strawman arguments and with the questioner being the real dummy ...

Relax, Rogers.

#4 · tadowe · 2008/08/22

We're insured. State Farm dumped us along with the rest of Florida, so we had to get a policy from the state-created Citizens Property Insurance. Earlier this year, Warren Buffet made a $224 million bet with Florida that hurricane damages wouldn't exceed $25 billion this year.

I wonder if Buffett envisioned a storm like Fay, which is one of the first storms ever to hit the entire state.

#5 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2008/08/22

R.C. never relaxs, he is the most uptight blogger on the net. You need to loosen up Rogers, you take this stuff way way too seriously.

That's why it's so easy for me to get under your skin.

#6 · Rex · 2008/08/22

And you are right there with him Tad.

#7 · visitor · 2008/08/22

Egrets? I've had a few.

#8 · Bourne · 2008/08/23

The visitor gets personal, "And you are right there with him Tad."

Yes, I do enjoy a good storm, as does Rogers, and so does most of the Democratic party who all gleefully use it to denigrate and revile their partisan opponents.

They act out as war profiteers in defaming a war we are fighting, and for votes, and they are disaster profiteers using human misery and suffering to blame and hate their fellow Americans more effectively at the polls.

Ruthless plotters and without a care as to how base, vicious and evil it makes them ... right?

#9 · tadowe · 2008/08/23

Two worst storms I have ever been in were;

1. In Germany in December of 1988, we were at Reforger and it had already dumped about 4 foot of snow on the ground before the giant wind storm came through. The 100+ mph winds were the worst recorded in that area of Europe. First it was freezing cold, then the wind, then the rain turning everything to mud, then it froze again. Miserable.

2. The wind storm here in Washington 2 years ago. I was afraid for my life, I lived right on a golf course that ran perpindicular to the wind it sounded like 20 757's were landing on the golf course at the same time, it ripped the roof of my apartment building and I could here all the trees snaping and breaking. I thought it was going to just rip the entire complex off the ground and throw it into the air. 6 days without power, some areas went more then two weeks without power or water..

#10 · Rex · 2008/08/23

Actually, I think it was Grafenwore, 1987. Not reforger.

#11 · rex · 2008/08/25