Weather update for TS Fay ..... Well, things are taking a worse turn for us here in Tallahassee. Trees and powerlines down all over the county, my buddy over at the local big bass lake west of me is without power now for 24 or more hours. He has two generators and plenty of gas though. I haven't lost power - but I'm nearly within sight of the power plant - I'm on the main leg of the power grid - lucky me! Lots of rain, some local flooding in the low areas, limbs down all over - the roads are a real mess! One electrical worker was electrocuted to death - our only local fatality so far that I know of. This is a BIG mess, and clean-up will take some major work! The tropical storm is west of us now, and slowly leaving our AO. My 'hood just has some leafy trash in our yards, and I'm high enough on the bluff for no flood worries, and the wind just goes on over me - no ground effect hardly at all. Next week, things could still be bad - the rivers are still flowing and bringing more water down to us! A bunch of folks still without power. Water could be affected too. I refilled several big water jugs yesterday - have 14 gallons of good fresh water stored for drinking, and more that is a year old (hadn't rotated it out yet) - I can use it for washing and toilet flushing if I lose city water. The Florida State Emergency Response is good. They were up and running as the storm was approaching - my supervisor is on the team at their headquarters. They had resources already staged and ready to roll. No "Blanco/Naginitis" down here!
I'm a 2 hour drive West of Tallahassee....and so far? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Hardly even rained here today....? This is one weird storm..... She's been all over the freakin' place....
My buddy and I drove around town today, assessing the damage. In the center of town, not much! Just leaf litter. In the Northeast (we did not go in there!), it is said the most damage occured - trees down, a few houses damaged, power outage for abot 45,000 people as of that morning. But crews are working quickly to restore power, and clear the roads. Some flooding in the low-lying swampy areas west of town (my higher ground is further outside town), and there will be more flooding there as they opened the Lake Talquin dam to reduce the lake level. Also, the rivers are still bringing a lot of water down - the southside will have a lot more flooding into next week! The St. Marks River hasn't yet crested, and the town of St. Marks has largely been forcibly evacuated. Some good eateries are flooded again - hope they survive the event. Good eats down there! To add insult to injury, today we had scattered thunderstorms all day! Just what we DID NOT need! TS Fay has broken records - first storm in recorded history to make FOUR landfalls in Florida! The most water dumped from one TS in Florida. All in all, we came through pretty good.
They aren't 'dragging' folks off, but they do send the LEOs around to tell folks to leave - "NOW!" This is right on the coast, where the river meets the Gulf. With the water this high in that low an area, only a fool would stay. I am about twenty miles inland. Found out this AM, that a major highway bridge just outside of me is expected to be underwater later today. My property won't flood - but I could possibly lose road access if it gets too high. I'll be PO'd if I get back from work tonight and can't get home!
Y'all really got it bad! And here, just next door, we got nothing....It rained harder today than it did all last week, combined.... But looks like we have another one coming ....Welcome to Florida and Hurricane Season.... Let me know if you need anything, or I can do anything for you and yours.....
Thanks, CRC. I'm in good shape. No co-workers had serious trouble getting in to work Monday, though my assistant team leader needed two tries to get in - due to road closures east of town. The additional thunderstorms are adding insult to injury here. Tallahassee went for many years with NO hurricane/storm hits - we got complacent. Our turn came up. Hope TS Gustav down by Hispaniola doesn't come up here! Another big storm before the water level drops would be catastrophic. Friends over in Panama City got virtually nothing from Fay! As big as she was, that really surprised me!
That's where I am.....PC. And yep, we hardly got anything here! Yesterday , and today, were worse, actually.... And yeah, we're keeping an eye on Gustav ....Don't you just love this time of year.... Glad everyone's ok.....
