OMG .... TG ur ok!

 

I got one from next door. should of took more ! Hope you like.

 

Katrina hitting Miami is a cakewalk compared to what she is going to do when she slams into the New Orleans area.

 

Glad you folks are OK down there in the right bottom corner of the map, Reid.

Looks like lots of monetary damage, but so far appears to be just scatered minor injuries - at least
in Dade.

I used to live in 'tornado alley' in Texas, but the incessant, repeated hits Florida takes from
hurricanes is far, far worse. I couldn't live there, sorry.

Personally I'm happier with the volcanos and earthquakes in my neighborhood - at least we don't
get bad shots on such a frequent basis. (Yes, I can stand on the ground at the southeast
corner of my apartment and see two volcanos, but only one of 'em has blown her top recently...) :D

 

Back online (had to get another generator)

TJ, That's not at all true. You live 40 miles north of me. The predictions as the storm got very close to shore put it at Broward County. WE in Miami and points south were all told to prepare for tropical storm winds, and no more. Even the vaunted weatherman, Brian Norcross did not shutter his house.

-Nobody in Miami shuttered up. Nobody was led to expect the storm coming into South Dade. Nor was it supposed to put hurricane winds in my neighborhood at 8PM. They were saying: Hallandale, maybe... high winds at 2AM.

So, it went far south and came much earlier than expected.

===Storm tracking is not accurate. The media should have advised better. I'll know better next time for sure===

 

I would tend to agree with that, but after driving around town I see how -many neighborhoods of Miami were spared heavy tree damage; even just two miles from our Grove/Gables area.

Pretty surely there were tornado-like downbursts and scrubbing swirls of winds which toppled and tore the trees in various directions.

A lesson I learned here is that -even a mild storm- can be really ferocious in areas. Far more than 90mph gusts, certainly. All these big trees were just as large back when Andrew struck with 140-160mph winds. Not so many fell then as fell by Katrina.

I recall Andrew as being strong, steady winds. This was whippy by comparison. Trees could not take it; even less so than sustained, faster winds of Andrew.

We have a lot of hurricane storys to tell here on Scionlife. Why, since last season there are millions of hurricanes' walking wounded. Thanks! for the input.

 

OK! As I write today, Louisiana and Alabama and Missisippi are suffering from a much larger Katrina.

I hope some of our members in the affected areas will make a picture thread like this one of the storm and its aftermath.

(You are also welcome to add pictures here)

-====

(still composing this form.. one moment)

 

Ah, maybe Brian did not shutter his house, but the truth is, he should have listened to his newscast. EVERY newscast warned of how 'the cone of probility', as they call it, could, and would change...It's not an exact science. It's better then it was when Andrew hit, but not exact.

If you hear a storm is coming, and you think you need to prepare, then do so. It's that simple, really.

Sorry that damage was done. You can't get out Mother Natures Way when she is coming, no matter what. No media can stop her.

Well, I hope and pray that all up in New Orleans got out...

 

the picture! Am happy to see these ficus trees all go down. They are unfit for this area. Cheap, fast growing, destructive root systems... and they fall in a storm.

===

Joyce Kilmer. 1886–1918 (he died in WW1)



I think that we shall never see
a fall as muddy as our trees.

Torn and split by stormy winds
ficus, mostly, met their ends.

Adventitious roots ne'er grasped
deep enough, as Katrina passed.

Ficuses sideways today,
doomed to the chainsaw melee

The sinewed men with two stroke guts
Stihl Goliaths to saw dust.

Poems are grafted [/i]by men like us
who won't , no sirs!, plant more ficus

 

Did you hear, they want to make ficus illegal? I wonder if that would pass...

 

Of course they -should- do that. These are cheap, fast growing potted plants running amok, costing millions in damages.

I have notion that Miami banned planting ficus after Andrew. I may be mistaken.

I hate them even though I do like trees and these are shady, messy trees that take apart house foundations, drain pipes and drainfields.

====
damn straight.

now this is only an entertainment thread. People are really hurting worse up there.

A power company crew from HOUSTON was here in front today restringing the lines. We may get our juice back on today. This is really fast if its true.

Crews from all over are here helping out. Now they'll go on up to the Gulf states from here.

 

Entertainment while sweating in August heat

I have two xB adventures to share: one is about my high speed chase.
The other is about helping out a beautiful woman in distress.

I've got pictures for both stories.
Both adventures happened day before yesterday and both are not what you'd expect.

which story should run first?

 

 

Funny, Chucksu: I thought you'd jump for the beautiful woman first .

ha ha

 

Woman, woman, woman, says most here...

Me? I say High Speed Chase.

 

How about something along the lines of: High speed chase leads to meeting of hot woman

 

becareful with that generator scifly heard alot of people are dying because of them on the news

 

A friend of mine is stuck down in Louisiana rihgt now in the hurricane

 

Yes, that works.


this item is about

The High Speed Chase

(it is not so long a read as it looks)







the scene of the crime as it was on Saturday morning two days after Hurricane Katrina damaged Miami's trees.

snapped after it was all over

You see the truck and trailer belonging to the boss of a tree trimming crew outside my house about one hundred feet from my driveway.
I don't know them yet. They were unblocking a neighbor's driveway of a fallen oak tree.

I left my driveway in the Yellow Peril (you'll understand the temporary nickname in a moment).
Cars go down the street very slowly owing to the debris and for sightseeing.
Ahead of my RS2 a dark red Caravan with blacked out rear window slowed and stopped momentarily at the tailgate of the pickup truck.
I was about one hundred feet behind the Caravan.

Look! A long, dark arm reaches out from the drivers side of the Caravan.
It lifts a chainsaw from the tailgate of the pickup truck and drives on.

For only a moment I presumed not much, because a man standing on the shoulder just past that trailer was gesturing to the Caravan driver.
9It turns out that it was a neighbor of ours who was protesting an apparent theft.
I read the neighbor's body language from a didstance, and was...

...AFTER THE THIEF IN A HURRY PEDAL TO THE FLOOR AS THAT ZZZZZZOOMING
CARAVAN RACED UP THE LIMB-CONGESTED STREET to the first available right turn
where he slid around a muddy corner.

Yellow Peril was on his tail, though!BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP sounding continuously.
All of the ponies in the xB's engine pulled to close us down on the scoundrel's tail.

Down single-laned Braganza, the red car raced, running a stop sign.
I chanced it and ran the stop, too. Trucks were blocking the cross street anyway.

At the end of Braganza the roadway doglegs hard, 90 degrees of one lane width.
The thief hurried too much, skidded to a stop, missing the turn and nearly sliding into a wooden fence gate. He would have to back up...


I halted my car about thirty feet behind. Nothing was happening now.
I yelled very loud and deep voiced to the invisible occupant(s) of the red Caravan ahead: "DROP THE SAW".

No response. Thirty seconds passed. Still no response.
Maybe the engine was stalled. I sat still with the automatic transmission set in reverse gear in case someone jumped out of the red car with, say, a handgun.

The Caravan next backs a few feet, turns the ninety degrees, and races full throttle up Kiora.


Off again now in hot pursuit. The thief takes the very next corner and runs about hundred feet up that small avenue, with me blaring the horn and keeping forty feet back now. He stops dead. Nothing more.

I shout again VERY LOUD

PUT DOWN THE SAW. DROP IT GENTLY ONTO THE GRASS AND JUST GO. PUT THE EFFING SAW DOWN NOW

Fifteen seconds elapse without motion

Next thing to happen: the passenger side window rolls down.
A long, dark arm holding the chainsaw in hand makes a conspicuous show of gently dropping the chainsaw onto the grassy swale.

The thief's Caravan rolls away like its on a sunday drive.
I pull forward, retrieve the saw and put it in the back of my car.

A family cleaning their front yard about a hunded feet further up witnessed this strange and noisy spectacle. As I told them the story, up comes...

The pickup truck from above, with the owner of the chainsaw with his female partner. She says:

"We didn't even know they stole our saw! Your neighbor told us what happened. He said to 'find the yellow car and you'll find out what happened to your saw'. So! He got away! Did you get his tag number? Did you see his face?

I reply: No, I did not. And I did not get his tag number cos I was too engaged to memorize the tag. What good would that number do, anyway? .

"So he got away."

Yes, I let him go.

"Why?"

Well, hop out of the truck and open the side door and have a look.

"Wow! Oh, thank you!"

===

----you all will understand that a chainsaw after a hurricane has tremendous monetary value,
even if it -was- only hundred buck Homelite cheapie----

A half hour later I went back to the scene of the crime. She, the EZ Palm partner, took this picture.
EZPalms will be glad to verify that I'm not making this episode up






===

What a day!
what next?

 

A Beautiful Woman Story

with her son, Orlando



It was not a happy moment for her:
She'd just gotten gasoline at the station behind the beer truck, behind the car.
It was very hard to buy gasoline on Saturday in Miami. She was elated to have fuel
but depressed to be involved in a minor accident. See, on the way out of the station someone scraped a bumper...

We had to wait for the police to arrive to make out an accident report.

more?