This doesn’t look good. We now have a category 5 hurricane heading towards us. A lot of people are still without power from Frances and there are food & gas shortages in many areas.
Local
After the storm
We still had more wind and very heavy rain after my last entry. We now have some very bad flooding in my apartment complex and the surrounding streets. We never lost power, although homes on the other side of the street are still without power. The traffic lights on my street are out. The worst damage I saw in my complex was a large branch that hit a car. I’ve added many more pictures to my hurricane Frances gallery.
Frances Update
The worst of it is over, although we still expect strong winds & rain for a few more hours. I never lost power. We didn’t have any major damage around my building, but we did have a lot of branches down. When it’s safe later today, I will check the rest of the complex. Here are a few pictures of the area around my building.
Frances Update 4
The winds have been getting stronger for the last few hours. The homes across the street from me have been without power for a while, but we still have power.
Cat reaction to the storm
For the first part of the day, Cody was freaking out, running and hiding whenever the wind got really loud, but after a while he went to sleep and seemed to get used to it. Midnight stayed pretty calm most of the time. I put towels around the bottom of my windows & sliding doors. Midnight keeps stalking & attacking the towel and then backing off.
Frances Update 3
We’ve had strong wind & rain most of the day with occasional breaks, although it hasn’t been too bad yet. No major damage. Luckily I still have power. My mother has been without power since 11AM in west Boca.
This is going to be a long day
The power has already started going on & off and we expect lots of rain and wind today and most of tomorrow. I’ll most likely lose power completely at some point today.
Frances Update 2
We just got hit by the first fringe of Hurricane Frances. We’re having wind gusts of about 15-20 MPH and heavy rain. This is just a prelude of what we can expect tomorrow. I had just finished walking around the complex with some of my neighbors removing or securing anything that could become a projectile.
Frances Update
Everyone is rushing to do last minute preparations for Hurricane Frances, although it now looks like it won’t hit until late tomorrow, rather than tonight as originally predicted. We’re removing everything outside our buildings which could turn into a projectile and making sure everyone clears off their patio. At 2PM we’re walking around the complex and making sure everything is secured.
Panic at the pumps
I went to buy gas today in preparation for the storm. The first gas station I tried was out of gas, but the second one was still full. I waited about 20 minutes in line, but I got gas.