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Charlie Comming in my backyard


radiob

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They announced good news for the Tampa Bay comm. Charlie is a catagory 3 now, and is coming directly in at Charolette Harbor. GOod for them bad for me. I live in Charolotte Harbor at Boca Grande, very small pocket in the Gulf. Storm surge will be 12 feet, I am 13` above sea level.50mph gusts, bla bla bla, Im already nerveos. Well I have to turn off my computer now, Ill hopefully have it back together tommorow. Have to put everthing in plastic bags now. By all, ROb

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Good luck Floridians!

Looks like we may avoid the worst of the storm as it's projected to move away from MD's east coast where we'll be beginning tomorrow. If we do get a couple days of rain, I'm planning a visit to Tom Longo's place which is in the same neighborhood. All is not lost (for me anyway). My wife and daughter may get bored though.8.gif

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Punta Gorda supposedly got it hit hard. Rob lives on the outlying island, so the centre came failrly close by. Hopefully everything is okay. According to CNN the power is down in most areas, so we may not hear for a day or two. There was a lot of damage to some of the buildings.

The map shows where Rob lives relative to Punta Gorda. The hurricane came ashore at Captiva Island, two islands south of Boca Grande.

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By 8 PM the eye of the storm passed by 30 miles to the east of us here in Lakeland, and we still had wind gusts up to 100 MPH. We didn't lose power, but many big oaks in our neighborhood lost branches! It was sheer hell here for 3 hours...I can't even imagine what Rob went through (and he got slammed far worse than we did). Hope we hear from him soon and that he and his family are doing fine.

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Im ALIVE!!!! Nothing like a good old fashon f-4 over your roof! The I wall hit me directly yeserday at 4:20 lasted for about 2 hours. I have alot of limbs in my hard, and the golf course is trashed! I lost power at 3;45 yesterday and FPL had it back on at 7 this morning. Im going out now to check the rest of the Island, Ill take some pics. Hurricane Rob.9.gif

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I hope the very best for Rob - that area took the heaviest slam from the Hurricane at Category 4+ strength. Here's a photo of Punta Gorda's business district from CNN's web site - Punta Gorda is also on Charlotte Harbor

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They reported 180 mph wind gusts there! For those who aren't familiar with fluid dynamics, the force of wind increases by the SQUARE of the velocity - so it's not a linear mathematic relationship!

For example, the formula for calculating pressure of wind is

DP = 1/2 (density of medium) (velocity of medium in m/s squared - speed of target in m/s squared) = X Pa

So air is about 1.3 kg/cubic meter at sea level. A 90 mph wind (which can be devastating!) = 40.2 meters/sec. Target velocity = ~0

1/2(1.3)(40.2*40.2 - 0) = 1050 pascals

1 pound/sq inch pressure = 6890 pascals

1050/6890 = 0.15 psi

Now, for 180 mph wind - that translates to 80.4 meters/sec

1/2(1.3)((80.4 * 80.4) -0)= 4200 pascals!

4200/6890 = 0.61 psi

So a 180 mph wind has FOUR TIMES the destructive power of a vicious 90 mph wind. A 4 foot by 2 1/2 foot window would have 878 lbs(!) of pressure exerted against it! A building wall - 10' * 30' long (a modest size 1 story house) would endure more than 26,000 lbs of pressure (13 tons!)

So this is why so much devastation occurs. Very few conventionally built houses can withstand such enormous forces. Again, I certainly hope the very best for Rob, and any of our forum members living in the path of this storm.

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Cleve,

Very nice physics.

My wife teaches 8 th grade introductory physics and I am going to copy it for her.

Radiob;

Holy poop!

I have lived through some strange stuff in my life but the howl of the wind of that magnitude for 2 horus must just be surreal.

I just finnished reading CNN .com and it appears to be so much more maasive and strong than the media in Michigan ever let on about.

I once read that is why indians stayed away from certain areas before the Europeans came 500 years ago; massive storms.

I hope the Lord found it in his grace to protect the weak and unprotected form the severity of the storm. A good time for multiple miracles.

Rick

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On 8/14/2004 7:52:07 AM radiob wrote:

Im ALIVE!!!! Nothing like a good old fashon f-4 over your roof! The I wall hit me directly yeserday at 4:20 lasted for about 2 hours. I have alot of limbs in my hard, and the golf course is trashed! I lost power at 3;45 yesterday and FPL had it back on at 7 this morning. Im going out now to check the rest of the Island, Ill take some pics. Hurricane Rob.
9.gif

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I am friggan relieved to hear you are okay.

I just saw this article on the local news site. They are saying "Significant loss of life" and serious devestation. This may very well be even worse than Andrew was. It is not even over yet. It moved back into the Atlantic as still a pretty powerful storm and now is heading up into South Carolina.

After reading article I linked above, that is the exact reason why I don't live in a trailer park. I hear to many horror stories of severe damage from wind storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

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On 8/14/2004 7:52:07 AM radiob wrote:

Im ALIVE!!!! Nothing like a good old fashon f-4 over your roof! The I wall hit me directly yeserday at 4:20 lasted for about 2 hours. I have alot of limbs in my hard, and the golf course is trashed! I lost power at 3;45 yesterday and FPL had it back on at 7 this morning. Im going out now to check the rest of the Island, Ill take some pics. Hurricane Rob.
9.gif
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Whew, Sure glad to hear that you made through OK radiob! Looking forward to seeing the pics and hearing the stories.

Did the Blueberry survive?

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I lost power at 3;45 yesterday and FPL had it back on at 7 this morning.

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I'm simply astounded that the power was brought back that fast. Here in Maryland, it took our super-inept Pepco 3 to 6 days to get most people back on line after Isabel, and it's hard to understand why the difference.

Larry

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Glad to hear that you survived Charlie. The center didn't miss you by much, about two islands from what I can see. Definitely time to be thankful for missing the worst. I would love to see some pictures as well. I will save them for my class later this year. I remember letting them listen to the rain hitting Kelly's windows from Isabel. They were absolutely amazed by the sound and the wind. Toronto just gets the left over rain from the tropical storms after they have gone inland.

I am sure you may be busy helping some neighbours and friends who weren't so lucky.

Don

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I was hoping Charlie would have come up here so I could get a new roof before my insurance company dropped me on the 28th of this month, but after seeing all the destuction I have re-thought the whole thing. I do feel bad for those folks down there and am very fortunate that Charlie didn't come up here. A buddy of mine lives in Punta Gorda and he said the eye passed over his house. He and his family where crouched down in a closet because the wind was screeming and they could feel the pressure of the storm. His house, luckily, made it through with minimal damage. Some of his neighbor's homes, however, were reduced to a pile of sticks. Good luck with the re-build efforts. Our thoughts are with you.

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