Okay, I'm not a daylogger, but:
Hurricane Frances isn't even close to landfall yet and here in Deerfield Beach, Florida (about halfway between West Palm and Fort Lauderdale) we are already experiencing considerable winds. The storm has slowed considerably, both in speed and in intensity, but already it is lashing at us. Right now it looks very much like any other spring time rain Florida, as the leading bands of clouds move through, but West Palm Beach is said to have recorded winds of 60 miles per hour in the last few minutes.
Our preparations are not even finished yet as it stands. No one in the household received any time off from work before today and to even do what I am doing today (and am still trying to do now even as the winds and rains start) means that I might have been fired from work for not showing. Quite a problem that can be when your company, located in Orlanda, flees to Atlanta but tells you to continue to work even while you are in the throes of a hurricane.
After writing this I will be going back outside. I still have many things to do and will probably be getting good and soaked.
We are going to stay in the house, it is more than 30 years old and less than 4 miles from the coast and the intracoastal waterway, but it seems we will be getting the weaker side of the storm so I am willing to chance it. I wish all those in its direct path the best of luck and offer my good wishes that you get through this unscathed. We always hope it will still turn and that it will not continue this slow movement over the Gulf Stream; a movement guaranteed to strengthen it.
Well, if I have power tomorrow I will write an update, but for now: I go now to experience one of the most spectacular of nature's wonders.
To the Bat Porch!
Update:
These squall lines are weird. We got battered for about an hour with very high winds (recordings of 70 mph) and lots of rain. Now its beautiful out; the sun is shining and there is a steady but light breeze. We should continue to alternate these squall lines while the hurricane approaches, but the next line is still very far out.
So if one expects that a hurricane will hit and stay on you until it has moved away, thats not how it seems to work (it has been more than 10 yeards since I last lived in the path of a hurricane. Belive it or not, the eastern part of Central Florida has been spared for years, and this is my first in South Florida, so my memory is foggy except where the heart of the storm is concerned), we have the bands of rain and heavy winds moving through now, pouring down and moving out. Now we but await the big part of the storm while these powerful but small vanguards of its approach hit us.