Heads UP! - Here Comes Flossie

[HADave]

Gosh it appears another short 24 hours will tell the story as to whether Flossie finds landfall upon The Big Island. We offer our thoughts and prayers that no-one becomes adversely affected by this potentially dangerous event. Please prepare yourselves as though a direct hit was imminent. Anyone close to a construction site where flying debris is a concern, coverup and stay away from windward walls. Fema says " A Category 4 hurricane would have winds between 131 and 155 mph and, on the average, would usually be expected to cause 100 times the damage of the Category 1 storm. Depending on circumstances, less intense storms may still be strong enough to produce damage, particularly in areas that have not prepared in advance. The strongest winds usually occur in the right side of the eyewall of the hurricane."

Having experienced only two in my lifetime I can honestly say it was two too many. Donna in 1960 ripped one elm tree apart on our front lawn and a one foot dia limb from a maple tree was torn away and thrown against the second story bedroom wall of my parents. Of course to make matters worse it all happened at night. It's the wind gusts ya-know I remember thinking our big old victorian home wasn't going to stay together. I hid under my bed till daylight. As an adult, Gloria in 1985 worried me to the point i sheathed all the windows on our front porch as most of my neighbors watched and chuckled. After the storm there were six trees around our home that were piled in our driveway on our vehicles and against our house they broke off during the wind gusts. As I sit here now thinking back i can't even imagine the frightening power of a cat 4 storm. I hope I make at least one person nervous enough to board up and be glad later that they did. Bottom line, you just can't be sure till the moment is upon you what damage might occur........

Good Luck everyone, peace be with you all

Dave & Peggy

[Carolann R]

I'm a little nervous now.

Carrie

"All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it." Bob Newhart

[JerryCarr]

Flossie just refuses to lose her ooomph, despite continual forecasts that she would do so. It still looks like the Southpoint-Kau area will get the worst, but we are taking some serious precautions here. If all these albizia trees in Puna start falling, the power could be off for many days. Ouch! No Punaweb. What will I do?

Cheerfully wishing Flossie a quiet demise,
Jerry

[Likalizard]

Aloha yall!

Here is some more tracking info on flossie:

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/

http://kgmb9.com and select the hurricane info



Lika
Boston/Pahoa

[Kelena]

Right, Jerry -- despite the persistent predictions that her hat would get knocked off by wind shear and that she would weaken over cooler water (water, cool, Hawai'i, August?), Flossie keeps on marching, wildly and drunkenly swinging her handbag.

It's all my fault. When I sold my place in New Orleans, I had a little pang and said "I just can't leave!" and so bought another place in the Quarter. We all know what happened next. So now that I have just closed escrow in HPP, along comes Flossie.

DO PLEASE watch for my palapa. In fact, if you see ANY palapa flying by, just assume it is mine, unless someone else indicates they are missing one. Mine is bamboo, and has four "benches". Didn't have time to put a Dymotape name sticker on it though. So if you see it in the albezias, debs.

[frankiestapleton]

Howzit, Y'all...I grew up in hurricane territory (Fla, Alabama, Miss. et al...you know, a military brat!) so I had certain expectations when I moved to Hawaii (1970) about public info put out to help you keep track of such storms.

Since I've been here 37 years, I've been through the hurricane drills here. No one paid any attention to them until Iniki leveled Kauai and a good portion of Oahu. I've spent money and sweat equity in the past taping my big pic windows only to have to scrape the tape off after the storms passed, leaving us with very sunny, very humid weather and no adverse weather to speak of.

When Iwa through, it came from the eastern side of the Pacific towards us, similar to Flossie. It traveled 100 miles south of the Big Island and the only damage on this side of the island was from high waves hitting the house and huge satellite dish that used to be on the property adjacent (just south) of what is now Ahalanui Park (Warm Pond). Hotels (the old Kona Surf) and Alii Drive homes, as well as some boats berthed on the Kona side, sustained substantially more big wave damage. But that was it.

Iniki came out of the southwest Pacific and had already moved between Kauai and Oahu and into the northern Pacific on the morning the forecasters were expecting it to be still southwest of Kauai. That was an El Nino year and that hurricane acted like none other I've ever seen.

Here is a theory that was told to me years ago when I used to worry about approaching hurricanes:

No hurricane has ever directly hit the Big Island. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are the two largest high volcanic mountains in the world and their physical presence BREAKS UP the vertical atmospheric conditions hurricanes need or PUSHES AWAY them away, providing protection from the east-to-west moving storms, not just for the Big Island but also for the smaller islands in the lee of the Big Island (Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Molokai, even part of Oahu).

I have asked Harry Kim (when he was Civil Defense director) and others about this theory and gotten no confirmation of it. But as CD director, Kim always had to plan for the worst possible scenario. So he couldn't go on record as to that theory.

But I've been watching hurricanes take dead aim at the Big Island for 37 years now and ALWAYS veer off so that all we've ever gotten is high waves along the coast, LOTS of rain and super-humid conditions.

But it never hurts to get rid of those albizzia! Take care, Frankie

[bystander]

Remember though that 37 years is not a very long time. There are historical accounts of a hurricane actually hitting the big island in the 1800s. I have also heard meterologist completely dismiss the theory that the high mountains protect the big island from hurricanes.

[Kapohocat]

Worse than the hurricane is WALMART & grocery stores this morning.

[Carolann R]

Thanks for your posts. I talked to a local friend this morning and she had very little reaction to this event. Said she will just put the plants out of the wind's way and that we'll be fine. It's only year one on the Island for us and I don't get it yet - how people that have lived here for so long really aren't affected much by the approach of a monster like this. I'll have faith all will be well, and that this is another test that Pele has for my family and for myself personally LOL! Oh yeah - I'll get Tony to help me take down all the wind chimes today when he gets home from work. If for no other reason, Chewy is scared of them when they chime and clack so loudly, that he will be hidden behind something for the entire time the storm is passing through!

I very much enjoyed your post Frankie.



Carrie

"All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it." Bob Newhart



Edited by - Carolann R on 08/13/2007 12:40:37

[JerryCarr]

There have been direct hits on the Big Island from tropical storms as recently as the 1950's when one passed over Hamakua and Waimea doing a lot of damage. I believe the hurricane that Bystander mentions was in the 1860's and has been confirmed as a full scale hurricane by the detailed damage reports made by missionaries and sea captains at the time. That was a long time ago, but indicates that hurricanes are possible, if infrequent, on the BI. Global warming could increase the frequency according to some experts.

Professional meteorologists do just about all disagree with the theory that the mountains keep hurricanes away, although they say that the mountains can break them up and cause them to rapidly lose power once they get near them. The factor that meteorologists do seem to agree is in the BI's favor is the fact that the water is cooler east and southeast of here than it is farther north and west around Kauai and Oahu. Since most hurricanes approach from the east, we get a break. If they make a right turn after passing South Point, it can be really bad news for the Kauai and Oahu.

Cheers,
Jerry