Okay, I HAVE to put my foot down now...I just love you guys to our south to death, but PLEASE quit sending us gifts!! :D

As if Frances wasn't enough, Terrible Ivan has now descended on us with a deluge of water the likes of which I have never seen before!!

Large areas are under mandatory evacuation, there are people standing on the roofs of ther cars, and in some cases houses, to get rescued, there has been declared a state of emergency, kids are stranded in their schools, major highways are completely flooded and closed. :eek:

...and this is all since about 1 or 2 this afternoon!!!!

It makes all the news stories of what Florida has gone through over the past month so much more real to us.

Karen, have you floated away yet????

I know we don't have the damage our Florida friends do but dang, enough is enough. I can't wait til this new El Nino builds up some more so we can have a nice summer drought and a warm winter again.
Trees are starting to just fall out of the ground again. Two more today.

They just announced that a dam is about to fail and my county is one of three in danger because of it!!! YIKES!

The weatherman said we have had 5 inches of rain already today :(

I am sooo burned out on this weather situation as I know my other Florida friends are too - I just refuse to get hyper about Jeannie(or Jean?) and Carl right now ....I need a break - Joanna

Yes, you guys DO need a break! I know what will help.... :D How about a cruise?? How about Mexico, for instance?? I bet it can't come soon enough for you!!

Oh yes a cruise - is Scott nervous about meeting us? It is such a diverse and friendly group he'll have a ball - Joanna

YES, he IS nervous...but I am not worried. I know as soon as he gets there, he will think it was silly to be nervous.

The only cruise he was ever on was when he was a teenager...it was a spring break type cruise. He is in for a VERY pleasant surprise!! :D

Wait till he meets Tom and Tony - maybe he should be nervous!!??? - J

Maybe THEY should!! ;) Scott is a character!! I think he will fit in perfectly!!

I can't wait to see you guys! :)

5 inches of rain! That's almost what we get in a whole year! (avg 7") If we ever got 5" at one time, the whole of Phoenix would be floating down to the Gulf of California!

This is what NOAA has to say about our weather this weekend as a result of Hurricane Javier:

THE MAIN QUESTION IS HOW MUCH PRECIP.
THE 2 DAY ACCUMULATION FORECASTS FROM HPC FOR SOUTHWEST AND SOUTH CENTRAL AZ LOOKS WORRISOME ...WITH PROJECTIONS OF BETWEEN 1 TO 1.5 INCHES (I put items in Bold )

LOL, 1 to 1.5 inches is worrisome around here. Of course that's nothing compared to what Charley, Frances & Ivan have brought. The more I see on TV of the damage and the more I hear from all of you, the easier it becomes to take our 110 degree heat.

I hope you all stay safe, and hopefully, dry.

They just evacuated the college dorms that are next door to my mother!! Now they say that my immediate area has had over 7" of rain since 1 or 2!!! HOLY COW!!

The year we had our pool put in, a community close to us had 15" of rain on Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day. We live beside a lake, and it was an engineering nightmare to even get a pool IN our yard; we stood out on our boat dock, in the rain, watching the water level rise on our retainer wall. The pool survived, thank goodness, but I can relate to what you folks are going through.

Although it isn't nearly as bad as the situation on the Gulf Coast, here is another story about the weather paterns. Here in Oklahoma, all of the weather fronts diverted or blocked by Ivan have caused a summer weather pattern to build up here. As a result it was 101 degrees today in Oklahoma City --- the hottest day of the summer.

Thanks,
Richard

Holy cow Richard...it's 59 here! What weird weather we have all had!

Sheri,

I am reporting from the State of Maryland, and got home in just in time. There are a ton of tornado's around and there is alot of damage in Maryland, VA and WVA. The tornado came right along the border of my develpment. When they said to get into the basement- headed for the bathroom, have never had to do that before in this area before. No my house does not have a basement- townhouse. We have never had so many tornado's in the area before in such a short amount of time. We are getting the rain also. But not as much. We have the warning until 9:00 now.. It has been a long evening. T-storms are all around us.
Hang in there Pa people, I am just 10 minutes from the Pa border. Remember this Ivan the terrible. TWC is in overtime (red alert at the bottom of the screen) and the local stations- DC and local station is sticking with these storms.
Jan

The flooding and tornados are really scary weather. Stay as safe as you can! We are pulling for you. Cheers, Anne

We are thinking of all of you, impacted by the latest storms. Please stay safe!

Too much devastation in too short a period of time!

Hope you guys are all safe. Flooding isn't fun, neither are tornados. I'll keep you in my thoughts and pray that this bad weather is finished! Take care.

Richard

I can relate. Our heat index today was 108. As the saying goes - it's the humidity that is killing us. People are passing out all over the place. But so far, no hurricanes. But tonight on the weather they said that for some reason Ivan is going to curve around & we are suppose to get rain from him next week. Go figure.
The scenes of the damage in FL & AL really do break my heart.

My thoughts to all of you today. The pictures are devastating.

Oh my goodness .... hope all of you are safe!!

Masaki

We saw the pictures on the news last night. Hope today is a calmer day. Stay safe!

Sheri,
Are you okay?? We never heard from you since 7:11 p.m. We had 3-4 inches of rain and 2 people are dead north of Baltimore from one of the tornado's.
It is actually getting cool outside now. And finally the sun is out! yea!!!
I saw on the game in Pittsburg the river had the boats coming down the muddy water. We used to have family up there.
Jan

Sheri, Karen,

Oh my gosh! Too much rain! I hope you are all alright.

Betty

Sheri:

Hope all is well. I could say "welcome to our world", but that really isn't funny. The whole of the east coast has been damaged by this hurricane season.

If only the end would come and we could all recover.

Good luck to everyone.

I've been thinking of Olivia and the wedding all day - hope they managed to survive the deluge too.

I drove from Cleveland to Pgh yesterday to watch the Nebraska/Pittsburgh game and was astounded by the flooding and the river was yet to crest.

During the game we watched several flotillas of boats (10-15 at a time) that had apparently been torn from their moorings and were bunched together gently floating down the river unattended. Surreal and so sad. A walkway to the stadium was probably under 10-20' of water.

The good part. Nebraska won and I love the Pgh fans. I met a van full of their fans enroute and they had me follow them to the stadium so I wouldn't get lost and got me into a private parking area. Also ran across a group of young guys and one of them gave me a Pitt towel as a remembrance. Had various conversations during the day and all were friendly and hospitable. I love college football.

Now back to regularly scheduled programming....the weather. Such misery.

Jeers! Ray

Heard from friends in Pensacola today. More than 75,000 trees down; one of the Escambia Bay bridges heavily damaged; the base is closed for at least 2 weeks; Coast Guard station destroyed; many roads destroyed/impassable; no power yet; lots of homes heavily damaged. Not good!

Karen & Sheri

I didn't have the TV on all day yesterday so it wasn't until this morning that I saw what was going on in your area. Wishing you both the best in this mess and any of yur friends or family that may have been hit by all the water. Everyone stay safe - please.

Still waiting to hear from Olivia about yesterday's wedding!!

Ray, so glad you had fun at the game yesterday. I too love college football (growing up with my Father it was mandatory) My Trojans looked pretty awesome against BYU too!

I sure hope you all on the East coast are doing OK!! Today is a BEAUTIFUL fall day here in So.Cal, only in the mid 70's! Maybe you guys should all come here and get out of your terrible weather!

Everyone,
Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts...we are fine. We got 7 inches, and lots of flooding, but I haven't heard of any serious injuries...the dam held...AND, the weather has been a perfect "10" since Saturday morning...but it had to be, Scott came in....ohm oops, I am posting as Scott...this is Sheri posting!!
Sheri

Sheri,

Stop posting for me and putting up those terrible photos.......HaHa........I'm looking forward to meeting all.....My God I do look kinda look like Marty Feldman!!!!

Yes Scott, kind of scary looking! A MINT cruise will do you wonders!

Well, now there is a storm in the Pacific part of Mexico, that is playing havac here in Utah, yesterday it was in the 90's and today they said we can expect snow on the benches of the mountains, and heavey snow in the higher elevations. So , it's pretty crazy everywhere, just talked to my daughter in Az. and they have been having flash floods, along with some much needed rain, we are heading back to Az. next week, so hopefully things will be a little better, who knows?? we are going to Santa Fe, New Mexico, just might have to use that all wheel drive.
My thoughts and prayers have been with all of you on the east coast. Take care and be safe.....

Depends where you are in AZ. We've had some nice rain last night and today. Some heavy showers, but none of the high, damaging winds. Temps for the next week supposed to be in the 90s, so we've broken below the 100 mark. Summer is finally over here!