Faux reporting: People are mad at Jeb cause he exaggerated......

[Joanne98]

the strength of the hurricane. Jeb told them to leave for nothing.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[skooooo]

1. Has the worst even hit yet?

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. No, the worst hasn't hit yet.

It's barely there.

[Gin]

4. No...it hasn't....and those people are stupid...I don't like Jeb...but he

was right on this...I have family In W.Palm....and I am glad it still isn't a cat4...even though the end result may be just as bad with flooding.

[Misunderestimator]

27. He wasn't right. He had EVERYONE evacuated and did not open southbound

lanes to the northbound traffic... AND there was no forethought about how these people were going to drive a distance that would require AT LEAST two tanks of gas... So, now, someone from Miami could be stranded without gas and without a hotel room right where the eye of Frances will be coming onshore.

Here on the West coast they are doing it the right way, right now issuing mandatory evacuations of mobile home residents and those in low-lying areas.

[Heyo]

36. He's not the one who makes the decision..

.. to evacuate any areas... it's made by more local people.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

41. Wrong - the Governor overlooks everything NOT local people.

He is essentially the "Commander in Chief" when it comes to hurricanes.

[UTUSN]

3. Early This A.M. a Reporter Told Jeb Crow Shrub People Were Pissed

about gasoline shortages and he replied, "Well, for starters, there shouldn't be a lot of driving around..."

Perhaps it was people trying to EVACUATE who needed gas...

[louis c]

14. The Whole Bush Family Sucks

and I hope Jeb gets it stuck right up his Royal f**king ass

[kerry-is-my-prez]

22. Yes - it IS the people who are evacuating. Plus some people have

to work. We have nursing homes and hospitals that cannot close.

[Dob Bole]

25. GEORGIA IS RUNNING OUT OF GAS!!!

All the people who are evacuating are coming right through Southwest Georgia. The governor has placed price controls on gasoline- now there's none to be found on I-75 and nobody is delivering gas because of the low prices!

[midwayer]

35. Most fuel stations ran out of fuel yesterday here

in Collier and Lee counties

I paid 2.11 for some of the last bit of super unlead

no fuel trucks expected down here until Tuesday (hopefully)

[lanparty]

64. GAS LINES!!!!

Oh yes, the man who ran three oil businesses into the ground is now lending his magic touch to the entire country.

[alcuno]

26. My mom says there are gas lines in Hernando County N. of Tampa.

Where are two and a half million people supposed to go?

[Blue Wally]

55. Evacuation doesn't mean..........

Driving up into Georgia or the Carolinas. The only people ordered to evacuate were those living on the barrier islands and those in mobile homes. When you evacuate (and I am in a second tier evacaution area), you are supposed to evacuated west within your own county, not start of a cross-coutry trip. Anyone evacuating Miami-Dade or Broward and driving north was just going into the teeth of the hurricane. If they had called for our evacuation 9because of an expected storm surge which would flodd us out), we would have put our survival kit in the car and gone to one of the county shelters, not set off on a 300 mile jaunt to get out of Florida. People need to have some sense.

[bigwillq]

5. I think it's better to exaggerate

then risk the lives of so many people.

Jeb may be an asshole but he's not a weatherman.

He has to try at least to protect the people of Flordia.

[tblue37]

16. Exactly.

And hurricanes are incredibly unpredictable. This puppy was huge, and it looked as though it would come in at a 4 or a 5. Even at category 2 it has mighty winds and lots of rain, so flooding, downed power lines, and other dangers are still there--and trailers, shacks, etc. can still be toppled or blown away by 105 mph winds. Also, hurricanes can spawn toradoes.

And since it is so slow-moving, it has plenty of time to visit destruction along its path. It isn't zipping by with a slap and then moving on.

Until last Friday my son was living in Ft. Lauderdale, having just completed a master's degree at the University of Florida in Gainesville and then having spent 10 weeks in a Motorola intenship in Ft. Lauderdale. I am very glad he moved up to Pennsylvania for a while.

[bigwillq]

18. It did look like a monster

I thought I heard one cable news weatherman say that it could be as strong as Andrew.

It was suppose to hit FLA as a CAT 4 but like you said, hurricanes are so unpredictable.

I have to admit that I think Jeb did the right thing.

I only say this because I like to put myself in people's shoes when faced with a difficult decision and I think I would've have had as many as possible evacuate.

[nini]

6. As much as I can't stand Jeb...

It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario.

better to be safe than sorry.

but it's ok if they're mad at him :evilgrin:

[proud patriot]

7. Frances is Moving so Slow

The people who are saying that are in for a surprise .
I hope I wrong .

[kerry-is-my-prez]

8. People are seriously po'd here because the ENTIRE state is out of gas.

People are stranded on the expressways, and all over the place.
There are no hotel rooms available anywhere - people are sleeping in cars - or if they're lucky - in trailers and RV's.

Also you might as well forget about finding any supplies such as flashlights, D batteries, bottled water, canned goods.

The people in Port Charlotte are ticked off because all of the National Guardsmen and FEMA people left to go to Miami. They'll probably be looted, etc.

[Heyo]

37. Out Publix was a madhouse..

But even yersterday they had batteries, water.. lots of cans.. the shelves were empty but they had trucks soming in.. people buying stuff right off the pallets..

Heyo

[kerry-is-my-prez]

43. PUblix in our area also planned pretty well. They did get extra supplies.

But since no-one else did in the area they were the only ones who had anything and they were sold out right away.

[jab105]

40. The reason why we are out of gas is because during August...

they had a break on the gas tax...so at the end of the month, everyone and his brother filled up to get gas before the price increased 8 cents (from the gas tax being put bback on)...

There was no way to know that a hurricane would be headed this way...again, I hate Jeb, but cant blame him too much...I did like the 8 cent reduction in the price of gas during august!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

51. "I did like the 8 cent reduction in the price of gas during august"

That 8 cents will cost a hell of a lot more in the long run....silly to create shortages with gimmicks...this is the mentality of the voter....don't pay a tax that actually HELPS emergency services..create artificial shortages just prior to an emergency then wax glowingly of paying 8 cents less per gallon when the money will HAVE to made up from SOMEWHERE when the emergency hits.

[lanparty]

65. Doesn't matter ...

The retailers will just take up the slack during that period. It might as well being the state taking in the revenue than the retailers and distributors.

[Blue Wally]

73. No

The state was pretty rigid about the retailers passing the 8 cents a gallon tax holiday to the consumers. Charlie Crist, the attorney general is pretty consumer friendly.

[peacetalksforall]

9. The opposite of Andrew which was low and very powerful is slow and wet

with relentless winds and gusts - they are both terrible.

[Joanne98]

10. He evacuted 2 million people.

It's was a four when he did that. They're probably sitting in motels up in the Pan Handle pissed off because it's only a two now. You know how people are. No good deed goes unpunished. It's good joke material
THE REVENGE OF FRANCE!!!!!!!

[LisaL]

12. Well, in a last election, apparently about 2 million people

voted for Bush because they blamed Gore for the "acts of God" such as bad weather. Why shouldn't Jeb be blamed for Francis? LOL.

[madrchsod]

11. heard the another night from

the meteorologists -take the speed of the storm and divide that into 100..latest figures is 5 miles an hour..that equals 20 inches of rain...that my friends is biblical flood proportions in a state as flat as florida...you could probaly run faster than the storm is moving....

[Joanne98]

13. Florida is only 10 ft above sea level in some places.

That's a 120 inches and it's under. Not possible. But if the ice caps keep melting......

[Cheswick2.0]

24. and the presure has dropped from 961 to 951

That means the winds are going to pick up slighty. Though the storm is s close to the coast that I doubt it will pick up much in wind velocity at this point. They are going to get a ton of rain.

[louis c]

15. You think it's bad now

just wait for Ivan. He's about 10 days away.

Jeb will have quite a bit of work ahead.

[walldude]

19. Just talked to my sister in Palm Beach

she's without power but says the center of the storm won't hit till very late tonight. I lived through Andrew(my house didn't) and really can't blame Jeb for ordering evacuation. Better safe than sorry.. Maybe he ought to call his fucking brother and let him know that there may be something to this global warming thing, cause I have never seen a hurricane season like this before.

[Eloriel]

33. There's ANOTHER one coming??? Oy!! n/t

[lanparty]

66. Ivan the "TERRIBLE????"

Floridians really need better building codes and storm shelters so that they don't have to all run away every time they get heavy winds and rain.

[jmowreader]

71. The problem is grandfathering, not the building code itself

Florida has a good building code now--that is, post-Andrew.

The pre-Andrew code is what sucked; they didn't have much of one and they didn't enforce what they had very well, so if you wanted to build houses where the only thing connecting the roof system to the top plate was one 16-penny bright common nail per joist, it was fine with them.

Then came Andrew and lots of houses had the entire roof system lifted clean off the structure. The homes that survived included almost all of the Habitat for Humanity houses. Habitat requires the use of Simpson H1 hurricane ties to connect the roof to the top plate.



Now you HAVE to use at least Simpson H2.5 ties.



Florida is still full of homes that don't have these. We call this a recipe for disaster.

[sadiesworld]

17. Spoke to the in-laws last night (West Palm) and they were

royally pissed off. They pretty well had it all figured out.

[joefree1]

20. Huh? I'm mad at Faux News for exaggerating.

Guess there's a lot of that going around.

[snippy]

21. The decision to evacuate that many people has to be made well

in advance of the point when the strength and landfall location are known with any high degree of certainty. A decision to evacuate a small number of people can be made closer to the time of landfall.

That having been said, any reason people have for disliking Jeb Bush is a good thing.

I wish someone could find a tasteful way to remind people that powerful republicans have led their supporters in prayer to the republican god for a devastating and destructive hurricane to strike Florida.

[alcuno]

23. What???????

Who is praying for a hurricane to hit Florida?

[snippy]

28. Pat Robertson has in the past. He wants the republican god

to destroy that nasty Disney World.

[lanparty]

67. Does god bless Disneyland?????

Or will god hit it with an earthquake and swollow it into the bowels of hell????

[tblue37]

29. I think it was a joke. (eom)

;)

[saracat]

30. Well, his brother exaggerated the WMD thread of Iraq.

You know these Bushies.Better safe than sorry! LOL!

[peekaloo]

31. Playing the compassionate leader is a tough role for Jebthro.

In an earlier press conference he got miffed about this very topic and stated he didn't want "people dying out of their own abject stupidity".

Best that people die through his brothers' abject stupidity.

This hurricane is the size of Texas and is gonna dump a lot of rain when/if it hits land.

[DoYouEverWonder]

32. The problem for Jeb

is that he ordered the evacuation of millions of people, with nowhere for them to go and no gas left to get them there.

I'm in north central Florida, which is not in an evacuation area, and most of the gas stations here were out of gas this afternoon.

There is no reason, emergency supplies couldn't be brought into our area so the people traveling could get out of here.

It's easy to order evacuations, it's another matter to do them safely. Leaving people stranded all over the state is not safe.

[Eloriel]

34. Sounds like a nightmare

Guess these Bush boyz aren't such great planners, huh?

Can we say "inept"?

[quaker bill]

49. It was not a bad choice

Given the circumstances. It takes more than a day to get people evacuated. At the time the decision had to be made the storm was much bigger.

Beyond this, people were just getting wacky. There was a near riot at a local Home Depot over generators and plywood. It got so bad that police were being stationed at gas stations and grocery stores and building supply stores to prevent things from getting out of hand.

People were driving around looking for stuff in a daze. A guy sideswiped a tree in front of my house because he was just distracted thinking about things other than driving. He kept right on going.

We are out of gas because everyone decided to fill their tanks on the same day. Beyond this, you cannot buy a gas can anywhere, people are hoarding it to run their recently purchased generators and chain saws.

[lanparty]

68. What about grease ?????

Are they all out of french fry grease. You could probably run a diesel generator on that if you heat it up!!!!!

[jab105]

38. I dont blame Jeb for this...Frances was a cat 4 w 145 mph winds...

no one knew that it would slow down to a crawl and weaken so much...I want to kick it out of here myself...we are on a curfew until Monday...and who knows if the thing will even be through here by then...

[Fatima]

39. And if he didn't tell them to leave, and people died as a result

then he would have been damned as well. I don't like Jeb, but in this case he had to make a decision and encourage people to leave the area...and this is something you can't wait until the last minute to decide on because by then it's too dangerous to travel.

Let's not forget this is a slow moving storm that will dump a lot of rain and there will be flooding, roads out, trees and power lines down, storm surge, all that. It's still very dangerous so getting out of town wouldn't be "for nothing."

Criticism of the evac routes and so on would be a fair call, but not this.

I've lived thru one or two of these so I know...

[MirrorAshes]

42. I remember when they evacuated Charleston, SC for Floyd a couple years ago

and then it totally missed SC and hit NC instead. There were major traffic problems (took me 11 hours to get from Charleston to Columbia, usually an hour and a half drive) and the whole thing was handled badly. Unfortunately, it was a democratic governer at the time (I can't remember his name) and he lost the next election. His handling of Floyd was a big part of it.

We can only hope the same will happen to Jeb, although in this situation, seeing how this storm was a 4 for a long time, I actually think he made the right call to evacuate.

[Misunderestimator]

44. He may have made the right call, but the EXECUTION SUCKED.

He should have started with only coastal, low-lying and mobile/manufactured home communities... AND he should have opened up southbound lanes of I-95 to northbound traffic... AND he should have had a plan of how to deal with providing fuel to all these people.

EVERY major company has a disaster recovery plan in place for ... uh... disasters. From where I'm sitting, it looks like the Florida Disaster Recovery plan is sorely lacking.

[MirrorAshes]

46. Agreed. Not opening the other lane was probably the biggest mistake

in the SC case. I can only imagine it was much the same, or even worse, on I-95.

[Blue Wally]

56. That is what he did.....

The evacuation only applied to the barrier island and mobile homes. The trouble was that a whole buinch of nervous nellies decided to "get out of Dodge" as well. Evacuation really means to move further away from the water and get into a safe structure.

As far a fuel goes, how many gallons of gas and how many tanker trucks do any of the fifty states own on their own account? The average car on the road has between 1/4 to a full tank of gas in it at any given time. Say all tanks average 5/8 of a tank. If everybody decides simultaneously to top off their tanks, that 3/8 of a tank multiplied by the total number of cars on the road will draw down all of the storage tanks in an instant and creat a gas shortage on the spot. Yes, the 31 August fill up to take advantage of the tax break came at an inopportune time, but even without it there would have been a gas shortage.

I thought that both Home Depot and Lowes did a really great job in bringing in plywood, batteries, flashlights, and generators. They also rationed the amount of plywood one person could get to try and make it last for everybody. They were getting daily shipments in during the runup to Frances. Publix also did a great job.

[Misunderestimator]

57. Florida would have done well to arrange for extra shipments of gas,

food, emergency supplies, and uh.... national guard in the run-up to Frances as well. It's nice that profit-making businesses like Home Depot and Lowes and Publix did their part to ensure they had supplies (for a really good bottom line reason)... too bad that government plans were not made so well.

[Blue Wally]

58. The National Guard

was alerted and in their armories ready to deploy as needed. I found this on another site as to the readiness of the guard for Hurricane Frances. The author is, i believe, an officer and a professional:

"As I write these words, a hurricane watch has been posted for Broward and Dade counties in South Florida. Palm Beach county will, no doubt, be close behind.

My battalion--indeed, all three infantry battalions of the 53rd Infantry Brigade (Separate) are just recently returned from Iraq deployments. The soldiers of my entire battalion were just mobilized again on August 13th for operations in relief of Hurricane Charley. I finally released the company from state active duty on thursday, the 26th of August, to return to their homes, families, schooling, jobs, and civilian careers. That was less than a week ago. Behold Hurricane Francis.

We will respond. The soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry will put their civilian jobs, their educations, and their families aside once again, and move to the decisive point, just as soon as emergency officials can discern where that decisive point is. The men of 2nd and 3rd battalions, also recently returned from Iraq, and many of whom are late of Hurricane Charley operations, will do the same.

The hurricane will make landfall in Florida sometime late Friday or early Saturday. My unit will call in soldiers from all over South Florida to muster in the teeth of the storm. Some of them themselves will be leaving damaged homes, damaged businesses, and families in all manner of crisis--as will emergency workers throughout the state of Florida. As our emergency workers always have.

I cannot speak specifically for other units in the Florida guard, as I do not know their schedules or their specific situations. But a here's a word about the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 124th Infantry regiment: The 1-124, the "Hurricane" battalion, is nicknamed after the sports program of the University of Miami. The battalion is based in Miami, and has companies in Miami, Opa-Locka, Hollywood, West Palm Beach, and Cocoa.

Like all reserve component units, a sizeable number of its soldiers enlist, in part, for the excellent educational benefits the guard offers. It's a good deal. The kids get free tuition at state schools, and the Army gets to leverage the service of these terriffic, smart, upwardly mobile soldiers who are ambitious and intent on furthering their educations.

Their ability to think on their feet, their ability to absorb the intricacies of a foreign culture, and their ability to grasp the political endstate in Iraq and excercise restraint in the use of force where warranted saved lives and furthered US aims in Iraq. Their intellects, in short, were invaluable. And the fact that we had such troops available for service in Iraq is a direct function of their demographic.

We need to attract kids who want to go to college, and who GO to college, because their smart, college helps them get smarter, and smarts save lives on the battlefield.

Now, think back to September 11th, 2001. The fall semester had just started. But in the wake of the WTC attacks, most of the battalion was mobilized that month and early in October, and sent to provide security at south Florida airports. The mission went on for months, finally terminating in the spring of 2002. Our college students had put off their schooling for an entire year.

As a result of the change of mission, the battalion, having been scheduled for a JRTC rotation at Fort Polk Louisiana the following year, had to play catch-up in its training. Which required additional time in the field after the units were released from their airport security missions. A series of extra unit training assemblies on Friday nights pulled soldiers away from their jobs early.

HHC soldiers were frequently absent from their jobs all day on fridays before drill weekends. Because available training areas were generally located 5-7 hours' drive away, HHC convoys frequently did not return until sunday night, and sometimes didn't release until 10pm. These soldiers then showed up sleep deprived and worn out for their civilian jobs. I remember I was in danger of losing mine for a time, as a result. Some students had to put off their civilian schooling for the summer semester of 2002.

The unit returned to normal until the end of 2002, with the mobilization of 2nd and 3rd battalions immediately after Christmas. My battalion was mobilized on January 15th, and I was on my way to Ft. Stewart with the Advanced Party on the 17th, with the main body just a day behind, not to return for over 14 months.

So our college students put off their educations for spring semester 2003, summer semester 2003, and fall semester 2003. Although we had originally been slated to return to home station in December 2003, we recieved official word in September that we were being extended for a full year "boots on the ground." So much for spring semester 2004.

No one complained about deploying to Iraq. We understood it, and knew that was part of the deal. There was a lot of complaining about the extention, but the troops adjusted expectations and dealt with it like soldiers. Very disappointed and pissed off soldiers. But they executed like the pros they are.

No one complained about deploying for Hurricane Charley, either.
Our state needed us, we came, that's that. But our college students were antsy to get back to restart their academic careers, which they had now put off for two full years. After some intense juggling, and some heroic efforts on the part of Florida Power and Light to restore power to Charlotte County and Punta Gorda to enable the guard to stand down early, we were actually able to contract operations enough to release our college students early so they could attend school. Older soldiers and those who weren't enrolled, of course, picked up the slack.

Now Hurricane Francis is coming, and it's big. It could be huge.
Our original plan was to mobilize without the college students, and leave them be and allow them to finish school. But the more we learned about hurricane Francis, the more serious it's clear the storm is going to be. Sustained winds at the core are hitting 140 mph. Gusts will be higher. Hurricane force winds extend 80 miles to either side. Tropical storm winds extend another 100 miles. The storm's girth is simply massive. And it's closing on a much more densely populated area than Hurricane Charley hit. And it's going to wallop the state of Florida with a fist 360 miles wide. As Roy Scheider said to Robert Shaw, "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

And so, after much deliberation, and with heavy hearts, the decision was made to mobilize our college students. And cause them to miss yet another semester of school. All told, their academic careers will be set back by 2 1/2 years, as a result of their status as part-time soldiers. The decision to mobilize them was made above my pay grade, but it was the correct decision. We'll need every soldier.

So when you see my soldiers, and those of the 53rd Brigade on the streets next week, and possibly into next month and more, in Miami, in Palm Beach, in Melbourne, Vero, Daytona, or St. Augustine, or even inland, tell them thanks.

I got my degree years ago. And it's not like I have a real job: I'm a freelance writer and musician. I'm my own boss. My sacrifice is comparatively small. But my E-1s through E-5s, my 20-somethings, have been giving and giving and giving. And so have their families and employers. I try to tell them I appreciate it. But I'm also the one telling them they have to show up, that they have to give again. And again. They need to hear it from you.

Because they're enlistments expire soon. But our need for them, and soldiers like them, who can close with and kill a vicious enemy in Iraq, then turn around and man an ice distribution center in Florida, and all the time pursue a civilian career and hold down real jobs and contribute to our nations economy--and perform all three functions with professionalism, competence, and class--will never expire.
Splash, out
Jason"

[Misunderestimator]

60. So that you don't misunderstand me, I am not criticizing the Guard...

I'm criticizing the Governor and his (and those he oversaw's) planning. It is certainly not a guardsperson's fault if there are not enough of them to go around.

Just like the call to evacuate was a good one, but not opening up the southbound lanes was poor planning. Having a war in Iraq and draining our states of needed guardspeople is poor planning... Not having a method to muster enough of them to help in, for example, managing opening up an avenue for escape, was poor planning. It's hurricane season, there should always be a worst case scenario plan here.

I don't agree with the histrionic glorification of killing "a vicious enemy in Iraq" in your quote from Jason, but I do very much appreciate the dedication of our women and men in the National Guard.

[Blue Wally]

61. The Guard shouldn't be opening up an "avenue for escape"

The Guard should be on the scene to prevent looting and to provvide relief. All three infantry battalions in the Flordia Guard are home and on duty now. McNamara was the guy that reduced the Florida Guard from a division to a brigade back in the sixties.

The state police would handle changing I-95 to a one-way street, but chose not to do that. There was just as much reason for people to go south as to go north. The only evacuation route that has permanent plans for a one way operation is US-1 in Monroe County (the keys) which is the only county that will be totally evaced in case of a major storm. The rule is evacuate to the west, not to the north.

[Misunderestimator]

62. Then the state police should have, and the evacuation was N on I-95

despite whatever the rule is...

Back to the national guard... don't you have a problem with the fact that we have so few national guard even available because they are deployed in Iraq?

[Blue Wally]

72. As I said.......

1. All three infantry battalions in the Florida Guard are on duty here in Florida. They are not now in Iraq.

2. States should have a backup plan for when their guard is federalized. When I lived in Virginia, there was a "state guard" of overaged military. In WWII, the whole of the national guard was overseas and states had to rely on "state guard" type organizations.

[lanparty]

70. Talked to my father today...

He's a woodworker and we built our house.

He said if he lived in florida, there would be pre-built storm shutters bordering EVERY window. All you'd have to do is bolt them into place and you'd be done.

Given the frequency of hurricanes in Florida (multiple times YEARLY) I'm downright shocked that this isn't part of the building code. Be they metal or wood, one should be prepared with materials to secure your home and not go through a couple forests of plywood every time (3-4 times a year) a hurricane blows through.

[lanparty]

69. Maybe they could have ...

...chartered school buses in order to save fuel and brought all thsoe folks to designated locations on higher ground.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

45. The dirty little secret - the roads are not equipped to handle evacuations

They can't even handle rush hours. I-75 is like a parking lot every night from 4 pm to about 6pm. They just voted down the funds to have extra lanes built on I-75 and most of the other roads.

Floridians who have been here a while all know it's a joke to REALLY expect people to evacuate in any large numbers. If this storm would have kept up AND would have hit on the day that it was expected to - there would have been hundreds if not thousands dead.

[Misunderestimator]

48. Hear Hear.... exactly. And imagine I-95 on the other side yesterday.

[Misunderestimator]

47. Disaster Recovery Plans.... Ever heard of them?

That's what's wrong with this picture. Not that Jeb! made the decision to declare a state of emergency or to evacuate when he did, but HOW HE PLANNED TO EXECUTE THE EVACUATION.

At the risk of repeating myself from above :) The southbound lanes of I-95 were not opened up to northbound traffic when the evacuation was ordered. This should have been item A. on anyone's disaster recovery plan in the state of FLORIDA for god's sake. Now what about fuel? How can you evacuate 2.5 million people on two lanes of traffic on ONE highway and expect not to have a fuel shortage? That should have been item B.

My electricity is iffy right about now, so I'm cutting it short. Nightie-Night.

[i like pizza]

50. republicans are parasites that feed off disaster

[jdj]

52. whoa, this is crazy.

This hurricane was one of the weirdest I have every followed.

The path predicted now is NOTHING like the path predicted two days ago when it was cat 4. And no one expected it to plop down over Limbaugh like an extended stay on the toilet, or lose so much power.

This can't be construed to be Jeb's fault. People need to be grateful that this went the way it did, and not a cat 2 to 4 in 2 hrs like Charlie did, which is far and away a record.

I like it when Jeb gets air, because I just know all the hicks around me are going "Hey Gertrude, listen et this, that thar boy sounds like a damn yankee, him and president cowboy musta done bin seperated at birth or sumpin".

[AgadorSparticus]

59. if a democrat was in office, you can bet your bottom dollar the repukes

would come out and blast him/her. right or not, that's what they would do. repukes are opportunists without conscience. i'm going to sit back and chuckle at this one on jebbie. hee hee.

[laylah]

53. Does anyone know

what is happening on the Gulf side? Sarasota area, specifically?

Thanks in advance,

Jenn

[alcuno]

54. My parents are 50 miles north of Tampa on the coast.

The power went out this morning and has been out all day. It's windy with bouts of rain. I think Frances is only a tropical storm now. The weather is probably better further south in Sarasota.

[KoKo]

63. Selfish Repugs worried about Democrtic "Looters" and their Yachts being

trashed...

Typical Repug puke...Whining about "THEIR Property, THEIR Rights, THEIR Yachts, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Bet no one of Faux complained when Hurrican Charley decimated a "Mobile Home Park.." Nooooooooo....it's those folks who are "inconvenienced by "mother nature."

Think about what the Iraqi's go through when we bomb....Think about what folks in the Sudan are going through....

Most Floridians are glad they have their life...and that they were evacuated for what was a Monster Storm...The Bush's may control everything...but I don't think they've refined their powers (even with "contrails") enought to be able to control a Hurricane yet!