FLOSSIE WAS

A FIZZLE

As anticipated, hurricane Flossie got within 65 miles of South Point, on the Big Island, right at midnight. The northeast (energy) quadrant of the storm rammed into the 14,000 feet of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea and sheared right off of the eye of the storm, which quickly dissipated. It was only a CAT-1 at the time and within minutes it was a tropical storm. That same action turned the storm on a due west course. It had been moving west-northwest.

Meteorologists say that those "miniscule" mountains would have no effect on a hurricane and yet this is the second time I have seen it occur on radar.

It was very warm and extremely humid all night, and still is this morning. The air was so thick with water that ONE-NINE's a/c was causing the exterior of the windshield to fog up. Changed the control setting to "Floor/Defrost" and rolled down the windows. The only workable solution that I have been able to devise.

I had a spectacular shift! Left town 3 different times. Once to Ka'anapali. Once to Wailuku and then our "pay-day" airline kicked in, about 1a, with yet another canceled flight. Sadly, almost 80 people were unable to get accommodations and had to spend the night at the airport. Not knowing when they will be able to get off the island.

If you are planning on coming to Mau'i, please do NOT have U.S. AIR / AMERICA WEST as your departing flight. Their track record on Mau'i is atrocious. More cancellations than all the other airlines combined.

10 fares / 167 miles / 3rd quarter $200 bracket

Please enjoy the rest of your day and I hope to see you again tomorrow.

Mahalo

Aloha

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

North Kihei

On The Water
Kihei

Riding The Wind

Rolling EMERGENCY

South Kihei Road

South Kihei Road

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98793




"Let's all be careful out there!"

HURRICANE FLOSSIE - UPDATE

RADAR LOOP

Now a CAT-2 Hurricane

It may be just my imagination but it looks like the "eye" just did a bump to the north. 1626 hrs - 2007-08-14

Have to keep a watch to see if that is correct.



"Let's all be careful out there!"

HURRICANE FLOSSIE

WILL PASS BY TONIGHT
and Wednesday



All emergency preparations are "on-line". The County of Hawai'i government offices will not open for business today. The State Department of Education has closed all county public schools. The State of Hawai'i will close all their offices on the Big Island today.

Airline schedules have yet to be altered, pending any change in weather conditions. Most businesses on the island of Hawai'i will be closed. Long lines exist for gasoline and propane. Stores are running out of rice, water, flashlights and first-aid kits.

All the other counties are on "stand-by" since a northward shift of 1-degree in the storm's track would cause Flossie to impact the entire island chain.

Hilo side of the Big Island is anticipating winds in the 50mph range and surf in the 15-25 foot range. The hurricane force winds should not reach the islands as Flossie passes about 85 miles south of South Point on the Big Island, the most southern part of the United States. Currently the entire Island of Hawai'i is under a Tropical Storm Warning and a Hurricane Watch. No watches nor warnings for the other islands have been issued by the National Weather Service (NWS).

Currently Flossie has calmed a bit over cooler waters and now has sustained winds of 121mph with gusts to 150mph. That makes it a CAT-4 hurricane.



Two USAF 'Hurricane Hunter" WC-130 aircraft arrived in the islands yesterday and are flying into the storm every 6 hours to gather meteorological data.

To make matters worse for the Big Island, they had a 5.3 earthquake in the Kiluea region (where the volcano is erupting) that has caused some rock/land slides. My readers from California know that a 5.3 is just a "yawner" as far as earthquakes go. Wouldn't even disturb your morning latte in El Lay or Frisco. Different strokes for different folks.

Here are some links, if you are interested in following the storms progress today:

NWS - Flossie Products Page

NWS - radar for the State of Hawai'i

NWS - radar - South Point (Big Island). That large blue arc that you see is smoke/particulate matter from the Kiluea Volcano.

The Weather Underground page on Flossie. It has tracking maps, satellite images and more information than you'll ever need to know.

Glenn James' Hawaii Weather Today.

"Big Blue"



Should make for an interesting shift tonight.

***

Creative Time Wasting
and a lot of Scotch Brand tape

***

Everyone have a wonderful day and lets hook up tomorrow.

Mahalo

Aloha

---

THE PICTURE GALLERY

South Mau'i

Stormy Seas

Sugar Beach

Kihei Sunrise

Junction Of
Waipualani And Uluniu
Kihei

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"

POTPOURRI

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

• All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?
• It took five minutes for the TV warm up?
• Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?
• Nobody owned a purebred dog?
• When a quarter was a decent allowance?
• You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
• Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
• All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels?
• You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time?
• And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?
• Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?
• It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?
• They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . . and they did!
• When a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch "submarine races".
• People went steady?
• No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?
• Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a... ".
• Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?
• Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?

Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.
Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

How many of you can still remember:

• Nancy Drew
• The Hardy Boys
• Laurel and Hardy
• Howdy Doody and the Peanut Gallery,
• The Lone Ranger
• The Shadow Knows
• Nellie Bell
• Roy and Dale
• Trigger and Buttermilk.

As well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.

Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that"?

Remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and too young to care.

How many of these do you remember?

• Candy cigarettes
• Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside
• Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
• Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
• Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum
• Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
• Newsreels before the movie
• P.F. Fliers
• Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(RAymond 4-6015).
• Party lines
• Peashooters
• Howdy Doody
• 45 RPM records
• Green Stamps
• Hi-Fi's
• Metal ice cube trays with levers
• Mimeograph paper
• Beanie and Cecil
• Roller-skate keys
• Corkpop guns
• Drive ins
• Studebakers
• Washtub wringers
• The Fuller Brush Man
• Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
• Tinkertoys
• Erector Sets
• The Fort Apache Play Set
• Lincoln Logs
• 15 cent McDonald hamburgers
• 5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum
• Penny candy
• 25 cent a gallon gasoline
• Jiffy Pop popcorn

Do you remember a time when...

• Decisions were made by going: "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?
• Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?
• "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?
• Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?
• It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?
• The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?
• Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?
• A foot of snow was a dream come true?
• Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?
• "Ollie-ollie-oxen-free" made perfect sense?
• Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?
• The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?
• War was a card game?
• Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?
• Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?
• Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!!!!!

***

click for larger image

As hurricane Flossie draws closer it has really developed a punch. Sustained winds of 140mph and gusts to 175mph. The track has shifted slightly north and should now pass Mau'i about 250 miles to the south. It will begin passing over cooler waters today and should weaken a bit. Unless there is a drastic course change, we should just get some high waves and brisk winds. We might lose power, not an uncommon event in the islands. So if I go "off-line" in the middle of the week, you'll understand why and I'll be back as soon as the cable and power are restored. But that probably won't happen.

The "Worst Case Scenario" is if Flossie does what Iniki did 15 years ago, make a 90^o right hand turn and head due north. Every structure on Kaua'i was damaged in 1992 and it took almost 10 years to rebuild.

The last hurricane to hit Mau'i was in 1875.

Latest "Big Blue" image.

***
Maybe one of these will give you a laugh:








See y'all tomorrow!

Mahalo

Aloha

---

THE PICTURE GALLERY

Hawai'ian Sunrise

Expecting Surf Like This Soon

Windward Big Island

Windward O'ahu

***

"Let's all be careful out there!"