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Hurricane Frances

Today Hurricane Frances made landfall in florida. My friend Chris invited me to a hurricane party at his house but first I made a little detour to Jacksonville Beach to see how the storm was doing.

Hurricane Frances Pictures

Hurricane Frances Videos

As you can see from the pics and video, it was pretty windy out there. The winds were sustained at about 45 mph with gusts up to 60 mph. It was raining slightly, but in that kind of wind it comes in sideways and stings you. The rain wasn't so bad, but if I stood in the wrong place, the sand from the beach would be blown into my face making things pretty unpleasant. It was much more intense than my experience with Charley.

After getting sandblasted and having my picture taken by a photojournalist from The Florida Times-Union I headed over to Chris' house for some beer, burgers, and fun. Chris lives a few miles inland from the beach, and its amazing what a difference 10 miles will make. There were trees knocked down in his neighborhood, but the winds weren't nearly as bad as the beach.

A few hours later the power was knocked out and all of Chris' guests (except me) paniced and went home. With nothing else to do, Chris abandoned his wife and 3 kids to come with me back to the beach. When we got there the conditions had worsened a little bit. The rain was much heaver, and the wind was a little stronger. Chris' words were "I wish I could have brought my kids out here."

After messing around on the beach for a little while longer I took Chris back home and headed home myself. I still have power, but every once in a while the power will go out for about 20 seconds due to the trees outside my window hitting powerlines. Luckily I have my shiny new UPS, so all is well, and I can blog for you now :).