VERBATIM FULL TEXT OF ANDREW SURVIVOR........

[dixiebreeze]

THIS IS FROM AN ACQUAINTANCE FROM ANOTHER FORUM: http://WWW.FREEREPUBLIC.COM -- VERY PERTINENT:

"Wow, you guys are just full of good news. As a survivor of Hurricanne Andrew and six other storms in my lifetime, I can tell you that this thing scares me on many levels.
First the similarities to Andrew are truly frightening. The steering ridge of high pressure that sent Andrew almost due west for a very long distance was as big as the one currently sitting atop Isabel. The strength of the storms is similar. My gun club held it's match within a few days of Andrew.....our standard IDPA match is this week....just in time for me to re-zero.

IF it should hit South Florida, there will be NO help from the national guard as there was last time. I was an officer in the Florida guard last time. Without the guard, the "disaster zone" in South Dade would have been out of control and the death toll from all the ugly reasons that follow such disasters, would have been astronomical.

But this time....guess what? The Florida National Guard is on deployment to Iraq for extended duty. Nearly the entire brigade, as I just reminded a staffer for my local Congress-critter...who as I spoke, leaped for the phone!

Tons of folks who have never experienced any sort of a storm even a measly category 1 have moved into the coastal flood zones of this area (I'm in Miami-Dade...specifically Coral Gables) and they have no idea what such a storm is capable of doing in terms of sheer damage. Possibly the biggest damage that faces us (I had an article on this published after Andrew, one of my first paid writing jobs) is that folks who are out for a thrill or who live in an evacuation zone won't move or will wait too long to bolt and get caught (trapped) on the roads as the winds hit. If you're gonna move: Do so fast! Take no chances.

The islands won't slow it down very much unless it rolls across Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominica) whose 10,000+ foot mountains have ripped apart bigger storms. Following along after that are similar sized mountains in Cuba. Bust besides them, nothing (terrain wise) stands to make this storm lose it's clout."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[dixiebreeze]

btt