I fear...

[LAwxrgal]

...that if Frances were to make landfall as a shadow of her former self (120 mph or less) then people who evacuated would become complacent the next time a big hurricane were to threaten.

My advice: Don't.

Even though Frances has weakened, do not let your guard down. These storms are still dangerous. Heck look what Gaston did to Richmond as a tropical storm. Torrential rain, even killed seven people.

My point is these storms, even in a weakened state, are still plenty dangerous and can cost people their lives.

[quickychick]

Agree with your post, LAwxrgal, Frances has the potential to undo the wake-up call Charley gave everybody.

[charleston_hugo_veteran]

I can not tell you how many times we have had false alarms and because of that the people here when a hurricane is near go about there business as usual, unfortunately!

[Dean4Storms]

I'm not convinced that Frances won't re-intensify rather rapidly once she gets in the Gulf Stream.

[spaceisland]

Who needs it to intensify to be dangerous (I am agreeing with you folks), 120 mph with 40 hours of torrential rain is a nightmare.

[Lebowsky]

I don't care too much about how it effects peoples attitudes towards hurricane, I just don't want my family to lose everything they have.

Yesterday it looked like everything they owned would be destroyed, today it looks like that might not happen, and I'm grateful for that.

[countbob]

Talking about Gaston, according to this morning's Richmond Times-Dispatch, the estimated dollar amount of damage is twice that of Isabel and the death toll is eight. We were totally caught by surprise. Gaston behaved in ways that were unexpected and carried out a worse case senario. Heavy rain on top of heavy rain. The losses here are staggering.

Although the Frances situation is very different than Gaston, do not let down your guard!

- cb

[canegrl04]

Allison never became a hurricane in 2001 and she caused millions of dollars in damage and loss of life from Houston,on up along the east coast.