Hurricanes...

[terin]

So my area was the only US area with fatalaties during Hurricane Frances. We lost most of the power grid and internet access just came back online this afternoon.

Tree broke in half in our front yard and landed next to (but not ON!) my car...

Hurricane Ivan is expected to make landfall and move directly into our city on Monday.....

I hate hurricanes. I hate florida. Im so moving....

Meanwhile, if anyone is/has been/wishes to deal with me or my company please be patient while I catch up on the multitude of e-mail and deal with some pressing matters of current clients.

Sincerely,

[Bluecat]

Glad to hear that you and your car are ok!

Another forum I'm on has people who were hit by Charlie, evacuated for Frances, and now it looks like a third disaster is looming with Ivan.

Keep safe.

[Coyote]

Dude - take care of yourself and your family (and your car). Good luck mustering through Ivan - this has been one heck of a month for you guys.

[kerchen]

And I thought I had it bad last year when an ice storm knocked out my power for several days. Hopefully Ivan will be the last! Good luck.

[Andy]

Hi Joseph,

We got no any business with you yet but...

Just take care buddy!!!

[Chris Evans]

Yikes...I lived in South Carolina for many years and experienced quite a few hurricanes including Hurricane Hugo. So I know hurricanes are nothing nice.

However, never, ever, did I experience getting hit by 3 consecutive hurricanes in 1 month. I've been following the weather over there for the past several weeks and it's just unbelievable. I hope you guys are able to keep your spirits up. It seems each hurricane just keeps getting worse and worse.

Joe you should come out here to California/Washington/Oregon. :) Yes, it's expensive, and there's the threat of fires and earthquakes. But I still think you're less likely to be affected by natural disasters compared to the hurricanes in the east coast and the tornadoes in the midwest.

In the meantime, stay safe! Back up all your data and evacuate to a safe location. How far inland have you been evacuating?

[terin]

Actually, unrelated to the rapid increase in storms, we ARE planning to move.

Any reccomendations? We are planning the move 1 year from now and would like to move somewhere with a thriving game industry (In case I have to take a "real" job I would prefer it be in the field i have experience with).

Portland and Seattle are on my list, as well as Boston. Obviously San Jose is on my list also, though its so expensive to move there I don't know if I could do it without actually getting hired by Sony Online.

Any other ideas?

Oh yes, and im not sure anyone is familiar with this site, but it is AWESOME for tracking storms.

http://www.wunderground.com/

Check out http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200409_model.html to keep an eye on Ivan.

Currently they just shifted tracking to put it away from florida! Lets hope the tracking map stays that way.

[Sirrus]

Well Boston is a good alternative to California or Texas...

www.bostonpostmortem.org

Click on Boston companies...

We have Turbine, Atari (need a job? :)), Irrational, Stainless Steal, and many others.

Alex

[kerchen]

If you're thinking of relocating, Austin is certainly worth a look. There's a thriving game development community there and the city's great to boot. And, as natural disasters go, Austin's better than a lot of places (including California and Florida).

[Indiepath]

Auch... I have only *seen* hurricanes... and was watching television. It's hard to imagine what it is really like be there. Don't get those hurricanes here in Finland (altough it's chilling cold compared to Florida's temperatures...)

[terin]

Alex, I may just take you up on that offer!

(As much as I love working with indies, I kinda get tired of being poor now and then, lol!)

[Yuriy O]

If you live in a condo build brom brick/concrete. Is there a problem with hurricane? I heard that only trailer houses etc get hit...

Btw, It dont seem that hurricanes are always there. At least it's not each year, am I right?

I would like to move to Florida. Get some condo on a coast that's built to stand storms like that. Real estate goes up there.

[EpicBoy]

Like a tornado, the storm itself isn't the problem. It's the stuff it picks up and throws around that becomes the issue...

[Chris Evans]

If you live in a condo build brom brick/concrete. Is there a problem with hurricane? I heard that only trailer houses etc get hit...

Btw, It dont seem that hurricanes are always there. At least it's not each year, am I right?

I would like to move to Florida. Get some condo on a coast that's built to stand storms like that. Real estate goes up there.

Uh, that type of thinking is exactly why Florida always has the largest property loss (in cost) when a hurricane/tropical storm hits.

It's not the wind that destroys houses, it's the storm surge that destroys everything along the coast - including brick and concrete buildings. The storm surge causes the ocean water to rise almost 1-2 stories high. Condos, hotels, and any other buildings just get smashed to bits. The majority of the deaths from Hurricanes are by people drowning from the storm surge.

Then of course once Hurricanes move inland they tend to spawn dozens of tornadoes and flooding continues.

I'm not saying i'd never live in Florida. But I certainly wouldn't buy property along the coast. You're just a sitting duck for any hurricane that passes by.

[Pyabo]

I can highly recommend both Austin and Seattle having lived in both places. There are probably more game studios here in Seattle, but Austin certainly has its share. The cost of living will be slightly cheaper there as well. Real estate in particular (if you're going to buy) will be much more affordable.

How do you like your weather? Austin will have *HOT* summers with 3 or 4 months of really nice spring/autumn weather on either side. Whereas in Seattle it's more like 2-3 very nice summer months with 9 months of overcast and wetness.

Seattle game developers: Valve, Monolith, Microsoft, Surreal, Zombie, GameHouse... a couple others I'm sure.

[Yuriy O]

Uh, that type of thinking is exactly why Florida always has the largest property loss (in cost) when a hurricane/tropical storm hits.

It's not the wind that destroys houses, it's the storm surge that destroys everything along the coast - including brick and concrete buildings. The storm surge causes the ocean water to rise almost 1-2 stories high. Condos, hotels, and any other buildings just get smashed to bits. The majority of the deaths from Hurricanes are by people drowning from the storm surge.

Then of course once Hurricanes move inland they tend to spawn dozens of tornadoes and flooding continues.

I'm not saying i'd never live in Florida. But I certainly wouldn't buy property along the coast. You're just a sitting duck for any hurricane that passes by.

I did not see or hear about any damage to concrete condos along east coast of Florida... Am I wrong? Those tall condos with a sea view? They get smashed into pieces? Where I never heard about one. Please suggest some info/links etc.. Thanks

[Chris Evans]

This was axtually just posted today: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083302/

Tourism has ground to a complete halt in the Pensacola area where the main attraction—the area's beaches—have been made almost inaccessible by Ivan. Many of the roads leading to the beaches are covered by 10 feet of sand and won't be reopened for weeks. Many beachside condominiums and hotels were blown away by the hurricane and many of those that remain are lacking electricity, water and operational sewers.

[Bluecat]

And with Jeanne coming in, it doesn't look like it will improve any time soon.

I definitely feel sorry for those living in Florida and the island nations (shouldn't forget them) that have been pummeled by so many big storms recently.

[tolik]

You know, I'm living in the region where earthquakes do happen once-twice in a century and they are really not powefull. This week I had a chance to feel the wratg of one and this was quite a scary thing. It came from small russian place called Kaliningrad, this Russian region is between Poland, Lituania and Baltic Sea region. Kaliningrad had an earthquake which was 4-5 in the richter scale and their city had an evacuation. We are around 500km from there but we still felt it twice for couple of minutes - the building is shaking, the tables and monitors are jumping... I guess it was 1-2 in the richter scale, but still, this thing collapsed some buildings here.