Tropical Storm Debby

Wesley Chapel, Florida

We are still watching the spaghetti models and tracking this storm. 

This has been an unusual storm and the forecasters still aren’t exactly sure where it will end up.  The spaghetti models still vary widely.    The biggest change is that it’s now become a tropical storm, which means it’s strengthened.

Hurricanes are categorized by the wind speed.

It became a tropical storm yesterday, which means the winds are up to between 39 and 73 mph. 

A Cat One hurricane will have winds between 75-95 mph.

Our weather yesterday was fine.   It was cloudy, but we only got a few very light sprinkles, and no wind.

Last night all that changed and it started raining in the middle of the night.  I don’t think it’s going to quit for a few days.  Debby has arrived.

I wish we were out of Florida, but I fear we have lost our window of opportunity.  Yesterday, the storm track was too uncertain to know  where we should go.  Today, it may be too late unless we want to travel in a tropical storm.    Maybe we should.  I don’t know.

It’s raining fairly hard right not and the winds are finally starting to pick up a little.  Up until now, we haven’t had any wind.  

We are on the “bad” side of the storm, which is the right side.  No matter which way it turns, it looks like we will be on the right side.

I’m concerned, since we live in a box with holes in it (slides).   Blowing rain can cause more leaks than just a normal rain.  We have had an odd leak coming in from the top corner of the door.  We can’t figure out why, but it appears to be coming in around the rubber door gasket.  Al put some caulk in and around it yesterday, but we still have the leak.

He got up on the roof yesterday,  and checked all the seals and openings.   You may recall several months ago, he applied Eternabond to some of the openings in the roof.

Here are the before and after pictures of the skylight.

We will never have to worry about leaks around the skylight.  I wish we could say the same about all the openings on the roof.

Unfortunately, he never completed the project.  It’s hard work (for an old man) and he intended to finish up a few days later after his body recovered.

Well…..he still hasn’t finished.   He still has a few other places that need Eternabond.

We  learned from experience with the old coach that the Dicor sealant doesn’t last too long in the Florida weather.  The tiniest pin hole will bring water inside.  Our old motor home had fabric ceilings so any and every small leak showed up on the white fabric ceiling. 

This coach has vinyl ceilings, so you’d probably have to have a really bad leak before you would know.   We don’t want to wait that long, so up Al  went yesterday and re-caulked any areas where he  could see problems.   Hopefully we will be okay there,  and as soon as we can, we’ll be finishing up the Eternabond. 

So for now, we are okay.  I’m trying to stay calm, but I get extremely nervous during storms.  I am not one of those people who love to hear the rain falling on the roof!  

We picked up the remaining Dvd’s of  “24”.   That show certainly can take your mind off the weather!

We got some groceries yesterday, so we’ll eat well, but we just realized we’re getting low on kitty food. We may have to make a run to Petsmart.   Baxter would not be happy if we ran out of kitty food.   Fortunately there is a Petsmart very close by.