I share your panic... We are driving down on Sunday and are set to wed outside at the Yacht Club pavillion on Wednesday the 15th at 3:00.
I have become a veritable meterologist over the past week watching NOAA's forecasts & predictions about the weather. The last official forecast at 5:00 EDT shows Ivan passing to the west of Tampa on Tuesday morning. Even if it passes over Disney, they should have everything cleared away by Saturday. Now Tuesday?........That's a horse of a different color.
We spoke with our EM and she assures us that rain or shine, we will not leave Disney World unmarried. They may have to move ours indoors to accomodate the weather or reschedule for another day if the weather is too dangerous. (neither of these should be a problem for you on Saturday.) Luckily, it's just the two of us so we can afford to be a little more flexible if push comes to shove, But I understand your concern. We've planned on this wedding for a year and a half and now that it's down to the wire Florida gets hit with 2, possibly 3 major hurricanes; our officiant is in the hospital having back surgery and we had to secure another 1 week before the ceremony. We had even thought about postponing everything, but now it's more like a mission......a quest to get married. Come Hell or high water, (and I mean that figuratively.....please, please, no high water.) we are on our way, Ivan be damned.
I'm sure we'll all look back on this and laugh, but I fail to see the humor at this point.
For infor on Ivan updated every 4 hours, go to
www.noaa.gov to see discussions, forecasts and maps showing Ivan's projected path.
NOAA uses around 8 different statisical models to predict Ivan's path. To see where each of these different models puts Ivan over the next 5 days, go to
http://www.sfwmd.gov/org/omd/ops/weather/plots/storm_09.gif
After day 3, all of the models project a different path for Ivan due to the uncertainty of the steering currents in the gulf. So it's really too early to tell exactly where Ivan will go once it reaches Cuba. Maybe by Saturday evening or Sunday morning the forecasts will be a little more certain. Till then, all we can do is pray for all the poor souls in Florida who have already lost so much in the last two storms.
Good luck to y'all. We wish y'all the best of luck. If you're down there next week, stop by and say 'Hi'. Just look for the 6'4" guy with the Mickey wedding ears on.
<Script language='Javascript'>var rndNum = Math.floor(Math.random() * 10000);eval("var CDTDate" + rndNum + " = 'September 15, 2004 3:00:00 PM EST';");document.writeln("<form name='CDTform" + rndNum + "' action='Javascript:void(0);'>");document.writeln('<font size=2 color=darkblue>Countdown to potentially soggy wedded bliss.</font><br>');document.writeln("<input type=text value='' size=40 name='WrittenByJamesMVenglarikII'>");document.writeln("</form>");if (theFunction) theFunction += "var d = new Date();";else var theFunction = "var d = new Date();";theFunction += "var c = new Date('" + eval("CDTDate" + rndNum) + "');";theFunction += "var diff = (c - d)/1000;";theFunction += "var days = Math.floor(diff / 86400);";theFunction += "var rem = diff - (days * 86400);";theFunction += "var hours = Math.floor(rem / 3600);";theFunction += "rem = rem - (hours * 3600);";theFunction += "var minutes = Math.floor(rem / 60);";theFunction += "rem = rem - (minutes * 60);";theFunction += "var seconds = Math.floor(rem);";theFunction += "if ((days < 0) | (hours < 0) | (minutes < 0) | (seconds < 0)) ";theFunction += "var out = '';";theFunction += "else ";theFunction += "var out = ' ' + days + ' days ' + hours + ' hrs. ' + minutes + ' mins. ' + seconds + ' secs.';";theFunction += "document.forms.CDTform" + rndNum + ".elements.WrittenByJamesMVenglarikII.value = out;";setInterval(theFunction, 1000);</Script>
