Downloaded weather apps to my electronics in prep for vacation

[woodsprite]

We head down to FL mid-July and I'm really worried about the weather, especially since we'll be in a camper. This is one year I'd rather be staying close to home, but it's my FIL 80th birthday. They moved down to FL 3 yrs ago and now live south of Sarasota, right on the Gulf.

I mean, what do you do in a freakin' fifth wheel? I've downloaded the apps (Accuweather, NOAA Radar, Wunderground, and Hurricane Tracker). I figured to be safe we'd prepare a small 'bug-out' bag for each person and keep them in the truck (a change of clothes, water, a few energy bars, meds, etc.) and at each campground ask them about their local emergency shelter, plans, etc. That way if an emergency came up, we wouldn't even have to think about what we needed to grab before we left. We had 2 minorly scary weather bouts in Hatteras over the years, so we definitely respect the weather, but I can't think of anything else to do in order to be prepared.

BTW, hubby thinks I'm nuts about the bug-out bags, he thinks we could just hitch up and be on the road in a heartbeat. I'm of the opinion that the fifth wheel is insured. In an emergency, just leave it, and get wherever we need to be either on foot or in our pick-up. When we are actually down at my inlaws, their house is a good shelter (reinforced concrete walls, roof good to 150mph winds), but the extended family may end up doing each other in if we got stuck together like that

Have you ever run into any weather situations when you've been camping/rv'ing, etc., and what did you end up doing?

[TBF]

1. We just decided to stay in Texas for August

believe it or not (at least in the Hill Country we can float on intertubes in the river - lots of sunscreen!) ... because I was afraid of potential weather as well. With Christmas/New Years lining up on weekends this year we're hoping we can do a decent trip to Tampa/Miami at the end of Dec. without missing too much work.

I've never done RV/camping so I can't help on that. My husband is from Miami originally (and survived Hurricane Andrew) and as a result we bolt from Houston when the warnings come. He said it was not pleasant at all to be without power for weeks etc .... even though his parent's house held up really well with hurricane shutters. I guess driving to get away or hunkering down in a shelter (they shelter in the schools in Miami) would depend upon how fast the storm is coming in and how close you are to the shore.

Safe travels!

[cbayer]

2. while I understand your concern, I think you might be over reacting a tad.

While you can run into some surprising and strong thunder showers on the gulf coast, any real major event (hurricane) will give you days of notice.

Have a great time and don't worry!!

[woodsprite]

3. I'm most concerned about severe storms spawning tornado outbreaks

as we head south, and just wondered what people did when on the road to make sure they have a decent plan/someplace safe to ride threatening storm warnings out.

We were under some rotation a few years back that didn't cause trouble in Rodanthe, but caused a tornado in Currituck. That's the closest I ever want to come to one. In another storm, we were near a microsburst or straight-line winds that totally flattened a bunch of stuff at Chicamicomico Lifesaving Station, which was right next to our campground (about 3/4 mile up the road). Thankfully, other than REALLY rocking our trailer, nothing was damaged in our campground. We were VERY close to moving to our truck for the rest of night on that one since it had a lower profile than the tall fifth wheel. We've also had vacations cut short due to pre-hurricane windy conditions (Oregon Inlet and Bay Bridge Tunnel) and storm surge overwash.

We'd be sticking closer to home and doing a shorter vacation if it wasn't Dad's 80th. He was just diagnosed with Alzheimers. We opted not to go in with the rest of my BILs/SILs and all their kids in renting a house. We're taking the scenic route and going to be stopping in Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia (to see the aquarium) going down and in South Carolina (for beach/shelling), Williamsburg, VA, and Baltimore, MD (for the Otakon Convention) coming back home.

Gonna be a lot of driving, but we made sure we stop each night early enough for me to cook dinner and for the kids to hop in the campground pool or play a round of mini-golf.

[cbayer]

4. I love a good road trip and yours sounds just great.

Here is a good website with lots of information for RV'ers.

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/

Another fun link for quirky stops is here:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com

And one more for finding great local food:

http://www.roadfood.com/

I was in a really bad storm on Okracoke Island years ago. We were camping and had to pull up everything. Most in Rv's did leave as the storm started to build, but others stayed.

We made a road trip last year and went through the areas that had the worst tornadoes just a day or two after they hit. Our plan was always to take shelter under an overpass if we felt things had become unsafe on the road. Fortunately we never had to do that.

But I think the chances of running into that kind of extreme weather are not high and you would still get some warning.

Have a great trip!

[Major Nikon]

5. Last year I was camped in a tent when a big storm hit

I was at the airshow in Oshkosh, WI camped under the wing of my plane when a big storm hit in the middle of the night. My plane was tied down pretty well, but I've seen what storms can do to planes and it ain't pretty. Also there are literally tens of thousands of other planes of all shapes and sizes on the airport, also tied down. At first you worry about your tent blowing away, but then you realize that's the least of your concerns compared to being squashed like a bug by any one of several nearby 2,000-3,000 lb aircraft all full of aviation fuel (my plane alone holds 80 gals). Fortunately my tent was also staked down well, but many weren't so lucky. Here's one of my neighbors who had his tent collapse. Fortunately the worst damage was to the blue rooms.