Hurricane Irma

[logicallefty]

This midwest redneck may get to experience his first hurricane. My mother has a condo in Southeast Florida. She sold it and my sister and I (the sister I actually like) brought her down to get her stuff. Found out once we got here that Irma could strike this area by this weekend. So now I have to load a condo into a Uhall and get outta dodge before it possibly hits. I'm not sure what to expect out of this. Mom says the panic won't start until 48 x hours prior to hit. People at Walmart last night didn't seem like they were too concerned...

 

[Deep Dish]

Hurricanes are boring. Florida gets severe thunderstorms which are more intense than a hurricane.

The first band of rain is the worst, spawning some tornadoes, but after that it’s just sitting around with no power. Danger cranks up again when the eye wall comes around but that’s luckily very rare.

 

[sazc]

I don't think Florida will flood like Houston just did. Are you going to board up the windows? If on the ground floor, sand bag around doors?

Other than that, pack up and leave. There is NO need to be in the area when it hits

 

[logicallefty]

Her place is on the 3rd floor. We only have one window to board up and the others are already protected by this metal screen do'hicky. Goal is to pack and get on the road by Wednesday night. Fun fun

 

[Bible_Belt]

The biggest doomsday scenario for the gulf side of Florida is a storm that is predicted to hit Mexico, but stalls and then makes an unanticipated northeast movement straight to Florida. There would be less than 48 hours of warning. If a big storm hits in the Tampa Bay area, it is possible for all of Pinellas County to go underwater. That's the Clearwater - St Pete area. There is no way to evacuate everyone, plus a lot of people there are old. A six-digit death toll is not out of the question. Nothing like that has happened in modern history, but that's just a few hundred years out of millions. We haven't been around nearly long enough to witness everything that Mother Nature can dish out.

 

[Bible_Belt]

The track right now is making Irma look a lot like 1992 and Hurricane Andrew. I have read that there are a lot of similarities between the two storms.

Andrew's cost was estimated at $25 billion. That's about $42 billion in today's dollars. I met a few people in Florida who lived through it. Some of them claimed that the state police and National Guard cordoned off destroyed neighborhoods and would not let the residents leave, under threat of being shot if they tried to get out.

 

[backseatjuan]

I used to live in Florida. Danger is after hurricane, power lines down yes. The biggest problem are nuts that fly past none working traffic lights. What you do after 2 or 3 days of sitting home? Hop into a car and go driving around, see what happened. It's problematic if there is no power and traffic lights are not working. I used to live in Aventura, and once you move past dixie highway there are lot of african americans there, or haitians, and cubans and puerto ricans, etc. That melting pot doesn't know how to drive for sh!t. I learned this skill in high school during summer school, and the stuff I learned is stupid simple. For example, if traffic light is not working, then the intersection works like a stop sign. For those idiots in situations like this none working light is always green. Retards from south america and carribian is the biggest danger after hurricane.

 

[logicallefty]

We are packing up now. U-Hall isn't secured until Wednesday but gonna try to get our hands on one tomorrow. I got my mom convinced that we need to exit stage North and get outta here ASAP. My mom is 71. She has driven in South Florida traffic 1000x more than I have, but today she actually got stressed out and had me drive. She was just overwhelmed with all of it. Then she said "I am Fvcking done with all of this. The condo. The hurricanes. The traffic. All of it. Let's get my condo packed and get our azzess back to Illinois". I'm ready!

 

[backseatjuan]

Gosh you're what we call a panicker. I lived in Florida since 1996 untill 2010, my mother and aunt still live there, and yes in condos on 2nd floor and 4th, both are near water. Wtf you think is gonna happen? Rain will come and go. They got shutters, they just put up the shutters and wait it out. You are risking right now. That WSVN news station is fvcking people over everytime with hurricane andrew thing. They need drama, and that's what they do, every 5 minutes you hear the same thing over and over, 24 hours a day. They get people excited, people buy things, local economy is booming.

I would just sit on my ass and enjoy the weather.

 

[Atom Smasher]

We're flying our mom up from Florida. She's getting up there in years and panicking about this one. We'll use the opportunity to get her used to the idea of moving back to the Northeast.

 

[speed dawg]

I hate to be negative but it appears this thing keeps shifting west which will put it in the gulf to magnify. Could be catastrophic if so. If I'm choosing, I'd rather it go up east of Florida, at least that way it doesn't level the oil refining infrastructure yet again.

 

[Billtx49]

Last report I read had it at a 5 already and current track was going into the Gulf along FlL west coast. If it does go into the Gulf it may make landfall as a 5, and I would personally Evacuate if it was expected to be anywhere near me. Actually, a 3 is enough to make me get outta Dodge.…

 

[Fatal Jay]

The creator of the universe is speaking.

 

[backseatjuan]

You got me all excitet and curious so I went to WSVN 7 and clicked live stream. You know what changed from back when I was there? Now it's more commerials, there is literally like 2 minutes of news, and then 10 minutes of commercial. Nothing new with hurricanes, you just got hyped through TV, after watching all those commercials, with Texas and Luisiana. Your GAY news has prepapred you to expect a certain thing. Listen to an old timer, nothing bad gonna happen, the storm will go low.

 

[Red Legg]

What's he saying? Seems kind of silly to send a hurricane through Florida, aka God's Waiting Room.

HAHA........ 90% of the residents of Florida are on God's doorstep...

 

[Dust 2 Dust]

My city just received a mandatory evacuation notice. Evacuate where? Get out in bumper to bumper traffic run out of gas on the Interstate and hope for the best? There is no gasoline anywhere. I'll hunker down in my own cement home with hurricane proof windows and take my chances.

 

[speed dawg]

Same thoughts and observations here. I'm not in the Level A mandatory evacuation zone but I'm going nowhere, even if gov't officials advise otherwise. I've lived here 20 years and I'm prepared to die here, in my own private residence. I've got solid shelter, food, water, and a few weapons (just in case).

Getting gas is unpredictable at best. No bottled water available anywhere. Not even possible to park at Home Depot. Forget about plywood, generators, batteries, etc.

I have a diesel engine so luckily keeping my tank full hasn't been too challenging. If the power stays out for a few days and I'm able, then I'll attempt the journey north, but just driving around could be dangerous and extremely challenging. There are only 2 main north-south Interstate highway systems in Florida and, given Irma's projected path and the the possibility of additional hurricanes, the freeways could be flooded with water and/or evacuees.

It's all about surviving this next week and possibly throughout the next months. I expect power outages and possibly water outages. I've got plenty of food but only enough water to last a few weeks.

To my fellow folks and SS'ers in Florida (especially Miami) I wish you the best. This one's gonna wreak havoc on Florida and in my opinion its economical effects will likely impact the entire country. A devisive government will be tested to the extreme and if I were North Korea or a Isis this is the absolute best time to attack the USA.

Hoping for the best and expecting the worst.


.

I have family in St. Petersburg and they are staying put. Worst case, they will head over to some friends of theirs that is 38' elevation. But getting in the car and getting on the interstate isn't an option, they never considered it.

 

[backseatjuan]

I like your tits ESPI

 

[logicallefty]

My mom, sister, and I are safely back in Illinois. We took the Florida Turnpike out of West Palm Beach up through Orlando then I-75, Atlanta, and Nashville. We waited an hour at one point for gas while the tanker was filling. Then when he was done the pumps were malfunctioning. We finally got gas an hour later but were under 1/4tank when we did. It's probably much worse of a situation now. All the way to Illinois even in my mom's neighborhood near Peoria there were Florida plates. Hotels were full even in Southern Illinois. The evacuation of a whole State is historical. @Atom Smasher I hope you get your mother to safety. @Espi, @speed dawg @Dust 2 Dust and other SSers in Florida and other areas I wish you guys well and hope you get safely out of it like I did.

 

[backseatjuan]

Funny thing - you could have stayed in West Palm Beach and be perfectly fine.