This is US1 in Big Pine Key. There is a Marina called Keys Sea Center which these boats are from. This is 200 yards from my house. I'm not hopeful.

IDK if anyone else mentioned it yet (I'm not gonna go through 30 pages) but Snapchat is useful to properly understand the magnitude of damage in your area or what is coming. Snap map lets you see public post from people there opposed to watching every news outlet pushing worst case scenario.

It's a hurricane. It's not good. We've survived things like this in the past and will in the future.

Everyone needs to deal with Irma and keep watch on Jose. Panic never helps and that's just what Irma is doing.

Far NW Orlando/Apopka checking in almost 10pm

Getting a little more sporty. Lots of oak limbs been bouncing off the roof the past few hours. 50-60mph gusts. Have had to backwash the pool twice 8" each time and about to do it again soon. My yard is a mass of lettuce and oak limbs..

Amazing we still have power, though at times its like being in a strip joint as they flicker on and off..Quite a few shingles flying around earlier. Bit of a lull currently.

Tom Terry says its heading straight for us, staying inland. Good news for Tampa.

Worst of it is about 4-6 hours away. They're predicting 80-90 mph sustained here.

This guy is a Coast Guard vet who stayed on Sanibel to give updates. He was driving around an hour ago and is now stuck on Captiva. The surges just started, so that's not where I would want to be right now.

https://twitter.com/sanibelnik

East Orlando here. Lights flickered a few times earlier but I still have power. Just hoping the rain can die down enough to get the dogs out to pee. They haven't since this morning. I opened the door hoping they'd go out but they were having none of it.

a very rough measurement, but comparing the eye lat/long at 8pm to 11pm, suggests the track is mostly north but slightly to the west. A WAG would be 345 to 350 deg



NOAA 11 pm track

Winds are bad, rain has gone down somewhat.

Power flickered once.

Just lost power in downtown Orlando. Lots of wind and rain.

The wind is still blowing pretty hard in downtown Orlando. A friend who lives in baldwin Park said they still have power... I believe they are on the same grid as the VA hospital.

So the news warts keep calling this thing a record breaker. Maybe someone can enlighten on exactly what records this storm broke. I must've missed it.

quote:

So the news warts keep calling this thing a record breaker. Maybe someone can enlighten on exactly what records this storm broke. I must've missed it.

You were not paying attention. It broke a record for nonstop media coverage, and hyperbole. It also showed us how what used to be NEWS is now entertainment with high drama. Some of it was funny, like the looters caught on live TV cameras.
The local news channels and NHC website were helpful, the rest not so much.

quote:

You were not paying attention. It broke a record for nonstop media coverage, and hyperbole.

I believe it did set a record for the amount of time it sustained winds over 185 MPH.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
So the news warts keep calling this thing a record breaker. Maybe someone can enlighten on exactly what records this storm broke. I must've missed it.

The mayor of Miami referred to it as nuclear hurricane. He didn't say how many kilotons, though...

quote:

Originally posted by FlyingScot:
So yes, this looks to be a problem for Florida. Good news, everyone is taking it seriously. Bad news, going to the store, driving, trying to buy bread - good luck. Store shelves are emptying quickly and yo could not get me near a Home Depot.<<snip>>

Just an update to this from North Alabama a week later, and the crazies are still at it! ALL water has been stripped from the shelves from the local Wal-Mart stores here in the Madison area (suburb of Huntsville), the schools were closed down (it's Monday, and the remnants aren't even supposed to arrive until after midnight or early TUESDAY), 25-35mph wind gusts (big whoop), heavy rain (nothing we haven't seen before), and extremely LOW risk of tornadoes!

So why strip the shelves of water and close the schools TODAY? And you just KNOW they'll be closed tomorrow too because that's when the remnants of the eye of the storm will actually pass through! Geez people.... get a grip on yourselves and reality!

Twice as much energy as all the bombs used in WWII.

Longest as Cat 5.
Longest sustained wind speed above 185: 37 hours. Previous record was 24 hours.
There are others.

Most people evacuated in US history.

I'm glad the forecasts were wrong.

Media hype, needlessly scaring people.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Media hype, needlessly scaring people.

Absolutely!!!

Buddy of mine has been reporting via email regularly. He's a bit south of Daytona Beach and eight miles inland. Worst he's experienced is a couple several-seconds-long power outages and a small roof leak.

His home was built in 2010, I think he told me.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

So the news warts keep calling this thing a record breaker. Maybe someone can enlighten on exactly what records this storm broke. I must've missed it.

You were not paying attention. It broke a record for nonstop media coverage, and hyperbole. It also showed us how what used to be NEWS is now entertainment with high drama.

Boy, you've got that right

There's no question this was a storm of unprecedented magnitude at one point. But, by the time it hit landfall in Florida, while still nothing to be taken lightly, it was not the Irmageddon the entertainment-billed-as-"news" was hyping (hoping?) it to be.

These jokers still haven't figured out that the more they mislead in the names of advert revenue and advancing their favoured narrative the less they're believed. Amazing.

They got so exited on ABC Nightly "News," last night, that they completely forgot to say "Breaking news at this moment as we go on the air."