quote:

Originally posted by Gascan:
St Petersburg, checking in! First hurricane for me. Please keep me in your prayers.

Check the SLOSH model for where you live. Much of St Pete will go under water in the right conditions. Take evacuation orders seriously.

We are fortunate to live on the same power grid as the hospital just down the road and all the utilities are all underground in our area. During Wilma we only lost power for about 10 hours while unfortunately there were others in neighborhoods in other areas of Broward and Miami-Dade that were out for several weeks. We didn't lose anything in the inside fridge or the freezer we keep in the garage either. Just set them cold, pack the fridge with drinks, keep some extra ice in them and open them sparingly, and they will likely keep for two or three days easy.

I've considered getting a generator but unless it is a whole house unit there is only so much a generator will do for you that battery power won't. There's more than one use for computer UPS backup power supplies, especially the larger ones. Not to mention when looking at various models they are not particularly fuel efficient either(about 8 gallons per 10 to 12 hours run time at half load). So unless you have a significant stockpile of gas to power it, or the power goes out for more than a couple days, they really aren't worth it IMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
We are on the gulf coast in Naples. Our evacuation plan was to go to Orlando, but it looks like that may not be good enough. Considering maybe heading into Georgia. Possibly all the way up to Atlanta.

I just picked my 82 year old widowed mother up at the St. Louis airport after convincing her last night that she didn't need to be in Naples by herself. I forgot to tell her to cut the screens out of her pool enclosure before she left so I may have to call a neighbor to do it.

Be careful everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by deepocean:

quote:

Originally posted by smithnsig:

I am a builder in Florida and the weak point is not the walls, but the roof. Even in concrete residential construction the roof is still wood.
Nothing wrong with properly built sticks.

I suspect there are not many commercial or residential structures that will do well being hit with 225 mph gusts filled with debris.

There won't be 225 mph gusts inland. Coastal beach construction zones are a different animal.
There is a calculator of wind zones that is based on the fetch of open water or field that your house will be exposed to. These exposure categories, along with what wind zone you are in determines what level of windload needed.

All construction in Florida has to be certified by a professional engineer. They are designed custom fit to their wind zone, and exposure zone.
There is no rural construction in Florida that can be built outside of these parameters.

quote:

Originally posted by Lab-Kid:

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
We are on the gulf coast in Naples. Our evacuation plan was to go to Orlando, but it looks like that may not be good enough. Considering maybe heading into Georgia. Possibly all the way up to Atlanta.

I just picked my 82 year old widowed mother up at the St. Louis airport after convincing her last night that she didn't need to be in Naples by herself. I forgot to tell her to cut the screens out of her pool enclosure before she left so I may have to call a neighbor to do it.

Be careful everyone.

From experience, it won't help.

quote:

Originally posted by smithnsig:

quote:

Originally posted by Lab-Kid:

quote:

Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
We are on the gulf coast in Naples. Our evacuation plan was to go to Orlando, but it looks like that may not be good enough. Considering maybe heading into Georgia. Possibly all the way up to Atlanta.

I just picked my 82 year old widowed mother up at the St. Louis airport after convincing her last night that she didn't need to be in Naples by herself. I forgot to tell her to cut the screens out of her pool enclosure before she left so I may have to call a neighbor to do it.

Be careful everyone.

From experience, it won't help.

Direct experience from the last Cat 3 that hit Naples proved otherwise. Nearly every other cage in the neighborhood had to be rebuilt. All the other neighbors asked, "why didn't you tell us to do that"? Screen is cheap, framing isn't.

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:

quote:

Originally posted by Gascan:
St Petersburg, checking in! First hurricane for me. Please keep me in your prayers.

Check the SLOSH model for where you live. Much of St Pete will go under water in the right conditions. Take evacuation orders seriously.

There are some places in Pinellas that are non-evac zones- we live in one. But if you live in an evac zone, DO IT.

When this thread was started, I think Irma was 115. No way did I think we'd see 185.

This morning my first call at 6:00 was to my parents. They were adjusting to the strong reality that it was likely to go the keys and at 185, they'd lose it all. My mom was crying but we got her settled. I've been busting my butt helping neighbors and wrapping up my stuff. They are packing for the long term coming here, sobering when you have a chance that home may not be there.

Stuff can be rebuilt, bought, or forgotten. Not people and family. They will be here tomorrow. But at 185...my house will stand (concrete) but windows and doors are a question. My garage is strong - +62psf -72psf corresponding to roughly 170 straight on. 185 all bets are off.

Hope this f*cker goes somewhere else, and even better hooks out to sea.

In case some of you do not know. DO NOT TAPE THE WINDOWS. It does not strengthen them, they still shatter if hit by a large object. Getting the residue off later is pretty labor intensive. I learned that the hard way. I do not know that cutting out the screens makes much of a difference in my experience. Insurance will cover that cost and the labor is not worth it. It is also a pain to replace all of the screen if the storm is not intense. Do put the pool furniture in the pool and drop the level some. Hope this helps.

We have a previously scheduled vacation in New Orleans. We fly out Thuresday and come back Tuesday. The wife and I have been going back and forth about canceling or goung at this point we just about have the house closed up with the shutters installed. Our house was built in 2010. My dad and 26 year old step sin are going to man the fort and keep the animals company. I have been saving gallon water jugs and water bottles. They are all full. I have a couple of 7 gallon jugs of RO water made for the fish tank. I have the cordless drill and sawsall ready. As one of the latest houses in the area, it's built up to about 5 feet off of street level. I may put my Mustang up on Jackstands in the garage to get it higher, as I put jacking rails on it so it will be easy. I have plenty of food, a camp stove, lanterns and a generator. I installed a transfer box and a receptical out back for the generator to plug in. I'll have power to the fridge, microwave and master bedroom. I also picked up a 1200 BTU window unit for the bedroom if it comes to it. I don't know what else to do to get ready beyond this point. I filled up every vehicle and empty cans days ago.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

Declaring State of Emergency facilitates the release of specific federal funds and puts other mechanisms in motion to deal with the impact of the storm, such as utilities companies in near states pre-positioning and allocating resources that will be needed as soon as possible after the storm passes.

It is exploiting the protocols in a manner that makes recovery and restoration of essential services much quicker.

Or, we could wait until the storm has made landfall and moved out of the area and then try to have resources and responders "dig in" the the affected areas, when there is no power, impassable roads and damaged infrastructure as well as a pile of people scrambling to make do.

Why people are so negative about everything under the sun perplexes me more and more.

And I am pretty much always on the expectation that the worst is to come form any and all quarters, but damn, some folks just can't wait to piss and moan about anything that comes along.

I understand what the purpose of the declaration is. We are days away from knowing with good certainty where this storm is going and there will be a few days after that to prepare. Declaring a state of emergency that early does not make anything easier, better, simpler, etc. The only thing it does is create chaos for 27 million people. No need to wait until landfall, a couple days out when there is a better understanding where land fall will be likely.

I'm not saying people shouldn't be prepared or get prepared now, but panic never makes any situation better. I glad I don't have to participate in it. I've been prepared for months now.

quote:

Originally posted by nukeandpave:


Come on up. We could use the money.

You say that now, but wait until the roads are inundated with us and your daily commutes take three times longer. I'm saying this tongue in cheek of course. We actually just got back from Michigan a few weeks ago. My wife already spent plenty in Traverse City and Petosky. We left early in the morning, her idea, but it also meant we could drive past the Birch Run outlets and Frankenmuth since nothing was open yet.

Declaring a state of emergency and evacuation, allows schools to close early, people to leave their jobs Wednesday night and ease the flow of people traveling North over a few more days.....rather than most people waiting till Friday night when the kids are out of school and they're out of work.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
Category 5 with 175 mph winds now !!!!

Category 6!

As long as it doesn't go to 11...

Was watching WSVN 7 here in South Florida and at the 8:00am advisory they are still claiming 185mph winds but yet the realtime broadcast showing the hurricane hunter aircraft readings registered a high of 163mph for surface winds. Still a Cat 5 but not quite as dramatic as keeping the wind listed at 185mph for at least another few hours or half a day.

If you look at the actual radar image they were showing it looks like the trough / jetstream they are talking about that will determine when it turns is already crossing upper central Florida moving South East and most of the computer models showing a turn sooner off the Florida east coast but they are still drawing their own line right up the middle of bottom of the state. Given the speed at which the trough / front is moving, this seems like it will turn sooner rather than later from the images they are showing.

This will be tough on the people it hits no doubt. But, it will not be what it is built up to be. High drama for the media for ratings.

I'm not saying it won't be bad, but geez.
Ivan was a 175 mph cat 5 until it wasn't.

A Miami direct hit is probably a worst case scenario for population affected*intensity.
If it skates up the coast, more people will be affected, but less intensity as it will be the west sideof the storm.

On second thought, a Tampa hit with the waster eye wall oiled probably be worst.

Have you guys been listening to Limbaugh's comments about this storm? I agree that the news media is doing their usual disgusting job of fomenting fear, but Mr. Limbaugh may very shortly regret his comments about this event.

quote:

Originally posted by CaptainMike:

I think you'll be fine. My best guess at earliest arrival of winds would be Saturday. That said, American is more likely to strand you than Delta, as most of their planes into Melbourne cycle through Miami vs Atlanta. My house is 30 minutes south of the Melbourne airport, so on the off chance you get stranded you can crash on my couch. Wife and kids are home, I'm offshore standing by to evacuate offshore facilities should that be necessary if things go badly in the Gulf. My house is about as prepped as anyone can be.

Thank you for the very generous offer CaptainMike, we decided to reschedule the trip for a later date. In all likelihood I would have made it back out in time but I don't trust the airlines not to screw me over and leave me stranded for the duration.

All it takes is one flight delay that leads to a cancelation and next thing I know I'm stuck in highway gridlock with 20k other people wondering how far I will make it before my rental car runs out of gas. I'll just play it safe this time and not put myself in that situation if at all possible.

Hope all of our Florida members stay safe.

I didn't catch Limbaugh's exact comments on the air but have been reading about some of them. While there may very well be some ulterior motives to some wanting to exaggerate storm strength and other details, he definitely needs to dial it down a bit.

https://www.theguardian.com/wo...nds-category-5-storm

One of the better sites I've seen for current info.

pretty neat graphical weather representations here: https://www.ventusky.com/

you can show temp, precip, wind speed, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Dtech:
Was watching WSVN 7 here in South Florida and at the 8:00am advisory they are still claiming 185mph winds but yet the realtime broadcast showing the hurricane hunter aircraft readings registered a high of 163mph for surface winds.

My wife, talking to a friend of hers, said the Governor of St. Maarten said the four strongest buildings on the island have been destroyed. (This is a FOAF claim, so I have no assurances as to its veracity. However the link chongo posted tends to back it up.)

I did find this, from First footage from eye of Hurricane Irma shows devastation on Sint Maarten:

quote:

Once the eye of the hurricane passes over Sint Maarten, the island will again face winds up to 295 kilometers per hour.

That is a bit over 184 MPH.

I just looked. The cone of Irma's track now appears to be centered on Florida and headed right up the middle. It also appears to be becoming increasingly likely she'll retain her category 5 strength when she arrives.

I'm not trying to be an alarmist, but I would not be underestimating the potential of this storm. I know they often get it wrong. And we all know the dominant entertainment-billed-as-"news" media just loves to blow anything and everything way out of proportion. That's entertainment, after all. But this is not looking particularly promising.