Hurricane Irma impact

[j.w]

I'm afraid for everyone down there
This is just too big of a storm and right after Harvey. Too much. Please be safe and don't take any chances w/your lives. Things you can replace but not your lives.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

It's still shifting west.
Putting areas thought to be relatively safe a few days ago, right into the storms path...With no supplies available. No fuel and evacuation unrealistic.
Us along the East coast prepared all week. The West coast is not as well prepared.
Remember when we had the "evacuate" speach?
The person that I work with that did evacuate went out west to Tampa to escape the storm.
Now he's screwed.

 

[teeemkay]

We got an update this morning from hubs' brother in Tampa... He had a lot of trouble boarding up his windows as his masonry drill bit has gone dull. And of course now that panic is setting in, the home improvement stores are jam-packed with people and it's a 4-hour wait to just walk in, so the simple task of buying a drill bit is nearly impossible. He eventually figured something out and got a few windows covered somehow in the bedrooms that only have 1 window, so those are going to be their safe zones.

 

[Tula]

My mom and sister, both have homes in Naples. Thankfully, neither is there right now ! My step daughter and her family left Palm Bay, FL, yesterday at 8 am. It took them 18 1/2 hours to make it to the Alabama border, where they pulled off for a few hours rest. They are now safely at their hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi .

 

[JBtheExplorer]

There's a guy on another site I visit that lives in Tampa and started preparing a few days ago even when it was still forecast to stay east. He's pretty glad at this point that he prepared, and last I heard he was still preparing.

He said that about 5 or 6 days ago, when all forecasts showed that it was going to take a sharp curve to the north, he knew that if it continued a little further than expected the storm was going to curve right up into that area. Looks like he was right.

 

[Tula]

Live cam of southern most point of US, in Key West. You can see the waves are getting strong.

 

[j.w]

@Tula will that cam stay live through the storm? Well as long as there is power anyways?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

My wife has an aunt in an assisted living facility in the Miami -Dade area.
Thankfully she is not very aware of her surroundings.
The residents and a few staff are staying.

Your wife's aunt should be fine at this point

 

[ZEROPILOT]

A good hammer drill, preferably a cordless one with several spare battery packs and some masonry bits and Tapcons make up part of every south Floridians hurricane season emergency kit.
That and spare panels for securing broken/missing windows during the storm on the inside.
This year I got lucky and wound up with extra thick plywood panels. I was able to share.
Normally I have panels in my garage that I use.
Normally we get a big T.S or a smaller cat one.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

These storms NEVER go where the are "supposed" to go.
Right untill the last 12 or so hours it's all a guess.

 

[j.w]

I've got that live cam on my desktop that @Tula posted along w/some others. Amazing watching them!

 

[Tula]

@Tula will that cam stay live through the storm? Well as long as there is power anyways?

I honestly don't know. My sister who has a place in Naples and a friend in Marco Island, sent it to me.

 

[j.w]

I honestly don't know. My sister who has a place in Naples and a friend in Marco Island, sent it to me.

Thanks and I am going to keep it up as long as I can. Thanks for posting. I can't believe some of the nuts who were sitting on that back ledge waiting for the big waves to come up over them. Now the waves are coming to the upper deck! Oh my gosh it is so powerful!

 

[JBtheExplorer]

These storms NEVER go where the are "supposed" to go.
Right untill the last 12 or so hours it's all a guess.

Honestly, it was a pretty spot-on forecast even nearly a week ago. Models showed it make that sharp turn north, meteorologists made clear it could go north on either side of Florida. Pretty impressive forecasting that far in advance.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Apparently the wind I reported is actually a spin-off tornado.
Not an actual storm band.
Tornados during a hurricane are also common. Unfortunately.