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Hurricane Irma

MJ DeMarco

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Lots of Fastlaners in Florida.

My thoughts and prayers you all get out of harms way.

This thing looks like a monster.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Damn, back up to a CAT 5.
 

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What a disaster the evacuation efforts have been. Reminds me of Rita here in Houston. It was one week after Katrina and everyone tried to leave at the same time.

Stay safe guys!
 
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MJ DeMarco

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MattR82

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Back to cat 5?! I know everyone knows how big it is but cat 5 is insane. Things are gonna get flattened. Don't know why they don't put a cat 6 category.

I used to work on an island that had a cat 5 and holds the record for the strongest wind recorded BEFORE the instrument was destroyed. Almost 400klms an hour I believe. Hopefully it loses power quickly.
 
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lewj24

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I moved to Tampa 3 months ago..... Me and my buddy are choosing to stick it out. It's going to be bad but we think its been over-hyped because of Harvey in Houston. But I'm just a Midwestern boy who has never seen a hurricane before so what do I know.

It's like an apocalypse down here.. all grocery stores are literally cleared out, empty shelves, cannot imagine how much money they have made, gas stations are out of gas, people evacuating... crazy stuff...
 

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I moved to Tampa 3 months ago..... Me and my buddy are choosing to stick it out. It's going to be bad but we think its been over-hyped because of Harvey in Houston. But I'm just a Midwestern boy who has never seen a hurricane before so what do I know.

It's like an apocalypse down here.. all grocery stores are literally cleared out, empty shelves, cannot imagine how much money they have made, gas stations are out of gas, people evacuating... crazy stuff...

You should be a little concerned. I hope you have food and water. Back in 2005, some Tampa residents (some of our friends) went weeks without electricity and we didn't have anywhere near as bad as a hurricane as this. Or a direct hit. My family was without power for 3 days and it sucked. 3 weeks would be miserable.

Some projections have Irma coming up Tampa Bay as a category 4. That could mean storm surge around 25 feet. Not sure where you live, but that means Evacuation Zone C would become a "mandatory" evacuation zone.

Ask anyone that was here during 2004-2005 about how much a minor hurricane or tropical storm can mess things up. Now multiply that by 10, add in some fear because of Harvey, and you'll see why people are freaking out.

Just mentioning the word Charley gives me flashbacks to childhood: hiding under a table in the center of my house with my family and pets thinking our house would collapse on us. Then the storm turns at the last second and devastates Port Charlotte.

At this point I'm probably gonna stick it out too because traffic is gonna be too bad and I don't want to get stuck on I-75 during this. But we also have a literal room full of food, two propane tanks, plenty of water, a boarded up house, sandbags, and a boat.

EDIT: Too hammer my point why people are freaking out. Here are some pictures from a severe thunderstorm we had in Tampa two years ago. I want to emphaszie, Irma on it's current path will be a kind of bad windstorm with not much flooding, but a worst case scenario (cat 4/5 up the bay + storm surge) can seriously wreck Tampa with flooding (South Tampa floods really really bad) and blown away homes:

tampa-flooding-by-todd-bates.jpg

8031445_g1.jpg
 
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Thinking of all the people in Florida and obsessing over this...

My sister's in a forced evacuation zone and lives right on the water (gulf-side). But is she evacuating? No, in spite of many people (me included) urging her to do so. (I've already annoyed her to no end.) And now, I'm not sure she could get out, even if she changes her mind. The way it looks, the highways are clogged almost to a stand-still, and most gas stations are closed. If the trend holds, those who try to leave now will be stranded on the highway, riding out a cat-5 hurricane in their freaking cars. I also have a niece (same sister's daughter) who's flying into Tampa within the next 12 hours (coming home from a vacation), but at least she's not planning on riding out a hurricane in a water-front house.

BTW, I learned something today: When you're in a forced evacuation zone, they don't actually force you to leave. Mostly, this means they will not come out to save you from your own stupidity in ignoring the evacuation orders.
 
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My brother had a flight from Cuba yesterday evening, havent heard from him in 12 hours! Hopefully he is alright.

He made it out and is in Amsterdam. Best of luck to everyone in Florida!
 

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It's kinda funny, my parent live in Port St Lucie, which was originally in the F*ck you zone. We had them come stay with us. Now Tampa is in the F*ck you zone. But there's no way we'd get anywhere if we left.

Our house is in the sweet spot. It's far enough west it looks like right now I'll be spared cat 4 winds, mostly get cat 1-2 winds. But we're far enough east that the storm surge won't flood us. But, I might have lakefront property Monday!

Stay safe everyone, try to check in on here after it passes. And if anyone needs anything, seriously, let me know.
 

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Well, I live just west of Orlando in a town called Clermont. Tried to rent a vehicle. . . .forget it. I-75 & I-95 is a mess, but no worries. Going to stay here and stick it out. Me and the family are staying in a resort instead of our house, besides, I think it'll be a category 2 storm by the time it reaches us. First hurricane for me. Signing out, see you all next week.
 

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I lived through Hurricane Alicia in 1983 in Pasedena, TX. This was before cell phones and internet. We had cable TV and radar. The storm knocked out the Galveston radar about midnight. Soon after we lost electricity. Land lines were dead. We sat ...in the dark... and listened to the storm rage for 7 hours straight. There are no other sounds. No communication.

We were in a third story apartment and had no idea of anything outside of our box. The wind was blowing the water through the seals around the window panes. The windows bent inward for the whole time. We were never sure if the 2 windows on the worst side would collapse and fill the apartment with flying glass or not. About 8 am the eye passed over us. My brother decided to run several blocks to check on his restaurant. He only had about 15 minutes before the eye wall would return. He made it back in about 25 minutes. Those 10 minutes... He dodged all kinds of debris and made it back safe. Alicia finally moved on about 2 pm. The roads were impassable, no clean water, electricity, or communication.

Everyone got out and began cleaning the roads. The water was nasty and murky. The smell of dead animals was everywhere. I cut my wrist pretty badly during the cleanup. Needed to go to the doc, get stitches, antibiotics, tetanus shot. No way to get medical help. The wound was filled with nasty stuff and was swelling. I had nothing to help myself. We finally found someone with a first aid kit and antibiotic ointments. We got it cleaned and closed the wound with tape and wrapped it. In times like that, a simple wound could cause serious problems.

Sitting in the dark and listening to the howl for hours was the hardest part of the actual hurricane for me. Total isolation in the darkness.

Alicia was about 110 mph.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMqcm1wYII


Irma is 150 mph.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpXCjdiCrLs


Good luck to those that choose to stay and to those that choose to leave.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Me and my buddy are choosing to stick it out.

I too tend not to overreact and believe MSM media hype. However if this graphic is true, I'd compel me to say "Uh, nope, I'm outta here!"

DJPM7kBXoAAjXCd.jpg


IRMA is slow moving, like 13 mph, the TIME OVER is what is scary. Hope u have shelter underground.
 
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I'm in Jensen beach, FL. There is no wind yet really but some rain. Got the house all boarded up and evacuated to the house next door. She's got 1,000 gallon underground tank of gas and a built in back up generator. (She didn't want to be alone). We've got plenty of water (about 32 gallons) and a whole closet full of food. I've got my axe sharpened in case I need to break through a wall. We've got flashlights to see in the dark and glow sticks to entertain the baby. And first aid supplies just in case. All the stores are boarded up and closed. The community is all helping each other. A lot of people have left the state. Our other neighbors said we can hop in their boat with them if need be but we aren't in a surge zone so hopefully that won't be an issue. Local news says it's only a cat 3 right now and we think CNN is blowing things out of proportion because of Harvey.
 

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I too tend not to overreact and believe MSM media hype. However if this graphic is true, I'd compel me to say "Uh, nope, I'm outta here!"

DJPM7kBXoAAjXCd.jpg


IRMA is slow moving, like 13 mph, the TIME OVER is what is scary. Hope u have shelter underground.
Local news says that winds will top out at 110 mph
 

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Speaking as an engineer, get out if you can. Force is proportional to velocity squared ...... so (180x180) / (100x100) = 3.24 times as much wind force at 180 mph as 100 mph.

Protect the windows and doors. If a few windows are blown out on one side of a home, the wind load on the building nearly doubles. It basically becomes a parachute.

Non windowed interior hallways on the lowest floor. Mattresses on top of you in the bathtub.

This is not a joke.
 
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I live in northern vietnam at the moment, watch zero tv, don't have twitter and no longer follow any news on facebook. It's STILL the main thing I'm seeing.. can only imagine the hysteria they would be running over there.

If it's downgraded to cat 3 that is great news. Well.. you know what I mean. Fingers crossed that's the truth.
 

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I'm spending some time on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic, and Irma came through on Thursday.
While the news headlines were all "Irma Pummels D.R" .. "Irma lambasts D.R" and such, it was nothing really serious.

A few trees here and there, a few tin roofs off and a little flooding.

I only look at what the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has to say.

The unfortunate reality is hurricanes and storms are a cash cow for news networks, so they sensationalize it as usual.

Some islands like Barbuda got hit pretty bad.
We'll see what happens in Florida. My guess it won't be too catastrophic, but better safe than sorry.
 

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IMG_7550.JPG

This just got posted by the local news.

This'll be fun.
 
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Scot

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I'm spending some time on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic, and Irma came through on Thursday.
While the news headlines were all "Irma Pummels D.R" .. "Irma lambasts D.R" and such, it was nothing really serious.

A few trees here and there, a few tin roofs off and a little flooding.

I only look at what the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has to say.

The unfortunate reality is hurricanes and storms are a cash cow for news networks, so they sensationalize it as usual.

Some islands like Barbuda got hit pretty bad.
We'll see what happens in Florida. My guess it won't be too catastrophic, but better safe than sorry.


Are you from a hurricane affected place? I was young but I remember Andrew. The whole city of Homestead was leveled.

I had Frances and Jean make landfall on my hometown in 04. I watched peoples houses get destroyed and they were Cat 3.

Trust me, it's not being sensationalized. The local stations are busting their asses to give up updated info.

As a Floridian, I never get worried about hurricanes. But when you see Florida natives get worried, you know it's time to panic.
 
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Lots of Fastlaners in Florida.

My thoughts and prayers you all get out of harms way.

This thing looks like a monster.

Thank you MJ!

So far I am staying in my Orlando home because earlier it looked pretty bad for Boca Raton. Now I probably should have stayed there. However, safe and sound and family is as well. Going to enjoy one last good day at Disney and then wait it out. We appreciate all the prayers and thoughts from everyone and likewise I do hope all the fellow Floridians are safe.

I might have moved to Pismo Beach 6 months ago, but my heart and love is in Florida. Enough to come back and help my friends and family.

Just remember this storm is impacting a lot of people in a very negative way. If you have the means please do offer support and help. One thing that I would like say is if you a spare $20 dollars, please put it to good use in some sort of Hurricane Relief. If you only have $1 dollar, it could be the bit that makes a difference for a family, please help. If you have nothing, then we will take prayers and well wishes too. Everything helps.
 

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