Hurricane Irma

[MJ DeMarco]

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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[Scot]

Just wanted to check in and let everyone know everyone in my home is safe and sound.

Hurricane thankfully broke apart in the Keys and was only a Cat 1 going up the middle of the state.

Looks like the Keys, Miami, and southwest Florida coast got the worst of it.

 

[Vigilante]

We are fine. We evacuated to New Orleans. Minimal damage in our area. We will head back soon.

 

[ChickenHawk]

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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[Fox]

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!

 

[jon.a]

Note to the young guys: You are NOT F*cking invincible, please be careful.

 

[Vigilante]

Lessons from Hurricane Irma on natural disasters and how they apply to life :

1. Mob mentality kicks in during natural disasters. Tampa looked like War of the Worlds, and necessities became scarce days in advance

2. People are looking for peace in the midst of the storm. A calm methodical opinion, a helping hand, free shit. You be the one giving it to them instead on the one taking it.

3. People are looking for a plan. Give them one.

4. The people that were the best prepared were the people that were prepared when there was nothing to prepare for.

5. There's no room for opportunists in the midst of crisis

6. There is no black/white, atheist/Christian, yankee/redneck in a crisis. We're all just people. Eventually, this unity will yield back to partisanship and divide. But for today, it's the world I wish we could keep.

7. The better prepared you are on the front side, the more prepared you are on the back side to help your fellow man when the storm passes

8. Life can be found in how you respond to adversity, and how you can positively impact people's lives in their darkest hours

9. Stuff doesn't go back to normal right after the storm passes. People still have no power, the grocery stores are still closed, and the gas stations still have no gas.

10. Cash is king, especially when there is no power.

11. Faith, friends and family are all that matters when faced with the loss of all else.

12. Physical possessions can all go away. I was sitting with a guy that was told to not come home because there was no home to come home to. Let shit go. It's just stuff.

13. You will take for granted other people's "storms" until and unless you have been through the "storm" yourself. This applies to hurricanes, but moreso it applies to life.

14. The sun comes up again the day after for anyone who was able to ride it out. Wait for the sun to come up again.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Really? Lol.
O/T: Health - Ebola in the USA... Anyone Concerned?

Sorry, but I don't trust anything the corporate media tells me. So yes, I will overreact, or underreact dependent on what their pre-approved narrative is. Can an armchair entrepreneur like you understand that? Probably not, you're too busy critiquing everyone from your Lazy-Boy. LOL back at ya.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Looks like a lot of the islands in the Caribbean took the brunt of the damage. Rebuilding infrastructure and property on an island is tough -- you can't just roll down to the Home Depot and buy stuff. Everything has to come in by plane or boat, so rebuilding takes extra long.

Hope these islands get some help from the mainlands and aren't forgotten about once the dust settles.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Really? Lol.
O/T: Health - Ebola in the USA... Anyone Concerned?

The Normalcy Bias, or normality bias, is a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster and its possible effects, because it causes people to have a bias to believe that things will always function the way things normally function.

According to the normalcy bias, because Ebola in the USA, like most pandemics, amounted to very little, those who took measured precautions or monitored the situation "overreacted." Surely, this will always be the case. No pandemic will ever impact the USA, and anyone who takes simple precautions is a fool. This is why no one ever buys fire insurance for their homes or car insurance for their vehicles.

This is also why my sister isn't evacuating.

In her mind, she's been through this before, and it was no biggie. When her kids were in gradeschool, a hurricane was bearing down on them. Last-minute, she and my brother went to the store for plywood. They were out. So they spent their plywood money on beer and had a wonderful time, especially because the hurricane missed them. They had a good chuckle over that one. And then, a few years after that, she rode out a category-two hurricane. And it was fine.

So it will always be fine. Yesterday, I was urging her to leave. She said, "You DO know it's still sunny out, right? *snicker, snicker*." I said, "Yes, which means it's the perfect time to leave. You don't want to wait until the roads are flooded." She said, "Oh, we know which roads flood. If it comes to that, we'll be fine. We have a big truck. Stop worrying!"

Do I believe my sister will die in this hurricane? No. In truth, the odds are decent that she'll survive in her own home (or leave for a friend's house last-minute) and have a great story to tell someday. But why risk it? Why not take simple steps to protect yourself while you can?

But she isn't. Because of normalcy bias. It's always been fine, so this time will be fine, too. It's a great plan if the pattern holds. But every once in a while, the pattern breaks, and those who were snickering at "worry-warts" who "overreacted" get washed away or get to enjoy a nice, unique death by explosive anal bleeding. Why play the odds if precautions are relatively cheap and easy to come by?

(EDIT: I should add that my sister is in an "A" evacuation zone. This is the most-severe level. But hey, she'll be fine, because she has a truck.)

 

[Duane]

We are good as well, but the fence and lemon tree in my backyard did not make it .

Haven't had power for well over 12 hours, hopefully it gets turned back on soon lol.

Here's a pic of my street atm.

 

[Scot]

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.

 

[Scot]

http://www.tbrpc.org/tampabaycatplan/pdf/Project_Phoenix_Scenario_Info.pdf

Tampa is uniquely unprepared for this storm, as currently modeled. All indications are that it's rapidly intensifying. Should the current model consensus be accurate, Tampa could be under a worst-case storm surge senario.

Tampa is really unprepared. The whole past week we were planning for some flooding from rain but not a direct hit. Now we're looking at 10-20ft storm surge and a direct hit.

South Tampa, St Petersburg, and Pasco County will be under water come Monday. It'll look just like Houston.

But the wind damage, that remains to be seen how bad it is.

I can tell you my house.. I'm 50/50. We moved in 4 months ago and didn't get the chance to install storm proof windows or shutters. That's my biggest concern.

Can't help but wonder which oil behemoth is paying CNN to hyperbolize the conditions... spurring gasoline and plastic bottle consumption.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seriously dude?

It's not some conspiracy. We've watched Houston get destroyed and flooded and now we're watching the STRONGEST HURRICANE RECORDED head towards Florida after watching it destroy several carribean islands.

We know we're going to lose power. When you lose power you lose water. People also evacuated. 1/3 of the state has evacuated. That takes fuel.

No conspiracy. Natural disaster.

 

[Fox]

My brother had a flight from Cuba yesterday evening, havent heard from him in 12 hours! Hopefully he is alright.

 

[ZCP]

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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[ChickenHawk]

My sister is in middle of it. I try to look at things from her perspective. They are going to try and ride it out.

I can see this. A lot of it, I think, depends on the risk by location. Like, if you're on the water and in an area prone to storm-surges, you're foolish to stay. If, however, you have a sturdy home inland, your odds of riding it out safely are much better. At this point, there's a risk no matter what you do.

Speaking of which, I'm happy to report that my sister is, at last, planning to evacuate. She's going inland to an area that's not in an evacuation zone. (Thank goodness!) I just hope she makes it in time.

 

[amp0193]

The Normalcy Bias, or normality bias, is a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster and its possible effects, because it causes people to have a bias to believe that things will always function the way things normally function.

This Houston guy's neighbors probably thought he was overreacting when he put a makeshift dam around his house. (from 2016 floods)

 

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[ddzc]

Thank goodness it's calming down, I believe it's now a CAT 1. I heard it's over Orlanda and Tampa this morning, hopefully @Vigilante and everyone is in the area is safe and power is restored asap.

On a side note, I watched a couple of videos about multiple break ins in the Miami area, thugs stealing f'n shoes? Really? These people should be shot.

 

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[Runum]

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.

 

[SquatchMan]

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:

 

[garyjsmith]

I love this community. The fact that -- in some cases -- complete strangers are thinking of each other to this degree, with updates and words of wisdom, really says a lot. For those of you who weather the storm, as soon as you can, report back so we know you're alright.

 

[G-Man]

Can't help but wonder which oil behemoth is paying CNN to hyperbolize the conditions... spurring gasoline and plastic bottle consumption.

Never put someone on "ignore" over a single comment before... but congratulations, you just won the prize.

 

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[lewj24]

Where I am in Tampa it didn't hit bad at all. Guess I got lucky.

 

[Vigilante]

We all value money. Question is, do we value it more than our humanity? For some people, money is #1. We've seen it on this forum, bro-marketing, price gouging, etc.

Side question...

Has living through this hurricane changed your opinion on Florida? Tampa? Any place with hurricanes? After watching footage of apocalypse like behavior at the stores, traffic during the evac, I'm reaffirmed in my happiness to be stuck in the desert with the "dry heat."

I've been in Tampa now somewhere around 750 days. 749 of them have been some of the happiest of my life. 1 day sucked.

I was in MN and snowed in to my house once for 4 days.

I was in Hawaii once under a Typhoon warning.

Arizona gets flash floods, droughts, and dust storms. Rolling blackouts of the power grid. Extreme heat and monsoons.

Choose your poison.

I live where people vacation (so do you, by the way), and will continue to trade the 749:1.

 

[lewj24]

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...

 

[MJ DeMarco]

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!"

IRMA is slow moving, like 13 mph, the TIME OVER is what is scary. Hope u have shelter underground.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

that are charging $40 for a case because they can.

We all value money. Question is, do we value it more than our humanity? For some people, money is #1. We've seen it on this forum, bro-marketing, price gouging, etc.

Side question...

Has living through this hurricane changed your opinion on Florida? Tampa? Any place with hurricanes? After watching footage of apocalypse like behavior at the stores, traffic during the evac, I'm reaffirmed in my happiness to be stuck in the desert with the "dry heat."

 

[Ivan2BAlive]

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.

 

[jon.a]

I hope everyone in the path has evacuated and/or secured their property as well as they can. I took my mom and got out of New Smyrna Beach on Thursday when it was forecasted to be going up the East coast. We went to Tennessee because I figured we'd be well out of the way of the path. Now it's supposed to be going up the West coast and NSB isn't going to be that bad. I kinda wish we had stayed because I'm sure the drive back is going to suck. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

You made the best choice you could at the time.

 

[Get Right]

Just for comparison: In 2004 Hurricane Ivan dead centered us. A weak Cat 3. Barbaric destruction.

BTW - this is my street. The same one you see me building spec homes on.