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Bracing for Hurricane Irma


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Fresh from the horrors of Harvey, the country now needs to brace for Hurricane Irma, which has just been declared a category 5. It is starting to appear as if Florida will be a likely landfall. All of you in that direction, take good and prudent care of yourselves. Get out if it seems advisable, and if it's possible for you.

Members, check in with us when you can. Prayers for Florida, but I am still privately hoping that Irma will do a surgical strike on Mar-a-Lago, and then pivot and leave.

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Thanks, Donna. Heading to Walmart tomorrow to add to our bottled water and canned goods supply. Also need some gas for the grill and the camping stoves. But if it stays a Cat. 5 and headed for Tampa, we're gone. I'm afraid our 1928 2 story bungalow wasn't made for these times.

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Jeez, Doug, be careful, be safe. I hear the Walmarts are a real zoo right now so be careful there too!

 

Do check in with us. What a mess the country (world?) Is right now. Quite apart from the political lunacies, we've got half the country on fire and the other half submerged. Anybody seen 4 horsemen?

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People are definitely more concerned than usual when a storm is coming. Since Tuesday 70s era lines at gas stations and empty shelves at stores. Usually, people rush out a couple days before projected landfall, not 5 or 6. It has to be Harvey being so fresh in memory.

 

Schools closed today and tomorrow, so I'm (trying) to use the extra time to prepare more. Ha. My wife is in Cincy with our oldest and our grandson for his last of 4 summer trips to the Children's Hospital there. They arrive 8 PM Saturday, so I'm solo. I keep an eye on the storm. I wish it would hurry up and make that northern turn, or not, so we have a clearer idea of the impact here. I'm trying to not let my hope for the best keep me from proper planning.

 

4 more hurricane seasons to survive before we get the hell out of this God forsaken sauna. Fingers crossed.

Thanks, Donna.

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I'm also in Tampa. Everyone in Zone A had a mandatory evacuation at 2 PM today.

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I'm also in Tampa. Everyone in Zone A had a mandatory evacuation at 2 PM today.

Yeah, I guess there's a big concern about storm surge, flooding, etc. Up in New Tampa, it's more about wind, and I find it kind of weird they haven't even discussed evacuation yet. Governor Skeletor says, "Everyone should be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice." To where? The I-75 parking lot? Or a shelter? 

Be glad when this is over and we can set sights on Hurricane Jose.

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Hi Donna, Elizabeth and I are soon to leave for our oldest's house. It's north about 30 minutes and more inland, but the main reason is that their house is concrete! Less likely to have a 3 Little pigs scenario. Our youngest, 30, is going to also. The entire immediate family, us, daughters,  grandchildren and son-in-law will be together. Plenty of food, water and camping gas for the stoves. Being a family of campers and backpackers pays off. 

The rain is just now constant, but not pouring. Wind has started to pick up. Tropical storm conditions for afternoon, so time to go.

 

Hopefully, we don't return to ruin, but if so, that's why we're fully insured for wind, hurricane and flood.

Thanks.

 

Stay safe, everyone!

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Heavy, non-stop rain and strong winds and still a few hours until hurricane winds. No loss of power yet in Land O'Lakes.

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Thanks guys. We're working our way back over a two-day period, as we drove about eight hours north. To give you an idea of how big and bad this thing still is, even now, we drove through torrential rain and wind today heading from SC down to GA. I've lived in FL for almost 23 years, and we get major heavy thunderstorms with pounding rain every summer...but when you're on the highway doing 70 or 80, you only get blinding rain for a few minutes here and there. This thing went on for miles and miles, and the wind felt like it would blow the car off the road. It was unreal. If that's tropical storm level, I'd hate to experience hurricane force!

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Thanks guys. We're working our way back over a two-day period, as we drove about eight hours north. To give you an idea of how big and bad this thing still is, even now, we drove through torrential rain and wind today heading from SC down to GA. I've lived in FL for almost 23 years, and we get major heavy thunderstorms with pounding rain every summer...but when you're on the highway doing 70 or 80, you only get blinding rain for a few minutes here and there. This thing went on for miles and miles, and the wind felt like it would blow the car off the road. It was unreal. If that's tropical storm level, I'd hate to experience hurricane force!

 

Hey you crazy man, stop driving 70 or 80 in torrential rain! Your friends need you in one piece. That rain sounds unbelievable. :blink

 

Let us know what home looks like when you get there. A friend's house in Ft. Myers made it through relatively unscathed so I hope you find yourselves equally lucky.

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Nothing but good news. The laws of meteorology, physics and other sciences coincidentally were in our favor. When we got home yesterday we were elated to see that our soon-to-be 90 year old house was unscathed. Our garage apartment tenant said that we lost power for only about 5 minutes. Some relatively small limbs and branches down, but Garrette, our tenant, had kindly piled them up and set them out for the City of Tampa to pick up in advance! Elizabeth and I put all of our front porch furniture and front yard plants, lawn art, etc. back out. We also picked up a lot of Spanish moss. No worries. Plus, schools are not opening until Thursday!

 

It was nice spending the storm day and night with the immediate family. No issues for them, either.

 

I've lived in the Tampa Bay Area since 1969, and this is the first time I was truly worried. Expecting a Category 4 or 5, possibly dead-on, and getting a 1, with the eye an hour to the east, was quite a relief. Now we just have to get through the rest of this hurricane season and then 4 more.

 

Hope you return to good news also, Mike!

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