OT: Hurricane Irma Open Thread

Submitted by UMFanInFlorida on

Good morning from Central Florida. We're just starting to see the outer bands come into Orlando with some rain starting to spit down. South Florida and the Keys have already been feeling it for some time, with the eye wall right on the Keys right now.

Our family is hunkered down with the house prepared. Most of our neighbors have opted to stay as well.. we're ready to ride this one out.

Your thoughts are prayers for all of us in Florida are greatly appreciated! Other FL MGoBloggers, let us know how you're faring as well.

ed: For those tracking the storm, I highly highly recommend this site: http://spaghettimodels.com . Mike has provided lots of information, live updates and his own interpretation of all the data that's out there.

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killerseafood3

September 10th, 2017 at 9:16 AM ^

Seems like much to do about nothing so far. Wife has been watching the weather channel nonstop as we have relatives in Tampa, but the forecast and current conditions aren't really anything more than a heavy storm. Here's hoping it stays that way.

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sum1valiant

September 10th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^

Sorry, tough to remain focused on Speight in between boarding up the windows, clearing off the patio, and ensuring we have enough food/water/etc to survive without power for day to potentially weeks. It's not drama, it real life for millions of people right now.

Joined: 09/01/2009

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MGoGrendel

September 10th, 2017 at 2:49 PM ^

Drove up to Nashville for a concert on Friday.  Great show, etc. -- save it for another time.

On the way home Saturday morning, there were multiple convoys of electrical company trucks.  Each convoy was from a different business.   We saw several tree removal trucks as well.  You should know that people were on their way to help before the storm hit the Keys.

Hope you, your family, friends, and all those that stayed behind are safe.

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BlueWon

September 10th, 2017 at 11:32 AM ^

and they expect the storm surge to flood up to the second floor of the building. By comparison , Wilma v.2 brought some water running through the first floor.

She lives on the fourth floor and Wilma knocked out a window on the gulf side and a slider on the back side. There was a circuitous ribbon of sand two feet high between them afterward. 

Irma is a lot stronger than was Wilma and is no laughing matter, at all. I expect my mom's place to be devasted.

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corundum

September 10th, 2017 at 9:58 AM ^

Heat waves of 95 degrees kill hundreds of people in the UK every year and get almost no publicity. Hurricanes are an extemely sexy topic for the major news networks who are desperate for another 24 hr story following Harvey's destruction. It's obvious at this point that most major news productions are unfortunately pulling for a widespread swath of destruction. Irma will quickly downgrades to a category 3 and will be a quick mover up the shoreline unlike Harvey. It is a dangerous situation, but the news networks have been acting like this will be the South Florida apocalypse for over a week now when that's simply not true. Source: meteorology degree and forcasting experience.

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MGlobules

September 10th, 2017 at 10:59 AM ^

which is funny because it's a human story; scientists can be like that. We have two evacuees with us here in Tallahassee, who were urged to leave by their mom--who is at her dying father's bedside in a hospice in Boca that is also filled with Haitian refugees from further south. They fled to Jacksonville and were evacuated from two hotels consecutively, coming to Tallahassee in an eight-hour marathon to join us. They took eight hours to make the three-hour drive, traveling with an enormous mass of humanity and telling stories about tigers running along the highway and lots of great cooperation among strangers. Now the storm is barreling toward us and will largely miss Jacksonville. 

Yes, it's been downgraded, but the forecast is for winds stronger than in last year's Hermine, but those winds felled 100s of trees in our neighborhood, cost us a tidy sum of cash, and left some people here without power for a week. These storms are an enormous undertaking and with temps increasing in Caribbean seas we are likely to see lots more. Should Irma spare us it will likely have given us lots of great models for future disasters. 

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You Only Live Twice

September 10th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^

is being sensationalistic as usual, still this is a dangerous situation in a widespread area.  

TWC doesn't send their people where they might actually die, like in the Keys.   I'm not saying they should do that, it's just tiresome watching their reporters pretend they are in more immediate danger than they actually are, while millions of people in the area have more to be concerned about than TWC reporters.

Mike's weather page has excellent data. 

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KO Stradivarius

September 10th, 2017 at 4:42 PM ^

Just saw Mike Bettes in Naples with 95 mph winds, near to the eye, and it looked pretty dangerous to me. Get hit with a piece of debris, that would cause a boo-boo.

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Princetonwolverine

September 10th, 2017 at 10:26 PM ^

A few days ago TWC had a reporter on Marco Island (just south of Naples) talking about how beautiful and peaceful it was there. He actually encouraged residents on the EAST coast to evacuate not north but WEST.

Within a few hrs the projections changed and had Irma going up the middle of the state rather than east of Miami. That is when I got in my car and left my home in Bonita Springs and arrived in Atlanta 14 hrs later.

Both Marco and Bonita Springs had the eye go right over them and have significant damage.Power is not expected to be restored for several weeks. 

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corundum

September 10th, 2017 at 12:02 PM ^

It was a category 5, then weakened to a category 3 last night as it approached Cuba due to island interaction with the western Bahamas, then intensitied to a category 4 once it traversed the warmer waters between Cuba and Florida. It made landfall in the keys, which will aid in weakening the heat flux system along with greater vertical shear as it recurves to the north.

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BlueWon

September 10th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^

Key West is less than a mile across from north to south and the max elevation in 18". That a drop of water on a duck's ass to Irma.

Ever been there?

The average surface water temp in the Gulf of Mexico off southern Florida is 88 degrees.

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corundum

September 10th, 2017 at 12:27 PM ^

As I said in another post, the vertical shear is causing the weakening, not the water temp. Believe it or not, friction from the tiniest islands can contribute to cyclone weakening. You obviously don't know what you are talking about and are clearly singling my posts out to attempt to contradict. I'd suggest you read the current Irma forecast discussion on the National Hurricane Center's website and you can tweet your arguments to them. Thanks and bye.

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ijohnb

September 10th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^

I get what you are saying, of course it will weaken, but Katrina was only a category 3 hurricane when it made landfall and it laid absolute waste to Mississippi and coastal Louisiana. To say Irma is "only" a cat 4 and will quickly become a 3 is true but I'm not sure I am seeing your point.

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corundum

September 10th, 2017 at 2:26 PM ^

Katrina was catastrophic because New Orleans' levees failed and the city was built below sea level to begin with. Completely different set of circumstances for Irma in South Florida.

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