Bracing for Hurricane Irma

Stay safe, Border folks in Florida!

In the meantime, this hilarious column made me laugh until I about cried. I made a trip rather like he talks about after the April 27, 2011 tornadoes tore up jack around here. We were out of power and my then-83-year-old mother was going bananas without her TV. Soooo, I loaded her up and we went to Rome, GA to stay with my sister. A potty break at the McDonald's in Fort Payne went a lot like this one, although we were able to get inside.

I dropped Mama off at sister's, went to a hotel, checked in and nearly ran them out of hot water taking a shower. It had been a couple of days.

http://seandietrich.com/hurricane-irma-cometh/

(Sean lives in South Alabama, so he's been through this a time or two.)

Yes, please stay safe everyone!

Pippinwhite, thanks for the comic relief! So funny.

Yes, take care, Floridian Borderers!

My older sister and her sons live in Tampa, so it seems my worries aren't over yet either.

Thoughts and prayers for those in Florida and Irma's path too. Do have some friends that are there and others including my family that was there evacuated. My aunt was going to go down there as she has a condo in Florida but is staying here for now but is worried about her place.

I can't believe what a monster of a storm this has turned out to be and right on the heels of the massive devastation in Texas and Louisiana.

Everyone keep safe ... I have friends in Naples and the panhandle who tell me they are not evacuating yet and hope they won't have to. Not sure if that is wise but they said they are prepared to get out if advised/ordered.

Everyone please stay safe !
I have a nephew, his wife and their kids who live outside Clearwater and relatives on the Panhandle. My nephew has evacuated and my sister and BIL who live in SC may be doing the same thing.

Yes, prayers for everyone in Irma's path!

I have a friend in the Tampa area too and hope she stays safe!

Update As of Friday Sept 8 @ 11am EDT

Key points:
If you are in a mandated evacuation zone, evacuate. These zones are created for a reason, and Irma is not a storm to be toyed with.

Irma will be tracking north-northwest along the Florida peninsula. The most recent consensus of models is that this track will run inland along the peninsula from south to north, which would keep the East Coast in the more dangerous right-hand side of the hurricane.

Impacts will extend along the length of the Florida peninsula. There are no recent precedents for Irma’s expected north-northwest track. The best analog would be Hurricane Cleo (1964), which took a similar NNW track along the eastern peninsula. Cleo was a much weaker storm than Irma, though, weakening from a Cat 2 at landfall near Miami to a tropical storm near Savannah, GA. Hurricane Donna (1960) traveled over land from the SW to NE sides of the peninsula; Donna was a Cat 4 near Marathon and still a Cat 1 at Daytona Beach.

The highest risk for the worst winds is in South Florida, including the Miami area. The very strongest winds will be in the eyewall just east of Irma’s center as it moves north. Parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties have not experienced sustained Cat 2/3 winds since the 1940s. Winds will be stronger at the upper stories of high-rise buildings. Many windows not up to current code will be blown out.

In southeast Florida, take shelter outside the evacuation zone in as sturdy a building as possible. Mobile homes are not safe shelter in the winds of a major hurricane.

Dangerous storm surge is expected across Miami, the Florida Keys, and the Everglades. Inundation of 5 – 10 feet above ground level is possible. The surge may be highly variable and quickly changing along and near Biscayne Bay in the Miami area.

Dangerous storm surge is expected in the Naples and Marco Island areas, especially if Irma tracks on the west side of model forecasts. Surge may peak here during the southwesterly onshore winds after Irma has passed just to the north. Residents must heed all evacuation orders.

Dangerous storm surge—potentially higher than the surge during Matthew—can be expected from northern Florida to southern South Carolina, especially along the Georgia coast. The concave coastline in this area tends to concentrate storm surge. The surge may be even higher in Georgia than in South Florida, even if Irma has weakened by the time it reaches Georgia. The surge may be similar in magnitude to what was observed last year in Hurricane Matthew.

Power outages will affect millions of Floridians and could last for days or weeks.

Tropical storm force winds may extend well inland across parts of southern Georgia. These could be strong enough to topple trees and knock out power.

More info and detailed maps etc at link

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/ex...headed-florida

Please stay safe all Florida and east coast Borderers. I know NMB resides there, but not sure of anyone else. Prayers for everyone!

MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Irma’s outer bands blew into South Florida on Saturday as residents scrambled to leave ahead of the massive storm that’s now aimed at the Tampa Bay area and the state’s Gulf Coast.

https://apnews.com/8aeee2664ccb42fdb...n-from-Florida

About 5.6 million Florida residents ordered evacuated and more than 500,000 residents on the Georgia coast.

Thoughts and prayers for everyone.

Thank you for the well wishes and prayers. I've evacuated to the Panhandle. But today businesses here are boarding up and closing early. The storm is so huge and unpredictable that there's no escaping it really.
I haven't been able to open my personal messages here - darn this crappy cell phone - so I apologize to those who PM'd me and didn't get a response. I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness.

So glad that you checked in with us, NMB. This is such a monster storm and I hope and pray all the Borderers living in the area stay safe. Take care, Floridians!

NMB - TY for checking in. Stay safe everyone. Now it is supposed to hit near Naples. And Jose is just behind it !

Glad you're safe, NMB! Not sure exactly where on the Panhandle you are, but if you want to get on into Alabama, some decent-sized places are Dothan, Enterprise, Andalusia, and Troy. If they're on your side of the Panhandle, you should be able to find a spot somewhere in one of those places. If you have to go as far north as Troy, I have a good friend and his wife who live there. He's a professor at Troy State. Let me know, and I suspect he can help you out. Prayers for all of you!

Praying for all of you and glad you're safe too NMB.

Very concerned for the safety of everyone in the storm's path.
Take good care. Hoping for the best for you.
Thanks for checking in, NMB.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by New Kid In Town

NMB - TY for checking in. Stay safe everyone. Now it is supposed to hit near Naples. And Jose is just behind it !

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Yep, my friend in Naples thinking she was not going to need to evacuate (of course I disagreed told her better to be safe than sorry and leave anyway) has indeed now left. MY other friends in the Gulf panhandle are Air Force and safely secured. Every region of the USA has it's issues but this is truly a nightmare. I am worried about everyone who can be and already is impacted by Irma and now as you say Jose. Power failures aside the potential damage to infrastructure all over the state and elsewhere is a huge concern.

The storm surge in Naples is very dangerous. I hope your friend got to a safe place.

Pippin, I'm near Destin which is about halfway between Apalachicola (the part that juts out southwest of Tallahassee) and the Alabama border. I'm staying here until Tuesday morning then going to head for home, the good Lord willin'.

So glad you're safe, NMB! Travel safely home!

Glad to hear you are safe, NMB!

My friend from the Tampa area is safe, but no power. Hopefully it won't take long to get things back up and running.

My sister is in Milledgeville, GA and is out of power. Walmart closed! Can't believe it, but it's true. Her fiancee lives in Macon and he has power so she can go over there, if she needs to.

Glad to hear you are safe as well, NMB! Hope everyone else is too!

My sister came out out of it fine as well -the only damage was a broken screen door!

Thank God Irma wasn't as bad as she could have been! So glad for Border members and their family and friends who are OK.

I made it home safe yesterday afternoon and there was no damage to my little condo, much to my surprise and relief. Some water got in under the sliding glass doors but it didn't hurt anything. I had some beach towels rolled up there for that purpose. No cable TV or internet/wifi but I think HGTV will survive my absence. :)

Thanks again to all who expressed their good wishes.

That's good to know, NMB. I'm sure it was a relief to find your condo intact.

I'm glad that affected Border members and their families made it through ok.

So glad to hear you came out of it pretty much unscathed, NMB! Hope everyone else fared the same.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NightMistBlue

I made it home safe yesterday afternoon and there was no damage to my little condo, much to my surprise and relief. Some water got in under the sliding glass doors but it didn't hurt anything. I had some beach towels rolled up there for that purpose. No cable TV or internet/wifi but I think HGTV will survive my absence. :)

Thanks again to all who expressed their good wishes.

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So happy you're safe and well, condo intact.
LOL..."HGTV..." :-D

NMB-- Glad you're OK!

My sister lives in middle Georgia, and her power finally came back on today. Been out since Monday. So that's good, too.

Geez! I didn't realize people in Georgia lost power too.

I know someone on the west coast of Florida (the hardest hit area, after the Keys) who got her power restored on Monday, which was 2 days before me on the east coast. We have a lot of trees and branches down in our area, maybe that has something to do with it. And the power lines aren't buried, like I guess they have in the newer developments.