Trying to reason with the Hurricane Season

[Jims5543]

It has been Nucking Futs here the last few days. Believe it or not I was in my office this morning sending off surveys for closings, people moved up closings to today to get their new house in time for a hurricane. 

Tons of preparation and to be honest, I was feeling pretty defeated a couple of days ago, it looked like we were going to be hit with a Cat 4 here.  Those can be devastating.  I hope the people in Miami who think it is a good idea to ride this out know what they are in for.


With the track now moving much farther west of me I am breathing a sigh of relief.  The forecast yesterday was for me to see a Cat 4 eyewall here as it grinded up the coast.

With the center  tracking 80 miles west of me, and the storm weakening, I feel pretty confident I am going to see 100 MPH winds here Cat 2 to Cat 3 stuff which I have been through before and fared very well.



View of the back of my house while standing on the hill behind it to the east of it.  This really shields my house from a lot of the wind.

Lets hope that tradition holds up.

Also hoping the new metal roof pays off as extra insurance.



The hill, the 4' tall dog is in picture for reference.





This will not look like this anymore. If we see over 100 MPH winds, vegetation will be ripped apart.



This fence will be gone, even though I placed posts every 4 feet instead of 8 and put 80 lbs bags of cement on each post.

I am concerned that due to its age, my screen enclosure around my pool will be destroyed. Debating cutting the screens out.



I will try to grab video as long as I am able during the storm this is the view.

[Jims5543]

For anyone interest, as long as it is up, here is a live cam on Duval Street in Kew West. Really eerie looking and seeing almost no people.

http://www.liveduvalstreet.com/




Taking down the pool heat solar panels.

Panels coming off.


Pergola being stripped down.


Finished, once we are done, I will use some of the top to make cross braces. This area is between 2 houses typically very little wind. It is on the South side of the house with a slight rotation to the west.

[MiniDave]

I see you have a natural gas powered whole house genset too.....I'm surprised you need a pool heater there....

Looks like you're as ready as you can be. Good luck!

[Jims5543]

I keep taking cool down breaks, it is hotter than hell out. 93° with a 115° heat index.

Another pro-tip for anyone facing devastation.

Put your photos etc.. in the dishwasher, just unplug it first.




This was I95 Northbound yesterday late afternoon. Stop and go traffic 100 miles north of Miami.



Solar panels lashed down to deck in a corner where there is little wind. Dave, we like our pools like the Caribbean sea like a bathtub. We like ours near 90° without the panels because our pool is in the shade a lot, we only see 80° during the summer months. They also extend our swimming to pretty much year round keeping the pool in the 80's.

[BruceK]

Jim, you done your prep work and I'm sure it will pay off.  Good luck guy.

I'll have to remember the dishwasher idea next time we are under a tornado threat here.

[Jims5543]

Pergola done.




At office now wrapping everything in plastic.

[MiniDave]

Do you guys get flooding like in Houston?

[Jims5543]

No we do not, we are expecting 12-15 inches of rain in 24 hours and will shake it off pretty east.

I am around 35' above sea level at my house, sounds low, but most of Florida is 10'. Many will have flooding issues, I will not. I am up on a hill.


Couple of little items to wrap up tomorrow. Still debating cutting the screens on the pool enclosure.

Every update tracks this storm further west. I know it spans 200 miles from the center but being on the opposite coast is a game changer. We will be 120 miles away. This turned from a Cat 3 or 4 event for us to a Cat 1 or 2 which, is nothing for us. We debate boarding up for a Cat 1.

Did my tradition Bill Murray lawn sign before the storm pic. It seems to be a good luck charm.

[94touring]

Good luck, we're all counting on you.   4.gif

[Jims5543]

Good luck, we're all counting on you.   4.gif

Aye Captain!

We got this.

This forecast made my day, and this is with the storm tracking 50 miles east of where they have it tracking as of 8 PM.  I am in the Stuart area.

[Jims5543]

I am exhausted, I finally had a good night sleep last night.

Pretty annoyed by how wrong the forecasters were with this storm. They almost put me in harms way, on Thursday I almost made plans to evacuate to St. Petersberg / Tampa area. Which now taking a direct hit by a Cat 3 or 4. Which will be a nightmare there they are very low lying and will flood bad.

It is borderline irresponsible how the media frothed everyone up into a tizzy, there has not been gas readily available here for almost a week now, no water or bread or daily necessities in stores.

Today we are being forecast to see tropical storm winds, which I do not shutter up for. 36 hours ago I was expecting a Cat 3 storm, 48 hours ago a cat 4 directly over me.

I am so glad I sat tight and did not blink, I typically make my decision the day before. This new age of smart phones, and constant social media feeds has created a much different environment around preparations for these storms. 

I saw a lot of the worst in very selfish people this past week, a guy on another forum was reporting he saw a person trying to return 10 cases of water.  Who the hell needs 10 cases?  If you dink so much damn water why return it, just drink it.

Gas stations here will be empty for a couple of weeks now as people use up the 50+ gallons of gas they hoarded prior to the storm.

This meme pretty much sums it up for Florida.

[gr8kornholio]

Yep, the connected world caused a gas shortage here in Dallas.  One station somewhere ran out before their tanker came and OMG there is a gas shortage in TX due to Harvey.  Next thing you know people are lined up everywhere for hours to get gas.  News didn't really help the situation either.  Felt sorry for the people that needed gas because you know 80% of the people filling up had plenty to last them through the weekend. 

Hurricane evacuations are never good, because of the uncertainty.  If you leave on the early prediction you may be wasting your time or going right into the path if it changes.  If you wait to long for the uncertainty to pass you may not get out.  I figured they'd just evacuate the entire peninsula of Florida, but where you going to go, north, that's right where it's headed after.  Glad you had the preparation time to hunker down and now it's looking to miss you, stay safe.

I'm sure the recent Harvey disaster combined with the media frenzy caused a lot of the panic.  Welcome to "MERICA!"

[MPlayle]

And the "Gas Shortage" from Dallas propagated to San Antonio and other places due to "social media" posts causing mass panic buying and hoarding.

[gr8kornholio]

The media should just issue everyone lemmings jackets.  LOL!

[Jims5543]

When I was talking to a friend about 4 days ago, I mentioned the forecast of a Cat 4 here, he said "Good! That means it is not coming here if they predicted it 4 days out."  I thought he was being silly.

I have a friend that lives in Tampa coming to stay with me. You have to see the irony here, I WAS heading there 2 days ago.  I made friend with him online back in 2004 when I had my first BINI and I was part of a Florida Mini forum, we have remained friends ever since.

Now we have intermittent feeder bands,  the storm is 337 miles from here and we are getting light squalls.

Finished shoring up the fence, this worked with Mathew hope it works this time.

I am not even sure anymore what kind of wind we are getting, yesterday 100 was forcast this morning 70.

[Jims5543]

Southern Most Point Webcam, looking pretty rough there already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ld45pUueQ

[MiniGene]

Whatever you end up getting, stay safe!  I'm glad to see you've prep'd.

[94touring]

My wind app shows it probably going into the gulf of Mexico.  Is that what they're saying on tv?

[Jims5543]

Nope they will not let go of the grinding up the west coast of Florida thing. (Brought to you by Home Depot, Publix and all major TV networks)

My buddy in on his way now, he will have a nice drive until he gets within 15 miles of me then it gets rainy and windy. 20 MPH winds.

Found another live cam in Key West on You Tube. This is on Ducal street next to Sloppy Joes.

[Jims5543]

Mallory Square:

[Jims5543]

Irma so strong it is pulling water with it as it leaves.

Occurred on September 8, 2017 / Grays, Bahamas "After the worst part of Hurricane Irma had passed, I drove around to assess some of the damages. When I arrived at the water it immediately came to my realization that there was no water in the harbor. This video was shot in Long Island, Bahamas by Adrian Wells."

[jeff10049]

I am exhausted, I finally had a good night sleep last night.

Pretty annoyed by how wrong the forecasters were with this storm. They almost put me in harms way, on Thursday I almost made plans to evacuate to St. Petersberg / Tampa area. Which now taking a direct hit by a Cat 3 or 4. Which will be a nightmare there they are very low lying and will flood bad.




I seem to remember you were annoyed the last time as they were also very wrong the media sure hypes shit up these days. We just went through a bit of this no gas shit in parts of Oregon a couple weeks ago when the solar eclipse happened the media would have you believe that the end of the world was happening.
What I did, Not one effing thing I laughed my ass off at the 1 hour lines at the gas stations as I drove to and from work. I always keep my cars gassed up always have a can or two around so I don't worry about this stuff. In the end I never even tapped into the gas I had around as the crazy lines and shortages only lasted 2 days and for no reason other than the hype from the media. 
Right after the eclipse, we took advantage of cheap steaks and food as all the stores were over stocked.
and laughed at all the morons who stood in hour long lines to buy lots of overpriced food because according to the media the shelves would be empty. 
Who doesn't have some stuff in the house to eat for a day or two in the first place?

I feel for the people who thought the hurricane was going to miss according to media and didn't prep.

[Jims5543]

Yes Jeff, the media is the best at getting things wrong, creating mass panic and taking no accountability for it.

I WAS watching the local news on a You Tube stream this morning the shut it off, they are idiots filling time to sell commercials.

They drive around looking form something, anything, that looks like destruction and then film in front f it and make you think all is lost.

I shut it off, the girls are watching a movie, I am heading back over to watch too, I wanted to look the the spaghetti models one more time, I feel like this thing may track a little east and I hope I am wrong.


So far so good, 20-30 MPH with 40 maybe 50 gusts.  A lot of rain early but to be honest we have been very lucky here, we have been between the bands most of the day, at some point I know we will get a outer wall and see 60 MPH sustained with gusts up to 80.

I am 95% boarded up by choice. My front porch is not closed because the wind it not hitting it, it faces to the west and the wind is coming from the east. I may go out and close it soon though.

The back sliding doors are not covered, I may go out and cover them but to be honest 60 MPH winds happen during afternoon storms.

The house across the street from me has been vacant for 10+ years, if it has no damage from this storm, it sure makes my shuttering seem silly.

Off to relax, once this bitch passes I will probably be working 20 hour days for the rest of the week.

[94touring]

Lots of cancellations at the airport today.  All of our southerly flying is done for at least today and probably the next couple.  Unfortunately I'm headed to Canadaland for the next 33 hours.

[MiniGene]

Jim, hope you don't get anything more than what you're used to.

Dan, "Oh Canada!"