Official Florida is Fucked Hurricane thread

[sue-fl]

Wow this is unreal!! I watched the weather before I went to bed last night and there was no change. When I got on the pc this morning I was shocked with the headlines. It's looking like we will be alright here. Please all of you in South Florida get out and be careful, this is bad bad news for south Florida.

[CrazySy]

Man, this sucks. Wtf is up with all these cat 5 hurricanes this year? Good luck to all you folks in FL.

[MrYum]

Yep, this one turned from bad to worse overnight...sheesh.

Looks like a run for some extra fuel and hardware items are in my immediate future. Already have about 50 gallons of fuel between my truck and the gf's car. Want to fill up the extra cans too.

Looking more and more like this bitch is heading right toward us or damn close to it

Off to the hardware store...

Fellow Floridians...lock down folks and be safe!

[jennym]

Originally Posted by sue-fl

It's looking like we will be alright here.

Please be careful with this thought. All of us in La thought the same thing about Katrina, thinking it would hit the Fl. panhandle. Pay close attention, and always be prepared.

[CrazySy]

Now the say it might even effect New England at some point |shocking| Blizzards, I am used to but not hurricanes

[cd34]

Originally Posted by Torn

http://www.katvixen.com/wilma.jpg

Urb this is the general location of Disney/Orlando, Odds are they will be safe.

Hey Torn, with your graphics skills, superimpose this:

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/WATL/IR4/20.jpg

over the centerline of the path and keep that Disney arrow in there for reference.

Not to be a fatalist, but, I think you really are underestimating the size of this storm.

Then, if you can, draw a 50 mile radius from the eye -- that is the edge of the highest speed winds.

This one is going to be bad.

[sue-fl]

Originally Posted by jennym

Please be careful with this thought. All of us in La thought the same thing about Katrina, thinking it would hit the Fl. panhandle. Pay close attention, and always be prepared.

Oh don't worry jennym I'm keeping a close eye on this storm. I know I'm not out of the woods yet. We are prepared already. Thanks!

[Cleo]

Home Depot was insane and sold out of 5 gallon gas cans. Found them at Lowes for a cheaper price and bought their last six cans.

Filled up the Vette and all six cans with gas which took three swipes of my debit card because it was so much gas that the pump kept on hitting it's limit. Also found out that the pumps would not let me use my debit card on two pumps at once. Guy in the pickup truck next to me started a conversation with me and told me that he makes his boyfriend do all that kind of stuff. Even through I live in a very gay part of town I was still a bit surprised that he was gay and so open about it. Nice to know that I'm more butch then a guy driving a pickup truck. lol

Even through I have plenty of groceries in my house I'm going to top off my food reserves since I may be the only house will electric and suddenly finding myself a very popular lady.

I'm still hoping that it somehow misses south Florida.

[Greenguy]

If it makes anyone feel better, winds are up to 20-30 & it's raining here in Buffalo. I think the storm is looking for Kat's boobs, but it got here late

[Linkster]

CrazySy - just think of it as a blizzard with real wet snow and winds that are just a little harder

cd34 - remember also that wind intensity is exponential for an increase - not linear - so if you go from say 100 mph to 150 mph the damage caused is really the difference in speed squared (so in this case 1.5^2 or 2.25 times the intensity) approximately - the real numbers are a little different but its close enough

Also that distance between say Basinger (looks to be pretty close to the center of the storm passing over) to Orlando as the crow flies is only 100 miles or so

[Cleo]

I didn't know that about wind speed. It is like the square inverse law of light falloff from a pinpoint of light. One of these not so obscure things that a photographer needs to know in doing studio work.

Just to add to today's stress… while buying more hurricane supplies at the grocer store my person debit card got flagged as suspicious activity by my bank so the purchase was declined and I had to put it on my business card. Twenty minutes of voice mail hell and its been released. Guess my business just bought hurricane party supplies for the business party.

[urb]

Originally Posted by Torn

http://www.katvixen.com/wilma.jpg

Urb this is the general location of Disney/Orlando, Odds are they will be safe.

Thanks Torn

[Cleo]

I made the mistake last year of thinking that because the storm was going north of me, like where Torn lives, that I would be ok and then it hit with vengeance putting a ficus tree through my roof and knocking out power to my neighborhood for many days.

Now I look at these storms a lot different. Which reminds me, I need to make one more hurricane supply run…

I just know that I don't want to go through this again.
http://cleoslinks.com/crap/tree-detail/

[CrazySy]

Originally Posted by Linkster

CrazySy - just think of it as a blizzard with real wet snow and winds that are just a little harder

LOL, I am not that worried but I will be screwed if we ever get a direct hit by a hurricane because I live very close to the beach. I remember hurricane Bob which made a huge mess in this town but I lived in New Hampshire then

[cd34]

Originally Posted by Linkster

cd34 - remember also that wind intensity is exponential for an increase - not linear - so if you go from say 100 mph to 150 mph the damage caused is really the difference in speed squared (so in this case 1.5^2 or 2.25 times the intensity) approximately - the real numbers are a little different but its close enough

I do remember that quite well. Saffir-Simpson and Fujita scales are both logrithmic. Good thing we don't rely on the Beaufort Scale. If I recall, Beaufort 12 (Hurricane) is wind > 65mph -- or, greater than any canvas sail can handle.

Based on the latest projection though, hurricane force winds extend only 60 miles from the eye with tropical storm force winds at 230 miles from the eye.

For those of you not as familiar with Florida, Miami to Jacksonville is 350 miles. Pretty much the top of the state to the bottom of the mainland is about 400 miles. 460 miles would almost cover the entire state from Key West to the Georgia/Alabama borders.

She's a big one and still quite questionable as to its destination.

[nottslad]

Stay safe all, we'll see Wilma few days before you.

All the hotels in Cancun are due to be evacuated in the morning and panic buying is currently ongoing. We should (I hope) be OK at our place downtown and a few miles inland. The anticipation really is something quite unreal.

[MrYum]

Went out to the hardware store...picked up more gas cans...now have 40 gallons on hand to feed the generator (another 30 in the truck if needed). Extra propane tank for the bbq. Lots of heavy gauge zip ties to secure gates and hoses around the property.

Neighbor across the street already put up his storm shutters. I'll be on the roof tomorrow making sure all the gutters are ready to handle large volumes of water.

Water, batteries, food...we're pretty much ready now. And will be ready before it gets here...if it does hit this area.

Be prepared and be safe everyone

[Platinum Bryan]

Good luck to you all that we be near it

[Jim]

Sorry it took so long to get here guys but I wish you all the best of luck. If you need a place to run away, come on up north. Of course I hear that we are getting a hard frost tomorrow night.

[urb]

A presenter on Fox News said that he hoped it lingered over Yucatan for a while as it would help to reduce the speed before it hit Florida.

They also had a guy with a mixing bowl full of water who wanted to spend $8,000,0000 on Jumbo Jets loaded with a special water absorbing chemical and sprinkle it on the hurricane.

The Governor of Florida came on and told everyone to check their insurance policies. I am assuming that Jeb is George's brother? How many Bush spawn are there?

Wilma looks about the size of the Gulf, but if like Chris says it's only 60 miles from the eye that is actually hurricane force, does that mean 120 miles of landfall destruction?

[Cleo]

All I know is I have a whole lot of gas.
Eighty gallons plus 17 more in my car's tank.

I look at the big collection of gas cans behind the fence in my backyard. I would hate to see lighting or something ignite them. I do have them just about as far away from my house as is possible right on the property line.

That's ok Jim, you have dogs.

[Cleo]

Went to the mall today and bought some new clothes and probable going clubbing tonight before the storm shuts down the city for a week or something.

Rented some DVDs too, The Finalcut, The Forgotten, Possessed, Robots, Batman Begins, and Primer.

Still haven't put up my shutters. Now they are only saying a cat one hitting Florida which I don't think would still be much of a storm by the time it crossed the state and got to me. It's been raining all day and it looks like it is going to be raining until sometime next week. It's going to suck putting up the shutters in the rain if I do have to put them up, but at least it won't be hot be getting bite by hordes of mosquitoes.

Did so much driving today that I need to top off my car's gas tank again.

Remind me why I live here again?

[Vivaldi]

Hi all!
I'm regular in reading but I don't post much (I guess it's my nature) & since I have a brother in FL & I know the troubles You all have there just wanted to say:
Good luck! Hope it passes You by!

[Cleo]

To put up the storm shutters or to not put up the storm shutters is the question of the day.

I am skipping the gym today since many of the streets are flooded and my Vette does not deal well at all with flooded streets. Last thing I need is for my car to suck in water into the engine intake like I saw a bunch of Vettes with blown engines at the dealer after another time our streets flooded.

It's going to be a long tedious weekend.

[Cleo]

Lovely…

Next storm is already forming and they have ran out of names so they are going to the Greek alphabet and it will be named Alpha.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/grap...html?tswind120

Maybe Wilma and Alpha can get together at my place for some real excitement.