Well it looks like Hurricane Irma's path is going to put me directly in it's crosshairs between Sun/Mon, all the info says I will see 80-100 MPH sustained winds here in N. central Florida(Summerfield to be exact). Getting what I can battened done at my home as well as helping my local friends with any issues they may have prior to the storm hitting. I-75, Fla Turnpike are basically parking lots, gas stations are either over capacity or empty depending if a gas tanker has made a delivery, it sucks to find so much difficulty in traveling right now but glad to see so many taking this one seriously. I hope my home/detached garage and all of their contents stay undamaged, but that is out of my hands, as long as my family and I are safe we can rebuild/renew. Hope I have something left to repair(painful to think this way, but just an honest assessment considering what is forecast) after the storm passes. Everyone in this monster's path, stay safe and if possible help others in this time of need and hope to hear from all you folks afterward. Todd
current estimates say the eye will hit Macon, much diminished of course from what you are going to see. Stay safe Todd and stay fueled up.
Just got done with sealing windows with plywood and installing 2x4 interior bracing on my shop's overhead doors to keep them from blowing in. Did the same for a buddy while he and his wife were at work and they didn't have the needed tools/tapcons to installed the plywood/bracing on his block home. Definitely hunkering down, can't really go anywhere now since gasoline is a bit scarce, available hotel/motel rooms are gone and not the kind of person to be in a shelter(I have to be doing something or I go stir crazy, then the fact if something does happen here I can get right to mitigating further damage-like roof leaks or tree damage). I live on acreage with a private drive, so looting is not a big concern thank goodness. I have a 22K, a 8.3K, a 6.5K and a 2K watt generators on hand to provide power after the storm, lost power for one week for each hurricane during '04 when 3 came through within like 30 days, never again without power......if the gas stations have fuel. I can say a plus right now is with gasoline being scarce but diesel is fairly easy to get, I drive in and started fueling my truck and it looked like they opened the floodgates behind me and people piled into the empty fuel islands until they realized I was pumping diesel, got a sadistic chuckle out of that . Right now as of 1:40 pm the center has moved even further west and they are saying we will see 75mph plus sustained winds, but this is keying on that Irma hits south Fl as a "low" cat 4, I firmly believe it will hit South FL as a Cat 5 due to the warmest water it will have for fuel is just north/west of where it is now.....yea . Thank you guys once again for all your thoughts and prayers, definitely in need during this situation. Hope to update by Monday evening...if possible.
My cousin and her family are in Sunrise, Florida which is basically right above Miami, on the eastern side of the state. I just heard on the news that Irma may bank off to the west a bit, which may be good news for my cousin but bad news for many others. Prayers and good thoughts to all.
My house has been prepared since Thursday, which was my last day off. Todd, the highways are pretty much open and moving as of yesterday afternoon once the initial rush to evacuate was over if you are still looking to get out, nows the time. Ill be working through it while my wife has to weather the worst by herself so I really had to make sure we did all we can do. I am glad to see folks taking the storm seriously, but there has also been a sense of panic as well. Regardless, all we can do now is watch, wait, and hope for the best.
I wouldn't take anything away from first responders, they are the tip of the spear, but the vast majority of people that have to work through a storm like this are not first responders. Check out the current operation to keep gas flowing into Florida as an example. On top of that, critical services need power and communication; those require several trades to keep operational. Likewise with hospitals and shelters. Add logistics, maintenance of equipment needed for rescue operations, people to man reservoirs and pumping stations, the list is very long.
I'll be thinking of you guys in her path-----my wife's whole family is in West Palm and she is a nervous wreck right now.