Hello all,

I know JFM and I are in WS Florida and Uncleal used to be (may still be - haven't heard from him in a long time). Any other Florida Flyboy's getting prepped for the weekend? Irma looks like it's got it's eyes on Miami but really it could still hit anywhere in the state.

Hurrican Irma Aims at Florida

I wish you all a ton of good luck! Nature is so unpredictable!

My state was just hit by Harvey. If you can at all, leave. If not, I pray you'll be safe. Take care.

Good Luck guys

I don't need prayers, I have food/water/gas/cash/guns. I'm ready.

I'm not leaving. I've been through several hurricanes and tropical storms. including Cat 4 Charley and Cat 1 Katrina. Irma's forecast track keeps swinging further and further east over Miami. Hurricane-force winds extend out only 50 miles from the eye, so if it stays as forecast we won't even experience that because Miami is 90 miles from here. Plus, I read on a weather site that the forecast track has been intentionally charted further west than all the computer models have predicted, in what is essentially a CYA move in case the storm would veer back west. So the situation is better than the charts even show.

In the worst case scenario it remains a Cat 5 and instead of hitting Miami or going off the east coast, it heads right at Naples. Well, I just get in the car and drive away. Hurricane conditions sloooowly deteriorate. There is time to leave (even though I don't think it will come to that.) Irma is still 1,115 miles and 4 days away from my house in Naples. There's time.

You staying put or leaving, Hellshade?

I'm staying put. Newly installed Cat 4/5 Windows and doors. Water, Generator, far enough from the coastline to have zero worries about storm surge or coastal flooding. As you say, current track far to the east will probably not even hit with anything more than Tropical Storm force winds unless a pretty good shift in the forecast. Should be good!

I wish you guys the best of luck it sounds as if your are well prepared. Take care it would be hard for me to leave everything too.

Best of luck. Hellshade. Stay safe...

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Hellshade and Jim, stay safe over there in hurricane alley. I know you two are veterans when it comes to these storms but Mother Nature can be a real b**tch when she wants to be, so hunker way down.

Hayle55, hope you and yours are all safe and sound after Harvey's visit.

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I agree with all that, Hellshade. Sounds as if you'll be alright.

Thanks, Lou! We're looking good and I have one eye on the NHC website at all times--I don't watch the TV, too much hysteria and terrorizing. Just a waiting game now, to see when/where the north turn is. If it is delayed and Irma heads straight for Naples, we'll leave sometime Saturday. That's worst-case Plan B though. Plan A is to stay.

Right now, another beautiful day here in SWFL! Irma is still some 900 miles away. I like when the high-altitude clouds start arriving. They have a really cool Close Encounters-ish look to them. You don't see them any other time than ahead of a tropical system. If there were no TV, radio, internet, I'd know a tropical system was coming just by the arrival of those clouds. If I take decent photos I'll post a few. Probably arrive Saturday.

All the best to ya Hellshade! My dad and stepmom live near Orlando, and I am a bit concerned for them. A friend of mine works in Key West and she is evacuating, and another friend works for the Florida Dept. of Transportation and plans to hunker down in one of their command centers.

Regards,

Jeff.

Batten down the hatches, JFM and Hellshade! Stay safe and let us know how you are doing as soon as you are able.

All safe. Thank you.

Stay safe guys, good luck, keep us posted if you can.

Of course yes, everyone in the path of this, be safe! Did not want to be remiss

Jeff

Take care guys, we'll be waiting to hear from you on the other side. Your escape routes could be cut off even though your home is fine, that happened to a couple of friends around Houston. Irma means to kill, she's fierce business. I've never had to wait out a storm (the worst we get are cat3 equivalents) so we want to hear all about it later :-)

Keep safe Gentlemen and remember, if you see any flying monkeys or talking lions, you might actually be in Kansas.

My thoughts and prayers to all in the path, especially those here who are affected or who have friends/loved ones close by. I have friends in PR, Miami, and Orlando, and my sister an dher husband and two kids, as well as my mother, are in Winter Haven. Mom's in a stout apartment building with a generator and is already boarded up - she'll stay with a (99yr old) friend on the 2nd floor. Sis is putting on the hurricane shutters, hoping and praying. Take care, stay safe!

Good luck, guys!

Thank you, Gentlemen.

I have finished clearing everything that could become a missile out of the yard (damn the girlfriend loves her potted plants!). The new AC unit I got last year is hurricane rated and has metal tie straps onto the concrete slab so it should be good. Windows are top end stuff so I guess I will have the "fun" of looking directly out at the storm as it happens. I plan to back the cars up against the garage door and tie strap the hell out of the door to the frame for a little extra strength. Water, dry goods and a generator. That's as good as I can make it. As Patton said, you can prepare a plan, prepare the troops and after that it's up to the Grace of God. I'm between Fort Myers and Labelle, so every mile west of the center of the state it comes in, the more of a direct hit it may be. I guess they are thinking anywhere from 80 to 130 MPH winds depending on a variety of factors. I'm thinking 80 - 100 should be ok but every MPH north of that, depending on how long it is sustained, starts changing the odds for the potential of real damage.

Let the fun begin.

You will of course, let us know how you come out after it has passed. Best wishes to all affected.

I will. But FYI to Polovski, if WOTR releases while I'm out of power I'm going to be very unhappy.

Maybe Irma should wait 2 weeks?

Hellshade, the latest models have Irma making a beeline straight towards Ft. Meyers as a category 3 or 4. Are you sure still planning to ride it out at home? Are you near the coast?

Please stay safe, buddy.

Yep. It's look like it will hit at Cat 4, near Cat 5 strength. I'm inland a bit, to the east of Fort Myers but I literally just got the alert on my phone that I can expect 95 to 115 MPH winds within the next 36 hours, with Tropical Storm force winds starting as early as tomorrow afternoon and expected to last until Monday morning. I bought a cinder block home instead of a wood home, so that helps, but I have to wonder how well the roof will last under such a prolonged assault. This is not going to be just a few hours experience because Irma is so large. Still, I've done all that I can and I'd rather be in my home than some shelter.

I hold out some small hope that the storm will continue to shift west over the next few advisories (which come out at 11pm, 5am, 11am & 5pm every day for storm track information). Every few miles it does so takes me further away from the most intense winds.

As long as you are far enough away from the coast, the main concern I guess, is the wind. 115 mph winds are very iffy when it comes to your roof; I guess it depends on how long you have to experience hurricane force winds. My thoughts will be with you and your loved ones this weekend. Take care.

JFM, stay very safe, the last NHC report is not good. Don't take any risk. My best wishes are with Floridians.

Best of luck boys. Seen Sandy, Hugo, Gloria, and Andrew. Like JFM says and I agree.. prep and it's easy. Can't stop everything, but you can be prepared for it and have a plan.

Let us know how you are doing when you can. We have family in Port St. Lucie, and Brooksville/Weekie Wachie... so we're a little nervous in my household.

Stay in touch,

James
OvS

From Intellicast.com. latest info on track.

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We'll be thinking of you all down there, sure looks like this one is going to test all the preparations in the harshest terms. Hope to hear from you soon that you're OK.

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+1

Keeping you both in my thoughts. Please be safe and let us know how you are holding up when you can.

Thanks guys. The farther off shore it goes, the farther away from me the worst of the hurricane force winds will be. I am completely hunkered down with the best preparations I can make. I expect to lose power at some point tomorrow and given the size of the storm, don't expect it back for a few weeks. I will be in touch as soon as I can though and hopefully its relatively good news.

Hoping the best for you both. Seems you have done all you can do. Our thoughts are with you.

Hope all is well with everyone that were hit with the Hurricane.

My best wishes for you guys. Everything seems to get back to normality now, hope your relatives, house and belongings are safe and undamaged.

We survived. Irma hit my town as a Cat 3 right square in the face. Fortunately i only lost some roof shingles and my water system got wrecked. Of course nobody has any power and i literally just got cell phone bars a few minutes ago, finally.

If you have facebook, one of my friends who stayed with me shot some video looking diectly out the garage door windows. You can see his car antenna in the vuvideo as he had parked his vehicles sideways in front of my garage to help mitigate some of the wind. I have some great video also but it might be a few days before i can upload it.

Comments
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155429504275310&id=685715309

Estimated windspeeds were around 125mph.

Hellshade,

So glad to hear you folks made it through reasonably untouched. It will probably take some time to get water, power and services back in order but at least there were no major losses for you.

Best Regards Mate!!

Helllshade, good news for sure. Glad you made it through without any major loss. Hope you can get the water system back up soon. I know it will take some time to get your life back in order but glad to hear you are ok. Thank you for letting us know you are ok.

Great to hear, Hellshade. I wonder how JFM fared, anyone heard from him?

Hey all! I talk to Uncleal regularly over at the Quarter Moon Saloon. Unfortunately I haven't heard anything from him since Friday. He lives in Fort Myers. Sure hope he's ok.

This is what it looked like outside my back window when the eyewall hit us, which is the most intense part of the storm. 125MPH winds and that was after 3 or 4 hours of steadily increasing hurricane force winds of 75MPH or more. Gotta say the new hurricane protection windows did an awesome job of keeping the sound down and the wind out. I guess I got them just in time!



30 minutes later we entered into the eye itself. Fortunately the back half of the eyewall fell apart and it never picked up to be as bad as the first half of the storm again. 4 hours of hurricane is enough for me.

Hellshade... glad you guys are OK. I hope the same for JFM and UncleAl.

My folks in Port St. Lucie said it wasn't as bad as suggested and my mother-in-law in Brooksville/Weekie-Wachie said it was rough, but minimal damage.

Hey guys! Uncleal finally checked in. He had a bit of engine trouble and was down behind the lines for a few days, but he's back in the officers' mess, knockin' 'em back like always!

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I hope all you folks down there are managing to get things back into at least operational order, I know the full clean up will take much longer. I tried to call JFM but was not able to connect, fingers crossed he is OK.

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Widespread power outages and full shortages all through southwest florida. I might not get power back until sept 22nd. Lets hope that assessment is overly conservative.

Can I assume you have a generator for the house and a good supply of gas/diesel?

Can I assume you have a generator for the house and a good supply of gas/diesel?

Just a small generator that runs a fan. Gas lines have been up to an hour and a half long, though those are starting to get better. My water system is wrecked but the guy is on his way here this morning to install a new one for me. Thats a punch to the checkbook but gotta do it.

Houses just a few blocks from me now have power, so hopefully the fun ends soon.

👍

Day 8 of no power and no water. Guess who will be getting either a generator or solar system in the coming months?

Can a solar power system be transportable ? Just asking, because if it stays outside during the storm, there could be bad consequences, meaning no power for you, and risks for your neighbours.

Got my power back last night! Power and water but no internet connectivity probably until the end of the week. Hopefully in time for the patch! Spent last night doing all the laundry, including the bed sheets, vacuumed the floor, dusted and cleaned all the mirrors, windows and glass table tops. Got the dishes done and put away. Totally cleaned both bathrooms and even straightened up the bedroom a bit. All before my girlfriend got home. Boy was she happy.

As for the future, I think I am going to look into a Generac. It's got a propane tank you bury underground and a generator (looking at 9kw version) that senses when the power goes out and automatically kicks in. It also costs a hell of a lot less than solar too. Still going to hurt the checkbook but I'd rather not go through this mess again.

Well that was unexpected. I got my internet back at home a week sooner than they said I would. Sweet.

Pol, you can release the new WOFF patch and WOTR now. Thanks for holding off on those.

Right on Hellshade!
So ya, Pol, since he's all up and running again, you can release those now, (WOFF patch and WOTR) I'll even buy a round for everyone.

Geez, now I see that Hurricane Maria is a cat 4 and heading towards the florida coast. Hope it swings out and up into the atlantic again and misses the coast.

No expert project Maria to hit Florida, maybe Carolinas or Virginia, but not as a hurricane.

Lost power again last night but got it back this morning. Would really like to skip hurricanes for the rest of the year.

When is that patch coming out? I want to fly it before the next hurricane. LOL

Ahoy! We have power and our phone landline came back yesterday.

Short story: We wound up leaving Saturday morning. I didn't want to go but it was forecast as a Cat 5 direct hit then in the Florida Straights. My two elderly in-laws were adamant about leaving and I couldn't let them attempt it alone. Me, wife, two kids, in-laws, and three dogs drove to just across the state line in Georgia. Drive was hell, bumper-to-bumper/stop-and-go. In Georgia, Irma hit as a tropical storm but the place was so freaked out by that that everything shut down, so we had to live on snacks we had brought with us. Being a Floridian now, I left with shorts and a t-shirt but it was 60 degrees, windy and raining in GA--I don't even think about places being cold in September! So I froze to death. We left there after two days and went to Tampa--another hell drive--and stayed there for days until the power came back on. I was dying to return anyway but was outvoted by everyone. I thought we'd be gone two days but NINE days later we came back. Thankfully by then the drive from Tampa to Naples was 85 mph.

House survived. Damage to roof shingles and soffits. Lost our lanai cage, though. I theorize the tree in back came down on the corner and once the structural integrity was compromised, the wind did the rest. When we got home the cage was a mass of twisted wreckage. I had metal, screws, screens, and about 5000 bushels of leaves and twigs in the pool, too. We came back on Sunday and I worked all week to get the cage dismantled, broken down, dragged to the curb, pool cleaned, etc. Back in shape now! We were on the verge of upgrading the pavers and pool tiles out there anyway, and we have leaks in the pool and have to resurface it at least, so we have to do all that before we get a new cage.

I'm with Hellshade. I'm getting a whole house generator. I've also calculated how much water we need to survive for 2-4 weeks and will stockpile that amount August-through-November, replenished yearly. I'll also have stockpiles of food and gasoline that I'll accumulate the same months, and I already have plenty of weapons to discourage looters. I want our house and cars to be self-sufficient off-the-grid for a few weeks when the next hurricane hits. There will be a next one; just a matter of when, not if. Hopefully, not for a while! But I'm not leaving again. Sucked not being here to see the damage and initiate repairs, etc. In-laws can just hunker down here or call Delta; I've already advised them. Naples survived a Cat 3/4 direct hit--I saw the airport clocked a 142 mph gust--and the house survived with very minor damage, and no damage that would have endangered any occupants in any way. I'll just make this place a self-sustaining fortress and stay right here.

I'll attach photos in a following post.

Hopefully I manage to attach photos here.

ugh. Sorry for the damage, JFM. Hopefully nothing else took too big a hit.

Several houses lost their cages on our street but that was the worst of it. Not far away in Bonita (off exit 116) there are houses still flooded. I'll take a destroyed lanai cage to two feet of flooding every day!

Cool videos, btw! Forgot to mention that earlier.

Good play for the future JFM!! Don't forget to hurricane proof your windows (and boarding up capabilities), and have a safe enclosed reinforced room to hole up in.

Glad to see things didn't get out of hand at your residence.

Cheers mate!

Jim, defiantly invest in the shutters. My folks in Port St. Lucie have them and use them every year now it seems. Can't trust these stroms or the predictions that go with them.

I'm glad everyone is alright and there was only minimal damage to your home.

All the best,

James
OvS

Good to hear you guys came though okay.

Just FYI, I have NO shutters and my windows are fine. But don't worry, I agree, shutters are part of the fortress plan!

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Jim, very glad to see that you and yours also made it through the storm. All things considered it does appear you got by with fairly minimal damage and loss. And to that generator, I also need to invest in one, but for a different reason - heat in the winter when a monster blizzard takes out our power for any length of time at all.

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I'm glad everyone is OK especially after such a very close shave. It must be pretty stressful all round especially stuck in traffic when trying to leave the area.

Hope all goes well with fixing up.