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Hurricane Irma

Watching and praying for all of y'all in the path of the storm. Be safe.
 
If you have the chance I'd at least lop tree branches. Last cyclone we had, a falling branch took out our power line and we were without power for 2 weeks. Also had one whole tree fall on the car. But mercifully very slowly, so no major damage.
TV showing those major traffic jams, I'm surprised people aren't running out of gas right there on the highway.
 
Helenthereef said:
TV showing those major traffic jams, I'm surprised people aren't running out of gas right there on the highway.
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Actually I've been using a couple of apps on the cell phone (GasBuddy & Waze) and it looks like a lot of gas stations along I-10 headed west have run, or are running, out of gasoline. Waze has been showing very heavy traffic with quite a few traffic jams. Also showing some cars stopped along the road, that just might be cars that ran out of gasoline after failing to find a station that had any supply.

Even if it gets to looking bad, I think the only option for us at this point is to stay put. As long as the eye goes overland and doesn't move into the Gulf, with the eye staying west of us, we will be on the weaker side of the storm.

I've got two battery powered chainsaws, one AC powered, and another gasoline powered, in case I need to be cutting trees that got pushed over. Winds should be coming out of the north, and fortunately there isn't anything real close in the way of big pine trees on that side of the house. From what we saw last year, with these big pine trees, usually just the tops of them snap off and drop down to the base of the tree anyway.

Not sure how much propane is in the tank to feed the Onan generator, but I'm guess should be enough for at least a week straight. I could stretch that out quite a bit by shutting it down to use it sparingly.

Oh yeah, the site (Intellicast) I have been using to track the storm for tracking info for some reason stopped displaying the forecast track. I click on the link and it gives me a message "There are currently no active tropical storms reported." Seriously? I mean SERIOUSLY??? Talk about a "fair weather" friend.... :face_palm_02:

Anyway, if power goes out here Sunday night or Monday, so does this internet access. Hmm, I guess maybe my smartphone would work, but I kind of doubt I would get THAT desperate.
 
Rich,Jon, and everyone else that may be in the path of the storm please be careful and keep us posted if at all possible.
 
I was watching some videos on YouTube about the storm, and one of that had a reply that almost had me choking myself laughing out loud.

GERENDAZEE 5 hours ago

PEOPLE WHO ARE STAYING IN FLA - ESPECIALLY THOSE IN THE FAR SOUTH ARE FOOLS. TOTAL IDIOTS. THEY WILL NOT SURVIVE. IF THEY DO SURVIVE THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH A BATTERY OF REPTILES UNLIKE ANYTHING THEY HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE. GIANT BURMESE PYTHONS UP TO 15 FEET LONG , ENORMOUS MONITOR LIZARDS, GIANT MAN EATING ANACONDA SNAKES AND THESE REALLY UGLY TEGU LIZARDS RUNNING UP ALL THE TREES TO SAFETY. EVENTUALLY PEOPLE WILL BE SWIMMING / WALKING ALONG IN THE WATER WITH AN OVER ABUNDANCE OF VERY HUNGRY MAN EATING ALLIGATORS ONCE IRMA HAS PASSED . . . THE TEGU LIZARDS MAY NOT KILL YOU BUT THEY MAY TAKE A NASTY ASS BITE AND ALL THE REST OF THESE EXOTIC AND ENORMOUS REPTILES DO EAT HUMANS. JUST IMAGINE HOW MUCH WATER IS GOING TO BE PUSHED INLAND FROM THE EVERGLADES. ALL OF THE LIZARDS AND SNAKES WILL BE SWIMMING IN THE STREETS WITH ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE STANDING WATER ONCE THE STORM IS GONE. . . IMAGINE JUST HOW MANY THOUSANDS OF REPTILES WILL TAKE OVER ALL OF FLA AND POPULATE ALL STANDING WATER IN FLA AFTER IRMA IS GONE. THAT IS MORE FRIGHTENING THAN THE CAT 4 OR 5 IRMA HERSELF. TAKE A LOOK AT THE SNAKES IN FLA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_LIuzEoJ_Y SEE THE HUGE MAN EATING NILE CROCODILES TAKING OVER FLA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZvUBUwEAqE SEE THE TEGU LIZARDS FALLING FROM THE TREES IN FLA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_YoUbLwy8w SEE TERRIFYING ATTACKS ON HUMANS BY ANACONDA HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJNZWcMy7P4 NOW WHYYY THE HELL WOULD ANY RATIONAL PERSON SUBJECT THEMSELVES TO LIKELY DROWNING OR A PAINFUL AND HORRIFYING DEATH BY ONE OF THE DEADLY SNAKES OR REPTILES ON EARTH JUST WAITING FOR A HUMAN MEAL??? GET OUT OF FLA OR. . . Bon Appétit TO THE REPTILES.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apQGPBN7-V4

The video itself is pretty much a bust for providing any useful information, so I wouldn't recommend wasting 18 and a half minutes of your life like I did mine.
 
Ugh. Track shifted west, Irma's predicted to go into the gulf and straight up the west coast of Florida. The east side of the storm is the worst.

SHE'S HEADING YOUR WAY RICH!
 
bcr229 said:
Ugh. Track shifted west, Irma's predicted to go into the gulf and straight up the west coast of Florida. The east side of the storm is the worst.

SHE'S HEADING YOUR WAY RICH!
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Where are you seeing a track predicting that path? I've been watching pretty closely and haven't seen anything predicting it moving into the Gulf. Not that I could do anything about it anyway. LOTS of service stations out of gasoline from the evacuations south of us. I doubt there would be a place to stay within a day's driving distance even if we could find gasoline along the way. So whatever happens, looks like we are stuck here. If it looks REALLY bad, then the best we could do is to drive as far north as we can get on a half tank of gasoline and hope for the best.

This is the latest (as of 11:00 am today) that I am seeing.
 

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And I've been watching Ventusky and these are the predicted position of Irma at 11:00 am on Monday using the three different modeling methods they offer.
 

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She keeps pushing further west with every update...

I do hope the eye passes to the east of you, my understanding is that the east side of the storm is the worst. I don't envy anyone on the west coast this weekend.
 
All of you guys living down south have been on my mind!
I've had to evacuate and then re-build with animals in the picture before and it's terrible. Long ago I made up my mind to just be prepared and shelter in place (except in raging fires--no real ability to shelter there,) and my thoughts with anyone doing so in the wake of the weather heading towards you.

If there's anything you guys need in the aftermath or the clean-up, once this is all said and done be sure and let us know.
 
bcr229 said:
She keeps pushing further west with every update...

I do hope the eye passes to the east of you, my understanding is that the east side of the storm is the worst. I don't envy anyone on the west coast this weekend.
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Again, what models are you looking at to see this change in the track to the west? I've been watching all day, and the track is pretty much identical for every update.
 

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Wherever it heads now, I'd think you're now better off staying put than risking getting caught out on the highway.

On the pro side, maybe all those rampaging monster snakes will take care of Rich's squirrel-in-the-bamboo patch problem.... :rofl:
 
WebSlave said:
Where are you seeing a track predicting that path? I've been watching pretty closely and haven't seen anything predicting it moving into the Gulf.
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Again, what models are you looking at to see this change in the track to the west? I've been watching all day, and the track is pretty much identical for every update.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what every news station is stating and every online report I can find since this morning has stated. The track shifted west and going up the gulf coast.

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/irma-pounding-cuba-cat-3-likely-be-cat-3-or-4-florida

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graph...ind+png/204937_5day_cone_no_line_and_wind.png

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/storminfo/11L_tracks_latest.png

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-irma-shifts-course-takes-aim-tampa/


https://apnews.com/8aeee2664ccb42fd...fts:-The-prime-target-is-now-Tampa,-not-Miami
 

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What I am talking about is the eye of the storm being directly over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which would help to keep it's strength up and even likely increase in strength. As long as the eye (or general center of the storm) is over land, it should weaken the storm dramatically before it gets up to north Florida. Theoretically, anyway.

If the storm moves over water tomorrow, we are throwing stuff into the Jeep and heading west or northwest away from here. Otherwise, we will ride it out and just hope for the best. As long as we can keep moving away from the storm at a pace faster than the storm is moving, that will be OK. The Jeep doesn't seem very fragile, so it will get us where we need to go. Whatever damage takes place here will happen whether we are here or not, as we are in no danger of flooding, and only falling trees are my main worry.

We've got the generator fixed, a backup gasoline powered one, plenty of food in the freezer, and our water comes from our own pump, which Connie runs through a distiller for our drinking water. So we are good. No one has come around asking us to write our names and social security numbers on our arms with magic markers so they can identify the bodies afterwards.
 
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