Have you left yet?
Hopefully… Nowhere to hide in Fl with Irma.
sing
PS. Just wondering how many of the original P-Net climate change deniers still around…?
@string said:
Have you left yet?
Nope but had a lot of offers even an old GF got a room at the Doral Country Club.
The media and the politicians are trying to scare everybody. Two of my little old lady neighbors had reservations in the next county and when they got there they were told the sheriff just came by and told the motel they had to evacuate tomorrow. They couldn’t find another place and ending up coming back here.
We have a very sturdy building here we can gather in. I stayed there during Wilma. So far I have four old ladies and two dogs depending on me.
The big PITA with leaving is getting back in if there are any problems on the road.
Without sounding like the B&B I think they are manipulating the forecasts just to keep us scared.
An old timer told me when she got to the Keys an old timer told her to just get a bottle of good whiskey, tie a rope to a tree and the other end to her ankle.
Sounds like a plan.
@grayhawk said:
Without sounding like the B&B I think they are manipulating the forecasts just to keep us scared.
Be careful. Attached are a couple of photos showing the aftermath at Tortola:
I stopped listening to the blathering days ago. Now, a friend tells me it is aimed at Western SC and Georgia.
I’ve been through several and I think the old lady’s advice is good.
Take care of yourself and your temporary dependants.
Computer models are looking a little better for us tonight.
Not so good for the Carolinas.
Now that they scared us half to death they are trying to scare you.
OK, guess it worked everyone here is leaving. Now they want the entire state to evac…
Well, if you want to go really north, I have a spare bedroom. Bring your kayak and warm clothes. Lots of good paddling up here, but air temps are about 20 degrees below average.
20 degrees below our normal would be about 70… perfect 
It’s 70 here.
We had to leave the safety of the mountains to come home. This should be the most interesting hurricane I will have experienced. Hopefully it falls apart or slows considerably coming up the peninsula.
Best wishes to all of our Florida paddling community friends (and others, of course) in the coming days. I’m very worried for one of our paddling friends (an Ozark rendezvouser) who bought a home two years ago in Ft. Myers very near the Sanibel causeway, which by this morning’s reports now looks to be in the direct path of the storm’s center. There are some very fine boats and an unbelievably fine piano at risk there. No answer to phone calls - must be on the road, hopefully with trailer.
This has been a rough month for our southern friends. For those who haven’t heard, CasitaAnita’s trailer in Corpus Chrisi was the only trailer in her trailer park undamaged by Harvey. (Must be good karma, eh?) I spoke with TexasLady in Beaumont last week and she and David are all right though they were “on an island” at that time. Has anyone heard from Barb & Danny, VeggieAnnie, or Osprey since Harvey?
With Harvey barely past, Irma not even ashore yet, and Jose in the pipeline… this could be a string of weather disasters like we’ve never seen in our lifetimes.
Good luck to you tjalmy, greyhawk, and everyone. Be safe.
PS: And how about Frank in Miami? I haven’t seen a recent post from him but have long enjoyed his posts. But then I haven’t been watching as closely as in the past.Anyone know him or seen him recently ?
I don’t think Frank has posted here recently, but recall reading a comment of his at another site in the past couple of months. I think there are quite a few from the Pnet community who will be affected by Irma. I’m just trusting that because they are paddlers, they’re safety conscious and have taken protective measures.
What the folks in Texas went through and what’s to come in Florida and the other states that will be impacted makes me sad.
All we who aren’t in harms way can do is help in any way we can, once we learn what the needs are.
Edited to add it was reported there are 16,000 electrical linemen and tree trimmers staged and ready to go as soon as the storm passes. That’s a bit of positive news.
Hello All! ScupperFrank in Miami here, here in Miami, tapping out this message on Grayhawk’s laptop.
We -Sally and I -have spent the past few days pepping for Irma, starting atop the roof, then going around the walls, and then working out into the yard. We have a hip-roofed house, best for minimizing wind resistance. The roof is in good shape, as I pressure-cleaned it and covered it with a good elastomeric white sealer less than a year ago. We have new, hurricane-impact windows backed -well, fronted actually -by hurricane shutters, and a house 60% without eaves to catch wind, and the eaves we have are on the newer side of the house with the garage and are 16" or less in overhang. We’ve taken all but the biggest (3+’ tall) potted plants in, or hidden them at the bases of our yard-encircling clumping areca palms, ditto for our trash containers, and half our patio furniture, the other half sharing spaces inside our bungalo in Coconut Grove. And I took the boats off the rack, lined them up in our narrow side yard, walled in by our bedroom wall and our neighbor’s garage wall, filling the cockpits -or hulls for the SOTs -with water to anchor them, so-to-speak. For Miami, we’re on high ground, about 10-11’ elevation, behind the Southeast Florida Coastal Ridge, about 15’ here in our part of Miami, that lies between us and Biscayne Bay. And finally, our house, exceping the garage, is elevated over a crawl space about 3’ high, so we’re also fairly well protected from flooding and surge effects.
We’ve got plenty of supplies from our seasonally-stocked ‘hurricane closet’, several flashlights, many candles, a couple old RR-style lanterns and fuel, and both our propane, and Grayhawks’s Coleman stove to cook with.
We have lots of water, lots of Gatorade, lots of Crystal Light, lots of iced tea fixings, and a lot of ice and 2-liter bottles of frozen water… And a couple bottles of single malt, and a couple bottles of fine sipping rum…
And we convinced Grayhawk to leave his literally right ON the water waterfront place in Key Largo to leave his beloved ‘piece of the rock’ and shelter in place with us here in the Grove.
Nothing is certain, of course, but we’re pretty comfortable sheltering in place, as the local saying goes.
That Irma has shifted west, and the pretty good and amazingly congruent forecasts of the models continue to trend in that direction augurs well for us. We all think we’ll do pretty well during the passage of the storm; what we all, not fear, but dread, is the days to weeks of post-storm mess, subsequent cleanup, and lack of power -and AC and hot water, on a personal level, and of functioning transportation system infrastructure on a community level, as a result of that loss of power. But many if not most of us grew up without AC, and many of u went thru Donna, Cleo, Betsey, Andrew, Katrina, Rita, Wilma, etc., and we’ll endure.
The worst is forecast to begin late this evening, so untl next time, let the fun begin:
LIVE FROM MAIMI, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!
See y’all on the other side…
Frank Miami(Thanx Grayhawk)
@grayhawk
You’re awesome, Frank. Really awesome. Wishing all best for you and the rest of Florida - and so glad you reeled Grayhawk in from Key Largo, as tough as that had to be for him. When mail delivery resumes, let me know your address and I’ll send you some Luci lights. Solar, bright, and better than candles.
I think Frank is a former Boy Scout. I’ve been in email contact with him and he is well prepared.
Good on ya Frank and the rest of the crew.
My Dad is 93. He was born in Miami, and has lived most of his life in Florida. His first Hurricane experience was the 1926 one that hit Miami. He was 3 and his sister a baby. My Grandmother would tell the story about the roof of the house blowing off. They waded through waist deep water to a neighbors house and warned them that their house was being blown into the neighbors house . A bunch of folks ended up in a two story apartment house that started to come apart, and everyone had to leave. By the end of the storm 10 families ended up sheltered in the only block house. One family in the neighborhood drowned inside their house. After the storm the majority of houses where flattened. They lost it all. One wall of their house fell on their car. The cloth roof was gone, and the steering wheel was broken with just 2 spokes left on the column. My grandfather drove the family to Orlando in that car without a steering wheel to stay with family that lived there.
Nine years latter they moved back to SE Florida to Dania (now called Dania Beach). They sheltered in the FPL building in 1935 during that hurricane. They only lost their garage in that one.
He lives in Longwood which is NE of Orlando, and he is boarded up and prepared for Irma. I have been calling and keeping in touch. They didn’t want to leave when I offered to bring them here.
I remember the innocent childhood joy of playing in the flooded streets with fish swimming around our feet after Donna had past, and school was still closed in 1960. My Dad’s early experiences were a bit more traumatic.
Stay safe and good luck down there everyone!
@Rookie said:
@grayhawk
You’re awesome, Frank. Really awesome. Wishing all best for you and the rest of Florida - and so glad you reeled Grayhawk in from Key Largo, as tough as that had to be for him. When mail delivery resumes, let me know your address and I’ll send you some Luci lights. Solar, bright, and better than candles.
I love my Luci lights, best emergency and camping lights ever developed. I have at least 5 on hand. Use them as a cabin light in my sailboat rather than run down the battery, Kayak and canoe camping, and when the power goes out. They are better than sliced bread!
We boarded up and left the house in NE Fla. The neighbor is “renting” our generator. Price is keeping the freezer powered.
Lounging at daughters in Alabama. Current track brings a tropical storm over the house in Alabama. Nice visit with the Grands.