I was in Marathon on vacation until yesterday. We were scheduled to fly out yesterday so we didn’t have trouble finding a flight. There was a mandatory evacuation down in the keys where I was at that said we had to be out by sunrise yesterday. The resort said we were fine heading back up at checkout time (11am) but we left at 9am and didn’t hit any traffic driving up to FLL. But damn the gas stations were crazy. Luckily the day before we filled up so we were fine. But no chance we could fill up the rental car with gas before the airport.
We had great weather though. Went snorkeling in Key Largo on Saturday, SCUBA diving on Sunday. We went offshore fishing 25 miles out on Tuesday and the conditions were perfect and we had a lot of fish. We were the only boat going out of the marina in Marathon because everyone else had canceled. Our captain put his boat out of the water right after we got back though. The locals are taking this one very serious, more so than any other ones (from the people I talked to). Everything was pretty much closing down on Tuesday and yesterday as we were heading out it was a ghost town with most places boarded up. So it looks like they are preparing well.
Best of luck to them hope they are safe down there.
I’m getting really worried about my friends and family back home. I just heard Irma reached 185 mph winds, that’s some apocalyptic level power. By comparison the devastating Hurricane Andrew was 175 mph and this one has the potential to get even stronger due to the warmer waters near the Floridian coast.
To my fellow Floridian SRKers, I wish you safe travels if you’re evacuating and good luck if you’re hunkered down.
My thoughts go out to all who have endured Harvey as well.
Earlier this week, was 50-50 flying out of here/hunkering down. Never had to crate cats for flight. That would be my only concern. That and finding flights out of here. Think I might be too late on that front. On top of THAT shit, dad’s on oxygen (copd) and mom came down with flu yesterday. Looks like I’m hunkering. Fuck. Got supplies, 7 charged power banks, “anti-personnel ranged and melee implements”, meds, hard currency and water for if we survive the storm.
We live in an oceanfront house about an hour north of Miami, evacuated to a resort in Orlando (my family’s wierd) where we’ll wait out the storm until Tuesday. On the plus side, this place has generators and about 150 Coast Guardsmen on site. Stay safe everyone.
My brother made it through Irma! He was able to get into a NPS shelter. Haven’t heard anything else about his home, but at least he’s safe. Getting ready for round 2 I imagine.
Man with the South getting hurricanes and the West burning I’m waiting for some stupid stuff to happen in the Midwest to balance the scales. Just stay safe folks!
Adjusted models say my area will be hit with 96-115mph winds. No word on whether that’s sustained or gusts. That’s better, but still. Irma’s hitting gusts of 200mph (wtf?!) as it goes by Cuba.
It’s amazing. My dad doesn’t really seem concerned, and cares more about where to park the car. He’s talking to me about his radiology treatment next month, while I’m just trying to get stuff done to give us a better chance of getting through the weekend without preventable damage. Nobody around here except for people from out of town who recently moved here seem to give a shit. We even got hookers still prowling street corners, like the meth they buy with that money will save them in their trailers.
And wtf is up with these local newscasters being so cheerful as they describe what’s going to happen in the area they’re broadcasting a 12-minute drive from? Are news buildings THAT secure? I want some of what THEY have, in that case. Evacuate my ass right into channel 13’s newsroom, posing as a boom mic operator.
I’m in Jacksonville, all projections I saw show Irma still a category 3 when it finally gets here on Sunday night/Monday morning. Windows are boarded up on the house. I got a portable Ryobi radio that I thought could run off batteries like AA but it needs a 18v lithium battery that has to be connected to it. No store had a charger to charge up the 18 volt battery that connects to the radio…did you know you can up the voltage output of a 9 volt battery if you stack them? I just happened to have a handful of 9 volt batteries that I clicked together like Legos, then I ran automotive wiring I had laying around from a negative and positive on the battery stack into the radio and it works. I swear it felt like a fucking puzzle straight out of Resident Evil 1 or 2. Just in case we lose power/internet, at least we can listen to updates on the radio.
Yeah if you wire any battery in Series (like you clicking 9 volts together like Legos) you increase the max voltage by all the total voltages of each battery added in the chain.
You can do the same with 12 AA, C or D batteries (they are all 1.5 volts). C and D batteries will just last longer than the Double A batteries.