Good to hear an update!!!
Irma, like any strong woman, has a mind of her own. Will be pretty much hugging the west coast of Florida.
My area expecting about 90 mph wind gusts rain, which we will take anydaý.
Thanks for the update TPM, and to all Floridians stay safe.
Update...prime target now Tampa, not Miami.
Would it be in poor taste to say I hope she takes out the Trop? Probably, but ah, heck, I'll say it anyway. I hope all the people of the "other bay area" stay safe, and the Trop takes all that Irma can dish out.
My sister lives north of Tampa (Lutz) and they are hunkered down, waiting for the storm. There has been a mandatory evacuation order but only for those in flood zones and those in mobile homes. If you haven't left by now, might as well stay put unless in a flood zone or a mobile home.
Has been a rough 24 hours but we are good! Not something that we wish to do again for a long time. I haven't been home yet but my neighbor said he hasn't had a chance to access any damage, lots of people had leaks they never knew existed until Irma.
Since we had no power here at daughters, just now getting a chance to watch the news. Hope that everyone survived the storm.
Every news person who has said "Irma is ONLY a catagory 2 hurricane now" should be fired. What's a mear 100 mph winds in the scheme of things? Idiots.
School closed Monday and Tuesday, an hour north of Atlanta. My boss called and said not to come in. Governor has said to stay off the roads until given the all clear. Atlanta buildings already have pieces flying off. We still don't know what we are in for.
Just got power back about 30 mins ago. We didn't have any real damage, but there are a ton of trees down in the neighborhood. We used the redneck mobile to drag a couple of large trees out of the street so that there is a route to get out of our neighborhood to the main roads. We were probably 100 miles or so from the eye and the winds gusted to hurricane strength, but I don't think they stayed there consistently.
Heard from my mom and sister all good. Lots of water and debris everywhere. Miami dodged a silver bullet for sure.
The whole state dogged a bullet. Just trees down, power lines. Lots of lessons learned after Wilma.
We were prepared.
Update. The worst part f the storm seems to be taking place on the east coast, record flooding in Orlando up to Jax. 10 deaths reported in Florida Keys.
No damage at my sisters house just north of Tampa. Small limbs down and backyard flooded, but no water came in the house. Never lost power, but it did blink a few times.
Does anyone have info on how Ft Myers faired?
My prayers and thoughts are with everyone affected by Irma. Stay safe!
Birdman14, sent you a PM
TPM posted:The whole state dogged a bullet. Just trees down, power lines. Lots of lessons learned after Wilma.
We were prepared.
I take this back. After watching the news, the Keys have been devastated. Jacksonville major flooding and several communities along the west coast flooded or torn apart.
6.5 million people are without power.
I am very lucky . How we managed to come home to power and a few water spots is amazing.
TPM posted:TPM posted:The whole state dogged a bullet. Just trees down, power lines. Lots of lessons learned after Wilma.
We were prepared.
I take this back. After watching the news, the Keys have been devastated. Jacksonville major flooding and several communities along the west coast flooded or torn apart.
6.5 million people are without power.
I am very lucky . How we managed to come home to power and a few water spots is amazing.
Glad to hear you're one of the more fortunate ones. 
My sister in Winterhaven had minimal damage. She'ts going back today (from Atlanta)
Our places in Ft Myers were not damaged. My son's house in Naples was in the predicted 10-15 foot storm surge area, but that didn't happen, he lost a few tiles off the roof. Clean up and power outage are the main issues. The baseball fields are fine. All in all, pretty darn lucky for the most part. Once power is restored everywhere everything should be fairly normal. Sounds like other than Key West, Miami and Jacksonville received the most damage.
IMO the news is centered on the more familiar areas to most of the country. There are many places unfamiliar to most tjat were hit hard, especially those places where crops come from and migrant workers have no place to go.
Naples took a really hard hit. 6 feet storm surge, gusts of 140mph. Marco Island hit bad, sunny isles in Miami devastated.
Not everyone has insurance, not everyone has generators.
Those poor people in the carribean, they had nothing before and will have more of nothing now.
I'm in Titusville, FL and still without power... Borrowing an almost new 7500 generator from an extremely generous friend on Wednesday whose power came back on... Very fortunate, now have fridge, freezer, some desk fans, toaster oven, TV and Internet. The heat at night, even with a good size oscillating table fan blowing 3-feet from my head is pretty bad... It was 88º last night and I was just sweating laying in bed... Got up to rinse off twice in the cold shower... Got a good solid 4.5 hours of sleep, which was better than the 2-3 hours the last 3 days... The temperature got to 76º at like 4:00 am, so I took a couple advil and was able to fall asleep before my 6 am work wake-up alarm... The cold shower was actually VERY refreshing... Feel horrible for my wife who's back at home... Driving the hour into work in AC and sitting at my desk here is like a damn vacation... FPL says we might have power by the 17th... No damage to the house, just the front fence gate fell down, so we're very fortunate... People here are in MUCH, MUCH more dire straights... If I-75 floods, things might get really worse for the west-coast... People living blocks and blocks away from rivers are being slowly flooded out of their homes... It's freakin' horrible to watch! Personally, we got very lucky, because Irma was the absolute worst storm I've ever been through in my 30 years of living in FL... I feel if you took all the storms I've been through and put them together they still wouldn't be as powerful as Irma...
Bolts-Coach-PR posted:I'm in Titusville, FL and still without power... Got an almost new 7500 generator from a friend on Wednesday whose power came back on... Very fortunate, now have fridge, freezer, some desk fans, toaster oven, TV and Internet. The heat at night, even with a good size oscillating table fan blowing 3-feet from my head is pretty bad... It was 88º last night and I was just sweating laying in bed... Got up to rinse off twice in the cold shower... Got a good solid 4.5 hours of sleep, which was better than the 2-3 hours the last 3 days... The temperature got to 76º at like 4:00 am, so I took a couple advil and was able to fall asleep before my 6 am work wake-up alarm... The cold shower was actually VERY refreshing... Driving the hour into work in AC and sitting at my desk here is like a damn vacation... FPL says we might have power by the 17th... No damage to the house, just the front fence gate fell down, so we're very fortunate... People here are in MUCH, MUCH more dire straights... If I-75 floods, things might get really worse for the west-coast... People living blocks and blocks away from rivers are being slowly flooded out of their homes... It's freakin' horrible to watch! Personally, we got very lucky, because Irma was the absolute worst storm I've ever been through in my 30 years of living in FL... I feel if you took all the storms I've been through and put them together they still wouldn't be as powerful as Irma...
I hope it happens sooner for you than the 17th. I've heard swimming for 15 minutes before bed will lower your core temperature to make the heat slightly more bearable.
I take I-75 into work in GA and there have been a lot of Florida plates this week headed South. I do hope they aren't headed back into a flooded I-75.
Irma flooding threatens I-75, key Florida highways
Bolts-Coach-PR posted:Irma flooding threatens I-75, key Florida highways
Yikes!!! Coach Dave leaving for Tallahassee for tournament.
We sent 18 tank wagons out this morning from our PA locations. They will be supporting the utility companies by providing refueling services to their crews repairing the lines and poles.
Day 5 still no power... Not complaining, because I know others have it way, way worse than us... Super frustrating when your next door neighbor has power and asks, "Why you running a generator? You don't have power?" WTF lady? Really??? Every house across the street, on the same block, has power too... FPL had parked a truck next door at like 7pm and we were like maybe tonight...? Then it started to storm, so he took off, can't do linework in the rain and lightning... Caught a break with the rain, cooled the house down to about 80º or so and was able to get around 6 hours of sleep... Thought I put enough gas in the generator at 6:30 am, but it just died and wife is unhappier now than she was before... FU IRMA!!!
Bolts-Coach-PR posted:Day 5 still no power... Not complaining, because I know others have it way, way worse than us... Super frustrating when your next door neighbor has power and asks, "Why you running a generator? You don't have power?" WTF lady? Really??? Every house across the street, on the same block, has power too... FPL had parked a truck next door at like 7pm and we were like maybe tonight...? Then it started to storm, so he took off, can't do linework in the rain and lightning... Caught a break with the rain, cooled the house down to about 80º or so and was able to get around 6 hours of sleep... Thought I put enough gas in the generator at 6:30 am, but it just died and wife is unhappier now than she was before... FU IRMA!!!
Stay strong! Silly question, did you check the breaker.
real green posted:Bolts-Coach-PR posted:Day 5 still no power... Not complaining, because I know others have it way, way worse than us... Super frustrating when your next door neighbor has power and asks, "Why you running a generator? You don't have power?" WTF lady? Really??? Every house across the street, on the same block, has power too... FPL had parked a truck next door at like 7pm and we were like maybe tonight...? Then it started to storm, so he took off, can't do linework in the rain and lightning... Caught a break with the rain, cooled the house down to about 80º or so and was able to get around 6 hours of sleep... Thought I put enough gas in the generator at 6:30 am, but it just died and wife is unhappier now than she was before... FU IRMA!!!
Stay strong! Silly question, did you check the breaker.
There's 12 houses on our street that are on the same transformer... We are like a no power island...
You are in Orlando right, Lake Mary? My sister lives in the area ... a little bit north. No issues.
Goblue33 posted:You are in Orlando right, Lake Mary? My sister lives in the area ... a little bit north. No issues.
Was... Now live near the coast in Titusville...
Bolts-Coach-PR posted:Day 5 still no power... Not complaining, because I know others have it way, way worse than us... Super frustrating when your next door neighbor has power and asks, "Why you running a generator? You don't have power?" WTF lady? Really??? Every house across the street, on the same block, has power too... FPL had parked a truck next door at like 7pm and we were like maybe tonight...? Then it started to storm, so he took off, can't do linework in the rain and lightning... Caught a break with the rain, cooled the house down to about 80º or so and was able to get around 6 hours of sleep... Thought I put enough gas in the generator at 6:30 am, but it just died and wife is unhappier now than she was before... FU IRMA!!!
Bolts -
I've got the opposite problem you have - I've got power at home but not here at our facility. I'm thankful to be able to go home to an air conditioned house, but I'm going on about 60 hours this week in an office that is currently 94 degrees.
We have generator power to run our phones and computers but not enough to run the ac units. Normally I would try to work from home, except for the fact that I have no internet there. Perfect internet here, no ac. Perfect ac there, no internet. It's like a Saturday Night LIve skit or something.
Our company handles last mile logistics for a lot of national shipping companies. One of the major accounts we service handles product shipments to Home Depot. Since the days leading up the the storm, we have been getting in dozens of trucks a day full of supplies destined for the stores. I can look out my office into the warehouse and see pallets full of generators, tarps, nails/screws/bolts, batteries, hand tools, etc. All of it will be turned around and out our doors within a few hours.
Right now we have probably 100 pallets of boxes of chlorine to use to make water drinkable that we can't get down into the keys because of the road conditions. We're just waiting on the okay to get that stuff moving. There's only one road into the keys, and it's almost impossible to get down there.
I'd really love to shut down for a day and give the staff a break, but every minute we aren't operating is a minute later getting supplies to the stores.
Our owner, lead dispatcher, and myself were all part of the company 25 years ago when Andrew hit. Actually, the 3 of us pretty much were the company back then. So, we've been through this before. Of course we were 25 years younger then...
My heart goes out to all of you. The Keys looks like a war zone.
Rob T posted:Bolts-Coach-PR posted:Day 5 still no power... Not complaining, because I know others have it way, way worse than us... Super frustrating when your next door neighbor has power and asks, "Why you running a generator? You don't have power?" WTF lady? Really??? Every house across the street, on the same block, has power too... FPL had parked a truck next door at like 7pm and we were like maybe tonight...? Then it started to storm, so he took off, can't do linework in the rain and lightning... Caught a break with the rain, cooled the house down to about 80º or so and was able to get around 6 hours of sleep... Thought I put enough gas in the generator at 6:30 am, but it just died and wife is unhappier now than she was before... FU IRMA!!!
Bolts -
I've got the opposite problem you have - I've got power at home but not here at our facility. I'm thankful to be able to go home to an air conditioned house, but I'm going on about 60 hours this week in an office that is currently 94 degrees.
We have generator power to run our phones and computers but not enough to run the ac units. Normally I would try to work from home, except for the fact that I have no internet there. Perfect internet here, no ac. Perfect ac there, no internet. It's like a Saturday Night LIve skit or something.
Our company handles last mile logistics for a lot of national shipping companies. One of the major accounts we service handles product shipments to Home Depot. Since the days leading up the the storm, we have been getting in dozens of trucks a day full of supplies destined for the stores. I can look out my office into the warehouse and see pallets full of generators, tarps, nails/screws/bolts, batteries, hand tools, etc. All of it will be turned around and out our doors within a few hours.
Right now we have probably 100 pallets of boxes of chlorine to use to make water drinkable that we can't get down into the keys because of the road conditions. We're just waiting on the okay to get that stuff moving. There's only one road into the keys, and it's almost impossible to get down there.
I'd really love to shut down for a day and give the staff a break, but every minute we aren't operating is a minute later getting supplies to the stores.
Our owner, lead dispatcher, and myself were all part of the company 25 years ago when Andrew hit. Actually, the 3 of us pretty much were the company back then. So, we've been through this before. Of course we were 25 years younger then...
Thanks brother, I appreciate it. Hope you guys get in order really soon!
Day 7... FPL now says our power 'could' be restored by tomorrow, the 18th, by 11:45pm... 6.5 million Floridians realized they don't like camping after Irma... 'Generator-life' is not as 3rd-World as I thought it would be... We were able to pick up two used Window AC units that have made a world of difference. I'm able to actually sleep! The house is cool, and there are really no complaints... The $25 a day gas bill is something I could do without though... After searching all the local appliance stores for a window AC unit, without any luck, my wife asked her local Titusville Facebook group if anyone wanted to sell or let us borrow a unit, an in literally 5 minutes we got a call from a great couple that got their power back... For $200 I got one that basically cools our entire house! There are some GREAT folks out there in the world still!!
Good for you Coach! It's stories like this that restores my faith in humanity! FWIW, sons gf lives in a very exclusive neighborhood in Boca Raton, she just got power back yesterday. We were lucky, I lie on a grid that encompasses a hospital and two fire stations, we never lost power. BTW, we are FPL, they are reimbursing for lost food. Not sure if where you are is doing the same thing.
I saw a post on FB, from a wife of an out of state line man who came to FL to help. He slept in a place for two nights without power, and has been working 10 hour days in 100 degree heat. He told her that people stop and literally curse him out over not having power, yet there are others stopping to give them cold water and food.
We got some water damage by our front door and hallway, and we were unable to open the front door. Took 3 men to do so. They came here Friday to fix. The worst part in all of this is that I hurt my back, although better I have not been able to get up and go as much as I wish. Serves me right for picking up those water bottle cases!!!!
My heart goes out to those who lost their homes, and so happy that here in Florida, people got out of the areas that flooded.
However, we do have more storms on their way.
Just in time for Maria!!!!
TPM posted:Just in time for Maria!!!!
Why bro...???
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-ni...downer/3505987?snl=1
TPM posted:Just in time for Maria!!!!
Yep. Now a cat 3 storm on track to hit Puerto Rico (direct hit). Could become a strong cat 4.