Hurricane Irma please stay safe (check in later when you can)

[universal4]

It has been an interesting week to say the least.

My thoughts and prayers still go out to all those affected by the storm in Texas, and the fear that instilled in everyone in Florida as Irma has approached may have turned out to be a good thing as thousands more have evacuated the southern regions that might not have if they had not witnessed what the Texans went through.

For the first time in 12 years in this house I actually did board up the windows etc and will ride out the storm, although power and or net access may be an issue in the coming days.

It seems the storm track has been adjusted since I last looked but there is no doubt that the Key's as well as Miami area will take a serious pounding.

Everyone stay safe and check in early next week and say hello so we all know you'all are ok...

Rick

[Cash Bonus]

It has been an interesting week to say the least.

My thoughts and prayers still go out to all those affected by the storm in Texas, and the fear that instilled in everyone in Florida as Irma has approached may have turned out to be a good thing as thousands more have evacuated the southern regions that might not have if they had not witnessed what the Texans went through.

For the first time in 12 years in this house I actually did board up the windows etc and will ride out the storm, although power and or net access may be an issue in the coming days.

It seems the storm track has been adjusted since I last looked but there is no doubt that the Key's as well as Miami area will take a serious pounding.

Everyone stay safe and check in early next week and say hello so we all know you'all are ok...

Rick

Hello there Rick,

I hope all is well with you today?

I also hope that everyone is safe in the USA and Mexico also from this really horrible weather and earthquakes that they have been experiencing.

Please, be kind to each other and look after one another too.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read my post.

Have a lovely day!

[Moonlight Cat]

Hello Rick, how are you?

To be honest, only today i understand how dangerous this hurricane might be.
I born and rise on the Finland gulf coast. My city is windy, but this is nothing if we compare this with hurricanes in Florida.


The most strong wind as i seen in my life was ~ 108 km/per hour. These Florida hurricanes more than 200 km/per hour. and"Irma" more than 300 km/per hour. Very very dangerous.

p.s. today i read, that two Nuclear Power Plant in FL will be switch off during hurricane time. I think this is right descision.

[bradz21]

my fellow Floridians, be safe!

[Redbush54]

There are still a few web cams still up here.......xxxhttps://www.earthcam.com/usa/florida/miamiandthebeaches/?cam=miami77

[Cash Bonus]

Hello Everyone,

How are you?

I hope that everyone is keeping safe from Hurricane Irma?

Please, take care of yourselves, and each other also.

I don't know why there is a lot of horrible storms and chaotic weather around the globe as of late?

Apparently, Hurricane Irma is the strongest hurricane for the USA in roughly 85 years.

Here is a link to a news update about Hurricane Irma:

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel...5fe6d3f867e019

Stay safe and have a nice day too!

[Progger]

Jose is the next...smaller but stronger

[universal4]

Yea power has been a bit spotty for me but I expect it to be a bit worse in the coming hours...

The islands such as Barbuda, St Martin and others...maybe Cuba or any in that chain could see Jose in the coming days at a time when they have not recovered from Irma.

Florida was really lucky with Irma (I do not want to downplay the loss of life or property for those that may have to deal with that) but Irma weakened significantly before landfall on the mainland of Florida so it could have been far worse...and I say that carefully as I am expecting ma minimum of 50-75 MPH winds in about 2 hours.

Rick
Universal4

[sweetbet]

Dozens of people have so far been arrested for looting. How low can some people go? Unbelievable!!

[Miles_Videoslots]

Wish everyone a Safe place and hope those affected are looked after .. I have never seen such destruction it must be a terrible and terrifying thing to live through

[Roulette Zeitung]

Dozens of people have so far been arrested for looting. How low can some people go? Unbelievable!!

This hordes of lowlifes for example:



---

I do not want to imagine, how many cats, dogs, birds, rabbits and other pets were killed in the floods of Texas and Florida. Every single pet for some family members are a huge loss, especially e.g. for children but also for all of us if we would be in that situation.

Leopold

[jarvi]

Good to hear Rick. I had to evacuate my place. Sat it out at a friend's place for a couple of days. I was in a bad storm surge area so wasn't willing to risk staying.

Pleased so say everything is fine and my only issue is no internet. Hardly the end of the world... Friends all good and I have been helping with the clean up for the last few days. So many trees, fences, awnings etc down. I'm lucky and have power as many still do not.

We were definitely lucky on the east coast. Unfortunately that means others were not as it has to go somewhere.

[Cash Bonus]

I hope that everyone is safe and well!

[universal4]

Well it was a long and tiring week for me this past week.

The storm came and went and I am glad I managed to get at least much of the prep done in advance although some was near last minute.

The one person I had originally arranged to help with boarding up the house cancelled at the last minute so I had to hire someone else, (and pay a few extra bucks to for last minute) but glad that I did get that done.

I ended up having minimal roof damage, mostly just loss of some shingles, and mostly on the back side - south facing- part of the roof. I had one neighbor had some water damage, and one house across the street on the corner lost one window.

Oddly enough I started considering purchasing a generator near the beginning of hurricane season, and Anthony and I talked a little about it a few weeks ago after a storm hit his area but before Irma arrived, but I never managed to do so although since I had started researching it a little I had found out that the NOC owner where my server racks are had a few generators still new in the box from a container purchase he had made some years ago after one of the storms, I just had to sneak my way over to the coast just after the storm (and try and avoid curfews)

Fortunately I planned the groceries fairly well although as of 2-3 days before the storm, there was no where anywhere in central Florida where one could buy bottled water, canned goods, bread, gas cans, propane. I started making up my own ice 3-4 days before the storm hit and tried to use as much of the perishable frozen foods in advance so only had to ice down some frozen meats and using ice cubes (instead of store bought shaved ice) and good (Omaha Steaks Brand coolers - the ones made for dry ice) kept the meat really well for many days.

After having lived in Florida 33 years or so I was never worried about water itself since every season I always make sure I have at least 8 to 10 gallons of extra water that I store in juice bottles.

Managing to get the generator shortly after the storm was a real blessing since I was without power for a full week, and although I had actually rigged up a UPS's inverter to the car battery it was not enough power for lights etc.

Although I was not able to get the back feed set up and working correctly and had to use the extension cord method, the generator ran fine and kept me in lights, kept the laptop and my phones charged fine. Being able to make real coffee and not having to constantly cook instant coffee on the grill was almost like a treat....lol

The biggest problem with the generator was constantly needing to go find fuel as each day different stations would be out, and I did not have enough gas cans, so that is on the list to acquire more.

I was able to turn my phone from one provider into a hotspot, although service was a bit spotty, and I had to keep changing dns around since the service provider was pretty overloaded on a regular basis so internet was not very stable quite often.

I personally think the media attempted t make the impact in central Florida sound worse then it was, and my heart goes out to anyone that suffered and hardship or loss from this storm, but the winds were not near as strong as it possibly could have been, and south part of the state had it far worse then we did. As far as I know there were not a lot of injuries in our area so I am thankful we did ok.

Rick

[jarvi]

Seems like we have similar priorities Rick. My main concern was water. Not the kind that comes in by itself, rather fresh drinking water! I guess we are from a generation that can deal without power for a while. Quote from a friend's teenage son, "How can we open the garage door without power?" A quick lesson in the good old days had him a bit perplexed. I won't even mention the comments about the temperature five minutes after the power went out. That was even after running the a/c extra low to keep the house cooler in preparation. Lucky there was a battery backup with USB port for their phones, otherwise the adults wold have had severe ear aches.

I'm the first to criticise the media, however, it was pleasing to see many stories of people helping others. If only we could all be generous with our time and skills during the normal periods and not just the tough times. If I was to find fault with them it would be the lack of coverage of the flood in India at the same time that claimed in excess of 1200 lives. First world countries really need to understand these types of things happen with a lot more frequency and devastation in other parts of the world

[universal4]

Glad to you did ok jarvi...
What was interesting about the way this storm moved in was you guys on the coast got hammered from the north east facing bands many hours before we did. At one point I was on the phone with the NOC owner in West Melbourne...and they were under curfew over there, with no power due to trees down, and it was lovely here and we had not yet even had the first drop of rain...

It did seem like Melbourne had restoration much faster then we did in Central.

Rick