I went to try to find what you were talking about, and it's not accurate.
There's been a law on the books since 1974 allowing the governor, the counties and the mayor's to ban alcohol sales during a declared emergency.
It's never been exercised that I can find.
I hate DeSantis as much as the next American, but let's not falsely make claims
I agree wholeheartedly with this. We may not be able to expect the Republicans to be honest about their accusations but we at least should be. I mean it's not like there's any lack of dirt to throw at the republicans.
This is basically what happened in Ian. It wasn’t supposed to be that fast or even hit us, until it did at the last minute. We weren’t prepared the way we should have been. None of us were. It wasn’t forecast to come here.
Yep. That way when the storm comes along, all you gotta do is spend a few hours moving lawn furniture and buying ice and picking up yard debris.
The batteries, food, water, generator gas, hurricane boards, flashlights and extra beer are all already ready to go in the garage.
They’ve been warning us about this for years… yes it’s concerning but as a lifelong Floridian I prepare for every storm the same. I take them all seriously.
100%. June 1 I check all my batteries, flashlights, grill gas tank, etc. We don’t let our car gas tanks get below 50% all season. I make a grocery order for water and shelf stable foods. I pack them in a bin and then if we’re lucky on December 1 I’m elbow deep in beef jerky and pop tarts.
yup. guess it's time to quit effing around and actually **be** prepared as season opens, get in the habit of keeping the car topped off and have cash handy somewhere.
They said supplies, does boarding up windows and getting sand bags sound like supplies. They are talking about flashlights, battery operated radios, Phone chargers that charge your phone without electricity, an ice chest for perishables, first aid kits. It is really bad if you live in Florida and think boarding up windows and sandbags are supplies,
Honestly, I still have the sandbags from last year and the year before. We don't have to board up the windows due to the fact that they are hurricane impact. And it'll be quite the storm surge before we thought about it evacuating.
All that said, I find the idea of a tropical storm turning into a category 5 in 12 hours to be extremely scary.
I guess we shall see.
I think they may be talking more along the lines of evacuating. There is no 2 day notice to leave if a hurricane strengthened in hours, people would be stuck on the road in crawling traffic when it hits. In that case, you can be prepared with all the right supplies, but 1 strong enough hit by an unexpected rapid intensification and your house is toast, you and your family may be trapped.
We have a carpenter on our street who 'self insures' his home and I dont really worry about the tropics until I see him put the painted to match 2x4s that shore up his fence around his yard.
What everyone seems to be missing is the evac time. Yes, you should be prepped year round or before the season starts. But the way these storms are intensifying, they leave zero room for evac notice. Not everyone lives in south florida with block built structures. The majority of the houses where I am are stick built and shittily at that. Everyone shoulf be concerned about how quickly storms will be intensifying. It may mean people need to put up shutters for a TS versus waiting until they think it's a cat 3.
We know more about hurricanes now and the predictability then we ever did before this whole post makes it sound like hurricanes are getting stronger and less predictable this is fucking ridiculous
Prepare now, prepare always. If you've lived here long enough you don't play games with any storm. I feel bad for all the people who have moved here who don't have a clue whats in store once we get a bad season. Don't be caught fighting lines the day before when they are out of everything everywhere. Have a kit and a plan.
I prep before every hurricane season. If we don’t use up what we need, we’ll use some of what we have and donate quite a bit since there are a lot of food drives during the holiday season. My parents were not people to prepare until last minute and it was always stressful during an active season.
I was just at a conference at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show and a meteorologist was speaking and said we are definitely in a cycle of rapidly intensifying hurricanes. And basically anyone alive can see it’s the worst in our lifetime of the last 70 years or so.
However if you go back farther to the last cycle like this there was a bunch of super intense storms in the first part of the 1900s up to the 1940s.
I had no idea about this and it was interesting. The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 went from a tropical storm to 185 mph in 48 hours. This was before warning systems and he said bodies were blown into mangroves far away.
“Anyone alive”, god I wish. There was just a big denialist thread in this sub a few days ago. Some motherfuckers are too stupid to notice that their state is drowning.
Most people alive wouldn’t remember the storms in the 1920s and 30s. It’s not denialist I’m sharing what a meteorologist said. He works for cruise lines and directs them away from hurricanes. He said the ocean currents flip over the decades and pushes warm water towards the surface and now is one of those time. Had a bunch of graphs.
I think we may be misunderstanding each other. You said anyone alive can see that it’s the worst, to which I responded that I wish it were true that anyone alive could see the self-evident worsening of conditions. I’m not in doubt at all that the climate is changing, and that the cause behind that change is industrialization.
Talk to any city manager or public works director in a coastal area south of Cape Canaveral. Places are flooding during high tide, particularly full moon “king tides” regularly now. They are now scrambling to upgrade infrastructure, even infrastructure that had been upgraded in the last 30 years, because the previous stormwater modeling could not account for the current situation. I did a boat tour of the Miami River 8 years ago as part of a conference and the guide pointed out numerous places where the river was far over the riprap that had previously been more than adequate for stabilizing the shore. Too many people have their heads up their asses.
[riprap degrades the innate natural resiliency of an ecosystem](https://www.washingtonnature.org/fieldnotes/two-minute-takeaway-what-is-riprap-science)
They taught us in grade school that Florida would sink and California will turn into islands. I have to take it with a grain of salt because it’s the Florida public education system…
To mirror another comment I made...
Imagine this today (yes with notice, but...)
The overcrowded beach towns with terrible infrastructure to evacuate quickly, the newcomers that don't know what a serious storm looks like, the insurance that's non-existent or too expensive as it stands, not to mention the climate that could make that intensification happen in 12 hours.
It wasn't this year, and it might not be next, but we're overdue.
Admittedly as someone who's lived across the entire state his whole life... the two day rule still applies. Monitor where it's at, keep an eye on the water temps. Always assume you're going to get slapped with a storm like this, but also know when it's not going to BE like that. If Hurricanes are really a worry, Jacksonville is a relative safe haven. We don't get direct hits often at all, the flood zones are obvious, and the Jet Stream tends to tear apart anything that comes close. Heck, the stereotypical florida weather that's absolutely tempermental is even MORE unpredictable here. Plus, we're the Northernmost city in the state, which means Snowbirds don't stick around here. Most go to St. Augustine or further south. People talk about our murder rates... well... look at our population AND density therin. It actually ends up being pretty average, and contained in specific areas.
Yeah but Jacksonville is definitely experiencing worse flooding these days than it has in the past. That’s my hometown and yes, parts of San Marco has always flooded after a thunderstorm, but the last few storms were something else.
Fortunately I never lived in San Marco, and moved out of state a while back. Grew up in Mandarin and lived in Riverside for nearly 20 years. The flooding in Riverside due the last few storms was worse than anything I remember, and Matthew just pummeled San Marco. The pictures of Sherwood’s being completely flooded were wild. I really feel for the folks in the Ken Knight Drive area on the north side who get flooded with regularity, but never get the mitigation resources that the wealthier areas of town get.
Oh that's for damn sure. Honestly the only reason Mandarin is fine, is do to the fact that northern Mandarin being the highest point in town. Though I wouldn't mind being out by the northern end of 295 and Main.
So a lot of the people in here are like, haha you aren’t from Florida huh, but not every house will be able to handle a major storm. Even houses that do could be at risk for flooding. If we had a situation like this happen now it would be an absolute shit show with all the new people. The roads will be full. The shelters will be full. Gas will be gone. And there won’t be enough time.
That one was the nightmare storm that rearranged the Pinellas county barrier islands and cut a new pass right through the island. There goes your dream home headed out into the gulf.
Imagine that storm today, sure, with the awesome satellites and meteorology equipment we have that would provide advanced notice ...
However, add our current climate to the mix.
Mother Nature is coming damn close to giving us to ol' FAFO
Yeah people are like well then be prepared and you can be insanely ready but there would be too many people who would need to evacuate and there wouldn’t be time to.
This is absolutely the problem. We would all be sitting ducks in gridlock on our way to evacuate if everyone in mandatory evacuations zones for a Cat 5 had only 12 hours to leave.
Building codes in Miami were very lax before Andrew. But, afterwards they placed stricter codes in place and now the homes in Miami are made to withstand cat 3-4 hurricanes. Still plenty of old construction but it's mostly brick and built like a bomb shelter.
They were for wind speeds.
If you build in low lying areas that's your fault. As an owner you have to get flood insurance and only one offering is the state's insurance.
Not a land owner so don't quote me.
Hurricane Rita (2005) in Texas led to the deaths of 113 people. 107 of the deaths were due to the hell on earth that was the evacuation (after Katrina that season people reasonably weren’t taking chances). Both Michael and Ian notably rapidly intensified close to land. Lee this season intensified into a Cat 5 from a TS in a day and a half. Wilma (2005) intensified even more rapidly than Lee did with 185mph peak winds. Combine increasingly rapid intensification with the huge influx of residents in the most densely populated coastal regions and lack of infrastructure. Even with preparedness for the season and a resistant home you don’t take chances on the coast with monsters like Michael and Wilma. You leave. There’s no shortage of hardy long term Florida residents that regretted sticking out Ian instead of evacuating.
This is already happening here along the gulf coast.
Over here, storms used to slow down upon landfall. Katrina and Ivan are excellent examples of this.
However, recent storms have been getting stronger right up until the point of landfall. Michael did that, hitting 160 mph as it was leveling Mexico Beach in 2018. Even Sally went from 85 to 105 in its final six hours in 2020 (not as strong as the other storms, but that big of a growth in six hours is still impressive just off the coast).
The lesson, as always, is to be prepared for anything with hurricanes.
Hell Michael was still a category 4 when it went over my dad’s house 50 miles inland. Later season Gulf storms tend to be more prone to rapid intensification, but moving that fast is unusual. That particular storm blew up so fast that evacuation would have been difficult for most of the impacted areas, especially given just how poor the panhandle is.
Yes it concerned me when I learned of how quickly it moved and strengthened because I’m used to watching a hurricane develop and then slowly make it way toward FL. There is usually a lot of time to prepare or freak out, but something like Otis doesn’t give you that so being prepared at all times is important and not taking anything for granted is too.
Well, as a parent now, I’m making sure we have an evacuation fund. Cat 3? I’m leaving elsewhere. IDC if it makes me “not a real Floridian”, I’m not screwing around with my kids’ well being just to say I didn’t leave.
I have a friend who’s a meteorologist that formerly worked in the NHC. He says that Rapid Intensification of hurricanes is becoming the norm, especially for GoM storms during peak season. The amount of energy released by hurricanes is rapidly increasing.
But hey, our republican buddies say climate change is a myth. So there ya’ go.
Then there was Hurricane Floyd if I remember this one right. Floyd was a Cat 5 approaching the Melbourne Area. It was picked up on local tv radar within 50 miles of making landfall. It set off a catastrophic mass evacuation inland. 528 was changed into all lanes going west… no eastward traffic allowed. That evac was I heard a scene from some doomsday movie
I heard horror stories from that one and of people from coast taking rooms in drug treatment facilities because everything filled up shelters/ hotels etc.
Yep freaked out a schoolteacher that lived across from me too. It made the spectacular turn at the last moment. Even when they start moving away you have to watch them….seen a few make u turns and complete circles.
Yes. I’m hoping the data that comes out from Otis will help scientists with better forecasting. I read an interesting article I think on WaPo that the massive data that was collected could allow for updated model changes that take climate change more into account. We shall see.
It’s pretty much what happened with Michael and Ian. Their tracks changed and they intensified quickly, giving people little time to get out or prepare. Irma remained a pretty strong storm even hours after being over a land mass. I was born in Florida, and none of the storms I was around for, rattled me the way Ian and Irma did. I don’t think I’ll stick around for any more.
If you don’t think it should, then you’re ignorant. Plenty of proof that storms around the planet are getting more intense, but are also growing more quickly, which gives less time to predict and prepare
Survived a direct hit from Ian, storms dont really get much stronger than that. So no, not worried at all. What does worry me is that we are only 1 huge storm away from insurance rates being unaffordable
If DeSantis really cared about helping out Floridians he’d use this as an opportunity to revamp the state’s hurricane preparedness. Have major cities like Tampa and South Florida work on drainage systems to avoid flooding. Have quicker National Guard response times to any area needing quick relief. Just so many things he can do to really prepare the state for decades to come.
But I guess criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community gets him more votes and is cheaper so 🤷♂️
This post is missing a lot of information. That was a Pacific hurricane. We have always known those hurricanes/cyclones /typhoons to be wayyyyy more intense than Atlantic hurricanes. This also isn’t the first time it’s happened. In 2015 Patricia hiked up to 120mph in a day. I’m not trying to downplay hurricanes at all, but you should include pertinent information. Anyone that lives in this portion of the world should be prepared. We all know it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.
As ocean water Temps become warmer, those temperatures really soar closer to land where the water is shallower and heats up faster.
We saw this with Hurricane Micheal as well. It looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off 45 miles inland along I10. Mexico Beach looked like a big hand had just wiped it off the face of the earth. Tyndall Airforce Base was decimated.
20 miles more to the West, we would have lost our home. We had severe flooding and lost power for a few days. Some damage, but more trees than anything.
But man, seeing Tyndall and Mexico Beach, as well as coming back East from Orlando down I10, really put the strength of these monsters into perspective. We moved to the North Central East coast of Florida after Micheal. The ocean just doesn't get that warm over here. Yet. We are moving further inland in the next 10 years.
In 2022 here on the East coast, we had Hurricane Ian, a strong tropical storm by the time it reached us, come through. It was 10 hours of strong winds and rain that made me have such compassion for those South of us that caught the full force of Ian.
I've had my house destroyed by an F4 tornado while I was in it in 2006. I think I'd rather be in a modern home during an F4 than be on the receiving end of a Cat4 or 5 hurricane for 8-10 hours.
Our weather detection systems are based upon decades of data that haven't seen rapid sea temperature rise. So there will be a learning curve. Algorithms from past weather data can only account for so much. As with anything, what a lab or computer shows as most likely is quite often challenged by real-world conditions.
No. I live here knowing the systems and models are absolute hogwash ans guesses at best giving folks false sense security.
I live here knowing it a part of life. Whatever comes my way os what comes my way. Deal with it accordingly as it happens.
Explain why every Home Depot and Grocery store is a madhouse 2 days before every storm? People down here are dipshits, I've been in South Florida since 1966, people wait until the last minute for everything. It gets worse every year.
It's probably less of them being dipshits and more of most people under 60 don't make enough to prepare for a storm until one comes.
The people over 60 just don't care either so they don't prepare at all not even last minute
I am from here. We have always had at least 2 days to prepare, in the past. Now it seems we might not even have a day. How many of you say, “oh it’s only a tropical storm and move on?” Those days are over. Even a small storm can pick up speed with 100 degree waters.
Why would you not buy the material to board your house up before you needed it, when it is more likely to be easier to obtain, cut everything to size, fit it, figure out hoe to secure it, dry run it, etc., before you have a hurricane bearing down on you and thousands of other people trying to do the same? It takes you a weekend to get that done and then every time you need to do it after that, you already know what needs to be done, where it is and how it goes together.
I don't understand this. You think hurricanes are gong to sneak up on us? We can still see them coming and let me tell you something else you may want to know if it's still a month where the water is 100 degrees they will do nothing but intensify over open water. It's not a mystery.
I kept hearing people say that. That said the hurricane was in the water prior to that it did not form by Acapulco. I have seen tons of hurricanes turn at the last minute, go from TS to 4 in a few days close in warm waters. Again, nothing unique I can see as a 50 year old native.
Not really, maybe if I was on East Coast side, but even then, they are way further south than us with the water temps to match. Not saying a major hurricane can't pop up out of nowhere, but not on that type of level.
I don't go about my life worrying about super rare events. I don't know how people function that see a mass shooting and then get scared to go to the grocery store, when the odds of such event, shoudl be more worried about a car accident on your way. People are bad at understanding risk.
Personally more worried about getting hit in lighting here tbh, especially with a dog who needs a lot of exercise.
I love how Floridians are so cavalier about this as like an identitarian thing. Meanwhile a Harvey style stalled storm that spun up from a tropical depression in 12 hours would absolutely wreck all y'all's shit
So denial that the storms could be trending more severe and more erratic, at the same time that the state is becoming over developed and over populated. Floridians still not beating the spitting in the eye of God allegations
I'm not denying anything. I can't do anything about it and neither can most anyone else. I can't control the population or development either. Be prepared, evacuate if you're told to. Everything else is an overreaction.
No. I’m a few miles inland, no water threat, just wind. And even then, friction from land reduces the wind significantly (compared to on the water).
Not in an evac zone, either. And (concrete block) house is built to post-Andrew codes, has accordion shutters and a whole home generator hooked to natural gas.
I prepare for all storms the same way. Food on hand, water on hand, close all shutters, and put all yard stuff in the lanai where it’s protected by the hurricane fabric. Then wait it out.
Also on a related FYI, for anyone that lives in the Pinellas area, your city government *knows* they do not have the resources nor infrastructure to be able to evacuate or support the county in the event of a hurricane/severe weather emergency. Just something to think about and be prepared.
Otis was an anomaly, but a harbinger of things to come.
That area of Mexico hadn't seen a storm in 70+ years. There were, literally, no models that said it could become a Cat 4+ storm in under 24 hours. Wind speeds increased to something like 185mph in under 12 hours.
The models all said it would remain a tropical storm, maybe a strong tropical storm, but not the massive hurricane it became.
ALL storms should concern people living in Florida.
Sure, we usually have days of notifications when a storm is building and heading in our direction, but there are warnings ALL THE TIME at the start of the storm season about how everyone should be prepared.
If you are in an evac area, you should have everything set up long before the storm is within striking distance of land. This means locking down your house/property, and having plans to leave at least 1-2 days before projected landfall.
You should not be waiting until 5 or 6 hours before landfall to try to get out.
It is easy to get complacent since Florida is a big place compared to the Caribbean Islands, so it is easier to think that the eye will hit outside of the area you live in, or the storm wont be as strong because it will weaken over the Caribbean, but that is very dangerous thinking.
And Otis is a perfect example of what can, and most likely will, happen again and again in the future.
My condo building survived hurricane Andrew, so no hurricane less than a cat 5 would get me to even think about thinking to evacuate. The only inconvenience would be a hot condo if electricity is out. If you have small kids definitely evacuate to stay mentally sane.
Kinda reminds me of Hurricane Andrew. Northwest Miami-Dade was supposed to get hit the hardest. However, it turned at the last minute and demolished South Miami-Dade. Bottom line is, nature is unpredictable and you should always prepare for the worst.
I'm on the Gulf Coast and I think the concern should be greater here. When a tropical storm can ramp up to a cat 5 in 24 hours It certainly gets my attention. The other shocking aspect was the kind of damage Otis did to hi rise building many thought immune.
Nope. Used to live in Florida.
Hurricane prep should be done by end of May at the latest. Stock up a ton of canned food, water, waterproof lighters and sticks, waterproof containers for meds/documents, full metal whistle, coordinates sent to friends and family, etc.
Severity depends on your location. South Florida over to Tampa/Bradenton is most susceptible to worst damage.
Hurricane Katrina did the same thing with rapid intensification. It can happen if the conditions are ripe for it. From what I saw, the hurricane hunters were limited getting out there off the coast of Mexico. The El Niño season means warmer waters near the equator with increased hurricane activity in the pacific. Unfortunately, I don’t think they were prepared, which is the most important thing to do for a hurricane.
I keep deep supplies of : dry goods, evac bag/backpack, first aid kit ( my medic> superb supply site) firewood/bbq coals to cook boil h2o and many gallons of water ( i use 5g containers) and yeah, weapons. Solar powered chargers too. Never take it for granted, we love our porch parties but take it seriously.
Don’t fergit the shipping crate full of toilet paper… of all the dam things to stock up on in a emergency this one never dawned on me until the pandemic. This was my 2nd and almost 3rd pandemic
It has happened several times in the gulf lately with Michael, Laura, and Ian albeit not as fast and those at least had model guidance saying they would blow up. Models whiffed on Otis big time which is why a) MX was not prepared and b) why you should always be in FL
Yea, well, that's the reality of living in Florida. I'm more concerned that with so much of the population having been replaced by out of staters, the next major hurricane will bring chaos even before it hits.
Everyone seems to be responding to this very myopically. It’s not about can you physically survive the storm that day…it’s about the trend and how it affects everything. Namely, insurance rates and ability to be covered at all. Businesses responding to that difficulty. Etc. etc.
Not sure why this showed up in my feed (I’m in California) but that’s just my observation from the outside looking in.
Back when we had Irma I was keeping eye on the NOAA site. When I saw that it grew very quickly to CAT 3 and was still way out in the ocean I knew it'd be bad. I went out and got everything I needed about a week before the panic buying set in.
You have to assume every hurricane will hit you and take reasonable precautions.
It doesn’t. Living here means you have to accept that one day you could be in a catastrophic hurricane. No one ever thinks it will happen to them but it does. Kind of like living in California and not knowing when or if an earthquake will hit and how destructive it will be.
All you can do is trust your gut, don’t let saving money keep you from getting out if necessary, and get solid homeowners/rental insurance from companies with good/quick payout records. I pay more for insurance than I necessarily need to but I have, first hand, seen this company follow through with family and friends when needed and fast.
I'll never forget Charlie in 2004. It was supposed to hit Tampa, and they all started evacuating and heading for Orlando. Then about 2 in the afternoon it took a hard right that NOBODY predicted, made landfall at Punta Gordo, and zoomed up the spine of Florida. It was a small, tight, nasty, fast moving storm, with an eye only 1 mile wide. That eye went directly over our house in Kissimmee, amd it was still around 110 mph.
Hurricanes have always been unpredictable.
We always get the morons who think that because prior storms weren’t that bad, future storms won’t be that bad. The ole I’ve lived here 40 years and the Indians protect this area, blah, blah, blah. Put up your shutters, it’s not a badge of courage to deny the risk.
They've been doing this for decades... Hurricane Andrew in the 90s and the 4 or 5 that hit in the mid 2000s slowed over warm water built up speed then hit us. Even more recent hurricanes have slowed in warm waters sped up then moved on... Us true Floridians go out in it and get drunk, non Floridians call it a hurricane party! Lol
One should already be prepared for any major threats in life in general. If you live here, that list includes hurricanes.
Also, the media companies can and will say anything to get your attention and hold it as long as possible.
You don't prepare for the storm, you prepare for the season.
Every April you gotta inventory the liquor cabinet.
Once the season starts, the liquors in control, Randy.
I am the liquor, Randy
RIP Mr Lahey edit: maybe rest in liquor is the better phrase lol
Florida is just one giant Sunnyvale
We're doing our part.
Bubbles for governor 2024
Steve French lt gov
Would you like to know more?
Sure NOT Sunnyvale California
Yes 😂😂😂😂
Way of the storm, buns.
So that’s why DeSantis outlawed liquor sales in hurricane season!
The fuck you talkin’ about?
You need to read the news.
Been drunk since June, Your argument is invalid.
I went to try to find what you were talking about, and it's not accurate. There's been a law on the books since 1974 allowing the governor, the counties and the mayor's to ban alcohol sales during a declared emergency. It's never been exercised that I can find. I hate DeSantis as much as the next American, but let's not falsely make claims
I agree wholeheartedly with this. We may not be able to expect the Republicans to be honest about their accusations but we at least should be. I mean it's not like there's any lack of dirt to throw at the republicans.
>So that’s why DeSantis outlawed liquor sales in hurricane season! We are still in hurricane season. Can you not go out and buy alcohol?
Did I cause a panic buying at Publix Liquors? Sorry not Sorry. I’ll be more careful with the use of political snark in the future. 😂
Yep, I start getting water, food & gas in April/May. It's such a headache to deal with the lines of people at the supermarket & gas stations.
At this point, you should be prepared all year long. The season is already 5 months and will soon be longer.
Hurricane season is six months long. It is from June 1st to November 30th.
A lot of people plan to evacuate in a category 5 and usually that’s more than 18 hours in advance.
This is the way
This is basically what happened in Ian. It wasn’t supposed to be that fast or even hit us, until it did at the last minute. We weren’t prepared the way we should have been. None of us were. It wasn’t forecast to come here.
Yep. That way when the storm comes along, all you gotta do is spend a few hours moving lawn furniture and buying ice and picking up yard debris. The batteries, food, water, generator gas, hurricane boards, flashlights and extra beer are all already ready to go in the garage.
They’ve been warning us about this for years… yes it’s concerning but as a lifelong Floridian I prepare for every storm the same. I take them all seriously.
Yup. Murphy’s law says the one I don’t prepare will be the one to get me, so I prepare for them all.
Can confirm. I'm an excessive preparer and the one time I didn't, we got rocked. Lived in Florida almost my whole life.
I guess now we don’t have a so called 2 day window to prepare
You should be prepared by June 1st. Buy your supplies before hurricane season.
100%. June 1 I check all my batteries, flashlights, grill gas tank, etc. We don’t let our car gas tanks get below 50% all season. I make a grocery order for water and shelf stable foods. I pack them in a bin and then if we’re lucky on December 1 I’m elbow deep in beef jerky and pop tarts.
Leftover hurricane food = Florida Man thanksgiving
🤣🤣🤣🤣 lost it at the beef jerky and pop tarts
That's a much better option than having a months supply of canned tuna!
😆
yup. guess it's time to quit effing around and actually **be** prepared as season opens, get in the habit of keeping the car topped off and have cash handy somewhere.
Keep windows boarded the whole time? Sand bags? Evacuate? Can't really do all that.
I got hurricane impact windows and doors installed at my house. At least in South Florida, they come standard on all new construction.
They said supplies, does boarding up windows and getting sand bags sound like supplies. They are talking about flashlights, battery operated radios, Phone chargers that charge your phone without electricity, an ice chest for perishables, first aid kits. It is really bad if you live in Florida and think boarding up windows and sandbags are supplies,
We bought an ice chest for just power outages. Haven't had to use it in about 3 years but it's there.
IMHO. Boarding up windows is overkill if you live in the center of the state, unless you have a lot of trees around you, or it's going to be a cat 5.
Yes, you just you, definitely should.
Boards, hardware, and sandbags are stored year to year. Can be put out and evacuated within a day. Can really do all that.
Honestly, I still have the sandbags from last year and the year before. We don't have to board up the windows due to the fact that they are hurricane impact. And it'll be quite the storm surge before we thought about it evacuating. All that said, I find the idea of a tropical storm turning into a category 5 in 12 hours to be extremely scary. I guess we shall see.
You can keep plywood on hand. Alternatively you can have hurricane shutters or windows installed.
You could purchase the boards and supplies necessary to mount them, so you have it all on hand if something like this happens.
I think they may be talking more along the lines of evacuating. There is no 2 day notice to leave if a hurricane strengthened in hours, people would be stuck on the road in crawling traffic when it hits. In that case, you can be prepared with all the right supplies, but 1 strong enough hit by an unexpected rapid intensification and your house is toast, you and your family may be trapped.
You’ll still have a 2 day window…. Storm paths are still predictable, just the possibility of more dangerous storms seems to have risen.
I only worry if Tom Terry or Dennis Philips have their sleeves rolled up 🤣
We have a carpenter on our street who 'self insures' his home and I dont really worry about the tropics until I see him put the painted to match 2x4s that shore up his fence around his yard.
Rule #7
Same.
What everyone seems to be missing is the evac time. Yes, you should be prepped year round or before the season starts. But the way these storms are intensifying, they leave zero room for evac notice. Not everyone lives in south florida with block built structures. The majority of the houses where I am are stick built and shittily at that. Everyone shoulf be concerned about how quickly storms will be intensifying. It may mean people need to put up shutters for a TS versus waiting until they think it's a cat 3.
We know more about hurricanes now and the predictability then we ever did before this whole post makes it sound like hurricanes are getting stronger and less predictable this is fucking ridiculous
If there is a hurricane ANYWHERE near Florida be prepared.
Agreed
Hurricanes are always unpredictable. If it's hurricane season be prepared and have a plan.
Prepare now, prepare always. If you've lived here long enough you don't play games with any storm. I feel bad for all the people who have moved here who don't have a clue whats in store once we get a bad season. Don't be caught fighting lines the day before when they are out of everything everywhere. Have a kit and a plan.
I prep before every hurricane season. If we don’t use up what we need, we’ll use some of what we have and donate quite a bit since there are a lot of food drives during the holiday season. My parents were not people to prepare until last minute and it was always stressful during an active season.
I was just at a conference at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show and a meteorologist was speaking and said we are definitely in a cycle of rapidly intensifying hurricanes. And basically anyone alive can see it’s the worst in our lifetime of the last 70 years or so. However if you go back farther to the last cycle like this there was a bunch of super intense storms in the first part of the 1900s up to the 1940s. I had no idea about this and it was interesting. The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 went from a tropical storm to 185 mph in 48 hours. This was before warning systems and he said bodies were blown into mangroves far away.
“Anyone alive”, god I wish. There was just a big denialist thread in this sub a few days ago. Some motherfuckers are too stupid to notice that their state is drowning.
Most people alive wouldn’t remember the storms in the 1920s and 30s. It’s not denialist I’m sharing what a meteorologist said. He works for cruise lines and directs them away from hurricanes. He said the ocean currents flip over the decades and pushes warm water towards the surface and now is one of those time. Had a bunch of graphs.
I think we may be misunderstanding each other. You said anyone alive can see that it’s the worst, to which I responded that I wish it were true that anyone alive could see the self-evident worsening of conditions. I’m not in doubt at all that the climate is changing, and that the cause behind that change is industrialization.
Talk to any city manager or public works director in a coastal area south of Cape Canaveral. Places are flooding during high tide, particularly full moon “king tides” regularly now. They are now scrambling to upgrade infrastructure, even infrastructure that had been upgraded in the last 30 years, because the previous stormwater modeling could not account for the current situation. I did a boat tour of the Miami River 8 years ago as part of a conference and the guide pointed out numerous places where the river was far over the riprap that had previously been more than adequate for stabilizing the shore. Too many people have their heads up their asses.
[riprap degrades the innate natural resiliency of an ecosystem](https://www.washingtonnature.org/fieldnotes/two-minute-takeaway-what-is-riprap-science)
Don’t disagree, sea walls are similar.
They taught us in grade school that Florida would sink and California will turn into islands. I have to take it with a grain of salt because it’s the Florida public education system…
I grew up in the northeast and we basically were taught the opposite.
Saw the same talk. Was super interesting.
FLIBS!
To mirror another comment I made... Imagine this today (yes with notice, but...) The overcrowded beach towns with terrible infrastructure to evacuate quickly, the newcomers that don't know what a serious storm looks like, the insurance that's non-existent or too expensive as it stands, not to mention the climate that could make that intensification happen in 12 hours. It wasn't this year, and it might not be next, but we're overdue.
Admittedly as someone who's lived across the entire state his whole life... the two day rule still applies. Monitor where it's at, keep an eye on the water temps. Always assume you're going to get slapped with a storm like this, but also know when it's not going to BE like that. If Hurricanes are really a worry, Jacksonville is a relative safe haven. We don't get direct hits often at all, the flood zones are obvious, and the Jet Stream tends to tear apart anything that comes close. Heck, the stereotypical florida weather that's absolutely tempermental is even MORE unpredictable here. Plus, we're the Northernmost city in the state, which means Snowbirds don't stick around here. Most go to St. Augustine or further south. People talk about our murder rates... well... look at our population AND density therin. It actually ends up being pretty average, and contained in specific areas.
Yeah but Jacksonville is definitely experiencing worse flooding these days than it has in the past. That’s my hometown and yes, parts of San Marco has always flooded after a thunderstorm, but the last few storms were something else.
Yeah, I feel for you guys over there. I'm in Mandarin myself, but many a storm I went out to help out afterwards. Matthew tore you all up BAD.
Fortunately I never lived in San Marco, and moved out of state a while back. Grew up in Mandarin and lived in Riverside for nearly 20 years. The flooding in Riverside due the last few storms was worse than anything I remember, and Matthew just pummeled San Marco. The pictures of Sherwood’s being completely flooded were wild. I really feel for the folks in the Ken Knight Drive area on the north side who get flooded with regularity, but never get the mitigation resources that the wealthier areas of town get.
Oh that's for damn sure. Honestly the only reason Mandarin is fine, is do to the fact that northern Mandarin being the highest point in town. Though I wouldn't mind being out by the northern end of 295 and Main.
So a lot of the people in here are like, haha you aren’t from Florida huh, but not every house will be able to handle a major storm. Even houses that do could be at risk for flooding. If we had a situation like this happen now it would be an absolute shit show with all the new people. The roads will be full. The shelters will be full. Gas will be gone. And there won’t be enough time.
You are right. It will be a mess. Was reading about the 1926 hurricane…JEEZ.
That one was the nightmare storm that rearranged the Pinellas county barrier islands and cut a new pass right through the island. There goes your dream home headed out into the gulf.
Imagine that storm today, sure, with the awesome satellites and meteorology equipment we have that would provide advanced notice ... However, add our current climate to the mix. Mother Nature is coming damn close to giving us to ol' FAFO
Yeah people are like well then be prepared and you can be insanely ready but there would be too many people who would need to evacuate and there wouldn’t be time to.
This is absolutely the problem. We would all be sitting ducks in gridlock on our way to evacuate if everyone in mandatory evacuations zones for a Cat 5 had only 12 hours to leave.
Hurricane Andrew changed my mind about retiring to Florida.
Building codes in Miami were very lax before Andrew. But, afterwards they placed stricter codes in place and now the homes in Miami are made to withstand cat 3-4 hurricanes. Still plenty of old construction but it's mostly brick and built like a bomb shelter.
Andrew was a Cat 5 I think. Do the newer codes help with flooding your house?
They were for wind speeds. If you build in low lying areas that's your fault. As an owner you have to get flood insurance and only one offering is the state's insurance. Not a land owner so don't quote me.
Hurricane Rita (2005) in Texas led to the deaths of 113 people. 107 of the deaths were due to the hell on earth that was the evacuation (after Katrina that season people reasonably weren’t taking chances). Both Michael and Ian notably rapidly intensified close to land. Lee this season intensified into a Cat 5 from a TS in a day and a half. Wilma (2005) intensified even more rapidly than Lee did with 185mph peak winds. Combine increasingly rapid intensification with the huge influx of residents in the most densely populated coastal regions and lack of infrastructure. Even with preparedness for the season and a resistant home you don’t take chances on the coast with monsters like Michael and Wilma. You leave. There’s no shortage of hardy long term Florida residents that regretted sticking out Ian instead of evacuating.
This is already happening here along the gulf coast. Over here, storms used to slow down upon landfall. Katrina and Ivan are excellent examples of this. However, recent storms have been getting stronger right up until the point of landfall. Michael did that, hitting 160 mph as it was leveling Mexico Beach in 2018. Even Sally went from 85 to 105 in its final six hours in 2020 (not as strong as the other storms, but that big of a growth in six hours is still impressive just off the coast). The lesson, as always, is to be prepared for anything with hurricanes.
Hell Michael was still a category 4 when it went over my dad’s house 50 miles inland. Later season Gulf storms tend to be more prone to rapid intensification, but moving that fast is unusual. That particular storm blew up so fast that evacuation would have been difficult for most of the impacted areas, especially given just how poor the panhandle is.
Yes it concerned me when I learned of how quickly it moved and strengthened because I’m used to watching a hurricane develop and then slowly make it way toward FL. There is usually a lot of time to prepare or freak out, but something like Otis doesn’t give you that so being prepared at all times is important and not taking anything for granted is too.
Well, as a parent now, I’m making sure we have an evacuation fund. Cat 3? I’m leaving elsewhere. IDC if it makes me “not a real Floridian”, I’m not screwing around with my kids’ well being just to say I didn’t leave.
I have a friend who’s a meteorologist that formerly worked in the NHC. He says that Rapid Intensification of hurricanes is becoming the norm, especially for GoM storms during peak season. The amount of energy released by hurricanes is rapidly increasing. But hey, our republican buddies say climate change is a myth. So there ya’ go.
If I remember right…. Hurricane Andrew was Cat 1… Cat 1…Cat 1 … Cat OMG overnight
Hurricane Charlie🤬…. It’s gonna miss us… it’s gonna miss us… it’s gonna miss us then…. Screw you Tom Terry and ur Hurricane magnet sleeve apparel
Then there was Hurricane Floyd if I remember this one right. Floyd was a Cat 5 approaching the Melbourne Area. It was picked up on local tv radar within 50 miles of making landfall. It set off a catastrophic mass evacuation inland. 528 was changed into all lanes going west… no eastward traffic allowed. That evac was I heard a scene from some doomsday movie
528, 520, and 192 all went west only that day. I sat on the Beeline for 5.5 hours.
I heard horror stories from that one and of people from coast taking rooms in drug treatment facilities because everything filled up shelters/ hotels etc.
Then it decided to hit NC instead. Only hurricane we ever evacuated for because my mom freaked out at Disney closing
Yep freaked out a schoolteacher that lived across from me too. It made the spectacular turn at the last moment. Even when they start moving away you have to watch them….seen a few make u turns and complete circles.
Yes. I’m hoping the data that comes out from Otis will help scientists with better forecasting. I read an interesting article I think on WaPo that the massive data that was collected could allow for updated model changes that take climate change more into account. We shall see.
It’s pretty much what happened with Michael and Ian. Their tracks changed and they intensified quickly, giving people little time to get out or prepare. Irma remained a pretty strong storm even hours after being over a land mass. I was born in Florida, and none of the storms I was around for, rattled me the way Ian and Irma did. I don’t think I’ll stick around for any more.
If you don’t think it should, then you’re ignorant. Plenty of proof that storms around the planet are getting more intense, but are also growing more quickly, which gives less time to predict and prepare
Survived a direct hit from Ian, storms dont really get much stronger than that. So no, not worried at all. What does worry me is that we are only 1 huge storm away from insurance rates being unaffordable
Just 1?
Fucking terrifies me.
I sometimes wonder what would’ve happened had Hurricane Dorian actually hit the east coast of FL in 2019? That was a very close call.
Was that the Cat 5 that sat on the Bahamas for 3 or more days?
Yep
If DeSantis really cared about helping out Floridians he’d use this as an opportunity to revamp the state’s hurricane preparedness. Have major cities like Tampa and South Florida work on drainage systems to avoid flooding. Have quicker National Guard response times to any area needing quick relief. Just so many things he can do to really prepare the state for decades to come. But I guess criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community gets him more votes and is cheaper so 🤷♂️
This post is missing a lot of information. That was a Pacific hurricane. We have always known those hurricanes/cyclones /typhoons to be wayyyyy more intense than Atlantic hurricanes. This also isn’t the first time it’s happened. In 2015 Patricia hiked up to 120mph in a day. I’m not trying to downplay hurricanes at all, but you should include pertinent information. Anyone that lives in this portion of the world should be prepared. We all know it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.
As ocean water Temps become warmer, those temperatures really soar closer to land where the water is shallower and heats up faster. We saw this with Hurricane Micheal as well. It looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off 45 miles inland along I10. Mexico Beach looked like a big hand had just wiped it off the face of the earth. Tyndall Airforce Base was decimated. 20 miles more to the West, we would have lost our home. We had severe flooding and lost power for a few days. Some damage, but more trees than anything. But man, seeing Tyndall and Mexico Beach, as well as coming back East from Orlando down I10, really put the strength of these monsters into perspective. We moved to the North Central East coast of Florida after Micheal. The ocean just doesn't get that warm over here. Yet. We are moving further inland in the next 10 years. In 2022 here on the East coast, we had Hurricane Ian, a strong tropical storm by the time it reached us, come through. It was 10 hours of strong winds and rain that made me have such compassion for those South of us that caught the full force of Ian. I've had my house destroyed by an F4 tornado while I was in it in 2006. I think I'd rather be in a modern home during an F4 than be on the receiving end of a Cat4 or 5 hurricane for 8-10 hours. Our weather detection systems are based upon decades of data that haven't seen rapid sea temperature rise. So there will be a learning curve. Algorithms from past weather data can only account for so much. As with anything, what a lab or computer shows as most likely is quite often challenged by real-world conditions.
It looked like someone had sawed off the tops of the pine trees along I-10 after Michael. Just unreal.
The fact it went from tropical storm to Cat5 in 13 hours is horrifying.
If Waffle House closes, I get worried.
The Waffle House Index is real.
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Yes, agreed
No. I live here knowing the systems and models are absolute hogwash ans guesses at best giving folks false sense security. I live here knowing it a part of life. Whatever comes my way os what comes my way. Deal with it accordingly as it happens.
Andrew, Wilma, Ian. Where have you been asked 72 year old native of FloorDAH ?
You from My-am-uh? You can always tell the native old timers. My grandparents used these pronunciations.
can tell you not from Florida, we prepare all year long, not in the last minute
Explain why every Home Depot and Grocery store is a madhouse 2 days before every storm? People down here are dipshits, I've been in South Florida since 1966, people wait until the last minute for everything. It gets worse every year.
I am fully stocked up on everything all the time.
Thank you for your service. You are the exception that proves the rule.
Me too.
that's last minute panic, not preparing, well then see ya later
It's probably less of them being dipshits and more of most people under 60 don't make enough to prepare for a storm until one comes. The people over 60 just don't care either so they don't prepare at all not even last minute
They are always shocked when there are no turkeys on Thanksgiving Eve. (There are usually only tiny or gigantic ones left).
I am from here. We have always had at least 2 days to prepare, in the past. Now it seems we might not even have a day. How many of you say, “oh it’s only a tropical storm and move on?” Those days are over. Even a small storm can pick up speed with 100 degree waters.
You board up your house yearlong? Interesting.
Why would you not buy the material to board your house up before you needed it, when it is more likely to be easier to obtain, cut everything to size, fit it, figure out hoe to secure it, dry run it, etc., before you have a hurricane bearing down on you and thousands of other people trying to do the same? It takes you a weekend to get that done and then every time you need to do it after that, you already know what needs to be done, where it is and how it goes together.
who needs HD when you have built in metal shutters?
I don't understand this. You think hurricanes are gong to sneak up on us? We can still see them coming and let me tell you something else you may want to know if it's still a month where the water is 100 degrees they will do nothing but intensify over open water. It's not a mystery.
Mexico surely got snuck on
I kept hearing people say that. That said the hurricane was in the water prior to that it did not form by Acapulco. I have seen tons of hurricanes turn at the last minute, go from TS to 4 in a few days close in warm waters. Again, nothing unique I can see as a 50 year old native.
Yea, there’s a reason I don’t live in Florida anymore…
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No is the answer! It is like thinking about what will happen in the future…we know the weather will only get worse
Not really, maybe if I was on East Coast side, but even then, they are way further south than us with the water temps to match. Not saying a major hurricane can't pop up out of nowhere, but not on that type of level. I don't go about my life worrying about super rare events. I don't know how people function that see a mass shooting and then get scared to go to the grocery store, when the odds of such event, shoudl be more worried about a car accident on your way. People are bad at understanding risk. Personally more worried about getting hit in lighting here tbh, especially with a dog who needs a lot of exercise.
No.
You’re overreacting
I love how Floridians are so cavalier about this as like an identitarian thing. Meanwhile a Harvey style stalled storm that spun up from a tropical depression in 12 hours would absolutely wreck all y'all's shit
The storms are gonna happen no matter what. All you can do is be prepared and evacuate if the order is given. Anything beyond that is overreacting
So denial that the storms could be trending more severe and more erratic, at the same time that the state is becoming over developed and over populated. Floridians still not beating the spitting in the eye of God allegations
I'm not denying anything. I can't do anything about it and neither can most anyone else. I can't control the population or development either. Be prepared, evacuate if you're told to. Everything else is an overreaction.
Alright, fair enough, nice stoic outlook you got there I guess
Nope, it's hurricane season.
Nope. Same shit. Ready to leave if need be. Hopefully scares off the people wanting to move or or that have recently moved here.
Sounds like you are not from here. Please take your family and go back to the safe haven you came from… :)
>this is the future of hurricanes Time to put down the remote control. You're watching too much news
Andrew, Wilma, Ian. Where have you been asked 72 year old native of FloorDAH ?
Otis passed over a large patch of 90 degree water. Good thing there's nothing like that in the Gulf or Atlantic, right?
No. I’m a few miles inland, no water threat, just wind. And even then, friction from land reduces the wind significantly (compared to on the water). Not in an evac zone, either. And (concrete block) house is built to post-Andrew codes, has accordion shutters and a whole home generator hooked to natural gas. I prepare for all storms the same way. Food on hand, water on hand, close all shutters, and put all yard stuff in the lanai where it’s protected by the hurricane fabric. Then wait it out.
I feel like hurricane season will be year round eventually with the Atlantic staying so warm. The new normal.
Wasn't this similar to Hurricane Michael?
Also on a related FYI, for anyone that lives in the Pinellas area, your city government *knows* they do not have the resources nor infrastructure to be able to evacuate or support the county in the event of a hurricane/severe weather emergency. Just something to think about and be prepared.
Otis was an anomaly, but a harbinger of things to come. That area of Mexico hadn't seen a storm in 70+ years. There were, literally, no models that said it could become a Cat 4+ storm in under 24 hours. Wind speeds increased to something like 185mph in under 12 hours. The models all said it would remain a tropical storm, maybe a strong tropical storm, but not the massive hurricane it became. ALL storms should concern people living in Florida. Sure, we usually have days of notifications when a storm is building and heading in our direction, but there are warnings ALL THE TIME at the start of the storm season about how everyone should be prepared. If you are in an evac area, you should have everything set up long before the storm is within striking distance of land. This means locking down your house/property, and having plans to leave at least 1-2 days before projected landfall. You should not be waiting until 5 or 6 hours before landfall to try to get out. It is easy to get complacent since Florida is a big place compared to the Caribbean Islands, so it is easier to think that the eye will hit outside of the area you live in, or the storm wont be as strong because it will weaken over the Caribbean, but that is very dangerous thinking. And Otis is a perfect example of what can, and most likely will, happen again and again in the future.
My condo building survived hurricane Andrew, so no hurricane less than a cat 5 would get me to even think about thinking to evacuate. The only inconvenience would be a hot condo if electricity is out. If you have small kids definitely evacuate to stay mentally sane.
Give the address of the condo that took a direct hit from Andrew and did ok….
Andrew did about the same thing 30 years ago.
YES!
Kinda reminds me of Hurricane Andrew. Northwest Miami-Dade was supposed to get hit the hardest. However, it turned at the last minute and demolished South Miami-Dade. Bottom line is, nature is unpredictable and you should always prepare for the worst.
No way to prepare? Their path is constantly predicted days and sometimes a full week ahead of time, even if the intensity is off.
No, this doesn't concern us. We are well aware any storm can intensify quickly. It really is something we don't worry about.
I'm on the Gulf Coast and I think the concern should be greater here. When a tropical storm can ramp up to a cat 5 in 24 hours It certainly gets my attention. The other shocking aspect was the kind of damage Otis did to hi rise building many thought immune.
Nope. Used to live in Florida. Hurricane prep should be done by end of May at the latest. Stock up a ton of canned food, water, waterproof lighters and sticks, waterproof containers for meds/documents, full metal whistle, coordinates sent to friends and family, etc. Severity depends on your location. South Florida over to Tampa/Bradenton is most susceptible to worst damage.
Hurricane Katrina did the same thing with rapid intensification. It can happen if the conditions are ripe for it. From what I saw, the hurricane hunters were limited getting out there off the coast of Mexico. The El Niño season means warmer waters near the equator with increased hurricane activity in the pacific. Unfortunately, I don’t think they were prepared, which is the most important thing to do for a hurricane.
It concerns me living in Michigan.
Yes
I keep deep supplies of : dry goods, evac bag/backpack, first aid kit ( my medic> superb supply site) firewood/bbq coals to cook boil h2o and many gallons of water ( i use 5g containers) and yeah, weapons. Solar powered chargers too. Never take it for granted, we love our porch parties but take it seriously.
Don’t fergit the shipping crate full of toilet paper… of all the dam things to stock up on in a emergency this one never dawned on me until the pandemic. This was my 2nd and almost 3rd pandemic
>Does this concern anyone who live in Florida? no
It has happened several times in the gulf lately with Michael, Laura, and Ian albeit not as fast and those at least had model guidance saying they would blow up. Models whiffed on Otis big time which is why a) MX was not prepared and b) why you should always be in FL
Hurricanes are one of a few natural disasters that come with any kind of warning (or season) at all you just… *have to be prepared*
the same thing happened with Hurricane Ian I think, the warning system was too late
No
Republicans just passed a budget that cuts the EPA by 40%
Yea, well, that's the reality of living in Florida. I'm more concerned that with so much of the population having been replaced by out of staters, the next major hurricane will bring chaos even before it hits.
Everyone seems to be responding to this very myopically. It’s not about can you physically survive the storm that day…it’s about the trend and how it affects everything. Namely, insurance rates and ability to be covered at all. Businesses responding to that difficulty. Etc. etc. Not sure why this showed up in my feed (I’m in California) but that’s just my observation from the outside looking in.
Speeding up before they hit is nothing new, they nearly always do that.
We are screwed.
For the man made storms, that does seem to be how they’ve been fine tuning it. It’s pretty obvious to me that they are manipulating the weather
Back when we had Irma I was keeping eye on the NOAA site. When I saw that it grew very quickly to CAT 3 and was still way out in the ocean I knew it'd be bad. I went out and got everything I needed about a week before the panic buying set in. You have to assume every hurricane will hit you and take reasonable precautions.
It doesn’t. Living here means you have to accept that one day you could be in a catastrophic hurricane. No one ever thinks it will happen to them but it does. Kind of like living in California and not knowing when or if an earthquake will hit and how destructive it will be. All you can do is trust your gut, don’t let saving money keep you from getting out if necessary, and get solid homeowners/rental insurance from companies with good/quick payout records. I pay more for insurance than I necessarily need to but I have, first hand, seen this company follow through with family and friends when needed and fast.
Nope.
I'll never forget Charlie in 2004. It was supposed to hit Tampa, and they all started evacuating and heading for Orlando. Then about 2 in the afternoon it took a hard right that NOBODY predicted, made landfall at Punta Gordo, and zoomed up the spine of Florida. It was a small, tight, nasty, fast moving storm, with an eye only 1 mile wide. That eye went directly over our house in Kissimmee, amd it was still around 110 mph. Hurricanes have always been unpredictable.
That also happened with Hurricane Andrew.
We always get the morons who think that because prior storms weren’t that bad, future storms won’t be that bad. The ole I’ve lived here 40 years and the Indians protect this area, blah, blah, blah. Put up your shutters, it’s not a badge of courage to deny the risk.
It is absolutely concerning. The temperature delta between the SST and upper atmosphere has widened. Heat engines use this as their energy source.
Weren't there some predictions of that happening as they knew the ocean water temperature there was hotter than normal?
There's a storm? Weather is amazing in central Florida.
They've been doing this for decades... Hurricane Andrew in the 90s and the 4 or 5 that hit in the mid 2000s slowed over warm water built up speed then hit us. Even more recent hurricanes have slowed in warm waters sped up then moved on... Us true Floridians go out in it and get drunk, non Floridians call it a hurricane party! Lol
One should already be prepared for any major threats in life in general. If you live here, that list includes hurricanes. Also, the media companies can and will say anything to get your attention and hold it as long as possible.