Irma. That hot chick that stops by and wrecks your life.

Winds are up around 50 + MPH here now with much higher gusts but still have all utilities although power and cable been flicking on/off.  Started loosing some roofing shingles.  I'm in the Northeast quadrant. Garage door has additional 4 X 4's with cars holding the 4X's against the door. Top supports lag bolted to ceiling joists.  Standard center hurricane support isn't really enough if it's a cat 4-5. Good luck to those who get eye wall winds.

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As of 2:20 p.m., all is well in Ormond Beach. It's raining but not windy. We still have cell service and electricity. 

We have a ton of trees in our yard, mostly very mature Live Oaks, but fortunately our tree guy was here a few months ago. He says that if wind ever takes out these trees, it will do the same to the house. We've been using him since we bought the house almost 15 years ago and, knock on wood, never had a big one come down. 

We were going to head to Tampa and stay with friends but, yeah, the track changed. As a backup, we have my parents in South Carolina. Now they're projected to get the same winds that we will.

So we're as prepped as we can be and just getting work done. 

Some of you may need a word of encouragement.   I try not to do this, but this was too good to not share.

I was a first time guest at a church today, and this was the Pastor's sermon. It was one of the best sermons I've ever heard, and very relevant for this moment, and the various storms we face in life  

I understand some of you don't want to hear a sermon.  If that's you,  for goodness sake please don't click on the link.  But I hope others will get as much out of it as I did.

Sleeping through the Storm

NOT A TA said:

Garage door has additional 4 X 4's with cars holding the 4X's against the door. Top supports lag bolted to ceiling joists.  Standard center hurricane support isn't really enough if it's a cat 4-5. 

Oh, that's clever.  Much better than the "park right up by the door " method that I and my neighbors used.   

 the sky is super dark, it is kind of windy, kind of rainy, but nothing that felt as bad as hurricane charlie.....the house isn't creaking and the windows are not heaving. We still have power.

I'm hoping none of this changes, but the worst of it is still hours away for us

Early tomorrow, the winds are supposed to pickup. They are talking gusts into the 50s. I went ahead and moved the fleet out of tree strike distance. Looking at the forecast track though, it's looking more like Alabama is going to get their share. Hope all you gents south of me are staying safe and dry. 

As of 9pm we've had a few gnarly squalls here in Ormond Beach, but nothing like we saw from Matthew last year. It's looking now like it's actually wiggled east a bit after making landfall, which will probably end up being good news for all involved. It may come closer to Orlando and us, but it will have passed over way more landmass by then, so it'll get tore up a bit. Anything to keep it east of Tampa will probably be good news. A hurricane of almost any size pounding its way into Tampa Bay would be a bad scene.

Big story for us so far has been rain. Our pond was up over four inches just today, and it's rained for another hour or so since I last checked it. Also, a big area at the front of the property is now a new temporary lake. I was outside about a half hour ago and shined my flashlight over there to see our duck floating in the middle of it glaring at me with a "WTF is your problem old man?" look on his face. 

My folks just called and their power just went out. They're in a really heavily wooded neighborhood with a lot of old-growth oak trees, so it's not particularly surprising. We've still got power, although we've had a couple of flashes. I do not expect it to last all night. 

Takeaway message is things at the various GRM field commands should stay solid. Someone might lose a fence or a tree, but I'm guessing we'll come through this one with mostly inconvenience rather than tragedy. Hopefully that holds true for our friends elsewhere in Central Florida. 

Glad I cleaned out my gutters. 

As of 10:09, we still have power in our part of Ormond Beach. 

Hope the news continues to be relative-terms good for you guys! I was watching someone reporting from what looked like some pretty scary conditions earlier today.

Hope the Suddards headed back East.

alfadriver said:

pheller said:

When is the last time we heard from Gameboy?

Unless he's on travel, Barbados isn't anywhere near the storm. 

Yeah it looked like Barbados could be hit by Irma early on but it went north, and it's no threat to me now. I'm in Ontario right now.

hobiercr said:

Hope the Suddards headed back East.

They did. Well, actually, they never went west. When the track started to shift they decided to stay in Ormond. I think Tim went over to secure things and do some tree trimming but they're back on the east coast now.

Yep, it's in Florida.

Never actually seen a wind expectation map like this in my entire life (which has been spent in Florida). That's just nuts.

If you want to see something hypnotizing, check this out. Live(ish) global wind speeds and directions. It's amazing visualization of what's going on.

https://earth.nullschool.net/

Centered on Florida: https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-76.65,28.22,1420

BTW, shift-double click to zoom out. Took me a minute to figure that out.

Things are pretty low key here in Jacksonville so far. Got wind and rain but nothing exciting. Power did flicker once. From the I never thought about that department, the county south of me has been asked not to flush their toilets as much so that their sewage plant doesn't get overloaded. 

We lost internet and then lost power for good. Big wind gusts but so far the trees are holding up. Tomorrow will be spent cleaning up. I just heard the wind whistle through the doors in my office. 

Looks like we are OK so far in Valrico, just a tree limb down and a little dog that can't stop trembling. Good thing Irma's eye stayed over land while tracking from SW Florida.  We have not lost power (or water) but a third of the customers on our system are out. I have been called back to work for the power company, going in later this morning.

Got the thumbs up from hobiercr a few minutes ago they had a decent night of little destruction.  Same with the family.  

Power is off, lots of rain, wind 50-60, and my family is sitting at the house under curfew until 9 PM. 

But all is well. 

Glad to hear that so far, the major casualties are firewood and some gray hair. Hoping to hear more "safe and sound" updates throughout the day!

I lost power around 3am but still enough hot water left for one last shower. Going to enjoy it as long as I can. 

Sister in law in Jacksonville just showed her street full of water and flowing like a river. Almost over the curb.

I don't know if this point has been made yet, but shouldn't this thread title be reserved for a Hurricane Amy?

Side note, I hope everyone is doing ok. 

Glad everyone seems to have weathered Irma fairly well. Hopefully Gainesville didn't get hit hard enough to interfere with the Challenge- and hopefully Jose doesn't blow through and make things even worse...

In reply to Keith Tanner :

That is mesmerizing. It looks a bit like Jose is feeding Irma like sequential turbochargers. The wind I am seeing outside traces back to Jose and then sucked in by the Irma remnants.

Looks like Jose is wandering, hopefully not strengthening as it finds a direction.