As a Puerto Rican preparing for Irma, yes, we're pretty freaked.
Stay safe and I hope all goes well with minimal damage.
Thank you!
Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
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Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#112As a Puerto Rican preparing for Irma, yes, we're pretty freaked.
I have been through a category 3 hurricane(Ivan) in the Caribbean and it devastated the island, cost us over a billion in damages and took about 10 years to recover. Its not something I want to go through again. A category 5 at those wind speeds, even block structures with hip and gable roofing and short eaves can be torn off and have walls fall. I hope you and everyone in this hurricane's path safety.
Woah. Thanks for the wishes.
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#113I was 10 living in Miami during Hurricane Andrew, and I'm still here if that's were Irma hits.
After Andrew we bought an RV and live in that outside our house for months while our home was repaired/rebuilt; I can't recall exactly but I'd say it was at least a month before power was restored to power refridge/deep freezer; for months my elementary school was shared with another school that was destroyed (we had half days); houses literally had "looters will be shot" spray painted on them; eventually national guard began patrolling the neighborhood for a couple months; it wasn't unusual for kids at school to be living off military MREs (meals ready to eat). And we always considered ourselves lucky.
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about just evacuating the most vulnerable?
If you publicize that, tons of other people evacuate, and the interstate system quickly becomes gridlocked. It's counter-intuitive, but every study and disaster plan for Houston has consistently called for shelter-in-place over calls for evacuation from an official source.
Evacuation does not have to mean leaving the city either. Evacuating the most vulnerable to a safe area is more like a peak hour traffic problem.
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
The few historical evacuations of >1mil people have often been over the course of 7+days, as well as over very large areas. The only _successful_ evacuation of a major metropolitan area (>3mil) in 20k causalities so it is hard to call that successful.
I beg to differ. Exodus of ~1m people in about one day is frequently observed in Europe. It can't be done with cars, of course, because cars are not a means of mass transportation. It can be done easily with trains, though. Example: Street Parade Zurich, attended by about a million people. Virtually all of those people arrive by train immediately before the event, and are gone the next day. Watching > 100k people pou…
Moving a million people across town is different from getting them out of the path of a hurricane. Hurricanes are bigger than cities.
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#116I got a question! What sets the upper bound of ~185mph on hurricanes?
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Evacuating is very difficult and dangerous. This is a great read as to why: https://np.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6wcpt0/la_vita_bella_n...
Not if you're in Florida and leave today. Plenty of time to get out of harm's way. Florida orders evacuations routinely for hurricanes.
The governor has suspended all tolls in Florida as well to alleviate traffic onto toll roads and turnpikes and off interstate highways.
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Florida native here. They must not remember Andrew. It was not fun and games. The media plays these storms up, yes, but they really are nothing to joke about. Even inland, as much rain as they produce, it only takes that one gust to push over a 200 year old oak and it can destroy a house. People should take these storms seriously. First responders' lives are put into jeopardy because of foolishness like that. Not try…
Florida native here, too. What op is probably referring to are those who haven't been decimated yet. I've lived in Ft.lauderdale a for a while and went through Andrew. We evacuated inland. The place we evacuated to lost power, where our house didn't. Ironic, isn't it. Ft.lauderdale wasn't near the eye. It was Miami/Homestead. Anyone who has lived in Ft.lauderdale has probably not faced a damaging hurricane. Andrew wa…
We haven't had a major hurricane make landfall in FL in 12 years. People begin to forget the fear and seriousness in that time.
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also interesting to look at the bigger picture. The southern hemisphere has its own level of insanity going on: https://www.windy.com/?-22.513,39.375,3
Is that normal?
Yes. There's no land around 40-50°S, so you basically get in effect a permanent storm over ocean with nothing to break the wind. It's why the weather in Antarctica is so much severer than that in the Arctic.
Re: Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
#120Having just lived through Harvey, I cannot stress enough that if you are in a position to evacuate, please do so. We were lucky to narrowly escape flooding in our home, but for 3 days we had no water, septic or power(need power for the other 2). The flooding had us stuck in our neighborhood but we were able to kayak out to safety. In addition to high winds(which Houston fortunately avoided) flooding is very dangerous…
Floridians, especially those who lived through Charlie, are usually very well-versed in hurricane preparedness. Especially if, like me, they are unable to evacuate. (If I were to even attempt it, it would likely leave me stranded on the road for days and risk being a sitting duck.) That being said, I fully expect it to make landfall near where I live at category 5 strength, despite the current projections of "merely"…
Honest question: You'd be stranded if you left now?