11 AM update. 180 mph sustained winds. I'm not sure I've ever seen an Atlantic hurricane this strong. And they moved the track westward about 30-50 miles closer to me from 3 hours ago. Bad trend. Double crap.
Maybe I'm in a bad mood, maybe I've been through too many of these, but this really isn't a thread where you want to be flippant.
People are going to die. Many more will lose everything, have to try and rebuild from the ground up, and have their lives irrevocably altered. You wouldn't act this way on a thread about a mass shooting, why do it here?
Edit: And before you tell me to "Lighten up, Francis", I'm still well within the 3-day cone and the many more might include me.
11 AM update. 180 mph sustained winds. I'm not sure I've ever seen an Atlantic hurricane this strong. And they moved the track westward about 30-50 miles closer to me from 3 hours ago. Bad trend. Double crap.
Two weekends ago, I told my girlfriend that we really need to get a more dependable generator than the little tailgate sized one we have now. Went to Harbor Freight and picked out a perfect one among a great selection.
That was some seriously fortuitous timing. This morning, Lowes has sold out (although there is a truck coming today with more), so had we needed one now we would have to pay much more and likely drive much further.
It sucks so much that this is coming in on essentially the anniversary of Florence. There are still people here living in campers in their front yards because of that storm. Other bit of suckitude is that is going to likely keep me from tailgating this Saturday; right now if the current path holds we are looking at about 10" of rain, which is easily enough to block off my route through Kinston and/or Greenville to get to Durham. (And to get back home.)
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
We have bugged out to Naples. Though things look much better than 48 hours ago when the midpoint track was pretty much on us. A lot of folks are relaxing, but it’s still supposed to bring category 1 hurricane winds to where we were, nothing to sneeze at. It’s weird to now be in a spot where getting gas is no problem. And while this is my first Florida hurricane, I’ve dealt with them in Virgin Islands several times before.
FWIW, since I was being flippant, I've got skin in the game. My parents and only remaining grandparent live on the SC coast. We're waiting to figure out if the assisted living facility where she lives is evacuating the residents, which is an uncomfortable task considering the diversity and depth of the various conditions the residents have. Parents can't determine their course of action until they know what the facility is going to do so it's a big 'If/Then' decision tree based on the hurricane's path, evacuation orders, etc. My family also has a gallows humor streak that runs deep so its just what we do. Not everyone's cup of piss so if I was making light of a situation causing you stress, mea culpa.
Landfall has occurred and winds have INCREASED to 185! This is ridiculous.
that's my attitude as well...very serious issue, have relatives and friends (many) in the cone, but we have absolutely no control...FWIW have had the same attitude here at home...our last bout cost us 150 seventy foot tall trees, and $15,000 in damages insurance didn't cover,trees on the house...horrible cleanup, had to huddle in the basement during the storm, yet still managed to be a bit lighthearted about it...nature will just do what it wants, all you can do is prepare as best you can.
Our prep is done. Hopefully we won't need anything, but I have 30 gallons of gas, plenty of dry goods, water pump and blowers ready to go.
During Florence, our crawl space flooded, and afterwards we discovered our pump stopped working. Of course by that point, Lowes was sold out of both pumps and blowers. Since I do most of our cooking outdoors, I don't have to worry about not having appliances for that, but it sure is comforting knowing that this time, with the generator, we do not have to rely on coolers to keep all our cold stuff fresh.
The stores here are turning into zoos, as expected. It's also good to know that other folks are getting ready now, too, just in case.
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
Think of how Florence was. It made landfall with 90 mph winds. As stated above, Dorian is at 185 mph now. Only Allen in 1980 was stronger at 190 mph.
Water does a lot of damage, but rain doesn't scare me like wind does.
Hurricanes are like Mike Trout, they do a lot of things well. It all depends upon the storm and where you are...water from rain and storm surge can be even worse than wind damage...look at NYC, where Sandy cost them $32 billion in damages, much much more from water than wind...even Vermont gets whacked from time to time...Hurricane Irene cost us about a billion dollars, all from flooding...
What is especially nasty about widespread water flooding damage, vs. that of wind, is that insurance companies don't have to pay you a dime unless you specifically have flood insurance, which the vast majority of homeowners don't have... and hurricanes have the ability to flood people out who don't live in designated flood plains. So if my home, for example, were to suffer hurricane damage, I'd much prefer it to be from wind (as unpleasant as that is) than from flooding.
Of course most of the people who live in the Caribbean Islands don't have any type of insurance...
Hurricane Harvey did $125 billion in damage in 2017, primarily through flooding. Winds present an immediate danger, torrential rains can be more overwhelming.
Wind gusts now reported up to 225 MPH. No typo. That's beyond frightening.
[redacted] them and the horses they rode in on.
Hope by some miracle I don't lose power. Forecast is for 4 days of 90+ degree weather after it passes.
See, I'm already getting more positive than this morning. Planning on still having a roof over my head.
For a bit of perspective, the northern Bahamas have experienced the equivalent of an EF4 tornado for the better part of a day. And that's just the wind, you also have to consider the unbelievable storm surge and flooding on top. I can't imagine having to endure that.