preparing for irma

It looks like Hurricane Irma is headed my way – we just aren’t sure of the path and intensity yet.

Because so many people have asked me on social media if I’m evacuating and are worried I’ll give you a bit of info so you can get an idea of where I’m at in relation to Irma.

I am the red spot – so I’m in North Central FL. I’m not on the coast so evacuation is not really an issue for me. When people from the coast evacuate they come here. We won’t get storm surge and Irma isn’t supposed to be a huge rainmaker (because it’s moving so fast – unlike Harvey, that sat over TX for days).

On it’s current projected path, as of  5pm Thursday night,  the eye would pass very close to us as a Cat 1 or 2 around Monday morning. I would likely get 80-90 mph winds and 5-9 inches of rain. The big worry will be tornadoes - which are very common - especially in the upper right quadrant of a hurricane - as the rain bands keep rotating into FL as Irma moves up the coast. A shift even further west than it's current track would be bad for us.

Tornadoes are super scary and are what I’m most concerned about. Florida homes don't have basements to there's no real safe place to hide during a tornado. I've jammed myself and the pets into a closet during them before so I'll be as ready as I can be.

We will likely lose power and internet but maybe not. We went through 4 hurricanes in ONE MONTH in 2004 and I never lost my Dish signal lol But…I’ve lost everything during a light thunderstorm so you never know.

A track shift to the east would be great and lessen the impact but basically, this is a big storm and will affect all of FL in some way. The big curve north is supposed to occur Saturday so really, we won't have a handle on it until then.

To answer the question – why don’t you just leave FL – there’s a huge, unpredictable storm headed your way??!!

It’s not that easy. As I said – Irma is unpredictable. That cone shows all the possible paths for Irma and they could change by the day - or hour. The area I decide to go to to escape Irma could be the path that she decides to take and then I’m stuck. Then there are jobs and life – you can’t just run away a week in advance but by the time you can leave it’s too late and the roads are packed. There's already a traffic jam from FL to GA and it's only Thursday.

In those hurricanes of 2004 that I mentioned above – people got stuck on the HWY during the hurricane trying to escape the rapidly changing paths.

I know from a distance, it seems crazy to stay but sometimes hunkering down is the safest thing to do. Not always, of course, but it’s a complex issue.

We’ve got water, food, batteries Kevin has 2 generators ready. So we’re preparing and hoping for the best.

With the current path Miami would take the brunt of the storm and for them, at a Cat 5, that would be catastrophic.



And just to end on a somewhat silly note – what the hell is going on at the Weather Channel?? I was watching the other night and they seem to be doing the weather from... a frat house basement?? lol

There’s peeling paint, a tie hanging from a lamp, a beer tap, random cups, an alarm clock...

And you can’t see but they are behind a distressed wood bar.

I’m just completely perplexed by this set up. lol

I’m hoping to get some posts scheduled for next week and they should post even if I don’t have power or internet but I might not be able to visit blogs or comment back so you might not hear from me for a few days.

Keep everyone in Irma’s potential path – from FL all the way up the East coast in your thoughts!