Historic Category 5 storm hits islands, as Florida braces for potential impact

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News and The Associated Press


https://i.imgur.com/hFU9JlX.jpg

Hurricane Irma, the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history, made landfall early Wednesday in the Caribbean islands.

At the far northeastern edge of the Caribbean, authorities on the Leeward Islands of Antigua and Barbuda cut power and urged residents to shelter indoors as they braced for Hurricane Irma's first contact with land early Wednesday.
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Officials warned people to seek protection from Irma's "onslaught" in a statement that closed with: "May God protect us all."
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The Category 5 storm had maximum sustained winds of 185 m.p.h., according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The National Weather Service said the eye of Hurricane Irma passed over Barbuda around 1:47 a.m. Residents said over local radio that phone lines went down as the eye passed.

Weather officials said Irma was maintaining Category 5 strength with sustained winds and appears to be heading on a west-northwest path toward Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba before possibly heading for Florida over the weekend.

In Florida, people also stocked up on drinking water and other supplies.

Gov. Rick Scott activated 100 members of the Florida National Guard to be deployed across the state, and 7,000 National Guard members were to report for duty Friday when the storm could be approaching the area. On Monday, Scott declared a state of emergency in all of Florida's 67 counties.

Officials in the Florida Keys geared up to get tourists and residents out of Irma's path, and the mayor of Miami-Dade county said people should be prepared to evacuate Miami Beach and most of the county's coastal areas.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the voluntary evacuations could begin as soon as Wednesday evening. He activated the emergency operation center and urged residents to have three days' worth of food and water.
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On the 108-square-mile-island Antigua, people who live in low-lying areas were staying with friends and relatives on higher ground or sleeping in churches, schools and community facilities built to withstand hurricanes. None of the shelters have yet been tested by Category 5 winds, however.

Many homes in Antigua and Barbuda are not built on concrete foundations or have poorly constructed wooden roofs that are susceptible to wind damage. Other islands in the path of the storm included the Virgin Islands and Anguilla, a small, low-lying territory of about 15,000 people.

President Trump declared emergencies in Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and authorities in the Bahamas said they would evacuate six southern islands.

Warm water is fuel for hurricanes and Irma is over water that is 1.8 degrees warmer than normal. The 79 degree water that hurricanes need goes about 250 feet deep, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the private forecasting service Weather Underground.

Four other storms have had winds as strong in the overall Atlantic region but they were in the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, which are usually home to warmer waters that fuel cyclones.

Hurricane Allen hit 190 mph in 1980, while 2005's Wilma, 1988's Gilbert and a 1935 great Florida Key storm all had 185 mph winds.

The northern Leeward Islands were expected to see waves as high as 11 feet, while the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas could see towering 20-foot waves later in the week, forecasters said.

Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said his government was evacuating the six islands in the south because authorities would not be able to help anyone caught in the "potentially catastrophic" wind, flooding and storm surge. People there would be flown to Nassau starting Wednesday in what he called the largest storm evacuation in the country's history.

"The price you may pay for not evacuating is your life or serious physical harm," Minnis said.

The National Weather Service said Puerto Rico had not seen a hurricane of Irma's magnitude since Hurricane San Felipe in 1928, which killed a total of 2,748 people in Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico and Florida.

"The dangerousness of this event is like nothing we've ever seen," Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said. "A lot of infrastructure won't be able to withstand this kind of force."

A new tropical storm also formed in the Atlantic on Tuesday, to the east of Irma. The hurricane center said Tropical Storm Jose was about 1,255 miles east of the Lesser Antilles late Tuesday and its maximum sustained winds had risen to 60 mph (85 kph). It was moving west at 13 mph and is expected to become a hurricane by Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Katia formed early Wednesday in the Gulf of Mexico off Mexico’s coast. The storm has maximum sustained winds near 40 mph and is expected to strengthen in the next few days, according to the hurricane center. However, the storm is expected to stay offshore through Friday morning.

[RBP]

That's a monster. :shock:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Crazy

[Hal-9000]

Old coworker of mine who I knew in passing spent a week under Hurricane Wilma. They were in Cuba and their holiday photos consisted of shots from the hotel lobby, looking at huge pieces of debris hitting other things outside. She said they couldn't go outside for four days. They ended up staying a couple of extra days on the hotel tab, changing flights etc.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

185 mph sustained winds are crazy scary

[Hal-9000]

I remember one of her pictures. A piece of ....wall...or something similar that was about 20' x 40' and it was pressed up against the hotel she was at.

No one was allowed to go outside and even the hotel maintenance people only went out to clean up the safe and nearby junk.

Yeah she said something about larger boats (catamarans) that were flipping and moving up the beach in winds around 150 mph.

[deebakes]

:eek:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News


https://i.imgur.com/3YVFaZA.jpg

Hurricane Irma – a Category 5 storm with winds as strong as 185 mph -- continued roaring toward Florida early Thursday, carving a path of death and destruction through tiny Caribbean islands and threatening the larger and more populous islands of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba.

Damage to the Dutch side of the Caribbean island of Saint-Martin was said to be “enormous,” with roofs torn off buildings. At least eight deaths were reported on the French side of the island.

At least one other death was reported on the island of Barbuda, where the prime minister described a “horrendous situation” of “total carnage.”

In Puerto Rico, about 900,000 people were said to be without electricity.

Farther ahead was Florida, and the prospect of landfall on the U.S. mainland by Sunday. Residents in parts of the Miami metro area were under mandatory orders to leave their homes Thursday morning as Irma drew closer.

Gov. Rick Scott strongly urged people to “get out now,” warning that Irma was "bigger, faster and stronger" than Hurricane Andrew, the last Category 5 storm to hit the state.

Florida also faced two sobering facts: Many of its homeowners lack flood insurance, and FEMA -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency, charged with handling such crises -- was already spread thin by the impact of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana.

“The threat of direct hurricane impacts in Florida over the weekend and early next week has increased,” the National Hurricane Center warned Wednesday, adding that hurricane watches would likely be issued for parts of the Florida Keys and Florida Peninsula.

As of early Thursday, the center of Irma was about 140 miles north/northwest of Puerto Rico, and it was moving west/northwest at about 16 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported. Wind gusts were measured at a high of 185 mph.

The eye of the storm was expected to pass just north of Hispaniola on Thursday, moving on to Turks and Caicos and the southern Bahamas by evening, the Guardian reported.

Speaking on French radio France Info, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the death toll in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthelemy could be higher than eight because rescue teams have yet to finish their inspection of the islands.
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“The reconnaissance will really start at daybreak," Collomb said.

To the east, authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands devastated by the storm's record winds earlier Wednesday, while people in Florida rushed to get ready for a possible direct hit on the Miami area.

Communications were difficult with areas hit by Irma, and information on damage trickled out.

‘Horrendous situation’

The Caribbean island of Barbuda was a scene of “total carnage'' after the passage of Hurricane Irma and the tiny two-island nation will be seeking assistance from the international community to rebuild, its prime minister said on Thursday.

Nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane's core crossed almost directly over the island early Wednesday and about 60 percent of its roughly 1,400 residents were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the Associated Press.
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Estimates were that 95 percent of the island’s buildings had been damaged, the BBC reported.

“It is just really a horrendous situation," Browne said after returning to Antigua from a plane trip to the neighboring island.

He said roads and telecommunications systems were wrecked and recovery would take months, if not years. A 2-year-old child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm, Browne told the AP.

On St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling spent 12 hours hunkered down with her husband and 1-year-old daughter in a boarded-up basement apartment with no power as the storm raged outside. They emerged to find the lush island in tatters. Many of their neighbors' homes were damaged and once-dense vegetation was largely gone.

“There are no leaves. It is crazy. One of the things we loved about St. Thomas is that it was so green. And it's gone," Strickling said. "It will take years for this community to get back on its feet."

By early Thursday, the center of the storm was about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and moving west-northwest near 16 mph (26 kph).

Powerless in Puerto Rico

More than half the island of Puerto Rico was without power, leaving 900,000 in the dark and nearly 50,000 without water, the U.S. territory's emergency management agency said in the midst of the storm. Fourteen hospitals were using generators after losing power, and trees and light poles were strewn across roads.

Puerto Rico's public power company warned before the storm hit that some areas could be left without power from four to six months because its staff has been reduced and its infrastructure weakened by the island's decade-long economic slump.

State maintenance worker Juan Tosado said he was without power for three months after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. "I expect the same from this storm. It's going to be bad," he said.

President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to remove debris and give other services that will largely be paid for by the U.S. government.

Pauline Jackson, a 59-year-old registered nurse from Florida visiting Puerto Rico, said she had tried to leave before the storm but all flights were sold out.

She has a reservation to fly out Friday and is worried about her home in Tampa. "When you're from Florida, you understand a Category 5 hurricane," she said.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Irma would remain at Category 4 or 5 for the next day or two as passes just to the north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday, nears the Turks & Caicos and parts of the Bahamas by Thursday night and skirts Cuba on Friday night into Saturday. It will then likely head north toward Florida.

The storm is expected to hit Florida sometime Sunday, and Gov. Scott said he planned to activate 7,000 National Guard soldiers by Friday.

Experts worried that Irma could rake the entire Florida east coast from Miami to Jacksonville and then head into Savannah, Georgia, and the Carolinas, striking highly populated and developed areas.

"This could easily be the most costly storm in U.S. history, which is saying a lot considering what just happened two weeks ago," said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.

Steep insurance drop

As Irma bore down on Florida, an Associated Press analysis showed a steep drop in flood insurance across the state, including the areas most endangered by what could be a devastating storm surge.

According to FEMA data, in just five years, the state's total number of federal flood insurance policies has fallen by 15 percent.

Florida's property owners still buy far more federal flood insurance than any other state -- 1.7 million policies, covering about $42 billion in assets -- but most residents in hazard zones are badly exposed. Fully 59 percent of the owners of properties in flood hazard zones don't have this insurance, despite requirements to have the coverage as a condition of their federally backed mortgage loans.

Meanwhile, faced with the looming threat of dual disasters, FEMA has ramped up preparations for Hurricane Irma as it barrels toward the Florida coast, even as the agency continues the massive recovery effort in storm-battered Texas.

It was a one-two punch of powerful storms certain to strain the agency's quickly dwindling coffers.

The roughly $1 billion left in FEMA's Emergency Response Fund was expected to run out as soon as the end of the week, just as Category 5 Irma could be pounding Florida and less than two weeks after Hurricane Harvey caused massive flooding in Houston.

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed $7.9 billion in Harvey disaster relief as warring Republicans and Democrats united to help victims of that storm in Texas and Louisiana. The 419-3 vote sent the aid package -- likely the first of several -- to the Senate in hopes of getting the bill to the president before FEMA runs out of money.

Far more money will be needed once more complete estimates of Harvey's damage are in this fall. The storm's wrath could end up exceeding the $110 billion federal cost of recovery from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

‘Attention to detail’

Tom Bossert, President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser, said the federal government won't forget Harvey's victims as attention shifted toward the threat from Irma, a Category 5 storm with 185-mph sustained winds -- the strongest ever observed in the open Atlantic.

He said the federal response in Texas was entering a recovery phase that will be long and, at times, frustrating for affected homeowners. The U.S. government was marshaling Small Business Administration loans, disaster unemployment assistance from the Labor Department and FEMA reconstruction aid to rebuild state and municipal infrastructure.

"I won't forget Harvey," Bossert said, as he rushed to join a phone call between Trump and Florida Gov. Rick Scott. "Now, it is a long game that requires a lot of attention to detail."

Speaking at an event in North Dakota on Wednesday, Trump said the emergency personnel now redeploying from Texas to Florida could use some rest, but likely won't get much.

"They're really now again in harm's way," Trump said. "Together we will recover and we will rebuild."

Irma, maintaining winds of over 180 miles per hour longer than any Atlantic storm on record, is forecast to modestly weaken in the next two days, but remain an extremely dangerous Category 4 or 5 storm. It will produce the full gamut of hurricane hazards across the Bahamas and potentially South Florida, including a devastating storm surge, destructive winds and dangerous flash flooding.

Meanwhile, two new hurricanes formed late Wednesday afternoon in the Atlantic basin: Jose in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Katia in the southwest Gulf of Mexico.

[RBP]

:shock:

[Godfather]

Oh man, I feel for these people. I read event the buildings which are 'to code' in a lot of these areas can only take Cat 2 sustained winds... These places are flattened :?


I selfishly felt bad for my best bud too. He just got married and booked a honeymoon at the Marriot in the BVI's in a month... that whole area is flattened. Guess that trip is off...

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News and The Associated Press


Hurricane Irma continued driving toward Florida early Friday, making landfall in Turks and Caicos, where waves were expected to reach 20 feet.

The Category 4 storm, downgraded from Category 5, was still regarded as the most powerful in the Atlantic in recorded history, bringing wind gusts of 155 mph – not as strong as the 185 mph of previous days, but forceful enough to cause severe damage to homes and other structures.

At least 14 deaths have been attributed to Irma, Reuters reported: Four people died in the U.S. Virgin islands; one person died in Barbuda; another person was killed in Anguilla; four bodies were recovered on the French-Dutch island of Saint Martin; three people were killed in Puerto Rico; and a surfer was reported killed in Barbados.
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Cuba started evacuating tourists, including 36,000 visitors to its northern resorts, Reuters added.

Puerto Rico still had hundreds of thousands of customers left without electricity.

Turks and Caicos lost communications as the storm struck, but the full extent of the devastation there was not immediately clear.
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Late Thursday, the National Hurricane Center issued hurricane warnings for South Florida and the Keys, as forecasters predicted a sizable portion of the state will be affected when Irma reaches the state during the weekend.

Major roads in South Florida were congested most of Thursday, as Floridians heeded Gov. Rick Scott’s order to leave an evacuation zone that is home to 500,000 people.

Some predicted that Irma could eclipse 1992’s Hurricane Andrew as the storm that haunts Floridians long after it ends.

“The effect of Irma on the state of Florida is going to be much greater than Andrew's effect,” said Weather Channel senior hurricane specialist Bryan Norcross, who was a local television meteorologist hailed as a hero during Andrew. “We're dealing with an entirely different level of phenomenon. There is no storm to compare with this. Unless you go way back to 1926.”

An update at 5 a.m. Friday from the National Hurricane Center showed Irma to be located 55 miles north of Great Inagua Island and about 495 miles east-southeast of Miami -- with wind gusts of 155 mph. The storm was moving about 16 mph, the hurricane center said

The hurricane center said its storm surge warning covers Jupiter Inlet southward around the Florida peninsula to Bonita Beach, as well as the Florida Keys.

Its hurricane warning covers Jupiter Inlet southward around the Florida peninsula to Bonita Beach, as well as the Florida Keys, Lake Okeechobee, and Florida Bay.

In addition, a storm surge watch has been issued for the east coast of Florida, north of Jupiter Inlet to Sebastian Inlet and for the west coast of Florida north of Bonita Beach to Venice.

A hurricane watch has been issued for the east coast of Florida north of Jupiter Inlet to Sebastian Inlet and for the west coast of Florida north of Bonita Beach to Anna Maria Island.

Meanwhile, the government of the Dominican Republic has discontinued the hurricane warning for the country's northern coast, the hurricane center said.

In the U.S. Virgin Islands, hurricane victims received assistance from three U.S. Navy vessels deployed to the U.S. territory: the USS Wasp, USS Kearsarge and USS Oak Hill.

The Navy crews aboard the ships were able to offer medical support, security, heavy lift capabilities and other assistance, a U.S. Navy release said.

Earlier Thursday, Gov. Scott urged hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate before Hurricane Irma makes potential landfall — as forecast models on Thursday predicted the storm moving further west, more directly in the state's path.

"If you live in any evacuation zones and you're still at home, leave!" Scott warned at a news conference Thursday. "Do not try to ride out this storm. ... We can't save you once the storm hits."

Scott said that regardless of their location, people should be ready to get out. The governor noted that Florida's western coast "will still have hurricane conditions."

The storm is expected to travel west in the coming days, and will remain a Category 5, or possibly drop to a 4, according to the NHC.

With winds that peaked earlier at 185 mph, Hurricane Irma was the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, and has killed at least 13 people, including four deaths in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the Associated Press.

"Look at the size of this storm. It is wider than our entire state," Scott said. "Every Floridian should take this serious and protect your family."

Gov. Scott said he's activated 4,000 members of the National Guard in Florida, and all 7,000 will be deployed on Friday.

Shifting forecasts have also raised the threat to the Southeast from Irma, prompting emergency declarations in the Carolinas and coastal Georgia, including areas that haven't suffered a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal ordered a mandatory evacuation starting on Saturday from the state's Atlantic coast ahead of Hurricane Irma, including the city of Savannah. Nearly 540,000 residents on the coast were ordered to evacuate inland.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster also declared a state of emergency. A major strike there would be the first in nearly 28 years.

[Pony]

and a surfer was reported killed in Barbados

:-k

[lost in melb.]

It's still a monster. Best wishes to all!

[lost in melb.]

:-k

Darwin :idk:

[RBP]

:-k

Yes. She was surfing in the hurricane. True story.

[Muddy]

The part that sucks is once you/we go through something like this it's just a matter of time until the next one shows up.. It's a relentless cycle of destruction and re-building.

[RBP]

The part that sucks is once you/we go through something like this it's just a matter of time until the next one shows up.. It's a relentless cycle of destruction and re-building.

And the rest of us pay for that. How many times should they get rebuilt at taxpayer expense? I am inclined to say once. You rebuild on the same spot, you're on your own.

[lost in melb.]

And the rest of us pay for that. How many times should they get rebuilt at taxpayer expense? I am inclined to say once. You rebuild on the same spot, you're on your own.

Sounds fair, but if you get whole towns swept away, what then?

[RBP]

Sounds fair, but if you get whole towns swept away, what then?

The problem is primarily flood insurance. The federal government took over the program, so private insurers no longer hold the liability.

An entire town is a different animal than repeated rebuilds in known flood zones (or wildfire zones for the rich assholes out west).

[Muddy]

And the rest of us pay for that. How many times should they get rebuilt at taxpayer expense? I am inclined to say once. You rebuild on the same spot, you're on your own.

I would hope the goal is to rebuild to a better code that is resistant to the same type of damage in the future.. But yeah, that's the way it works I guess.. They pay taxes too.. :shrug:

[RBP]

I would hope the goal is to rebuild to a better code that is resistant to the same type of damage in the future.. But yeah, that's the way it works I guess.. They pay taxes too.. :shrug:

https://i.imgur.com/YdtfvAP.jpg

[Hal-9000]

I would not raise anything up living in hurricane country.

It's bunker city for me...

[redred]

YT trash and family are heading north to Orlando :tup:

[Muddy]

https://i.imgur.com/YdtfvAP.jpg

Really though, I dont think its so much the government rebuilding private structures that is happening.. I think it is the government having to step in and take care of the Urban sprawl living in the cities saying.. "Feed dis' mother fuckin' baby Mother fuckah!!"...

[RBP]

Really though, I dont think its so much the government rebuilding private structures that is happening.. I think it is the government having to step in and take care of the Urban sprawl living in the cities saying.. "Feed dis' mother fuckin' baby Mother fuckah!!"...

Could be. I admittedly have never seen a categorized breakdown of where the money goes. I would think that's more FEMA than flood insurance but not sure.

[DemonGeminiX]

Most people around here get their flood insurance through FEMA, and FEMA's always saying that they're broke, so... yeah.

[RBP]

Most people around here get their flood insurance through FEMA, and FEMA's always saying that they're broke, so... yeah.

I believe that's the only way to get flood insurance. There are no private flood insurers any more.

And yes, without an appropriation, FEMA runs out of money this weekend.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

And Jose was just upgraded to a Cat 4 hurricane.

[RBP]

And Jose was just upgraded to a Cat 4 hurricane.

Fuck.

[DemonGeminiX]

I think most insurance companies offer flood insurance, it's just that it's usually an expensive joke. FEMA's flood insurance actually covers floods.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I think most insurance companies offer flood insurance, it's just that it's usually an expensive joke. FEMA's flood insurance actually covers floods.

No, RBP is right, any and all flood insurance is underwritten by the federal government.

[RBP]

I think most insurance companies offer flood insurance, it's just that it's usually an expensive joke. FEMA's flood insurance actually covers floods.

I think the private offerings are still NFIP. Maybe I am incorrect; that happened once in the mid 80's so I'm due.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program

You will apply for it thru your insurance company, but the federal government underwrites it and takes care of paying out.

[lost in melb.]

https://i.imgur.com/YdtfvAP.jpg

:lol: I like it

[lost in melb.]

https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program

You will apply for it thru your insurance company, but the federal government underwrites it and takes care of paying out.


The problem is primarily flood insurance. The federal government took over the program, so private insurers no longer hold the liability.

An entire town is a different animal than repeated rebuilds in known flood zones (or wildfire zones for the rich assholes out west).

Ah, I didn't know that gov'mint was responsible. That's crazy.

I was thinking insurance will charge higher fees next time for particularly flood-prone areas [but there's less incentive under that arrangment]

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News and The Associated Press


https://i.imgur.com/Ctlf8OF.jpg

Irma weakened to a Category 1 storm as the massive hurricane zeroed in on the Tampa Bay region early Monday after hammering much of Florida with roof-ripping winds, gushing floodwaters and widespread power outages.

The hurricane's maximum sustained winds weakened to 85 mph with additional weakening expected. As of 2 a.m. EDT, the storm was centered about 25 miles northeast of Tampa and moving north-northwest near 15 mph.

Irma continues its slog north along Florida's western coast having blazed a path of unknown destruction. With communication cut to some of the Florida Keys, where Irma made landfall Sunday, and rough conditions persisting across the peninsula, many are holding their breath for what daylight might reveal.

Forecasters say they expert Irma's center to stay inland over Florida and then move into Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
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They also expect Irma to weaken further into a tropical storm over far northern Florida or southern Georgia on Monday as it speeds up its forward motion. The hurricane center says the storm is still life-threatening with dangerous storm surge, wind and heavy rains.

More than 3.3 million homes and businesses -- and counting -- have lost power in Florida as Hurricane Irma moves up the peninsula.

The widespread outages stretch from the Florida Keys all the way into central Florida.

Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electric utility, said there were nearly 1 million customers without power in Miami-Dade County alone.
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The power outages are expected to increase as the storm edges further north.

There are roughly 7 million residential customers in the state.

The county administrator in the Florida Keys says crews will begin house to house searches Monday morning, looking for people who need help and assessing damage from Hurricane Irma.

Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi says relief will arrive on a C-130 military plane Monday morning at the Key West International Airport.

Once it's light out, they'll check on survivors. They suspect they may find fatalities.

Gastesi says they are "prepared for the worst."

Hurricane Irma made landfall Sunday morning in Cudjoe Key.

But The Associated Press has been texting with John Huston, who has been riding out the storm in his house on Key Largo, on the Atlantic side of the island, just south of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.

Every few minutes during the height of the storm, he sent another dispatch.

He described whiteout conditions, with howling winds that sucked dry the gulf side of the narrow island, where the tide is usually 8 feet deep. He kept his humor though, texting to "send cold beer" at one point. Now he sees furniture floating down the street with small boats.
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He says the storm surge was at least 6 feet deep on his island, 76 miles from Irma's eye. He can see now that structures survived, but the storm left a big mess at ground level.

Irma set all sorts of records for brute strength before crashing into Florida, flattening islands in the Caribbean and swamping the Florida Keys.

It finally hit the mainland as a big wide beast, but not quite as monstrous as once feared. The once-Category 5 storm lost some of its power on the northern Cuba coast.

[lost in melb.]

Overall, all I can say is well done - and lucky it wasn't worse.

[Godfather]

https://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-program

You will apply for it thru your insurance company, but the federal government underwrites it and takes care of paying out.

Well when in doubt, if you're truly fucked... flick your bic. There's no exclusion under any home insurance policy I've ever seen for 'ensuing fire' under the flood exclusion (or earthquake for that matter)

...not that I'm able to condone that as a chartered insurance professional :twisted:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News and The Associated Press


https://i.imgur.com/BNERzpo.jpg

The U.S. Navy dispatched the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and two other ships to the Florida Keys to help with search-and-rescue operations after Hurricane Irma slammed the region.

Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said, "I just hope everyone survived," after a flyover of the hurricane-battered Keys yielded what the governor said were scenes of devastation.
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He said boats were cast ashore, water, sewers and electricity were knocked out, and "I don't think I saw one trailer park where almost everything wasn't overturned." Authorities also struggled to clear the single highway connecting the string of islands to the mainland.

The Keys felt Irma's full fury when the storm blew ashore as a Category 4 hurricane Sunday morning with 130 mph winds. How many people in the dangerously exposed, low-lying islands defied evacuation orders and stayed behind was unclear.

In a tweet Monday morning, a WFOR reporter said “it’s hard to describe" the lower Florida Keys, but it could be best described as a “war zone.”

As Irma weakened into a tropical storm and finally left Florida on Monday after a run up the entire 400-mile length of the state, the full scale of its destruction was still unknown, in part because of cutoff communications and blocked roads. Monday night, the storm had weakened to a tropical depression near Columbus, Georgia.

Six deaths in Florida have been blamed on Irma, along with three in Georgia and one in South Carolina. At least 35 people were killed in the Caribbean.

Statewide, an estimated 13 million people, or two-thirds of Florida's population, remained without power. That's more than the population of New York and Los Angeles combined. Officials warned it could take weeks for electricity to be restored to everyone.
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More than 180,000 people huddled in shelters in the Sunshine State.

The governor said it was way too early to put a dollar estimate on the damage.

During its march up Florida's west coast, Irma swamped homes, uprooted trees, flooded streets, snapped miles of power lines and toppled construction cranes.

In a parting shot, it triggered severe flooding around Jacksonville in the state's northeastern corner. It also spread misery into Georgia and South Carolina as it moved inland with winds at 50 mph, causing flooding and power outages.

Around the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, where Irma rolled through early Monday, damage appeared modest. And the governor said damage on the southwest coast, including in Naples and Fort Myers, was not as bad as feared. In the Keys, though, he said "there is devastation."

"It's horrible, what we saw," Scott said. "I know for our entire state, especially the Keys, it's going to be a long road."

He said the Navy dispatched the Abraham Lincoln, the USS Iwo Jima and USS New York. Emergency managers in the islands declared on Monday "the Keys are not open for business" and warned that there was no fuel, electricity, running water or cell service and that supplies were low and anxiety high.

"HELP IS ON THE WAY," they promised on Facebook.

The Keys are linked by 42 bridges that have to be checked for safety before motorists can be allowed in, officials said. The governor said the route also needs to be cleared of debris and sand, but should be usable fairly quickly.

In the Jacksonville area, close to the Georgia line, storm surge brought some of the worst flooding ever seen there, with at least 46 people pulled from swamped homes.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office warned residents along the St. Johns River to "Get out NOW."

"If you need to get out, put a white flag in front of your house. A t-shirt, anything white," the office said on its Facebook page. "Search and rescue teams are ready to deploy."

A tornado spun off by Irma was reported on the Georgia coast, and firefighters inland had to rescue several people after trees fell on their homes.

A tropical storm warning was issued for the first time ever in Atlanta, and school was canceled in communities around the state. More than 1.5million customers were without power Monday night in Georgia.

Over the next two days, Irma is expected to push to the northwest, into Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

People in the heavily populated Tampa-St. Petersburg area had braced for the first direct hit from a major hurricane since 1921. But by the time Irma arrived in the middle of the night Monday, its winds were down to 100 mph or less.

"When that sun came out this morning and the damage was minimal, it became a good day," said Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn.