Wish me luck - I need it, thanks to Hurricane Irma

Even if you did get there, Stanley, you'll probably find you're the only person there apart from the Rescue Responders. Most of the people I know in that area, on the American Astronomy sites, have moved out to higher ground and a lot of them had trouble getting out due to flight cancellations, miles of traffic jams, and also the places they were moving to cancelling rooms etc.

 

At least you are currently on the 'right' side of things, in as much as you are safe and still have the option to cancel if things do turn out really bad - little consolation, I know, but better that than having travelled over and then being stuck in the thick of it.

Sadly, from here looking in, there is little that we can do other than hope and pray that everyone stays as safe as they can.

 

Well, the strong advice from the Mayors, Police, etc in the affected areas in the Florida Peninsula and even much further inland

blob:https://www.washingtonpost.com/283d2217-62b3-4229-8426-fbfb64b08ce4



Post Nation
Florida officials begin ordering evacuations as Hurricane Irma intensifies to a Category 5 storm



By Francisco Alvarado, Mark Berman and Sandhya Somashekhar September 5
Play Video 2:12

Florida counties begin evacuating as Hurricane Irma batters Caribbean islands

Head here for Wednesday’s updates on Hurricane Irma.

KEY WEST, Fla. — Another monster storm is hurtling closer to the United States, this time threatening Florida, where officials announced mandatory evacuations Tuesday in advance of what forecasters say could be the most powerful hurricane to strike the Atlantic coast in more than a decade.

Even as millions across Texas picked up the pieces after Hurricane Harvey, which battered that region with record-setting rain last week and was blamed for at least 60 deaths, Hurricane Irma gathered strength in the ocean, registering as a Category 5 with winds in excess of 180 miles per hour.

Concern centered particularly on the Florida Keys, a chain of islands at the southern tip of the state that is a tourist hot spot and home to more than 80,000 residents. It is in the direct path of the storm as currently forecast, leading local officials there to announce that the area would be under mandatory evacuation orders beginning Wednesday.

Play Video 0:36

Florida governor urges residents to heed evacuation orders
On Sept. 5, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) urged those in areas subject to evacuation orders to leave ahead of Hurricane Irma. (Reuters)
Fear also spread north into Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county with 2.7 million residents. Though the storm’s exact trajectory was still unknown, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez urged residents to stock up on food and water and warned that evacuation orders could follow in some areas. The county already planned to start evacuating those with special needs on Wednesday.
“This hurricane is far too powerful, poses far too great a threat, for us to delay actions any further,” Gimenez said at a news briefing Tuesday afternoon. “I would rather inconvenience our residents on this occasion than suffer any unnecessary loss of life if in fact we are hit by Hurricane Irma. It is still too early to know if we will take a direct hit.”

[Hurricane Irma is getting stronger and could impact the U.S., forecasters warn]

Forecasters on Tuesday called Irma one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center warned of “large and destructive waves” along the coasts of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, while also saying that flooding could drench parts of Puerto Rico and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico’s governor on Tuesday asked President Trump to declare a state of emergency ahead of the storm’s arrival.




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The Caribbean pummeled by Hurricane Irma as Florida prepares for storm

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The storm is wielding the most powerful winds ever recorded for a storm in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Hurricane Irma’s magnitude compares to no other weather system in the recorded history of Puerto Rico. … We have expended substantial resources in preparation for this disaster and without the assistance of the federal government, the local communities will be unable to recover effectively,” Ricardo Rosselló Nevares wrote in the letter.

On Tuesday evening, President Trump declared emergencies in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico due to Irma.

Computer models show the storm approaching the Florida Keys by the weekend and then turning sharply northward. Its path beyond that is more uncertain, with models showing that it could then track up either the west coast of Florida or the East Coast of the United States, or climb up the center of the peninsula. The storm could also churn into the Gulf of Mexico. But the hurricane’s size suggests that its effects could be felt far from its center — perhaps as far as 200 miles out — forecasters say.

In Key West on Tuesday afternoon, residents and tourists were on high alert, with officials already issuing an evacuation for all visitors beginning Wednesday morning. Hotels here are closing down, many businesses on Key West’s famed Duval Street were shuttered — with the exception of a few bars and restaurants — and many residents were streaming to the mainland by car on Route A1A.

Carolyn Boutte, 44, said she and her husband moved to a house in Key West four years ago from Gloucester, Mass., and they have never been through a hurricane threat like this. They were searching for gas on Tuesday so they could escape, but the first three stations already had run out of fuel and lines were long everywhere else. She finally ran into some luck — at a station where she had to wait 45 minutes for a fill.

“My husband and I are packing up the dog and our Harley Davidson,” said Boutte, a marine biologist. “Unless the hurricane changes paths, we are getting out of here in the next couple of days.”

Hurricane Irma promised to test once again the Trump administration’s ability to respond to a major natural disaster, just days after Hurricane Harvey pummeled Texas, leaving record damage in its wake. William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that incident management assistance personnel already are on the ground in vulnerable areas.

“Just like in Texas, the response to Irma is going to take all levels of government and the whole community,” Long said in a statement. “This has the potential to be a catastrophic storm.”