OT: Thinking of those who live on the West Coast of Florida

[Ian]

Not a good week coming up and it’ll probably be a good reason to curse my name by the time it’s over … just sucks. Definitely looks ominous right now and wishing all of you the best.

 

[Scotty]

Yip..same here. I have had vacations in quite a few places on the West Coast so can imagine the potential impact if this goes as per forecast. Take care.

 

[venecol]

I've got a lot of family in Tampa/Pinellas.

Damn you Ian, go away.

 

[oldrover]

We live in Jax... two houses from the river... at a low point.

Suffice to say we were at Lowes today, buying sand bags.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

As beautiful people, we've got a winter vacation home south of Tamper. Concerned.

 

[Kontradiction]

We live in Jax... two houses from the river... at a low point.

Suffice to say we were at Lowes today, buying sand bags.

We’ll be fine, I think, but you’re making a smart purchase either way. Even if you don’t use them this time, there will come a time when you need them. I live in South Jax Beach and I have some left over. We flooded badly during Matthew and Irma.

 

[Patsfan1958]

A tip for those who may lose power during evacuation.

You just fill a cup with water, freeze it, and stick a quarter on top. When you come back from a hurricane evacuation, if the quarter is still at the top of the cup, your food is safe to eat. If the quarter sank, it means that your freezer lost power and you should throw your food out.

Best of luck to those in the path.

 

[Kontradiction]

For all of the New Yorkers who moved down here - this is going to be bad. Really bad. Apocalyptic levels of destruction. You have never seen anything like this. You should move back to New York immediately to escape the oncoming carnage.

 

[Tunescribe]

I know he lives there, did this place finally push him over the edge? Oh, wait ...

Tropical Storm Ian forecast to reach Category 4 strength as it tracks toward Florida | CNN

Tropical Storm Ian, the ninth named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season is forecast to reach up to Category 4 hurricane strength before hitting Florida next week. If it does, it will be the first major hurricane to impact the state since 2018.

www.cnn.com

 

[Brandon_Cox]

Not a good week coming up and it’ll probably be a good reason to curse my name by the time it’s over

I know what you mean about having your name cursed. People are yelling all kinds of bad stuff at me, while others keep yelling let's go, when all I want to do is drink beer and watch football. Best of luck to Florida and I hope the strong winds don't make it up to Atlanta.

 

[Triumph]

I know what you mean about having your name cursed. People are yelling all kinds of bad stuff at me, while others keep yelling let's go, when all I want to do is drink beer and watch football. Best of luck to Florida and I hope the strong winds don't make it up to Atlanta.

You havent seen the worst yet.

 

[zydecochris]

A tip for those who may lose power during evacuation.

You just fill a cup with water, freeze it, and stick a quarter on top. When you come back from a hurricane evacuation, if the quarter is still at the top of the cup, your food is safe to eat. If the quarter sank, it means that your freezer lost power and you should throw your food out.

Best of luck to those in the path.

Even apart from hurricanes, I have to admit that my wife does this all the time anyway, just in case we lose power when on travel. It works

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

Still lots of track uncertainty, but the cone keeps nudging westward, with expected Florida landfall further north. Good for us on the East side and not so good for mid-panhandle.

 

[paco130]

Not a good week coming up and it’ll probably be a good reason to curse my name by the time it’s over … just sucks. Definitely looks ominous right now and wishing all of you the best.

Thanks, Ian. I'm pretty secure. I'm in a second-floor condo unit with hurricane windows. The only thing concerning to me is the loss of power. Fingers crossed that loss of power won't happen!!!

 

[denverpatsfan]

Mother in Law is in North Fort Myers. Hoping for a milder storm than they predict

 

[farn]

We just got hit by Fiona and it smacked us in the mouth. I can’t imagine facing much larger systems…. Stay safe.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

It's going to be bad they are predicting...Tampa going to take a direct hit. Pretty sure the Bucs have a home game against KC on Sunday, we'll see if the league postpones it or something.

Ian could be "something that we haven't seen in our lifetime," National Weather Service says

Unpredictable Hurricane Ian strengthened overnight as it churned in the Caribbean, prompting urgent preparations in Florida, where the storm could deliver impacts later this week. Follow here for the latest news and forecasts.

www.cnn.com

But it will not take a direct hit on Tampa to create catastrophic damage from flooding: Tampa Bay is extremely vulnerable to storm surge because water being pushed into Tampa Bay has nowhere to go “so it just continues to pile water in into downtown Tampa, which is very vulnerable to storm surge flooding,” according to Davis.

"Even in small storms we can get coastal flooding up into the Tampa Bay area, Bayshore Boulevard, and those have been from fairly weak storms,” Davis said. “So we can expect with a stronger storm that's expected to be much closer and slow moving, that will continue to pile up water in areas along the Bay in Tampa and in St. Pete.”

 

[SHOWTIME15]

It looks like they've already closed the schools down in Tampa for the week...

 

[203Pat]

I was down there when Irma was supposed to obliterate Tampa/St Pete and luckily it didn't crush us the way it was predicted but that was my final straw for that place. I was amazed how unprepared everyone was from the state level all the way to the municipal level. Those hayseeds couldn't even get sand and sandbags out to people properly or in a timely manner. I know the mentality down there is always "I have lived here for X years and they always hype these up. I'm not leaving!" but if you're in the direct path you'd be a fool not to. Even if your house isn't destroyed you're still likely without power or access to gas and water for days in that disgusting sweltering heat. I have offered out spare room and airline points to any of my friends down there that want to come up and so far they all want to ride it out of just drive farther inland.

 

[BB8XSBW]

This looks like it could be an entertaining one to watch on TV. Hopefully the strength of it doesn't die down before it makes landfall, like many others have in the past. The pseudoscience behind these predictions is ridiculous. Most of the time when they predict that a storm will intensify as it makes landfall, it ends up being a huge letdown.