Irma

[France]

Glad we're not there, but worried about little Carling sitting in her garage.  It looks now as if it will turn north and go up the "spine" of the state...we hope.  That would certainly take some wind out of its sails.  Prayers for everyone in its path!

[Cees Klumper]

Hear hear. We're tracking it closely as we have a home on Big Pine Key, just 30 miles north of Key West. Could be totally demolished if we're unlucky. In any  event, this storm will cause a lot of damage, where ever it ends up going.

[France]

Cees, looks like NOAA has it headed for the 'glades...

[smackYYZ]

Looks better for you on the west coast. I have a home on the barrier island in Vero Beach, and now looks like it's going to run up the east coast

Driving my Pagoda down for winter storage after PUB, unless I get some bad news

https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/2017/hurricane-irma

[France]

Thanks, Mike...not sure how NOAA and wunderground data coordinate, but hope landfall takes a lot of energy out of it!

[awolff280sl]

hi Trice, this one has our attention.
Hopefully Sarasota remains lucky.

[France]

Andy best wishes to you and Helen!  Hope your Pagoda is stored carefully and that Irma misses by miles.  Be safe--we lost a friend in Harvey.   Keep in touch!

[France]

Just hope this isn't the last time I see Carling and her stable mates...

[smackYYZ]

Before leaving, you should put her up on jack posts, to at least minimize possible damage.

I saw a pic from a guy in Houston, and it was enough that his tires were just in the water, even though he had 24 inches of water in the garage.

Just a thought!

[66andBlue]

Hear hear. We're tracking it closely as we have a home on Big Pine Key, just 30 miles north of Key West. Could be totally demolished if we're unlucky. In any  event, this storm will cause a lot of damage, where ever it ends up going.

Hi Cees,
I hope Lady Luck is smiling on you. Looks like that fickle wench Irma is aiming straight at big Pine Key.   
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/05/us/hurricane-irma-map.html?_r=0

[hauser]

She's a scary one!

[France]

At this point, looks like she's aiming for our garage...so long, Carling and the E Type!

[Cees Klumper]

Yes we're counting on a direct hit. Fortunately our home is on concrete stilts about 3 meters up, without anything on the ground level. Still I expect catastrophic damage, including loss of the roof and potentially a lot more. We're more concernd about our friends who live in the Keys year-round, who will see their homes destroyed and lives thrown in chaos. For us the effects are less severe, even if the whole house is lost. We do have adequate flood and wind insirance (which runs almost $1,000 a month, so the risks are well-known). All that's left is to pray for all those in the storm's path.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Yes let us all say a prayer that the Eye of Irma will stay a few miles away from land at least of the western side of Florida so damage would not be so devastating. Mainly let us pray that no lives ar lost and everyone still waiting for entry to shelters gets in before Irma shows her ugly face.

Dieter

BTW. If you donate, donate $ for they are needed to feed the hungry right now with warm food and drink. I always donate to the Salivation Army and or the Red Cross. Clothes and other stuff may be needed in a week or so, food right now is what is needed and shelter of course.

We have for Canadians a site right ...

Here ===> http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/red-cross-responds-to-hurricane-irma-642971243.html

[France]

anybody need little bitty bits of Pagoda?

[stickandrudderman]

Oh dear, does that mean your is damaged?

[neelyrc]

Our friends from Sarasota joined us in Birmingham last evening after a 13 hour drive.  They were pulling a small u-haul with what they could escape with quickly.  We are watching closely as the storm progresses. Sad!

[France]

Apparently Carling used one of her lives...we'll have a friend take a look later today when he gets off his emergency center job, but it looks like landfall took the stuffing out of Irma.  Much damage down south, though.

[Cees Klumper]

We hope to hear later today what condition our house on Big Pine Key is in. Earliest reports are somewhat hopeful.

[hauser]

It's been raining here for hours, the worst is yet to come.

[France]

Good luck in Gainesville! Just heard from a neighbor that the house and garage look good from the outside.  Cees, fingers crossed!

[hauser]

No damage here except a couple missing shingles. 

[66andBlue]

... Just heard from a neighbor that the house and garage look good from the outside.  ....

Hi Trice,
I hope you have a nice present ready for Carling when you get back. 
We have friends in Lausanne who like you oscillate between CH and Naples. Their 22nd floor condo is fine but now the worry is that the dead A/C will cause mold damage since it may take weeks to get power back.

[neelyrc]

Our house guests from Sarasota received the good news this morning that their home is nice and dry inside. They will be headed back south in the next day or so. Apparently the feared storm surge did not materialize.🙂  There will still be much discomfort until normality returns.

[hauser]

Anybody hear from Andy?

[awolff280sl]

We had a list of everything to do before evacuating the house yesterday. After we were somewhere safe, my son called to check. So he asked, "What did  you do with the Pagoda, did you raise it up". (My wife insisted that I buy a hydraulic lift a couple of years ago). "No, it hadn't occurred to me!" So we raced back home, flipped the main breaker and raised it up 6 feet.
Sarasota got lucky again. No damage, just a mess.
It's Naples, Miami, and Jacksonville. I think it was bad there.

[hauser]

Ray is in Jacksonville.  Hope all is well.

[Cees Klumper]

Our island, Big Pine Key, was reportedly one of the hardest hit areas as Irma made landfall some ten miles south-west of us at Cudjoe Key. Just now we got an aerial photo of our part and it appears to show hardly any damage at all, we can see our house is still standing with the roof on. Just two miles south of us a whole section was obliterated though, tens of homes gone. We're waiting for more and more precise info, but early signs are good for our neighbourhood. Luckily so far no reports of casualties in the Keys.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Ray is well, his major problem right now is power (per his e-mail to board members). Looks like he will make it to PUB.

Dieter

[mdsalemi]

...Our island, Big Pine Key, was reportedly one of the hardest hit areas as Irma made landfall...

There were HUGE strides made in building codes and enforcement (thus in building quality) after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. However THAT was 25 years ago, and even more changes have ensued since then. The newer the home, the better chance of surviving such a storm...in Florida at least!

[smackYYZ]

I received news yesterday from my neighbour that we only had a little water leak in by one of the sliders. It apparently only damped the carpet there in a 2 foot square area.

Around the grounds branches, and fencing is down, but no structure damage.

So very good news for us.

Once they get the electric back on the AC will kick back on and dry things out. They say we should have power back on by Sunday or Monday. Then hopefully Comcast will come back up so I can remote in and check things out.

My best friends cousin wasn't so lucky, he's in Tortola. He had 2 houses there, they are totally destroyed and he has lost everything.

[Cees Klumper]

This morning the NOAA completed uploading its Hurricane Irma imagery of the Keys. You can zoom in to house level. Shows the whole island chain starting in Key West. It appears our house may have a few shingles missing but otherwise unharmed.
The FEMA statement that 25% of the homes in the Keys are destroyed, if they have really made that statement, appears to be wildly exaggerated and to me is irresponsible. From the imagery it seems more like less than 5%, and less than that if you don't count mobile homes in the same category as 'normal' homes. A few homes in our area did incur more serious damage but they are the exception, fortunately.

https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/irma/index.html

[smackYYZ]

Cees,

FEMA does include Mobile homes in their housing numbers, since in the US that is what a lot of people call home. Mobile homes make up about 7% of US housing.  A big reason, is that it makes owning a home more attainable for low income families, but not all of them are low income.

But why, they would let them be used in Hurricane and Tornado prone areas is beyond me.

Mike