He only cancelled so he could rebook for cheaper.

They need the money. Well, if anyone is there to hold out their hands. Support the...

I hear St. Martin is nice this time of year.

We are going to Savannah instead. I don't wanna risk things being closed and still in recovery when I wanna unwind. It's sad but we'll look at maybe February instead if all looks well.

I was just in Savannah a month ago. Enjoyed it quite a bit.

Stupid effing hurricane is heading back towards me.

Was just there a week ago! Stayed in the planters inn! Was pretty cool little place! Overpaid for seafood dinner though... Charleston food > Savannah food hands down.

Hope everyone in the peninsula is doing ok. I took this video earlier tonight from the beach in Panama City Beach, it's still pretty calm here,

Shit's blowing like a mofo now. Hanging on.



Miami got deep water, apparently. Somebody sent me a picture.

We survived.

Power's out, limbs down on street, but the structure is intact. Breezy from the opposite direction and the center is way north of us now.

So tired.

Glad you made it through fine. It is just starting to hit us in Charleston. Rain and wind are picking up. Flooding down town. Overall it should be no where near as bad as Mathew last fall. So I should be find. I am supposed to be working remote today, but it looks like over half my company isn't online yet. So I guess I will build turbo setups instead.

I sent Viperormiata a message yesterday. I have not heard back, I will update here once I do, if I do. I believe all power and cell towers are out in the Keys. I have heard reports of most of the islands being under water at the worst times.

I bet you're tired. I can't sleep at all in bad storms. Afraid of falling trees. ATL has 6" of rain and 50mph gusts forecast for today. That rain will flood a lot of places here.

That is about what Charleston will be getting today. Along with a higher then normal storm surge. Downtown will be partly underwater more then usual.

I am glad the coast didn't head west. You guys are probably going to get it worse then us when it is all said and done now.

​​​​​​​Stay safe Atlanta.

good to know you came out ok shooter

Just spoke with parents in JAX and everything at the beach and on the river is flooded- so I bet Savannah and Charleston get the same based on similar proximity to the Irma's trails.

How about that "anti-surge" at Tampa Bay?

Hurricane Irma drains Tampa Bay area waterways - Story | FOX 13 Tampa Bay

Rescuers brave Hurricane Irma's fury to save manatees - Story | FOX 13 Tampa Bay

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7c5fba84bf.jpg

Rafa?! How was it for you?

We are at the green dot on this map. Category 2 and 105mph when it crossed us at about 1:30am. The trees took the brunt of it and kept the highest wind speeds above the buildings, thankfully. Power still out and trees are getting cleared up.

that's great to hear :likecat:

Pusha is alive and well.

was never worried about him. like a cockroach or herpes, he is literally impossible to eradicate

That's Hilsborough Bay. Family is fine, little to no damage to the infrastructure. My mother and my sisters, all live in the same subdivision. My middle sisters house (with two boys and BIL) never even lost power. My older sisiter and my niece, live with my mother, the lost power last night.

That manatees story, was both heartbreaking and uplifting!

I evacuated to sixshooter's just so I could experience the eye....which I slept through. My house was barely touched. My neighbor told me we never even lost power and the lights merely flickered a few times. I had a single sheet of aluminum flashing on the roof come off when it got hit by a branch and I already screwed it back in place. I have a bazillion branches in my yard and there was a palm tree that snapped in half down the street but other than that we made it out fine. I am feeling very lucky. My coworker in Wesley Chapel had her power go out and the utility company told her it could take 7-10 days to have power restored. I can't imagine.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...605ce7ac15.jpg
I hope this is the worst of it. That's a 16" oak limb from the upper part of the tree. Brought down another 12" on the way down. Both mostly fell between our houses- being held up by the power guide line.

Here's to stupid effing Irma.

In lieu of other news out of the keys:

Anyone hear from viperormiata yet?

The convoys have arrived at the staging area this afternoon. Maybe soon we'll get some electricitah.

I made it through. The house had very minor damage; ripped screens, limbs and a tree down, some shingles in our yard that I don't think are ours but haven't been on the roof yet. We didn't flood and our cars survived.

We've got 3 fish tanks that have survived on battery powered bubblers so far. The corals look pissed off, but it doesn't look like we've lost any fish yet.

My in-laws got power back in Cape Coral so we're staying there until ours comes back. Amazing how you appreciate electricity after not having it for a few days.

Good luck. Starting day 3 without power here. Old neighborhoods with big trees were hit hard.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...81e5b9f28b.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c5038fbcd8.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e71ed4cba5.jpg

click to play

That's authentic.

I am going to give the coast guard a call later today to see if I can get info on ViperorMiata.

A historic elementary school that is less than a mile down the road from me burnt down yesterday. I saw the massive plumes of smoke on my way home from Trader Joe's last night. I originally assumed it was arson because it's named Robert E. Lee Elementary and it is sitting in the middle of a very black neighborhood. Apparently, it does not appear to be arson and was likely caused by old faulty wiring catching fire when power was restored to the neighborhood.

Flames consume Robert E. Lee Elementary in Tampa Heights (w/video) | Tampa Bay Times

This then killed the power to the surrounding neighborhood again. Crazy shit. The plumes made me nervous as I was driving home because from far away I could not tell if it was my neighborhood or not an thought I might have to worry about my house.

Braineack said he saw a post on FB where people had checked and ViperorMiata survived and is doing alright.

maybe the storm bored out his block to 1.8 too :D

That sucks. I was just down there a few weeks ago. Drove by the school to Lee's Pizza. Had to get me some Minor Threat.

If you're ever down this way for Lee's again you should hit me up. I live 2 minutes away and I love that place. Great beer and pizza.

After work today I rode the bike by that school to gawk. Found a drone operator about to start a facebook live feed. Was watching his display over his shoulder behind the white SUV on the side road in the beginning of the video

I really like Lee's. Don't stand so close to me.

Good to know. He's been on my mind since he went dark.

Same. I almost called up a friend in Miami to go check on him.

Josh just texted me to say he was alive!

​​​​​​​Apparently his miata is not doing so good though.

Good he's okay, but I can imagine it's pretty rough seeing your stuff all gone or ruined.

We just got power back on tonight... and our ac doesn't work. Probably the biggest tease ever. Ac guy is coming tomorrow to bend us over for sure, but at this point I'll pay pretty much anything they ask to get ac back.

Our county is now approaching 50% of people with power. Quite a few businesses are starting to reopen. I can't imagine what the keys are dealing with though.

Yep- My wife was talking with coworkers in Boca who said they were positively miserable trying to sleep with the heat and humidity. We were very fortunate up her to have a cold front roll through. I'd certainly pay the entry fee for AC- hope you get it fixed.

what is causing all of these A/C outages?

In lots of places in Florida power is still out, so that could partly be why A/C is not working. For others that have had power restored, it very well could be that A/C units were flooded and had damage caused during the storm.

Had lunch with the family on Monday, as I was moving from NC to CHI, and they'd just settled into evacuation quarters with my step-brother's parents in Knoxville.

Mom's house, which is on a canal in Charlotte Harbor and therefore a class A evacuation area, was spared. If the storm surge had gone a few feet higher they'd have flooded, but although it crested the seawall, it didn't make it up to the foundation. Some damage to the pool cage, gutters, etc., but nothing compared to what they took during Charley.

Sister's house is A-OK as well. She's a bit inland, and you wouldn't even know a major hurricane swept through aside from the fact that a lot of trees and bushes which were badly in need of pruning have been pruned.

Power is still off in much of PC from what I understand, but that's to be expected. All in all, they got lucky on this one.

There have been a lot of electrical problems caused by electrical shorts after the restoration of power. That is how the school caught on fire. I imagine a lot of people with A/C's at the end of their expected life will start having issues with them as power comes back on.

I was quite impressed by how FP&L handled this situation during Charley. They simply announced that they'd be shutting down the distribution grid and such-and-such time before the storm hit, and they did. So while there were a lot of downed lines, there were no shorts, no blown transformers, etc. The power-up sequence was thus relatively uneventful.

Kinda surprised they didn't do that this time.

Short circuits at the consumer level shouldn't affect restoration of power, assuming they're downstream of the local load center. The breakers up on the poles are a lot stouter than the 200A breakers at the point of use.

TECO said they were going to do this on Wednesday or Thursday before the storm. It was all over social media. I think there was a lot of backlash or something because they pulled a 180 and said they were not going to do that and never were. Not really sure exactly what happened there. People are dumb.

Back to Chicago? That didn't take long.

Welcome back! Maybe now I'll get a chance to cross paths with you at some point :)

Surprising.

This worked really well for FP&L back in 2004. Despite Charley being a total goatfuck which took down most of the overhead lines in Charlotte County, they had the power back up in record time, mostly because turning off the grid before it hit, and then slowly bringing it back up one branch at a time, spared all of the substations and switching stations from short-circuit damage.


Yeah, NC didn't agree with me. Presently in search of beater 16" OEM wheels to hold the winter rubber.

Did the new lady already break your heart?

​​​​​​​Also shit you should have told me about the rims. I am pretty sure I have some laying around I could have let go for cheap.

Ian suggested she might have been a stalker. Restraining orders in place Joe?

Negative, we're doing the long-distance thing.



​​​​​​​Well, shucks.

Man. That sucked.

Good to hear from you man, glad you're ok.

Glad to see you with Internetz again! I know a bunch of us had been thinking about you down there.

Thanks, man.
Only until my friend's phone dies and we lose our hotspot. The generator is running everything right now. Still no power or water.