My BFF lives in Longs SC (north of Myrtle Beach) She had lots of,damage last year…but plans to stay put for this one. I think she is crazy…as she has plenty of friends inland in SC and NC. Hoping there isn’t a lot of damage in her neck of the woods.
A second shout out to JetBlue. My daughter got a ticket on Sat morning, and called to ask if there was any info about cancellations. The very nice person on the phone moved her to Friday.
She’d be happy to stay in Florida if she knew whether to go south or west or stay where she is. Her school cancelled school for Friday and Monday so she figured she should just go.
I agree with the idea of doing laundry as storm prep. When most of our neighbors lost power after Sandy – we somehow kept ours-- I did laundry for some neighbors. They simply hadn’t thought of it before hand.
Be sure to have cash on hand; credit cards are useless without power.
Make sure you have manual can openers.
Take a picture of important documents, and email them to yourself. Then take the originals, and put them into a layer or two of ziplock bags-- move them with you if necessary as you find a safe place to be.
If you have babies, don’t forget diapers, wipes, and non-powder formula… you don’t want to have to assume you’ll have water to spare.
Please, check in on elderly neighbors. These storms are scary enough; don’t overlook someone who may be riding it out alone.
Glow sticks make good night lights for kids-- enough light for comfort, but you’re not using up batteries.
Make sure all your cars are gassed up. After Sandy, we waited on gas lines for about 2 weeks.
Most of all, if they tell you to evacuate, do. Your being home isn’t going to prevent storm surge or 100 mile winds from destroying your house.
Well ahead of the storm, find out where you can bring pets if you’re forced to evacuate. If you have to leave them on their own, leave them with food and water on the highest level of your home. Don’t tie them up-- trust their instincts to find a way to survive.
Please, folks, do what you can to keep safe.
I agree, Thumper. Once you remove all furniture and potted plants from the outside, what else can you do? If you have a chance to move to a safer place, it makes sense to go. We will all lose electricity, and all the food in our fridges, but that is a given. We move important papers to a higher place.
I’m in Savannah. Impacts here are supposed to be Monday night.
According to the consensus forecasts, Irma will be worse than Andrew. It might hit South Carolina instead of Florida, but it will be bad where it hits. The first few pictures of Barbuda that have been released-- well, a few buildings made it through without being reduced to matchsticks.
Waiting for evacuation orders for son’s school in Charleston. We evaluated last year for Matthew. This is almost a month earlier than last year with 2 more named storms floating around the Atlantic.
@carolinamom2boys : Irma found some friends!
Something else I wanted to add in:
I have such admiration for one of my sisters. She, too, was lucky with Sandy (All my siblings and I, along with my mom, were incredibly lucky.)
After the storm, she took $100 and went to the dollar store. She load up her car with brooms, gloves, garbage bags, bleach-- all the stuff needed for cleanup-- and went to Long Beach to hand it out. It would have been so much easier to just write a check, but she’s such a doer!
So, if you have time beforehand, consider stocking up on that stuff too.
Latest US long range model still shows the storm taking a sharp right turn just before it hits Miami. The intensity along the shore there, from Miami to West Palm Beach, will be Cat 2 with Cat 4 winds offshore. This interaction with the land weakens the storm as it moves north then there’s one final intensification just before landfall between Savannah and Charleston. Direct hit on Hilton Head.
Landfall is at 120 forecast hours, so I don’t have too much faith in exact location. Not to mention that we won’t even know if the model is on drugs when it says the storm will turn 90 degrees north until Saturday afternoon (weather models are well known drug addicts!).
Is a sharp right turn that unusual? I thought we’ve seen similar patterns in the past.
Those islands in the Caribbean that had such devastation will lose the whole winter tourist season and the jobs that the tourist season supports. Very sad.
Even getting supplies in will be difficult. St. Maarten’s airport has ben destroyed I imagine some others have been badly damaged as well.
Yesterday my good friend invited my Florida daughter to HHI to shelter from the storm. Today, she’s evacuating.
Last year from Matthew her only damage was a few trees on her deck and lots of debris around the house. Hoping for the same here. She is not on the beach but has a tidal creek behind her house.
Between Savannah and Charleston? Hugo all over again!
I am so sad for the Caribbean islands. Their entire economy depends on tourism. They don’t have our resources or a billion dollar FEMA fund. They have no roads or Army or National Guard connecting to a source of relief supplies. The airports are ruined. The docks are torn apart, large ships cannot deliver relief supplies. Have no idea how they are even going to find shelter or food.
I know that France is mobilized into action to help their past and present territories such as French half of St Martin, Guadaloupe and Martinique.
@doschicos – hurricanes generally curve northward near the Bahamas but this one is forecast to almost come to a stop then turn 90 degrees northward. I think that’s unusual … but I’m not a meteorologist (or a tropical specialist!).
What’s weird is this “stopping” phenomena with the tropical systems this year. Harvey made landfall around Corpus and then stopped inland before turning basically 90 degrees NNE. That’s what caused all the problems in Houston. Then there’s hurricane Katia, which is sitting in the Gulf almost stationary off the Mexico coast right now. Finally, you have hurricane Jose out over the Atlantic, which is expected to cruise over to north of PR like a normal system and then stop and spin.
I also don’t know why Irma is going to maintain her strength as she moves move of Hispaniola. It’s a large island with high mountains and that should disrupt the air flow around the storm and weaken it. I guess that the very warm water will provide enough “fuel” for the storm.
I think Irma is tracked to go north of Hispaniola, so mainly over water. Plus, it’s such a big, wide storm, I think the power of the storm dwarfs any impact the island’s land mass would present. Maybe luck will prevail and weaken it.
Mr. B is scheduled to go to a meeting in Miami in about a week… I just keep my fingers crossed that it will be canceled.
Well. Would you believe that a couple of weeks ago, we decided to buy MIL’s house as a second home (she’s moved to a retirement community)…about 20 miles south of Myrtle Beach. Not directly on the beach, about 1/4 mile or less off. And…our closing is scheduled for…next Thursday. Ugh. Spent the morning rescheduling everything for a week later. Hoping for the best. The house is currently vacant. We had planned on travelling down from CT for the closing, and spending the week. Now we’ll travel down the following week to make sure it’s still standing before we sign the papers. 