Sorry I’ve been off line for awhile—blame it on a bad ass named Irma, who came calling and left me with out internet, cable, electricity all that fun stuff that run things like water heaters and refrigerator,, oh yeah and don’t forget A/C……we in Central Florida just got—despite what some people may tell you–the edge of the storm that had plowed into the state on Marco Island and was rapidly being down graded as it pushed thru the state.
As you can see in my picture above–a house in my area with a tree on the roof at the corner of the garage—the tropical storm force winds with hurricane strength gusts did do a number on us we are thankful that she didn ‘t pack a 4/5 strength punch wen she got here—one article I saw explained why they only rank hurricanes up to 5—basically once it gets that bad most people stop counting and say a prayer or kiss their butts good bye.
Our thankfulness however was tempered with living in houses that resembled mad saunas rather than habitats. My power was off until Thurs evening….but some of my friends just got on yesterday and a few people in the heavier hit areas to the west and south especially are still out.
Hurricanes are dangerous things, and they’re no fun to go through. And if you come out of it in one piece and your house comes out of in one piece, it’s no fun living with no electricity for a day or a week, a month, whatever it is. And I speak, unfortunately, from personal experience on that matter.
Bernard Goldberg
It started forever before the actual incident when the news media started to make headlines for what was one of—if not the–biggest and baddest hurricanes ever. All day everyday you got accounts, miles of hours it was up to—how big (and she was BIG), and so on and so forth—and many of us became fixated, watching the movements and then she hit the islands….and we watched pictures of flooding and wind damage and so on and so forth.
Then she hit the Keys—they say about 70% of the homes there were effected—a vacation spot I have frequented often over the years—and though it is not totally destroyed it is badly damaged….they just started letting those that evacuated, return to Key West yesterday. I heard one lady who was on the news and was still residing in a home that is being further encroached on by water say that Key West is gone—no my dear not by a long shot but…it is badly wounded.
She was then predicted to go up the coast—not something that helped a lot—first a storm over the warm waters (even just partially) will maintain it’s winds and rains and with the size of this storm that did not look good…However she ploughed in at Marco Island and most of her bulk dragged over the land, shearing her and lowering her winds while increasing her ground speed—a good thing to keep her from redeveloping.
It has been said, by engineers themselves, that given enough money, they can accomplish virtually anything: send men to the moon, dig a tunnel under the English Channel. There’s no reason they couldn’t likewise devise ways to protect infrastructure from the worst hurricanes, earthquakes and other calamities, natural and manmade.
Henry Petroski
There are several things I don’t understand about Florida—why they don’t do more to avoid wide spread disasters,, damage and outage in their laws and requirements: Take Mobile and the like homes—-some one once said God didn’t like them—I’m inclinded to agree….and in Florida were a bad thunderstorm can routinely rip them apart are they allowed to continue…and does anybody actually insure them and if so who?…..I know they make nice homes for retirees, but they can also all too often can turn into instant coffins.
In a state noted for it’s big lakes and huge swamps. not to mention heavy downpours, nasty thunderstorm and of course hurricanes why are people allowed to build on or around flood planes. At least one friend lives in a community that became dry land after a levy was installed—and they weren’t required to have flood insurance—hint if you don’t have flood insurance and the levy breaks—you could well be in hot water after the flood waters recedes.
Why aren’t the electrical all under ground??? Most cities have part above and part below ground—I heard a talk by a news person that putting them underground cost the companies so much more money without them having any gains from it—the fact that they didn’t have to bring staff from all over the country and all that overtime,, repair costs, transportation etc. that would have been avoided seem like something that might well be avoided seems like a positive to me….but I just write a blog and don’t run a company.
Disasters happen. We still have no way to eliminate earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, floods or droughts. We cope as best we can by fortifying ourselves against danger with building codes and levees, and by setting aside money to clean up afterwards.
Seth Shostak
I woke up about 1 am on Monday morning–the electric was out—many people told me that theirs went out at 5 or 6 the evening before–well before the harder winds had hit and I stayed awake listening to the non-stop winds and the much noisier gusts—and the thing falling on the roof, some of the just little bumps, others sounding at least to me, like a freight train hitting the house. I was not alone but was the only one not sleeping—-we did get the generator set up before sleep returned……I set in the kitchen where the noise of the gusts was the quietest and still it pounded against me…the next day my front porch rug which is protected on four sides was soaking wet and there was dirt and debris–thru the screen —on my front door.
I tried to loose my awareness of the still gusting winds when I finally could see them as day light broke….I spent time on my phone….doing Facebook and my mail and whatever else was available…but watching the limbs on the tall ancient trees in my neighborhood made the sound of the wind all the more impressive, even though it had declined in severity from the night before.
I watched TV—have a DVD player and have been collecting movies and (mostly British) TV shows and these helped me get my mind off the fact that I was just setting there waiting for whatever came—I am a woman of activity and given that fact it made my setting there with nothing to be able to do make the whole thing more difficult for me to get thru.
No one can prevent hurricanes, but prosperous communities are much better able to withstand them than poor ones.
Robert Zubrin
But all is well with me and I have caught up on episode 301 (above)
and 302 (below) so feeling better and hoping the season (Hurricane not OUTLANDER) ends SOON.
We’ve had hurricanes in Florida forever. And the question is, ‘What do we do about the fact that we have built expensive structures, real estate and population centers, near those vulnerable areas?’
Marco Rubio
Even the IRS is getting into the act—check out their contribution to the Irma Relief: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom
OH the Main picture is from Julianna’s on 4th Street in Mt. Dora
The Hurricane Story sign is from Cody’s On FourthCafe
and I snapped the cutie (white Puppy) of the day
While getting my regular coffee and Sunday a apple Fritter at
Coffee Branch also in Mt. Dora
https://www.facebook.com/Coffee-Branch-Cafe-1491879991142892/
And the last picture—their regular sign is blown away and was replaced with some apparently cloth item till they can get it replaced–Walk in the Woods
https://shopwalkinthewoods.com/
