Yes, this is a Q Win. But we are family and now a lot of Florida pedes are facing a potentially dangerous storm. Some are new Floridians and have no idea of how evacuations work here or may need other help from us experienced Floridians.
So I thought we could do a check-in post here and we can move to another Win to support each other, if needed. I lost my old home at Weather Underground when they got bought by Weather Channel so it would be nice to have a bunch of y’all to chat with.
Right now, TropicalTidbits.com is the best online site outside of the National Hurricane Center. Levi has been hurricane forecasting for many years and is excellent. You can see the Euro and GFS models there also.
So if you are a Floridian and are facing the roller coaster of the next five days, go ahead and say hi!
I live in Tampa, not in an evacuation zone. I went through Irma and we had a lot of branches down in the area, lots of flooding in South Tampa and other certain areas. I think when it rolled through it was a cat 2. I had 15 contractor bags of yard waste. Look at your trees and see if anything needs trimming. You may still be able to get someone to trim them up. Make sure umbrellas are inside and furniture put away outside. It’s no joke that stuff can fly. I had a heavy concrete base and umbrella that went airborne recently just during a normal storm. The base smashed.
I had a bunch of people over from St Pete and they didn’t even lose power but we did for a couple days. Be prepared for that even inland.
The first thing everyone did was rush out to get gas so do that now if you need it. Also- the shelves were cleared out of bread (LOL) and water really quickly. Lots of people boarded up windows, I did not but Home Depot and Lowe’s had signs up well before the storm hit that they were out of plywood. We were expecting a cat 4 or 5 with that one, though. Propane was really hard to find. I imagine it will be this time, so get that now if needed. So get supplies now or make reservations if you’re planning on evacuating. Do not wait to make sure it’s really going to hit your area. It never hurts to have extra supplies.
I notice a lot of people I know are not prepared ever for a storm or emergency, not even extra water stored. Kind of mind blowing. They all rush out last minute and the stores are crazy. I remember shopping last time for some random stuff and people had cartloads of panic buying.
Sandbags are starting to be available in our area. https://www.tampafp.com/st-petersburg-sandbag-distribution-begins-monday/
https://www.tampafp.com/sandbags-available-in-the-city-of-dunedin-starting-sunday/
Stay informed-
https://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/en/residents/public-safety/emergency-management/hurricane-and-tropical-storm-preparedness
https://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/en/residents/stay-safe/storm