• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Florida Gov. Declares State Of Emergency Over Hurricane Irma (Up: clean-up begins)

L

lightus

Member
-Plasma Reus- said:
How the fuck does the wind just break the asphalt???
Click to expand...

I'm assuming that's due to water damage not wind. Just a guess though.

Edit for new page: power is still out for me in NW Gainesville. Not expecting it to be back on til late as there's a lot of trees down on Tower Road. I'm at my friend's place, wanna go check out my apartment but not sure when it'll be safe to do so.
 
R

Retro

Member
17 Seconds said:
jesus christ, just be glad your dad is okay
Click to expand...

I am, I literally said in the part you bolded that I'm glad nothing happened to him. But I'm also worried about how complacent he's going to be the next time. His plan is basically "sit in my flimsy tornado magnet mobile home and eat cereal if the lights go out, and if it gets bad drive to the community's glass death trap club house."

Eye for an Eye said:
Obviously he should prepare a bit better. Even minor storms can knock the power out for a couple of weeks. On the other hand, mobile homes still have required building codes to meet. There's many older mobile home communities, but newer ones have rigid codes to help mitigate the impact of a hurricane.
Click to expand...

It would seem obvious, but that's why it's frustrating; every June I remind him to just get a case of bottled water, some canned food and make sure his flashlight has batteries (I've given up trying to get him to buy a weather radio), and every year it's "Eh, I'm fine." Irma showed that even for places as far inland as Orlando, nowhere in Florida is completely impervious, but with as little damage as he got I'm sure he'll be even worse next time I suggest he spend a few minutes and $15 to get ready.

His trailer is 15 years old so probably on the better side of building codes, but it's still a damn mobile home.
 
B

BahamutX83

Neo Member
Well Irma has come and gone and I've thankfully had no problems. No power loss, no trees down, etc. I'm very lucky and thankful.

There's reports of downed trees and 3000+ without power but no casualties.

The panhandle was really spared. After seeing this I know we couldn't take a cat3 hitting us, let alone anything stronger.
 
T

TheAbsolution

Member
AmyS said:
GAF, I have had the worst week and a half of my life.

My mom passed away from liver failure on August 31st in Bradenton Florida. I was there with her for a few days with my aunt before she died. My brother flew in the next day. We took some time to go drive down to Miami and the Keys to get away and drink a lot that weekend before the track of Irma was narrowed down. We stayed in Miami after we drove back from Key West and then back to Bradenton. My brother flew back to Chicago while my aunt and I tried to drive back to Chicago.

From Bradenton, our route ended up ---> Wesley Chapel FL ---> Gainesville ---> Tallahassee ---> Dothan Alabama ---> (because driving on I-75 to Atlanta was going to be a nightmare so we went west into the panhandle ) then Montgomery ---> Birmingham ---> Huntsville ---> Nashville Tenn. By then after two days on the road we couldn't drive anymore and decided to fly from Nashville to Chicago. I got home to Gurnee IL last night and slept. This evening everything started really hitting me hard -- been crying so much and, in my heart, I just can't understand anything.. My mom passing away and the exhaustion of trying to get back home has been so awful.

Florida-GAF, I hope you all stay safe and don't feel alone. I know what it's like to feel alone. May we all rebuild our lives in whatever way we need to and let us appreciate those people we have in our lives who we love, because one day they are gone.
Click to expand...
Just saw this post. I'm so sorry for your loss AmyS. Try and take care of yourself, OK? I can only imagine what you're going through right now. :(
 
S

Slizeezyc

Member
I'm a little bit east of Orlando, and I would say this was pretty comparable to Matthew last year (in terms of impact in this immediate area), which is wild considering Matthew was on this coast and Irma was really mostly closer to the other (west) coast.
 
A

Abstrusity

Member
Slizeezyc said:
I'm a little bit east of Orlando, and I would say this was pretty comparable to Matthew last year (in terms of impact in this immediate area), which is wild considering Matthew was on this coast and Irma was really mostly closer to the other (west) coast.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's bad enough or here in Lake. I was extremely lucky but my neighbors haven't been, so was out and about sharing gas and water. Looks like power might come back for us tonight or tomorrow.
 
A

Aeriscloud

Banned
My mom is absolutely fine. A neighbor let her stay there for the night after the roof blew off. There's minimal damage to the structure as well, at least at first glance.

I never lost power in Ormond Beach. It only blinked a few times. My covered balcony was completely dry when I went out to see damage at first light. I've only been in this apartment since May and I'm extremely impressed.
 
B

BattleMonkey

Member
Yay power is back, no damage to home or our store. Want publix now, but apparently it's end of the world time as everyone is hungry and savage lines at the few that are reopened
 
M

maxcriden

Member
jedivulcan said:
Same south of Atlanta. Rainy. Occasional rush of heavy wind but mostly rain. The power flickered for a minute and stabilized.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the gusts of wind are crazy. But, in general so far it's not terrible. Lost internet for a minute but it came back with the ol' unplug-replug.
 
M

MartyStu

Member
In Tally:

Left the shelter at around 12:00 to check on my house, power was out, but the tree menacing my roof seems to have spared me. For now.

Went back to get my sister from the shelter and by the time we had gotten home, scoped out the 'hood and unpacked, power was restored.

Given the tree situation in Tally, things could have been much worse.
 
R

Rice-Eater

Member
maxcriden said:
Rainy rainy rainy outside Atlanta. Heavy winds also. Power has been flickering on and off.
Click to expand...

jedivulcan said:
Same south of Atlanta. Rainy. Occasional rush of heavy wind but mostly rain. The power flickered for a minute and stabilized.
Click to expand...

Lawrenceville, GA here, it's Northeast of Atlanta about about half an hour away in case you never heard of the city. And it's been about the same experience. Heavy rain and strong winds with the occasional strong flickers. Not sure how bad it is compared to you guys but we've only had the power flicker once.

I work at a place in Norcross(even closer to ATL) and because it looked fine in the morning my crazy boss(the person at the very top) wanted people to volunteer to go to work. One of my supervisors went and asked me if I wanted to go to, I said I'll pass.This was around 11pm when it still wasn't looking bad. Now that it is looking bad I hope him and whoever else might have went have left already.
 
R

RoKKeR

Member
In Atlanta, definitely starting to feel it. Not many people in the office today and eventually the office head came around and told everybody to go home. Hunkering down now, seems like the only thing to be wary of is a potential power outage. Guess we'll see!
 
E

Eye for an Eye

Member
Retro said:
His trailer is 15 years old so probably on the better side of building codes, but it's still a damn mobile home.
Click to expand...

Almost all new building codes designed after Hurricane Andrew came into full effect by 2002, including mobile homes. Obviously a tornado can wipe it out, but that can be said for any home. But his home is meant to withstand hurricane force winds. Stricter tie downs into the earth and stricter coding on the roofing to keep it from peeling away. I know you're going to worry, and his laid back approach is a bit annoying at times like these, but I think he'll be fine in his home with a little bit of preparation.
 
C

Crimson_Echidna

Banned
FSU is reopening Strozier Library tomorrow for any students/alumni in the Tally area. FSU is remaining closed for the remainder of the week, so normal hours won't be resuming until Saturday.
 
R

Retro

Member
Eye for an Eye said:
Almost all new building codes designed after Hurricane Andrew came into full effect by 2002, including mobile homes. Obviously a tornado can wipe it out, but that can be said for any home. But his home is meant to withstand hurricane force winds. Stricter tie downs into the earth and stricter coding on the roofing to keep it from peeling away. I know you're going to worry, and his laid back approach is a bit annoying at times like these, but I think he'll be fine in his home with a little bit of preparation.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not worried about his trailer rolling away in a breeze, it's that he doesn't have anywhere, even a central room, to shelter in during a tornado or if debris strikes his place. That and the complete lack of preparation and total ignorance of changing conditions is the problem. Up until Friday he thought the forecast had it blowing out to sea like Matthew.
 
R

Rice-Eater

Member
Damn, power shut off for just a second or two but came back immediately so I thought everything was fine. But then I realize that the internet is dead now. Using data via my phone right now to post. Oh well, at least the power still works.

Wife and I are from Lawrenceville, GA in case you didn't notice my previous post.
 
V

Vinsanity.

Member
Durden77 said:
God I hate when CNN does this type of all caps headline crap. It's like they're treating this shit like some type of sport. This just screams "LOOK THIS SHIT IS SO INTENSE IT WASN'T OVERHYPED LIGHTS OUT MOTHER FUCKER"

I mean I don't think it was overhyped, I don't care what ends up happening it's always better to be safe, but shit like this doesn't help when it comes to some public perception.
Click to expand...


Yesterday it said EPIC IRMA in 72-pt font. They are seriously insufferably ratings-driven any more. News be damned - talking heads and huge headlines at the bottom of the screen rule their world now. Completely not a valid news outlet anymore..
 
A

AlphaSnake

...and that, kids, was the first time I sucked a dick for crack
I just took a walk outside to survey the damage. A lot of soffits on other houses were really messed up. A lot of the shingles scattered about weren't installed correctly (the backing tape was never removed to expose the adhesive! They were simply nailed in).

Newly planted trees were topped over. Fairly minor stuff, just glad nothing was too serious.

Slizeezyc said:
I'm a little bit east of Orlando, and I would say this was pretty comparable to Matthew last year (in terms of impact in this immediate area), which is wild considering Matthew was on this coast and Irma was really mostly closer to the other (west) coast.
Click to expand...

Irma barreled right down the middle - it didn't end up veering off to the Gulf like originally planned. In West Orange County, we got clobbered. In East, I heard it wasn't as bad.
 
N

neurosyphilis

Definitely not an STD, as I'm a pure.
Power just came back on in Parrish FL, thank the gods. Wanted to play some games, but my parent didn't pay the internet bill yet. Lmao. 😅
 
S

SchrodingerC

Member
darkside31337 said:
saw this pic of i4 damage on twitter, its still there

q5O0hnk.png
Click to expand...

Damn it Irma, you had one job.
 
W

WolfofMebu

Member
North East suburbs of Atlanta here, trees are coming down in my neighborhood. Neighbor had one hit there house. Almost everytime a strong gust blows through I can hear a crack and a loud boom as another one goes.
 
O

OmegaFax

Member
maxcriden said:
Yeah, the gusts of wind are crazy. But, in general so far it's not terrible. Lost internet for a minute but it came back with the ol' unplug-replug.
Click to expand...

Rice-Eater said:
Lawrenceville, GA here, it's Northeast of Atlanta about about half an hour away in case you never heard of the city. And it's been about the same experience. Heavy rain and strong winds with the occasional strong flickers. Not sure how bad it is compared to you guys but we've only had the power flicker once.

I work at a place in Norcross(even closer to ATL) and because it looked fine in the morning my crazy boss(the person at the very top) wanted people to volunteer to go to work. One of my supervisors went and asked me if I wanted to go to, I said I'll pass.This was around 11pm when it still wasn't looking bad. Now that it is looking bad I hope him and whoever else might have went have left already.
Click to expand...

RoKKeR said:
In Atlanta, definitely starting to feel it. Not many people in the office today and eventually the office head came around and told everybody to go home. Hunkering down now, seems like the only thing to be wary of is a potential power outage. Guess we'll see!
Click to expand...

I spoke too soon. The power went out about 45 minutes ago. The local electric company's phone lines are swamped (Georgia Fayette/Coweta EMC). No ETA yet. Stay safe, guys and galls.
 
W

witness

Member
The in laws found out that they have power shockingly. So now we are going over to Kissimmee after the curfew lifts at 6 in Orange. Omg I can't wait for AC!
 
R

Rice-Eater

Member
jedivulcan said:
I spoke too soon. The power went out about 45 minutes ago. The local electric company's phone lines are swamped (Georgia Fayette/Coweta EMC). No ETA yet. Stay safe, guys and galls.
Click to expand...

And now we just lost power at my apartment. It happened about 10 minutes ago. Hope it doesn't last too long.
 
M

MontlyCure

Member
No idea when we'll have power back in Clermont. If exploding transformers are any indication of severity, it might be a few days. Around 9:30 last night there was a pretty spectacular light show about 100 feet from my house due to a transformer blowing. There were multiple times where the sky lit up a bright green color as well.
 
?

____

Member
So I was just told that our house in Pembroke Pines never lost power but water is no longer running.

That sucks but all things considered, a downed tree, broken gate and no water is amazing compared to the damage others have to deal with.

Hope everyone bounces back soon.
 
T

TheDrizzlerJ11

Member
If anyone knows of any open bars or gas stations in Broward County lmk. If it's a gas station PM me so everyone watching this doesn't get there before me!
 
I

III-V

Member
breakfuss said:
http://www.tampaelectric.com/residential/outages/outagemap/
I misread, it's actually 56% do have power...44% do not.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty scattered over the region instead of a large localized outage. Thanks for the link.

TheDrizzlerJ11 said:
If anyone knows of any open bars or gas stations in Broward County lmk. If it's a gas station PM me so everyone watching this doesn't get there before me!
Click to expand...

lol, in Tampa I see MacDinton's is supposed to open tonight if you need to drown your sorrows or grab a hot bite to eat.
 
B

Briarios

Member
My house ended up fine, tree missed damaging it by inches -- and it's a massive tree, I can't get from one side of my yard to the other. Who knows when I'll be able to get someone to remove it :( It's just too big ... it was also my favorite tree. Lot of animals used it for a home and food and the like, so it just makes me really sad ... then I look at how devastated the islands are, and I'm just heartbroken.
 
E

exmachina64

Banned
AmyS said:
GAF, I have had the worst week and a half of my life.

My mom passed away from liver failure on August 31st in Bradenton Florida. I was there with her for a few days with my aunt before she died. My brother flew in the next day. We took some time to go drive down to Miami and the Keys to get away and drink a lot that weekend before the track of Irma was narrowed down. We stayed in Miami after we drove back from Key West and then back to Bradenton. My brother flew back to Chicago while my aunt and I tried to drive back to Chicago.

From Bradenton, our route ended up ---> Wesley Chapel FL ---> Gainesville ---> Tallahassee ---> Dothan Alabama ---> (because driving on I-75 to Atlanta was going to be a nightmare so we went west into the panhandle ) then Montgomery ---> Birmingham ---> Huntsville ---> Nashville Tenn. By then after two days on the road we couldn't drive anymore and decided to fly from Nashville to Chicago. I got home to Gurnee IL last night and slept. This evening everything started really hitting me hard -- been crying so much and, in my heart, I just can't understand anything.. My mom passing away and the exhaustion of trying to get back home has been so awful.

Florida-GAF, I hope you all stay safe and don't feel alone. I know what it's like to feel alone. May we all rebuild our lives in whatever way we need to and let us appreciate those people we have in our lives who we love, because one day they are gone.
Click to expand...

Sorry for your loss.
 
I

III-V

Member
Briarios said:
My house ended up fine, tree missed damaging it by inches -- and it's a massive tree, I can't get from one side of my yard to the other. Who knows when I'll be able to get someone to remove it :( It's just too big ... it was also my favorite tree. Lot of animals used it for a home and food and the like, so it just makes me really sad ... then I look at how devastated the islands are, and I'm just heartbroken.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it did not hit your house. And by Islands you mean DI?

AmyS said:
GAF, I have had the worst week and a half of my life.
Click to expand...

Thats terrible. And sorry for your loss.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[SF Chronicle] San Francisco declares state of emergency over monkeypox
News Event
22
3K
Drew1440 replied
Challenger Games (illang,second wave) closing
1
793
IAmRei replied
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2 3
143
11K
BadBurger replied
South Carolina declares state of emergency over Hurricane Irma
2
68
14K
AlteredBeast replied
Hurricane Irma threatens luxury Trump properties
39
5K
GameAddict411 replied
Top Bottom