CAT 5

Irma, a category 5 hurricane out in the Atlantic is headed for Florida - or thereabouts.  When the hurricane season began in Florida (about the same month that I moved to Florida) friends advised me to put together a hurricane kit.  So I did.  Flashlight, battery operated radio, extra batteries, enough water and non-perishable food to last a week, can opener (corkscrew too), extra paper toilet etc.

Now Irma is on her way, but not expected to arrive in the Tampa Bay area until Sunday night (if it arrives here at all).  She is currently a category 5 hurricane - the worst.  I went to Walmart yesterday to get a flu shot. It took me over 30 minutes to find a parking spot - on a weekday when children should be in school and most people should be at work. The lines at the checkout counters ran through the store aisles. People were buying what looked to me years supplies of water, peanut butter by the case, every loaf of bread they could fit into their shopping carts, sheets of plywood. I have never seen anything like it.  I got my flu shot rather quickly and left the store.  Then I headed to Publix supermarket to get a few items for that day's dinner.  Same scene.  Except that Publix does not sell plywood.  The bread and water shelves were empty. Fortunately I purchased my bottled water supply weeks ago so I did not need that.

My HOA sent all residents an email yesterday with a list of locations within the county where I could get sandbags.  Sandbags?  Do I really need that?  Today they sent a follow-up email to advise that those same locations have now run out of sand.  And the Pasco County Sheriff's Department sent an email to advise that most gas stations were already empty.  Empty?  I topped my tank on Monday and I did not see any lines. What happened?  I am either woefully unprepared or I am not buying into the media hype. Which is it?  This morning all the storm tracking models show the storm moving further eastward away from Tampa. But the sound of panic still resonates in the voices of the TV news anchors.  Is this for all the people that live closer to the Gulf?  I live in a non-flood zone 20 miles from the Gulf.

If I survive this storm (I do expect to) I will blog a follow-up post.

Follow-up:  I never lost power and my home never experienced any damage.  My street and community fared well.  Most of Florida did quite well.  Some flooding and some power losses in St. Petersburg area as well as The Keys and along the spine of Florida (Leesburg, Lakeland, Ocala) but otherwise Florida did well.  Thank Florida's strict building codes and solid infrastructure for that.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Sorry it took so very long for the follow-up. I never lost power - not even for a minutes. My home and street survived intact except for one palm tree down the street. Florida suffered in The Keys and along its spine (Lakeland, Ocala, Leesburg) - but not struggling nearly as bad as Texas or Puerto Rico. There were people without lights for 6 days or so, but that is over. Thank Florida's very strict building codes and solid infrastructure for that.
October 15, 2017 at 5:06 PM
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