For all my fellow florida east-coasters

[Catscankim]

Stay safe with the hurricane looming out there. Everybody I know is taking it lightly, and while its not going to be an Ian, it has potential. Cat 1 or not, we are getting a direct hit.

However, on the flip side, the snowbirds have started arriving. I went out to do a regular grocery shopping, and there wasn't ONE parking spot left in the whole parking lot, so I opted for just ordering a pizza. I still need cat food though lol.

Its already pretty windy out, so i guess tomorrow i will bring all my plants in and secure other stuff. I watered all of my potted plants today to make them heavy in hopes that i can just put them on the floor out there on the lanai. But its looking like i need to bring them all in.

I want to wrap my new truck in bubble wrap lol. I cant park in my garage.

I am on the blue dot

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Oh wow, talk about a direct hit. Stay safe. A Cat 1 hurricane flooded the first floor of my house back in 2003 due to the storm surge amplifying up the Chesapeake Bay. We experienced a 9+ foot storm surge in my neighborhood.

 

[basti]

Good luck. I have a family member who lives in the Bahamas on a very, very flat island so even a little storm is still a potential disaster. Hoping everyone fares well.

After going through the nightmare that was Ian, I dread even the tiniest bit of rain that will inevitably come my way. The wind has already picked up a bit here, too.

 

[Catscankim]

There are more than one of us from smf that live here. Everybody stay safe.

Good luck. I have a family member who lives in the Bahamas on a very, very flat island so even a little storm is still a potential disaster. Hoping everyone fares well.

After going through the nightmare that was Ian, I dread even the tiniest bit of rain that will inevitably come my way. The wind has already picked up a bit here, too.

Did you get hit hard by Ian? I was going to go over that way after it happened to see if I can offer help...bring a few friends with trucks and atvs.

 

[basti]

Did you get hit hard by Ian? I was going to go over that way after it happened to see if I can offer help...bring a few friends with trucks and atvs.

Lost my job and my parents lost their boat. My house faired just fine with minor tree/fence damage and a few bits of my gutters came off, but no biggie.

 

[dibbles]

Stay safe @Catscankim, @basti and everyone else in the path.

 

[dmcgee5034]

I hope you are safe and ok, @Catscankim and @basti

 

[Catscankim]

All week long I have been asking "The people"...are they activating the disaster team? No...no...no...

So today I am sitting here (mind you I am on vacation). I waited for my manager to get in and settled and called her. "What is the plan?" She says there is no plan yet. SERIOUSLY?? This is what we have teams for.

So I said that I am taking the liberty to rearrange ppl in my department because I don't want anybody driving at midnight...the projected landfall. "Do what you need to do". I mean, its already seriously windy out because this storm is huge. All of the techs span 3 counties, and everybody, I mean EVERYBODY is no less than 40 minutes away, if not more.

Then she calls me back to tell me that they are forming some sort of list. I tell her that its all covered in my department, two people per shift. Two are staying doubles and taking off the next day...yadda yadda.

Like I am really going to let the clueless ones figure out my techs schedules at work when I have been asking about it all week.

According to our union rules, they need to activate disaster teams within 24 hours in order to give people time to prepare. Its not like a tornado where it hits suddenly. So now they are out of that window, and quite frankly in my opinion, it is so that they don't have to pay an entire hospital staff disaster pay.

Now she wants to make sure that there is no overtime. Actually no, because I cut down each shift and did some magical rearranging in an hour FROM HOME, and sending somebody home right now because once the winds hit 40mph sustained winds, then they shut the bridges down and I don't want him to get stuck. I am concerned about their safety for pete's sake. Nobody in the Ivory Tower thinks of this stuff??

Meanwhile all week they are like "stop worrying, you are on vacation" LOL. These people should not be in charge of taking care of a hamster.

So their lack of planning (or more likely greed)...sends them and everybody else into a frenzy trying to make volunteer lists for the whole radiology department for a storm that is essentially already here. And they can't activate the teams because it is out of the window and everybody knows that they can't be forced to go in now (union rules).

But I am lucky that MY team likes me

 

[Catscankim]

Still safe in Port St Lucie.

Funny thing, as I typed that my power went off. Funny not funny. Its back on now LOL. Remote is allllll the way on the other side of the room. Ok, guess I needed a break from the tv for a while LOL. Gotta wait for everything to reset anyway.

ummmm....it hasn't been too bad so far. We are still a little while from landfall. I am slightly inland so I really don't have much to worry about the storm surges you see on tv, except maybe the river, but even that isn't all that close. My street and backyard are flooded, but that is kind of normal with any long period of rain. It will clear out quickly when it stops raining.

Projected landfall changed from 12am to "somewhere between 1-3am". I stayed up so that I wouldn't be woken up by any tornado warnings. But geeze, not sure I am going to stay awake to 3 and beyond.

The wind gets wild at times. But then suddenly gets super quiet between squalls. Then I venture outside to get some fresh air and check out the situation, but I don't go too far...not even as far as the end of the driveway because there is literally no warning when it starts again. I don't need any viral videos of me being blown down the street by my neighbors ring doorbells LOL

Overall it has been pretty mild where I am. I tried taking videos of the palms trees etc whipping in the wind, but its really not that impressive.

Zero thunder and lightning thus far. My cats aren't freaked out. They usually hide under the blanket on my bed during storms.

Normally I am at work for hurricanes. I have never been home for one, so this is a whole new experience for me. I am terrified of tornado warnings, which I haven't gotten any yet. But in the summer they are common. And for pete's sake, every device screams out all at once.

So all is well here. Hopefully I have a good report after landfall...which we are a bullseye.

 

[Catscankim]

Officially marking myself safe from Hurricane Nicole. After my last post I fell asleep and slept right through it LOL. Back yard is a little flooded, but no damage. The street flooding from last night is gone.

I woke up to all these pretty pictures of the sunrise on the news and FB. My coworker headed into work this morning and sent me a picture of a double rainbow. I told him to send it to the news, but too late, 2k other people did that too.

Not all pretty sunrises and rainbows here, it's still kinda hurricane-y LOL. Lots of wind all morning and periods of downpours. I guess I found the last rain band. I finally just opened my porch to the cats who have been dying to get out there since yesterday. They have been driving me freakin crazy. You know how cats get their late-night zoomies? Its been zoomies for the past 24 hours.

I made a last ditch sorry attempt of staking my young mango yesterday in the rain, and it held up!! I checked on that before I even checked for damage to the house LOL. Then I checked the new car...then I walked around and checked the house.

Couple of neat things they found on the beach...a washed-up buoy, and a baby sea turtle, which I just saw the video on the news of it finding its way back to the water...awwww. All these people out on the beach standing around this baby: I don't know how they refrained themselves from helping it into the water. Oh I know how...they will take you to the firing range for touching a sea turtle.

I wanted to drive over to the island to go beach-combing for treasure LOL. But I don't think I can get over the causeway yet. Maybe later or tomorrow.

 

[Jersey Girl]

@Catscankim glad all is ok.

 

[basti]

I don't want anybody driving at midnight...the projected landfall. "Do what you need to do". I mean, its already seriously windy out because this storm is huge. All of the techs span 3 counties, and everybody, I mean EVERYBODY is no less than 40 minutes away, if not more.

The roads over there are a nightmare even without evacuation traffic.

I hate how poorly planned the higher ups are. It's Florida. How do they not already have a plan?
It in turn makes it more difficult for the rest of us to do our preparations.

We just have some scattered rain showers today. Nothing too troublesome here. It was nice to see my city opened shelters for anyone who had storm damaged homes, since even tropical storm bands can be dangerous to an already weakened structure.

Glad to see everything was okay on the south end of the eye.

I made a last ditch sorry attempt of staking my young mango yesterday in the rain, and it held up!! I checked on that before I even checked for damage to the house LOL.

Ain't that the truth? LOL. We Floridians sure love our trees. Fence collapsed? Ok, fine, whatever. The avocado tree lost all its fruit and leaves? CALL FEMA RIGHT NOW.