Erika

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Hmmm... hmmm... will this become a replay of Katrina in 2005?




Hoppie

[andrej]

Is that first hurricane of the season? Just stay safe! Hope this is not Andrew from 1992. 

[Phil Bunch]

As best I can follow hurricane avoidance issues, it's important to go something like 100-200 miles inland for a few days.  Hotel space rapidly books up, especially for a very high population area like Miami.

It's certainly not a good idea to stage a hurricane party and try to ride the thing out if it's really going to hit the area.  Unfortunately, hurricane tracking is an uncertain science at best.  Usually it's the storm surge-caused flooding and associated tornadoes that cause most of the human deaths and major injuries.

Good luck for this storm and for the hurricane season.  Stay safe!

----------
My only hurricane avoidance experience occurred in about 1990 when I was vacationing in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with my family.  When we left home (western NY state, near Rochester), Hurricane Bob was in the Caribbean and it seemed unlikely to be a problem.  I then made the mistake of avoiding all TV and radio while driving to NC over a 3-4 day time frame, so it was puzzling when we arrived in Kitty Hawk, NC and saw that *everyone* was leaving the area, creating massive traffic jams.    When we entered our motel's lobby, the TV monitor showed the hurricane about 48 hours away and headed directly to our location!   Also, the local authorities had ordered a total evacuation of all people, including rescue staff.  So, I called and obtained safe motel reservations, the closest being about 200 miles inland.  We returned to the beach resort a couple of days later and learned that the hurricane had suddenly veered out to sea and mostly avoided damaging the area.

Now I've retired in southwestern Maine, and I'm hoping future hurricanes continue to miss this area, which they usually do.  Mostly they turn to the northeast and fail to enter the Gulf of Maine.  One recent example - Hurricane Sandy trashed much of the northeastern USA (no effects in Maine but severe damage in NY city and New Jersey).  It did great damage and disabled basic services for some months in many areas.  IIRC, some subways were flooded in New York.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

As best I can follow hurricane avoidance issues, it's important to go something like 100-200 miles inland for a few days.  Hotel space rapidly books up, especially for a very high population area like Miami.

"Inland" means the Everglades. South Florida is basically only 10 miles coastal, the rest is marshes. The 'gators are no real threat though, they have been eaten by the pythons.

Also, Florida is nowhere wider than about 120 miles, so "inland" means driving all the way up to Georgia, about 600 miles over just a few freeways. Basically you cannot go anywhere if 5% of the population decides to hit the road.

Let's hope that this thing dies out over Puerto Rico and the other islands. If it manages to hit the Bahamas largely intact, it will pick up steam and become a real threat. Otherwise, just a rotten weekend.


Hoppie

[cavaricooper]

Hoppie:

If you have to leave MIA bring the family to TPA.  Room available:)

C

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

... or maybe not ...

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

... or maybe yes ...