Jeanette ... you might want to prep for a lot of wind and rain.

fOR EVERYONE ...

WOW! This is one big storm.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/floaters/11L/imagery/

scroll down until you find this link ... 20170905_1615Z-vis.gif

It looks like Irma is going south ... somehow it looks more "south" than what computer predictions for its course are saying. If it stays south, it will run smack dab into the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. OTOH, if it goes the way the computer predicts ... then the Florida Keys are really gonna pounded.

I don't know how Caribbean islands like the Virgin Is. and the Turks and the Caicos get thru this kind of stuff. They will need major re-building.

Les ... good luck and keep a bucket of ice nearby while you're working. My body doesn't handle the heat & humidity really well either. A good electric screwdriver is a lifesaver :-)

My electric screwdriver is a Dewalt 18V drill. It originally came (long ago) with an 18 volt NiCad, but when I saw the 18 volt Lithium Ion replacement battery, how could I pass it up. Makes for a great screwdriver.

Miami Mayor: "Expect Evacuation Order On Wednesday Or Thursday"



Pack it up and leave now. Waiting for the mass evacuation just means you'll be stuck in traffic.

Jeanette Isabelle -- you aren't close enough to Miami to evac yet, but you really should get ready for a lot of rain. It will hit with high probability and much sooner than any possible M.E. nuke exchange.

I don't live in Florida but if I did we'd have left by now for sure.

Officially ... Irma is now the biggest and most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. This classification does not include hurricanes that have crossed the Caribbean in past decades.

Barclays is now saying that Irma has the potential to cause more financial losses in the USA than any previous storm.

Les- I'd say they are right. Finish your preparations and get the heck out of there.

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
These islands are directly on the ground track of the eye of Hurricane Irma. Therefore, they could see winds from the eye wall (clouds) in excess of 150 mph.

BAHAMAS
The Bahamas are evacuating all of their southern islands. This is the biggest evacuation they have ever done.

PUERTO RICO
These words from the Governor of Puerto Rico say it all ...

Puerto Rico's governor is warning that the effects of Hurricane Irma could be catastrophic, calling the storm more dangerous even than Hurricane Harvey, which recently devastated Houston.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello said Tuesday that the "dangerousness of this system" has never been seen in Puerto Rico.
In his words: "It is much more dangerous than Harvey. The results could be catastrophic and devastating."
Rossello says the winds of the Category 5 storm will lash Culebra island around dawn Wednesday and move to Puerto Rico shortly afterward. He says the U.S. territory's northeast coast will feel the brunt.

Sandbags have uses for both fallout shelters and for flood defences.
There MIGHT be a nuclear attack, but there is CERTAINLY going to be a hurricane.

Based on the NHC Wind Predictions:

The Florida Keys to Miami/Tampa should be at HurCon 3.

Cape Canaveral (Cocoa Beach, Fl) including Orlando, should be at HurCon 4.

Latest from the NOAA NHC 5 day forecast cone shows Irma taking a turn to the North near Havana on Sunday and moving up the peninsula on Monday. It's a good time to be somewhere else.

Time to get to high ground and/or batten down the hatches. Stay safe, my friends!

QUOTES FROM NEWS on 6 SEP 2017

Hurricane Irma made landfall on the small island of Barbuda as a Category 5 hurricane Wednesday as it heads toward the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida.

The size of the storm left hurricane and weather scientists speechless. “I am at a complete and utter loss for words looking at Irma's appearance on satellite imagery,” wrote Taylor Trogdon, a scientist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center‏ on Twitter.

Irma strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane Tuesday with winds up to 185 mph. The storm is most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s so strong it is even showing up on scales for measuring earthquakes.
“No way to sugarcoat it. Irma is the type of tropical cyclone that wipes everything, including all vegetation, clean from small islands,” wrote Anthony Sagliani, the Meteorological Operations Manager at weather data firm Earth Networks.