Hurricane Irma

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by simple girl Just received report from our HOA manager that our development is ok. Trees and branches are down, but no major damage to properties. Power still out. Grateful! (Still in Georgia.)

Wonderful!

[GrayHare]

Hurricane season is not over. Jose is forecast to be approaching Florida 5 days from now.

[W2R]

Now that Irma is no longer a hurricane (now a tropical storm), reports of the extent of damage are encouraging.

NBC says

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Tampa appeared to be largely unscathed after Irma passed through. Some trees, power lines and signs were down but there was no widespread damage and no signs of flooding downtown.

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hu...pa-bay-n800186

What an encouraging outcome for our members in the Tampa Bay area! Hoping that this is true, and they return to little more than minimal damage.

[jazz4cash]

Glad it was not as bad as it could have been. I am completely totally fed up with the cliche shot of weather reporter standing out in hazardous conditions to show what I don't know. Camera operator is probable at even more risk. A shot from a protected location with clear audio would be more effective.

[MichaelB]

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Originally Posted by jazz4cash Glad it was not as bad as it could have been. I am completely totally fed up with the cliche shot of weather reporter standing out in hazardous conditions to show what I don't know. Camera operator is probable at even more risk. A shot from a protected location with clear audio would be more effective.

+1

Setting up a few live cams around a city is fine, and reporters or meteorologists can provide all the commentary needed from the live feed in the studio. I would guess than less than 1% of all our news and info on the storm now comes from TV, primarily because the "reporter in the storm" overemphasizes the drama.

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by GrayHare Hurricane season is not over. Jose is forecast to be approaching Florida 5 days from now.

Of course it's not, you're right. Thus far I am not unduly concerned about Jose (see model output from an hour or two ago, attached, which I think is pretty encouraging). Apparently Jose is expected to lessen to a Cat 1 soon due to sheer, and its track seems to be that of a fish storm. However there is another tropical disturbance closer to Africa and headed westward. As always, we need to stay vigilant at this time of year.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash Glad it was not as bad as it could have been. I am completely totally fed up with the cliche shot of weather reporter standing out in hazardous conditions to show what I don't know. Camera operator is probable at even more risk. A shot from a protected location with clear audio would be more effective.

What really bugs me is web cams where you have to wait through 30+ seconds of commercial to see maybe 15 seconds of footage, and that footage is purposely severely blurred out except in the very middle in order to make it seem worse than it really was.

I want my 30 seconds of wasted time back.

As for the guys reporting out in the storm, I think the point is that some people have an almost irrepressible desire to go out in it to see what it is like. That's so dangerous. Anyway, maybe seeing Jim Cantore or someone like that out in the storm, will deter some people from acting on their desire to experience it themselves. I am not worried about Cantore because he has been doing this since dirt was young and knows what he is doing, AFAIK.

[audreyh1]

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Originally Posted by W2R I was so pleased and relieved to see that Irma is no longer a hurricane! She has lessened overnight, and is now a tropical storm. Whew. Hopefully there will not be much further damage.

When winds at my Dad's house in GA drop below 30 I'll be a lot happier.

I think their power went out this morning.

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash Glad it was not as bad as it could have been. I am completely totally fed up with the cliche shot of weather reporter standing out in hazardous conditions to show what I don't know. Camera operator is probable at even more risk. A shot from a protected location with clear audio would be more effective.

Even better (by which I mean worse) are the reporters standing outside on the hotel patio overlooking the water at night. So you can't even see anything. And there are raindrops all over the camera lens. So you can't even see anything. And the Weather Channel/CNN/etc screen has a third of the image covered up by info bars at the bottom. So you can't even see anything. God help us if there really was some danger they were reporting on that we needed to see. Almost all the weather reporting has turned into a form of the boy who called wolf, anyway (Harvey and Irma deserved the coverage, but we get the local stations taking over all the Chicago evening shows when there is a tornado reported 70 miles away with a very remote possibility of affecting this area, just to keep up with each other. At some point people just tune out).

[Breedlove]

Can't validate this but some of our friends in Palm Beach are saying some of the photos the weather channel is showing is from past hurricanes and not from Irma . They appear to be fine! Could some of this be fake news ?

[MichaelB]

I have lots of family and friends in South Florida, and we live there when it's not hurricane season. It was real, and nasty. Luckily, the worst case did not happen.

[pb4uski]

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Originally Posted by NavAir We headed from Pensacola, FL to San Antonio, TX today (not a hurricane evac, just time to go back home). We counted 217 utility trucks headed Eastbound on I-10 and I-12 during our 11 hour trip. I'm sure they will stage in Tallahassee or Panama City until the storm has passed, then get to work.

We were traveling on I-84 West in Connecticut on Saturday and there was a small convoy of tree removal trucks heading towar Florida.

From what we can gather from friends and family in Naples, Ft. Myers, Sarasota and tampa area the damage was mostly downed trees, limbs, etc. and power outages.... no structural damage or even broken glass. Lucky... could have been a lot worse and probably is for people nearer to the ocean.

[Breedlove]

I really think Florida is going to make out a whole lot better then our news is saying . They really did a lot of things right , people learned from Harvey !

[Lisa99]

The early scare reports that Key West is "devastated is totally wrong. Just saw a CNN video that shows trees down and some flooding but even some of the oldest buildings didn't have damage.

We rode it out in The Villages and other than sections of no power, some flooding on the historic side and downed trees, the town is fine. We got lucky but I'm so over television news. Oh and one roof blew off on an addition. Who knows whether it was to code...

[RunningBum]

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Originally Posted by W2R What really bugs me is web cams where you have to wait through 30+ seconds of commercial to see maybe 15 seconds of footage, and that footage is purposely severely blurred out except in the very middle in order to make it seem worse than it really was. I want my 30 seconds of wasted time back. As for the guys reporting out in the storm, I think the point is that some people have an almost irrepressible desire to go out in it to see what it is like. That's so dangerous. Anyway, maybe seeing Jim Cantore or someone like that out in the storm, will deter some people from acting on their desire to experience it themselves. I am not worried about Cantore because he has been doing this since dirt was young and knows what he is doing, AFAIK.

I think the sides are blurred out when the source is 3x4 (think non-HD) vs 9x16, or from a cell phone video taken vertically rather than horizontally. That's what I've always seen anyway.

The commercials really are getting worse. To see one 20 second highlight clip on ESPN you now have to watch a full 30 second commercial. Or in my case, skip it all.

And I fully agree with all on the reporters out in the storm. It's absurd, and someone really will get hurt, and you really can't tell all that much. Get some good footage taken from a shelter of some kind instead, and let the reporter do a voice over where you can hear them more clearly. Cantore is as much to blame for this as anyone, and he may know what he's doing, or he may find out he's not as invulnerable as he thinks.

[Breedlove]

This is what some of our Floridian friends were saying some of the still photos the news is showing is from another Hurricane from years ago ....................... God Bless Florida !

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by Lisa99 The early scare reports that Key West is "devastated is totally wrong. Just saw a CNN video that shows trees down and some flooding but even some of the oldest buildings didn't have damage. We rode it out in The Villages and other than sections of no power, some flooding on the historic side and downed trees, the town is fine. We got lucky but I'm so over television news. Oh and one roof blew off on an addition. Who knows whether it was to code...

So glad The Villages fared this well! I was concerned, because I read (here? somewhere?) that some of the older structures there are manufactured or mobile homes and might be more susceptible to damage.

You said, "I'm so over television news", and I certainly agree. +10000

[W2R]

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Originally Posted by RunningBum I think the sides are blurred out when the source is 3x4 (think non-HD) vs 9x16, or from a cell phone video taken vertically rather than horizontally. That's what I've always seen anyway.

OH! That makes sense. Thanks. I didn't think of that, and instead thought they were purposely doing it to make things seem worse.

Really I'd rather just see the actual footage, with broad black borders, if it doesn't fill the screen. But, maybe this seems more realistic to some people.

[bigcmagor]

I'm told my neighbor's roof is scattered over my Cape Coral property. Much of it went through the pool cage screens and into the pool. On the other side, her seawall caved in, the pool cage is gone and had a partial roof collapse. It's strange since my neighbor cut out the corner screens on both of our cages to lessen the resistance. Hers is gone and mine survived. Roof damage on both sides too and mine is intact. Two seawalls across the street gave way too. I'm told none of the houses flooded from the surge anyway, which is the best news. Now waiting for power to be restored so I can go inspect it all myself. Whew.

[Lawrencewendall]

Key West Info

https://www.facebook.com/Amberkeywes...05134811661136