"The Warehouse never gets filled": The quiet before the storm

I am sure everyone has heard the news by now about Hurricane Irma. Yes, it's officially on its way to bust a cap in Florida's ass. And I'm going to be right in the middle of it. Rather, I'll be a little more to the left, but I'll still be affected.

I have gotten as much prepared as necessary, but there's little I can do when gas stations have run out of gas and grocery stores have run out of essentials. I'm fine where I am, I just hope we won't get as impacted as they are saying.

Instead of typing a giant list of things happening in my blog, I'm going to copy and paste a bullet list I wrote on a social network site I belong to. I wrote this at 2:10pm on Thursday September 7 2017:

I'm in Fort Myers, Florida (southwest corner of the state). [friend's user name taken out to protect her privacy] even had a couple mentions of visiting me a few years ago (which she did and I'm so glad).

As of this post:

(most) Local petrol stations have been out of petrol since 4:30pm Tuesday (local time).

The stations that do have full pumps, have lines winding around blocks. There's 30 minutes+ wait in line. I wouldn't be surprised if the ones that are currently running, are out within the next 4 hours.

Also, majority of the petrol stations across the state are in the same predicament - out of petrol & no information when more will arrive.

(most) Local big name grocers have been out of necessities (water, batteries, etc) since the same time Tuesday.

Same goes with hardware stores - plywood, generators, etc.

Regarding airports: If you've been lucky enough to get a flight out, you're extremely lucky. I know American Airlines was waiving a few fees yesterday.

As of last night, airports were beyond full of people and could not accommodate the masses. You can leave to evacuate, but no flights are coming in. Again, that's providing you were able to catch a flight. People were being turned away at one point.

Regarding travel via roads:
Under normal circumstances (and according to google maps for time):

Tampa is 3 hours north of me.

Jacksonville is 6 hours north of me and puts people at the Georgia boarder. Same with Tallahassee.

Florida Panhandle (Pensacola area, just west of Tallahassee) is 8 1/2 hours north of me and puts people at the Alabama boarder (Mobile, Alabama is less than 2 hours from Pensacola).

Right now, the roads around me are being reported as clear. It's getting to the Tampa area where there is a roadblock. Complete bumper to bumper and traffic stopped. Reports yesterday afternoon said if you haven't left already and are planning to, be prepared to spend an extra 50+hours on the road... just getting out of the state.

Regarding evacuations:

The Keys started mandatory visitor evacuations on Monday. Tuesday night they started resident evacuations. There's one way in and the same way out.

For the most part, the counties have voluntary evacuations. Main counties have been Broward, Miami Dade and Collier. Collier county is close to me, as the main city that "needs" the voluntary evac has been Marco Island. Marco is an hour and 10 minutes south of me. The next town from that is Naples, which is about 55 minutes south of me. I'm in Lee county.

Local businesses have been shuttering / boarding their windows and doors since last night. The places that haven't boarded up, have signs on their doors saying they're closed and I've got messages from my various doctors offices saying they are closing today until further notice (Monday / Tuesday, when the storm should pass).

My neighbourhood is swarming with construction crews, shuttering houses. I have friends in another part of my development that have evacuated Tuesday afternoon, and as of the wee hours of this morning, they have reached their destinations (inland Georgia, Tennessee).

My upstairs neighbour and my immediate neighbours are staying, or at least that's the plan for right now. I'm still staying too. There is a maintenance guy who lives a few units down from me. He runs his own business and since Tuesday afternoon, has been in the process of going to people in the community and doing their shutters. I saw him about 2 hours ago and he said I'm on the list for tomorrow; he has way too many people to do and is short handed (his "3 sets of crews bailed" on him).

That's my update! Stay safe for those who are next in the path (before and after me) and sorry for the destruction of those before me...

Is it wrong I'm not sorry for the richie rich people (Branson and his ilk) that got destroyed, only because they've got more money than god, so it's not a big deal?

12 people had made likes on it, including comments saying "stay safe". I've got an update on the site at 5:07pm yesterday:

It's not looking good for Florida right now...

A couple of new points:

One of the stations just announced some of the local hotels are going to have a mandatory evacuation at 6pm tonight. It's for Sanibel and the Islands, which is a 20 minute ride from my house. I work in one of the hotels that is just before the Sanibel Causeway. There will be mandatory evacuations for parts of the state near me (parts of Lee, Collier county... including Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Beach, Sanibel and Captiva).

The hurricane has shifted just enough that they are saying not to tread lightly with this storm.

"Fuel trucks are currently being escorted by state police to relieve those stations currently on low".

Allegedly, Jose isn't going to come close to us, so they say...

After that, it was 7:50 this morning:

I saw on the news last night that if Irma continues on a northwest course, where she goes past Cuba and up the spine of Florida, Cuba could very well lower the wind speed and make the category 5 hurricane into a 4. I don't know exactly how (or remember the explanation), but I think it was mentioned something about the land mass / water temperature (now coming from the Gulf) / air / etc. That's why a few of the models are saying Florida will be hit with a category 4 before it gets up to the northern part of the state and becomes a 3.

The list is growing longer for the evacuations. News said that "if Texas realized the destruction that was going to happen during Harvey, they would have evacuated people" because there was a 'hurricane in 1995 that hit the state and cities had evacuations. The death toll was over 100 because the evacuation wasn't planned properly, versus the low number of deaths caused by people waiting it out during Harvey' (I'm paraphrasing). That's why people in Florida can't take this lightly, since Irma is massive and "Bigger than Andrew" (Andrew quote from the Governor).

"Fun" tidbit: Irma is double the size of Florida (in miles, width). See USA Today meme from yesterday:

Roads still jammed, stores and petrol stations still empty.

There's a mixed bag of how many people have left versus how many have stayed.

Shelters are opening starting at 9am local time today, but the early ones will be for those with special needs. Certain shelters are allowing pets, but you must have your pets' papers / have had it vaccinated / bring a kennel or container to keep it in / toys / food. Shelters aren't supplying anything for animals. And you must register at some of the shelters first; it'll be first come first serve, and once the registration fills up and they can't add more people, they won't. Problem is, there aren't a ton of shelters being opened. Sex offenders will be housed in local sheriff stations, for those who are interested in knowing "where the pervies are going" since most shelters will be a school.

I really don't know what else to say. I'm currently safe and watching the news. I'm shuttered up and ready to wait out the storm with a few of my neighbors. I guess we'll band together and decide how close we feel like being this weekend.

I don't know what type of comments to make now, as every time I look at the TV, there's something different about the news and the forecast. I'm planning on staying and I'm hoping we won't get as flooded. There's only one way to find out what happens and that's to remain calm and keep praying to whatever deity will listen, to keep everyone safe....

On a "brighter" note, the following pictures show how just 4 hours can change the sky. The first set of pictures are from 8:30 / 9 o'clock this morning, and the second set is from 3:30 this afternoon.

The morning pictures: