North of Orlando, Hurricane Irma, 9/11???

Okay, here are my concerns The bottom 3/5 of Florida is at or barely above sea level. If you draw a line from Port St Lucie on the east coast to Sarasota on the west coast, that’s the line I’m talking about. Highway 50 that goes through Orlando is a line that indicates enough land mass under the surface to provide stability from there north. That’s about 1/2 way up the state. So storm surge is going to be the killer. Imagine just a cubic yard of water coming at you and then tossing you and the car you are standing next to around. Boggles the mind.

There are only 2 main highways 90 on the east to Savanah (maybe not a good place to be going) and 75 on the west which goes inland to Atlanta. Evacuation is a nightmare. Gas is pretty much gone up to south Orlando. So I worry about stranded evacuators and the food and shelter for them.

We are about 30 ft above sea level here and 20-30 miles inland. So that’s good. We haven’t had rain for about 5 days so the ground isn’t soaked so it means the shallow rooted trees throughout Florida stand a better chance of not toppling and knocking out power lines.

I do worry about the two nuke plants in southern Florida. What were we thinking? And while I am complaining why aren’t they bringing in Navy carriers to help with the evacuation of the coastline? Or to help restock gasoline and water supplies?

Bret (my son in south Orlando who will be coming up) and I both have state of the art water filters…gravity fed with 4 pages of fine print indicating the contaminates they remove. I also have 2 solar powered generators which I have had to use before. They have airplane batteries inside, USB power outlets and it means I can at least have a cup of coffee and keep the computer and phones running for some time each day. I have plenty of dry and freeze dried foods, about a month’s worth, and cast iron pots if you end up cooking over a fire and an axe to create firewood. The new fence Bret put up has posts sunk 30” down surrounded by cement, and spaced 6’ apart instead of the 8’ that they were. And he also installed a pretty neat drainage system below ground to carry the water out 20' to the fence (avoiding the posts) in the back. So we are good there. We may lose some shingles or screens and we may lose electricity but those are livable eventualities, plus it is supposed to be a cat 2 if it comes up the middle of the state and reaches here. We also have 4 solar powered lanterns, inflatable little buggers but they work terrifically and don’t give off the heat of a candle. The newest in bathroom lighting! And I have a large plastic rain barrel which is part of the drainage system but can be refitted with a regular garden hose at the bottom. Cold shower anyone? And the Florida room has 2 X 12s in the ceiling with a surfeit of hurricane clips, 3 concrete block walls and plastic instead of glass windows in the 4th..

But with all that said I wouldn’t mind your prayers and thanks steemers.