Hurricane Ian

I know this isn't coaster related but many Coasterbuzzers are residents of Florida. I'm hoping and praying that you and yours are safe in this monster storm.

Agreed. I couldn’t imagine how terrifying this would be. Like a tornado that is guaranteed to hit you, and bring with it massive flooding. I hope everyone makes it out okay.

Also, only about 10% of what we talk about on here is coaster related, so no worries.

I have quite a few friends there. I’m watching intently from Ohio, and it seems as if the storm is headed straight to Orlando and then will continue on to the Space Coast. It will likely downgrade some by then but will still be legit and carry plenty of reason to take precautions.
And they say many people on the Gulf Coast have already moved inland to Orlando, taking advantage of the abundance of hotels, but now may be second guessing the decision. A friend who lives north of Tampa boarded up her manufactured home, took a few precious belongings and her cat to a hotel in Cocoa. Now what’s she gonna do? The shot they had of I-4 showed gridlock. (If this was a joking matter I’d ask what the difference is there…)
In the spring of ‘21 I attended a beautiful beach wedding in Naples. Now it seems there’s not much left of that location and I recognized the place where the reception was held, but it’s now under water.
I also hope and pray that everyone there emerges with good news.

10+ inches of rain for Orlando tomorrow, 10+! And then the hurricane force winds come. I was supposed to be down there this week, initially delayed my Tues arrival to Fri but I canceled today, the power outages and local flooding is going to be terrible (not as bad as Ft Myers but still bad) my heart goes out to all of you down there, stay safe.

Instead I’m off to New Hampshire and our cabin up there sooner then planned.

I've lived in Orlando since May 2008. In that time we've had a days long flood event with Tropical Storm Fay (summer 2008, I drove Kilimanjaro Safaris through every day of that storm), a near-miss in 2016 with Matthew, some wind damage and a hellish 5 swampy days without power with Irma in 2017, and then another near-miss in 2019 with Dorian.

This is absolutely the most uneasy/anxious/nervous/insert your own adjective here I have been about a storm since I moved here. Everyone keeps comparing it to the 2004 series of storms, especially Charley, and that was devastating for the area.

I have no doubt the tourist areas and theme parks will clean up and be open again sometime this weekend. But the wind damage and flooding could impact a lot of communities for a long time with this one.

It's gonna be a long night.

I am currently hunkering down in the Dolphin hotel at WDW. Kind of boring, but so far, no real damage.

Speaking of Charley, there’s a great photo of the entirety of Hurricane Charlie fitting inside Ian’s eye from earlier today.

Yes, it is unnerving because it's slow moving, the worst always seems half a day away, and by the way, it's not weakening the way it's "supposed to" by the time it gets too Orlando. It's supposed to be tropical storm strength.

The 8pm track moved it another 10 miles south, but what sucks is that it's looking like the back side of the storm is going to be the worst part.

But this one night of nerves for us still beats a Cleveland winter, right?

I was a bit surprised when I looked at the weather, and saw that Orlando was under a hurricane warning. I thought that Orlando was far enough inland that the storms would typically fizzle out enough to fall below hurricane strength by then. Hope everyone stays safe.

Touchdown:

Speaking of Charley, there’s a great photo of the entirety of Hurricane Charlie fitting inside Ian’s eye from earlier today.

0g:

I thought that Orlando was far enough inland that the storms would typically fizzle out enough to fall below hurricane strength by then.

That is what I have told everyone that has asked me about hurricanes in Orlando for the 14 and a half years I have lived here. Including a kid (kid, he's probably the age I was when I moved down here after college) I just randomly met at the parks earlier this month that just moved here this summer from Ohio. We struck up enough of a conversation with in line to Facebook friend each other. I messaged him today he didn't seem to like the fact that any of his new co workers hadn't seen anything like this!

In 2008 we were living in Columbus, OH. That's the year, just a day after my oldest daughter's birthday, that Ohio got hit by a hurricane (Ike, to be exact). Of course it was a Category 1, because it's Ohio, but it still remains as the costliest storm to ever hit the Buckeye state.

I remember driving home from work at Ohio State as it was all starting, and it was absolutely unreal. 50 mph gusts in a severe storm is one thing (and bad enough), but those 80 mph sustained winds were just an unnerving experience.

Granted, lots of things in Florida are built with hurricanes in mind while up here in Ohio they simply aren't, but after that experience it changed my perspective on what it must be like to get hit by these things on a semi-regular basis. And all I experienced was a baby Cat. 1 storm.

Hope all of you down there are safe. Drinks at Jeff's house.

I'm seeing folks all over social media reporting power outage. I've had two flickers, but fingers crossed it's still on. I know its just a matter of time, and man does that suck when the storm passes and there's no A/C.

Our experience with a derecho in 2020 was enough for my wife and me to reconsider our plans to retire in Florida.

BrettV:

But this one night of nerves for us still beats a Cleveland winter, right?

Yeah, it's no contest. I'll put up with this every few years to avoid winter.

My in-laws live in Punta Gorda, at an elevation of 3 feet. They went up to Venice in a friend's house, but who knows that they'll come back to with the insane surge.

Counting the minutes to the 11 o'clock NHS update. Lasted 5 minutes watching the local TV idiots.

On that same day in 2008 I was sitting in our well-protected backyard. I was at the table and our dog was sniffing around. I thought I heard something and looked over our fence to see trees down the street bent practically all the way over. Weird it wasn’t windy in my yard. Then it was. I grabbed the dog and went inside and locked down tight. By morning a Bradford Pear in the front of the house had come down on my truck. We had just had new gutters and downspouts put on the house and they wound up down the street. That’s really all I remember, except that Jim was out of town that week so I was stuck doing all the Dad stuff myself. And it was the worst windstorm I’d ever experienced. Shook the house and my nerves.
I just talked to a good friend that lives in Four Corners and she said it’s still very windy, rainy and dark there but she still had lights. Our news just reported that the worst seems to be past Orlando and the storm is now Cat 1.

Put a time lapse on the 'Gram.

11 update pushed the track east again, and they're not going to make hourly track updates because the center is too poorly defined.

RCMAC:
...By morning a Bradford Pear in the front of the house had come down on my truck. ...

Sorry about the truck, but at least something good came out of that storm...

(Bradford Pear trees, once a fast-growing staple of new home subdivisions, are now considered an invasive nuisance around here)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Power went out at my house in Maitland just before 12, and some water is coming in through the baseboards in the family room.

Let the indoor swamp ass commence.