Hurricane Irma theme park closures (updated)

So, lesson in all of this, all you really need is the NOAA web site and official NWS updates. Local TV affiliates are ****ing awful. The Weather Channel people have already run out of things to talk about.

99er said:

TheMillenniumRider said:
The spires are in fact removable...

Every part of a building is removable if you want it to be:)

Every part of the state is removable if Irma wants it to be... :-/

Jeff said:
So, lesson in all of this, all you really need is the NOAA web site and official NWS updates. Local TV affiliates are ****ing awful. The Weather Channel people have already run out of things to talk about.

You want to hear some of the worst, most panic inducing sensationalism about the storm? Turn on 96.5 WDBO for a couple of minutes. The announcers over there (I almost hesitate to call them reporters) are so out of control with panic it was making us laugh in the car last night. Let alone the dramatic imaging they had their voice guy produce for this.

One of my best friends is a meteorologist for a station here in town. We laugh, sometimes together, about the sensationalized weather reports. My favorite is when they slap a title on an event. "Snowmaggedeon '17" or something, always.

Not to downplay or make light of the real danger and tragedy of this event, mind you.

Re: Tesla and Florida Evacuations

http://jalopnik.com/tesla-remotely-extended-the-range-of-its-florid...1802955287

Jeff said:

Their chicken curry pizza is the tits.

Young and perky? Old and saggy? Or man boobs? I am not sure how excited I am supposed to be about the pizza.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20tits

If I really were at risk of driving around 240 miles after the storm and I still didn't have power (I'm not sure why I would ever do this... I've never gotten below 100 while local), I could go to the supercharger on the turnpike, as I'm fairly certain that one is solar powered.

I just assumed you meant they use breast meat... :-P

The latest update says Orlando is no longer in the "cone". We'll still get some nasty wind later, but it looks like it is going to be much, much better here than they were predicting 2-3 days ago. Other parts of the state though... yikes.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-hurricane-irma-...story.html

RCMAC said:
... about the sensationalized weather reports. My favorite is when they slap a title on an event. "Snowmaggedeon '17" or something, always.

Paul Konrad, the morning weather guy on WGN here in Chicago, once noted that doing the weather on TV is the best job ever. People expect you to be wrong 95% of the time, so if you're only wrong 90% of the time, you're ahead. I should've gone to weatherguy school...

Agreed. Local TV stations love to be overly dramatic about the weather. And some years back, Weather Channel was naming blizzards to make them more dramatic.

The wind started to get a little more interesting over here in Horizon West in the last hour. There's a little uppity ski lake on the other side of the houses behind from me, and it actually has waves. Those houses seem to be shielding us a little. Lots of power outages around us, but not us yet. I'm kind of expecting us to not have power overnight, which, whatever, I'll hopefully be sleeping anyway. Having a little wine to help with that.

Our wind is picking up here on the east side of Orlando as well. The power has flickered a few times but is still on. Checking in with friends and co workers, it seems like still having power is now the minority, so I am enjoying it while it lasts.

Likewise. I'm just south of the airport and we're trucking along nicely right now, but I'm not taking anything for granted. We're fortunate that we've had it this long with only a few flickers.

Four Corners area is starting to get hammered a bit, and the eye moving straight north has the nasty east eye wall coming right over the area. Not looking forward to the 80+ winds coming in the next few hours. Really hoping it suddenly starts moving to the west again.

I just joined the no power club. Boy did the house heat up quickly.

If you're hearing that from WESH or TWC, I wouldn't take a lot of stock in it. There's very little "eye" left now that it has moved so far over land, and the moisture pulling in from the gulf is drying up. Lots of irresponsible reporting and amateur meteorology going on. 9pm update from NHC said it would turn NNW. I expect the full 11pm update to indicate extreme weakening because there's the movement over land and the wind shear off the gulf is killing it. Sebring is near the center of the storm and reporting 55 mph right now... it's not going to get stronger.

The "disappoint" in the voices of the people on CNN and TWC at any talk of weakening as noticeable. And seeing people standing out in the wind/rain hunched over is bizarre. Guess it takes seeing people out there to make the power/impact real (or at least to make the coverage more entertaining). Glad that it sounds like the storm for people posting here wasn't as bad a feared. Hope that remains true with daylight of today.

TV was definitely intolerable and somewhat irresponsible. I stuck to facts from the NHC and NWS, and used an app to track the watch and warning boxes.

Did a walk around the house, then the neighborhood. Not sure if that was entirely safe... sustained wind still over 30, gusts are scary. Retention ponds are awfully high, and lakes two or three feet high, but not a flood threat. Looks like our tree can survive, as it isn't broken.

I feel like we got lucky. No water issues at all. Didn't lose power. No broken windows. Just one sleepless night. The center passed about 40 miles west of me, and I imagine we did peak in the mid-50 mph range with gusts higher.

Glad to hear things were not as bad as expected. We have a place in Seminole that we're curious about- mostly just worried about any flooding that may have happened.

Getting close to 24 hours without power here and no timetable of when it could turn back on. Aside from a freakishly hot house, there was no wind or water damage - so a few days without power will likely still be the lesser of two evils.