I am sick with worry over the people not out of harm's way.

Louisiana, here. I know what hurricanes do.

Oh, I know you know, indeed!

I've already disabused folks here that hurricanes can be geoengineered. They only have to look at satellite photos to see how puny human aircraft could never seed more power into an existing storm.

that same mind is incapable of the great expanse of what is factual.

A lost art.

That whole conspiracy theory is to support big oil to keep their hype going a few more financial quarters before oil demand goes into a permanent decline. But even if that B$ was true the storms are still deadly serious.

You’re smart to get out. I fervently hope you don’t suffer too much damage. Keep us posted.

Just usin' the brains God gave me. Thanks, your hope always helps. I will give a report by Saturday.

I love you all and DU.

Keep us informed please

Thanks. Will do.

😀

All the best to you!

I'm feeling a little survivor's guilt... considering that the eye is due to hit my town of Bradenton (and the Tampa Bay Bridge) head on tomorrow morning...

I'm just getting over Covid and I'm not firing on all cylinders A good friend in South Florida is graciously letting me stay at her place outside the cone. I'm blessed.
Good luck and stay safe
m

Take care, my friend.

I understand the appeal of Florida and other such states to those from places that have winter. That said, I honestly don't understand why anyone at all has moved there in the last ten years. We've known about the consequences of global warming much longer than that.

Winter after a certain age, is just as risky as climate change; in winter there's no such thing as a minor slip and fall, and it only takes one.

I thought I'd never live full time in Florida and just summer in Chicago as we used to, but the needs of the kids change, one has to sell the extra house early and give them advance inheritance, etc.

Things change. One weighs the risks, I suppose. More importantly, we all have to commit to adapting, or climate will definitely force us to. We need to take notice and learn from the millions who wait too long to adapt, when it's too late.

Location will become more important to humans than ever. The way I look at climate adaptation and relocations, I can see that though America suffers, it still stands, as many climate experts have noted, at the top of the best relocation places on the planet. Just my opinion.

(managed to do two toes and one arm, none of them at all serious) in less than a week.

But, even when there's snow and ice wherever it is I'm living ( a total of 8 different states in 76 years), oddly enough, I don't trip and fall on the ice. Perhaps I am even more cautious than I realize in those conditions. Because I am VERY aware that I'm losing some of my physical prowess with age.

The thing with Florida and hurricanes is that this is hardly breaking news. And given that hurricanes are getting a LOT stronger with the climate change, I honestly am astonished that so many people continue to go there. It's not as if every single other state has snowy cold winters. There are a fair number that don't. I live in one of those.

That "thing about Hurricanes" not being breaking news to many is because Floridians have withstood them. And the Florida economy stays stable.

But no matter how DeSantis tries to explain what "back to normal" means to the public, this year's Helene and Milton have reset what's survivable, nevermind livable, in Florida. Not to mention the insurance industry's all but abandoning the state.

Of course other states have livable winters, and if push comes to shove I'll be considering them. And as climate continues to wreak havoc on property and human life, so will others, in record numbers.

Your perspective is well taken. Thanks, PO.

& killing time here with you all!

This might be my last one to navigate but I said that after Ian!

if you navigate this one, may it be your last. Thought I could handle hurricane season, but even with past experience, this one and future seasons will be unprecedented, I guarantee you. Besides, I'm too old for this ish.

There may be a more permanent exodus from Florida than we thought.

for doing the smart thing and evacuating. Stay well and keep in touch!

It's terrifying. 13 active tornadoes in Florida as I type this. People moved inland to stay safe from the hurricane but the tornadoes are hitting the inland areas hard. My heart goes out to all of the people and animals in those areas. Please stay safe.

Stay safe all on and near FL. Prayers your homes stay intact.

Glad you and your neighbor read the tea leaves. Things can be replaced. People and life, no, not at all.

I hear you loud and clear. But too many, even millions, of people forget that life's more important than stuff.

Wish you and yours all the best with this "Milton the Monster".

I know where I am in Philly, we usually get the remnants or tropical storm versions here and I saw what the storms in the past almost 15 years have done up here (e.g, Irene, Sandy, Isaias, Ida), where the former 2 in 2011 & 2012 respectively, took down 10 large old sycamore street trees all in a row near me (pancaked one after another) and the latter two in 2020 & 2021, caused severe flooding, with Ida making a canal out of I-676 (which goes below the main street level) running through the middle of the city.

And the season is not over yet.

time as an unprecedented future that we ready our mindset to adapt to, or else suffer from. In a few years, hurricane "season" just might not be over at all.

Climate don't care about our "season" designations.

We're plagued by the few rich who think, because they can outrun these events for awhile, believe in their own power so much that they try in turn to convince too many that we, like they, can escape things like pandemics or season intensifications based on past models. Short term profitable. But what good is that. And because those who've chronically had to learn the hard way continue to believe them ... well, we're seeing ...

Elderly, poor, proud, rich? Climate, like covid, don't care.

where they were into the Greek letters for names.



There has also been rare development in January as well.

And yup, "Mother Nature" is gonna do what she's gonna do.

in all my years of watching the tracking and forecasts on hurricanes, I've never seen one develop in the Gulf of Mexico, and a Cat 5 at that. I thought that 10 day old depression would just rain itself out. Because I've always thought hurricanes had to have big oceans in order to grow and travel. Now that I've seen this, I consider it real evidence that climate is outrunning our past models of heat, atmospheric and space dynamics.

so it can fuel these systems like what we just saw. What also happens in the GOM are the "trade winds" and "westerlies" that can shear systems apart and move them away from the southern U.S. coastal areas, so it makes it more difficult to have something form there and then make a run north into the southern U.S. (those that do form where Milton did, tend to move west into Mexico).

I've yet to read exactly what got the depression to change into circular motion unless it was the eventual critical mass absorption of heat and water that energized it. And here I just thought it sat so long it would just rain itself out.

Milton's "incubator". It was wobbling around in there and spinning up until it finally spun itself out of there!

I'd chuckle with you if it weren't getting so serious for this Florida oldster. It must might incubate my decision to spin myself outta here with it.

Thanks for posting.

I know that Hurricane Laura tore up Louisiana and destroyed the NWS Lake Charles NEXRAD doppler radar -



As they were repairing it -



And Louisiana had a double hit, with Hurricane Delta coming back through that area later in the season.

Hampton Inn isn't a bad place to hang out during storm

You're right. I'm fortunate to afford it.

Hurricanes are anything but hypothetical to me, even though I've never been through one and hope I never will be.

Those storms became very real to me when I married a man who had family in hurricane country. His sister and her family lost almost everything in Camille (they were living near New Orleans at the time). That happened a few years before I met him, but I can remember his sister talking about it years later.

They ended up moving to the Mississippi Gulf coast, and every year during hurricane season, we'd be glued to CNN any time there was a tropical storm headed that way, crossing our fingers that they were going to be okay. They were always smart about evacuating, but it was still nerve-wracking at times.

After her husband passed away, she continued to live in the house they had built in Waveland, MS, after Camille. She was still there when Katrina came through and flattened her entire neighborhood except for her house, which turned out to be on slightly higher ground than all the others!

Over the years, I learned more about hurricanes than I really needed to know, living in the Midwest. My sil is no longer living, but hurricane season still makes me twitchy. I guess it just became an ingrained habit!

the humane twitch of empathy for others as the "season" approaches.

Everyone has to make their own decisions based on what they think best for them. Sometimes, those decisions become lessons for others.

Thanks for sharing your experience, ShazzieB!

I know it's where current residents think good people go when they die but I don't get it.

I'm glad you're safe. This storm is worse than Helene, although it will be less widely destructive.

ETA: The hurricane is still pretty far out to sea but tornadoes are doing considerable damage. N. Ft. Myers got clobbered

Florida only has 16% of people over 65, so it's not a big demographic there. Lots of old folks move out to where you are where the air is dry and the seasons are gentle. I'd move there if I could afford it. I might have to reconsider it after election time is over. I don't want to go through another season that even approaches this one.

Landfall ETA is 8 am tomorrow, then out to the Atlantic by 4-6 pm early nightfall.

Just the thought of added tornadoes clinches my seriousness in considering moving.

Take care. Thanks for your post.

A friends daughter went to the Medical School in Dothan, AL.
She graduated a couple of years back and is interning @ a hospital in Houston.

She must have liked it. I kinda like this quiet town, even though I don't care for Alabama politics or governor.

I feel the same way.

you got out of harms way. That storm is an absolute beast.

This is the scariest thing I have ever seen. There is real time weather coverage that is excellent for those who are interested. You can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/live/d-V_YnmER0Y?si=R335_T4rWxK3AXzE

I am sending all our FL DUers my best. Please stay safe and keep us all posted as you can.

Yes, thanks for reminding me about all the LIVE Cams. There's Earth Cam only watching one spot. But on YouTube there are other multi-screen live cams across the west coast and maybe elsewhere by now.

Here are two

Hoping against hope your home is okay when all is done. Keep safe! Sounds like you've got a good handle on things. And yes, it's excellent to have friends that step up in times of emergencies like this. Good luck!

I so appreciate your good energy, hopes and wishes. They matter.

If you're in Fla, take care, my friend.

Truly can’t imagine

good care of yourself, and keep us updated as you can.

Sending hugggggs and vibes for best possible outcome for you and all in harm's way.

Will do.

I love DU, and you're among the reasons for that.

She evacuated under orders but only a few miles away. Will see at sunrise what’s been lost.

I hope it's the same for Bradenton.

Take care.

You are in my thoughts...................(do not adjust your set, what you are about to read, etc.; prepare to receive attempted sardonic humor) and not in a bad way, either.