Anonymous wrote:I'm a professor with several freshmen students from Florida. I can see all their hometowns on the roster and I'm making a point to ask them when I see them if they're doing ok and able to check in with family. It must be tough to be away from home for the first time during this kind of thing.

That's really kind. I hope my kids have such thoughtful professors.

I have family members whose lives were devastated by Hurricane Michael last year, and it also lead to my parent’s death. I’m worried for those in the path of this hurricane.

I'm a professor with several freshmen students from Florida. I can see all their hometowns on the roster and I'm making a point to ask them when I see them if they're doing ok and able to check in with family. It must be tough to be away from home for the first time during this kind of thing.

Anonymous wrote:My close childhood friend is just north of Miami, living maybe a mile from the beach. She texted me yesterday saying how screwed they are (she has kids)—so I offered her my family’s place in the western Carolinas. Nope, she is refusing to leave. She has a generator and a window AC unit and plans to “hunker down and watch my Fox News.”

She is beyond dumb.

Well, just be glad she chose not to evacuate to your judgmental ass. Sounds like you both win.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My close childhood friend is just north of Miami, living maybe a mile from the beach. She texted me yesterday saying how screwed they are (she has kids)—so I offered her my family’s place in the western Carolinas. Nope, she is refusing to leave. She has a generator and a window AC unit and plans to “hunker down and watch my Fox News.”

She is beyond dumb.

She is not beyond dumb. Getting on the highway to drive a 1,600 mile round trip when they don't yet know when and where this storm will have impact would be beyond dumb. Beyond the drive, it will be difficult to get back, and the stress and anxiety of travel, not knowing the condition of their home, staying in unfamiliar surroundings, etc., can really take its toll. Making prudent preparations and following the guidance of officials in their area is a perfectly reasonable plan.

+1 and for all we know the carolinas are also going to get hit

people who aren't in hurricane-prone areas seem to think there's a magical "evacuate now!" button that just seamlessly gets you wherever you want to go

Anonymous wrote:My close childhood friend is just north of Miami, living maybe a mile from the beach. She texted me yesterday saying how screwed they are (she has kids)—so I offered her my family’s place in the western Carolinas. Nope, she is refusing to leave. She has a generator and a window AC unit and plans to “hunker down and watch my Fox News.”

She is beyond dumb.

She is not beyond dumb. Getting on the highway to drive a 1,600 mile round trip when they don't yet know when and where this storm will have impact would be beyond dumb. Beyond the drive, it will be difficult to get back, and the stress and anxiety of travel, not knowing the condition of their home, staying in unfamiliar surroundings, etc., can really take its toll. Making prudent preparations and following the guidance of officials in their area is a perfectly reasonable plan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So often, it seems Floridians plan to ride out hurricanes/blow them off.

Riding it out is not at all the same thing as blowing it off. There's so much uncertainty. Any residents who say they are evacuating at this point are doing so prematurely. If I were there vacationing, I would be getting out, but if I lived there, I would just be making prudent preparations like getting my property prepared for wind and water, stocking up on supplies, fueling the car - that sort of thing.

+1

Where exactly are we all supposed to evacuate, to? Not everyone can just pile themselves and all their animals into a plane just in case. And getting on the road in the car can make things even more dangerous - you can run out of gas, not have a safe place to get to. There's a lot of uncertainty right now, as there often is, and sometimes the prudent choice is to stay home. That's what we are doing. Last time we evacuated at the last minute and almost ran out of gas on the highway trying to leave, with our four pets in the car with us.

Just get Trump to bomb the mutha!

My close childhood friend is just north of Miami, living maybe a mile from the beach. She texted me yesterday saying how screwed they are (she has kids)—so I offered her my family’s place in the western Carolinas. Nope, she is refusing to leave. She has a generator and a window AC unit and plans to “hunker down and watch my Fox News.”

She is beyond dumb.

Anonymous wrote:So often, it seems Floridians plan to ride out hurricanes/blow them off.

Riding it out is not at all the same thing as blowing it off. There's so much uncertainty. Any residents who say they are evacuating at this point are doing so prematurely. If I were there vacationing, I would be getting out, but if I lived there, I would just be making prudent preparations like getting my property prepared for wind and water, stocking up on supplies, fueling the car - that sort of thing.

Anonymous wrote:I'm in Orlando and no one is blowing this off. I live in a house that has a tile roof and basically made of cement block as the structure, and so we're not worried about damage to our house, but flooding.

Hang in there pregnant PP! I wish I could give you our number here in case you run into any difficulty!

My mother has lived in Florida for 35 years. She has a network of friends and I have some friends near her. They are planning to ride it out. There isn't expected to be a lot of flooding north of town. The biggest threat are the winds, falling trees and power outages. Based on the last few major hurricanes, various parts of the area will be out of power. My mother is part of a group of about 15-16 families, plus my friends and another old family friend. Between them, they coordinate and if someone loses power, they move to one of the friends in the group's home to wait out the power outage.

We tried to talk her into either coming up here to be with us or go to my brother's place in Houston, but she said that she's been through many hurricanes over the years and she can handle it with her support network. They are all stocking up their houses and will fill bathtubs, but otherwise plan to ride it out.

Friend just sent me a text. Her freshman daughter just got settled at college, this week. Mandatory evac, classes cancelled until Thursday. She booked a room at Disney for daughter and husband. Hotels are offering discounted rates. $144 at the hotel she booked. Disney is on it's own grid, generators, dining plans in place with maps and instructions where to go for every circumstance. Medical facilities on site and volunteer employees.

Sounds like a good plan!

My sibling works at. Disney resort. She signed up to ride out the storm at work. The employees sleep on the floor in the huge conference rooms when they do this. She moderately concerned about this storm. The track and strength predictions can change dramatically in the days leading up to the storm.

I lived in Florida during Andrew. That was awful. I will worry about a storm that big when it’s time. I’m sure they’re issuing evacuation orders for places like the Keys, but they almost always do that. I’ll worry after they start issuing them for more populated areas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m living on the east coast of south Florida now. My husband works in a hospital and is required to go in starting Sunday morning and stay throughout the storm. I’m 7 months pregnant and am taking our two dogs to a hotel in Orlando. Not a great choice, but better than being in the direct path of it when it’s still a category 4. Holding we don’t lose power in the hotel, I know for sure our house will!

Where in South Florida are you? We have a condo in Palm Beach, and we’re a bit worried (more concerned about the storm surge because of the car we have parked in the garage).

I’m in Palm Beach County, closer to Delray. Latest I’ve seen is that landfall as at Cat 4 is predicted to be just north of West Palm Beach, and by the time it reaches Orlando it will be closer to a Cat 1.

We're in St Pete on the west and everyone I know is in a state of mild anxiety. We've stocked up on snacks and have our flashlights ready. But we just have no idea at this point if we're getting hit by a serious storm, or what. Hoping no.

Honestly the waiting and the not knowing makes hurricane prep hardest. We are extremely fortunate - knock wood a million times - that we are not in a flood zone, and the power in our neighborhood is generally pretty robust But it is still hard not to really internalize the scary possibilities. They *can* happen.

We are not planning to evacuate this time - though, if things get bad enough, we could go to an evacuation shelter or a friend's house with our pets. We did evacuate for Irma a couple of years ago - ended up going to stay in a place that got hit much worse than our home. (We got home and our power hadn't even gone out.)

Anyway, we have a lot of carbs to get us through. People go on real snack binges while waiting for hurricanes to come or not.