Idalia

[disney-inspired]

Our company is going into disaster preparedness mode as our corporate office is in Tampa.
They were going disaster recovery testing last week.

 

[fla4fun]

I am hoping the cone stays north of us. I personally expect this to flare up to a cat 4 at some point once it gets away from the Yucatan/Cuba and into the gulf. The gulf is warmer than normal, so the potential for strengthening quickly is there. There is no way to predict the track until it gets into the gulf either. I’m worried about the low lying areas in the Tampa Bay area. No mandatory evacuations have been issued yet, and they said on the news this morning that it would take 17 hours to evacuate the first of five potential evacuation zones. By the time they tell people to get out, it may be too late.

 

[JaxDad]

I am hoping the cone stays north of us. I personally expect this to flare up to a cat 4 at some point once it gets away from the Yucatan/Cuba and into the gulf. The gulf is warmer than normal, so the potential for strengthening quickly is there. There is no way to predict the track until it gets into the gulf either. I’m worried about the low lying areas in the Tampa Bay area. No mandatory evacuations have been issued yet, and they said on the news this morning that it would take 17 hours to evacuate the first of five potential evacuation zones. By the time they tell people to get out, it may be too late.

Mandatory evacuations have started.

 

[fla4fun]

Mandatory evacuations have started.

I hope they go smoothly and everyone gets to a safe area before the storm.

 

[JaxDad]

I hope they go smoothly and everyone gets to a safe area before the storm.

Me too.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I am hoping the cone stays north of us. I personally expect this to flare up to a cat 4 at some point once it gets away from the Yucatan/Cuba and into the gulf. The gulf is warmer than normal, so the potential for strengthening quickly is there. There is no way to predict the track until it gets into the gulf either. I’m worried about the low lying areas in the Tampa Bay area. No mandatory evacuations have been issued yet, and they said on the news this morning that it would take 17 hours to evacuate the first of five potential evacuation zones. By the time they tell people to get out, it may be too late.

I'm in Tampa Bay and evacuation notices went out almost 2 hours ago. We're included, so heading out in the morning.

 

[fla4fun]

I'm in Tampa Bay and evacuation notices went out almost 2 hours ago. We're included, so heading out in the morning.

That makes me feel better. I checked the Pinellas County site right before posting and it said no evacuation notices were in effect. I guess they aren’t very quick at updating their site, which is bad considering the local news was directing people there this morning to watch for evacuation orders.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I'm in Tampa Bay and evacuation notices went out almost 2 hours ago. We're included, so heading out in the morning.

Yikes....good luck and stay safe!

 

[dvcgirl67]

I am hoping the cone stays north of us. I personally expect this to flare up to a cat 4 at some point once it gets away from the Yucatan/Cuba and into the gulf. The gulf is warmer than normal, so the potential for strengthening quickly is there. There is no way to predict the track until it gets into the gulf either. I’m worried about the low lying areas in the Tampa Bay area. No mandatory evacuations have been issued yet, and they said on the news this morning that it would take 17 hours to evacuate the first of five potential evacuation zones. By the time they tell people to get out, it may be too late.

5pm advisory has it up to 120 mph at landfall, 10mph below a cat 4. I agree these storms blow up in the Gulf, especially with the water so warm. Hope you stay south of the cone fla4fun!

 

[mylilnikita]

They just had Ida two years ago. Couldn’t they think up another woman’s name that starts with “I”?

I think Isabel was retired.

Yes it was Sept 03 I’ll never forget

 

[OneOftheB's]

We have a home on Cape San Blas (on the panhandle, just east of Mexico Beach, which was ground zero for Michael). The county just issued a mandatory evacuation for the north cape. I called our friend who is there this week to let her know about the evacuation and to ask her to bring in the deck furniture, secure the grill, tape the locks and run the elevator to the highest floor and disable it. I hope this one avoids us.

 

[DisneyOma]

My mom is in a trailer park in the Tampa area - and even though it is not in an evacuation zone at all she has moved to a friend's home which happens to be on the edge of zones C and D. I know the high winds are a big concern, but moving from an area not even in the A-E zoning into the C/D area makes me more nervous.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Anyone in the path? Looks like it will be a major hurricane by the time it makes landfall somewhere along FL Gulf Coast or panhandle. I think we will be getting some rain out of it, but the current track keeps it south of us.

It depends on its movement. NE FL, outside Jax.

We're finishing up stuff tomorrow, like putting the trash cans in the garage, filling up the 5 gal water jugs from the sink, and doing last minute cleaning/washing bedding. Hurricane supplies are already packed in (I like to rotate out stuff we didn't use in Jan/Feb, to the food banks...none of it expired, of course...and get new stuff in Mar/April.

I did read somewhere that it doesn't bode well, being an "I" named storm, near Labor Day, coming up the Gulf with very warm water temps...

 

[marthachick]

Our son is a lineman and his crew headed down today. They are overnighting in Georgia to they see where they are needed. If you pray, please pray for them as they head towards what some people are evading. I wish he wasn’t so brave. He’s been a firefighter and a paramedic previously.

 

[AnnaS]

I hope everyone in Idalia's path is safe!

 

[Babs Johnson]

https://www.wfxrtv.com/news/nationa...-do-so-many-infamous-hurricanes-have-i-names/

Thanks for the list. It did seem that there were a lot of notorious I-named hurricanes.

Decades ago it was rare to reach the letter I, especially before Labor Day. Most of the retired I names have been after 2001. Are they unnecessarily giving names to any minor disturbance these days?

Franklin is still somewhere in the Atlantic. What happened to G and H?

I watched the Weather Channel for about 15 minutes. They’re all ecstatic.

I suspect some Waffle Houses will be closing around midnight tonight.

 

[hrhdhd]

Thanks for the list. It did seem that there were a lot of notorious I-named hurricanes.

Decades ago it was rare to reach the letter I, especially before Labor Day. Most of the retired I names have been after 2001. Are they unnecessarily giving names to any minor disturbance these days?

Franklin is still somewhere in the Atlantic. What happened to G and H?

I watched the Weather Channel for about 15 minutes. They’re all ecstatic.

I suspect some Waffle Houses will be closing around midnight tonight.

Franklin killed Gert and Harold hit Texas.

 

[fla4fun]

Decades ago it was rare to reach the letter I, especially before Labor Day. Most of the retired I names have been after 2001. Are they unnecessarily giving names to any minor disturbance these days?

They don’t give a storm a name until it meets the criteria for a tropical storm. If there seem to be more names used earlier in the year, it’s because there are earlier storms meeting that minimum criteria. There has been some talk about starting the hurricane season 2-4 weeks earlier in the year because storms are appearing earlier than they used to.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Decades ago it was rare to reach the letter I, especially before Labor Day. Most of the retired I names have been after 2001. Are they unnecessarily giving names to any minor disturbance these days?

The current naming convention has been in place since 1953. A tropical system gets a name when sustained windspeed is > 39mph. That criteria has not changed.

 

[MGMmjl]

Thanks for the list. It did seem that there were a lot of notorious I-named hurricanes.

Decades ago it was rare to reach the letter I, especially before Labor Day. Most of the retired I names have been after 2001. Are they unnecessarily giving names to any minor disturbance these days?

Franklin is still somewhere in the Atlantic. What happened to G and H?

I watched the Weather Channel for about 15 minutes. They’re all ecstatic.

I suspect some Waffle Houses will be closing around midnight tonight.

I think a lot of it has to do with the ability to see weak storms basically in the middle of nowhere a lot better these days. Satellites are a lot better now than they were even a couple of decades ago. If a satellite estimates wind speeds of 40 mph in a disturbance, it will be deemed a tropical storm and given a name. Is it worth it to name brief storms that reach 40 mph in the middle of the ocean? Does that overinflate the numbers? Those are valid questions. But I'm sure mariners appreciate the advanced warnings for even weak storms.