Hurricane Irma Report

Here is an update on Irma. It is no longer a Hurricane, but a Low now, as it moves further north into the eastern part of the USA. There are 40 deaths attributed to it now. Much of the area outside the USA that it went through as a Cat. 5 Hurricane has been extremely decimated. Luckily for Florida and areas north of it, it turned out to not be the worst Hurricane on record, as many thought it would be. It downsized fairly quickly from a Cat 5 to a Cat 2, then a 1. I see that it has been ranked as #7 in the amount of damage it caused. Areas of Florida that were thought would get the worse damage did not, like the Tampa and Miami area. The Florida Keys have sustained quite a bit of damage, and the Tallahassee area a lot of flooding from all that water dumped on it by the northeast quadrant of the Hurricane. As for my Florida non-Tbird owning friends, I have only heard from one of them out of about a half dozen. I am hoping it is only because they have no power. Of our fellow Tbird owners and Forum members, only Joe has reported in so far. I have no idea how the rest of them in that southeast part of our country have faired. I hope they will pop up here when they able to and let us know. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Ray we have a couple of friends in Florida and they have just now returned home and are waiting for power. Florida Utility made an announcement that it may take weeks, to restore power due to the massive amount of downed lines. I caught on the news and to put this hurricane in perspective, the width of this storm was 300+ miles. Yes 300+ miles in width. Our thoughts are with the thousands that are affected.

I have no idea how the rest of them in that southeast part of our country have faired. I hope they will pop up here when they able to and let us know. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

As mentioned, we feel very thankful and fortunate. There are wide spread MAJOR power outages in some areas of the state and little or no cell phone service. 10+ days of outages are expected, and no postal service for days in some affected areas. If you are trying or expecting contact from friends, it may take a while depending where they live. Heard Jacksonville area has much higher storm surge and flooding than they expected, but other coastal areas had little. Just depends, and Mother Nature rules!!!