Hurricane Irma

[DisneyCane]

Meanwhile in SoFla.. day 3 without power. People are starting to get restless, I think they were expected something sooner this time.
A friend's post from this morning..at least they had a generator for a day and a half.

Dear FPL
Our house is 90 degrees inside, the kids are crying, and we are on a wild goose chase for gas for the generator . Why do all of the gated communities around us have power and Hiatus Isles is still out-- in fact why did you say it could take TWO weeks to get it back? And why are our electric wires connected to wood poles instead of tall cement structures wires or buried like our luckier neighbors? Have we offended you in some way? Is our $500 per month bill not enough to get some help around here?

Plenty of areas with underground wiring and concrete poles are out still.

 

[ToTBellHop]

That assumes your peers aren't all aboard the politically driven gravy train...

I am frightened to live in a nation with such disdain toward its academics. We all definitely worked our butts off to get into and succeed as undergrads to get into strong universities where we could spend 6 years working 80-hours per week to get a piece of paper allowing us to spend the next 4 years making $30k/year with Ph. D.s to work 90 hours per week doing research that would allow us to get our own labs by age 45 and finally...manipulate findings to trick the American taxpayer?

Wait a minute, that is the most absurd conspiracy theory I've ever heard. And keep hearing. It's no wonder propaganda is blindly accepted as fact.

Sharks still swimming around downtown Miami?

Without overly tooting my own horn, I'm a clever person. If I wanted to manipulate minds, I could have chosen any one of several quicker paths with more lucrative salaries.

 

[21stamps]

I live in Houston area of Texas...keep my AC between 72-68 year round and I rarely top $200.
That just seems insane!

People were without power for 2 weeks or more in Texas after Ike. I don't think that's crazy off base. We had our back is a moderate price neighborhood while "fancy" hoods were without longer.

Not sure if you have a pool and it tub, but that could be the difference.

We were without power and hard to find gas stations from 2weeks to One Month when Wilma hit in SoFla.. more than 6 million people without power for that amount of time. Almost impossible to find gas and only allowed in $20 increments. After that time the state changed procedures, including gas stations. Wilma exposed many weaknesses in Florida, and they have invested billions since so it wouldn't happen again.

This time was supposed to be different because of what has been changed since. That's why people are getting frustrated when told "up to two weeks".

 

[larryz]

With a house, pool, and hot tub in South Florida that's not hard to do. You can use your pool year round.. and use your ac almost year round.

Who needs a hot tub in S. Fla.? Just go jump in the Gulf...

 

[21stamps]

I'm hearing Wawa's are opening in the area. I'm not sure what their stock is with gas, though.

Thank you. Gas Buddy has been giving misleading info.. it shows gas stations with power, but they may not have gas. I'll try to see what I can find out.

 

[larryz]

Plenty of areas with underground wiring and concrete poles are out still.

Yep. At some point, those underground wires need a surface interface with a transmission line/substation, and those parts remain vulnerable to trees/flooding/wind losses.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Dunno if this is posted already but looks like the railroad opened just not jungle cruise!

 

[Ryan Philbrick]

Thanks to all who've contributed to this thread. I've been following closely from KS for over a week now. The breadth of information shared has been most helpful.

Call it insensitive if you must, but I am one of the folks who really didn't want to see our family vacation ruined by Irma. My wife has been saving and planning for nearly a year so that we could take our kids to Disney World - something she always dreamt of but never got to do as a child. We were scheduled to arrive this past Saturday and stay for a week. Thankfully, we were able to push everything back until tomorrow. We're no longer staying at the resort we preferred and know we may see some closed rides, but we're elated that we still get to go.

 

[myhappyplace]

Any suggestions/ ideas on where donation money might be best sent? My husband's company is matching donations and he has tasked me with finding where to donate. What areas were the hardest hit? Possibly the food bank of that area?

 

[disneygeek90]

Any suggestions/ ideas on where donation money might be best sent? My husband's company is matching donations and he has tasked me with finding where to donate. What areas were the hardest hit? Possibly the food band of that area?

All of the Keys, Naples, Marco Island, Ft Myers and possibly Miami and Jacksonville look like they were hit the hardest. I'm not sure what organized funding has been started yet.

 

[Disney Analyst]

i'm reading 25% of homes in the Keys destroyed, 65% damaged.

 

[21stamps]

Who needs a hot tub in S. Fla.? Just go jump in the Gulf...

The Gulf is a pretty far drive., but the Atlantic is just as warm. However, neither are as convenient as your backyard.lol. Plus the hot tubs are connected to the pool.

Any suggestions/ ideas on where donation money might be best sent? My husband's company is matching donations and he has tasked me with finding where to donate. What areas were the hardest hit? Possibly the food band of that area?

The Keys!! They can't receive packages yet.. but they will need so much assistance. It's absolutely devastating and there's still many places that are unknown.
They were hit head on by a Category 4 hurricane.

There aren't any newscasters down there.. but you can see drone videos online.

 

[bclane]

The global warming debate isn't really about if it is happening or not. The debate is over whether WE are causing global warming or not. I think that most people agree that higher ocean temperatures are facilitating stronger and more frequent storms (as far as we can tell based on the data we have). Thus, it is a good idea to plan ahead and if you are thinking about moving into a low lying area close to the ocean, you want to rethink those plans.

Anyway, I'm getting so tired of driving around looking for the same recovery supplies everyone else is and striking out every time. Me thinks it might be time for a Disney day to take my mind off all this.

 

[3onfriday]

Agree with Ryan P and appreciate all the helpful info on here. Prayers and donations going out for Floridians. Has anyone been able to put eyes on Fort Wilderness to get an idea of when they'll open it again? I imagine they lost a lot of trees and I'm wondering if I should push our trip to the right again.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

just saw this posted about Vero and Hilton Head

http://dvcnews.com/index.php/resort...vero-reopening-set-hilton-head-remains-closed

My family and I were just in the Hilton Head resort the week before Labor Day. We spoke to the CM's there about the damage of Mathew. They said the buildings didn't suffer, and they are smartly built up on pylons. There was flooding on property that came from the marsh and wreaked havoc with the pool. As it is built among the trees there was foliage damage. They are not permitted to remove any trees unless they receive approval from the local HH government. So even if there are plenty of downed trees they cannot remove them until they receive approval which could explain why it may take longer to reopen. I am sure the beach house is just fine. It is the best Disney property in my opinion and I hope the CM's there are fine.

 

[Figgy1]

Before Irma rolled through, she said she was staying in the Riverside area of Jacksonville. Depending on how close to the St. Johns River she was, Riverside, especially along Riverside Avenue was flooded out. She's also probably dealing with a power outage. My parents aren't too far away from that area and they had no power as of last night.

If I were her, checking the WDWMagic thread would be on the low priority list, if only to preserve power on a mobile phone.

THNX, that's what I figured but was hoping somebody here was on her call list.

 

[ToTBellHop]

The global warming debate isn't really about if it is happening or not. The debate is over whether WE are causing global warming or not. I think that most people agree that higher ocean temperatures are facilitating stronger and more frequent storms (as far as we can tell based on the data we have). Thus, it is a good idea to plan ahead and if you are thinking about moving into a low lying area close to the ocean, you want to rethink those plans.

Anyway, I'm getting so tired of driving around looking for the same recovery supplies everyone else is and striking out every time. Me thinks it might be time for a Disney day to take my mind off all this.

More so the extent of our impact. Despite claims otherwise, it is quite easy to empirically show that an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations increases global temperature. And we know where those greenhouse gases come from. The degree to which such an increase impacts a specific storm is more debatable.

 

[21stamps]

The global warming debate isn't really about if it is happening or not. The debate is over whether WE are causing global warming or not. I think that most people agree that higher ocean temperatures are facilitating stronger and more frequent storms (as far as we can tell based on the data we have). Thus, it is a good idea to plan ahead and if you are thinking about moving into a low lying area close to the ocean, you want to rethink those plans.

Anyway, I'm getting so tired of driving around looking for the same recovery supplies everyone else is and striking out every time. Me thinks it might be time for a Disney day to take my mind off all this.

That sounds like a great idea!

 

[JohnD]

I'm going to post this last comment and then move on. My power just came back on so it's time to clean out the fridge and restock, put the hurricane supplies away, and clean up my property, now that the rain has stopped and the sun is out.

Irma is still causing misery. People in South Florida are just starting to see what they've lost. The military is just getting to the Keys to see if there are any Florida Keys left. We don't know what the death toll in the Keys will be, both human and other animals. Several members are very worried about loved ones and friends. Most of us are worried about our own The Mom - she lives in the Jax area that was flooded. My niece, who also lives in Jax, has not posted an update since yesterday afternoon - we just hope it's because she has no power and her phone died. My brother is ready to jump into his truck and drive 3 hours to rescue her. I got my first good night's sleep last night, in spite of having no power, in days. This is what we in Florida have been going through for the past days as the storm headed our way. So, yeah, @BoarderPhreak, your comment about betting on next year's season was not appropriate right now and a tad insensitive considering what some of us on this thread have just gone through - and the season isn't even over. And before you lecture ME about climate change, I will let you know I spent 10 years working at DEP and 23 years working at FSU with some of the preeminent climate scientists in this country.

Too soon, dude, too soon.

Peace out

DEP = Department of Environmental Protection (Florida agency) for anyone who may not recognize the acronym.

 

[JohnD]

THNX, that's what I figured but was hoping somebody here was on her call list.

Maybe @wdwmagic ?