Hurricane Irma

[Horizons '83]

Welp looks like my family is insisting on staying in South Florida (Weston in particular) during the storm. I don't understand their mindset when they have 2 homes to evacuate to here in Atlanta and friends throughout the state but what can you do.

 

[21stamps]

Welp looks like my family is insisting on staying in South Florida (Weston in particular) during the storm. I don't understand their mindset when they have 2 homes to evacuate to here in Atlanta and friends throughout the state but what can you do.

Weston should be ok!!! I think they'll see many visitors coming their way. I agree with you though, I'd rather leave. Good luck to them!

 

[Minnie1986]

and river journey for what's it's worth is open across board.

SJW LOL. Get off your soapbox. You're the one who wrote the post. Maybe you should have worded it better and then it wouldn't have been questioned.

Or, we could all just be adults, agree to disagree and move on....

 

[Minnie1986]

Welp looks like my family is insisting on staying in South Florida (Weston in particular) during the storm. I don't understand their mindset when they have 2 homes to evacuate to here in Atlanta and friends throughout the state but what can you do.

Hope they end up being okay!

 

[Horizons '83]

Weston should be ok!!! I think they'll see many visitors coming their way. I agree with you though, I'd rather leave. Good luck to them!

Thank you!

I know in the past they have been safe but Weston is really only 20 miles off the coast so thats not very far inland.

 

[21stamps]

This is such a small part of the mandatory zones.. (Ft Lauderdale area)

My heart goes out to anyone who is driving north. I can't imagine the amount of people on the highways right now.
I hope the structures in these photos still exist next week.

 

[baymenxpac]

You do understand that for many people their vacations get locked in through their employers months in advance, and for many that cant simply push it back two months? Theres no guarantee this will even hit the Orlando area so telling people to stay away at this moment is wrong. People should continue to keep an eye on this and treat it very seriously and we will all have more information come Friday. Please get off your high horse. Thanks!

nah, dude. sorry, but if you have to take vacation time because your employer is a jackwaggon and won't let you reschedule, then it's time for a staycation.

 

[21stamps]

Thank you!

I know in the past they have been safe but Weston is really only 20 miles off the coast so thats not very far inland.

I think people are just scared to leave at this point. The traffic is just too bad. So those a little farther west are staying. This seems to be what I'm hearing from people.
I can't say that I totally blame them, but in a perfect scenario all 6,000,000+ residents could get out! Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible.

 

[Horizons '83]

nah, dude. sorry, but if you have to take vacation time because your employer is a jackwaggon and won't let you reschedule, then it's time for a staycation.

Or time for a new job, that's just not right if they can't be flexible enough to reschedule.

 

[disneygeek90]

They're all under mandatory evac, but that's nothing new, these zones always get placed under evac., Zone A pretty much every time and B is typically voluntary depending on the strength of the storm, sometimes mandatory.

Most times people still stay. Supposedly they're "safe" up to a certain wind strength, that's why I stayed in mine during Wilma as opposed to evacuating, and I actually evacuated to a high rise in North Miami for Jeanne...also zone A mandatory evac zone, but I felt it would be more safe than staying in mine in PBC.
Many people learned after those 2 storms, and Katrina, that evacuation is much better than staying.

With this particular storm, no one knows if even the new high rises could withstand the wind. Officials are saying that they won't.
I think this is one time where residents, even stubborn South Floridians, are taking it seriously.

What happens to the building structures themselves? Flooding? Wind damage? Blow over?

 

[HauntedPirate]

Or time for a new job, that's just not right if they can't be flexible enough to reschedule.

Exactly. It's not like this is being done on a whim. There's a Cat5 hurricane heading for Florida. If an employer's stance is - "Nope, sorry, your vacation is locked in!", the response should be - "Ok, then I quit".

 

[21stamps]

What happens to the building structures themselves? Flooding? Wind damage? Blow over?

There hasn't been a storm this strong since Andrew.. all buildings were revised since then.

Yes, obviously flooding around if you live between the intracoastal and the ocean, but that wouldn't impact the higher units, it would just make it impossible to leave. Wind damage- yes. Debris damage- yes. Blow over- most likely not.

 

[baymenxpac]

Or time for a new job, that's just not right if they can't be flexible enough to reschedule.

i mean, i get that many can't afford to be that picky. a lot of americans (thankfully, not me) work for jerks or overbearing corporations. it's the rule, not the exception.

and i'm sure that after all the hard work of scheduling and planning a WDW trip, coupled with the year-plus-long anticipation, the idea of canceling or rescheduling that trip seems painstaking.

however, this storm is no joke. anecdotally, i live on long island and after sandy, we didn't have power in my town for anywhere from five-to-14 days depending on what part of town you lived in. life basically grinded to a halt. and that's a storm where wind gusts were at 90 mph, not 175.

 

[Master Yoda]

What happens to the building structures themselves? Flooding? Wind damage? Blow over?

It depends. Flooding is the most common thing followed by roof damage. Properly constructed roofs coming completely apart is rare but does happen. All it takes is a breach in the building envelope and even the best construction will start to pull apart.

 

[disneygeek90]

There hasn't been a storm this strong since Andrew.. all buildings were revised since then.

Yes, obviously flooding around if you live between the intracoastal and the ocean, but that wouldn't impact the higher units, it would just make it impossible to leave. Wind damage- yes. Debris damage- yes. Blow over- most likely not.

I've lived in Florida 11 years and this is the first one I think will actually impact the state to a serious degree, so I have no idea what to expect

 

[HauntedPirate]

And those in the southeast parts of Georgia and SC need to start preparing as well, if they haven't already. I know the SC governor has already declared a state of emergency for some counties on the coast, but Irma looks to be taking aim at a large portion of the SC coast.

 

[21stamps]

It depends. Flooding is the most common thing followed by roof damage. Properly constructed roofs coming completely apart is rare but does happen. All it takes is a breach in the building envelope and even the best construction will start to pull apart.

Are you worried about the cranes? There's so much construction right now, if a crane hit a building could it compromise the entire structure?

Basically, what is the worst case scenario for all of the high rises? In the past it's mostly been windows and exterior damage.

 

[LAKid53]

What happens to the building structures themselves? Flooding? Wind damage? Blow over?

Flooding, wind damage. But I don't ever remember reading that a high rise along the coast was actually blown over. The pylons supporting the structure are probably at least 10 feet in the ground.

@Master Yoda, can you confirm?

 

[HauntedPirate]

Not sure if this was mentioned, but Delta has added flights out of Florida (not sure if others have as well, that just showed up in my search results) and they and other airlines have begun capping fares to avoid (some really, really) bad PR.

 

[lazyboy97o]

What is a typical high rise outlook for this type of storm?

The reason their is not a Category 6 is because the scale is tied to potential destruction of property and Category 5 is the limits of what can be built. South Florida around Miami is in what the Florida Building Code calls the High Velocity Hurricane Zone and special Miami-Dade testing is required of building products used in this area. Despite those extra requirements, this storm is exceeding those limits so no one can really know what will happen.