-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Hurricane Irma
- Thread starter JohnD
- Start date
disneygeek90
Well-Known Member
It's crazy to think that remnants of her made it all the way to NY. She was insanely powerful and massive.
Last edited:
jt04
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking raising that bridge should be on someone's "to do" list.
dolphinforces
Active Member
Did you guys see the transformers exploding?
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...icane-irma-post-apocalyptic-a7944176.html?amp
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...icane-irma-post-apocalyptic-a7944176.html?amp
MinnieM123
Premium Member
Glad you got your power back on.
And I guess it's just human nature to take things for granted while we have them, so you're really no different than the rest of us--even those of us who don't live in Florida!
MotherOfBirds
Well-Known Member
At what point in a nearly week long power outage does it become ok to send mean tweets to OUC? Asking for a friend
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
They don't exactly explode. There is debris that shorts the high line to ground and you see the intense spark from that. It damages the transformer but usually there is no breach of the container just burn marks and time without power to the drop being fed from that transformer. Impressive to see.
peter11435
Well-Known Member
The transformers were likely off property. I don't believe there were any reports of power disruption at WDW.
wdwjmp239
Well-Known Member
Hello fellow WDWMagicians/Magiceers/Disnerds/DisAddicts.....
Hurricane IRMA paid Southwest Florida a visit and she left her calling card all over Key West (where 90% of the homes down there are destroyed, but the Hemingway House is still standing - not sure about Duval Street, though), Marco Island off the Collier County coastline (storm surge got as high as 5 feet), Naples (5th Avenue and 3rd Street South - high-end shopping districts) was underwater, Bonita Springs and Estero saw some incredible rising water from nearby Imperial River (4 days after IRMA - water levels are still 4 feet deep), and Fort Myers saw mostly landscaping damage (trees down, bent, destroyed) and minor structural damage (collapsed pool cages). Further inland where I was in Naples (My family and I stayed down there with my mother), we didn't experience any storm surge and the only flooding we received was from IRMA's rain. I knew my mother's house was structurally sound as it withstood Andrew in 1992, Charley in 2004, and Wilma in 2005 (Concrete block construction is a beautiful thing) and we were going to be just fine there.
My house in Fort Myers, well, we got a new roof on it a few months back, but we were questioning the windows as we did not have any storm shutters and had to make a post-haste rush to Lowe's to pick up fence paneling to cover the windows because plywood was in short supply. My wife and I started to going into survival mode and really thought out of the box with this one:
We used the following items to protect the house:
-Fence Paneling to protect/cover the windows
-50 pound bags of salt for well water systems for sandbags
Amazingly enough.....this worked and it worked well. Our house did not receive any damage and while do live across the street from a lake, the water came up (along with the rain water), and flooded our street, but because our house is up on a "hill" (about 5 feet higher than street level), the water came up about 3 feet up the driveway, a canal overflowed the retaining wall out front, and well..that was the extent of my flooding, but no water got into the house.
The only thing we lost in the hurricane was a couple of pieces of fencing....but I plan to get out tomorrow with some fencing nails...and hammer those babies back in and we'll be back in business.
But, I think people are going to be asking, "What was that like to be in the middle of IRMA?" It was pretty intense! I'm a tropical meteorology ("hurricanes and other tropical storms") nerd and I love tracking hurricanes, but to be in the smack dab center of a hurricane right before the calm, the winds can get pretty intense inside the "eye wall". Where I was in Naples - we experienced sustained winds inside the eye wall at about 135 mph with wind gusts up to 140-145 mph. The official (and highest) wind gust in Florida during IRMA was recorded at the Naples Airport: 142 mph!
Would I do this again any time soon? Well, I live in Florida, we just look at these storms, knock back a cold beer, laugh at them, and clean up the mess afterwards. No...not really, but it is a part of Florida life. Now I know why some of our "snowbird" visitors leave during the summer.....very smart on their parts.
I shared a Google Drive folder where you can see some of the pictures I took to showcase the damage caused by IRMA.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4vnmMBWlTcrOEpEQWhNTjhGUEE
To those without power still - hang tight....pack your patience.....they're coming! They will get to you! Down here in Southwest Florida, we have utility companies from New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, and I saw California earlier today! To those states - we can't thank you enough, but you know that when the weather turns bad during the winter up north - Florida Power & Light has your backs!
Hurricane IRMA paid Southwest Florida a visit and she left her calling card all over Key West (where 90% of the homes down there are destroyed, but the Hemingway House is still standing - not sure about Duval Street, though), Marco Island off the Collier County coastline (storm surge got as high as 5 feet), Naples (5th Avenue and 3rd Street South - high-end shopping districts) was underwater, Bonita Springs and Estero saw some incredible rising water from nearby Imperial River (4 days after IRMA - water levels are still 4 feet deep), and Fort Myers saw mostly landscaping damage (trees down, bent, destroyed) and minor structural damage (collapsed pool cages). Further inland where I was in Naples (My family and I stayed down there with my mother), we didn't experience any storm surge and the only flooding we received was from IRMA's rain. I knew my mother's house was structurally sound as it withstood Andrew in 1992, Charley in 2004, and Wilma in 2005 (Concrete block construction is a beautiful thing) and we were going to be just fine there.
My house in Fort Myers, well, we got a new roof on it a few months back, but we were questioning the windows as we did not have any storm shutters and had to make a post-haste rush to Lowe's to pick up fence paneling to cover the windows because plywood was in short supply. My wife and I started to going into survival mode and really thought out of the box with this one:
We used the following items to protect the house:
-Fence Paneling to protect/cover the windows
-50 pound bags of salt for well water systems for sandbags
Amazingly enough.....this worked and it worked well. Our house did not receive any damage and while do live across the street from a lake, the water came up (along with the rain water), and flooded our street, but because our house is up on a "hill" (about 5 feet higher than street level), the water came up about 3 feet up the driveway, a canal overflowed the retaining wall out front, and well..that was the extent of my flooding, but no water got into the house.
The only thing we lost in the hurricane was a couple of pieces of fencing....but I plan to get out tomorrow with some fencing nails...and hammer those babies back in and we'll be back in business.
But, I think people are going to be asking, "What was that like to be in the middle of IRMA?" It was pretty intense! I'm a tropical meteorology ("hurricanes and other tropical storms") nerd and I love tracking hurricanes, but to be in the smack dab center of a hurricane right before the calm, the winds can get pretty intense inside the "eye wall". Where I was in Naples - we experienced sustained winds inside the eye wall at about 135 mph with wind gusts up to 140-145 mph. The official (and highest) wind gust in Florida during IRMA was recorded at the Naples Airport: 142 mph!
Would I do this again any time soon? Well, I live in Florida, we just look at these storms, knock back a cold beer, laugh at them, and clean up the mess afterwards. No...not really, but it is a part of Florida life. Now I know why some of our "snowbird" visitors leave during the summer.....very smart on their parts.
I shared a Google Drive folder where you can see some of the pictures I took to showcase the damage caused by IRMA.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4vnmMBWlTcrOEpEQWhNTjhGUEE
To those without power still - hang tight....pack your patience.....they're coming! They will get to you! Down here in Southwest Florida, we have utility companies from New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma, and I saw California earlier today! To those states - we can't thank you enough, but you know that when the weather turns bad during the winter up north - Florida Power & Light has your backs!
wdwjmp239
Well-Known Member
They're loud when they explode. When I lived with my parents down in Naples, we had a pole with a transformer on it, and right after Hurricane Wilma (2005), some salt water (it was windy after the storm blew through and there must've been salt water spray in the air) got into the transformer and popped it....the lights went out......2 hours after they were originally restored! But, it was a nice cool breezy day (late season hurricane in October - perfect timing for a nice sharp cold front that week) and we had the windows open. But, the power was restored AGAIN by morning the next day.
Raineman
Well-Known Member
With all of this talk about power being out for multiple days, I shudder to think of what it would be like if the power was out for that long here up north during a snowstorm. The thought of cutting up the dining room table and having a campfire in my living room does not really appeal to me. 
It could also be very deadly. Fire indoors is always a very bad idea as it can cause carbonmonoxide poisoning.
tractor tipper
Well-Known Member
Hurricanes are strange creatures. Irma passed through central Ohio with light winds and soft rains, Ike came through with 70 mph wind and heavy rains. Left our corn crop flat on the ground, had a mess that year. Ike broke the low pressure record set for our area in the blizzard of 78.. People were out of electric for a week or more. National guard had to drop hay and feed to livestock, roads block by 10 ft plus drifts.
Last edited:
wwmmd
Well-Known Member
I got a new roof here in central Ohio because of Ike!
cjgren
Member
We got some of her in Boston yesterday too!
disneygeek90
Well-Known Member
Conversely, trying to sleep when it's Florida summer humidity in 90+ degree weather might even be worse.With all of this talk about power being out for multiple days, I shudder to think of what it would be like if the power was out for that long here up north during a snowstorm. The thought of cutting up the dining room table and having a campfire in my living room does not really appeal to me.
wdwjmp239
Well-Known Member
By the time these tropical "creatures" head up north, they are ghostly shadows of their former selves.
wdwjmp239
Well-Known Member
Oh!! I can attest to that! I was without power since Sunday afternoon (right before the peak of IRMA). Just got power back on Thursday. So, we were out for 4.5 days. Plus, at night....there's no breeze, so you can almost imagine how that's like. Heat, humidity, no breeze, etc..etc.... I was in tears yesterday when the power came back on. Once, the power clicked on....I turned the A/C on, cranked the fans up, and watched the temperature in the house go from 86 degrees (which was at 8:00am....it could've potentially seen 90 degrees had we not had our power restored) to 75 degrees in about 2 hours or so.
Raineman
Well-Known Member
That would be a toss-up for me-living in the southernmost part of Canada, I have experienced both sleeping in a very hot and humid home in the middle of the summer and sleeping in a room with little to no heat in the middle of winter.
wdwjmp239
Well-Known Member
It's miserable sleeping in the heat. You stick to EVERYTHING! But, sleeping in the cold...yeah....I can see both sides.