Usually the Networks go live with storm coverage. Pre-empting regular content like the Today show with that coverage.
Obviously that wasn’t needed this morning.
A storm hit but it wasn’t at Cat 5 strength.
They scared a lot of people. Cat 5 predicted.
Link Hurricane Milton is a dangerous Category 5 as it heads toward Florida's coast : NPR
Next time I won’t pay as much attention. Since I don’t live in that area.
I don’t understand this. The storm did reach Cat 5.
They should have scared a lot of people - it was a scary storm and pretty much did what was forecast a couple days ago. It’s still dropping a ton of rain and, now that it’s largely passed, lives and property are now going to experience issues from severe flooding. The largest ‘inaccuracy’, if you can even call it that, was the uncertainty in exactly where along the coast the storm struck. They knew it would be somewhere in roughly a 50 mile stretch. They didn’t get it pinpoint accurate, but they got the general vicinity right a couple days ago.
I don’t understand why accurate predictions are cause to ignore future ones.
Southeast Palm Beach County (“PBC”). It only ever sprinkled here; no real rain at any time. We had a windy Wed afternoon and overnight, but nothing to speak of. I overlook a large golf course with lots of deciduous and palm trees. There’s no sign of downed trees or even much in the way of torn limbs. The groundskeepers have been collecting some broken small branches, but not many.
Right now at 10am Thu I’ve got all my windows open and it’s a nice sunny day here with the usual tropical breeze.
Seems the tornadoes made a dent in the northern suburbs of PBC. Ouch for them.
Of course the story around Sarasota will be ghastly.
Hmmm.
The Florida Interstates and highways are ok?
That’s been the problem after Helene.
Getting in or out is bad in some places.
It’s not been daylight for very long. It will take some time to assess all of the damage.
We used sandbags on a couple of occasions in SE Texas to divert (minor) floodwaters away from our back door. They’re useful for lesser degrees of flooding even though some water will eventually leak through, not great for protection in case of a major storm surge.
Protection of levees and such is another matter.
My friend checked in. They lost power, but he hadn’t found any damage.
It’s that bad?
My thoughts exactly. It’s Florida, not Minnesota. Let them play open-air games then do the repairs when they can. If they fix it now, let the Rays play at a college field. It’s not like they draw 30K+ fans to home games.
Agreed! I think it’s a good idea, and I think that’s exactly what they will do. I’m wondering how many bugs will swarm around all those lights. LOL
Florida’s highways aren’t built in gullies or cliffside.
I’m sure that right near the flooding there’s debris on the highways that will need to be cleared. Once the water finishes receding (which is probably almost done now at noon-ish on Thu) and the debris is pushed aside the highways will be fine.
The major thoroughfares in the surge-ravaged areas will be another matter. Just so much wreckage to move / remove. Gonna be a big job. Then they can start in on the ordinary residential streets.
This. As bad as things look on TV right now the truth is it will take a day or three to really get an idea of how bad things actually are.
Everyone, and that includes the authorities, have likely been sheltering most of the night. People are just now starting to get back out into communities and with various types of damage, debris, and flooding in different areas travel could be difficult for a little while.
+1
Based on memories of past storms, the TV crews can only really get to the easily accessible places now. They naturally can’t get to the places that are really badly hit and/or underwater, especially those well off major roads. And even when they do, it’ll still naturally be the ones that are relatively close to safety.
It’s going to be a few days before they really get a rough idea of the full extent and perhaps weeks before we get an truly accurate accounting.
The tropical storm situation has obviously gotten worse over time and, with climate change, is certain to be worse. At what point does property become uninsurable and thus unlivable in a practical sense? How many hurricanes in what time span. We’ve had Helene and Milton in a span of 2 or 3 weeks.
They were going to use a facility with a fabric roof? Anyone with an ounce of common sense would know that a fabric roof would be much more vulnerable to a hurricane.
You don’t suppose a “fabric” roof in Tampa would be designed with a hurricane in mind?
To be sure, there have been failures of fabric roofs due to wind or snow or whatever. But in each case the design took into account the conditions expected.
There will be a pretty thorough investigation of this and it’ll be interesting to learn what they eventually come up with a couple years from now. Did they design for 150mph winds and got 175? Did nobody notice how the seams would be uniquely vulnerable if a, b, and c all happened at once? We don’t know. But we will.
As the cited article notes, it was designed for up to 115 mph winds, which would cover very low Cat 3 at landfall. Milton came in as a high Cat 3. Fortunately, they realized the risk and the field was empty when it was hit.
That was probably a reasonable decision when it was designed and built but these days with increasing storm intensity, they’ll probably have to plan for stronger storms.
The best thing to do with Tropicana is to demolish it and build a decent stadium in Tampa. The thing is maybe the second worst stadium after the Oakland Colosseum.
