Another suggestion my in-laws had (they live in Palm Beach County, FL) is that if you have bathtubs, fill them up. That will at least provide water for toilet flushing (assuming the sewers aren’t backed up) and cooking (assuming you have gas, or the power is on).
My in-laws just made the decision to bug out, this morning; 12 hours ago they were planning to stay put.
Heck, man, you’re nearly famous! 
I was just reading a book about Big Data and one of the points they mentioned was how WalMart will analyze purchases from before a hurricane, and stock up on whatever sold really well before. Apparently, Strawberry Pop Tarts are a huge seller. Me, I think I’d rather starve ;).
Back to the in-laws bugging out: They tried to make a hotel reservation via Marriott and had no luck. I said I’d find them something, just needed to know a stopping point. I actually found them one near Savannah - full rack rate for the room, I imagine, but it’s a good chain (not Marriott, obviously) and they actually had an accessible room. They’re looking at a long day - 7 hours, with the various accidents etc. en route. Neither of them is really up for a 7 hour drive but I’m thankful they have a safe spot to stop.
Thank you – the grid here is in bad shape due to lack of upkeep of the infrastructure and there’s a lot of distribution grid that is vulnerable to falling vegetation or flooding and if many sectors have interruptions it can trigger a safeguard shutdown of that whole circuit. Especially for us in the side closer to the phenomenon – San Juan is expected to feel at least hurricane Cat 1-2 effects anyway so the blackout is almost certain.
The power authority says there’s already a large number of interrupted sectors. I’m blacked out since noon and I’m not even having sustained TS conditions but the main grid loop goes around the East side of the island where they are.
I think it’s funny that the entire crux of the conversation was based on the fact you couldn’t see where I lived on the main screen, and lo and behold, a few days later, the site changes and now you can.
Finally released from work at noon. Home now and utterly exhausted. Stress fatigue. I just have to pack some clothing and load the car for an early morning departure. I sure would not mind if this storm made that anticipated turn out to sea later today or tonight. First though is a nap.
Radar shows the eye wall is virtually on St. John USVI 
Thanks, great idea. We already have an emergency water storage year round. We never needed it in 10 years living here, but this might be the first time. The city has instructed us to lower swimming pool levels (not my job) but we’ll be filling our outdoor hot tub with rain wate - for extra flushing water - and just pull the plug after the storm if I don’t need it.
I live in a completely privatized region. EVERYTHING is private, so everything gets fixed really fast. I don’t expext day-long interruptions on anything.
I feel for you. I am seriously crossing my fingers that it is not as bad as predicted. Buena suerte.
My in-laws are in Delray Beach. I just looked at the PBC website and supposedly they’re not supposed to evacuate. Their condo is about 7 miles due west of the coast, so I’d imagine any storm surge would have petered out by the time it gets there. Still, flooding could happen (there was a freak winter rainstorm a few years ago that flooded a different part of their community) and of course with power very likely to go out, I’m glad they’re getting out. They’re elderly and not in the best of health, and it could be dangerous to be w/o power for more than 24 hours.
Surprisingly, I-95 and the Turnpike still both look okay-ish. Hopefully they’ve gotten ahead of the worst of it. And I hope they’ll be able to get gas - their car has decent mileage but I doubt it’ll get them all the way to Savannah without being topped off.
I’m hoping / assuming gas won’t be an issue once they get to northern FL, and I’m also hoping traffic will be OK for them past Savannah.
Sounds like Nevis and St. Kitts made it through without too much major damage. See reports from locals here. St. Maarten, on the other hand, sounds completely decimated. The four government buildings, probably the strongest structures on the island, were destroyed. Anything not as strong must be gone.
Already seeing lines at the gas stations here in Gainesville, and my mother says a lot of stations have already run out in Palatka.
**You would be better off leaving right now! **Otherwise the traffic jams are going to get very bad. Go to Google Maps for Florida and select the traffic option on the menu (the three horizontal lines in the top left corner). There are already roads which have substantial congestion.
I left Titusville at 10:30 and headed west to Orlando then up the FL Turnpike & I-75. Presently in Valdosta GA at 3:30 pm.
Once northbound from Orlando the traffic was about 2x as dense northbound as southbound. We were flowing at 60-80mph when we weren’t slowed down by the many construction zones. Each zone slowed to 20-30 mph for 5 or 10 miles before picking back up to speed.
There are still areas that are only 2 lanes wide; the right lane is full of semi trucks. Where it’s 3 lanes, the right 2 lanes are full of semi-trucks.
Once we got NW of Gainesville at about 1:00pm things lightened up a bit. Passing the I-10/I-75 interchange it lightened up a bunch more.
Bottom line on traffic: It will not take more than a few percent more vehicles or a couple impressive accidents to create massive back-ups on I-75 and the turnpike. And all this is north of Orlando; I have no clue about south of Orlando, but I’m glad I’m where I am now.
My home in Broward is subject to voluntary evac now and mandatory evac tomorrow at noon. Being 12+ hours ahead of the pack is a good feeling.
We have seen no evidence of gasoline lines or shortages. We did see that every roadside rest area from East of Orlando to the GA border was nearly full of passenger cars and RVs. Plus a goodly number of semis. These are the rest areas that have no services; just picnic tables and bathrooms. In 40+ years of driving interstates I’ve never seen any rest area clogged like that. Much less *all *of them. I don’t know the significance of this, but there it is.
Good luck to us all.
When my in-laws left Delray Beach, traffic looked good though they reported it was fairly heavy (Google Maps showed little red). Just looked again now - 3+ hours later - and it’s largely red to some point north of their house. I’m hoping they’re well past that by now - unless they took an hour on, and an hour off, they certainly should be!! Here’s hoping they have the sense to fill the car every time it gets near half full.
They’re travelling I-95 - so again, I hope gas isn’t an issue :(.
I saw some of the pics/videos this morning. Just jaw-dropping. I had an aunt who lived there so spent time with her periodically on that island. Now it’s unrecognizable.
My best thoughts and wishes to all who will be affected.
For those of you trying to get out of Florida, get off the Interstates and consider secondary highways. I travel Georgia and Florida often and 301 and 441 are good options out of Central Florida. I like to take 301 all the way up through Baldwin (crosses under I-10) an continue on to Callahan and pick up 95 above Jacksonville. Who wants to go through Jacksonville if you don’t have to? There are plenty of gas stations, much less likely to be sold out or congested. Highway 17 might worth considering, too.
I am in Savannah, and yeah, people here are losing their minds hoarding water and gas.
More than likely we will take 27 up through the middle of the state. Takes longer but I think less traffic. The Keys were evacuated this morning of tourists and it was bumper to bumper Northbound (Eastbound) while I was heading South into work. I felt like the only one going in the wrong direction.
We are at the car packing stage now. I am cooking stuff to take with. And one good thing about a hurricane–it forces one to clean up the outside. My inside is full of A/C equipment but the outside looks nice.
I’d also like to point that a tornado lasts, typically, a few seconds to maybe a minute in one location… something like Harvey or Irma has F3-F5 winds for hours. Structures that might have withstood a minute or two of such abuse might well collapse until such continual bombardment with winds and wind-borne debris. By debris, I’m not talking about blades of grass and gravel bits, in such winds “debris” can be large vehicles, roofs, small buildings, pieces of large buildings…
Please, please, stay safe everyone.
You don’t say. Inside it looks like a forest after I brought all our potted plants inside.
No rain here yet.
We’re just past passing of the center due north of San Juan by 36 nautical miles. So we’re at best only past the halfway mark and by no means out of the woods. Looks like once the windy part moves on we’ll be geting the rainy part, and most of the time THAT is what gets you. Half the island is in flash flood warning.
In my inland SJ neighborhood so far – knock on wood – we have not had worse than Cat 1 conditions and not for long periods. Irma’s windfield is apparently “tight”. But we get reports from other locations that got hit hard; Culebra seems to have taken a good beating.
The turn to the right-hand track was a welcome stroke of good fortune for us – in a 100x35 mile island, citizens cannot put considerable distance between us and Irma. One of the inconveniences of Caribbean paradise life. But goodness gracious, the Leewards got crushed…