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[Shutter]

Glad you made it, Shut!

Keep us posted, please. You had to build a dock because of flooding? Yikes -

I agree, a direct hit would have been catastrophic.

A "makeshift dock"...something to keep me above water getting in and out of the truck..the water is all the way up my driveway. 5 pairs of boot/shoes are wet..need to keep last pair dry.

For the distance away from us it packed a punch. the damage could have been much worse. Fort Lauderdale strip/beach is covered with sand, don't expect to be complete for a week! sand running past A1A into parking lots. maybe some Cooper bills washed in? 

[georger]

Glad you made it, Shut!

Keep us posted, please. You had to build a dock because of flooding? Yikes -

I agree, a direct hit would have been catastrophic.

A "makeshift dock"...something to keep me above water getting in and out of the truck..the water is all the way up my driveway. 5 pairs of boot/shoes are wet..need to keep last pair dry.

For the distance away from us it packed a punch. the damage could have been much worse. Fort Lauderdale strip/beach is covered with sand, don't expect to be complete for a week! sand running past A1A into parking lots. maybe some Cooper bills washed in? 

... all fragments at 10 feet! 

this one has 425+ mph winds and is about 300 years old so far ... 

[Bruce A. Smith]

Don't give Tom Colbert any ideas. He might start digging. The last thing Florida needs this week is the Cooper Vortex to touch down.

But let's place some bets. Wonder if we're gonna get a new Duane Weber story about money on the Fort Lauderdale beach....hmmmmm...

[Shutter]

Duane's brother was a friend of Irma's...had something to do with titanium and ocean dredging...

[Bruce A. Smith]

See - I KNEW there was a connection!

So can you verify that the new shard field was exposed by the storm surge? Do the serial numbers match? Anybody checking on that, yet?

[Shutter]

the factor in this storm was the gusts..Wilma packed constant 90+ winds and was a direct hit. Irma was 100 miles west but much larger than Wilma and had hurricane gust winds beyond the 70 mile hurricane force winds, or constant 110 mph. the wind would be blowing about 60 mph and then a 3-5 second gust of 100+ would come charging in..engineering goes by a 3 second gust..those are the critical killers. you will see the trees bent over and then the gust comes along taking them out. you should of seen that in the videos I made. the gusts can be seen.

as usual, I seen different types of damage that tells of higher and lower winds within just a mile as I went down the main streets..houses can be seen and very little damage, awning still in place, canopies etc..a half mile down they are gone. you can see the severity in the bands on the radar..yellow, orange, and dark orange. I watched the radar as long as I could until everything went down. then I was blind. hard to describe until you have went through one. this makes, I don't know, 7-8th one I've been through.

lots to do tomorrow...cleaning detail, then take the shutters down..probably back to work on Wednesday...cellphone service is still not 100% keeps going down..traffic lights still out with stop signs put in place.

UPDATE...shopping plaza by me is totally dark..major food chain, Publix, not open, parking lot lights out, gas stations still closed, some are opening. street lights out..cop cars in major intersections with lights on, stop sign rule..weird seeing total darkness where things are typically well lit..chain saws heard everywhere, and generators running..

winds 122 mph; North Perry Airport (Broward County) not far from me. it's a small private airport...

[Shutter]

See - I KNEW there was a connection!

So can you verify that the new shard field was exposed by the storm surge? Do the serial numbers match? Anybody checking on that, yet?

Jo is out there right now..she looks like a tourist, small bucket and plastic shovel, camera around her neck 

[Bruce A. Smith]

Best chuckle of the day!

[Shutter]

Best chuckle of the day!

forgot to add she's not feeling well, and tears are coming down her checks swearing Duane was Cooper...a small crowd as gathered 

[Shutter]

nasty emails coming for sure...

[Bruce A. Smith]

YOU started it.

[Shutter]

Trying to compare Wilma vs Irma is tough..they claim Wilma had 80-100 mph winds that many have debated over the years. lots of damage occurred that shouldn't have. Irma had similar winds but it appears to have far less structural damage. I was on the road when the eye came through with Wilma, and they exceeded 100 mph. Miami reported 123 mph gust with Wilma, while Perry airport (Pembroke Pines) reported a 122 mph wind gust with Irma.

Sun Sentinal 2005
Wilma still slung three-digit wind gusts and 1 to 3 inches of rain to the Atlantic Coast. Gusts of 105 mph were clocked in Greenacres, in central Palm Beach County. A 123 mph gust was reported on Key Biscayne, off Miami

I didn't watch Wilma as close as I did this storm. I don't remember how long the intense winds lasted and have memory loss of many parts of the storm since it was so long ago. I'm not as sharp as the Cooper witnesses talking about a suspect 40 years later like it was yesterday. I think it boils down to sustained winds. Irma didn't have them. it would go down to 30-40, and sometimes less. Wilma was constant, with heavy gusts so I guess I kind of answered the question? Wilma killed 61 people in the United States....to date 11 deaths have been reported with Irma in Florida...one in Miami died from carbon monoxide poisoning from improper use of a generator....

[Shutter]

YOU started it.

I'll own it, no worries 

[Bruce A. Smith]

16,000,000 reported without power from Irma, MSN is saying this morning.

Imagine being the last guy to get power back - whew.

But Florida Power and Light says you and the east coast of Florida should be restored by Sunday, Shut. Not too shabby, I say with 16M folks without a/c, hot showers, etc...

What I can't figure out is why Hulu is still down and dysfunctional. It never loaded for me last night, and these troubles started two weeks ago when Hulu said it was due to increased usage during Harvey. But now 16M less people are watching TV! Sigh... the troubles of modern life - know what I saying'...

[Shutter]

2.2 million in south Florida lost power..still lots of places closed, gas station with no gas..Exxon, Cumberland Farms, 7/11 still closed. had to go to three different Walmarts to find a truck battery...shelves were empty..still had to wait in line for gas. a woman complained to me while in line about a guy who didn't wait in line. i seen him, but didn't see what he finally did, so when she went to confront him, I came up behind her. he started whining that he has problems, that's when I snapped, I told him I didn't give shit about your problems. I yelled out to the others getting gas saying do you think it's ok to jump ahead of everyone else because you have problems? I told him, you gotta about 2 hours, I'll tell you my F****ing problems. a couple yelled out that he was an asshole, jerkoff, and a few other words making sure he was not welcome about what he did. he wasn't worth any type of confrontation so I left it at that. people get killed over crap like this, but I'm not one to let things slide like that.

the rule there was one line was going in, so when a spot was empty, you pulled up. he acted like he was going in side, when a spot opened, he drove up to and went inside...it's cash only at this point. I didn't see him do that and was already pumping gas when she told me about him. I don't care who you are, you pull crap like that, I'm going to speak up...I guess that's my story of hurricane aftermath rage...I wasn't ready to fly off the handle, I just don't tolerate crap like that, period...