Somebody knows somth'in bout birth'n hurricanes

[Kitsune]

A couple people have mentioned something about a hurricane in passing, but otherwise... not much.

Well, kind of.

Its too early to tell where Wilma wants to go and so everything here is currently business as usual. There are no boards up, yet, and I even have work scheduled on Sunday. I'm sure it might be somewhat different to the south of me, but even they have to continue on with their lives. If everything stopped everytime a hurricane set her gaze on the penninsula, we'd have absolutely no progress at all every June through November. I've simply made sure I have enough gasoline to get out of town, but I've not even packed up anything, yet. With a projected landfall not until Sunday and now the change to BAMM and GFDL that projects Wilma might not even hit FL, leaving now is far too early and preparing in any major way is questionable these days, anyways. As my friends in New Orleans said after their experience (they did end up losing their apartment and a lot of their belongings due to a partial roof failure), "Grab cash and get out. Your friends, your family, and your insurance company will take care of much more than water purification tablets and canned food ever would." Riding these things out just isn't as fun as people make it out to be, especially when hurricanes like Charley with a projected landfall of a category one come to shore suddenly with a different path and 145+mph winds.

Come Friday, midday, I'll make my decision if she continues towards the west coast. Friday night or Saturday morning, I'll be out of here if she proves a threat. I-75, SR301, and US441 will be parkinglots. Nothing new, there.

It is important to note that unless she gets much larger, this will be a very small storm. In fact, if Wilma were to hit thirty miles from me and come inland right now, we'd get a slightly breezy day with some normal summer-like rainfall. When Charley hit Punta Gorda, my area of Tampa (the original target and in a total state of panic at the time!) saw a light mist of rain and barely a breeze. Wilma's eye is only 4mi in diameter and the hurricane force winds only extend out ~15mi. This is going to change, of course, but so is the intensity and windspeed as she moves into cooler waters North of the Keys.

...if she does so. This is very much a wait and see game in FL and, as usual, it is a nerve-racking experience. I tend to get sick to my stomach watching the news, checking the tracks, and waiting. In the previous two years, I've tried to learn to not think about it until about 48 hours before landfall. With the way the media is treating these storms, that proves really tough, anymore. But until they get close, there is not much to do and there is absolutely nothing that can be done through worrying. In an odd twist, if I had no outside media notification at all, I would have found the windy storms we got in 2004 to be curious and annoying because of the power outtages, but not much else. Aside from cause me to turn up a bottle of rum and run outside to beg the sky for mercy, the concern shown more than two days out did no good at all.