Hurricane Ian

[BoSoxGal]

I have a really bad feeling about this storm. Really bad. I hope I am proven over anxious rather than prescient.


Bummed out that Ian nixed the January 6 hearing tomorrow.

[BoSoxGal]

Who takes the job of guy who flies into a hurricane? I cannot fathom having the desire to do that!

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/hurr ... index.html


Very worried for neighbors and a friend who are all in Florida for this nightmare. They have perfectly good houses here in New England where the weather is fall perfection - I have no idea why they decided to go down there during hurricane season.

It’s been unusually quiet here today, I hope other posters’ people in Florida (do you have any?) are all okay.

[datsunaholic]

My sister and her family live outside of Venice. While slightly inland they are on a tidal creek, so I expect they got flooded. They also didn't evacuate. Power and cell service has been down for hours so no word for several hours (they called my Mom right after landfall before the cell service went out).

[Joe Guy]

I don't have any direct connection to anyone who lives in Florida but at times like this I wonder why anyone other than a crocodile or alligator would want to live there.

Other than that, I sympathize and wish the best for everyone in Florida and hope the storm ends soon so the rebuilding can begin.

[BoSoxGal]

My sister and her family live outside of Venice. While slightly inland they are on a tidal creek, so I expect they got flooded. They also didn't evacuate. Power and cell service has been down for hours so no word for several hours (they called my Mom right after landfall before the cell service went out).

That’s not far to where the eye made landfall. I’ll hold them in my heart that they are okay.

I wish everyone would be okay but I heard a guy who called CNN and he was worried for his neighbor, an 85 year old woman who stayed in her single story home in Ft. Meyers and while he was talking to AC he was filming her house from the second story of his - hers with water up to within a few feet of the roof. Is she in the attic tonight?

Nights like this I almost wish I could comfort myself with prayer. Tomorrow morning will bring terrible pictures.

[datsunaholic]

My sister texted my Mom around midnight Eastern time saying they were safe, as far as damage I don't know. Looks like most of the storm surge went south, by Ft Meyers, but that's not really that far away. Only 45 miles. That's really close in Hurricane distance.

[BoSoxGal]

I’m glad your sister is okay.

The pictures this morning are terrible. I am sick at heart to consider the death toll when all is said and done.

[BoSoxGal]

Just watching some footage on the evening news and wow, Ian sure made up for all the quiet in the hurricane season before Fiona and he showed up. I wonder if he’s gonna flood and flatten Charleston and then bounce back out and roar up here to southern New England? He’s a fucking evil storm, he might just!

[BoSoxGal]

A first responder being interviewed just reminded us that all these flooded places are new hunting ground for gators.



I didn’t need to be thinking about that. Those rescuers are brave and selfless, for sure!

[Sue U]

A first responder being interviewed just reminded us that all these flooded places are new hunting ground for gators.

Welcome to Gatorland, Orlando, FL:



(Honestly, it's one of my very most favorite places in all of Florida.)

[BoSoxGal]

I am fascinated by alligators and crocodiles and other creatures - sharks! - that are so unchanged over tens of millions of years.

But I’d prefer not to swim with any of them!


Also, I’ve heard that alligators can and do frequently climb fences! What kind of barriers have they got at that monster farm - electrified?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Unchanged?????

[Sue U]

Also, I’ve heard that alligators can and do frequently climb fences! What kind of barriers have they got at that monster farm - electrified?

AFAIK there are no electrified fences at Gatorland, i imagine because there are too many gator snacks small children around for high-voltage to be safe. Also not sure if alligators really care so much about electric fences, and in any event they seem well-fed and cared for so I guess there's little motivation to escape their enclosures. Despite its origins as a 1940s roadside attraction, Gatorland has become a real conservation and education center while retaining an old-time sideshow kind of vibe (now with a zip-line over an alligator-filled swamp). It's both trashy and high-minded, and has something for (almost) everyone.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I am fascinated by alligators and crocodiles and other creatures - sharks! - that are so unchanged over tens of millions of years.

But I’d prefer not to swim with any of them!

First time I ever saw a shark in open water while scuba diving was in the English Channel, 1971. Visibility was good that day - all of six feet - so that fucker was way too close to me. I was jet propelled back to the boat and I was probably doing my hovercraft impersonation.

Ten years after that I was a scuba instructor in the Red Sea. (Daytime job was ocean pollution monitoring and coral reef surveillance.). When you have 100+ feet of visibility - common there but unheard of in the Channel - you become a bit more blasé about sharks because you can see them and they ignore you because there is plenty of food around. I have many photos of sharks swimming away from me but towards me, very few.

[BoSoxGal]

I watched a program during shark week that asserted that despite the shark horror movies and such, in reality sharks very rarely bother scuba divers even when close among them - more evidence that when they attack humans it’s a case of mistaken identity on their part, hunting from below and thinking we look like a nice fat seal or fish.

Speaking of sharks, I saw video online of a small shark in someone’s flooded yard in Florida. Wonder how many got washed inland with storm surge? Scary stuff.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I'd be more worried about alligators where you don't expect them.