Hang on Florida

[blacksheep-1]

Helen just went Cat 4, supposed to hit Big Bend.
I'm 50 miles north of Tampa, 40 miles in land

 

[Mad Hatter]

Keep dry!! Hope nothing "interesting" happens and its just a quite evening with candles etc.

 

[EF1]

You are going to get some wind and rain. Hopefully nothing too bad will hit you.

 

[Dave_W]

Sending good thoughts your way. Saw something on TV about potentially a 20-foot high storm surge on the coast.

 

[KazarS197]

Hope you didn't have too much damage and everyone is ok.

 

[GJarrett]

I'm in Bradenton five miles inland. The storm center moved by us in the gulf 100 miles west of us headed north. We got gale winds with occasional hurricane level gusts and a heckuva lotta rain, but overall nothing to worry about. Storm surge in Tampa Bay was a problem. North of us is having a much harder time.

 

[Mike_FL]

Thankfully we were fine in Central Florida, it barely even rained.
The hurricane made landfall further north of us just as I was going to bed. I felt for those guys.

 

[EF1]

Good to hear everyone is okay so far.

 

[blacksheep-1]

My old department has a mess, I guess several barrier island residents refused to evacuate and drowned in their homes over night.
10 to 16 foot surge on top of normal high tide. This is exacerbated on the gulf side because it's basically a shelf out into thse gulf. There are places 1 mile out where the depth is only 10 to 15 ft. So when a storm pushes water inland it goes miles inland, unlike the east side of Fla.

 

[JAJ]

This advisory from one of the relevant authorities kinda says it all:

"In Taylor County, the Sheriff's Department wrote on social media that residents who decided not to evacuate should write their names and dates of birth on their arms in permanent ink "so that you can be identified and family notified.""