Photographing Hurricane Irma

Sad to say, I won't be photographing while this hurricane is battering my house on the east coast of south Florida. My house has fairly new impact windows and sliding glass doors rated to 160 mph winds, but my roof may not hold up. So we are leaving soon for the safety of a motel in the Orlando area. Maybe someone else in the storm's path may get some shots of trees bent over, flying debris, etc. I sincerely hope that anyone else who may be impacted by Irma stays safe.

Michael, good luck and my heart goes to you and your family. Stay safe. I hope this is over soon and you get back to your normal life in a reasonable period of time.

I've been hoping you'd be out of the path, Michael--I was worried. I'm glad you're moving to safety, but I'm sorry you need to. My best wishes to all of you in Irma's path and to all recovering from Harvey.

Michael, good luck and my heart goes to you and your family. Stay safe. I hope this is over soon and you get back to your normal life in a reasonable period of time.

 

Thanks so much, Supriyo. We've been through quite a few hurricanes, but not like this one. While in Orlando, we will be safe and sound.

I've been hoping you'd be out of the path, Michael--I was worried. I'm glad you're moving to safety, but I'm sorry you need to. My best wishes to all of you in Irma's path and to all recovering from Harvey.

 

I'm grateful for your supportive message, Leslie. Hopefully next Tuesday we'll be back home and not finding any serious issues with our house.

Best of luck, Michael. My aunt, who lives near where my parents used to live, in Boynton Beach, just left for her son's place in Tampa. Of course, they may all have to leave Tampa, but at least she'll be with family. I just read that seismologists are picking Irma up as they would an earthquake, something we here in California know something about. Just stay safe and I certainly hope it diminishes before reaching Florida.

Stay safe!

Hopefully next Tuesday we'll be back home and not finding any serious issues with our house.

Hey Michael, console yourself that there is some terrifying force of nature everywhere. Here Wildfire, other places tornadoes, floods, tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.! All we can do is take precautions, use our intelligence, and hope for the best., Lived places where a variety of those things happened, 70 odd years later, here I am. All my best wishes for you and yours! I'll soft pedal the Southernism that includes the G word, but you can take it for granted. S

Michael...Be safe!

Michael, stay safe. Here in Tampa/Clearwater, there are constant lines for gas and bottled water is flying off the shelves. If there is no storm surge and I can stand in the wind, will try to get to Clearwater beach as I did last year for some shots. Big waves here are 3-4 feet, that's what I got last year. Discretion is the better part of valor when dealing with mother nature so won't take any unnecessary risks. If no rain, will take a MF film camera for the shot as I did in this shot last year.

I am now headquartered in Orlando, having driven almost 10 1/2 hours that normally would have required 3. My wife and I have done everything we could think of to secure our house, short of sacrificing to the weather gods. We hope to be home Tuesday, next week, but that's uncertain.

 

Thanks everyone I haven't already thanked. Bob, I hope to see som shots of either the storm or the aftermath.

Heart and thoughts go out to everyone down there. Definitely stay safe!

Michael, I am sacrificing by fire to the storm gods 3 prime steaks I had in the freezer , I don't want them to defrost when the power is out and no way to cook them. I am concerned that bottle of tequila in the freezer could spoil so will try to consume some of that as well. For those in areas with most gas stations out of gas, Gasbuddy.com has a listing of gas stations that still have gas. Just found the only one within a 5 mile radius, every other is out of gas. I just heard they are closing off beach access tomorrow morning, ie, the causway to the 35 mile long barrier island along the coast. I guess that takes away any temptation to head over in the teeth of the storm or when they deem it not safe. Mandatory evacuation already there. They are at 5 or 6 foot elevation so a storm surge could flood the entire area. It's why I bought 10 minutes away at 41 feet elevation. Michael, stay safe. Fred, right now looks like if Tampa is hit, at most it should be down to a cat 2 after passing over 200 miles of land so your aunt should be fine. The real inconvenience could be power outages which spell no AC, no electric stoves and no power to refrigerators. I think in CA we head to the Sierras and call that camping.

Stay safe.

Puts a lot of things in perspective. Every place is a crap shoot it seems. Pacific gets many strong hurricanes and some areas are as low as the FL coast. We pay a very large premium for hurricane insurance and I am glad they offer it. Lot of homes are single wall. light frame. We are 800 feet in central valley. most of Oahu living is close to beach. We do not have any place to evacuate to naturally. Our only factor is that it is a big ocean and the archipelago is " a small target." Not so the Atlanctic seabord where I grew up. I keep getting these ads in AARP about coastal retirement in Naples and Boynton Beach and so on. Sorry for the elder and disabled mostly. And send my best to Rush Limbaugh he should keep his feet dry ..(snark).

Michael, sending thoughts and prayers your direction, for you and all those impacted by the storm(s).

Best of luck to all of you in the path. We have family in Ft Lauderdale and friends in harms way so the most we can do is make sacrifices to the weather gawdesses and hope the best for you all. Stay safe.

We've been watching the storm's progress in our Hampton Inn refuge. Although the meteorologists appear well versed, I'm convinced that hurricanes are steered by the vicissitudes of nature. Thanks to all of you wh've posted on this thread.

We returned home on Monday, 09/11/2017. Our house isn't damaged at all, but our trees and those of our neighbors were hit hard. Several trees (not ours, though) toppled into the street. Our internet service finally was restored just a few minutes ago. My wife and I are so fortunate compared to people in the Florida Keys and elsewhere. I have relearned a serious lesson about priorities.

 

When time allows, I'll add some photos taken in Orlando to my portfolio. (Some were shot in Disney Springs, before the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan.)

Do watch out when crews clear - in a very big storm a good many years ago in a different State, a neighbor's very large tree fell into the street. Despite my objections the city crew put it on my property, saying they would pick it up. They did not, and despite every possible action on my part short of a lawsuit, I became responsible for cutting up and removing the tree. Failing to do so would have resulted in threatened escalating fines. Glad your home was undamaged and services are returning!

Michael, so happy for your good fortune. Here's hoping the best for you and yours. David.

For those of you who might be interested in the shots I took while in exile in Orlando, they're posted in my portfolio. I could apologize for the unabashed solicitation, but I won't!

Michael, glad to hear everything ok. We dodged a bullet here in Clearwater at the last minute. Only a Cat 1 hit. The 8 foot diameter oak in my side yard and 60 foot tall oak in the front just dumped about 1.5 days worth of leaves and twig clean up but nothing significant. Power off 5 days but Alien bee vagabond II and Mini kept my cell phone charged. They are multi-taskers that would make Alton Brown smile. The storm was only moving about 10 mph north and I think it pushed birds from the everglades north. My resident wood stork had 5 buddies here yesterday and there were another 20 white birds of various species there too. I have never seen that amount of storks here. One brown ibs has been feasting on clams in the pond and I will post that Monday . Wood ducks back too. One piece of gear did tweak my neck when I yanked on the handle of a pelican case that empty is 40 lbs and with 5 Einseins and filled with lenses and bodies, it had to be pushing 100 lbs. I learned there are folding handles at both ends but wheels at only one end. Michael, hope your clean up went well. I enjoyed the photos. They opened the causeway to the beach and little damage there. Shot taken from my bar stool with frozen marg, first ice in days behind me, looking across the then empty dance floor, the band is at the left and sun is setting over the gulf. Back to normal and all is good.

Glad to hear your news, Bob. Our only issue was tons of small tree branches and leaves - all over the place. A neighbor down the block lost an entire oak, which toppled;ed partially into the street. Our community's landscape company came in and cleaned off the street. We're now waiting for Waste Mgmt or whoever to get rid of the pile of dead vegetation that is killing a part of our front lawn. By the way, friends several blocks from us kept an eye on the house, and advised that our power was down only for about 8 hours while we were in Orlando.

 

My wife and I may be at loggerheads of Maria comes our way. I won't leave the house again; hopefully she will agree.

 

PS Your photograph is a gentle reminder of the view from your barstool before Irma, and evidence that all is OK.

Definitely stay safe! Heart and thoughts go out to everyone down there.