Hurricane Milton

[KenAdams]

Couldn't see a thread for this in Weather.

This looks like it's going to be really bad. Helene has already caused enough devastion in the area and the poor people of Tampa are in for a lot more today.

Some people are refusing to evacuate from what I understand but the Mayor of Tampa has warned if you don't evacuate you die.

I can't imagine how scary it must be for them.

I hope the man who’s planning on staying on his little boat (it’s all he has in the world) has been persuaded to leave. He will never survive otherwise.

@MrsMitford3 Is he in an evacuation zone? If so there is free transport and the shelters are all open. There's no reason for him to stay in an evacuation zone.

The info including how to get free transport is here for Tampa:

hcfl.gov/residents/public-safety/emergency-management/find-evacuation-information

Travelling to a state that has historically been hit by hurricanes, during hurricane season, is a choice those tourists make.

An awful lot of people currently being evacuated, rely on tourists booking holidays at this time of year for their livelihood.

And yet they seem to think they are experts, giving advice to the US about how to handle this.

I live in a tourist town. I know how hard it is.

But that doesn't mean that the tourists who have travelled there despite seeing how ferocious the hurricane season has been this year aren't stupid.

Have just used the map-thank you so much.

He is not in an evacuation zone-think he is inland enough to just miss but a small comfort tbh.

*he is in LandOLakes

@MrsMitford3 If this is his first hurricane urge him to bring absolutely everything inside. Things like pot plants and bbqs turn into missiles. Fill the bath with water. Find the most interior room of the house and leave power bricks, food and water in there. He will likely be just fine if he's inland and not in an evacuation zone.

Not his first hurricane so hopefully sensible…
thank you for all of your links and info- very helpful!!!

Harold Robbins used the term as the title for his book based (loosely) on the exploits of Howard Hughes in the film industry, which is where I first encountered it. It’s entered general usage as a term to describe exploitative practices by newcomers.

It’s the people living in trailer parks I feel for the most. (‘Trailer trash’ as some Americans like to call them.). Those things are like matchwood in a hurricane. 🙁

Hurricane season is officially 1 June to 30 Nov, with a peak between mid August and late November. If tourists avoided Florida during that period it would destroy the tourist economy. However, as with any travel, they should be alert to local conditions and follow local and home office advice. I would also say there is some responsibility on the likes of Disney to protect tourists by closing for longer periods and by providing evacuation and/or adequate shelter to visitors there.

Mm, the two are not synonymous, especially in Florida. Mobile home parks are popular with retirees especially "snowbirds" (the ones who only come part time in the winter). They're all over Florida and Arizona. The glimmer of good news is that the part timers haven't headed south yet. They wait till November to avoid this.

Do you all berate people going to Greece in the summer too?

I don’t berate people, no, but going to southern Europe between June and September is not something I would personally do, in part because of the risk of forest fires which seem to have become a lot more frequent than they used to be. Getting caught up in something like that is a risk you choose to take if you go to Greece or Southern Spain in the middle of summer. Same goes for travelling to Florida or the Caribbean in hurricane season 🤷🏼‍♀️

Of course it’s ok for people to feel disappointed when their travel plans are disrupted, but it’s rather tone deaf to post about that disappointment on a thread where people are fearful for their own safety or that of people they love.

And, of course, the travel, all that carbon, is part of what is causing wilder and more dangerous weather.

But there has only been one major hurricane in Florida this year - Helene, which only happened 2 weeks ago (and caused most of its devastation in the mountains of NC). I'm not going to blame tourists who may have booked this trip a year ago and who decide to travel.

And as someone who has been travelling to Florida for 40 years, I'm afraid you get these warnings all the time. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen these warnings and then at the last minute the hurricane loses power, or turns in a different direction. You do become kind of numb to the warnings. We've owned a home in the Orlando area for 30 years now, and only once have sustained hurricane damage (and it was relatively minor).

There's no answer to this because of course the authorities have to say 'we really mean it this time, this one looks huge' but it does start to lessen the impact when again and again the forecasts aren't quite right. I am not saying they aren't right this time, of course this looks awful, and I've been sending plenty of messages to my dad to take it seriously, but I can understand both tourists and residents thinking 'we'll take the risk'.

Yeah its a choice, the USA is huge and has plenty of space yet people keep building houses in literal disaster zones. Like Tornado Ally for example, they then seem surprised when the same thing that happens every year and has done since records began happens again this year.

What I want to know is how do houses in these places get insurance?

Surprisingly statistically not that many people die in hurricanes but its still such an unnecessary risk and they know their life is going to get regularly turned upside down, seems easier to just move somewhere less risk.

Katrina is always the go to comparison but was uniquely extreme in the fact that it wasn't so much the hurricane winds etc... that killed so many (most states only had a couple of deaths as per usual). Rather it was a one off flooding from a catastrophic flood defense failure that submerged heavily populated areas killing over 1,000 people. That just highlights how although not common the risk could shift/increase though at any unexpected time though without warning.

It's been around far longer than that. I remember it from Gone With the Wind, set during the American Civil War years.

Carpetbagger - Wikipedia

I remember watching the '999' episode year ago about the infamous Michael Fish hurricane. That featured a caravan park that was hit and how it ripped caravan from the ground and threw them through the air. The was also the student stuck under the collapsed chimney, the lady sucked out of her house window and a woman in labour trying to get to hospital through the hurricain.

I think bits of it are still online.

I saw that last night. It was genuinely affecting. Those poor people.
There are many things about the UK that are less than ideal but at least we live in a 'temperate isle' weather wise. Surprised it isn't getting more coverage here.
It will not affect us but we are all 'children' of this one & only inhabitable planet.

Agreed.

Similarly I keep getting videos flash up on my Facebook of "influencers" sharing all the shite they are buying to get ready for the hurricane. Not useful things and food etc but total random tat.

People seem oblivious to how over consumption is a huge part of what is fuelling climate change. And it's so easily avoided.

Our 1980's 'Great Storm' barely registered as a 'burp' in the scale of a true hurricane.

@housethatbuiltme re my 'temperate isle' remark - I do remember the 'Michael Fish' hurricane. I was in a Victorian terrace attic room in Canterbury. I woke up to bits of ceiling in my mouth & could see the sky right through the big hole in the roof. Got up, slung on my jeans, went down to the street & there were soldiers (the TA?) out with sandbags etc. It was surreal. And rare here.

@Beekeepingmum I do remember having to climb over 2 trees to get to work and a neighbours collapsed chimney stack but it’s nothing at all compared to a hurricane. I have been in one storm that was very scary. Thousands of people were outside as it was St Stephen’s Day in Hungary we were along The Danube in Budapest for a big firework display. DH had travelled for a conference to Budapest in 2006 and we went along, three people died and a few hundred were injured. We had to wade knee deep through water with stuff flying about. It was petrifying but again nowhere near the danger levels of this hurricane. We had 5 year old DS with us and DH had one of his PhD students with us, the absolute fear and the feeling of responsibility for DS and this student, it was overwhelming and to reiterate nowhere near on this level of hurricane, wind speeds were around 75mph I think this hurricane is looking at around 180mph.

Why do people keep saying it isn't getting coverage? It's first item on the BBC website and it was yesterday as well, and it was the first item after the 7am news bulletin on Radio 4. That's just the BBC alone.

How much more coverage do you want in the UK?