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.

The one creature I always tell people NOT to Google is Camel Spiders - DH told me all about them after he did a tour of Iraq with the RAF about 20 years ago.

He told me about a man who “screamed like a 5 year old girl” when he accidentally disturbed one on the airfield under a tarpaulin and it jumped up onto his thigh - fucking understandable!

Honest to goodness you won’t sleep for days after looking at those things!

Quotes from BBC website:

"A cement bench flew of the roof of a neighbouring hotel and crashed down next to me," says storm hunter and meteorologist Matthew Cappucci in Sarasota, Florida.

"Traffic lights were flying in the wind and pieces of people's roofs were flying past me," he tells our colleagues on 5 Live. "It is probably one of the most intense hurricanes I've ever seen."

He says that winds have been gusting to 99 miles per hour and that most of Sarasota is flooded in several feet of water, with some areas under several metres.

Cappucci has been staying at a hotel, but doesn't think he will be able to get home "because of all the trees that are down, there are wires down, signs down".

"I do think that cleaning up will take quite a while," he says.

Quote from the police chief in Bradenton, Florida, speaking about an hour ago:

Bevan and other officers are currently in a new building - opposite the police department - that was built to withstand category five hurricanes and are watching the storm surge come into the river.

"It's several feet in now and we're still reeling from Hurricane Helene that just hit us last week," she says.

Bevan says there were "significant winds" in the first few hours "but this second half - boy, it's it is punching us hard and we're getting 110 mile gust. We see roofs flying, trees flying around. It's pretty ugly out there."

Asked about plans to rescue those who decided not to evacuate, Bevan replies: "I don't think it's going to be rescue once the storm subsides...it's going to be recovery.

"What we'll probably be finding in the morning are bodies...it's bleak in some of these areas."

She says officers told residents to write their name and next of kin on their arms with a black marker "so that we can get hold of somebody to come claim you".

It may not have been as bad as people thought in some areas, but it has still been catastrophic in others.

How awful 💔 it must be such a desperately depressing scenario to be in too, to know you can't rescue people

@LuluBlakey1 He is in an evacuation zone, I just watched a report from Volusia county officials which is where he lives. It’s the county where Daytona beach is just saw that Daytona has about 2 more hours of the hurricane, he has promised to msg but quite a lot of power loss in the area apparently. The report about shelters in Volusia county was informative. Almost half took pets plus two dedicated ones for people with additional needs that were staffed by medical personnel that were both pet friendly.

There were really very few excuses to not evacuate.

I saw a woman who lives in tampa who refused to evacuate, ignored all the comments she got about the free evacuations and instead started a go fund me

More updates as the sun starts to come up:

In Plant City, east of Tampa, city manager Bill McDaniel says first responders had to rescue 35 people from high water in the early hours of Thursday.

He says some streets are completely "impassable". He calls for residents to "refrain from coming out" and warns of "potentially toxic" flood waters.

"You don’t know what’s in that water. Our sewer stations are overwhelmed, you have gas, you have oil, you have other contaminates mixed into this water," he says in a Facebook update.

"It’s not healthy to get out in it so please refrain from coming out and getting into this flood water."

BBC reporting that Tampa has seen 18 inches of rain fall from this storm - a 1 in 1,000 year rainfall event for that part of the world.

@itwasnevermine His brother was not released from his workplace till too late to safely evacuate as very bad gridlock, they were both messaging in a group msg chat and by then there was just no petrol in the area either. To be stuck outside in a vehicle is a lot tougher and more dangerous. So they decided to stay.

It reached the mathematical limit - it was one of the worst storms he’d seen. It’s very lucky it downgraded before it hit land, but you’re very silly indeed to downplay it.

The eye wall collapsing before it hit.was a godsend. That's all we have to thank for it not being worse. It all seems so on a knife edge. The slightest thing is the difference between some flooding and utter devastation.

Genuinely glad that everyone is safe (-2) and all the cats survived.

My brother, (lives in Florida coincidentally) did say that there was actually an overall reduction in fatalities compared to the same date in previous years, due to the mass evacuation, there wasn't much opportunity for gun crime last night.

Now.. once they've picked up the toppled crane and got the leaf blowers out.. likely their tourism is going to be more of a financial loss than anything else..

Such drama and hyperbole, everyone whipped into a frenzy.. weatherman crying..
I was amazed at all the mentions of my now cancelled Disney holiday.

Unfortunately not all of them were kind and I'd like to remind them that empathy works both ways, regardless of how trivial some may think my feelings were.. if they showed some empathy, they would have been able to understand a little of how I was feeling, while not feeling it diminished their own concerns or worries.

We've booked the Maldives so looks as though everything has worked out nicely, on the whole, for the vast majority concerned

And the third horrid, out of touch post.

It was not hyperbolic. People have already been reported as dead due to the tornadoes that came with Milton and it's likely more will be found dead now.

So incredibly out of touch and entitled. Seems to be the way of the world these days.

Empathy works both ways................. hard to have much empathy when all you have is a ruined holiday (now saved by a trip to the maldives) when people have lost everything and in some cases their lives.

This thread is about the hurricane in Florida @fundsandfrolics. I personally am not remotely interested in your holidays. Maybe start your own thread?

@fundsandfrolics total bellend

Not a race to the bottom you know

There should be enough empathy to cope with being sad that people die, lose their homes and sad that people lose their holidays

Although if you regularly fly my sympathies will be limited - don't complain about a problem you contribute to, even if someone contributes to it more

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cglkd1l82g7t

You only have to look on here to see that deaths have been reported, dozens of people have been rescued and the state is that badly damaged they've had to shut off access to some counties.

To think anyone cares about your trip to the Maldives is entitled

When the poster has made it all about them, constantly complained about their holiday being cancelled and dismissed the impact as being "lost tourism" I have 0 empathy.

As someone that lives in a mildly dangerous country - I'm well sorry about your holiday. Disney world is a thing of dreams for kids.

I've been very impressed by Florida's strategies to reduce loss of life, and sorry that men still have to stay behind to 'defend property'.

Maldives will be awesome. Enjoy it.

These people don't need to go and when they do, they will be taking valuable resources from those who live there. Also they'll be in the middle of a clean up if they arrive soon after. Selfish.

I agree with @midgetastic ... @fundsandfrolics

if you regularly fly my sympathies will be limited - don't complain about a problem you contribute to

Yes I'm so relieved it wasn't as bad as feared I know so many vulnerable people out there and they seem to have come through ok thank goodness

To think anyone cares about your trip to the Maldives is entitled

And again, it’s tone deaf, given that the Maldives is one of the places that is likely to be very heavily impacted by climate change. Still, as long as that poster gets to have their holidays, eh?