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Irma is a fickle storm. According to the latest report, Irma still threatens the entire peninsula of FL. It will strengthen again once it leaves Cuba. It varies in size a bit but the diameter of this storm is 450-500 miles across. FL peninsula is less than 200 miles across. Thankfully residents are listening to the evacuation orders.

It's path has jogged a bit farther west, again fickle. It's size has created some data variables that makes it more difficult to predict, even for the reliable European model of weather forecasting (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts).

Schools as far north as Atlanta, GA are cancelled for the early part of next week.

Be safe and we're continuing to pray.

I'll have a report soon hopefully from my uncle who stayed in the Keys to ride it out, and my grandmother in Miami. So far looks like it was over hyped. (not really a bad thing, it could have been really bad)

Soloist wrote:So far looks like it was over hyped. (not really a bad thing, it could have been really bad)

Some other folks seem to have the same feeling. Let's hope we can all look back on this storm as "over-hyped Irma"
A category 3 in the Caribbean's under-developed islands could be devastating, and a category 5 in the U.S. could be far less damaging simply due to the infrastructure in place.
As someone else mentioned here, truly devastating hurricanes are often due to where they hit.
There was certainly damage, but this isn't Florida's first rodeo.

KingdomBuilder wrote:

Soloist wrote:So far looks like it was over hyped. (not really a bad thing, it could have been really bad)

Some other folks seem to have the same feeling. Let's hope we can all look back on this storm as "over-hyped Irma"
A category 3 in the Caribbean's under-developed islands could be devastating, and a category 5 in the U.S. could be far less damaging simply due to the infrastructure in place.
As someone else mentioned here, truly devastating hurricanes are often due to where they hit.
There was certainly damage, but this isn't Florida's first rodeo.

Sadly those that look at this as 'crying wolf' or 'fake news' will not play it safe in a future threat and may lose their lives. What it proves again is that man in his best high tech equipment and study still cannot pinpoint exactly the path of a storm like this. It is interesting to watch this throughout the day and hear all the predictions on how this storm will do this or that and create these storm surges of x feet high, etc, etc, and then there are still unknowns that give a different result. There is still so much we don't know. But knowing what might happen as it has happened elsewhere should still be enough to head for safety.

Right.
Always better to be safe than sorry. Perhaps this one could be owed not to faulty forecasting, but to fervent prayer and a listening ear of God.

The unexpected turn inland that Irma made really spared a lot of the Tampa area in regards to storm surge and such.

KingdomBuilder wrote:

Soloist wrote:So far looks like it was over hyped. (not really a bad thing, it could have been really bad)

Some other folks seem to have the same feeling. Let's hope we can all look back on this storm as "over-hyped Irma"
A category 3 in the Caribbean's under-developed islands could be devastating, and a category 5 in the U.S. could be far less damaging simply due to the infrastructure in place.
As someone else mentioned here, truly devastating hurricanes are often due to where they hit.
There was certainly damage, but this isn't Florida's first rodeo.

May I suggest that we consider there was a lot of prayer being sent to the Father regarding this? Certainly it did wipe out alot of homes in the islands- yet there were people praying everywhere, and is it at all possible, that God heard our prayers?

Sudsy wrote:Sadly those that look at this as 'crying wolf' or 'fake news' will not play it safe in a future threat and may lose their lives. What it proves again is that man in his best high tech equipment and study still cannot pinpoint exactly the path of a storm like this. It is interesting to watch this throughout the day and hear all the predictions on how this storm will do this or that and create these storm surges of x feet high, etc, etc, and then there are still unknowns that give a different result. There is still so much we don't know. But knowing what might happen as it has happened elsewhere should still be enough to head for safety.

Human knowledge is always limited. Prudence is good. This was definitely not a storm where playing it safe was stupid, but we just can't pinpoint extreme weather systems.

KingdomBuilder wrote:Always better to be safe than sorry. Perhaps this one could be owed not to faulty forecasting, but to fervent prayer and a listening ear of God.

And a lot of people really were impacted. So let's be thankful to God for those who were spared, but not forget those who were impacted.

The entire state of Georgia has declared a state of emergency. The storm is large enough to span the state of FL and their east coast is seeing new records in flood levels.

Thankfully people have heeded evacuation orders. There might have been a few stubborn individuals but there seems to be fewer of those types this time around.

Bootstrap wrote:And a lot of people really were impacted. So let's be thankful to God for those who were spared, but not forget those who were impacted.

Sure. I didn't mean to say that Florida was totally spared; my point was that for many places the forecasted mayhem simply has not panned out.

My family knows some who didn't evacuate and I'm on social media with a few that did not evacuate. I'll say, I think they made the right call. Everyone has considerations to weigh and each is responsible for his or her own actions.