Idalia

[RJ]

Just gusty wind and rain here still this morning in Tavares.

Storm appears to be making landfall as a Major shortly in the Big Bend area. Having driven through a fair few times, it is a remote part of Florida with lots of swamps and low lying areas. It will be a disaster for folks there. My heart goes out to those who stayed behind, it's always a difficult decision to make.

This area is spread out; from the turn off at Otter Creek out to Cedar Key is around 20 miles or more. And Rt 98 itself is not very busy, usually. You have to get to Chiefland to get to a grocery store. Perry is the biggest town in the area, but is a typical small Florida community.

Looks like it is en route to Valdosta GA next. Hopefully the storm passes through FL/GA/SC as quickly as possible and heads out to sea.

Anybody hear from @Mas?

[Mas]

Mas is OK. Thanks, RJ.

[Tensaw]

Pretty good live/real time coverage. Ryan Hall Channel.

[JTQ]

This area is spread out; from the turn off at Otter Creek out to Cedar Key is around 20 miles or more. And Rt 98 itself is not very busy, usually. You have to get to Chiefland to get to a grocery store. Perry is the biggest town in the area, but is a typical small Florida community.

We make the trip from Pensacola to St. Pete and Naples fairly often to see our daughter and my father in law. We get off I-10 at Exit 225, and take Rt 19/98 south and have been through Perry and Chiefland many times. Those are small towns.

One return trip, we were making good time, and since Rt 98 eventually runs right through Pensacola, we thought we'd take take that route and see what it looked like. Once you start west of Perry, there is not much other than trees. We saw some lumber trucks moving, but not much else. It was eerily empty, and after about a hour of seeing nothing but trees, we decided getting back on I-10 would be a better plan. My wife is from northern Maine, and I lived up there for about 8 years, and even with that experience, that chunk of Florida seemed very sparsely populated.

[Caballoflaco]

For those that don't know, FL has a pretty good emergency management system. Once the winds die down, help starts rolling in: LE, FD/EMS, NG, power companies, etc.

One of many things that makes me appreciate living in the US is seeing staging areas and convoys full of Power Company Trucks from all over staging in Central Alabama for storm response in Florida.

[RJ]

‘S true.

'Waffle House Index' is used to determine severity of Hurricane Idalia

https://www.foxnews.com/weather/waff...rricane-idalia

[LittleLebowski]

The more hurricanes I live through, they less and less I like portable generators. I understand the convenience of having one, but they suck a whole lot of gas. When I was hoping to top off for my evacuation trips for Ivan and Dennis, I ended up in line behind several trucks who were filling up their portable gas cans (10+ cans in most trucks) for their portable generators. I picked up my kid from Florida State for Hurricane Hermine in 2016, and I was pretty concerned I wasn't going to be able to find gas on my return trip, as I-10 westbound was bumper to bumper as I was heading eastbound to Tallahassee to pick her up. I left home with a full tank, but that round trip is just outside the range of my full tank, and there was no gas in Tallahassee. I took HWY 90 back for most of the way, and was able to find gas, but it wasn't easy. Most stations were empty.

After the storms go through, gas is always in short supply, because the gas trucks often can't get there, and all those generators are sucking most of the available gas. We usually end up being near shut-ins for a couple of weeks after a hurricane goes through, since there isn't readily available gas to get around.

I don't know what to tell you but either switch to propane (also sucks fuel) or solar (expensive, but awesome). I prefer solar.

[Hambo]

One of many things that makes me appreciate living in the US is seeing staging areas and convoys full of Power Company Trucks from all over staging in Central Alabama for storm response in Florida.

It's great to see them roll into town.

‘S true.

'Waffle House Index' is used to determine severity of Hurricane Idalia

https://www.foxnews.com/weather/waff...rricane-idalia

I've never gone to Waffle House after a storm, but getting a restaurant meal from a limited menu is a pretty big deal when the power is out for three weeks.

[RJ]

Picture taken at Cedar Key in happier times.



If you see the Weather channel, that restaurant picture where the barstools are underwater as you look out through the open frames, we've eaten there. Cedar Key is (normally) a very cool place.

[RJ]

I've never gone to Waffle House after a storm, but getting a restaurant meal from a limited menu is a pretty big deal when the power is out for three weeks.

Can confirm.