Satellite pix look positively apocalyptic. The warnings to those mad enough
– or with no option other than – to stay, make it sound a million times worse..
While experienced more than my fair share of typhoons during my 25+ years in HK,
can only remember one direct hit. Bad enough but nothing like what is going to happen
to Florida in the next few hours.
Given the violent way the world’s weather has fluctuated theses last few years, seems
like climate change has gone past the point where it might be reversed.
Glad I won’t be here in 20-odd years time
https://www.space.com/hurricane-milton-category-5-satellite-imagery
I have a friend in Bradenton which is pretty much where it is going to hit when it reaches landfall
We are visiting him in February so hoping that he is safe and that his property is still standing
It’s not going to be fun, was reading something saying that rain is the likely cause of most damage. The last one was extremely slow moving, particularly in South Carolina so the rainfall was very high. This one will have higher winds, but it will probably move away more quickly meaning less rainfall and hopefully less destruction and fewer lives lost. We shall see.
How it looks right now on Nullschool , and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it.
I’ll say what everyone else is thinking: just a shame it doesn’t hit Mar-a-Largo.
To be fair, that’s exactly what I was thinking…
I wasn’t.
But I am now.
Is that anywhere near Orange County?
This is apparently the stadium that was housing many emergency rescue team members
https://news.sky.com/video/hurricane-milton-rips-away-stadium-roof-in-florida-13231169
So pretty bad, but not as bad as feared. There are some obvious reasons to live in Florida (and many Canadians spend 6 months of the year there), but is it worth it to put up with this extreme weather which evidently is more likely to get worse than better?
Lots of SE USA is low-lying. Noo Awlins is up to 12 feet below sea level. hence “If it keeps on raining, the levee’s gonna break”. We saw what this meant in NO a decade or so ago. Much of the Atlantic coast will be changed by global warming.
Maybe they will believe in climate change then. (Though boneheads will say it is something to do with liberal ***s with lasers, rather than being too profligate with energy).
I read somewhere* that it was caused by same-sex marriages?
(*) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-25793358
Of course it is.
Same as Donald Trump was sent by God.
Bring on the frogs, pestilence and a plague or two.
Don’t hear much about locusts these days so maybe
Someone could “reach out” to them, too
We have our very own Locust, of course…so we’re ahead of the game!
I’d forgotten about him/her.
Very remiss of me
There are no good reasons to live in Florida. It’s a shithole by every standard imaginable.
I had friends who got together – he a limey, she a yank. They had a desire to visit every state, but said that Florida was the one that they’d give a miss.
A fun game. Google the day and month of your birthday followed by the words ‘Florida man’ to see what headlines turn up.
In the first few results mine came up with:
‘Florida man arrested for masturbating with a pickle on private property’
‘Florida man arrested after kicking puppy in face, tells cops he was upset dog ate his food at beach: Police’
‘Florida man arrested for throwing smoke bomb at Mar-a-Lago in protest at lack of stimulus check’
My other half’s gave me
‘Another Drugged Out Florida Man Gets Naked and Bites Off a Chunk of Human Flesh’
‘Florida man robs Wendy’s after grilling burger’
and
‘Florida man arrested after allegedly trying to withdraw 1 cent from bank’
A Florida man was arrested Sunday for reportedly dropping off a child on the side of the road because he thought he was gay.
The first result for today’s date may be my favourite yet:
‘Florida man accused of forcing small alligator to drink beer’
How’s about.
Florida Man threatens family with Coldplay lyrics ends standoff after swat offers him pizza.
I win! I win!
Florida man suspected of smelling woman’s feet at library leads police on scooter chase.
Florida man sentenced to 30 months for illegally transporting an alien.
Florida man arrested for pleasuring himself with ice pack in front of first responders.
Naked Florida man chases couple around Chick-fil-A parking lot, deputies say
It must be the weather. Australia’s equivalent Darwin (way north in the tropics) is exactly the same. You read the local paper there and you will see story after story of things that would never/could never happen in any other part of the country. I suspect the weather combined with the “Foreign Legion” aspect of the local population make for a very strange ambiance. By “Foreign Legion” I mean that people live there but nobody is from there and you suspect they are all on the run from something.
Paging @sitheref2409
You called?
Yeah, Darwin’s a bit…odd. Full of government and civil service types. Throw in the people necessary to keep the government running, and then the local anangu folks, and it’s an interesting mix.
There is tourist dumbfuckery – “why shouldn’t I go in water ho – SNAP”
Thank God Alice is the epitome of what a small town should be.
It has areas of incredible beauty, miles and miles of beaches, a tropical climate and very dangerous critters all over the place. Oh and Disney too and some amazing golf courses. Some of these are attractive to people who normally spend half the year living in sub zero temperatures or want to retire to a warmer place. Not for me, but many do want to live there or vacation there
The winters in Toronto are apparently even worse
Worse than where? Certainly not Ottawa. Toronto has fairly reasonable winters for this general area. Doesn’t get as cold as here and generally there is much less snowfall than places an hour east, south, west or north of it (Great Lakes effects)
Also has a large “underground city”, as does Montreal meaning you can get to a lot of places without braving the cold. Unfortunately Ottawa didn’t bother with that.
I hear that the underground city in Toronto is where By Tor fought the Snow Dog.
I wouldn’t want to live there (see the “Florida man” posts above for just a few reasons), but Florida does have some good points.
Disney, Universal Studios, etc., are all very well done in that slick-shallow-expensive American way, and I really liked Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
But one thing that shocked me during my visit back in the day is the appalling poverty just a few miles from the high gloss of the tourist attractions. Walking (I was too young to drive and too poor/cheap for a taxi) back to my youth hostel, I left Disney, took a turn somewhere and found myself in a neighbourhood that looked like it was still in the 19th century: timber houses that would probably blow down in a slight breeze, no signs of greenery or anything attractive, and residents (very obviously struggling on the bottom rungs of life’s ladder) sat on their stoops/steps and watching me – somebody clearly (a) lost and (b) a tourist – with great curiosity. A few minutes later and I’m back among the tourist coaches and nice hotels.
It was a weird little trip back in time, and in all my youthful naivete I was amazed that America still had so much poverty, and so many people presumably falling through the social-security net.
Looking at the footage of trailer parks wiped out by Milton, sadly it looks like not much has changed in some parts of the state.
Well that’s the case for pretty much all American cities, large or small. No safety net, if you are out of work you are fucked. Little unemployment benefit, no chance to pay for health care and drugs and guns everywhere.
Sadly not just the US. I once went in the public toilet in the park opposite the Cambridge job centre. It was a lovely sunny day outside, and the makings of a gritty urban drama inside.
No paradise lost, then?