A girlfriend of mine lives in an island east of Jacksonville and she is debating whether to evacuate. I assume she is in an evacuation area, but I don’t know for sure. I haven’t been watching the TV/weather much the last 24 hours. I texted her this morning saying she can come to my house if she wants. I’m far from her, almost two hours, but thought I would just put it out there. I think flooding is a big risk for her. They are predicting storm surge and high tide will coincide in JAX area. She has water just 20 ft behind her house. I dint know if it’s linked to waterways or just a place where run off from the community collects.
I texted my uncle too. He is just west of the coastline near the Space Center, which is where they were originally saying was the most likely to be the place the storm would make landfall. They board horses, so I’m sure they are worried about the horses, maybe they will move them. There isn’t a secure barb for a windstorm like this. He and his girlfriend plan to stay in their house for the storm though.
Another friend is directly on the intracoastal in a high rise. She is staying. I’m not sure if that became an evacuation zone? She is on the west side of the bridge, so it’s possible if they did order an evacuation it was just up to the east side of the bridge. Either way, if the storm veers west into Ft. Laud it will be bad. On the higher floors the wind speeds are higher. A cat 4 is a cat 5 if you are high up.
I’m north or Orlando. I’m not very concerned except that there is a big tree in front of the house I rent, and it’s the type of tree that comes down during hurricanes. As long as the eye doesn’t come across here I think the wind will be in the direction to cause it to fall away-ish from the house. Not that I expect it to fall, but it is a passing thought.
The houses here don’t have hurricane shutters, and all over town they have dead palm fronds on the trees. I’ve talked about it since we moved here. If the eye comes through then the change in direction on the backside of the eye really isn’t good for the tree down worry. I haven’t done a ton to prepare since I’m inland. Gassed my car, bought some Cheetos, got some cash, made a bunch of ice, and will be filling my tub with water. I wish I had my battery operated radio. The radio is in storage along with my flashlights. We will likely have the worst in the wee hours of the night. It sucks to be in the pitch dark with everything banging around outside and the power out with no information. I’m optimistic we won’t get it very bad here though.