Showing posts with label Mike Bettes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Bettes. Show all posts

Friday, September 8, 2017

As Hurricane Irma heads towards South Florida, Some Thoughts from Somewhere Inside the Evacuation Zone in Hollywood, FL

Reporting from Somewhere Inside the Evacuation Zone in Hollywood, FL

I was busy all Thursday afternoon helping a friend prepare their home north of Fort Lauderdale for Hurricane Irma's approach to South Florida -the least I can do since that's where I will be heading sometime Friday evening for the duration- so was not able to see much of the coverage of Hurricane Irma on The Weather Channel that ran in the 
afternoon or evening.

But after Midnight I was able to catch up and snapped some screenshots of some things that were aired that I wanted to share, along with mentioning a couple of things that might prove helpful to some of you, especially people who are new to the area -or hurricanes.


Above, that big news on Thursday that shocked so many people and is causing more panic in Miami-Dade than most people -esp. in the news media- want to publicly acknowledge. 
People who thought they were in the clear are now in the evacuation zone because of a storm surge that could be ten feet.
Which is why 650,000 to 700,000 people are supposed to be leaving -or deal with the tragic and possibly fatal consequences of guessing wrong when they had plenty of time to do the right thing.


Mike Bettes of The Weather Channel on the beach in Hallandale Beach.
I nearly fell off the couch when I saw this.


​Publix is closing all South Florida stores at 9 pm today.
Surprisingly, the Presidente supermarket on US-1 north of Pembroke Road was FULL of precisely the sorts of groceries that were nowhere to be found in Publix and Winn-Dixie stores in some chic parts of Fort Lauderdale, as a friend and I discovered when foolishly thinking that peanut butter would be available. 
Nope!


Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy being interviewed at the Home Depot in Hollywood, a place that for days has been the go-to place for area residents to share crazy stories with TWC reporters about how crazy difficult it has been to buy things that most of us take for granted all the time.
Josh also mentioned in the interview above a figure of 5-8 feet for the possible storm surge.

I can only imagine what that would do to Hallandale Beach's already much-smaller beach width!
It's for that reason that I'm going to the HB Water Tower area for sunrise in a few hours to snap some photos of that area because sadly, I strongly suspect that after that storm surge comes in Sunday, that will be one of the last times the beach area south of Hallandale Beach Blvd. is even that large/wide for quite some time, given what's involved in expanding the beach now to counter natural erosion.


Just the other day while walking thru at Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino .... I got to thinking... I suspect we will finally see if this version of Pegasus that's the second largest statue in the U.S. can really fly...



...because 140 mph is definitely take off speed.

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For Hollywood folks, keep in mind...
#HollywoodFL re #HurricaneIrma: @cohgov Parking Garages Downtown will be open 4 residents to park free on first-come, first-served basis. 🚗

Coming back from FTL Thursday night around 7:30, I was near the garage on 18th Avenue north of Whiskey Tango Bar & Grill, and saw quite a lot of activity, so don't wait until the last moment. 

I also can't stress enough how important it is that you do everything you can to place photos and important documents in waterproof containers, like large gallon-size ziplocs, whether you are leaving or staying.
And, filling your bathtub with water so that you can use that water for your toilet to create the necessary pressure in your plumbing.

Monday afternoon may well reveal a very different world than what we have all previously known in the area, so be prepared, not sorry and full of regrets that you didn't listen to your own intuition.


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