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@Aldreda will be our host.

None of you guys are in Florida, right? But it still feels worthwhile to talk about what Florida meant to us, as we prepare to say goodbye.

Sure glad I ordered and got my minatures from the place in Florida before whatever is going to happen to it. (Guessing another hurricane)

@MiltonManThing is ANGRY. And he's bringing not one but five cats, their draperies are doomed.

Also, I really want Digit or Chef to post in here. They may be the closest thing we have to (former) residents of this non-reading state. If being forced to live there by the government counts.

RIP Florida Man. Your shenanigans will be missed.

Waffle House is closed end times are upon us

Shit. It's bad.

Anyway, may as well keep Milton updates here instead of needing to scroll through a whole thread for those. Unless it somehow still manages to peter out to nothing anyway. We've been teased with the total destruction of Tampa before.

I know people in Jacksonville. They're already reporting most gas stations are out of gas.

For those unawares, Jacksonville is on the other side of the state from Tampa.

But the penis is kind of skinny in that area, and the storm is big.

With this we can sort of figure out what the new map of Florida will look like by the weekend.

Okay but serious question for Aldreda; how did a hurricane form in the Gulf and then move outward? That literally never has happened that I can recall, and my memory is flawless.

Not that I'm complaining! This really does suck for Florida, but generally speaking I prefer it when hurricanes move in an away from me direction.

So basically Milton popped off a big gyre (Cluster of thunderstorms that rotate around a large upper level low common for Central America). Now typically high pressure systems over Bermuda and the southeast force storms to move west however its fall and those high pressure systems have been broken down by troughs swooping in from the north bringing winters first chill. Milton just happened to form between a ridge (High pressure) over the west coast which stopped it from moving west and a trough moving into the east which is gonna catch the storm and pull it across Florida out to sea. 

This evolution is unusual but not really rare just usually by this time the gulf is cooling down and wind shear has increased due to all of the fall troughs which makes it more unfavorable for strong storms.

Okay so something pretty funky happened for a bit it looked like Milton was about to start an EWRC which would of stopped strengthening but now the eye has stabilized and the double eyewall feature is gone which has led to an overall improved satellite appearance.

 

A recon plane is on the way interested to see if they'll find a stronger storm since it is now entering the loop current and is still positioned favorably against the wind shear (Which will start to weaken it tomorrow morning).

 

Gonna write up a post for my other thread on the storm and impacts.

So is there a likelihood it doesn't still hit as a Cat 5? I've actually been surprised that Floridians are taking this one so seriously. Seems like everyone ignores all the warnings half the time, and they often do end up not as bad as predicted,

I always assume authorities err on the side of caution due to lawsuits and votes their natural compassion and sense of responsibility for their fellow humans. But there could also just be more of a sense in the wake of Helene over there that, oh yeah, these storms can kill people. Especially with people not yet even recovered from that one.

No all models agree on weakening prior to landfall due to increasing wind shear still gonna be devastating though.

Well weaker is good at least. Direct hit from a Cat 5 would be terrifying.

But either the state of Florida or Milton himself will need to refund me the cost of all these flowers, not to mention the popcorn bowls if it turns out the going away party was not needed after all.

https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/storminfo/

This is a site btw that Aldreda says she uses, it's updated every 15 minutes so now it's possible, using technology, to get updates even when our meteorologist is not here!

Note that it shows wind speed in knots which are kilometers, sorry KILOUGHMETRES I mean. You'll have to convert to freedom units yourself.

Currently 135kt aka 155mph.

Ingenious trick Ford found among the party goers on r/florida.

"If nail, glue, brackets, and bolts won't keep it in place, I'm sure this little plastic strap will do it!"

Go, Florida Man!

He forgot to strap down the cars.

Going to continue storm updates in this thread for today 10/9.

Milton is weakening quickly as expected this morning due to a combo of a ongoing EWRC (Which won't complete) and increasing wind shear. 

Unfortunately devastating impacts from the broadening and weakening system are baked and ready to be delivered to central Florida (More details on that in this thread or the NHC site).

Haven't talked about this since severe weather isn't really my forte but it looks likely Milton will produce a widespread tornado outbreak across the state (Several already on the ground right now). 

Is Port Charlotte still the main target?

Port Charlotte was named to the "10 Best Places to Retire", in the United States for the year 2012 by U.S. News & World Report.

....well shit, not anymore.

Also, I just heard something about yet another hurricane potentially forming out there?

Yea Port Charlotte is still in the bullseye just take a look at the surge map everything shaded will likely be underwater Thursday morning. As for your other question ehh we'll see I don't take anything the models say seriously until like 160 hours out anything after that is just pure fantasy. 

And if you want to creep from a distance, have fun!

Ooh, is there a list of these for other places?

I listened for like two minutes at random and I'm already hearing about fetanyl abuse and people with Alzheimers, I think this has covered all of Florida's known personality traits and I'm interested in other states now.

edit: okay not it's getting more interesting, something about a live powerline down in the middle of a road, and tornado warnings, and a flooded parking garage. And someone named Jess has announced she'll be in the cafeteria.

JESS!

Wow there is certainly a tornado outbreak going on right now across Florida probably 20+ on the ground as we speak. In hindsight I should have expected this shear is moving west to east while the storm is rotating counterclockwise which creates a natural spin in the atmosphere perfect for tornadoes.

I lived right under the alabama part of Flordia for about 8 months, and I can't see why anyone would ever want to live in such a shithole state. 

When it rains it rains all fucking day and it floods everything so you're trudging through disgusting shit that's knee high, it's constant swamp ass during the summer and is a WET heat unlike dry Arizona heat. There was also constant naked homeless people walking around at night, and unlike Fentanyl homeless people of Arizona, these homeless people were just crazy not drug crazy which is even worse.

Also at night there's sometimes a deep fog, so while I was in my car at like at Wendys or Mcdonalds, I would see a butt ass naked homeless man walk through the fog looking for people to interact with.

But if you like beaches and go to beaches 24/7 I guess it's a nice place if you don't mind constant swamp ass. Maybe Miami or Orlando are better, but the pandhandle of Florida is a fucking shithole and I would 100% rather be in Chiraq. 

Some of the locals are really nice though, a tow truck driver with no teeth told me some pretty funny stories when my transmission got destroyed and I was having a shit day, and the mechanic who I took it to looked at it and quoted me free of charge unlike some scumbag Arizona mechanics.

Lol

What the fuck, why were they naked??

It's hot in Florida . 

True story

Given the current track a landfall just south of or on Tampa is looking most likely right now very touchy forecast though.

On another note Ryanhall a weather YouTuber has over 300K+ watching his stream on Milton right now.

Looks like Milton will make landfall a little earlier than expected just south of Tampa good news for the bay in terms of surge but everyone south of them are gonna get wiped out.   

Milton will make landfall south of Tampa as a Cat 3 major hurricane the tenth since 2017 in about 1-2 hours.

Milton has made landfall as a 120MPH Cat 3 south of Tampa 

Cat 3 isn't so bad, they got lucky.

Idk what the flooding will be like though.

I'm in Orlando (picked a bad week for vacation apparently).  The winds are pretty strong atm, although we are in a bit of calm for the rain.  So far we've only had a couple power flickers at the condo.

I mean if you're not at Disney World in the middle of a hurricane, can you even call that a vacation?

Damn Disney was hit hard ;)

We had a couple power blinks but nothing lasting more than a couple minutes.  Lots of high winds and driving rains, but we were on the fourth floor with a screened in balcony, so nothing too terrifying.

Okay, a hurricane thread seems relevant enough, can someone sum up this political shitstorm around FEMA?

From what I've gathered, Republicans all voted not to give them anymore funding, then realized uh oh that's gonna look bad when Helene was worse than anyone thought, so they embarked on uh, "creative writing activities" to make FEMA aid look bad/non existent? Supposedly in ways that might simultaneously convince people who need help not to try and get help, but also were even more blatantly obvious than what comes from the usual political Shit-Fling-A-Tron 5000? I'm just picking up little bits and pieces on this, I will die if I actually Google it.

I am usually pretty adverse to going down rabbit holes on political stuff, but this seems a lot more directly relevant to a whole lot of people this time. I will give a shiny commendation to anyone who can sum it up in a readable enough way, but please keep in mind that words are boring and reading is hard for me.

As with any political thing, facts are never going to appear and the truth will never, ever, be allowed to be know.

The "other side" of this argument claims that FEMA was "hiding" $7 billion that they could spend on hurricane relief, but they are instead spending on illegal immigrants.

So yeah, good luck ever finding how much and which people are lying (all of them).

I actually care less about the vote than about the specific nature of the lies told afterwards left to go viral and distract people from it. Sabley was going to fill me in more but then her kids abruptly got strep throat, F.

But from what I have gathered there have been hilarious episodes like:

Republicans: "there is noooo help coming from FEMA or the federal government because they are useless and don't care about you! Literally they are not doing anything in any disaster zone right now, that's how callous and EVIL they are, don't even bother expecting aid unless you're illegal"

Random Boomer: "gasp! they are intentionality leaving us to die because we vote Republican! the time for posting dangerously misleading conspiracy theories on X and FB continues to be now!"

Everyone: "omg he's right!"

Sabley: "Actually I've seen military choppers passing over my home almost hourly and--"

Everyone: "shut the fuck up you godless communist faggot, you must be one of those agents of the RADICAL LEFT we were warned about!"

Random Boomer: "also I submitted a false claim to FEMA and it was denied, I would've gotten it if I was illegal but instead I, theoretical American homeowner, would in theory have been intentionally and spitefully left with nothing by the Dems if this had in fact been real"

Everyone: "omg he's right!"

Random Boomer, slowing adding extra protective layer to tinfoil wrap on head: "And don't even get me started on who used their god-like powers of weather control to create the hurricanes targeting conservative voters, as if stealing the election wasn't enough..."

Lol, you could change the context of this but the punch line always being that people think illegals get it better, and it would still work on almost anything from the job market to the housing market. At least here anyways. 

Ok, so most of my info is of course from Helene and not Milton.

As a prologue, being without power, internet, and cell service for a week after it hit us meant I had the extra special experience of getting to hear all of this through the grapevine on the front end before I got exposed to it online.

So day 1-3: Boomers and the Gen X/Millennial boomer wannabes were claiming FEMA was confiscating supplies and donations and taking them away from drop off locations. But they were also screaming that FEMA wasn't there and neither was the National Guard... as chinooks were flying over my home around the clock. They were also enraged that FEMA, who again wasn't there but also is?, were turning away volunteers for search and rescue. The volunteers being unqualified rednecks with their wives and kids in toe on side by sides...

Day 3: They start accepting and mobilizing volunteers who are qualified, IE no kids allowed. Which honestly made me damn proud of my area, a lot of them make me want to pull my hair out whenever they open their mouths, but they aren't bad people. But... again, FEMA somehow isn't there and neither is the National Guard, even though both are the main ones organizing the volunteers? They're still accusing FEMA of stealing supplies and refusing to leave the donation supplies anywhere but local churches... who distribute the supplies through FEMA. The mental gymnastics of that week were honestly awe inspiring.

Day 4-6: People are no longer claiming FEMA isn't there, instead they are now making FEMA the local boogeymen of the Biden admin. Supply theft, $750 is the only money being offered but somehow nobody is getting it(again this was the grapevine still without internet or cell service to fact check this shit), they're just leaving people on the mountain(a lot refused to leave thanks to people spreading rumors about lithium mine conspiracies and FEMA loan sharks). Claims that Asheville is getting bulldozed and eminent domain is kicking in so Asheville will just be a lithium mine by next year.

I forget what number day it was, but I finally got internet without having to go into the city for it and got to really dig into all this shit. Social media was a fucking gold mine of conspiracy posts and tragedy porn.

Lithium Mine Conspiracy:

NC has the worlds biggest deposit of Quarts which is what is used in making Lithium. So the filthy Dems used cloud seeding to generate hurricane Helene to destroy NC so they could use eminent domain to steal the land to make a quartz mine so they could make their lithium batteries for their vile EV cars and force everyone to stop using gas powered vehicles. As more information came out about cloud seeding they then started claiming it was space lasers that made the hurricane. Everyone is of course ignoring that the mining company already owns the land they want to mine along with required buffer zone since I think 2021 and had just applied for mining rights or whatever this year. But of course they ignore everything but that they applied for mining rights, so they must be in bed with the Dems to steal the land... even though they already bought the land...

Voter Assassination Conspiracy

Supervillain Kamala Harris used space lasers to make the hurricane and directed it to hit only Red States to try and kill as many republican citizens as possible while also making it impossible for survivors to vote in the election without an absentee ballot(which of course they believe will be changed from Trump to Kamala when mailed in).

Trump Was Boots on the Ground, Kamala wasn't

AI images of Trump wading through water at almost 80 years old and climbing power poles to restore power are making their way around Facebook. People believe they are real images and that the reason they're being flagged as fake news is... Honestly I don't even fucking know. The ones believing these images can barely type a coherent FB post and it hurts my brain to try and decipher their all caps screeching. But they mostly have in common that they believe the video of Kamala handing out food to hurricane victims is actually AI. lol.

FEMA Funding Conspiracy

They think Kamala is secretly funneling illegals into the country by the millions, giving them $3500 debit cards each, free houses, and free food while only giving Helene victims $750. All I could find on this was that New York decided it would save them money to give migrants $3000 debit cards that could only be used at approved stores for approved items and they had had to have kids or whatever. But it was a one time thing and not to be reloaded monthly. I didn't dig too deep on it honestly because it was just flabbergasting at this point.

Filthy Dems Stealing Land Part 2

Separate from the Lithium mine, people believe that FEMA money is a loan which puts your personal assets down as collateral so when you don't pay it back they just steal your assets/land to then give to migrants. They also believe that if you leave your property when FEMA comes to save you then they will automatically take over the property to later gift to migrants after Kamala takes over. There are people trapped in NC, unable to get supplies or get down the mountains without helicopter extraction and they are refusing to go because they believe this conspiracy theory.

Those are the best and most complete ones I've come across. I've also seen some people applying for the $750 while living in their undamaged apartments they don't even own then screaming about illegals when they get denied and claiming they were going to use the money to help people in NC. Most people gave them pats on the back, but I saw one lone commenter reading them for filth.

I'm also seeing a metric fuck ton of tragedy porn on facebook. "Don't you fucking dare complain about anything because these people have it worse" type shit. Meanwhile our area on its own got its ass kicked, so I'm not sure why we're not allowed to complain amongst ourselves? A kid died while his family was trying to walk through tree filled roads to get to grandparents to check on them. He was 8 years old and without cell service no one could call for help. They couldn't get the tree off him. It was fucking sad. My own property got hit with a flash flood that had an almost 10FT water surge and nearly drowned some of our animals. We saved them by getting out in the fucking storm and wading into the water that had one hell of current to the point where it washed the bridge on our road away. We also saved our fence that was getting dragged down by debris by cutting chains on all our gates before they could buckle and tear out bracing posts from the ground. If I want to say that shit was fucking scary I'll fucking say it and fuck the tragedy porn bitches who live in their safe little city homes who only lost power for 2 days. End Rant.

Anyway, I have banned myself from Facebook in recent days and it has helped immensely. But I'll probably cave sooner or later just to go see what other juicy new conspiracy theories have been cooked up since I last looked.

Our Four-Fingered President.

Also, looking it up the $750 from FEMA, "a one-time $750 payment to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies”.

So it has nothing to do with applying for aid through the usual methods and is meant as a stopgap thing for urgent and immediate needs.

I really hope nobody's kids are going hungry because they saw an FB post by a malicious shit stirrer and instantly believed it without bothering to spend 10 seconds typing "fact check" into Google, but meh, there's no cure for stupid. (Or lead poisoning...)

I suppose I should recommend our most hurricane centric storygame to the thread, while we're all enjoying the 2024 season together: Blow Your House Down

Boomer Bill classic, it actually might be one of my favorites of his.

Been watching footage of the hurricane in Florida... Looks like a normal Tuesday for us here in Bri'ain. ^_^

Stop ittttttt. Outside of it pissing down half the day (which I like anyways, adds atmosphere). My only issue is how I struggle showering in winter because of how cold I get lol.

So stats for Milton right now are at least 16 dead in the storm itself. That's obviously going to climb, it's the aftermath that gets most people.
But Helene's score is at 232 so he's got a long way to go. Of course she had a much bigger playground across 6 states to work with.

Just a PSA btw, if you guys are ever in a situation with lots of flooding, seriously, be aware that trees with their roots in the softened ground can and will fall even well past any danger from wind and the like. Hearing about that always ends up a depressing footnote to even the not very bad storms; Sabley incidentally mentioned a family she knows losing an 8 year old that way right after Helene.

Florida's 1 million without power at the start of this is now 2.5 million. That in itself along with the difficulties of emergency service is likely to lead to more deaths with the amount of elderly there who are under the care of idiots and assholes. (After Irma I remember that at least a dozen nursing home residents died from the heat at one facility... nobody on staff felt like taking them to the hospital across the street that still had power and AC.)

This Met has already put together a collection of radar, IR, and visual imagery of Milton's life for anyone who might interested.

Link