BlogWood: MT Archives

Blogging Charlie

UPDATED 8:30PM -Tampa, FL - Things have calmed down considerably traffic and store wise. The shelves were empty, but so were the aisles, eerily so, especially after the madness I saw firsthand earlier today.

The surface roads are all but deserted. I imagine the Interstates are still heavy, but I think I was caught in the midst of the Pinellas County evacuation order earlier, sharing the road with 300,000 people who really had no safe choice but to get up and leave when advised to do so.

Most people are battening down and/or packing up to evacuate. I expect another few hours of last minute hoarding before the storm hits tomorrow. Currently, it’s scheduled to pass by the mouth of Tampa Bay at 2:00PM Friday.

This is actually a bad scenario, as the counter-clockwise rotation of the storm will sweep a large surge in to the coast wherever it passes to the West. We are bracing for high winds, lots of rain, and a 10 foot storm surge.

I’m doing my best to completely ignore the local news. They are already in total hurricane mode, repeating the same information over and over and over and over and over and...

Real updates are released every few hours from the National Weather Service, but I know I’ll cave and start tuning in local TV before the end. I just want to hold out for a little while longer.

Oh - the weather? A little breezy, mild, some showers expected tomorrow.

More later, barring the unforeseen.
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Tampa, FL - 5:30PM - Well, seeing as all my day job work just dried up, at least until the storm passes, I guess I can get back to BlogWood.

What’s it like waiting for a hurricane in the midst of a large population center with close to a million people under evacuation orders? Well, I just got back from running a few errands...

A trip that’s usually like one and a half hours round trip, max, during rush hour, took almost 4 hours in the middle of the day.

Traffic is the worst I’ve ever seen, at least heading inland and North.

Lines out into the road at just about every gas station.

People driving one of three ways: courteously, hey we’re all in this together; bat out of hell mad-driver get outa the way; and panic-slow, I’m old and confused and I usually only take the car out on Sundays...

Actually, I guess that just about covers most days, but right now, there are so many cars on the roads that actions are magnified and repeated, so I swear I got caught behind dozens and dozens of slow movers, took advantage of several courteous drivers, and chuckled on numerous occasions as I overtook and inched past the ones who were outright rude and or dangerous.

Everybody’s on their cel phones, listening to the weather, and dealing with bumper to bumper traffic and other drivers who are evacuating and unfamiliar with the roads they’re driving. It’s really pretty amazing that traffic is moving at all.

The TV news types are creaming all over themselves. I think one local weatherman almost swooned when the 5:00 update came in and the possibility of a huge storm surge increased. News crews are out in traffic and on the beaches, just itching for some photogenic windblown action or automotive mayhem.

Grocery stores, big boxes, and hardware stores are all packed well beyond any fire codes. Water and batteries and plywood and duct tape are all popular items. Panic buying always sets in whenever a hurricane even thinks about threatening our area, but with this threat looking more and more real, well, let’s just say that entering a store and jostling for canned goods or water may be more than some people will be able to handle.

TECO, our local power source, is already making noises about shutting down all power to a large part of Tampa. I’m not sure yet if I’m in the zone. This could happen as early as 10 AM Friday.

I do know that I’m not in an evacuation zone. I live at the top of a hill overlooking downtown, which is basically only a few feet above sea level. As long as my house of sticks doesn’t get blown down, I should be fine.

Frequent updates as TECO and the cable company allow.