Micheal is a Cat 4 now

[Thunderbolt]

Pray for all the folks in the Panama City area.  No long time residents have ever seen one this bad is what they are saying.

[Flrider]

Stay safe all our panhandle brothers and families.

[the bull]

Good luck to everyone and stay safe!

[Grumpy]

Worried about my wife's sister. She is in Gulf Breeze, looks like it is going to be real close to there when it makes land fall.

[_Sheffjs_]

These storms that start in the gulf are always the ones that worry me the most.  Hoping the soggy bottom Milton boys are far enough away.


 

[Farside]

Thanks Jerry and my Southern Valk brothers.    It will be worse east of Fort Walton, Destin of the FL Coast. Panama City and East is going to be devastated. Then as it travels inland, east of the eye being hit hardest. Tallahassee, Perry, Monticello in to S. GA. The winds will hammer all area's.  I'll be headed to my folks in Tallahassee tomorrow or when the roads will be cleared. Many huge Oak trees and canopy roads all around Tallahassee area. I had just bought my first house and 2 months later Hurricane Kate in 1985 came thru which wasn't as bad as this will be. 

[DD]

anyone is welcome to come to Daytona if needed.  there's room in the garage for your baby as well. 4 legged are welcome to.   Please be safe   

[Farside]

anyone is welcome to come to Daytona if needed.  there's room in the garage for your baby as well. 4 legged are welcome to.   Please be safe   

  Well we really lucked out being on the west side of the Hurricane. Minimal effects of wind with little rain. It was said we could have anywhere between 3-6" of rain. We may of gotten a little of an inch. But Tallahassee and SW GA got it almost as bad as PC.  Thank you for the offer very kind of you DD. Maybe well see you  and others at Jerry & Sherri's Nov. 3rd.

[Grumpy]

Talked to the wife's sister a little while ago, was a non event in Gulf Breeze .  But east of there was really hammered.

[flsix]

Glad you are all Ok.
Friends of ours in Panama City say there is pretty much total devastation there. They are only able to communicate when they leave the area to get more supplies.

[Thunderbolt]

One of my Amateur Radio friends that works at Daytona International Speedway and 7 more friends went on Thursday to set up radio repeaters and hand held radios.  They said they had to sleep in their trucks and eat MRE's.  Total Devastation is how he described it too.  He just got back home.  There are a lot of folks that had to have the roads cleared before they could get out.  I talked to a friend near Marianna that said they never see seagulls but when the eye passed over there were seagulls flying over his place.

[_Sheffjs_]

And yet we keep on building, insuring that if we did try to evacuate it would be futile. This needs to be a wake up call for all of us near the coast.   

[Farside]

And yet we keep on building, insuring that if we did try to evacuate it would be futile. This needs to be a wake up call for all of us near the coast.   

Building yes as long as folks want to pay and some will pay!  Here lies the sad part. Most of the area hit were homes that folks have had in the family for many, many years; Decades. Second homes that the children now visit with there families and their families. With the winds of a Cat. 4-5 making landfall little will be left standing, let alone livable. New codes will have to be put in place to withstand these stronger winds. That will be very costly with the new engineered spec's. It is what will be necessary. Of course this is just wind, the storm surge is very destructive also. I imagine many of these that lost their homes will not be able to afford to rebuild let alone face the increased insurance cost of being on or near the coast. It will be sometime before this area east of Panama City Beach begins to look settled in again. Many of the neat little beach homes will never look the same.
  With technology giving us the direction of these storms evacuation is improving. It's getting back in to an area is why many consider riding the storm out. Roads are blocked with debris and closed for safety reasons. You can 't get home for days in many cases with hurricane's of this magnitude.
This area is really devastated.  Hard to believe we were only 125 miles from where this entered and all we got was a few gusts and a couple inches of rain. Very fortunate. 

[Grumpy]

But they can be built to survive, this one came through with very little damage.https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/14/us/hurricane-michael-florida-mexico-beach-house.html

[_Sheffjs_]

Keith I was thinking in Sarasota terms with the keep on building thought. The population here is too much to get out if we wanted, our roads are gridlocked daily in normal traffic.