Hurricane Irma

[trabuquera]

Fingers crossed for Havana - it's in a crumbly enough state as it is. Even really torrential rain (never mind Force 4 or 5 winds) could level huge numbers of buildings and knock out the decaying remains of the public drinking water & drainage system

 

[cupid_stunt]

Talk about bad timing, just found out my niece & her chap have flown out on holiday to Florida this morning.

 

[baldrick]

Talk about bad timing, just found out my niece & her chap have flown out on holiday to Florida this morning.

They'll probably/hopefully be flying back tomorrow.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Fingers crossed for Havana - it's in a crumbly enough state as it is. Even really torrential rain (never mind Force 4 or 5 winds) could level huge numbers of buildings and knock out the decaying remains of the public drinking water & drainage system

Yup, Was planning on going to H in the 2nd half of October - could be messy if it gets hit hard

 

[Sprocket.]

Talk about bad timing, just found out my niece & her chap have flown out on holiday to Florida this morning.

We saw an advert for ridiculously cheap fly drive holidays to Florida last week. How can these companies put customers in danger like this? Even at 65% off!

 

[Pickman's model]

We saw an advert for ridiculously cheap fly drive holidays to Florida last week. How can these companies put customers in danger like this? Even at 65% off!

depends how they advertised it, e.g. you'll be blown away - truthful - but if they said you'll have a lovely time by the beach - not so honest

 

[JTG]

Storm has passed over St Martin/Maarten and is over the Virgin Islands & Puerto Rico.

Not seen an update from my friend since the eye was over Sint Maarten and they had communication briefly

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

St Martin looks well fucked, imagine that Anguilla, Saba & St Barts are even worse

 

[cupid_stunt]

No contact with the island of Barbuda since it was hit, over 8-9 hours now.

 

[cupid_stunt]

St Martin looks well fucked, imagine that Anguilla, Saba & St Barts are even worse

Looks like it.

Images from St Martin and St Barts appeared to reflect more significant damage. Michel Magras, senator for the French-speaking St Barts, wrote in a text to a media company in France of catastrophic scenes.

“I am shocked by the monster that covers us,” he wrote. “The island is devastated. It is apocalyptic, a lot of damage, many roofs destroyed.”

Gerard Collomb, the French interior minister, observed that the four wrecked government buildings were the strongest on the island, “which means that more rustic structures have probably been completely or partially destroyed.”

Irma plows northward leaving trail of storm damage in Caribbean

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

It seems that no-one has heard anything from Barbuda since the storm passed over, 9 or so hours ago.

Edit: that's what I get for not refreshing the page

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

No contact with the island of Barbuda since it was hit, over 8-9 hours now.

Yeah,that's worrying. Surely the authorities there have access to a sat phone?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Barbuda is a very small island, so quite possibly no one with a satellite phone, but is very close to Antigua which it seems was not to badly hit, so hopefully not too bad...

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Barbuda is a very small island, so quite possibly no one with a satellite phone, but is very close to Antigua which it seems was not to badly hit, so hopefully not too bad...

61km between the two. I'm not sure what that could mean given the size of Irma though.

 

[Yossarian]

The Antigua and Barbuda PM sounds pretty upbeat.

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said the twin-island nation appears to have weathered its brush with Hurricane Irma with no deaths, though he noted that the government had only done a preliminary assessment of Barbuda. There were widespread reports of property damage but he says the public and government had prepared well for the storm.

"We in Antigua have weathered the most powerful hurricane ever to storm its way through the Caribbean," the prime minister said. "And we have done so with stunning results."

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Was watching this on Flightradar. Delta got a flight into San Juan, and flew out again with a full passenger load after only 52 minutes on the ground.

 

[Yossarian]

View attachment 115202

I just saw some photos of the airport - reopening morning of September 8 might be on the optimistic side.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I just saw some photos of the airport - reopening morning of September 8 might be on the optimistic side.

Looks like the air bridges are damaged, they will still have steps:




Getting the airport open will be vital for relief.

And we must never under-estimate the resilience of people

 

[Yossarian]

Good luck to them - the tarmac is so close to the water that they must have a hell of a lot of sand to shift now.

 

[spring-peeper]

Also, with the air tunnels being out, they will have to supply stairs for the planes to load and unload.

 

[friedaweed]

This is causing a bit of a twitter storm...

Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) on Twitter

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

This'll not be helping with radio comms on the day side of the planet, although if you've got a clear sky tonight there's a very good chance of aurora in northern parts of the UK.

 

[phillm]

Crikey Bono and chums need to get ready for a Celeb-Aid concert to help their distressed chums. On a more serious note if Branson buys it in his Bunker how should we trade Virgin stock ? Maybe David Copperfield can make it dissapear.

 

[ferrelhadley]

ECMWF seems to have a bit of bad news of Miami.

That said

https://video.twimg.com/tweet_video/DJC5Vy3UMAQ9Kbi.mp4

Last year Matthew took 600 lives most of them in Haiti. It looks like Imra is going to hit that part of Hispaniola very hard.

Bleak news.

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda is talking live on here

Radio – ABS TV Radio Antigua & Barbuda

The line is awful, but the gist is that Barbuda is basically levelled.

 

[phillm]

Orlando Sentinel has abandoned it's paywall for the duration - long queues for gas and water.

Time-lapse: Waiting in line for water and gas ahead of Irma

 

[phillm]

 

[wiskey]

Friends son & his partner are in the concrete conference room of their hotel in St Maarten, he's got 200+ guests who couldn't get off the island to look after.

She's not heard from him for hours and the power is out.

I keep checking her fb, especially as reports are coming in that many buildings have been destroyed... No updates so far.

She's beside herself.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

If it is any comfort there haven't been any reports of multiple injuries on St Martin and the winds have been much calmer most of the day, it's now after 5 in the afternoon and assessments have been made. Communications are mostly down though.