Hurricane Milton Friedman UPDATES

by Scott Creighton

Hurricanes should have last names. So I gave him one.

Milton is now (as of early Tuesday morning) back to a Cat 4 storm with historically low pressure as it creeps into the Gulf of Mexico.

 

It is expected to regain strength back to Cat 5 status but then quickly drop back down.

The main track ran thru my house yesterday. Today it seems to have slipped a bit south.

 

I think it is still something like 600 miles away from us so there is a bit of time for it to shift again. We will see.

 

Though it has sped up to 12mph they now claim it will make landfall super late Weds night or early Thurs morning (between midnight and 2am)

Milton is still no joke (Katrina was a Cat 3) and could do major damage to a highly populated area like Tampa Bay.

Roads are still passable but expect several hours of delay if you choose to leave, which you should.

There is no guarantee it will lose power before making landfall where ever that might be. So err on the side of caution. Remember: when you think about protecting 'everything you own' in reality, you can't do shit against a hurricane blowing at 125mph. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. And when you really think about it, 'everything' you have is nothing compared to family and loved ones.

Shit can be replaced. People can't.

Finish your prep. Make your yard ready. 125mph sustained winds are bad. Really bad. Better than 170 but still bad. For reference, last week when Helene hit us, sustained winds were around 45mph around here and there are piles of damaged stuff along the sides of the road everywhere you look. Now multiply that times a factor of 3.

And that's sustained winds. Gusts are a different matter altogether.

Do what you can today. Prep your place and if you can, hit the road. Doesn't matter where you go. Doesn't matter if you have a hotel room waiting. Sleep in the car if you must. Just get out of it's way. Cat 5 Cat 4 Cat 3 it doesn't really matter. They all spawn tornadoes. So GTFO.

Milton Friedman doesn't suffer fools kindly.

Best wishes to you all. 

just an American everyman