Irma is a hot mess!
My area (just north of Atlanta) got hit with a few 60+mph gusts according to the official Atlanta weather wind measurer (new word). Talked to all my 60-75 foot pines yesterday about standing tall and upright.
I lol'd about you talking to your trees, Peach. But apparently they listened ...
Irma was a nothing burger in my town. The University still held classes on Monday - the most notable thing was the cold temperatures (came out of the office at 4pm and it was only 59F).
I was following the mega-thread on the DIS Resorts board from people who rode out Irma in the on-property hotels and the worst things I read there in terms of damage were a few tree issues. Given the proportionally greater number of trees at the Fort (I know they're there because I've backed into many of them
) it's no surprise it will take longer to get the Fort ship-shape. Like Teamubr mentioned above, though, he may be traveling southbound into Florida with all the returning locals.
Some of you may have heard how Irma's winds, coupled with local tides, pulled enough water out of the shallow parts of the ocean to lay bare the bottom and strand fish, sharks, manatees, etc. I saw pictures of it in the Bahamas, Florida Bay off Key Largo, and Tampa Bay.
Well add Mobile Bay to the list in Alabama. Here's a picture off the Causeway (Hwy 98) that runs parallel to I-10 near the USS Alabama. Even though Mobile was never in any danger, the size of Irma had far reaching impacts like this.
I hope power gets restored in Florida soon and that we hear from amcc soon.
The Keys sound pretty hard hit - it will probably take a while to inspect all the bridges and clear all the downed wires and tree parts along US-1 and get power restored. The book I read while at Gulf this May, Last Train to Paradise by Les Standiford, was about the building of the Florida East Coast Railroad all the way down to Key West. The Keys portion of the FECR was destroyed in a hurricane in September 1935 (they didn't name hurricanes then).
Still, it coulda been a lot worse.
Bama Ed