We should be buying up all the Key Limes, corner the Key Lime pie market..
Lmbo
Been to St Maarten and watched people being blown back into the ocean. There has been serious injuries. I guess being stupid, you get what you deserve.
The sand blowing will strip paint and people stand in it......one time only. Alcohol is a powerful pain killer.
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Didn't some lady die doing that recently?
Anyway, anyone remember Andrew? That was a Cat 5 that hit Miami in '92 with 175 mph sustained winds and gusts well over 200 mph. I remember watching a documentary that said they recorded the highest wind speed ever associated with a hurricane.
More than one has been killed. There are huge 6'X3' limestone blocks on either side of the highway, and they get blown into them. Some of the video's are on line. Head trauma for the most part.
We sat at the sunset bar where the video's were taken watching the idiots break through the police lines to stand in the jet thrust.
Cops clear the street, and blockade it off before the 747's take off where they have to use tuggers to put the tail section over the fence. When you take off, your looking at a mountain. They have to go max thrust, max lift, and finally bank to the right to miss the mountain and go through the gap. Their safety record is 100% though. Spooky knowing your taking off into a mountain.
We flew out of March AFB in Riverside, CA once. I remember sitting in the C-141, no windows, with the engines at full speed and the brakes on. Then they let go and we were pushed sideways (jump seats along the side). Then it felt like we were going straight up. Good times, good times...
White Knuckle stuff.
Here's some neat satellite shots/vids of Irma:
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/floaters/11L/imagery/vis-animated.gif
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/floaters/11L/imagery/vis-animated.gif
Spent many, many an afternoon sitting at Sunset Beach Bar watching the idiots do this (lived there for 2 years). One of my friends caught a rock on his sunglasses, which shattered under the impact - just made me think what that would have done to his eye. Saw lots of people lose their hats into the ocean and quite a few get blown across the road and knocked down the beach into the surf. It was impressive, to say the least.
At that time, I think KLM was the only airline flying the 747s out of there. Air France was flying the Airbus A320s which had a bit more thrust-to-weight ratio. But flying out could be a bit harrowing at times.
<edit> Luckily this monster storm is going well north of my relatives in St. Vincent, but St. Maarten is liable to get hammered, along with Saba, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Eustatius, Anguilla and the like. It's going to be a wild ride down there for sure.
I used to think I wanted to sit through a Cat 1 or 2 just to see what it was like. I remember waking up one morning about 0130 and looking out our big bay windows from the condo onto the lagoon that is sheltered from the sea. There was mild Tropical Storm going through. Seeing the 3-4 foot breakers inside the lagoon cured me of that really quick. That was when I realized we were living on an island surrounded by a giant raging ocean with a ferocious power that would like nothing more than to swamp us or pound the island into rubble... that was a scary feeling.
Another thing....
This is going to likely beat the hell out of Hispaniola, and the loss of life on the Haiti side is liable to be horrendous. We've all seen it before... the Dominican Republic on the east side of the island get hit with damage, the west side of the island (Haiti) gets devastated. The economy is so bad, the people live in such poverty, a very large percentage of the population lives in huts on hillsides made of scrap lumber and tin. They have nowhere to go, the mudslides caused by deforestation for farming on the hillsides and the lack of infrastructure leads to massive loss. The Red Cross capitalized on this a few years back, raising over a billion dollars in relief funds specifically earmarked for Haiti aid and ultimately ended up spending only about $20M of that in the country, if my recollection is correct. They used every reason in the book to keep that money, essentially relying mainly on the government's history of corruption as an excuse to keep the money to fund their organization.
This is why I will not donate to the Red Cross.
This is going to likely beat the hell out of Hispaniola, and the loss of life on the Haiti side is liable to be horrendous. We've all seen it before... the Dominican Republic on the east side of the island get hit with damage, the west side of the island (Haiti) gets devastated. The economy is so bad, the people live in such poverty, a very large percentage of the population lives in huts on hillsides made of scrap lumber and tin. They have nowhere to go, the mudslides caused by deforestation for farming on the hillsides and the lack of infrastructure leads to massive loss. The Red Cross capitalized on this a few years back, raising over a billion dollars in relief funds specifically earmarked for Haiti aid and ultimately ended up spending only about $20M of that in the country, if my recollection is correct. They used every reason in the book to keep that money, essentially relying mainly on the government's history of corruption as an excuse to keep the money to fund their organization.
This is why I will not donate to the Red Cross.
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