I'm feeling like this storm is gonna make America landfall as a glorified Cat 2-3 and then cause some more epic flooding like Harvey did.

Possibility. Plus Cuba has some mountains north of 5k' tall. But the sheer size of the storm may play a factor as well. A smaller storm may be more affected by the land mass. Irma not so much.

The only one I've heard of so far is Interstate 16 in Georgia opening both sides for West bound traffic.

I got an email from Navionics telling me to update my card if I was going down there.

So they're clearly expecting some movement

I feel sorry for the poor slob in Key West who did the right thing and got out of Dodge, drove up the peninsula, turned left, settled in somewhere between Tallahassee and Biloxi to wait it out only to discover in another 24 hours that he's headed for Arkansas to try and get away from this storm.

Me too. That's a hell of a long way to drive.

At that point go to Jacksonville or Atlanta.

No point in getting further

I know people on Key Largo that didn't leave. I hope that I still know them next week.

This look familiar? Hurricane Ivan about 6 days before landfall in Al/ FL panhandle..

May have to take a boat to see them for a while. If they get breached right where they live, the land may turn into sea as well.

What was their reasoning for staying?

We had high winds and broken power poles, trees down, etc in Athens and Rogersville with Ivan. That bastard came WAY inland with high winds.

Its a really big bad storm.

Just posted this to a FB friend (and real liberal friend) who posted the meme about how betcha you Republicans are sorry you doubted ALGORE when he said hurricanes would get stronger and bigger with Global Warming/Climate Change (Picture comparing Andrew to Irma). I posted this:

Labor Day Key West Hurricane 1935-The hurricane struck the Florida Keys as a Category 5, the highest ranking possible. It killed more than 200 World War One veterans who were in the Keys to build a highway. The storm ranks as the most intense hurricane to hit the United States, based on a record low barometric pressure reading of 26.35 inches, according to the National Weather Service. It generated wind speeds of up to 200 miles per hour (322 km per hour). After ravaging the Keys, the storm moved north off the western coast of Florida before turning inland. In all, more than 400 people died in Florida. Yeah...Climate Change...right...got it.

Let's say it rides the West coast or veers a little further west and heads north. What would be a safe distance from the coast. 100 miles?

Liberals think of change in 20 year cycles, Conservatives think of change on 50 year cycles. Nature doesnt give a damn about time or numbers.

Other than storms that decimated populated areas prior to weather satellites were unknown. Hurricane "history" is only ~30yrs old.

Hurricane history started in Pensacola, Florida. The earliest settlement by Europeans was there and was totaled by a Hurricane.

Soala what the hell is wrong with that guy. Doesn't he know it's Trump controlling to storm to remove Cuba illegals?

Hurricane force winds = 70 miles from center
100+ mph winds = ~10-15 miles from center

Up the west coast of FL = Major storm surge (wind blown surge). The gulf around FL is very shallow that the water just stacks up on top of itself. Get the hell away from the shore. This will kill people.

There are 2 types of storm surge: the bubble under the storm due to low pressure and wind blown waves that stack up on top of themselves.