At 4pm on Tuesday the 8th this thing looks like it's going to bury the Tampa Bay area. Landfall Thursday as a Cat 3, but with storm surge that could reach 15 feet. That would flood the entire area and water could reach as far inland as I-75. Duval and SJC are shutting down tonight with mandatory evacuation order now out for the Sawgrass area of Ponte Vedra. We expect at minimum tropical storm force winds, 8 inches of rain and a 3 to 5 foot storm surge on the First Coast through late Thursday.

Posting here so folks have a place to discuss.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

I got a case of Coors Light, bottle of Parrot Bay, Orange Juice, plenty of food and 3 ounces of the finest, dankest sticky icky..

Bring that bastard on..

And pray for the people involved..

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Battened down the hatches in SWFL and headed for the east coast.
Now I find out my hotel here is going to evacuate tomorrow morning so I had to scrounge up another place further south. Wasn't much left.
Got the last room at a crappy motel near West Palm. Thursday I'll hope to find enough non-flooded roads back to my business and sift through the damage. Fingers crossed it's just a lot of work and not a drawn out claim process. The quicker I get back to somewhat normal the less money I stand to lose. But I'll be fine either way.

Hope everyone in the path is making smart decisions and staying safe out there.

My favorite SM quip floating around out there:

Customer Service: Hello, how may I help you?

Florida Caller: I'd like to end my subscription to the Hurricane of the month club, please.

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Stay safe out there guys.

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Looks like Naples is getting slammed with water already..

https://twitter.com/TONYxTWO/status/1843...KeDeg&s=19

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For the moment feels like we are going to get super lucky it goes south of Tampa our impact will be less for sure

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Seems to be drifting a bit southward. I track the path via the NOAA releases every 3 hours and a little movement to the south can mean a lot for Jacksonville.

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Stay safe everyone.

I'll post my rant about the extreme increases to our insurance after the hurricane passes. Also, in some cases, those paying $5k per year get their claims denied whereas some that don't even carry insurance coverage get relief from FEMA and other government entities. Our system is so screwed up. Guess I posted a portion of my rant already ....

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Just checked the status on my way in today. Yea we’re working at least half a day at the shop, looks like it came back north and now it’s gonna hit as a 4 yuck

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I read somewhere that this is a ‘pinhole’ hurricane, meaning the eye is smaller than typical. A characteristic of pinhole hurricanes is they tend to quickly change intensity up and down the scale. Hopefully it scales down before making landfall.

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The latest track that I saw this morning at 6:00 AM EST shows it possibly making land fall near Sarasota.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

my thoughts,and prayers go out to any one in its path.

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snowwolf titans owner in madden.

note titans owner means im undeafted againest them. 

From NHC https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Note the bolded bit at the end. 

Milton is moving northeastward at 12 kt in the flow between a mid-to upper-level trough over the northern Gulf and a ridge located over the Greater Antilles.  This motion should generally continue
until Milton makes landfall in Florida, which is likely to occur late tonight or early Thursday morning.  After the hurricane reaches the coast, a turn to the east-northeast is expected as another
trough approaches the system from the west.  Milton should exit Florida and move over the Atlantic waters Thursday afternoon and
accelerate eastward after that.  The NHC track forecast is nudged a little to the north of the previous one to be in better agreement with the latest models.  It should be noted that this forecast is based on the model fields, not the interpolated models which appear to be too far south.  Users are urged not to focus on the
exact landfall point as the average error at 24 hours is about 40
miles.

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From NHC https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Note the bolded bit at the end. 

Milton is moving northeastward at 12 kt in the flow between a mid-to upper-level trough over the northern Gulf and a ridge located over the Greater Antilles.  This motion should generally continue
until Milton makes landfall in Florida, which is likely to occur late tonight or early Thursday morning.  After the hurricane reaches the coast, a turn to the east-northeast is expected as another
trough approaches the system from the west.  Milton should exit Florida and move over the Atlantic waters Thursday afternoon and
accelerate eastward after that.  The NHC track forecast is nudged a little to the north of the previous one to be in better agreement with the latest models.  It should be noted that this forecast is based on the model fields, not the interpolated models which appear to be too far south.  Users are urged not to focus on the
exact landfall point as the average error at 24 hours is about 40
miles.

Good stuff. Thanks, Americus.

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Seems to be drifting a bit southward.  I track the path via the NOAA releases every 3 hours and a little movement to the south can mean a lot for Jacksonville.

You have some nerve coming around here!

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Looks like Naples is getting slammed with water already..

https://twitter.com/TONYxTWO/status/1843...KeDeg&s=19

How highs the water, momma

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Looks like Naples is getting slammed with water already..

https://twitter.com/TONYxTWO/status/1843...KeDeg&s=19

How highs the water, momma

That’s the song I thought should have been played when I watched it.

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Mount Dora reporting. Stay safe, we're gonna get through this.

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The last update from NWC on NOAA's website still showed a probable track to make land fall around the Sarasota area.  That was at 9:00 EST.  The next update should come out in about a half hour at 12:00 EST.  That's both good and bad news for me.  It looks to hit further south from our home so we shouldn't get as damaging winds as we were expecting.  However, I have family that lives near the projected area for land fall (just south in Punta Gorda and around Ft. Meyers).

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

Despicable..

https://twitter.com/FHPTampa/status/1844...aUP4g&s=19

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Alligator Alley..

https://twitter.com/iAnonPatriot/status/...7aPGQ&s=19

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Despicable..

https://twitter.com/FHPTampa/status/1844...aUP4g&s=19

I would love to find the person that did that and tie them up to a pole.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.