It depends on a whole bunch of different things. Have some local news sites and contact numbers handy (especially a neighbor if there's someone there riding it out).
Having electricity is going to be a critical in regards to coming back home. I don't know the setup in Florida, but the company that runs/operates most of the distribution lines in the Houston area is Centerpoint. When there are outages, people will look at an online map showing impacted areas and a rough count of how many customers are being impacted. Perhaps/probably an online map will be available for your area of Florida that will show outages and how many are impacted. If you can find the link and bookmark it now, that would be a good thing. If you are in a fairly new neighborhood, the power lines might be buried and thus not subject to wind issues. If you are in an area that has trees and overhead power lines, then the risk goes up for you having an outage. When it comes to restoring power, companies apparently stick to a variation of What is the 80/20 rule in simple terms? The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is a familiar saying that asserts that 80% of outcomes (or outputs) result from 20% of all causes (or inputs) for any given event. In business, a goal of the 80-20 rule is to identify inputs that are potentially the most productive and make them the priority. when possible. If they can have four people restore the power to 1000 homes or 100 homes with the same amount of labor hours, then it makes sense to move the 1000 homes above the 100 homes on the To Do List. Hospitals and critical infrastructure very well could/should be higher on the To Do List than homes. If the water distribution system has power issues, then either no water or low pressure. A year or two ago, a small storm moved through and knocked out some power in the Houston area. A pole was almost completely snapped near me and the electricity was out. I talked to somebody in the crew and he said that my area had a relatively small outage and would usually be lower on the To Do List. Since the pole was supported only by the overhead lines and really nothing at the base, it was moved up on the To Do List because there was a risk of things getting worse with the pole going completely over into a house and causing issues for nearby poles and the overhead lines. If you have a generator to support you during an outage, then it won't be too bad unless the water supply for your area has been impacted.
Well, we have a generator, so I don't expect us to have a power outage or anything. We will keep in touch with neighbors. Currently planning to be back sometime next weekend (when I will be back from Europe as well). If I had been there, I would have suggested to just stay. But I guess when you have a wife and two small children, you want to be extra careful when you cannot be there to "protect them".
Everything you're saying and planning checks out. Except why are you sending your family to Dallas of all places? You haven't been married with children long enough to hate them, right?
Haha. I found a nice hotel with childcare. Looked in Houston first, but couldn't find what I was looking for. Also, great weather forecast.
There are too many variables. It would depend on the storm and the damage/type of damage it inflicts and the area it hits. Like if you have a Harvey-type of damage with flood waters that go up to the roof of your house... well, that's rare. But if there's a lot of general flooding and wind damage that blocks roads, that could be more common and may not clear up until authorities can clear the roads. In some cases they may not let people enter or exit areas. Then you can have a run-of-the-mill tropical storms/hurricanes where there's damage, but it's minor and doesn't stop anyone from really traversing the area.
Tropical Storm Ian poised to become Category 4 hurricane, threaten Florida https://www.axios.com/2022/09/24/tropical-storm-ian-intensify-florida-cuba
Looks like a new record. https://globalnews.ca/news/9153444/fiona-ns-sept-24-landfall/ According to the Canadian Hurricane Centre, the storm made landfall early Saturday morning over eastern Guysborough County, N.S. As it passed over Hart Island, the storm has an unofficial recorded pressure of 931.6 — making Fiona the lowest pressured storm on record to make landfall in Canada.
That's what my buddy in Sarasota said yesterday..."if I do all this s**t it'll miss us, if I don't we'll get plastered."
Looks like this could be pretty bad for the Pensacola area. Hoping for the best and stay safe down there.
That's my plan. Unfortunately, I need help on the rental to put up some boards, so I didn't get that done yet. Still have about 600 pounds of furniture to get in. Fortunately the majority of the windows are impact resistant and I don't need to put panels on them. Our Lanai door is too heavy to be impact resistant so it will get covered. Finally, I'll take the cover off the boat so it doesn't go flying into the Intercoastal and raise the lift really high. And then just hope the natural gas stays on so that the generator runs. Already have neighbors reserving the limited freezers space we have available.
