My first trip down to Florida and with the recent Ian Hurricane it has my wife freaked out wanting to cancel the trip. We know it has done some damage down south and missed Savannah as well. What I'm looking for is this something that has the Orlando and Gainesville area up and running fairly normal by the time the Challenge rolls along? Never having been in any type of storm as a Hurricane I'm not all that knowledgeable about what is really going on down there.
In reply to brad131a4 (Forum Supporter) : I'm an hour north of gainsville. We didn't even get a single drop of rain. Everything is fine.
In reply to brad131a4 (Forum Supporter) :
I live in St. Augustine and it's was very slow moving storm. You can easily out maneuvers a hurricane. People that get hurt think they are indestructible and try to ride it out. We know where it's going to hit usually 2 or 3 days out.
Ocala here. Totally nothing happened. Everything is available. (thank goodness)
You're not going to be near to where the storm had any affect.
I'm in Gainesville. We effectively had zero storm. It rained a tiny bit and we had one day of breezy conditions, but didn't even have any limbs down. You'd never know there was a storm based on conditions here.
Im in Gainesville, less than 2 miles from the host hotel. We barely got anything from the storm. Put it this way-I put the whole family to work cleaning up the yard after the storm and we were done by lunch. Honestly, most everybody slept in so we got a late start. Lots of twigs and sticks, not a single branch that would have done damage if it landed on the house. There was so little rain I have had to add water to the pool and people have been having to water their plants.
Our gas stations have gas, and the grocery stores all have food.
If by chance another storm rolls in, Gainesville is incredibly low risk and you will have a LOT of warning. If you decide you want to leave its not that big of a deal. We are high up in the state right as it starts to widen and the host hotel is right on I75. About an hour North and you are in Georgia. Don't want to use I75? You have 441/301 to the NE, 27 and Alt 27 to the NW, or you jump over to I95. Those are just the larger roads. Basically we are not forced to sit in gridlock for hours before we get high enough in the state to have multiple ways out. Plus, you wouldn't be evacuating, you'd just be returning to the comfort of your own home.
I work in Bradenton, job is about 20-30 miles from where the eye of the storm passed by. I was back at work Friday.
Gainesville is nowhere near the path or the damage. Orlando was closer to the path, but the storm had severely weakened by then.
Have her call the hotel and make sure that its got power and everything is ok.
Thanks for the input guy's. This seem's to have helped settle her down about this part of the trip. Now it's adjusting how the back half will play out. Friend we were going to see up in Willmington called and said she won't be there as work has sent her back to the Seattle area at that time.
I'm a little late to this, but an indication of how things are in Gainesville is that FL2K, which was supposed to be held in Bradenton this weekend got moved to Gainesville Raceway, and it is a pretty big event.
Yeah, we should be completely unaffected. Gainesville didn't really get any storm effects.
And I know this isn't true for every area (IE Sanibel), but in general our state has done this before and our infrastructure is designed for it. Sort of like how a snowstorm is devastating when it hits Atlanta, but not nearly as major when it hits Massachusetts.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
Exactly what I was thinking.
My son is in Gainesville for college and reports same... like it never happened. As far as Orlando, business as usual now. There was a lot of street flooding and some limbs down, but it's buzzing like usual. If your planning any pre or post event excursions, Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville etc. are all business as usual and the beaches are looking good. You'd have to travel 4 hours South to Port Charlotte on the Gulf coast to start to see any real remaining impact.
She'll have nothing to worry about other than some probably fantastic weather.
FL2K is a very big event and was moved from Bradenton to Gainesville this past weekend, and by all accounts (from friends that went), it was a good event generally. Weather was fine, facility was good, etc. Everything that might make anyone hesitant in terms of the location should not be a concern, expecially if coming to hang out and race with a bunch of cars built for $2k didn't already dissuade her.
As a native Floridian maybe there is some good that comes from hurricanes, will scare the northerners away
ctk339 said:As a native Floridian maybe there is some good that comes from hurricanes, will scare the northerners away
Well that took a turn I wasn't expecting. Good thing I was taught not to make rude comment's. Well at least try not to. As we are only there for this event I'm letting that one slide.
In reply to brad131a4 (Forum Supporter) :
My first thought was hell half of FL is northerners already. It's rare that you meet a native. I tell people all the time that's why I like it here. You don't get a lot of "This is how we do it here." because not a lot of us are actually from here. It's a good thing. Teaches us how to work with people way different than us and work together.
Florida is a mixed bag in both the best and worst senses. Always has been, probably always will be.
In reply to darkbuddha :
Only state where the further north you go, the more southern it gets.
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