Hurricane Day Florida - September 10, 2017

From Don Browne, editor

The latest Hurricane advisory this morning at 5 a.m. Sunday has my county outside the center but we will still have extensive rain and wind even so. I've decided to stay here as I expected the highest winds to move west of me going more along the west coast of Florida, and Naples and Fort Myers.

I have high impact windows that so should protect against anything hitting them. And most all of my neighbors are still in the area.

The worst immediate problem, besides debris and wind damage that will happen later this afternoon, will be that the electric will certainly be going out today and it will be unpredictable how long it will be out. It could be days or even weeks.

When the electric goes off, the internet connections will be out for wifi. Cell phone towers will be damaged and so cell phones will then be not working, and when their generators run out of fuel, there will be no cell service for days or weeks. Wifi service at local area businesses and government offices will depend on them having electric or generators and cell service which may be unlikely for some time.

Water service may be affected if utility companies can't keep their facilities and pumps working and so many in the area will not have water. It could be days, or weeks to repair those facilities. People with private water wells will not have water when the electric goes off. I have public water, although many in the rural areas have private wells.

I am not in a low lying area, but those who are, will expect flooding as there will be a foot of rain in areas here.

It is expected the highest winds here will be between 7 and 9 p.m. tonight. But there will be lots of rain and wind all day and night until early Monday morning when the storms will have moved further up the west coast of Florida.

I am expecting my electric to go out between 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday night, but may be earlier in the afternoon. So, if you don't see any further updates here on my daily news blog at swflorida.blogspot.com it means the electric has gone down here and I will not be able to communicate with the outside world from LaBelle for some unpredictable amount of days or weeks.

But rest assured, personal injuries to people in the area will be very very unlikely from wind or rain, although there will be lots of cleanup to properties and streets for many days or weeks to come.