Hurricane Irma

[Mortblanc]

Irma finally made "landfall" on some of the Florida Keys as a Category 3, 120-130 mph winds. That is bad, but not exactly the category 5 which the news agencies had been having their orgasm over for the past week. It is not the worst storm ever to hit this region.

No matter how bad the reports or how severe the warnings to leave become, to the point of certain death, every town in the U.S. has a news crew out on the beach filming trees blowing sideways.

It is now headed up the west coast and about to strike the area around Naples Florida. Back in the old days Naples was the center of the sponge trade and had a huge population of Greek immigrants, mostly sponge harvesters.

Apparently it will bounce up the coast hitting points that extend to the west but spending much of its tine with the eye out in the Gulf. The track could change again but that is unlikely.

The closer it gets to Naples the more the announcers hyperventilate, like announcers at a football game, but they still have computer and phone service in many of the homes and individuals are popping up on the TV to do live reports.

The really heavy population area is to the north in the Tampa/St. Petersberg metro-plex. Tampa has a fine harbor and that is one of the locations the Gulf based cruise ships operate from. There is a huge population of retired people in that area but many have fled and are with their families further north, or they have not traveled south for the winter as yet.

We will see how things go.