Hurricane Idalia this morning is taking aim at the Gulf Coast. Likely to be a Category 3 when it hits land somewhere between Tampa Bay and Florida’s Big Bend, the hurricane’s forecasted track triggered residents to cover doors and windows with plywood.
Ironically, it’s nearly a year since Hurricane Ian was predicted to make landfall at Tampa Bay but suddenly turned east and devastated Ft. Myers. Idalia isn’t expected to turn, so Tampa Bay and north are in the cone and battening down accordingly. All coastal communities are under evacuation orders and a tidal surge that could reach 7-9 feet or higher is a huge threat.
Dealers in the storm’s cone are taking action, moving all inventory possible to inside safety. Marinas are preparing, too. For example, at popular Loggerhead Marina in St. Petersburg, the staff yesterday began moving boats that are normally stored outside or in adjacent slips into its hurricane-rated high and dry building until the floor space is packed full. Obviously, normal operations won’t likely return for several days after the storm passes.
While knowing for certain a hurricane’s track is always a dice roll, the marine industry and the boating/fishing community are particularly sensitive and bracing for trouble with a still-fresh memory of what happened last year at this same time.
As I have often noted here over the years, I call Florida “The Sunshine State,” except during hurricane season when it’s “The Plywood State.”
Indeed, after I send in this report and board up the house, we’ll leave St. Petersburg where we’re living “the dream” in a mandatory evacuation zone from which we’ve been ordered out. Still, I love Florida living because where else can you engage in such family activities as the following: (A laugh is always good while running from a hurricane)
Florida’s Get that Python Event! It’s the only state where you take the kids on a wild Burmese python Hunt and get T-shirts and win prizes for capturing one. Seems these 20-foot-long, 200-pound colossal constrictors are showing up in lots of places, especially the Everglades.
Oh, come on . . . can’t you grasp the enjoyment of exuberant amateurs tracking through the tall grass hoping to grab a slithering killing machine by the head? Talk about family bonding! However, please note the Florida Wildlife Commission does recommend this: “Working at ground level helps prevent the python from wrapping around your face, neck or chest, all of which you don’t want. You have to be quick to do this. Try not to hesitate.” Really?
No, I’m not making this up. We do have a “Python Pickup Program.” Apparently the FWC really digs this event. The problem – the pythons seem less enthusiastic. Heck, I can’t wait to see the news coverage when one is captured on the badminton court at Mar-a-Lago!
Has this all been successful in reducing the snake population? Well, the box score is reported to be: dead pythons about 200 annually; other pythons seen flashing hunters the middle finger, between 15,000 and 150,000. No one knows for sure, but so far at least no hunters have been eaten.
To top it off, and to avoid criticism from the python lobby (everything in Florida has a lobby!) the FWC recommends “humanely” finishing off these killers. I suppose that assumes the snake doesn’t finish off the hunter first! However, if that should happen, at the hunter’s memorial service people can always say he was eaten by a python but he looks great in his free T-shirt!
Now, back to that plywood.
