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Currently hurricane force winds extend 40 miles from the center and TS out 140... this will likely increase so full state coverage is possible especially for areas south of Orlando. Currently Irma is still small compared to Wilma which had 90 mile wide hurricane force winds and almost unreal 230 miles worth of TS force. While you shouldn't focus on the line down the middle the worst winds/damage will occur there. For example in Andrew I lived 60 miles away and so we only got borderline Cat 1 winds vs the Cat 5 winds that hit southern Dade County. The resulting difference damage wise can be quite dramatic, your talking just some tree branches snapped vs having parts of your roof ripped off. The worry is ANY small shift in the track during the land encounter means you go from 60 mph winds to 130 mph winds in your backyard thus you have to prepare as if you will see the full force of nature.
While bad for the islands Irma's current track should give us good radar fixes on the storm during the critical Weds/Thurs time frame when she is near Puerto Rico.
The same happened with Charlie. My parents' place is right at 50 miles east of where I live. They had 130 mph winds and incredible damage to trees and structures (80k damage to their house) while we didn't even have TS force winds. Will be interesting to see how the wind fields expand around this monster....just hope I don't see them first hand!
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Re: HUR IRMA Lounge