Florida preparedness
In contrast with Texas, Florida is massively prepared for hurricanes, with strict building codes, emergency management procedures, and comprehensive procedures to rapidly restore electric power.
That said, this is the biggest and baddest landfall strike in the U.S. in a long time. Irma is worse than Andrew (1992) and Wilma (2005), which were also Cat 5; Irma has a large horizontal extent, which means larger swath of hurricane force winds, bigger storm surge, more rainfall and tornadoes.
Lets see how it plays out, but I anticipate that this will go much better than Hurricane Harvey and Houston.
I’ve been talking with Floridians that remember Andrew (1992). I reminded them how MUCH better the forecast information is now, relative to 1992.
Apart from Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas are also facing impacts from Irma. Atlanta could see hurricane force winds! From a massive storm like this, there will be perhaps a hundred tornadoes generated inland, mostly in the right forward quadrant of the storm.
https://judithcurry....a-eyes-florida/