Tallahassee Is A Target Of Irma - We Will Be Gone

The path of Irma - right over Tallahassee

We woke up to this hurricane map at 7AM Sunday. It shows the Hurricane Irma going right over our hometown of Tallahassee. It will be at Tampa at 2 AM on Monday - then take 12 hours to get to Tallahassee at 2 PM. We will not be waiting for it. We will be in our Roadtrek camper heading west to Pensacola. It will be our maiden voyage.

Many folks do not realize that you can drive west from Tallahassee for 200 miles - and still be in Florida. That should be far enough to get out of the rain and winds. We will be poised for a quick return to pick up the pieces.

According to the map - it will only be a Category 1 hurricane that hits us - but why sit it out. Tallahassee is full of trees and they fall on powerlines and roofs.

Our Roadtrek has a king size bed - bathroom - shower - kitchen - water heater - generator - TV - 32 gallons of gasoline - and 7 gallons of propane. We should be quite comfortable in there. I will let you know when we are on the road.

We just bought this Roadtrek - our first trip.
Ironically - we bought it in Pensacola.

Our house is built like a fortress - 2 x 6 studs - 3/4 inch plywood sheeting - solid foam core insulation - engineered trusses - hurricane grade windows - steel straps in the walls - raised above grade two feet on a concrete foundation. My only concern is a few of the neighbor's trees that with the right wind direction could reach our roofs. We sit up on a hill - 10 feet above the street.

Our decider was "one it by land - two it by sea" - if the storm was over water at Tampa - we would migrate west. If the storm was over land at Tampa - we would stay and face it. Maybe we won't wait until it gets to Tampa at 2 AM.

We have a bunch of family up north with their fingerprints buried deeply in our backs. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Update - we plan to leave here after lunch in 2 hours from now.