Tampa got lucky. The storm weakened significantly more than forecasted. Storm surge was minimal, and Tampa was spared a sizeable direct hit yet again. We didn't lose power, but were one of the few neighborhoods that didn't. No damage to the house, but I had boarded it up nicely. We had 80-90mph gusts from what I've read, and it certainly looked that way around 2AM.
So I'm back at work today and went to the local Publix to grab a salad for lunch. Huge mistake. The place was overrun by a mob of people buying things - anything - that wasn't nailed down. It was in-fucking-sane. I asked a girl frantically restocking the soda aisle if we were getting another hurricane. She laughed and shook her head. These people were just in the grocery store 4 days ago before the storm, buying everything they could then. What could they possibly have run out of in 4 days that has them going nuts like this? Last week, several days before the storm, people were fighting over propane, generators, plywood, batteries, whatever they could get their hands on. One woman was frantically trying to get a propane tank when her husband said "Why do you want propane? We cook with natural gas in our house." The woman answered that others were going for it, so it must be important. The husband shook his head. People with electric stoves need propane because if power goes out, all they have is their grill. Duh. My wife said the panic was palpable. it made you feel like you should be buying something, even if you didn't need it. Everyone was so crazy that you could feel the fear in the air and felt like you had to be preparing just like they were - even if you had already prepared. One guy got a generator - the last one - and did a celebration dance before getting punched in the jaw by the next in line for his rubbing into everyone's face. Total lunacy. People suck. They really have no idea what to do in difficult situations. By contrast, look at the Japanese. Orderly, disciplined. They have a disaster and they all line up and do what they are told. We riot over a lack of chee-tohs.
In regards to natural gas, we learned our lesson when Hurricane Fran came through North Carolina. We thought "we have a gas stove so we don't have to worry about a grill". The reality is that the falling trees from the hurricane not only took down the power lines but the root systems tore up all the buried gas lines. We got electricity back (11 days later) before we got gas back. Fortunately we had an outside grill with propane (with a tank that was nearly full).
This is horrific. How could this happen? http://cw33.com/2017/09/13/at-least-6-dead-after-florida-nursing-home-left-with-no-ac-from-irma/
Interesting. How old was your neighborhood? Ours is brand new. There simply aren't any trees that could rip up anything or that could fall and damage anything.
Something sounds fishy. It wasn't hot these past few days. I don't know how no AC could have killed anyone.
It wasn't bad if the windows were open and you had a breeze. I doubt the rooms in the nursing home had any windows open. Perhaps is was other forms of neglect and not the heat. Who knows.