Last I checked Ivan is headed right at Panama City. So, it got me thinking… Ivan is a category 5 right now and not expected to weaken. So, supposedly Panama City is supposed to get an ass whoopin. Assuming this thing hits in 2 days that’ll leave a lil over a month and a half till IM Florida. Any thoughts on if this hurricane could affect the race?
It depends. If the beach front gets moved to Tallahassee, then I guess so. 
At 165 mph, the town would be leveled. Water, electric and sewer services would be severely interrupted and some roads could be damaged. I would suspect that finding a standing hotel/motel would be damn near impossible. Here in Orlando, we are 4 weeks, almost, out from Charley and my roof still hasn’t been fixed, though they are coming tomorrow.
I doubt the worst case scenario will hold, but don’t be surprised if you have to make other room reservations or the race is shortened or altered.
-Robert
well, lets hope the worst case scenario doesn’t hold. i’m sure the people of panama city would like to keep their homes… and, i would certainly like to finish my first IM.
sorry to hear about your roof/house. i hope everything is working itself out down there. good luck with the cleanup - hope you didn’t get it too bad.
Hotels and condos will still be standing next week. They will have to clean all the sand off of the roads. They will have to restore Power. I think it will be fine. The hurricaine is also supposed to weaken as it gets further north, in the colder northern gulf.
Now mu 2.4 mile swim race this weekend in PCB may be cancelled.
el
Last forecast I saw said that the Ironman was going to be blown all the way to Hilton Head if the hurricane gave a direct hit to Panama City.
I am allowed to make jokes about this since I live in Florida.
That would be a major improvement in venue.
-Robert
Am massively crossing my fingers and hoping the current models that are saying Mobile Bay hold up. A PCB hit takes it way too close to me. Destin would be even worse for us.
If it’s just sand getting pushed over the road, no big deal. You get the heavy machinery out and push the sand back off the road. The problem happens when you get storm surge over roadways in sandy areas where you don’t have concrete utility stuff underneath. When the surge subsides, it can take the sand underneath the pavement with it, rendering the road unusable.
Opal took out US 98 between Ft. Walton Beach and Destin that way in 1995. They had to go in and rebuilt the road from scratch. (though by all accounts, it was an amazingly quick rush job by FDOT standards) The coast road between Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach is maybe four feet total above sea level, and has had to be rebuilt after Opal, George (1998) and Izzy (2002) in recent years. Chances are it’s going to be gone again this year, so if anyone was planning on doing Santa Rosa Island sprint, I’d expect to see another 8 mile bike again in a couple weeks.
My guess for the big problems for IMFL would be beach erosion, and the road through the state park on the run. (nothing really between pavement and sand)
edit:
el- any more info on the PCB open water race? Was thinking about doing it, but haven’t signed up yet because of conditions.
Good luck Jill. Will be praying for you.
-Robert
Thanks! Everyone is starting to get a bit spooked now in these parts. Why couldn’t it have stuck with the track from a couple days back and hit Steinhatchee? No one lives on that part of the coast.
I just got an email that it is cancelled. Come on up to the ATlanta area and we can swim in a lake.
Stay safe.
el
The hurricane?
IMNA doesn’t cancel a race for a mere hurricane do they? Don’t they have Mother Nature on the payroll?
-Robert
I just got an email that it is cancelled.
IMNA doesn’t cancel a race for a mere hurricane do they?
Not sure, but I don’t think she meant the Ironamn. I think she meant a local swim race.
It’s getting a bit tense here today. I live on Navarre Beach, just east on the bull’s eye. I should be through boarding up my house and getting the wife and kids to the north end of the county today.
My wife is the cool Tri chick, she’s taking her bike in case we can’t get back on the island anytime soon. If we have a house at all. Insurance won’t cover anything on the ground floor so I’m just making sure the expensive stuff is up in the house. If the house goes, riding my bike will be down a bit on my list of things to do.
We had a 12 foot storm surge on Navarre Beach during Opal. My house got about five feet of water in the garage. Opal was a Cat 3 when it hit. Ivan is projected to be a Cat 4 with 15+ foot surge. Not good.
I’m off to cut wood and maybe a little surfing. We’re hopeful this is just one big aggravation.
David
Best of luck there, and hope you can somehow stay dry. We only got here in 1998, but I’ve seen the pictures of what Opal did to Navarre Beach. We rented down on Okaloosa Island for a couple years, thought George was bad enough even though it was a total miss, and ended up buying in a high part of Bluewater.
Hey David: Good luck. I am in Palm Beach Gardens, just north of West Palm and we just went through Frances, which was pretty mild, although 2.5 Million went without ower. Tens of thousands still aren’t back on.
Since verything has always been just a “scare” in this area, I didn’t board up, and nearly became catatonic when it actually showed up. I stayed at my girlfriend’s house (which is new construction, aluminum storm shutters and built like a bomb shelter), listening to the radio and hearing “there are gusts coming down from Jupiter at 100 MPH–get in your safe room–get in your safe room”, and wondering if I would have a house to go back to. Then the f___ker just hung off the coast for hour after hour, moving at 0-3 MPH, never making its move in. As it turned out, the winds weren’t that bad, its just that we were battered for so long before the storm finally began to move again. I only lost some gutters and landscaping.
I really regretted not boarding up, and not having a generator, but I was only without power for four days–not worth the cost of the generator I might only use every ten years–plus my brother has a real good one, but he lives in Vero Beach up the coast which got hit also becasue the storm was so wiiiiide. I also regretted not having some extra cans of gas, my LX470 burns about 10MPG.
I had plenty of water, and canned food.
Is there no chance of renting a truck and putting all of your stuff in it and hauling ass, or are you only concerned about rising water? Looks like you are not taking a directhit, but things change so quickly–remember what just happened with Charley–it made a hard right turn into Port Charlotte.
I only missed two days of training!! But honestly, I was questioning “what am I doing?”, “who cares about an Ironman”, who cares, who cares, who cares…Depression, I guess from no A/C, lights, ice, internet and SLOWTWITCH, etc.
May everyone’s higher power be with those in the path of the storm. Life is about to change.
The 2.4 mile swim race this weekend is cancelled. I dont have info on whether the hurricaine or IMFL is cancelled.
el