We had a really good shoot. The weather was nice for once and the humidity was super low. Since opening day legal hours starts at noon time, it is usually hotter than hell and twice as humid. I don't know if the hurricane was responsible for anything, but whatever the reason it was comfortable.
We had scattered shooting until about 6PM and then the birds really started to fly. A couple of guys commented that they'd been dove hunting for years, but this was their first time actually getting their limit.(limit is 15)
Had a nice BBQ and we entertained 17 vets along with their families, and everybody had a great time. Considering how terrible things are in general, in the world these days it was a nice reprieve from the crap we deal with on a daily basis.
Of course now we have a category 5 hurricane bearing down on places I've had a long time association with. I spent a lot of time in Puerto Rico back in the day, and although most of the people I know have left the island for the mainland years ago, it's still a scary thing to see this storm fixing to tear stuff up. I'm sure the number of dead will climb without a doubt.
My other old stomping grounds of Miami and the Florida Keys seem to be a very real possible target in a day or two. They started mandatory evacuation of the Keys this morning. Last night at 2AM I checked some of the live webcams down in the Keys and it looked like Friday 5PM rush hour traffic in Atlanta. All you could see was car lights headed north on US 1.
I found a webcam that is outside Sloppy Joe's Bar in downtown Key West and it looked like something out of a Zombie Apocalypse movie. It was 3PM and it looked like the whole city was dead and abandoned. There were like 5 people walking around as if they were waiting for the Zombie's to attack!
In addition to Sloppy Joe's I found webcams for The Smokin' Tuna and Irish Kevin's. I'm PROUD to say that back in my younger and wilder days, I'd gotten drunk and was thrown out of all three of those bars. I've actually been tossed out of quite a few bars in the Keys. Kind of a tradition dontcha' know!
BACK WHEN THIS WAS STILL THE UNITED STATES.
You could see how they had secured all the tables and chairs, and they had stacked plenty of sandbags in hopes of keeping the tidal surge. But this is category 5 hurricane, and I'm scared if it hits Key West directly, all those places will be washed away.
Miami had to endure Andrew back in 1992. It was also a category 5. I had left Florida by then and was back in Atlanta, but I saw pictures of my old neighborhood and it was pretty well wiped out. Depending on where or if Irma makes landfall, the destruction this time could outdo Andrew I'm being told.
One of the possible tracks has it coming up the east coast of Florida and making landfall near Fla/Ga line. Those on the Georgia side of the line have very little in the way of preparedness and it will be some serious damage.
I'm still hoping it will burn itself out before it reaches land and hopefully will lose most of its energy by then. But who can say for sure? Maybe God is really ticked off at how we've screwed things up, and this is just the beginning?!
