This will be my last post on this topic since this is a car forum and I'm clearly contributing to de-railing the conversation.
1) My comment was with the ridiculous "20-30%" more devastation comment that you would see islands wiped off the map. I don't mean that the island would literally disappear; but the island being inhabitable for the residents is no longer possible. As it stands now, that's the status on many islands.
2) Stacey Plaskett is the US Virgin Island delegate to Congress. Her direct quote for St Thomas and St Johns is " We've lost practically 70% of our infrastructure in terms of utility system on the island St. Thomas and ALL of the utility system on the island of St. John"
2a) The hospital on St Thomas was destroyed
3) Look at before and after aerial footage of Turks and Caicos. The southern and western portion of the island are completely "gone" (underwater).
4) Necker Island- Richard Branson's island. Read what happened there, read his quotes, and look at pics.
5) Barbuda- 90% of the structures on the island are damaged or completely destroyed.
6) Tortola
7) Areas of Puerto Rico may not have power restored for 4-6 months.

"Sure you get the water, and get the wind but that's been going on since time began." Well "since time began" there were no resorts, and probably 1/100th of the population on each island. The population living on the islands and visiting the islands has increased substantially in the last 10-15 years.

That's all from me on this topic.

 

I can guarantee you 110% that all those islands you describe that are run by modern day countries will be as good as new in no time ....Also after SUPER STOrM Sandy if I wasn't prepared I would've been without power for 6 weeks...And I also stayed at my job and watched the Hudson River fill up my machine rooms while listening to the mayor tell everyone to flee...Of course all the ocean front dwellings were destroyed Long Beach Rockaways etc But if you plan on making a future in those places you need to be ready for this type of thing...Trust me this is far from the end of anything and I highly doubt when the end comes none of us will be posting on the internet tell people to Get Out Now...

 

Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about here. Google Barbuda. Google St Martin. 90% of the structures on Barbuda are gone. 70% of the residential structures on St Martin are gone. 40,000 people homeless. Google Key West.

Is going to take years to rebuild these islands, perhaps the hotels and tourist areas will be back up more quickly, the parts rich Americans see. Have you ever visited some of these islands and checked out where people actually live? The scars from hurricanes past were all over these islands before Irma, they will absolutely wear more going forward and yes, some areas will never be rebuilt. The beautiful gleaming resort will sure, but don't be so foolish as to think that is any sort of representation of the island itself. Have you been to New Orleans since Katrina? Parts are still not rebuilt, and thats in the 48 states.

This was an incredibly dangerous hurricane, one of the most dangerous ever. Yes it turned out better in FL that was forecasted but one only has to look at the Caribbean to see how it could have turned out. To downplay the scope of the devastation in the Caribbean is just ignorant.

 

For anybody who doubts what this storm could have been for Florida.

Yeah, these places will be good as new in no time:

Barbuda:











St Martin:

















Watch these videos and tell me it was overhyped:





Much better to have evacuated and found that evacuation unnecessary than to have stayed and found that you should have evacuated.

 

anyone find it creepy that a company can just go in and do this, what else are they capable of? Forcing your car to the speed limit, heck not allowing your car to go over 0mph if they wanted to disable it for whatever reason

 

Of course structures that are made from tin and mortar will be blown away its elementary But the land itself isn't going anywhere....It's like living in tornado alley it's not a matter of If but When.... So you better have a nice bunker to hide away in...

 

I stayed through Super Storm Sandy the Hudson River was almost 6 ft deep in the basement...Worked out well too made tons of OT ....

 

Long Beach after Sandy notice the homes on stilts ...Almost like the 3 little pigs story

 

Who is saying the land would go anywhere? People don't live in the land. Your house is blown away and you're like "hey I have land". That's a great example of wealthy American ignorance. These people don't have insurance. That doesn't exist there like it does here, hell it doesn't exist here in many places. The infrastructure is destroyed, you expect them to pitch a tent? 55 people died in the Caribbean. Oh well? That number will climb. Get real, this was a huge natural disaster. People in FL were right to be freaking out.

Good for you that you stayed through Sandy. Sandy was nothing like this. Not even close.

 

All I'm saying is be prepared..

 

Again, totally out of touch with reality. Very few people can afford to build such a structure. Virtually nobody in the Caribbean. Anyways put that through 3-4 hours of solid 100+ MPH wind, and then stay after with no power, water, food. Looters. Great plan.

Hurricane coming, you should leave. Worst case you waste a couple days and a few hundred bucks. Worst case if you stay? You die.

 

So you move to a place that gets hit by hurricanes and you build your house from straw? And I'm out of touch with reality...?? I guess to me some things are just worth dying for...Like everything I spent a lifetime to make...

 

People in the Caribbean didn't all move there. People have lived there for generations. Same is true in places in the US that are prone to disasters. These are very poor places. These people live in the homes and structures that their parents lived in, it's a lifestyle totally different from yours. In any event, even in the strongest of structures you're in danger in this sort of storm.

If you truly feel that your "things" are worth dying for I actually am really sorry for you. It's just stuff, it's not important in the grand scheme of things. It can all be replaced. In any event, what are you going to do to protect your "things" in a category 5 hurricane? Nothing. You being there does nothing but put you in danger.

Hell, I evacuated D.C. in 2003 during Hurricane Irene. We lived in a house with a very wooded lot with lots of big trees, many of which could hit the house easily if they fell. We packed up ourselves and our dog, grabbed my mom and dad and drove all our cars to our family in southern WV to ride it out. It was worth it just to avoid lying there in the dark listening to the storm howl and wondering when the tree was going to come through the roof. When we came home? Precisely that had happened to our next door neighbor. Glad we left.

I'd have been the first person out of FL.

 

Did you mean Isabel in 2003? Irene happened in 2011.

I rode out Isabel in my town house.....we got winds strong enough to do some damage to the trees on the development, but, fortunately, no significant damage to the townhouses or my car (I put my car in a local covered parking garage). But power was out, off and on (not continuously) for almost four days.

 

Definitely a nice gesture by Tesla as anything that could keep folks moving to evacuate and be safe was helpful. If we could we have increased the range of our ICE vehicles with the flip of a switch, i'm sure a lot of folks would have been happy to receive such a free benefit in this (or any) time of need.

Points raised about the ethics of modifying something a consumer has already purchased via a centralized method goes into the conversation about consumer rights and consumer protection. Although, this generation has sort of silently said " I'll take a free update if you give it away." We have become accustom to getting firmware updates, software updates, over the air updates etc. on lots of modern day tech. Heck, in 2003 when I had an intel pocket jukebox MP3 player, I was able to update it by syncing it via USB to my PC and connecting to Intel's website...for free, without thinking about information sharing, privacy issues, etc.

I think its nice that in times of need, a big company or two will stop for a second and at least think about the humane thing to do instead of allowing $$$ to always run their entire show.