I just got back from Publix, the one on US 1 and about 148th. It wasn't crowded amazingly, but they were nearly out of paper plates. A carnival atmosphere inside, everyone laughing and talking like they were at a party. I guess they are excited that the die is cast and the storm is finally going to come in.
Hoping your cat 3 scenario is wrong!
Meanwhile, I have a barometer, uncalibrated, but as of this morning the glass is falling rapidly after holding steady for the last few days.
I can empathize. After all the waiting and anticipation, the models going crazy and switching back and forth, Wilma crawling at a snail's pace and stalling, it's like, "Okay, let's get it on, already." As Bastardi might say, let's get this endgame into play.
I think it might be.
I think the max sustained winds are just that. So if the hurricane is moving 10 mph, the hurricane hunters will find winds 20mph faster in the right front quadrant than they do in the left rear. But the highest sustained windspeed is what is reported.
That is why, with a weak cat 1 wind map, you'll often see no hurricane-force winds to the left of the center.
But I think Laz's advice to treat this like a Cat 3 is still sound - recall that Katrina was "just" a boderline Cat 4 at landfall but still produced surge worse than Cat 5 Camille.
Sam, Publix closed up two days ago down here. They’re always the first to go, taking most of their frozen foods with them. They weren’t fully restocked for over a week after Francis. They say they have to do so for insurance reasons, but they signed the policy. It doesn’t endear them to the population, who still have Win Dixie and the Island Market (Key Largo Shopper) to chose from.