What a day!!  There’s no fuel to be found in South Florida. We quit looking.
I traded some tools for a 5 gal can and paid another guy $100 to siphon his tank from a farm near Arcadia, FL.
Not having watched the news – has anyone mentioned that Lake Okeechobee breached it’s banks and sent a torrent of water two miles North of the town of Arcadia and into the Peace River? Has this been on the news. Not a peep was on the radio… (f**kers).
En route to the coast we got a ham radio call, well, more of a desperate plea for help on U.S. 17 for a group of families stuck between Wachula and Arcadia.  By the time we got there… yikes, desperate homeowners and families trying to salvage anything amid chest high water actually flowing on US 17.
We were able to get about 5 families and their pets, and a few belongings, relocated about 2 miles away and called for the United Way to get there and help. It was like something out of a farm movie. These people are suffering, and they didn’t have much to start with; and they are so thankful.
By the time we got them to safety, we couldn’t get back to where we came from.  We had to drive 20 miles north; to head West toward I-75 near Bradenton; to head South. On the way across SR64 there were people stuck with the Peace River flowing down the streets and driveways.  We helped who we could amid widespread downed power lines; broken power poles snapped like twigs (East to West wind); and trees as thick as cars that were blown over (North to South wind).
(more…)

NOTE: I am posting this for Sundance, who is very busy at the moment. He wrote this last year on September 11. (signed) Stella

I hope he will rejoin us at any moment!

To honor the memory of those lost on September 11th/12th 2012:

The Benghazi Brief

The “Benghazi Brief” remains the most controversial research report we have ever produced. The brief contains over two years of research and hundreds of very specific factual citations supporting it. Two years after it was originally written, and not a single aspect outlined within the brief has ever been identified as inaccurate.
(more…)

Bretagne was the last of the 9/11 search and rescue dogs to be laid to rest. The above video show the honor given her by the officers (video says it is Houston firefighters) as she takes her final steps. There were many American heroes in the aftermath of 9/11. These dogs were among them. The rest of this post is the first one I wrote about the dogs on the anniversary of the attack. 
We have all heard that heroes come in all shapes and sizes; sometimes the most unassuming person rises to the occasion and meets the challenge. And sometimes it is a very special type of animal, a rescue dog. In the aftermath of 9/11 bombings, the world’s largest deployment of rescue dogs were used to search for survivors, working tirelessly with their handlers, searching  the ruins, and according to witnesses, giving great comfort to the workers. Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas has published a book called Retrieved, featuring the surviving dogs in their final years. Read more and check out the pictures of these wonderful dogs here in this Daily Mail article. (more…)

On this anniversary of September 11, 2001, We The People of the USA thank you sincerely,  O Canada,  for your kindness and support of our brothers and sisters in their time of dire need.  From Whitehorse to Gander, your graciousness will never be forgotten.
GANDER, N.L. – Gander International Airport in Newfoundland was once a cosmopolitan crossroads where transatlantic flights carrying everyone from world leaders to Humphrey Bogart touched down to refuel.
Its modernist lounge with geometric flooring and sleek furniture is a trip back to 1959, when the Queen opened it as an avant-garde ode to the glamour of air travel.
But Gander’s global prominence faded when jumbo jets started criss-crossing the Atlantic non-stop. Traffic at the sprawling airfield — a former Second World War staging point — dwindled to cargo planes, military flights, emergency landings and the odd private jet.
Then 9-11 hit. (more…)

A man who was convinced the Twin Towers would be targeted in a terror attack led 2,700 people to safety from the World Trade Center before being killed when he went back in looking for stragglers.
Security chief Rick Rescorla carried out training drills with staff at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to prepare them for a terror atrocity after realising the vulnerability of buildings to air terror attacks.
But after leading thousands to safety on 9/11 when his fears were realised, the 62-year-old Cornishman was last seen going back up the stairs of the South Tower before it collapsed. (more…)

We are on the road headed back in to coastal SWFL now.  We have immediate wellness checks and assessments to conduct.  I will touch base later.
At 500 AM EDT (0900 UTC), the center of Hurricane Irma was located near latitude 28.9 North, longitude 82.6 West. Irma is moving toward the north-northwest near 18 mph (30 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue through Tuesday. On the forecast track, the
center of Irma will move near the northwestern coast of the Florida Peninsula this morning, cross the eastern Florida Panhandle into southern Georgia this afternoon, and move through southwestern Georgia and eastern Alabama tonight and Tuesday.

Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 75 mph (120 km/h) with higher gusts. Additional weakening is forecast, and Irma is expected to weaken to a tropical storm this morning and to a tropical depression by Tuesday afternoon.
(more…)

In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

There are millions of people without power throughout central and south Florida. As a consequence people are turning to broadcast livestreams available from local media on video platforms.  Here’s two livestream media sources for Tampa and Orlando:
♦West Coast –  Tampa, Bradenton, St. Pete (Manatee and Hillsborough Counties) via ABC Action News: