Hey, so most of y’all on the East Coast of the US have probably seen a ton of news about Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in Florida yesterday. It hit as a Category 4 Hurricane and is now starting to spread across the Eastern Seaboard. It is forecasted to start dissipating over the few weeks, but it’s initial landfall caused very heavy damage across a large portion of Florida. Some states farther north are expected to get some pretty heavy storms as a result, causing chances of further destruction.
How do you all think it’s going to affect the 22-23 season for the districts on the Eastern Seaboard?
Man why you gotta rub salt in the wound. First Florida gets hit by a hurricane then you have to remind me that only Florida and New York are on the Eastern Seaboard and not in districts.
This is a joke and not meant to derail this thread to be about districts. No hard feelings.
So this image is a good summation of what Florida specifically dealt with yesterday and the lingering effects of today
For the sake of comparison here is every team and regional that takes place in roughly the affected area.
The part of the state that got hit directly while Ian was at it’s strongest is not densely populated with teams and Florida as a whole is built to deal with hurricanes very well ever since Hurricane Andrew hit when I was a baby. I have spoken to a few of my friends on teams across the state and thus far the worst I have heard is knocked over trees.
When Hurricane Matthew skirted by the state in 2016 we had Roboticon an offseason event go on as scheduled a little over 24 hours later, and this year Roboticon is scheduled to happen on the 8th-9th and is expected to proceed despite taking place in Tampa who did get it much worse than the east side of the state. So at least for Florida I do not think this is going to affect us at all.
Yeah, checked in with a bunch of the folks I know in Tampa/St Pete area and some of them didn’t even get rain just a bit of wind which is all kinds of crazy to me.
Let’s first take a minute to hope for health and safety for all members of the FIRST community and beyond. The way this will impact the 22-23 season the most severely is if some of our participants aren’t there to see. Some might have to rebuild or relocate. Some might have lost loved people or possessions. The impacts will vary, but let us not forget that much of the impact from a natural disaster is far more consequential than a robotics program.
Now, onto the robotics program. There are supply chain challenges in the short term, and will likely be some lasting impact in the long term. Any structure could be hit by a natural disaster: suppliers, teams, homes, venues. We don’t know until we know. None of that to mention the financial burden on hurricane victims which may impact their ability to participate.
But really, this is about safety ahead of all else. If anyone is impacted and there is a way you can think of for the community to help (even if it’s just moral support), please share.
