My thoughts on the postponement...
The UF perspective:
- Having lived in the G'ville area most of my life, hurricanes don't hit us. They may brush up and kiss the coast like Floyd, but they don't make landfall, and neither did Matthew. No one had any reason to believe it would hit us, and it didn't. But it was reasonable to wait and see if it would veer east and leave the Florida coast unscathed. So that's why you don't cancel a home game when the hurricane has yet to hit Haiti.
- By the time we thought that the weather would affect the game, there were too many other considerations to make.
- The infrastructure is stressed. Despite no real weather issues, it was not a certain thing as Matthew veered North and avoided landfall. Had he stayed on course, G'ville would be among the $1MM+ without power in Florida. Add to that, there was very little gas to be found in G'ville and hotels were already filled with those heading in from the coast, which also put stress on restaurants and grocery stores.
- Safety personnel. The potential was certainly there that law enforcement would be stretched thin as well as other first responders.
- The players were not in a frame of mind to play. I heard that over half the roster came from East coast communities. This does not include those who may have extended family on the coast. So a vast majority had their minds on loved ones on the coast.
- Lets be honest. We needed optimal conditions for this game. We did not want to make a last minute road trip (potentially without security). We also did not want a half full stadium on an off day like Sunday. This is our only big home game this season, so why do we want to give it up? Makes no sense. November 19th is just fine. It can and should be played then.
The LSU perspective:
- Who want's to play in a fully loaded Swamp? Even with an injured QB and several other injuries, anything can happen when the Swamp is on fire.
- By offering to host or delay the game by a day, they take the Swamp out of play. They also get to play us at potentially our most vulnerable time personnel wise.
- Nov 19th works for LSU. They have South Alabama, they can make it work, but they don't want to. It's hypocrisy for them to cry about the schedule, but act like a hurricane bearing down on players' loved ones is not a big deal. F them.
The SEC needs to mandate the game be played in the Swamp on Nov 19th. The SEC has insurance to pay for buyouts and both teams losing a home game. What could be an even better option is to play the Presbyterian game after the SEC Championship game. That gives the team more practice time and a game where younger guys can play.
I cannot reiterate enough.....F the corndog eating mofo's
I had to leave in 2004, sw of Gainesville, and we had trees down going out to where I lived and no power for a week afterward. I was told it was pretty bad. When I came back, one of the NE neighborhoods in Gainesville had been hit by a tornado and half the houses in a 6 by 5 block area had trees through the roof.. It was a disaster for those people for at least a month. There must have been a lot of trees down around town as it took tree services a long time to get to that neighborhood. I would hardly say that Gainesville is not in the paths. I think we have been in a lot of paths.. Not the eye, but paths. In 2004, it seems like the prediction was for the eye to pass close to or through Gainesivlle. I don't know how close it did pass, but do you really want to ignore that possibility?
The potential for the storm to be disasterous was still strong at 1pm and after on Thursday., certainly nough to do damage and require personnel to be places other than games. Gainesville is not that far from Hawthorne which was told to expect hurricane winds. The local forecast at noon on Thursday was that Alachua and Marion Counties could see hurricane gusts. We were also told we could even see sustained winds of 73 MPH at one point on Thursday. Given that information and the NHC measurements and advisory, I think the decision made sense.
What if there were significant power outages? Gas was in short supply on Thursday. Pump handles were covered. Playing one or 2 days later would not necessarily be adequate recovery time. Plus how selfish would it be to have enforcement that might need to be sent to coast at a game..
Also, even if I were to buy the argument that Gainesville never gets hit, we get evavucees, have gas shortages. Even more importantly, I personally think it is insane and immoral to gamble with people's lives given the most carefully watched storm can turn abruptly in an unanticipated direction and intensify suddenly.
Yes, I know they usually produce warning, but less so the last few years. I have seen this happen in other areas quite a bit the last 3 or 4 years.
We thought it was fairly quiet back here on Friday, and about 500 feet away, a tree size limb was ripped off and blown a distance. I just don't see how it is ethical to gamble with people's safety when tornadoes were also on the table as a very real possibility in the Gainesville area. People were advised to stay off the roads because of evacuations, we didn't need to invite them in. for a game.
At the time the decision was made, the there was a strong storm and lots of potential for adverse scenarios.
I just don't think it makes sense to schedule for Sunday when you don't know what the area would be like. And how about all the players that had family near the coast? Don't you think they were and would still be distracted? I've lived here a very long time, and on the coast before that. I have a healthy respect for these storms.
Moved back here from 2 hard years in Miami area about a week, maybe less before Andrew. My husband had a UHall rented to bring the rest of our stuff. The day he was to leave, Andrew hit. That was a pretty sudden change of events. Suddenly he was boarding up windows for his family and neighbors, and spent the hurricane guarding his buisness. The eye was to come in right where our stuff was in our apartment, in mainland North Miami Beach, and the business was about 5 miles north of there. Luckily for us, the course altered right before it hit and it unfortunately for Homestead, devastated that region.
I t is an illusion though to think that a wind speed and path are written in stone and can't suddenly change. Lousiana knows this all too well. I have seen hurricanes alter their path abruptly on radar in ways I would have thought impossible. There was also one hurricane in which the plane measurements proved to not reflect the actual state of the storm shortly after the measurement was recorded. I don't think they ever knew what happened with that.
Being inland is not foolproof protection. There is plenty that can happen.
