Jackstraw

I'm not a social media person. I don't tweet, twitch, tchwat, face or anything. This board is about as social media as I'll ever get. Hoosier can delete this post if he needs to, I understand. One of my best friends I've ever had lost his life to this around noon today. He was perfectly healthy, no underlying conditions. He was 10 years my junior at 48, had worked his way up from being a dishwasher at my restaurant back in the 90's to becoming a partner in that business with my brother and I to getting a PHD in 2017 in social psychology. He was my roommate for 5 years, my friend, my adventure buddy from kayaking to rock climbing to just about anything that made you feel alive to anything stupid enough to get you killed. He kept my "Old Man" arrogance in check while pushing me to not be "The Old Man". Most of all we listened to each other, really listened, something that's hard to come by nowadays. He married a wonderful woman he met who was waitressing at our restaurant and they have 4 awesome kids. She went from a waitress to being a pediatric RN. He started feeling bad the last week of March. He and I were talking on the phone and I asked him if he was ok because I could just tell something wasn't right.. He told me he was fine just felt like a little cold. With what was going on and being someone like me who very seldom gets sick with colds flu or anything I asked him if he was concerned. That's when he told me he had already self contained himself in their garage by then so I knew he knew something was up. 3 days later his wife called us and was really getting concerned. She said he had a 102 temp that wasn't moving. He's a stubborn prick like I am so she asked me to talk to him. I talked to him on the phone over the next couple days and it was very noticeable he was getting worse. By the 3rd of April he conceded something was really wrong, really wrong. She got him to the hospital the following day, they tested him but since they had a good quarantine set up at home, plus they live on 5 acres in the country, and he wasn't in the high risk category sent him home. When he conceded he was sick it just got worse. I talked to him 2 maybe 3 times a day, either skype or just the phone. Thats when he started getting scared. I mean you could hear the subtle fear in his voice, the struggle to breathe, you could see it in his face. He was trying to stay cool for his wife and kids but she knew. I was scared for him. We would talk and do the he's young and healthy enough drill that he'd make it through. They got the result of the test back the 6th and it was positive. She tried to get him admitted to the hospital last Tuesday but even though he was positive he didn't adhere to the criteria needed in FL to be admitted. He finally got so bad last Thursday night she had to call an ambulance and they admitted him. He was in ICU on Friday, that's the last time I talked to him. They intubated him Friday evening and he succombed Monday. The only reason I'm posting this is because this ain't the damn flu. This was a perfectly healthy active 48 year old man It took it 3 weeks to take him but it took him. Not a weak man, not someone who gives up, not someone who cowers in front of adversity. A true survivor that overcame hurtles in his life that most of us would or will never have to face. I'm still numb to this. I won't be able to pay my respects at a funeral. I couldn't and can't jump on a plane and embrace his wife, his 3 kids in college, his one still at home. He and I were both cynical about this back in January, lets just get it and we'll be immune come fall when it comes back like the flu. This ain't the damn flu and it will kill anyone who doesn't take it seriously and doesn't treat it with respect and with the responsibility we all have to our family friends and neighbors. This story is one of millions worldwide. Please be safe everyone and truly think about others before you think about your wallet.

So what is going to happen. First thing I have a question about is the hospitality industry. This industry is absolutely taking the biggest hit with these social distancing orders. Mom and pop restaurants are already getting crushed by the corporate drive through joints, heck even places like corporate Olive Garden type restaurants are getting killed by the Hardees of the country. How are these businesses going to open back up, exercise facilities, theaters, bars, anyplace that people congregate. Another thing is, what about folks who work at businesses that won't be allowed to open back up. There is a clause in the unemployment benefits that the feds said they would help with the extra 600 dollars a week (which doesnt kick in until next week in IN) will go through 7/31. They can revoke that if they decide to. The freeze on utility bills and rent payment repercussions, are those going to be lifted as soon as the economy gets reopened? Are utilities going to suddenly go around and disconnect folks who are either getting back to work or are still waiting for the extra UE benefits or stimulus money trying to get caught back up? Landlords evicting, banks foreclosing without a reasonable chance for some to get caught back up? Whats the reasonable time frame for that chance? Are people going to have to prove that they deserve continued help to get back to work in order to keep getting assistance in the short term? Small businesses that took the paycheck loans, they have to pay those back while at the same time trying to recover their business if they are lucky enough to open back up. What about the employees in the service industry that are already risking their lives for not that great of a paycheck, are they going to be exposed even more? There's a myriad of other issues. I agree we need to open the economy up like nobody's business. But the states better have their shit together doing it. There's going to be a lot of inequality when a restaurant or daycare center or theater can open in WY but none can in CO. It sucks, but IMHO we just can reopen statewide and/or nationwide until we have sufficient testing. It's not a matter of oppressive government, it's a matter of social responsibility. Lord knows I want to get back to work, and I'm sure there are many others who want to. We HAVE to get a sufficient testing system in place before we pull the 69 VW we're in back onto the interstate. If not I'm afraid there's gonna be a pile up that will shut that interstate down for a very long time.

C'mon, I'll take it. I got nothing else to do, might as well stat pad a dismal winter with a miserable spring lol.

The executive office of the country has claimed absolute power over everyone (was only a matter of time) so all arguments are moot now. Let's all just fall in line and follow our supreme leader

Cells firing ahead of the line in AL are spending more time out front before being overtaken than they were earlier as the system starts to lift NE. Central GA will be under the gun the next few hours. Anything that can stay out ahead of the southern part of the line as it lifts NE could be big trouble. Latest HRRR still showing some alarming soundings along the E GA coast up through coastal SC around 4-6am ET.

Corridor from Mobile up through ATL could be the highest risk over the next few hours.

Action now just SW of Chattanooga

Dews in GA are closing in on 80- 90% with pressure falls of 4-6 mb's over the last 4-6 hours. Going to be interesting to see how this current line and anything that might pop in front of it interacts as it moves into eastern AL and GA. Eastward progression should slow somewhat as the upper energy begins to pivot NE giving some of these cells more time in a still unstable air mass. There's still plenty of potential energy out there. I wouldn't be surprised to see the line currently moving into southern AL begin to become somewhat more discreet as it moves NE through pretty much untouched instability through central AL and central GA.

Yes going to be very concerning for GA/SC/NC due to the timing. There also wasn't a lot of focus on them the past couple days with everything being focused on LA/MS/AL. Some pretty startling soundings on the HRRR along the SE coast especially. They just don't see tornado potential like this right along the coast. 22Z HRRR soundings are similar from Savannah up through Charleston.....

Thats an amazing yet sad story, probably one of many. The biggest take away is just how contagious this virus is. It's amazing science how quickly the genome of this virus was sequenced. It's amazing science that we learned how closely it's related to past viruses. What's not understood yet about this virus is why is it so contagious. What part of it's genome makes it so sneaky that it only makes some people sick and others not. Those not to the point they aren't even sick yet they are contagious. To me this is the scary part of this thing. I'm quite surprised about an antibody test when at the same time it's not known if someone can be reinfected. Has that been proven yet? Can we become immune? What good is an antibody test if in fact you can be reinfected? Odds are once infected and recovered there's immunity built up. If this is an antibody test then it must be known within the medical circles that people become immune. Why hasn't that been expressed? I'm a bit puzzled. Edit:@Hoosiers post about the woman who never left for 3 weeks

The rural south has a large black population. Are the numbers there similar to the urban areas in the big cities? There are some counties in southern IN that took off like a rocket, but they were also some of the poorest counties in the state, Franklin, Decatur for example. They also don't have a very large black or even hispanic population. I understand deep crowded urban cities. My fear is making this virus racial instead of socio economic. We've already seen backlash towards Asian Americans over this, hell even in my small town the one chinese restaurant closed because of threats when all they've ever done is carry out, which is permitted. We need to be very careful throwing the race card around and focus on, what I believe, the real issue, it's money and healthcare access. Edit: Folks, millionaires are getting tested whenever they want. There are Dr.'s out there that will test you for 600-1000 bucks. If there's not something wrong with that, well make your own decision. The fact that the capitalistic mindset is still ruling the day in a time when the society that gives it it's privilege is being deprived is just criminal IMHO.

Instead of race I wish they would post income levels.

Madison county coroner posted 2 large refrigerated walk in coolers they acquired to handle storage of the deceased last week. May sound drastic but it is a mostly rural county except for Anderson. They normally can only handle 6-10 at a time.

First call of 2.5 feet. You are an American God lol.

Yes as with anything when it comes to healthcare in this country, 2 years down the road from now when the true numbers come out the demographic most prone to this virus are going to be poor with little or no access to quality healthcare. Trying to stay non political but we really are the only "wealthy" country left in the world where access to healthcare depends on your wallet. The pundits can say what they want, this is exposing the nightmare and inequality of healthcare in this country, from the top down. Not to mention the gutting of federal funds to the states for healthcare infrastructure over the last 40 years. To be the leader of democracy in the world, think our pants just got pulled down.

Yeah it's looking pretty gnarly right now on the models. Make sure you leave yourself an out to the E if you're going to AL. It's easy to get cornered as you move NE with storms. The E/NE part of AL can be like getting trapped in a canyon if your not careful and the roads start to suck. Been there. Decent soundings back into SC as the evening progresses too so you could be chasing, or be chased lol, all the way home. Good luck

Euro not quite that deep but does a funky stall for 6-8 hours just long enough to kick the SE US's butt with some wicked severe weather then shoots into MI. Will be an interesting dynamic system. Hope the models are over doing the severe threat down south. Don't need anything close to '11 down there right now.

Been watching Justin's channel for many years. Pretty amazing how they're trying to help get PPE's to health care workers in N AL...

Same here, I had to back away from the news cycle for a few days. As much as we deal with models on this board I tried to take the IHME with a grain of salt but I didn't think it's output would have been as bad as the AVN. Now it is bouncing lower, much lower, but I sure hope it's not doing the 'ol weather model windshield wiper on snowstorm tracks. Wagon's down I'm all for it.

That line has been moving 60-70+ mph for the last 3 hours, pretty crazy especially in early April.

As that line moved through Cincy the northern part is taking on a classic derecho look

Trying to dip its tail again, hopefully it stays N of the Memphis area

Jonesboro AR under a warning with a confirmed tornado. That sucks

This line of storms in IN is moving so fast they're through the warned areas when the warnings come out.

Spin ups along the line south of Indy. Couple warnings out.