September 6, 2017

"Sir Richard Branson is riding out Hurricane Irma in the wine cellar on his private island."

WaPo reports, mostly using Branson's tweets, like this one:


That's obviously not the cellar, but as he said 4 hours ago: "Expecting full force of Hurricane #Irma in about 4 hours, we’ll retreat to a concrete wine cellar under the house https://virg.in/oGj"

54 comments:

Sydney said...

The cellar will be good, as long as it doesn't flood.

richlb said...

TOMORROW'S HEADLINE: World saddened by drowning of Virgin founder.

Michael K said...

I hope his cellar is sealed against the storm surge.

Bob Boyd said...

"The cellar will be good, as long as it doesn't flood."

Or a tiger doesn't get in.

rehajm said...

Reports we're receiving from St. Barts are that buildings are either completely destroyed or are severely flooded on the first floors. Storm shutters ripped in half. All communication is down.

Branson's been conditioned to feel invincible. I hope he is...

rhhardin said...

The tape on the windows is a nice touch.

rhhardin said...

The hazard isn't the wind as such but the flying stuff that the wind hurls into you at a hundred miles an hour.

Original Mike said...

Sure glad his windows are protected by masking tape.

Birkel said...

The hazard is the water.
The water is what kills, mainly.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I love storms. I love going out in them. I have even gone swimming in the surf during a big Miami storm while visiting. There is nothing about big storms that I don't like. But we live on sufficiently high ground that when we get flooded the apocalypse has begun.

Greg Hlatky said...

How many refugees can fit in there?

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

rhhardin said...
The hazard isn't the wind as such but the flying stuff that the wind hurls into you at a hundred miles an hour


Where we live it is the trees. Falling trees have destroyed a boat and damaged our house, not badly, but have more severely damaged other houses. After the last major storm local people starting knocking the the large trees down and my town looks less beautiful than it once did. Personally I think they are morons for doing this, turning rural looking surroundings into boring suburbia with a lot of shrubs.

William said...

I see this as an interesting premise for a remake of Lord of the Flies.

Original Mike said...

"Personally I think they are morons for doing this, turning rural looking surroundings into boring suburbia with a lot of shrubs."

We had to kill the trees in order to save them.

rhhardin said...

HF radio is still blacked out by this morning's X9 (highest possible) solar xray flare in any case. No WWV (Boulder CO) audible in Ohio.

tcrosse said...

There is nothing about big storms that I don't like

Have you ever ridden one out on a ship at sea ?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

ah poor wealthy man.

William said...

Our prayers and sympathies should all be with Richard Branson at this difficult time.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

tcrosse said...
Have you ever ridden one out on a ship at sea ?


Not really. My current boat is a motor cruiser and not very seaworthy. I will go out after the worst has passed but I wouldn't want to be out in the middle of a storm in that boat. Amongst small boats only sailing boats are equipped to survive really rough weather. Obviously fishermen see this differently, but they are crazy.

Etienne said...

"Private Island" sounds so 1% -ish

Ralph L said...

I hope the survivors of his soon-to-be-dead employees sue his estate down to nothing. What an irresponsible twit.

John said...

The best he can do with the windows is tape? Seriously?

Big Mike said...

@Etienne, try 0.001%

But you'd think a guy with his kind of money could afford high quality hurricane shutters and not try to rely on a couple strips of masking tape.

Hope for his sake the cellar doors open out and not in. Water pressure can defeat -- has defeated! -- pretty strong deadbolts.

Michael K said...

"There is nothing about big storms that I don't like

Have you ever ridden one out on a ship at sea ?"

I've been through a cat 1 in a 38 foot sailboat but ellison doesn't believe me.

We had wind speed pegged at 60 for 12 hours. We were far enough offshore to be safe as the boat was bulletproof. Too heavy for racing but the hull was an inch thick. It took all the bottom paint off. The seas were as high as our spreaders. When we were in a trough the boat stood upright. Then we would sail up onto the crest and it would lay over 45 degrees.

We had a #4 job up and no main. It was a Yankee 38 and built like the Swan boats which it resembled. There is a good sailing novel (very rare) about a Swan 38 called "The Shipkiller", a very rare and dated novel about a modern sailing story.

When Ramon Carlin bought Sayula II from Swan, he asked if the rigging was strong enough for the Round the World Race, They laughed at him.

Sayula took a couple of 90 degree knockdowns in the Screaming 50s but never lost the rig,

A strong sailboat is much safer in heavy weather than a power boat., Even a big one.

Not Category 5, though.

tcrosse said...

Not Category 5, though.

You'll need a bigger boat.

Bob Boyd said...

Is there a bathroom in the wine cellar? A bunch of empties?

Michael K said...

Not Category 5, though.

You'll need a bigger boat.


I don't think an aircraft carrier is safe in cat 5.

rcocean said...

Key West has to be evacuated. That's a lot of people. Hope the highway to Key West isn't damaged.

Dave64 said...

seriously, how does Branson get no grief from the left? White, a Lord , boat load of money, he is everything Hitlary and BoBoBernie hate in this world.

rcocean said...

Typhoons have sunk Destroyers in the open sea. Of course, they were top heavy, which I suppose a sailboat isn't.

rcocean said...

Wasn't there a yacht race with Ted Turner that got caught in a storm off Australia? IRC, several boats went down.

rcocean said...

"The hazard isn't the wind as such but the flying stuff that the wind hurls into you at a hundred miles an hour."

True, but if its strong enough, the wind can hurl YOU through the air.

tcrosse said...

Is there a bathroom in the wine cellar? A bunch of empties?

Can you shit into a wine bottle ?

Michael K said...

"Hope the highway to Key West isn't damaged."

That causeway was under construction in 1935 when the 1935 hurricane came through. I was probably the worst to hit the US ever.

Hemingway wrote a couple of short stories about the aftermath.

The government tried to get all the CCC workers onto a train to evacuate them but the trains got swamped. 600 dead.

Lionel Barrymore told a version of the story in "Key Largo" to scare the gangsters.

Chuck said...

david rieck said...
seriously, how does Branson get no grief from the left? White, a Lord , boat load of money, he is everything Hitlary and BoBoBernie hate in this world.

Oh, come on! Sir Richard is everything that they love in this world. A climate change scold; a diversity fetishist, devoutly liberal in every social dimension.

If being white and wealthy were a disqualifier, then what would become of George Soros, George Clooney and George Stephanopoulos?

Being white and wealthy is only a problem if one is a conservative.

Carter Wood said...

Michael K. said: "The government tried to get all the CCC workers onto a train to evacuate them but the trains got swamped. 600 dead."

Here's what a page dedicated to the CCC's history says: The greatest tragedy to members of the Civilian Conservation Corps occurred during the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, one of the most violent storms on record. Three CCC camps on the Florida Keys had a complement of 684 veterans. Less than one-third were on holiday leave when winds of 150 to 200 miles per hour struck the area, knocking out connecting bridges and rail lines. A rescue train sent from Miami was derailed before reaching its destination. The official report listed 44 identified dead, 238 missing or unidentified dead, and 106 injured. Many were literally sandblasted to death, with clothing and skin heavily scraped from their bodies.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"Oh, come on! Sir Richard is everything that they love in this world. A climate change scold; a diversity fetishist, devoutly liberal in every social dimension."

Yep. Today's tycoons are smarter than the 19th century robber barons. Our versions of John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould know that the left will leave them alone, even applaud them, if they parrot clichés about social justice and climate change and give generously to the DNC and Planned Parenthood.

It's the modern day equivalent of buying indulgences.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Can you shit into a wine bottle ?

9/6/17, 2:05 PM

That is a question for Laslo.

~ Gordon Pasha said...

My Dad was the quartermaster on a Bagley class destroyer during Typhoon Cobra. He said that was the most frightening thing he endured during the war, which included being ship wrecked at Pearl Harbor, nearly sunk at Savo Island, and having his ship struck off Okinawa by a kamikaze.

oleh said...

I wonder who is the biggest gas passer in that crew.

oleh said...

exiled,

Well the joke is on the new crew.

Many Robber Barons would also have thought themselves progressives. And look at the nickname that stuck.

rehajm said...

Oh, come on! Sir Richard is everything that they love in this world.

One for Chuck. Lefites talk a good game but they love elitism just as much as the next (GENDER IDENTIFIER OF CHOICE TO GO HERE).

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

It's a tycoon in a typhoon! I know it's not, but wouldn't that be funny!

Paul J said...

Can you shit into a wine bottle ?

I almost think you would want to insert it a good ways first, to optimize capture, but it's unclear. Empirical study will answer the question.

Paul J said...

Probably titus has the best intuitions on what would work best.

tcrosse said...

I can shit in a wine bottle
Can you do it, too?
Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

-Emily Dichinson

Yancey Ward said...

"Can you shit into a wine bottle?"

You might want to load up on stool softener first.

Lnelson said...

Do his progressive friends call him "Sir"?

Fabi said...

"Can you shit into a wine bottle ? "

I'd drink the contents first -- to be safe.

Bob Boyd said...

"Can you shit into a wine bottle ? "

Didn't you ever make a snake out of Play Dough when you were a kid?

Michael K said...

"
Here's what a page dedicated to the CCC's history says:"

Thanks. I hadn't looked it up.

Hemingway had a short story about going around in a small boat after the storm and seeing a liner on its side with dead passengers. I don't know if that was a true story.

Bad Lieutenant said...

What was the name of that story?

Gospace said...

After being forced to watch The Perfect Storm with my wife, I looked up when the actual storm happened. And yes indeed, had rode it out. Doing 10 degree rolls. At 400 feet deep. The depth gauge went to zero when attempting to get to and stay at periscope depth; we went right back down. BTW, zero on the depth gauge means the keel is out of the water... At 400 feet deep we're not supposed to notice there's weather topside, much less be doing 10 degree rolls.

On the surface during a North Atlantic storm is not a pleasant place to be.