The massive weather formation of Hurricane Matthew may not affect the Eagles’ game against Detroit this weekend, but it certainly has the power to knock out a significant percentage of our Philly fan base who reside in the lower half of the Atlantic southeast.
Hurricane Matthew is taking aim at the Florida coast, with powerful winds, potentially devastating storm surges and flooding from rain, prompting mass evacuations and dire warnings from officials.
Matthew packed 130 mph winds as it churned 125 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida according to an 11 p.m. update by the National Hurricane Center. More than 100,000 people were already without power in Florida late Thursday.
The deadly storm is projected to run parallel to the coast of the Sunshine State as it tracks closer to land over the next two days, producing a potentially devastating storm surge of up to 10 feet over an expanded swath of coast that stretches from central Florida up into South Carolina. The potential for a destructive storm surge, coupled with up to 15 inches of rain expected in isolated spots, has officials fearing catastrophic flooding.
Forecasters in Jacksonville warned of “worst case storm surge scenario” and said “if a direct impact occurs this will be unlike any hurricane in the modern era” as the outer bands of the storm lashed the state Thursday night.
“This storm will kill you,” Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott said at a news conference this morning, urging that “the time is now” to evacuate ahead of the Category 4 storm. “This is life and death,” he added.
Kinda puts the football game in a different perspective, eh?
The governors of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have declared states of emergency. Officials in three of those states have urged coastal residents to head to safer ground as the most powerful storm to threaten the Atlantic coast in more than a decade continued on its path northwest toward the United States today.
Motorists clogged highways, homeowners boarded up windows, and anxious shoppers lined up at grocery stores and gas stations as they stocked up on emergency supplies in the threatened coastal areas.
If it makes landfall, Hurricane Matthew could be the strongest storm to hit the United States in more than a decade, ABC News meteorologists said.
“It is very rare to have a hurricane of this strength come this close or make landfall in the eastern part of central or northern Florida,” meteorologist Max Golembo said.
No other Atlantic storm on record has packed such powerful winds for such a prolonged period as Hurricane Matthew. More than 377,000 people were evacuated in Cuba, according to the United Nations. And in Haiti, at least 350,000 people are in need of immediate assistance. There were reports of a powerful storm surge, violent winds and widespread flooding.
Matthew bore down on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas this morning, the country’s most populous island, which has not seen a major hurricane since 1929.
Again, it seems a little silly to worry about a football game being played in Detroit at this juncture.
Maybe it’s the perfect time to consider Eagles’ defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz’ remarks yesterday about going back to get “revenge” against the team which fired him as head coach a few years back:
“I visit Detroit a lot of times in the offseason. I don’t have very many friends, but my wife has a lot of friends,” he joked, “and I certainly enjoyed my time there. And it will be part of our family’s life, not just my life, but it will be part of our family’s life. And you look back and think you can take a couple years and you can appreciate the good times maybe a little bit more than when you’re in the middle of things.”
Schwartz went so far as to say that he actually roots for the Lions, so long as it’s not in direct conflict with his current team, as it will be this week when the Eagles travel to Detroit looking to improve to 4-0.
“I’ve got too much blood and sweat in that building, and there’s a lot of guys there that mean an awful lot to me,” he said.
Schwartz went 29-51 as head coach of the Lions from 2009-13. Though the record itself is not great, he did break an 11-year playoff drought in Detroit by guiding the team to a postseason berth in 2011 — a sharp turnaround from the 0-16 club he inherited.
He was fired after a four-game skid to end the 2013 season, as the Lions fell out of playoff contention and finished with a 7-9 mark. Schwartz was asked how his time in Detroit changed him.
“More gray hair,” he quipped.
“Let me put it this way: it doesn’t end well for head coaches in the NFL, no matter how much you want it to. As much success as Andy Reid had here, it didn’t end well for him in Philly. You could probably roll up just about any coach who’s coached in this league. It didn’t end well for Tony Dungy in Tampa; ended well for him at Indy. Didn’t end well for [Bill] Belichick at Cleveland. Didn’t end well for Pete Carroll at the Jets or the Patriots. I think when we’re in it, we all expect to be that person that just is somewhere for 25 years or whatever, and I think we just realize that it doesn’t always work out that way.”
Schwartz said he is “just trying to keep my ass off the hot seat” when asked flatly if he wants to be a head coach again, but the job he’s done in Philly so far has created some buzz. And it’s hard to ignore the names he mentioned when talking about head coaches who had situations that “didn’t end well”: Reid, Dungy, Belichick, Carroll. All went on to have successful second acts.
“I think just having a chance to step back from it, it lets you maybe realize what the most important things are. … Sometimes as a coach — and I’m not speaking just for myself, but probably for a lot of other people — you don’t enjoy yourself when you’re in the moment, and I probably enjoy myself in the moment a little bit more now after that experience,” he said. “And that’s a lesson you can only learn if you’re in it.”
I guess the lesson here is everyone at some time or another will have to survive a hurricane of some type—and Schwartz has survived one in Detroit.
Godspeed to all our fellow fans in the path of the beast they call Matthew.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
