You hanging in there? I'm seeing some severe storm surge reports, but wonder how accurate they are. Stay safe, high and dry.
Yes. Winds to maybe 80. No sign of surge but we are 1.5 miles away from the bay. Looks good so far other than my boat cover which I am certain has been ripped to shreds by now. Judging by live cams Naples got maybe 4 - 5' of surge, Ft Myers beach 5 - 7 judging by which roads are underwater and how much. Sanibel, Captiva, Boca Grande likely getting the worst of it
Those islands had amazing canopies of trees before Charlie completely obliterated them all. I guess they weren’t native to the island (or particularly wind hardy) so that’s why they went down pretty much 100%. But it really changed the look and feel of the island drastically, not the beaches but the “feel” of the island. I know they were re-beautifying in recent years, with a focus on native and hardy plants, but with a storm like this none of that matters… a lot is going to have to be rebuilt. Holy chit! The crazy thing is i’m maybe 25-30 miles from that reading, I think the worst is passed us now but will still see strong tropical gusts or occasional hurricane gusts for several hours, so have to keep crossing fingers about trees coming down. Not worried about surge here, just trees. I’m amazed to still have power! Unfortunately my parents have a house that is just about to get crushed with the full force of the left center of the eye. I seriously hope nobody on the coast of SWFL on a barrier island or even along the bays and rivers even thought about staying in a single story home. Based on what I’m seeing on television of coastal Naples (water over roofs of cars) the water up in Englewood and Venice (maybe to Sarasota) could be 2nd floor levels closer to the eye. But even where there will be offshore wind, the wind event is insane. Even new construction roofs might have issues if anyone actually sees 170mph (let alone 200+).
MBFGW! Nia Vardalos would be proud. That is what I have been thinking too when I hear the name, presuming I read your reference correctly
I clicked on the link and could not tell. That cannot be at ground level, I hope. I’m assuming that is wind speeds higher up in the storm. Do you know?
Giving what is being reported at the moment my thoughts are with those that are riding this one out. I hope they are in a safe place and prepared for the worse. What I don't understand is why these news stations send out reporters and camera operators who foolishly stand out in the middle of the storm.
No clue. I had already seen reports on local news of confirmed 170+ gusts and, and if that was correct it would be the quadrant of the storm lining up into Southern Sarasota county. I assume Englewood and Boca Grande already hammered by this.
Last night there were some people at the southernmost point buoy sometime around 11pm, as they were leaving, a big wave came in and knocked one of them over the wall into the street.
Sanibel and especially Captiva were hit pretty hard during Charley, took quite awhile to clean up all the debris especially the downed Australian Pines lining Periwinkle and the road to Captiva. This looks to be worse.
They do this so the people can know visually what’s going on, what kind of damage has happened or might be coming. It’s not foolish at all. Most of them are in structures that are structurally safe, and I don’t think I’ve seen reporting from areas that would be genuinely dangerous (like the leading edge of the eyewall). Hell the fort myers based stations at a point were just doing reports from right outside their studio.