Here we go again- hurricane Milton

[Richard Cranium]

 

[j-c-c-62]

Looks like my wife's family rode it out, with minor damage, in the Ft Myers area. Last I heard, the power was out, but there's a major difference in restocking the fridge, and having No fridge to restock...

Drove down today I75 from Atlanta, which is always within approx a dozen miles of the coastline south of Tampa.
There was NO visible damage seen (trees, signs, debris, etc) on I75 south of Venice.
South Florida was barely touched, and very, very lucky.

 

[sam dupont]

So the water flowed out of Tampa Bay? Where did it go? Are tornados common with hurricanes?

 

[j-c-c-62]

The water simply moves in this case to the south of the eye, and causing the dreaded surge as the hurricane makes landfall. Just like blowing across water in a full bowl, same amount of water it just moves around.

And yes, tornados are very common, but historically they are small. and very short lived and account for much of the very isolated severe unexplainable property damage seen post hurricane. This time something weather wise unexpected and unforeseen occurred, returning back to the realization, it's a fool's folly to think one can thoroughly predict a hurricane to any real extant, IE they are all different.

 

[wahya]

So the water flowed out of Tampa Bay? Where did it go? Are tornados common with hurricanes?

They were thinking that the storm was going to hit just north of Tampa, which would have pushed the gulf waters up Tampa Bay because of the counterclockwise rotation. Since it hit a little south, the rotation had the opposite affect, pulling water into the Gulf. Small short lived tornadoes are common,. I have lived in Florida all my life and I have never seen a storm like this. It was causing ef 2s and 3s like crazy in its feeder band, well out front of the actual storm. The problem with that for us folks on the east coast was, that feeder band was lined up and just “training “ individual storms along that line.
Sorry, I write slow especially at coffee time.

 

[j-c-c-62]

Good dog. If she has no basement, that closet was one of the few places with any chance of survival. I was in a parade of cars driving past the Town and Country motel where a tornado had bounced. All of the roof and half the walls were missing from the second floor of one building. It was like a cutaway sculpture or a movie set; a towel was hanging its place and there were glasses around the sink in front of the mirror.. My sister had just cleaned that room.

Read this recent Florida incident, speaking of "good" dogs.

MSN

 

[ksurfer2]

Well that was aweful. My area got 14 inches of rain from the storm. Other than some tree debris, a damaged fence, and no power, we came through unscathed. I live way out in the boonies so I'm not expecting power for at least a week. Still a lot of unpassable roads, gas is very hard to find. Its going to be a tough couple weeks for a lot of people all over the state.

 

[sam dupont]

Has anybody ever built a house on stilts that looks like a boat facing the ocean? Could have rotating sails for shade when the weather was nice.

 

[j-c-c-62]

Has anybody ever built a house on stilts that looks like a boat facing the ocean? Could have rotating sails for shade when the weather was nice.

Has anybody ever built a ship that mother nature could not sink?
My answer applies to both questions here, no.
If you can't afford to financially absorb the loss, repeatably, don't build it.
If you prefer to not drown, get off the boat and/or leave the structure.
Seems simple to me.
The first pic is in Bradenton (South of Tampa) prior to the very offshore passing Helene.
Second Pic is after Helene
Today the yellow multi story modern building on stilts is wrecked and on the ground after Milton.

 

[sam dupont]

The yellow house is a wind catcher, plus the stilts were not sufficiently cross braced. If it had been built with one corner presented towards usual prevailing winds, would it have been pushed over or would the wind have gone around it enough to survive? That's my thought about the bow of a boat shaped house facing into the wind.

 

[YY1]

Power went off 10:30 Wednesday night.
Wind did not seem as bad as Irma in 2017 despite eye passing within 10 miles of me.
Street flooded.
Lots of trees got cleaned out.
Biggest branch we lost was about 4".
No power all day Thursday, but still had water.
No water is WAY worse than no power.
2004 generator started on first pull with a shot of fluid.
Finished my 240 back feed cable I started in '17 and it worked.
Had ref, kit receps, hall bath and guest BR lights with TV and digital antenna box.
Ran gen 1-2 hours every 2-3 hours until about 9:30pm. Used 4 gal of gas.
Gave neighbor a 3 prong dryer cord so he could back feed his panel through the dryer plug.
Spent the day unboarding and piling debris...slogging into pole barn (about 5" of water) to get mower and garbage cans. Built roof for gen in case it rained.
Power back on yesterday around 10 am.
Spent rest of day hauling debris to street.

Went to check on mom Thursday am.
Tornados closer to her.
Most of those record number of tornadoes were halfway across the state from landfall or on the East coast.
Larger limbs and trees down on the way to her house..
Mom was OK and had power.

 

[Richard Cranium]

 

[YY1]

Night before-

Mobile, temporary "EOC"

Morning after-

Finally motivated to finish the back-feed plug.

Trip to check on mom-

"Reverse Murphy"-
Tenants left waders...in my size- 13/14!
Useful to slog into pole garage.

Force of wind-

 

[WileERobby]

My sister lives on a barrier island in Vero Beach. For a number of days I finally had her convinced to evacuate. On Wed am she changed her mind much to my chagrin. As water began to rise in her street Wed afternoon she decided to leave to higher ground. As she was packing up a few things to leave at 5:30pm, her dog bolted thru the doggie door like at 100mph, she said, petrified and ran and hid in the closet. My sister worried what had happened to her pet quickly followed and she kneeled down in the closet to consul and hold the shaking dog.
At that moment the roof blew off the entire house, concrete block walls were blown down, all roof trusses torn away and my sister was blown to the opposite side of the room. She only suffered bruises. She credits her dog with saving her life.
The only thing that survived was her closet full of her wearable clothes. Her SUV was also destroyed. The internal house picture shows black sky above, with no roof.
I had for safety evacuated to Alabama days before, I don't mess around.
I think my sister might join me with the next storm, which I'm OK with as long as she brings her dog.

Glad to hear she's ok. That is terrifying.

 

[j-c-c-62]

View attachment 1740972

It's usually a hidden soundman's trick to greatly reduce wind noise I have used for nearly 50 years.
The reservoir tip however is not my idea.

 

[CherryBomb]

Made it through unscathed in St. Pete, just a damaged fence panel at one place, and the fence leaning a bit at the other. Got power back on Sunday, though lots of folks in my area had it back Friday and Saturday. Close call at my fathers place, huge tree fell sideways across the front of his place, and his neighbors place. My brother and I spent nearly a full day hacking it up to get the neighbors driveway cleared. Turns out chainsaws are a hot commodity after these storms, so we went old school with a hatchet haha.

Hospital had people walking in with traumatic injuries, as EMS services were down due to danger from the wind. Seems like injuries were mostly downed trees during the storm, and car accidents after the storm. Remarkable how many seem to forget that a non-functioning traffic light becomes a 4 way stop. Lots of oblivious or self important folks just blowing through and going over the speed limit.

Boil water notice is officially lifted here, so I would say we are back to normal barring a few weeks of large scale debris cleanup. Oh and the Charger survived just fine!

 

[Budnicks]

Thing is, can one afford to move away?? I can't. I'm 50 miles inland and have been in this area since 63. My first home got flooded 3 times due mainly to poor drainage but the place I have now has never had any damage from any hurricane....and no flooding in the last 40 years. So why is my premium jumping like a Mexican jumping bean!?

Greed from the Insurance co.'s
anyone tell you different works for them & makes $$ off them too
legal extortion, plain & simple

as I feel for the people back east & in Florida
the insurance racket is out of hand today
I'm all for people/companies making a profit but at what cost ?
what levels is it too much ?
& to what extent to the economics, impact it causes ?
sometimes I'd bet worse than the storms

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

like fire insurance here, not the whole home or the reg homeowners ins.,
& we haven't had a fire in my area for 75+ years, it was still 20 miles away
we are level 5 to be insured, that's insane, I'm 120' from a fire hydrant too
I'm less than 1/3rd of a mile from a Firehouse, at the end on my street
What was $1200 annually with no deductible,
all my stuff/cars-trucks house/s boat trailer/s etc. (vehicles not included in the #s)
is insured by the same co.

It is now $3200, with a $5k deductible annually,
I had them raise the deductible to $7500
now paying $1600, for 125% or replacement/building costs,
for the buildings alone
that doesn't cover the stuff inside,
but for how long ?

I own everything outright nothing is financed, I don't need the ins.,
more about what if's
thinking about self-insuring,
putting the same funds in an account & build some wealth
use it if I need to if I had a problem, instead of making the Ins. co.'s rich

I'm sick of the rip off, extortion costs, the past 5-8 or so years
risen especially in the past, 3 years & 10 months, it's doubled 100%+
(poor leadership, in Sacramento/DC too, I'm sure it's the same in other states too)
I pay as much a year for HO Ins. NOW, as I do in my property taxes now,
& I only pay 1% of the org. sales/purchased price, under prop 13, annually

I could do a lot of repairs, for the money I've spent on
HO insurance/s the past 47+ years...
Probably $150k+ house/s alone, not including my cars trucks boats bikes quads etc.
(invested for me, properly, that'd be near a million today, easily)
& I never even had a claim, ever against my homeowners Ins.

 

[ksurfer2]

Day 5, still no power. I am getting really f'n sick of the sound of the generators running. I am way out in the sticks, so I'm not anticipating power any time soon. Power company says full restoration by Thursday. I am not confident in that at this time.

 

[Budnicks]

Day 5, still no power. I am getting really f'n sick of the sound of the generators running. I am way out in the sticks, so I'm not anticipating power any time soon. Power company says full restoration by Thursday. I am not confident in that at this time.

That sucks...

 

[copper67sat]

Day 5, still no power. I am getting really f'n sick of the sound of the generators running. I am way out in the sticks, so I'm not anticipating power any time soon. Power company says full restoration by Thursday. I am not confident in that at this time.

Sorry to hear that. Not having power for days or weeks after the storm was always the worst part of it for me. Our old house was on the same circuit as the water plant so we'd get power back quickly, usually less than a day.

We're in a rural area now and we'll lose power during the everyday t-storms, sometimes for several hours. The worst since we've been here was 5 days without electricity after a glancing blow from Michael, I think, several years ago . Luckily, some friends in town invited us to stay with them, dog and all, until our power was back.

We saved up for several years until we could afford to put in a whole house generator and 1000 gal propane tank about 5 yrs ago. This is the first big storm to hit here since and I was so much more relaxed knowing that we had automatic backup power. It wasn't cheap. About $18k for everything installed including the initial propane fill, but totally worth it in my book.