Irma -- taking the toll

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It's a bit hard to understand for us here in Scandinavia. Around 40 M/S are about the max here.
I can't even imagine the windspeed of 80 M/S...
I work as a Battallionchief (kind of) at Fire & Rescue, and I can see that they have lots of work ahead...

//Figge
 

PRR

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> Around 40 M/S are about the max here.

90MPH. Here is Maine, I am not required to design a house for more than 60MPH; for most framing methods, snow load is controlling here. If I have enough studs to hold up my roof, and enough wall-boards to keep the snow out, it will probably resist well over 60MPH wind.

In Florida they have 110MPH and 130MPH design codes (but no snow load). Aside from bracing, this may include steel shutters so you don't have as many telephone poles and other junk coming through windows.

Hurricanes have been rare in Maine. But twice in New Jersey and once here in Maine we got the dying end of hurricanes, major rain. Less dramatic than a full wind/wet storm, but still major trouble. We may have just got the last of Harvey here. It has been no rain for 2 months, and then WHAM 1.2 inches in 2 hours. Glad I fetched the mail before it hit; otherwise no problem, and maybe now the grass will grow.
 
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The DR will get drenched, for sure!

We have all the lawn furniture inside, the storm shutters closed and braces made for the doors. And we have limes and rum! I'll not quote King Lear, but we're ready.
The storm predictions did have it going right over us, but now it looks to be off to the east. The other side of Florida will be worse off than us.
 
My relatives in Florida were on their way back to NY yesterday.

My plans were to be driving southbound 1 week from today with my final destination about 10 miles west of Pano........I'm not so sure that's a good idea right now. I won't cancel the reservations until Monday though.

The beach cam looks peaceful now......I'll keep checking it until it blows away.

Beach Camera | 'Tween Waters Inn Island Resort & Spa
 
The DR will get drenched, for sure!

We have all the lawn furniture inside, the storm shutters closed and braces made for the doors. And we have limes and rum! I'll not quote King Lear, but we're ready.
The storm predictions did have it going right over us, but now it looks to be off to the east. The other side of Florida will be worse off than us.

My wife is leaving tomorrow cancelling her visit to get some work done on our house. I expect there will be no building materials for months.
 
Hurricane Wilma hit Florida in 2005. It hit Mexico, then turned Northeast crossing Florida striking between Naples and Marco Island and exiting near Jupiter on the east coast. In the few hours that Wilma spent over Florida, it trashed the place.

Although forecasters in Miami predicted a mild storm for those on the east coast it was the worst storm I had seen in my 61 years in south Florida. It was initially classified as a category 1 storm on the east coast, but the "estimates" were changed to cat 3 several weeks after the storm, once the damage was assessed.

I lived about 10 miles west of Ft. Lauderdale near the edge of the everglades at the time. The housing in the area was built according to the toughest building codes in the country (post Andrew), which only apply to 3 counties in Florida (Miami to Palm Beach). I took a lot of pictures during and after the storm, since there wasn't much else to do. We had no power for 22 days. Our power was restored by a crew from Duke power in North Carolina.....A pizza and beer bribe might have helped bump our priority up a bit.

The first half of the storm was typical. The house was shaking and the power went off. The eye of the storm passed directly over us which gave us about 15 minutes of calm winds and minimal rain. I went outside during the eye and moved my cars, backing the convertible right up onto the front porch of the house. Part of its black top can be seen in front of the passenger door of the red SUV. Note the grey house with the speed limit sign in the yard. The basketball hoop has been ripped out of the ground and the roof has lost a few shingles. I took this picture as the wind began to return.

About 1 minute later things got real nasty. I grabbed the camera and went outside. The roof on the grey house was being ripped off in 4 by 8 foot pieces, plywood tar paper and shingles all flying away at once. For about 15 minutes I had to retreat inside, since there were trees, trash, a garage door and all sorts of deadly stuff flying through the air. Then things returned to being a typical storm.

This is a picture of my front yard after the storm. A tree branch landed in front of the convertible, right where it WAS parked before I backed it up onto the porch. The tree didn't have too many branches left, but despite the warnings from all the hucksters selling tree repair after the storm, it came back better than ever after a few years.

Others were not so lucky:

It has been said that Wilma was stronger than Irma, yes, true, but none of that force ever touched land. It hit Florida at 125 MPH. If Irma hits a major population center (or the Florida Keys) that has not changed their building codes since Andrew hit Miami in 1992, bad stuff is going to happen.

I used to think that the "hurricane panic" started by the Miami TV stations was totally unnecessary, but this time it IS warranted.
 

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I found a few pictures of hurricane Irene in 1999. This was a mild storm as winds go, but flooding was a problem. Despite being DURING a hurricane, the mailman didn't miss a delivery. Yes there fish swimming down the sidewalk, not to mention ducks, and a possible gator (I didn't see it).

The house with the red minivan was mine. It is in the middle of "Lake George." The entire neighborhood was under water for 3 days.
 

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Gee George, those are a mess! Let's hope we don't get a repeat of that . This could be a very bad hurricane season.

Do you remember hurricane David in 1979? It went north of you and right over us. It was supposed to make landfall at Pompano Beach so we took the boat and ran north to hide in the Mangroves. But David found us and the eye passed right over us which was trilling in a boat. We had to reset the lines and anchors as the eye passed, because the wind changes direction on the other side of the eye. That's when we got attacked by a swarm of wasps in the eye of the storm. No pictures, but it sure was exciting! :)

Let me know when and if you get down this way. I'll pop over to the island and say hello.
 
David, 1979. Just bought the same house shown in the previous pictures.

I was much younger (27) and stupid enough to go down to Ft. Lauderdale beach to meet David. I tried to body surf in a hurricane. The meeting lasted about 15 minutes, but I was picking sand out of body orifices for days, especially my ears.

Let me know when and if you get down this way. I'll pop over to the island and say hello.

An old high school friend has two weeks of timeshare in a condo on the northern tip of Captiva. We usually go there with him and his girlfriend. The weeks are in July and September, so if we don't make it this time, we probably won't be back until next July. I do hit the Orlando Hamfest in February sometimes. I was there this year, not sure about 2018.
 
I tried to body surf in a hurricane. The meeting lasted about 15 minutes, but I was picking sand out of body orifices for days, especially my ears.

Early in the 1969 school year (September) me and my room-mate ventured out to Westhampton to body surf. Gave up after getting completely whacked by huge waves after 10 minutes.

We've had 12 years of Atlantic Ocean calm, just ending.

Someone mentioned today that the cyclonic forces in SE Asia are "Homeric" compared to our Atlantic weather.
 
Wow, great stories.

Frankly, all this talk about hurricanes and climate change is making my DIY mindset think about more drastic and uncommon disaster proofing. Of course, living on high ground far away from a major waterway or coast, I think the most I would do is add a sump well and sump pump. Anything more than flash flooding, I am outta here.
 
We get the odd one here in Nova Scotia, the worst in my lifetime being Juan in 2003. It was only Category 2 but uprooted literally tens of thousands of trees here in Halifax. It was quite a sight with most streets blocked by fallen trees, which of course took down a lot of power lines. Some area were without electricity for weeks, though we were luckier than most (only 3 or 4 days). A few fatalities, including a man killed in his car when a tree fell on it.
 
It's a bit hard to understand for us here in Scandinavia. Around 40 M/S are about the max here.
I can't even imagine the windspeed of 80 M/S...
I work as a Battallionchief (kind of) at Fire & Rescue, and I can see that they have lots of work ahead...

//Figge

Maybe in Sweden 40m/s is max.
Certainly not in Ålesund where I come from, the entire coastline has a very "lively" weather, and it is a long coastline. Maybe you meant inland in general and not Scandinavia, there can be a lot of wind near the coast in Sweden sometimes too.

At any rate. It must be a horrible experience to be out on those small islands now.
 
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