The unpredictability of hurricanes.

[William769]

Hurricane Charley was supposed to be a category 2 hurricane to hit Tampa Florida. In reality hurricane Charley turned out to be a very strong category 4 hurricane that hit just 12 miles north of where I live. With the size of this storm, 12 miles was nothing.

The reason I bring this up, we knew the storm was just to the west of us and were not informed of the direct hit until just about a hour & a half before we were actually hit.

After the storm, we spent 3 days just clearing the debris from our street just so we could get out to see what was going on. We ended up being with out power for six weeks in the neighborhood that I live & gas stations, banks & grocery stores were without power for a little over a week. Traffic lights were out county wide for about two weeks (this is a heavily populated area to have to move traffic).

The moral of this story is, if you live in a hurricane area we are in the prime time of hurricane season. Please don't wait till the last minute to get prepared (you will be sorry).

If anyone is interested here is a minute by minute (or close to it) of Hurricane Charley.
http://www.nbc-2.com/story/10878783/hurricane-charley-august-9-12

[hobbit709]

1. If they tell me a hurricane is coming within 75 miles of where I am.

I'm leaving. Period. 12 miles is a direct hit. I saw what the Mississippi Gulf Coast looked like after Camille.

[William769]

2. Good advice.

[Aerows]

6. Camille +1 was Katrina

on the MS Gulf Coast. I went through it, and the best advice is get out while you can, because otherwise you have a world of hurt. No electricity in the height of summer, no running water (oh, that's a real joy) and eating things that you would rather not because of both things prior being lacking.

EDIT: And being damned grateful to have them.

[nolabear]

7. Me too. I lived there. It wasn't Katrina but it was incredible.

We were used to running from storms but man, that one was fierce.

[Aerows]

11. I will never look at a natural disaster the same way

It was like living for a month in a literal third world country. No running water, no electricity, spotty communications. Glad to have ice, thankful for MRE's and feeling blessed when you and the neighbors can share a bottle of wine that is warm.

[nolabear]

16. LOL! Where were you? I was in Pascagoula.

Yep, no electricity or water, and my grandmother had an old scrub board and some hurricane lamps that people offered her serious money for. There was an ice house then and the lines weren't even lines, really. People camped there. And the SNAKES! JAY-zus!

Years later I met a man who was among the first responders afterward. His job was to be airlifted in with a chainsaw to cut trees so rescuers could get vehicles in. I was a young teen so I actually don't recall how many days we were away before we could get home. A while, though.

[Aerows]

18. Waveland

Eye of the Storm.

Yeah. Thankful to be alive.

[nolabear]

25. Whoof! Waveland. Katrina blew that place down. But it's building back.

I miss all the old stuff, but the new is nice. I don't know how I feel about all the people grabbing land, but that's history. The casinos did most of the work changing the face of the coast but the storm did the rest.

[Aerows]

29. A boat in every window

water in every home.

[Aerows]

32. Double post

[Aerows]

33. This pretty much describes the experience

"The city of Waveland, Mississippi was "ground zero" of Hurricane Katrina's landfall on August 29, 2005. The city received massive damage and is still in the process of recovering and rebuilding. South of the CSX railroad, the area was almost completely destroyed. The rest of the city took heavy flooding. In a news report, state officials said Waveland took a harder hit from the wind and water than any other town along the Gulf Coast, and that the town was obliterated."

We have a marker on I-10 at the meeting of HWY 603 where it shows how high the water level reached. It nearly reaches an overpass.

The water and the wind pressure floated an airplane fueling tank across I-10. They are about the size of an 18 wheeler and weigh about 1 and a half times more.

[GreenStormCloud]

41. That means my old house in Waveland was badly flooded.

Glad I moved looong ago.

[Aerows]

42. Glad you did, too n/t

[nolabear]

44. I've seen those markers. Some have been removed but the ones that remain are mind boggling.

And anyone reading this other than me and Aerows, I-10 is miles inland.

[Aerows]

47. Precisely.

It's a hard reminder. I'm glad you made it out of there, NOLAbear. It was a horrible time in our history.

[malaise]

19. It took us six weeks for water to return after Gilbert

and eight weeks for electricity. Yes it was an adventure - cooked with coal - ate more BBQ fish than anything else with roasted potatoes.

[Aerows]

21. And probably like us

Thankful for it!

[malaise]

24. I think everyone needs one seroius hurricane

in his/her life - it's humbling - nature rules and she's freaking awesome.
That said we don't need two
The rain is lovely today - no thunder or lightning so far but parts of the island are already flooding.
We sure need the water

[Aerows]

28. I meant for the food, as meager as it is

after that. You work like a dog cleaning up, and it's the same old same old, but you are damned thankful to have it.

I just about cried the first time I got the opportunity to eat from Taco Bell. People that haven't lived in that sparse kind of environment don't understand how much the little things in life really mean.

[malaise]

31. LOL - to be honest we were lucky

The day the hurricane hit, my brother in law sent boxes of stuff from Miami by boat so we had stuff to share with others. We'd head to a beach we frequented and buy fresh fish and we had a pool of us so different folks would go different days.

The hardest adjustment was accessing cold water and ice. The best part was the way neighbors got together for a change.

[Aerows]

35. We survived

We were lucky. Drinking water and ice, my friend, those are the hardest to get.

[In_The_Wind]

3. When I was a child we would drive to Florida on fishing trips.

I can remember riding from one coast to to other to escape the weather. It seemed like part of the fun of our vacations.

I hope you make it through this season without any problems.

[William769]

5. Thanks.

Speaking of coast to coast we lost our home in Homestead to Hurricane Andrew. Came to North Fort Myers afterwards to be closer to family. Yea some days I feel like I have a bullseye on my back.

[In_The_Wind]

9. I'd trade my snowstorms in a heartbeat.

I still wish we had bought a home down there on '06.

[Aerows]

12. I'll trade your snowstorms for

no electricity at 90 degrees and 85% humidity with no running water, either.

[In_The_Wind]

15. Yep. I can cope with all of that, but not being frozen to death.

We have a generator but I still would rather be living down there.

[Aerows]

17. Drowning isn't fun

and it's a hell of a lot harder to keep from drowning or suffocating from heatstroke than it is to put on some more clothes.

[William769]

27. I do have property in the Appalachians.

I know snow all to well. I would rather have the snowstorms.

[In_The_Wind]

39. My animals won't survive if they get cold.

If I were down there we would evacuate ... all of the birds, one dog, the guys and me.
Here, all I can do is hibernate. My bursitis is worse in cold weather. A few more winters of this and I won't be walking.

[Aerows]

4. Don't even ask me about Katrina

and what it did to the Mississippi Gulf coast. I *wish* I didn't know firsthand.

[William769]

8. Sorry to hear that.

[nolabear]

10. I heard that. I was watching from afar as everything I knew got obliterated.

Talking to my poor sister on the phone while she (911 operator upstate) had to tell people they couldn't come for them on the 911 line. They couldn't see or get news so I watched TV and told her what was going on and we both just about went nuts.

But I wasn't there and my people are alive and only one destroyed house and only one dead among the folks we know. Horribly, that's considered lucky.

Seven years. Can it be?

Damn.

[Aerows]

14. That is lucky

and so was I. It was a nightmare that went on for 2 months at the very least for those that stayed home.

[nolabear]

20. Still is. People in New Orleans still can't have a get together without everyone telling their story

But damned if that place isn't resilient as hell. Can't wash 'em out, can't plague 'em out, can't lousy government 'em out.

I miss it. It's home. I dream about it. But Seattle is waaaaaaaaay less trouble. Did I mention I miss it?

[Aerows]

36. You can't

I'm in MS, but it's the same here. It was so devastating, that it unifies those who went through it. It was hell, but we survived it, and we are coming back stronger.

EDIT: You just miss all the good food. LMAO

[GreenStormCloud]

43. It has been about six or seven years since I have visited the Gulf Coast.

That was a few months after Katrina. We were going to see relatives. The devastation was amazing. My old house survived. What do the casinos look like now?

[nolabear]

45. Oh, those suckers are back like a bad dream.

They rebuilt in a hurry. The Hard Rock was literally just about to open when the storm hit. I think it's gone now but when they did open they had a floor to ceiling display case full of rock memoribilia that had been dredged up out of the sea.

[malaise]

13. Start the preparations

It's that simple. Predictions are way better these days but they will never be precise.

[William769]

23. I use tax day to be prepared by.

I don't take any chances.

[malaise]

26. Same here

We're ready

[Aerows]

37. Me either

I don't wait for tax day, I prepare all year long. I probably have hurricane PTSD, but can you blame me for making sure I have food, batteries, water and alternative sources of energy? Hell, I learned how to build a solar oven and have one.

[lpbk2713]

22. I remember it well.

That was the year we (in Lakeland) were hit by three hurricanes in six weeks time.
Power was out at my place for a total of eight days from all three storms.


And I remember how Charley was projected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay
area and people were advised to move inland out of harm's way and those that
did found themselves right in the path and got it full force. Not so much the fault
of the forecasters, just shows the unpredictability of the storms as you say.

[JanMichael]

30. Hugo! 175 miles inland. Yeah, we were all waiting for THAT

The Red Cross set up their staging area in Charlotte, NC...because it was "safe."

[Warpy]

34. They have gotten very good at predicting where landfall of the entire storm will occur

but the eyewall, where the strongest winds are, tends to wobble around within the storm.

The best idea if you're on the coast and that thing is going to hit within 50 miles of you, get out and get to a safe place.

That year was an epically bad year for hurricanes in Florida. My dad was without power for 22 days on the east coast, away from any of the direct hits.

[malaise]

58. Check this out

http://www.alternet.org/books/ocean-attacking-more-violently-ever-thanks-climate-change
<snip>
Chapter 1: Minus One Hundred Twenty-Two Meters and Climbing

On October 28, 2012, Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, came ashore in New Jersey. Sandy’s assault and sea surge brought the ocean into neighborhoods and houses, inundated parking lots and tunnels, turned parks into lakes. When it was all over and the water receded, a huge swath of the Northeast American coast looked like a battered moonscape. Only Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, was more costly. Katrina, with its gigantic sea surge, had been a wakeup call for people living on low- lying coasts, but the disaster soon receded from the public consciousness. Sandy struck in the heart of the densely populated Northeastern Corridor of the United States seven years later and impacted the lives of millions of people. The storm was an epochal demonstration of the power of an attacking ocean to destroy and kill in a world where tens of millions of people live on coastlines close to sea level. This time, people really sat up and took notice in the face of an extreme weather event of a type likely to be more commonplace in a warmer future. As this book goes to press, a serious debate about rising sea levels and the hazards they pose for humanity may have finally begun—but perhaps not.

Sandy developed out of a tropical depression south of Kingston, Jamaica, on October 22. Two days later, it passed over Jamaica, then over Cuba and Haiti, killing seventy-one people, before traversing the Bahamas. Come October 28, Sandy strengthened again, eventually makinglandfall about 8 kilometers southwest of Atlantic City, New Jersey, with winds of 150 kilometers an hour. By then, Sandy was not only an unusually large hurricane but also a hybrid storm. A strong Arctic air pattern to the north forced Sandy to take a sharp left into the heavy populated Northeast when normally it would have veered into the open Atlantic and dissipated there. The blend produced a super storm with a wind diameter of 1,850 kilometers, said to be the largest since 1888, when far fewer people lived along the coast and in New York. Unfortunately, the tempest also arrived at a full moon with its astronomical high tides. Sandy was only a Category 1 hurricane, but it triggered a major natural disaster partly because it descended on a densely populated seaboard where thousands of houses and other property lie within a few meters of sea level. Imagine the destruction a Category 5 storm would have wrought— something that could happen in the future.

The scale of destruction was mind-boggling. Sandy brought torrential downpours, heavy snowfall, and exceptionally high winds to an area of the eastern United States larger than Europe. Over one hundred people died in the affected states, forty of them in New York City. The storm cut off electricity for days for over 4.8 million customers in 15 states and the District of Columbia, 1,514,147 of them in New York alone. Most destructive of all, a powerful, record-breaking 4.26-meter sea surge swept into New York Harbor on the evening of October 29. The rising waters inundated streets, tunnels, and subways in Lower Manhattan, Staten Island, and elsewhere. Fires caused by electrical explosions and downed power wires destroyed homes and businesses, over one hundred residences in the Breezy Point area of Queens alone. Even the Ground Zero construction site was flooded. Fortunately, the authorities had advance warning. In advance of the storm, all public transit systems were shut down, ferry ser vices were suspended, and airports closed until it was safe to fly. All major bridges and tunnels into the city were closed. The New York Stock Exchange shut down for two days.

[Aerows]

38. It was hell here

when Katrina rolled through. I might seem like a Libertarian lunatic, but there are very simple things you can do to make certain your life during a catastrophic natural disaster is better:

1. Get out of the area immediately if you can. That frees up emergency services for people that can't.
2. Prepare yourself for a lack of gasoline, and understand that you won't be having mobility, water or electricity for weeks.
3. Learn how to keep medicines cool, which requires ice, and that means you will be hoofing it down to the ice station on a daily basis, since you are lucky enough to have the National Guard around.
4. Cooking with MRE's.

[GreenStormCloud]

40. Used to live in Biloxi, MS.

Every year at the end of July, I made sure we were stocked up on hurricane emergency supplies. And if the storm looked like it was going to hit us, I evacuted to a shelter. My house was one block off the beach and survived them all, including Katrina. I wasn't there for Katrina. I had already moved to Dallas. Instead of hurricances I get to worry about tornadoes.

[Aerows]

55. Tornados

vs. Hurricanes are a rough trade off. I don't think anyone wants either, but at least Tornadoes are over quickly. Hurricanes just sit there and last while they blow things around and destroy your stuff.

[greytdemocrat]

46. Charley was a powerful storm

But it had a very compact eye. And if the eyewall hit you...

I'm in Sarasota and at one point the eye was forecast to come right
over my house...not a good thing!!!

I was glued to the TV watching the track and getting ready for
the hit when I, along with the local weather guys, saw the eye
begin to make the turn inland and go over Sanibel on its way
to Orlando.

I knew many people who had bugged out to Orlando and they
got hit by 100+ mph winds. Charley destroyed the power grid
down there, it had to be totally rebuilt.

Yet the sun was out near me, it was blowing, but nothing major.
Again, that's because the eye was so small. The really bad hurricane
force winds were only in a band about 6-8 miles wide.

And unlike most hurricanes, the eye stayed together way longer
even over land which is why Orlando got nailed with the 100+
mph winds.

We got hardly any rain at my house!! We got more the next day from
a T-Storm after Charley was long gone.

I'm much better prepared today and always watch the
plots of storms.

[Aerows]

48. Katrina smacked the dickens out of us

I'd like to challenge most folks that think they can live without water, electricity and in ultra-humid high heat conditions for 5 weeks without water, and 6 weeks without electicity that they wouldn't get a bit downhearted, while they are dragging their possessions out, and even know a friend or two that perished. It's not fun.

It leaves a lasting imprint on you, and if you think folks fake it, you weren't there. I know it was beyond a month without water, and possibly 2 month without electricity, but when it is that hard, you can't keep track of time. It is that brutal.

[malaise]

50. Pay attention to this one - could be Erin

THE BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IN THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA IS
MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST AT 10 TO 15 MPH. CLOUDINESS AND
SHOWERS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS LOW CONTINUE TO SHOW SIGNS OF
ORGANIZATION...AND A TROPICAL DEPRESSION COULD FORM BEFORE THE
DISTURBANCE REACHES THE YUCATAN PENINSULA ON THURSDAY. AFTER
THAT...THIS WEATHER SYSTEM IS FORECAST TO MOVE OVER THE GULF OF
MEXICO...WHERE UPPER-LEVEL WINDS WILL LIKELY BE A LITTLE LESS
FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT. THIS SYSTEM HAS A HIGH CHANCE...60
PERCENT...OF BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48
HOURS...AND A HIGH CHANCE...70 PERCENT...OF BECOMING A TROPICAL
CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 5 DAYS. REGARDLESS OF WHETHER OR NOT A
TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMS...HEAVY RAINS AND GUSTY WINDS ARE FORECAST
TO SPREAD OVER THE YUCATAN PENINSULA AND BELIZE DURING THE NEXT DAY
OR TWO...AND INTERESTS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS
OF THIS DISTURBANCE.
From NOAA

[Aerows]

52. Oh shit. I don't want anything to do with another one.

Thanks for the heads up, Malaise. I know I look like a scaredy cat, but I know what I went through before.

[deutsey]

49. When Sandy first formed

I remember the local weather guy saying the worst we'd get in Maryland was some rain as it veered out into the Atlantic.

Every day afterward the forecast grew worse and worse, with landfall flipping back and forth between where I live and New Jersey every few hours.

After Sandy and Irene the year before, I'm hoping we get a break this year.

[William769]

51. A break would be great this year.

I have made up my mind though if one even looks close to hitting S.W. Florida, I'm already packed & ready to go up north to wait it out. I could use some time in the mountains right about now.

[deutsey]

53. Hoping for the best!

[Aerows]

54. The Gulf Coast, and South Beach

needs one.

[JustAnotherGen]

56. Me too

And I live far inland from the Jersey Shore. The power outages from transformers blowing up went on for several weeks during a cold snap.

[malaise]

57. I knew Sandy was going to be an East Coast Hurricane

just based on where she formed - that was one unusual hurricane