That's what I want if I ever move to Florida or someplace else with a relatively low elevation (even 23', 5 miles inland in Palm Coast). the entire first floor should be a garage (and/or otherwise a big open area that's a substitute for a basement).
Hurricane Idalia - landfall in Florida
- Thread starter alarmguy
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That would be wise. In addition to the open space, and walls that allow water to move, I would also consider standby power, installed well above the ground.
I would do the same in coastal Maryland, where there are lot of low lying homes.
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Some houses are on stilts over slabs. Throw some lattice work around it and you've got a great place to park.
Back at landfall.
You know, in spite of dramatic photos, in spite of "news" stories of Idalia being as big as some states. It's almost impossible in todays media to know the actual facts vs drama of reporting. It's why I rely on NOAA for information.
Reading all the media reports would make this sound like a HUGE hurricane. When in fact the ACTAUL Hurricane windfield was roughly 20 miles wide. Maybe only 15 I am trying to find out and it's almost impossible in todays sensational news world.
I did at one point find it in NOAA's reporting. Im almost certain it was in the 15 to 20 mile range and at worst 25. I saw the 15 and 20 numbers at some point and trying to find that factual data again.
Dont get me wrong, hurricanes are bad, ruin many peoples lives but this was no monster hurricane on the scale of size of hurricane.
In that photo you will see a TINY dark brown looking spot, that is where the hurricane force wind is. Orange is tropical storm force wind.
Source =
FULL NOAA ANIMATION CLICK BELOW;
Reading all the media reports would make this sound like a HUGE hurricane. When in fact the ACTAUL Hurricane windfield was roughly 20 miles wide. Maybe only 15 I am trying to find out and it's almost impossible in todays sensational news world.
I did at one point find it in NOAA's reporting. Im almost certain it was in the 15 to 20 mile range and at worst 25. I saw the 15 and 20 numbers at some point and trying to find that factual data again.
Dont get me wrong, hurricanes are bad, ruin many peoples lives but this was no monster hurricane on the scale of size of hurricane.
In that photo you will see a TINY dark brown looking spot, that is where the hurricane force wind is. Orange is tropical storm force wind.
Source =
FULL NOAA ANIMATION CLICK BELOW;
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interest in hurricane's seems to be directly proportional to a person's potential proximity to that type of storm.
I check the NHC every day from about Aug1 to Mid Oct and at a slightly lower frequency for the surrounding months.
I also keep 35 gallons of gasoline for my generator in my little barn, the first time a named storm passes within 400 miles of my house
and dump it in the cars in the month of October if unused.
I check the NHC every day from about Aug1 to Mid Oct and at a slightly lower frequency for the surrounding months.
I also keep 35 gallons of gasoline for my generator in my little barn, the first time a named storm passes within 400 miles of my house
and dump it in the cars in the month of October if unused.
Moody’s is calculating $20 Billion in damage. Even 6 inches of water in your home is a big bill.
It’s very analogous to…. Hurricane Charley in 2004.
It was highly concentrated in the center which can and does happen…. Routinely…
Hurricane Camille in 1969 is a great example. The Labor Day Hurricane in 1935 which was the strongest measured hurricane on record for over 50 years…. Is another example. There are a good number of others too.
The Hurricane Hunters got dropsonde measurements at landfall. Falling barometric pressure all the way until landfall gives a strong indication it was as strong as it was measured.
I am familiar with the area that it hit Florida. I used to live and work in that part of the state. The distance between Perry and Steinhatchee where the western and eastern eye wall hit is about 30 miles. So you are correct.
My house is not far from Chiefland (on the map). We lost power at 6 am and was back on just before midnight. Thankful for our linemen.
While I agree with you about the very small high impact area of this hurricane…
It is not unusual either. . Like I said Hurricane Charley had only a 40 mile diameter of hurricane force or stronger winds.
Now Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 was massive and expansive that while in the middle of the Caribbean Sea it had near tropical force winds affecting Key West Florida. That was a long, long way away from the eye of Hurricane Gilbert.
And again measuring devices on the coastline are not very many in that region of Florida. Hurricane Micheal proved that to be true as well.
Fun story as some may well remember… During Hurricane Andrew in 1992 the wind anemometer got ripped off the NHC… At 173 mph… Part of the read why it was rightly reclassified as a cat 5 a few years later.
Take a look at Andrews radar presentation as it approaches south Florida… It was clearly rapidly intensifying as it made it westward.
It is not unusual either. . Like I said Hurricane Charley had only a 40 mile diameter of hurricane force or stronger winds.
Now Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 was massive and expansive that while in the middle of the Caribbean Sea it had near tropical force winds affecting Key West Florida. That was a long, long way away from the eye of Hurricane Gilbert.
And again measuring devices on the coastline are not very many in that region of Florida. Hurricane Micheal proved that to be true as well.
Fun story as some may well remember… During Hurricane Andrew in 1992 the wind anemometer got ripped off the NHC… At 173 mph… Part of the read why it was rightly reclassified as a cat 5 a few years later.
Take a look at Andrews radar presentation as it approaches south Florida… It was clearly rapidly intensifying as it made it westward.
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exactly.. FWIW Miami is way overdue.. funny too that Ft Lauderdale has about half the risk of a hurricane strike than Miami does but this just has to do with location location location.
yeah, Andrew was the most impressive thing I ever saw. I lived in Dade County back then, had left on vacation 2 days before Andrew made landfall.. the weather gurus were not even talking about it. Back in those days the 24 hour news cycle and cell phones were non existent so we showed up at our friends house in N Georgia that nite and now it was on the news.. Andrew basically went from zero to 200 in one day. Make a long story short I returned to SFLA a week later and never seen such a mess in my life. I used to do Road Service..basically could not find anything based on address or landmarks after Andrew.. there wasn't any traffic signals, street signs, sings denoting what business was what, no trees to speak of, houses without roofs, etc... so it was the most powerful storm I have seen in my life.....and I only seen it after the fact, mostly because I had to prowl the streets of Dade County doing road service, and anything south of Kendall Drive it was borderline impossible, to find your way around..
yeah, you lucked out... I'm down here in Collier County.... after Irma my power was out for more than a week and the last year after Ian electric was out for a good five days .
Another thing about the "media" that makes people go ohhhhh ... but they forget to take into account in inflation.
That would be roughly 4 billion in dollars from 1974...
Let's not forget the luxuries in the current day that need to be replaced.
This was a small hurricane as far as the size hurricane force winds so I guess that makes 20 billion a bargain that Moody's should state.
Keep in mind that tiny little bit of brown right near the white circle is the hurricane force winds.
One year ago this month hurricane cost 110 Billion.
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Way back when, I remember reading (in an actual printed newspaper) a public interest story about a family that prepped up their house for Hurricane Andrew and then decided to hole up on vacation for three weeks. On Kauai.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That is totally correct about inflation in my opinion.
The massive and I mean massive population growth on the coastline in the last 30 plus years is a huge, huge factor as well…
Guaranteed that any storm hits the coast being a cat 2 or higher and it’s a billion easy.
Interestingly beck in time around 100 years ago several very, very strong hurricanes hit the coast of Florida. In the 1920s into the mid 1930s a number of strong hurricanes hit the state and it made people so scared that it kept many people from wanting to move there.
That kept the population down until a long spell of no strong hurricanes hitting there for 30 plus years until Hurricane Betsy in 1965. That paired with the mass use of air conditioning allowed for a strong period of population growth.
In 60 years between the mid 1930s and mid 1990s only two stronger hurricanes hit the state. Betsy in 1965 and Andrew in 1992.
I do remember Dr Bob Sheets of the NHC saying in the mid 1990a that the Cape Verde storm cycle was going to become much more active in the coming decades…
He was right about that.
and before sheets NHC director Neil Frank warned in the 60s about the over developement of the coastal areas.....but No body listened..
We lost power for 4 days after Irma. Even though it was only a TS when it got to us, the eye passed over our county. The biggest problem was lack of gasoline as the evacuee traffic from South Florida bought it before it could be replenished. The few stations that still had power after the storm had no gas. We had to go well off the beaten path to find gas for our generators. Even then they placed a limit you could buy.
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