Hurricane aftermath

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Hope everyone affected had no damage.

We and our boat live only a few miles from where the eye came ashore. While the wind was impressive (reports of 100knots), we observed a max gust of 78 during the eye wall transit. It appears not much damage around the marina and only minor damage onshore. The reported storm surge numbers never materialized here or to the south, no widespread flooding and no heavy rain in this area. Hope everyone else did well too.

 

[Ward H]

Glad to hear your report. Thanks

 

[Stu Jackson]

Good to hear you're OK, Don.

 

[dmax]

Wow - Sarasota was right in the middle of the path, you did well.

 

[Tally Ho]

My brother is in Plant City, near a Tampa but away from the coast…he has flooding from the heavy rains. My friends in Cape Coral had to evacuate, but this morning found their house DRY. Some wind damage to trees, pool cage, etc but the storm surge never materialized by them. My place in Bonita Springs faired well. Never even lost power.

Guess I will try to head down there next week.

Glad to hear you faired well Don

Greg

 

[JamesG161]

Time line video for Sarsota FL

https://x.com/MatthewCappucci/status/1844422991259762744

WOW!!!

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Time line video for Sarsota FL

https://x.com/MatthewCappucci/status/1844422991259762744

WOW!!!

Never ceases to amaze when someone does that.

i went out last night briefly after the eye wall passed which was after sunset but quickly retreated realizing it would have been impossible to see flying debris. We’ve all done stupid things in our lives but that trick wins first prize.
What the news media never reports is the number of idiots so injured, two of whom were admitted to the local hospital early this a.m. after being hit with debris. Maybe because they want the video clips more than protecting people.

 

[WayneH]

Ron White says "It's not that the wind is blowing, it's WHAT the wind is blowing."

 

[dmax]

Greg - apparently some in Bonita Springs didn't fare as well, what a mess but less than forecast: MSN

 

[Tally Ho]

Greg - apparently some in Bonita Springs didn't fare as well, what a mess but less than forecast: MSN

I am sure those on the coast saw storm surge. And maybe those on the Imperial River may have seen so flooding (but the River never made 12 feet).



But I was watching some webcam video of the Naples pier and things looked pretty rough well in advance of Milton making landfall.

Thoughts and prayer to all who were/are impacted by Milton.

Greg

 

[shemandr]

That Naples pier is cannon fodder for hurricanes.

 

[shemandr]

In the aftermath of Milton some politicians and media are admitting that the storm surge didn't happen in Tampa Bay because being in the so called left quadrant of the storm, the wind was blowing water out of the bay. I don't have any source of info other than the media but that makes sense to me. I am criticizing the media and maybe forecasters a little bit. They were so focused on the storm surge and completely ignored the tornado potential East of the landfall.
We know that tornados happen in association with tropical weather. But in Florida those tornados are usually F1's that last tens of seconds and take out some agricultural fields or maybe even a roof or two. What we saw on Wednesday was a barrage of powerful storms that may have caused more fatalities than the storm surge. And yet there was little attention paid to that risk in the media.
I bring this up as a testimony to the danger of letting the story, which attracts the most attention, get ahead of the broad view of risks.
I'd add that the government cut ins to media weren't helpful. And they cut into local media weather reports which were doing a reasonable job of locating the areas of concern. But in the blizzard of alerts it became confusing which alerts were new, which were extensions of previous alerts and which meant we are in the target path. My Nephew send me a map, which being younger the technically able was of some help. But Ultimately that was only one cell.

 

[ggrizzard]

Video by a Harvard Magna: They still don't learn common sense.

 

[BigEasy]

They were so focused on the storm surge and completely ignored the tornado potential East of the landfall. What we saw on Wednesday was a barrage of powerful storms that may have caused more fatalities than the storm surge. And yet there was little attention paid to that risk in the media.
I bring this up as a testimony to the danger of letting the story, which attracts the most attention, get ahead of the broad view of risks.

I don’t think they were expecting that many tornados; I understand that there were over 125 tornado warnings over the course of the storm. I believe they were placing most emphasis on surge warnings (that was sure to happen) to get people to evacuate from the coast. Personally, I would evacuate my locale if surge was predicted; however, I probably wouldn’t evacuate for tornado activity. We know that tornados are a risk in hurricanes; however, it is a random event. On the other hand, surge is relatively predictable.

 

[Rick Webb]

I don’t think they were expecting that many tornados; I understand that there were over 125 tornado warnings over the course of the storm. I believe they were placing most emphasis on surge warnings (that was sure to happen) to get people to evacuate from the coast. Personally, I would evacuate my locale if surge was predicted; however, I probably wouldn’t evacuate for tornado activity. We know that tornados are a risk in hurricanes; however, it is a random event. On the other hand, surge is relatively predictable.

We evacuated for Ivan to Columbus GA. The hotel we were at was hit by a tornado from Ivan.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

I don’t think they were expecting that many tornados; I understand that there were over 125 tornado warnings over the course of the storm.

perspective gets lost whenever the weather guys report these numbers like “125”. While there were a few small tornados which reached ground level, as is typical of most cyclones, the vast majority were high altitude spins observed on Doppler which never materialized. Exaggeration for effect seems to be their mantra.

 

[Tally Ho]

The weather and news channels hype the heck out of storms…maybe partially to get complacent folks to get out of the path of danger, but also I believe to pump up their ratings.

My local ABC affiliate in Chicago loves to start their morning broadcast an hour early anytime there is inclement weather. And they hype the heck out of the extra hour of weather news.

Greg

 

[BigEasy]

perspective gets lost whenever the weather guys report these numbers like “125”. While there were a few small tornados which reached ground level, as is typical of most cyclones, the vast majority were high altitude spins observed on Doppler which never materialized. Exaggeration for effect seems to be their mantra.

When they don't report and exaggerate, they are criticized for not giving advanced notification of severity to the folks in harm's way. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't." If you don't hype it up, people basically ignore the reports and wind up on roof tops or worse when storm surge inundates a given locale.

 

[Rick Webb]

I think for the most part they have ruined their brand.
Many folks don't even watch local TV, so those guys are all marginalized.
Cantore is a buffoon and irrelevant. Most of the programming on the Weather Channel is scripted uber sensationalized "reality" shows.

I can go online and get the radar picture, and the 10-day forecast so no reason for me to watch.

I remember in Hawaii the sports guy did the weather and surf report in the last minute and a half of the news cast the surf report took more time than the weather. It was almost exactly the same every day. 10 to 15 degrees cooler in the winter and occasionally we get Kona winds. After the Weather Channel became a thing, they added a "meteorologist" to the team and said the same thing for five minutes every almost every night.

 

[BigEasy]

I think for the most part they have ruined their brand.
Many folks don't even watch local TV, so those guys are all marginalized.

I doubt that, there are now three cable networks, Weather channel, AccuWeather, & Fox Weather (not including local broadcasts). Evidently, there is big money in weather.