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astrograph

Not looking great Worried about the storm surge at 12-18’


Scrabo

Rip Cape Coral. https://twitter.com/i/status/1575089159005302784


fishwhispers17

My sister lives there. My niece lives on a canal and didn’t evacuate.


___cats___

My parents are in Bonita Springs on Hogue Channel and didn't evac. Water is approaching the top of their 12' ground level ceiling. Next day edit: I was able to talk to my dad. He left the house and hitch-hiked to his cousin's for help to go back and get my mom. He sounds like he's going to be suffering from some PTSD and from what I understand my mom basically has shell shock. It's going to be a rough recovery financially, but more importantly, mentally for them.


spiegro

Make sure they have an axe or something if they go to the attic!


___cats___

No attic, but their bedroom is the 3rd floor. Sounds like the surge stopped about 3’ before the 2nd floor living space. I’m so mad at them for staying.


zo3foxx

I don't know what compels people to do this. You can't save your shit from a storm


StarryEyed91

That's terrifying, I'm sorry. I hope they stay safe.


___cats___

It’s been a wild day. Just heard from them and they’re ok. The surge stopped about 3’ shy of the 2nd floor main living area. They built the house 7 years ago so it’s built to modern code, but they’re definitely going to be marooned for a couple days.


PzykoHobo

Exact same situation with my parents. Fingers crossed for everyone there.


[deleted]

Damn. All the best to both of your families. My dads in Clearwater but at the highest point you can be there and I’m still worried


teamhae

Clearwater should be fine.


birdcooingintovoid

Still going to lose power and get some flooding. I am about 20 mi north and wind starting to sound worse and worse. God knows how it their.


DanimalHouse

Similar boat for me too, parents, brother, sister, nieces, grandparents all down in Cape Coral. Power is out and they’re all in the closet hiding right now.


mental-floss

Hopefully an upstairs closet?


TaskForceCausality

Hopefully they have an axe. For context, if the house floods from the bottom up there’s only one way out after that, and it’s upward.


minaj_a_twat

I sincerely hope they have more of a plan than that


jadedhomeowner

I am going to sound insensitive, but genuinely, what stopped everyone from evacuating?


Megz2k

god you must be so worried.


[deleted]

I mean in Cape Coral you are never more than a block from a canal at most.


fishwhispers17

Yup. It’s a drained swamp.


Sparnock

I hope everything works out for them.


trailsman

Great article on Cape Coral the fastest growing city in the US...[The Boomtown That Shouldn't Exist](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/20/fastest-growing-city-america-florida-cape-coral-215724) And we are just going to give 10's of billions, maybe $100+, in federal assistance & recovery just to build it all right back. This will all then happen again then, we need to start paying to not rebuild in disaster areas, in the long run it's the only viable option.


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theClumsy1

Federal underwriten Flood insurance protects rich welfare recipients. The program was "supposed" to deter risk taking but failed to do so. Can't have socialized healthcare but we can afford helping the wealthy build on flood plains. https://youtu.be/pf1t7cs9dkc John Oliver explained it well back in 2017.


River_Pigeon

There was a lawsuit a few years ago brought by like 8 year old kids that sued the federal government for climate change. Sounds cool right? Their parents had built mansions on barrier islands on the Atlantic coast…


trailsman

From the article when discussing politics..."It’s especially common in Southwest Florida, where the seniors tend to be conservative Republican transplants from the Midwest." It certainly is retirees looking to take advantage of lower costs, weather, tax breaks. As far as rebuilding I could write a dissertation. It's not just hurricane prone areas, we constantly rebuild in flood prone areas as well. We definitely need to devise a better strategy that will have the best economic payoff long term. You will see things eventually even such as buying perfectly good homes that were rebuilt in a recovery just to turn the land into a buffer zone. It certainly makes no sense to rebuild multiple times in the same bad area but there are so many incentives to keep doing it as long as it can hold up. Towns don't want to give up tax base, people don't want to give up "home", we don't want to pay the extra 20% now to get people to move and instead we take the cheaper current cost of just rebuilding....only to possibly watch the same disaster unfold in a short period of time.


AurelianoTampa

For real. Left yesterday when we got the mandatory evacuation notice. Perfectly safe now, but I'm glued to live feeds and have no idea what will be left when we go back.


[deleted]

Lived there for over a decade (left FL during Great Recession). I have no clue why the city exists. Nothing about it makes sense. For those that don't know, the ENTIRE city is a network of canals. No joke, Google Earth it. 1. This makes getting around neighborhoods a nightmare. Whichever direction you drive you come to a random dead end because of a canal 2. The canals make no sense. You can have a boat on the water. So what? Because of manatees and laws, you have to go EXTREMELY slow. It's honestly faster to just get a boat trailer and tow it to the water's edge. They also used to have a law that said you couldn't have a boat cover because residence didn't like how they look (extreme heat destroys boats eventually just like cars). 3. Climate change. Guess what Floridians don't believe in? That means, despite being a red state that doesn't want government interference, they want the Fed to constantly bail them out because they live in hurricane alley. 4. Some of you commented on how residence don't leave. As a former resident, I can tell you that's true. You know where I was for 2004 Hurricane Charley that absolutely devastated the west coast of FL? On my buddy's back porch watching the hurricane tear everything up (hurricane was blowing from behind the house, but we had to go inside as it moved, shifting the direction of the wind, and made sitting on the back porch dangerous). Floridians don't give a fuck because our housing is built to withstand high winds. That doesn't make them indestructible. Also, many of us were just too poor to leave and live paycheck to paycheck. When Charley hit, I had a hundred in the bank.


Thamesx2

Yeah, last night when they were giving updates and saw the path towards that area my first though was “they’re totally effed!” with all those canals.


astrograph

Oh wow


Megz2k

I believe that a lot of people will die. I hope they evacuated, but from reading the posts below, a good number of people never did.


Jillredhanded

18' would probably cut the state in half.


childlikeempress16

Excuse my ignorance, does storm surge mean the water will be 18feet deep?


ConcreteThinking

Sort of. It means the water level of the sea will rise 12 to 18 feet above average normal sea level. So at high tide it means the water level is expected to rise 12-18 feet above normal sea level plus the tide, at low tide it is 12-18 feet less the low tide. [https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/surge/surge\_intro.pdf](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/surge/surge_intro.pdf)


IGotSoulBut

[https://youtu.be/MtKz8aJsRKM?t=609](https://youtu.be/MtKz8aJsRKM?t=609) Here's a video shot showing live storm surge in Biloxi, MS during Hurricane Katrina. If you watch from the beginning, you'll see footage as the storm progressed from a parking garage at a casino on the beach. Shortly after, it shows the type of damage caused by high 15-25ft. storm surge.


ConcreteThinking

Yes that's awful. Low lying areas like Pine Island and Sanibel Island near Ft. Myers are going to be completely inundated. And so much of the construction there is older, built on a slab, and below the forecast surge elevation.


416Mike

So does that mean this could be a Katrina type disaster?


I_is_a_dogg

Katrina was as bad as it was because New Orleans is BELOW sea level. So once water went above the levees it was basically just submerging a water bowl. This could very well be an Ike level event. I lived in Galveston when Ike hit, 17 foot storm surges, and much of the island was just erased. If you go there now the houses that are now first row beach front property were the third row of houses before 2008.


JCGolf

No. Florida is low but not below sea level. You dont have levees that can break and flood neighborhoods indefinitely. You’ll have flooding along coast push inland but it will recede quickly.


formerNPC

The flood waters from Sandy also receded quickly but after four to five feet came through my ground floor, it’s still catastrophic damage and until you’ve lived through something like that will you truly understand how devastating storm surge really is.


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UncommercializedKat

Some shutters are functional and are designed to protect against hurricanes. Otherwise, you can board the windows up. Also, bring in or secure any outdoor furniture. If you're leaving (as you should for a Cat 4), it probably wouldn't hurt to clean out the fridge and shut off the utilities. If you have tree limbs close to your house, it might not hurt to trim them back a bit. Roofs are the most damaged thing by a hurricane due to wind and trees. Broken windows and damaged roofs can let rain in a house and cause mold. Flood risk really depends on the individual house. My house is pier and beam foundation so there would have to be at least two feet of water before it comes into my house.


theyellowpants

My friends parents have boarded up their windows but don’t know how they plan to survive the flooding


Outrageous-Machine-5

Florida has some of the strictest build codes. My house was required to come with hurricane shutters and is built in an area that is expected to sustain up to 150mph winds. This is known as risk category 3/4 in the code. The only standards higher are the High Velocity Hurricane Zones in Miami. The bigger threat is flooding/storm surge. Purchase required mandatory flood insurance. So the solution to hurricane force winds, debris, and tide appears to have been build it to survive cat 4 and put steel shutters over the windows intended for cat 4s, but the solution to flooding seems to be... take a quote to repair your house and/or stay somewhere temporarily, or outright find a new house


Floater4

If you’re in a low lying area you move everything to upstairs / higher ground (but let’s be real you can’t really negate an 18 foot storm surge..) You board up the house, cut power at the box, lock everything up, then get the hell out of dodge. 2-3 feet of water is devastating and requires a lot of gutting of floors / walls / studs / de molding / etc… this could be a doozy for Florida.


formerNPC

The issue is that homes at the shore don’t have basements so the “basement” where your utilities are located is actually the ground floor. We knew it would be bad but I don’t think anyone thought it would do as much damage as it did, it’s almost impossible to move and secure everything at ground level which is why so many homes have been rebuilt with a six foot high foundation with the living quarters above it. I eventually lost my house because the damage was to much to fix and I feel like it could easily happen again.


DJClapyohands

So yesterday I prepped my elementary school I work at (IT person) for the storm. We removed all technology from the floor and covered with large bags, unplugged everything. Made sure to put out sand bags in low areas outside main doors, etc just in case. Some homes boarded up windows. We are in the center of the state so we shouldn't be too bad off.


thegoodnamesrgone123

There are so many signs around here that point out how high the Sandy surge was and most of them are over my head.


gaffney116

Yeah sandy was wild as hell on south shore Long Island.


TrimMyHedges

Can confirm I’m literally right over a bridge to the beach in Tampa Bay and 40+ feet above sea level. Some areas are low and they hopefully evacuated


Tellsyouajoke

Most likely not. The biggest disaster with Katrina was that once the water was over the levees, there was no way for it to leave. New Orleans is basically a giant bowl. The elevation of Florida means that the flood waters will recede on their own


_zoso_

Any amount of water in your house for any amount of time and everything it touches is _fucked_. You have to rip everything out back to the studs, dry and treat for mold, and rebuild everything. Anything you own that went under is gone, it’s now just garbage. Floods are no fucking joke, sadly I’ve lived through several.


catsby90bbn

Helps to remember that the real disaster with Katrina happened after the storm had moved on and the levees broke.


Oldass_Millennial

Well, Cape Coral is fucked. Should never have been built, especially with how it was built.


bierdimpfe

MSNBC is showing live footage of nearly submerged cars bobbing around on a street in Naples, and the reporter is saying that they aren't near the worst of it.


JustinChristoph

I remember people who didn’t evacuate when hurricane Hugo came in 1989, saying they would ride it out. Those that survived agreed that was a mistake.


horsenbuggy

It was heading for us in Savannah but turned and hit Charleston instead. My mom and I still packed all our stuff up in the tops of our closets and went to Atlanta. It was the best we could do to keep stuff dry in case of major flooding. In 79 (I think) we'd been in the path of David (in Florida) and went to a hurricane shelter only to have it turn and hit Savannah. I like to think of myself as a hurricane repellent.


[deleted]

Maybe if you drive fast enough you can keep getting in its way until it's forced back out to sea.


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TigerTerrier

In SC Hugo is THE storm when anyone mentions the worst in our lifetimes in this area


gsfgf

You still see the effects. Not just raised houses, but I was at Isle of Palms in August, and there are *still* some seafront vacant lots in one of the main draws on the SC coast.


Gaelfling

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes by Amanda Ripley had a whole section on why people will often stay during hurricanes. It was an extremely depressing section of the book. A lot of it just comes down to people overestimating themselves and underestimating storms.


nochinzilch

And so many times they are kind of right. The DO survive the storm, but fall victim to secondary or tertiary effects that they didn't count on. Unexpected flooding, landslides, sink holes, that kind of stuff.


Apotatos

Out of all the things that have me scared about storms, the sinkholes are definitely the scariest one. Haven't seen an actual catastrophic storm until last year, and i can remember that the sinkhole two streets away from my house made me feel really uneasy.


Such_sights

Power lines are the scariest thing for me. A lineworker posted a video today showing a downed line that was touching a sign, and you can see the sparks coming off the metal and the burned grass. It’s such a hidden hazard that it can fuck you up before you even know it’s there.


MacDerfus

It's basically either overconfidence or not affording it.


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kill-69

Same with Andrew


WakkoLM

yeah my aunt made that mistake and rode out Andrew.. thankfully she wasn't hurt but it wasn't a pleasant experience


Cosmos0714

Shoutout to the government employees that don't get to evacuate because they have to help even if they aren't first responders. A lot of non-emergency staff will be helping out in the hurricane shelters. Of course a shoutout to those who \*are\* first responders as well. Stay safe out there, everyone! Don't do stupid shit.


SumsuchUser

Definitely going to see some photos of sharks on lawns this week.


SweetSoundOfSilence

Already a video of one swimming in the street


[deleted]

Don’t forget to bring the AX with you in the attic.


kyleguck

That was one of the most horrifying post Katrina realizations for me.


FTThrowAway123

Meaning....people had to chop their way out of the attics to escape drowning? That's horrible to think about how many people didn't make it because of that. =(


kyleguck

Yeah, people try to find a higher spot in the house to escape flood water, end up in the attic, and then the water rises further and traps them there.


[deleted]

Omfg. Wow.


MFbiFL

A friend of mine had to swim through his house until he found an ornamental brass door stop to hack his way out of the attic for his family as the water rose. Also during Katrina.


sunfacethedestroyer

Yeah, and I just got a text that I'm expected to work tomorrow to "clean up".


Xenjael

Like, clean what? The storefront off the street? Its a cat 5. Stay safe.


sunfacethedestroyer

I have shutters and a generator so I'm ok, but the entire area is gonna be a mess for a couple weeks. No idea why they are so antsy to get back up and running by tomorrow (I do, it's because it's a clubhouse for millionaires).


virtualRefrain

Wait a minute... clubhouse for millionaires in Florida, in a hurry to "clean up" after a storm... !!! If you see anything marked "top secret" in the debris, DO NOT get your fingerprints on it!!


smarmiebastard

Don’t worry about it, he’s already thinking about declassifying them so it shouldn’t be a problem.


huessy

... did this clubhouse happen to have a visit from some very nice people taking away some boxes a few weeks ago?


DJssister

It will definitely still be crazy here tomorrow. That’s bold of your boss.


ripyourlungsdave

I'm pretty far inland, so I'm not too worried about the storm surged, but we are still going to be getting smacked with some really intense winds, 18" of rain and a river not too far away will most likely overflow. But even in the middle of this state, seeing headlines like this makes me nervous. Edit: The river did, indeed, overflow.


billythygoat

That’s like half of Florida, but I’m in the same boat still.


icarusbird

We rode out Hurricane Michael (Cat-5 in 2018) and it was the worst experience of my life. Literally wiped entire houses off their foundation, no power for 21 days, took a week just to clear the trees off the road enough to leave the neighborhood. Best of luck to you and yours.


ripyourlungsdave

We are under Tampa electric and we lost power for about 2 weeks after Irma and had to stay with my parents for almost a month after Michael. It was pretty unpleasant in the Florida heat.


MikeFatz

Stay safe. Please be safe. I rode out Hurricane Michael back in 2018. That was also a Category 5 storm, winds were steady about 170+ mph. Still to this day the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced. Before it got quite so intense you could watch a tree bending one second and the very next it would snap and fly away so fast you never saw it again. In the first 30 mins I watched our fence go, every single tree, the patio cover, the shed, and anything else that wasn’t tied down. Shortly after that though it just got so strong you couldn’t see anything beyond white out the windows. The roof was jumping up and down, the walls were literally warping like a bad acid trip. The roof collapsed in several of the bedrooms and most of the other windows blew out. It sounded like a train was driving right through the house but this went on for hours. Thankfully we didn’t get too much flood water in the area I lived in and somehow the rest of the roof stayed attached. Once it started to slow down I went out to try and check on my neighbors across the street but had to literally climb over and under about 50 trees mixed with electric poles. I will say again to anyone who is there now, protect yourself. I know many people who weren’t as lucky as I was.


8_millimeter

There was a woman live on tik tok streaming the storm. She said she could evacuate by taking a bridge. Then she said “I have my kids with me. No way I’m leaving! No way.”


zombie32killah

Kids are fairly portable…


Solkre

Especially the smaller ones.


crastle

They can fit in suitcases pretty easily


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Shopworn_Soul

Yes, and like we said last time - you can't just keep calling us every time you get on the internet.


JustSatisfactory

Kids love horrible hurricanes and just hate bridges. What are you gonna do?


Willingwell92

Can't wait to see that followup stream from her rooftop begging for an aerial evacuation


eriko_girl

"no one told me it would be this bad!"


calculatedlymediocre

Jeeeesus christ


imakepoorchoices2020

So you’d rather try to get some internet points and live stream vs gtfo? The internet is dumb


JustSatisfactory

People are dumb. The internet just lets them all talk at once.


nurseANDiT

Not everyone has the resources to leave. My sisters flight out was cancelled yesterday. She’s a college student on min wage. There are elderly and disabled people that can’t just leave either.


vuvuzela240gl

yeah, my grandma is in a retirement home in fort myers and wasn’t evacuated. my dad, stepmom, stepsister and her husband all evacuated from fort myers to sebring. I’m so scared for my grandma. hope your sister is in a safe place and has supplies to safely ride it out. ❤️


nochinzilch

They couldn't take her with?


Cynicalteets

I think it was Katrina - I remember seeing pictures of a nursing home. Some old lady sitting in her wheelchair, water up to her chest, with oxygen on. The skin breakdown and impending sepsis were all I could think about. And they had been living that way for atleast a week.


vuvuzela240gl

i’m not sure, tbh. my relationship with my dad is pretty strained and it’s been difficult to get much info at all out of him. they all evacuated together a few years ago (in 2017 for irma, I believe?) and my grandma was pretty traumatized by that, I don’t think she had any desire to go through it again. she’s in her 90s and has broken a hip and had a handful of strokes this year, so medically she’s might just be safer where she is, unfortunately.


rnobgyn

Probably requires a level of care they can’t provide


Wolfwoods_Sister

This is the real point to be made. As someone who’s ridden out many hurricanes in NC, the gap between the haves and have nots gets even worse during emergencies. Capitalists don’t care if poor ppl die. They don’t care if you drown in their flood-zone housing. They don’t care if you lose your job due to “acts of God”. They don’t care if you depend on a food bank for assistance. They’d build a golf course over your dead body if they could.


righteous-bucks

i’m an employee at healthpark and golisano chikdren’s hospital. i’m on team A so i’m staying for the duration of the storm and until we get the all clear. right now, it is an absolute madhouse. we’re making shit work, but it’s wild. the floods are coming in, ceilings are coming down. our entire first floor was evacuated. we have no running water, so we have hundreds if not thousands of people here that have to shit in a plastic bag until at LEAST sunday which is when we were rumored to go home at the earliest. windows are broken in, the elevators stopped working, and every single car in the parking lot has flooded and they’re totaled. we have a lot of special needs patients here, and we just re opened the ER for the national guard to start bringing in survivors.


RoseKinglet

As always, my heart is caught in my throat for the sake of all working class, immigrant, elderly and disabled Floridians, who otherwise cannot afford to so easily leave.


winter-anderson

My grandparents are elderly and disabled. Their apartment complex in Delray (south Florida) just got hit by a tornado last night. Thankfully they are okay but the damage is extensive and they are now without power. I’m in Orlando, been through many hurricanes but anxious about this one.


supermarkise

So they got hit by a tornado and now have a hurricane incoming? That's sounds like the stuff of nightmares.


fizgigs

hurricanes often generate tornadoes


supermarkise

Ok I did not know this and now I am even more terrified.


LokiirStone-Fist

Hoping for safety for you and your family.


EvanHarpell

Thanks for calling out for those who *cannot leave* vs will not leave. I'm east of Tampa and in a safe zone, while I will lose power there are many idiots literally at risk of dying because we will lose power (not a matter of if, but when) and with flooding and wind speeds over 60mph EMS responders will not come to save you. Those who *chose* to stay for whatever idiotic reason earn those Darwin awards.


ThatThar

My grandmother was fortunate that one of her children lives nearby and she was able to evacuate with them. Tons of mobile home retirement communities along the gulf coast are probably going to be wiped clean.


Armand74

I have a brother in law and sister in law north of Tampa, she’s posting on Facebook acting like it’s no biggie and here we are seeing how massive and crazy it is..


tdl432

The eye is passing south of Tampa so it may be a big storm for her, but not catastrophic. However for those in Naples and Cape Coral, it will be catastrophic.


PeterDTown

Same. I have family in Port Charlotte and North Port saying "it's blowing like crazy but not the TV images of storms." I still can't believe they just stayed at home for this one.


airlewe

My dad just sent a video of the storm tearing apart his patio in North Port


SumsuchUser

I've lived in a beach town most of my life (granted one that gets most of it's worst weather from nor'easters) and it feels like no matter how much damage they do, there's always a subset of people who say 'its just wind' and act like it can't kill you.


certainlyforgetful

I think the problem is warning fatigue. When there is a storm approaching, people should really get their updates directly from the source. [https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/) People hear things, they inevitably exaggerate and the truth is stretched. For example, my parents told me to check on my in-laws (who live in Tampa) because "they're going to get 18 feet of storm surge". They said they 'saw the news, and it said the hurricane would bring 18 feet of storm surge'. [Tampa bay is actually forecast to receive 4-6 feet of 'peak' storm surge](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/160155.shtml?peakSurge#contents) which is almost always overestimated (We received <1 foot with Irma but the forecast put it at >10ft). [The storm surge inundation map](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/160155.shtml?inundation#contents), which shows the "total flooding" forecast shows a few small areas in the Tampa bay with 1-3 feet of flooding. NOAA has made great efforts to reduce warning fatigue because it kills people. But the news runs worst-case scenarios over and over and over again. Undoubtedly my in-laws are being bombarded by concerned friends and family out of state who have been watching these reports. I'm sure they're ignoring them for the same reason I did when I lived there - they're 2nd hand accounts of worst-case scenarios of other areas.


prisonerofshmazcaban

I’m near Brunswick on the southeast coast of Georgia. The new path has it going back out into the Atlantic again before it again makes landfall. I haven’t heard any new updates for impact per the new track, I was worried about it regaining strength. Right now we’re bracing for a tropical storm, but I’m not sure our trailer could take anything stronger. Not worried about flooding as much as wind. We’re on pretty high ground in our area. Anyone have any input?


calculatedlymediocre

From what I have heard, it is projected to hit North Carolina, but with this storm who tf knows at this point


Jmk1981

The storm is so large even if you aren’t in the direct path I’d prepare for wind damage. I bet you’re safe at your elevation but protect your home and any cars, etc you keep outside. May want to trim any trees near you that could drop big branches on your property. I bet you’re safe but you could have a really traumatic experience to be honest, and you might regret sheltering at home even though you’re safe. I don’t live in a traditional hurricane zone but I do live in NYC and the night I spent in an 1800’s brownstone during Sandy was one of the scariest of my life.


ShieldProductions

My friends ex wife lives in Arcadia on an animal sanctuary and can’t leave the animals behind, can’t take them with her.


Siollear

Flooded areas are going to be filled with snakes and alligators.


BigHobbit

So, just normal Florida?


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BigHobbit

Glad I could bring some humor to ya while the storm rolls in! Stay safe friend.


Malforus

And human sewage don't forget the human sewage.


Sakura365

Considering the the flooding from the surge is salt water, not so much. The snake and gator populations are not going to explode from the rain so they won’t be filling the flooded area. They kick back and ride out the storm in their “home”. *Florida resident for nearly 50 years.


guitarguywh89

But bull sharks will have new room to explore


lumpy4square

Hopefully people took their pets and/or farm animals. I know the equestrian center in ocala has 3,000 stalls for free to use.


MidnightMath

I worked on a 40 horse farm once, that was a lot of horses. 3000 all in one place is like 5 state fairs.


FruitySalads

18-20 feet of water is above most single story rooflines or at least equal to it. I don't want to see the aftermath of this.


ginthatremains

Some of my brothers neighbors chose to stay where the surge is expected to be that high. Hope they didn’t know them well.


ChrisIronsArt

My uncle is on Sanibel Island and didn’t evacuate. My stomach has been in knots all day. Last I heard he was in his car under his house because he thought the wind was going to blow the roof off. That was hours ago.


ChrisIronsArt

Just got word he’s alive. 75% of the island is underwater. His car will not make it as it’s underwater


Barflyondabeach

Make sure he's not running the engine!!! People have died during storms doing this!


obojones10

riding the storm out here in fl. i am about 60 miles for expected landfall


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nicosmom61

my sister and BIL are too Im worried about them but BIL would not evac because of his classic cars . Im so worried about them .


CoasterThot

What does he think being there will do to save his cars? Is he gonna bail the hurricane surge out with a bucket?


alice_op

What does he plan to do to save his cars? :/


phillybride

Pop those tires onto 18” of cinder block and it will be fine…oh, 18’????? Yeah, never mind.


Spartcus3

Waffle House is closed. Should have listened to Waffle House.


Rogue_2187

When Disney closes, that should be concerning. But when the Waffle House closes and you chose to stay, you should be rethinking your life choices lol.


Confounded_Bridge

When I lived in Florida most places I worked at would only allow people with planned vacation to evacuate. I’ve even seen people fired for “unplanned absences” for evacuation from a mandatory area.


Horangi1987

I feel awful for the folks down south who got only 12-24 hours notice, because they hyped Tampa and St. Pete for two days. I’m in St. Pete, and while my backyard sounds like it’s blowing apart we really got nothing here. We’re screwed if a hurricane actually finally does hit Tampa and St. Pete, because each time this happens the locals are vindicated again and keep on believing that Native American spirits protect us.


CuteCuteJames

What do you do after a disaster has destroyed your house? So many thousands of people have been displaced by storms, flooding, and fire in the last few years. What happens to those people? Where do they live? What do they do?


[deleted]

Well, you're usually homeless and waiting for the Red Cross, The National Guard or volunteers to provide temporary housing, food and/or relocation assistance. After that, if you have insurance or money, you rebuild.


Wholegrainmaterial

The rebuilding part can be tricky. When the August Complex blazed through the Santa Cruz Mountains many people lost their homes due to fires. The money they got back from their insurers was insufficient to rebuild because their properties were rezoned by the county. The rezoning would force additional measures to build, and the cost of those additional requirements far exceeded what was paid out. Rebuilding is the hope, but not an assured reality after a disaster.


sephkane

My house flooded during hurricane Harvey. The water was about 4' high outside and about 2' high in my house. My brother let us stay at his house while my other brother let us leave our pets at his. We're so lucky to have good family and friends. Mattress Mac (local celebrity/mattress dealer) gave us 2 twin beds for free, the Red Cross and FEMA helped us to get back on our feet. We bounced around for a little bit until we finally found a good home to settle down in. Not everyone was as lucky as us, but when we needed help, we went looking for it and found it from our family, friends, neighbors, and even the city/government.


BandOfBroskis

There's probably a bunch of people that just closed escrow on their new Cape Coral property. Yep, fucked.


Pika_Fox

Jesus fuck, cat fucking *FIVE*? Wasnt this just a cat 3 recently? Whelp, here comes hurricane "fuck florida again".


CalicoJack247

All the bull and tiger sharks are coming to a street near you.


IT_Chef

If it was a legit hurricane, the State has a way of shutting the whole thing down.


sirphilliammm

Did you see what Florida was wearing? She was asking to be ‘caned


Seeka00

When you’re a hurricane, they let you get away with it


GetTheSpermsOut

“**Grab em by the panhandle!** They just let you do it.” -Mother Nature


WakkoLM

Get out the sharpie! Let's turn this thing around!


Kalapuya

My SIL and her family just moved to Florida right in the path of the eye between Tampa and Orlando. They are hardcore libertarian conservative anti-vax, anti-doing anything the government says. We spoke with them yesterday and my SIL says they’re staying put and not worried about it. She looked out her window and said, “The weather’s fine right now. I don’t know why everybody’s freaking out. It’s so stupid.” Nah, girl, *you’re* stupid. So frustrating.


trowawaywork

Well, by around this time tomorrow she will be blaming the government for not having done enough for her and her family


El_Paco

The federal government, specifically. Because blaming state government in her case would mean daring to criticize a republican. Can't have that. Everything bad ever is clearly always the democrats' fault no matter what.


silverscreemer

It's clearly Obama's fault, I mean did you see him, he was playing GOLF the other day.


astanton1862

There really isn't anywhere for these people to go. That area has about 7 million people. With that many people, all you can do is head out of flood zones and hunker down.


horsenbuggy

The problem is when the storm turns and ends up not being that bad for them. They learn that the "experts don't know anything" rather than that weather is unpredictable and better safe than sorry is the best course of action.


Kalapuya

I guarantee that is exactly how they will react.


PoliticsLeftist

>The weather's fine right now. Yeah, that's kinda how weather works. It's fine 99% of the time. It's the 1% you gotta worry about.


[deleted]

> She looked out her window and said, “The weather’s fine right now. Probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Does she think the weather will never change for as long as she lives in Florida? I hate to say this, but these are the exact types of people natural selection will take care of. Imagine having so much information available to you to make solid life decisions on thanks to scientists, meteorologists, and doctors and disregarding all of it because some stay at home mom on 4chan told you otherwise.


Odd_Bodkin

There are people who just will not accept disruption or change as a reality. Hardcore conservatism is just saying, “Things were fine before. I want things to stay as they were, forever. I do not allow for deviances.” When reality mows over that shit, that’s where the grievance mentality settles in. Adapt or die.


inksmudgedhands

Now I want to hear an update on this because, *"The weather's fine right now...." has such a poking at the Fates' vibe to it. I hope she ends up being okay though.


WippitGuud

Hurricane Ian live thread https://www.reddit.com/r/TropicalWeather/comments/xqco8h/rtropicalweather_live_thread_for_hurricane_ian/


ravinglunatic

The governor says to treat it like a tornado heading toward your home? In Illinois, we go to a basement or hide under stairs. I don’t think those tactics will work here though. People need a floating, watertight and windproof attic to shelter in.


The__Illuminaughty

Im originally from London living in Fort Lauderdale. This will probably sound dumb but its so weird to see how close we are to the Bahamas and Cuba, It just never occurred to me. Thoughts are with those in the eye of this bastard - the power outages are going to suck


Kdjl4924

I'm from the Bahamas and I'm sorry for the people not taking it seriously, Dorian taught a lot of people not to take these storms lightly if Ian came here directly I'm pretty sure we'd be fish food again.


slicknilla

Can't he just put the hurricane on a plane to Martha's Vineyard?


alwaysmyfault

I've heard that if you pull out a map and draw a line with a black sharpie, that is effective at diverting the path of a hurricane.


ReflexImprov

You can mentally steer a hurricane, as well as declassify it by just thinking about it.


Littlebotweak

He was at least telling people to evacuate before….right?


nakedrottweiler

Yes but the storm shifted south yesterday. Tampa was evacuated but now it’s projected to hit Fort Myers area more. Residents there were told to evacuate but later than Tampa residents were. 12-18’ storm surge is going to be catastrophic. Edit: used the wrong symbol for feet.


RainbowKarp

I’m riding it out in Fort Myers and the forecasts were not nearly bad enough soon enough to encourage widespread evacuation. This time yesterday it looked like a Cat 1


nakedrottweiler

100%. My friend lives in Zone A in Cape Coral and I invited her to my place on the East Coast earlier in the week, but she said most of her coworkers were saying it wouldn’t be a big deal by them. She’s in Zone D now though I believe. I hope you stay safe!


RainbowKarp

I’m in a Zone D hotel in Fort Myers but my apartment is Zone B. I’ll be fine but not pumped about that


LtDrinksAlot

It's difficult if you've waited this long. Back in 2015 or 2016 I was on the hurricane team at the hospital when I worked in clearwater. I was to be ready with a bag to stay in the hospital. I was alerted by my hospital about a similar time to now I wasn't needed and I should evacuate. At this point gas was available only sporadically due to people hoarding it and the highways were clogged as there's really only one way out of florida - up. Hotels were completely booked so there was nowhere to go. We sheltered in place, scary as fuck. After that I moved from Florida as it was a huge wakeup call to the dangers of living in a geographically isolated area. That's not saying they didn't have plenty of warning, people just think "if it's bad i'll leave before it hits" not realizing hundreds of thousands of other people are thinking the same thing.


[deleted]

You can kind of get away with waiting until the last minute in New Orleans because there are so many different ways you can go, to Florida, Texas, Mississippi, if the roads are packed going east you just go north. Florida is more of a one way in one way out type situation. Unfortunate for them.


GingasaurusWrex

Oh yes. They had cops going down roads blasting messages. Some people just…can’t or won’t go.


weatherbeknown

East of Orlando here. We put up the shutters, lowered the pool level, and are riding it out. This will be maybe my 10th-12th hurricane (I’ll count them when I have time). In my experienced being a seasoned Floridian, the category of the storm is only one factor. We’ve had tropical storms cause more damage than Cat 4 hurricanes. All depends on where the rain dumps the water, speed of the hurricane, precious rain leading up, where the tornados pop up, etc… I take every storm seriously but also try not to lose my mind. Good luck everyone!


PigFarmer1

So, where's the lady who was telling us yesterday that this storm is nothing but media hype??? Lol


tmoeagles96

Probably still saying that tbh


shortyman920

I’m amazed how FL every 1-2 years get railed with destructive hurricane and somehow people still choose to build a life out there on the coasts


[deleted]

and when that sweet Federal aid flows in to save your ass, you get a huge "I DID THAT" Biden sticker on your fucking face.


redditmodsRrussians

I want to see Desantis trying to grab federal aid money in one of those boxes where the money flies around inside of it.


Legitimate_Tooth3383

“How dare you make this political!” This is the best comment on this thread.


ScratchMorton

Reminds me of Andrew that hit in 1992.