Hurricane Ian

[Trobador222]

So we just took a direct hit from this monster. Me, my family and pets are all safe. We evacuated to my daughters house this morning when it became evident the storm had strengthened to insane levels. We had originally planned to ride it out.

My wife and I just returned from a vacation and we got COVID when we got home. My son, who lives with us came down with it day before yesterday. I had mild symptoms My wife has had flu like symptoms. My son the same. So we were already under the weather with the storm in the way. One big thing with me though, is my sleep patterns, which have never been normal, have been way screwy. The stress of the impending storm has not helped.

So here I am up at 4AM and been up for about 3 hours now. This morning it is the knowledge that my area where I live had experienced the worst natural disaster to have ever hit there. I am really afraid there could have been massive loss of life. So many did not evacuate and the barrier islands and huge areas of the inland city were flooded under a massive storm surge.

I’m a little numb and the realization is just hitting. Be well and safe my friends.

[Argle]

Hey man I'm really sorry to hear this. Glad to hear that you're safe.

[Heigen5]

Yup, glad you're safe Henry. Hurricanes are part of that area, it's not the first one. We don't have hurricanes here in the northern Europe, but our biggest shit here is to be a neighbor to Russia.

[Mr. Marty]

Well I am certainly glad you and yours made through the storm. Have you gotten to your home yet?

[Trobador222]

Well I posted twice and it’s not going through. My house is alright. A lot of my trees are gone and my fence is pretty beat up from trees falling on it. We were lucky. 3 miles from us was a community called Matlacha that was on the inside pass and it was destroyed.

[Ashley]

Oh my, glad you're ok, that sounds quite traumatic, my bestest wishes are with you, keep safe, A.

[Mr. Marty]

Well I posted twice and it’s not going through. My house is alright. A lot of my trees are gone and my fence is pretty beat up from trees falling on it. We were lucky. 3 miles from us was a community called Matlacha that was on the inside pass and it was destroyed.

I know about losing trees. I lost all but 1, 30 total, of the tall pines in the tornado of 2017. That is why Hurricane Michael did little damage to my house despite the excessive hurricane winds. It was still a hurricane when it made it to here. Destroyed all irrigation systems in its path and most pecan groves east of the eye as it moved north. It incited great changes in ag in the region. It knocked down most of the tall trees in the Chickasawhatchee Swamp and that was on the west side of the eye. Most trees fell to the west. They are still on the ground. I just hope a fire does not get started there.

What is the "inside pass"?

[Trobador222]

The coast here has lots of large islands. On the true gulf side are Sanibel and Captiva which are huge islands then inside that is a larger pass and bay then Pine Island. Pine Island is the largest island on Florida’s west coast. Between the mainland and Pine Island is another pass. That’s the inside pass. Matlacha is actually a small island where the bridge to Pine Island ends.

[Mr. Marty]

Ah, inland waterways, gotit.

I heard of some community that got nearly no damage. It is an engineered community with nearly 100% solar power. The panels apparently were designed to withstand the winds. None of the homes were damaged either. The flooding was minimal due to roadway design and wetlands management. This really intrigues me. It sounds like something I could do after I retire.

[Trobador222]

They were 35 miles inland. No coastal flooding. They had some winds up to 100 mph plus. They are a new community so all the houses had roofs to the newest code. Some of that is propaganda to an extent. Their land scaping was minimal so they had no big trees. The biggest advantage they had was they have self contained solar power farms with all underground utilities.