[quote=“Mustangman, post:11, topic:186789” coastal buildings are on stilts and park the cars under. The cars get sacrificed in a surge.
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It seems like somebody owning an expensive car – therefore having plenty of disposable loot – might build some sort of steel-girder contraption that would allow them to hoist the car up high enough so it wouldn’t flood during storm surges. Did you ever see anything like that?
No, no lifts or supports. Not even in the collectors club garages. That is a thing here… space to store and work on your car and a club to hang with car buddies. Some of the private ones have lifts, but usually only one.
Keep in mind, it is just a car. It is insured, they can be replaced. That is how these folks think of it.
This was an unusual event though based on what people were saying. One couple on sanibel had ridden out other storms no problem but when the water got to six feet they had to swim with kids to the neighbors who had a higher upstairs. So I think some were caught a little by surprise.
Storm reports were confusing. Maybe somebody can clarify. This storm rated 2 or 3 compared to other Fla storms in recent history rating 4 or 5. So don’t understand why pre-warnings were so dire? compare this storm for example to the one that hit New Orleans during the W era, or there was an even bigger one as I recall named “Camille”, that hit a wide swath of southeaster USA, including Washington DC some years ago.
There were some bad Fla storms about 10 years ago as I recall. One electronic tech here in San Jose would tell me he wanted to move to Fla b/c fishing is good there. He up and moved just as those big storms hit Florida. He moved back to San Jose within 6 months, saying storms frightened him and his wife so much didn’t care about the fish any more…
This was a Cat 4 storm. 2 mph short of a Cat 5. It was the strongest storm that ever-hit Florida. hurricane Charlie could fit in the eye of this storm. so, it was large too.
Ian landed as a Cat 4 (nearly a Cat 5) hurricane about 30 miles across. Hit the north tip of Captiva ran over Port Charlotte. Fort Myers Beach was on the incoming wind side that causes storm surge…so we got wet and 140 mph winds.
The storm was supposed to hit farther north towards Tampa and be smaller and weaker so many figured they’d ride it out. If you live 3 ft above high tide on a barrier island, that means you will get flooded.
Hurricanes compare to tornados in the midwest… except we get a weeks notice, the blow lasts hours and low areas get wet… instead of 5 minutes notice, 5 minutes blow and water is minimal.
Yes, Charlie was bad but smaller… 2005 I think
Irma was much smaller, too, as a Cat 3 when it hit Fort Myers in 2017
Everything I saw had it as 4 near 5, catastrophic damage potential.
If she was an English, English teacher she would know tyres😁
The Cat rating of a storm uses wind speed as a primary standard (I think), and the greatest losses are usually from flooding. Wind speed can have an influence on flooding if it drives ocean water onto the land but lots of flooding is caused well inland by torrential rain and poor drainage. My point being the relative category info from the weather service is only a part of the picture.
This thread started with a discussion of EVs and catching fire during or after a flood. Just remember, insurance generally covers fire but often provides little or no coverage for floods or earthquakes. Sometimes a fire after the event is the only way a homeowner gets insurance relief.
Flooded cars are covered by car insurance. I know of no policies that sepeate this. Home owners policies DO seperate the 2.
Years ago, the government created national flood insurance because the cost of private insurance got too high for the owners of expensive beachfront properties. The program always runs in the red like nearly every program of this type. Affordable private flood insurance is available these days.
We have both home and flood policies because we are about 15 ft above sea level at high tide even though the house has never been flooded. Not even this time. Through 2 hurricanes, we have had no claims but we spent significant money to harden our home to hurricanes.
All that rainfall wanted to find its way to the rivers. I 75 was shut down for 3 days (?) Because the river rose above a safe level to allow traffic on the bridge.
Here’s the Sept 26 Ian forecast
" NHC predicts Ian will go from a Cat 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds at 11 a.m. EDT Monday to a Cat 3 hurricane with 120 mph winds by 8 a.m. … Further strengthening on Tuesday over the southeast Gulf of Mexico is predicted to make Ian a category 4 storm … by Wednesday morning, conditions for further intensification will become marginal …"
Not saying a storm that ultimately reaches cat 4 isn’t worthy of major concern; but early intensity predictions as above weren’t indicating to me anyway that Ian would be ‘one of the worst to hit the USA in history’ variety.
The storm intensity before it makes landfall isn’t important, it’s when it makes landfall, where the forecast you quote has it as a cat 4. It also talks about Tampa Bay area ‘could soon have its worst storm-surge flooding in modern history’. So again, I’m puzzled by your comments: all the news reports were pointing to a catastrophic storm.
From the link above.
“Many of the models predict rapid weakening just before landfall on Thursday or Friday, and Ian could be reduced to a tropical storm if landfall occurs in the Florida Panhandle.”
Well predictions are predictions. I’ve run right into a blizzard that wasn’t there and took a snow day and nary a snow flake showed up. Needed the day off anyway.
I think it was Yogi Berra who said something like “Predictions are hard to make. Especially ones about the future.” … lol …
Yeah, that was my original question, that the early predictions didn’t seem to be fully in agreement about the expected severity. There did seem to be quite a bit of agreement that Tampa would be flood prone though, due to its location & the orientation of the local terrain w/respect to the storm track
The report is a forecast created from mathmatical models. All models are wrong but some are useful.
Any forecast is an educated guess. Mother nature doesn’t pay attention to educated guesses.
This is a forecast DAYS before it hit. Why pay it any mind? It was still south of Cuba at the time of the forecast. The important forecasts, those nearer to the time it went ashore, all pointed to major damage.
