Hurricane IAN

orbital

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My Sister & Brother-in-law have a small house on Sanibel Island.
When Charley hit in '04 they had alot of damage & their yard ruined from the salt water.

They rebuilt.

Looking at the direct hit it took today with the massive storm surge, water had to be up to the roof plus the unrelenting wave punishment/wind.
It has to be literally gone.

Haven't talked to them about it, I just don't know what to say..
 

turbodog

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My Sister & Brother-in-law have a small house on Sanibel Island.
When Charley hit in '04 they had alot of damage & their yard ruined from the salt water.

They rebuilt.

Looking at the direct hit it took today with the massive storm surge, water had to be up to the roof plus the unrelenting wave punishment/wind.
It has to be literally gone.

Haven't talked to them about it, I just don't know what to say..
From seeing katrina's storm surge...

You will have houses that look ok from the front... just broken windows. Closer inspection shows the contents are gone and the back wall missing.

It was if you blended up some 2x4 lumber, a yard sale, sheetrock, insulation, mud, sewage, and dead animals, then poured it out across the entire area.
 

bykfixer

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My sister and her husband bought a place about 500 feet from the water in 1989. It's now about 400 feet from the water. Just up the road is a big ole blue sign saying "hurricane evacuation route" with an arrow pointing away from the house.
 

Poppy

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We have friends in the Tampa area, who we lost touch with around 4:00 PM yesterday, and friends in Orlando, who last night @ 11 PM had water at their patio.

The devastation of this hurricane has me thinking about what additional preps I should do. Since I am near the top of a hill, I'll never see 12 inches of water. Due to a long grade of the street, when there is a heavy downpour, the water rushes by my driveway a couple inches deep. I have a slight rise in my driveway, from the curb, and then it is pitched towards my house. If the water can crest that slight rise, it might be possible for me to get some water in the house.

I don't have sand bags, but I do have perhaps 6 bags of rubber mulch, that I never unbagged. If I pick up a few more, I might be able to block off the front of the driveway to maintain the direction of the water, down the block.
 

turbodog

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Due to comm failure it's going to take a while to get impact/damage results. In Katrina, first responders had to use GPS as signs, buildings, and landmarks were gone.
 

knucklegary

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I don't have sand bags, but I do have perhaps 6 bags of rubber mulch, that I never unbagged. If I pick up a few more, I might be able to block off the front of the driveway to maintain the direction of the water, down the block.
I've never seen rubber mulch used as sandbag media. Isn't the rubber too light in weight to stay in place, won't the bags just float away?
 

Poppy

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I've never seen rubber mulch used as sandbag media. Isn't the rubber too light in weight to stay in place, won't the bags just float away?
I don't know, Gary... I just did some math, and rubber mulch is about 28 pounds / cubic foot. Sand is about 100 pounds / cubic foot. I think it is made of car tires.

My sister just heard from our friends in the Tampa area, actually they are very near Punta Gorda. She said they are safe, but the place looks like a war zone, no water or power. They have the option to go across the state to Port St Lucie, or somewhere North of Tampa. I guess we'll see what they do.
 

bykfixer

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It sounds like flooding is the biggest issue post Ian.

Not to make light of the situation but 100 years ago Florida was a gigantic swamp. Some giant channels were cut to drain it so when 18 feet storm surges send water upstream while 14" of rain send it downstream flooding is bound to happen there.

When a tropical depression got stuck over Richmond VA a few years back it got 18" of rain in about 2 hours. My home was at the top of a hill. The curb that lines the road on both sides is 6" tall. Water was falling from the sky so fast water AT THE TOP OF THE HILL was over topping the curb across the pavement. At the top of the hill!!!! Point being when Mother Nature unhurls her wrath it doesn't matter what elevation above sea level you are at.

I feel bad for the people in Florida that Ian has wiped out, but when family says "come join us, you'll love living here" I say "nah, that's ok, I'll stay here 200+ feet above sea level thank ya".
 

jtr1962

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I feel bad for the people in Florida that Ian has wiped out, but when family says "come join us, you'll love living here" I say "nah, that's ok, I'll stay here 200+ feet above sea level thank ya".
My feelings exactly. I'm happy being 62 feet above sea level. I'll never have to worry about storm surges or high tides, although I've had the sewer back up into the basement a few times in the 44 years I've lived here.

My brother is in the Rockaways. I think his house is about 15 feet above sea level. For a while he was trying to get us to move there. We said no thanks. It's good having a place well above sea level which my brother can use as a refuge if he gets flooded. BTW, that almost happened with Sandy. He said if the water was 6 inches higher, it would have gone into his basement.

Florida? No thanks. I can barely get through 3 months of NYC summer. Wouldn't want to live in a place where it's like that 10 months out of 12.

I've been watching all this unfold on The Weather Channel. It looks really bad. It's going to be months cleaning up this mess. The places which undergrounded their power lines, like Sarasota, at least still have power (or did the last time I checked the news).
 

jtr1962

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I don't know, Gary... I just did some math, and rubber mulch is about 28 pounds / cubic foot. Sand is about 100 pounds / cubic foot. I think it is made of car tires.
Water is 62.5 pounds/ cubic foot, so yeah, rubber mulch will just float away.
 

jtr1962

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Can use an inflatable plumbing balloon to block the drain. It goes down the drain or in the toilet and in inflated with a bike pump.
I'll consider this. Only potential issue is water can still get in from the drain at the bottom of the basement stairs in back. It won't be able to make its way to the sewer with the balloon blocking it. I guess though it's the lesser of two evils-relatively less, mostly clean runoff water, versus lots of dirty sewer water.
 

turbodog

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.... It's going to be months cleaning up this mess. ...

Gulf coast took over a decade.

There's the search for survivors & bodies. Then the fight between homeowners and insurance companies begins. There's also a scramble for resources. And the people that _are_ covered will find out they are under insured oftentimes... or there's been a rezone/reassessment and coverage (if they rebuild) will be either denied flat-out or too expensive.
 

orbital

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Look at how the eye wall sits & spins forcing up and focusing unimaginable amounts of water to a small area.
plus 140mph winds.
Just to the right/east of the eye wall is the most intense energy, since rotating counterclockwise.

1664498953414.png



Wiki has the time laps,, doesn't seem to be working here
 
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turbodog

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Can use an inflatable plumbing balloon to block the drain. It goes down the drain or in the toilet and in inflated with a bike pump.

Not exactly a $5 item, but worth every penny. The chain tends to be the weak point... don't jam it down very far.

1664504753663.png
 

Sabrewulf

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Hope everyone is safe!
We could use some of that water here, the land here is absolutely parched and desperate for any rain.
 

Hooked on Fenix

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Is it too late to ask for the U-Haul trucks in Florida to be returned to California so others have a chance to leave? If you happen to bring them back full of water I'd just consider that a bonus.
 
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