Ian, As Expected, Creates A Florida Catastrophe

As I write this, the extreme destruction continues form Hurricane Ian in Florida, with widespread reports of extreme storm surges and powerful winds. 

Storm surge almost reaching to the second floor of 
houses in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Photo from
Twitter via @itsbethbooker

Officially, Hurricane Ian made landfall at 3:05 p.m. around Cayo Costa, Florida, with top wind speed of 150 mph.  Those winds will diminish slowly, and the storm surges will begin to retreat this evening. 

But much of the damage is already done, and there's more destruction to come as Ian makes its way northeastward through central and northern Florida. 

I've seen no reports of deaths yet, but that will change. A storm this powerful is unsurvivable for people caught in the wrong places. Such as a house that floats away in a storm surge, or gets crushed by a large, falling tree.

Plus, more people will die in the aftermath, unfortunately.  In fact, sometimes the majority of deaths from a hurricane come after the storm has ended. People die of carbon monoxide poisoning because of a wrongly placed generator.  They pass away from heat exhaustion in the air conditioning-free home atmosphere during lengthy power outages. They die in cleanup accidents. Maybe a chain saw kicks back in a fatal way. 

Yeah, it's pretty grim. 

Next up will be inland flooding. I've already seen a report of 18 inches of rain between Punta Gorda and Sarasota, Florida, so you can imagine how bad this will be as the heavy rain spreads towards Orlando and then northeast Florida. 

Although reports are only trickling in due to the ongoing storm, it appears that Fort Myers is perhaps the hardest hit city so far.

Much of Fort Myers sank beneath storm surges exceeding ten feet. The flooding includes the city's downtown. Some houses floated away. Others were flooded all the way to the roof. New video also shows houses beginning to float in Naples, Florida. More than a million Floridians were without power late this afternoon, and that number was rising. 

Another sad look at Fort Myers,
Beach, Florida today

Since the eye of the storm just crossed the coastline about an hour or two  before I wrote this, wind and water were still extreme in western Florida. 

I guess it's so big at the moment that I can't fully grasp the extent of this disaster yet, so I'm concentrating on relatively small details regarding this storm. 

One thing that struck me is that devastating Hurricane Charley in 2004 came ashore in Cayo Costa, Florida in the 3 o'clock hour, just like Ian.  Top wind speeds in both Charlie and Ian were about the same, but here's the difference.

Hurricane Charley was small in size compared to giant Hurricane Ian that Charlie's  eye and eye wall - the circle of intense thunderstorms around the eye - could easily fit within the eye of Ian with plenty of room to spare.

That's a big part of the reason why Ian's storm surge is so destructive. A large hurricane can stir up a much more severe surge than a smaller-sized storm.  

By the way, I'm a little tired of the long tradition of reporters standing out in the middle of the wind and water and waves and yelling into the camera. It's pretty dangerous. And we don't need a person standing out in the extreme conditions to understand the conditions are, well, extreme. 

Today, the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore got hit by a large branch in the wind. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt. And Reed Timmer wandered into the back yard of a oceanfront house as the storm surge roared in. 

Speaking of dangerous, can I just say a few employers really suck. They can be really evil, at least according to some reports I've seen on social media. 

Since it's social media, I can't absolutely verify if these stories are true, but it seems we're back to profits over people and safety. 

One company apparently told employees who are forced to evacuate low lying areas, to take their at-home work equipment to shelters, and set up there, and work, dammit! I'm not sure how you'd get sufficient wifi, space and quiet to work at an emergency shelter, but full speed ahead, apparently! 

Another employer told employees to come to work as their building is supposedly safe, but as a concession, can bring their children and pets. How accommodating! Like is the building really safe?  Like the Amazon warehouse and candle factory in last December's tornadoes?

Even though Ian will be weaker, expect flooding rains in parts of Georgia and the Carolinas as Ian pushes northward. 

By the way, in case you were wondering, Ian doesn't look like it will have any effects on us here in Vermont. Dry high pressure settling south from Quebec this weekend will push moisture from Ian eastward out to sea far south of here. 

 

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