Hey Recky You should go watch the documentary called "Hurricane Michael The Forgotten Catagory 5". Hurricane Michael made landfall as a Catagory 5 on October 10, 2018 between Panama City & Mexico Beach Florida. I live 2 hours from Panama City in Cairo, Georgia & Michael was still a Catagory 5 when it hit my hometown. A very good friend of mine & my husband lost his 11 year old daughter during the storm when a massive Pine Tree fell on the room she was in.
Winds of 155 mph or equivalent to 249 kph. Hurricane Ian traveled from the Gulf of Mexico to Southwest Florida where it traveled across land until it reached the Atlantic ocean then came around and struck South and North Carolina where it fizzled out. Unfortunately 100 people lost their lives in the US from Ian.
@@Reckyj clocks in as the third costliest hurricane of all time, with about 113 BILLION US dollars of damage, over 160 fatalities, and high end category 4 status, just two mph shy of being a full blown cat 5
I live in Cape Coral FL ( Lee county) this is where Ian made landfall. I've lived here for 30yrs this is the worst thing to happen to the Cape Coral, ft Myers area since I've lived here. My roof is destroyed but it can be fixed. I have co workers that live on ft Myers beach and they lost everything they own so I feel fortunate. This storm was horrible. I had to make a delivery to the fire Department of ft Myers beach for work last week and I couldn't recognize estero Blvd the main road on the beach. I grew up here so I'm not going to lie man it made me cry to see how devastated it was.
If you haven't seen it yet, look up pictures of what Ian did to Tampa Bay. Instead of flooding, the storm pulled a bunch of water out of the bay, leaving some parts completely dry. The water is back now, but the pictures are wild
Yes there was sharks swimming on the roads and people were stuck in their flooded home with a gator but the worst is the poisonous snakes in the water called water moccasins. Very aggressive and venomous. There was catastrophic flooding along the rivers inland because of the surge . Whole town's were under water in minutes. But the most unusual aspect was when Ian approached it sucked the water out first you could see the ocean floor and the the storm pushed all that water back in. I live further north where it was predicted to hit but was spared at the last minute. A lot of people were stranded in the path of the storm cause of the panic buying of petrol or gas. The storm was 500 miles wide and the eye of the storm was 33 miles wide it made landfall as a cat 4 winds were over 155miles per hour.. But the storms width is804.7 kilometers across the eye was 53.1 kilometers and average wind speed was 249.4 mph.
I was born and raised in Florida. Hurricanes are a part of life here, I’ve lived through more than I can count. My oldest cat, Puddin’, we rescued during Hurricane Isaac in 2012. We had seen a feral cat put her kittens under a shed in our backyard a few days earlier. When the storm started rolling in, we noticed water starting to quickly run under the shed. We ran out to check and found all 4 kittens still under there, and grabbed them so they wouldn’t drown. I took one cat, my mom took one, and we found homes for the other two ❤ He’s my sweet baby, I’m so glad we saved him.
Got to watch it happen since Ryan Hall livestreamed coverage. Before it hit, people were going to beaches to see the hurricane make landfall. I believe he still has the live stream of Ian on his channel if you want to take a look.
All those structures that look like greenhouses do not have glass panels. It's a thin screening material on a lightweight metal frame. People who have swimming pools erect them around the pool. It reduces the amount of leaves and stuff that fall into the pool, reduces the number of mosquitos and other bugs and can help keep the snakes, gators and neighborhood kids out.
There's footage out there of sharks swimming in yards probably eating anything they could including alligators. The whole ocean was in everyone houses. It was really really bad. Abd yeah. I agree that "Red Shirt" guy saving cat was my hero too.
As a native Floridian I've seen my share of these hurricanes and it's a hell of a ride, the wind is the scariest and the sounds it makes will give you nightmares
Prayers to everyone who is trying to put their lives back together and to the communities who are trying to rebuild...and prayers to all that are helping them. God Bless.
Thank you for your thoughts. We are making great strides in overcoming the storm. The phenomenal people that have come from all over the country to give us aid has been a blessing and they can never be thanked enough. 💞
Recky, that is why they told people to leave. I left a couple days before the storm and went to Georgia. on my way north I saw close to 1000 power company line trucks and crews headed south from all over the rest of the country ( they said over 40,000 electric company perssonel from all over the country came). Convoys of 100's of ambulances from several states away. Not mention tree trimming and debris removal companies from all over the country. As soon as the winds died down the Coast Guard, Air National Guard, Army, and Navy as well as many law enforcement agencies and many private individuals had helicopters, boats, and air boats searching for survivors and people needing help. But the video you showed actually shows very little of the damage that occurred. A few days ago i heard damage estimates of 84 BILLION DOLLARS And over 120 dead just from the storm and they still find a bodies in the rubble as the clean up is continuing.
Usually hurricanes travel up the US East coast, there was loss of life in Florida, but, although there were no deaths in South Carolina, they experienced a lot of damage. By the time Ian reached New Jersey, we just had gusty winds and 3 days of rain. On October 28, though, we marked the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. It absolutely devastated the Jersey Shore. People are still rebuilding from it.
That is completely wrong. Most hurricanes do not go up the east coast. The majority of the time they either come into the gulf or stay WAY off the east coast. Even Ian started off in the gulf. You can name 2 or 3 hurricanes that did damage up there where you have Sandy that sticks out. I can name a dozen that hit me from the gulf. In 2004 alone I had 3 come straight through me - from the gulf. Katrina? The one that wiped an entire city off the map in the panhandle a few years ago. Some hit Texas. Sorry, but you're very, very wrong about where most hurricanes go just because you were hit hard by 1.
The thing that scares me is even afterward the devastation of Ian hitting the people were told not to go outside cus Alligators were swimming in the streets.
To be honest, as a Floridian, the alligators are not as scary as the amoebas. Between the brain-eating amoebas and the flesh eating bacteria that's in some Florida waters, alligators are less concerning.
I’ve lived in the Midwest as well as South Georgia so I’ve experienced quite a few strong tornadoes and hurricanes. People always ask me which I think is worse and by far I have to say it’s hurricanes. They’re both terrifying but a tornado typically goes through fairly quickly while you can sit in your house listening to a hurricane bash everything around for hours on end! You might have a tornado with 100pm winds for a few minutes but during some hurricanes you can have those winds for 12 hours
I lived in Fla for a few years and had the unfortunate experience of LIVING thru 2 of these. Believe me when I say they are no joke! Hours and hours of incessant wind, debris flying thru the air, no power for days, water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink, people in need of medical care and can't get to it and then, the deceased....
Depends where you live. I'm inland Florida and I love the hurricanes. I've been a week without power, played outside in 120mph winds with my dogs (the rain stings). The storm surge is the real danger. If you're not on the coast, worst case is hope you don't have trees hanging over your house.
My younger sister lives in Cape Coral just north of Ft Myers. Thank God she lives on a terrace so avoided the flooding but she lost her roof and lanai. The true tragic part is that she just lost her husband to cancer 10 days before. The entire power structure had to be rebuilt in South Florida that took a good two weeks with thousands of other power companies helping. Here in North Central Florida, we had to put up with high winds howling and rain but it was only a 1 or tropical depression for us. Orlando up through Daytona experienced major flooding. But only bad enough to lose power for the day for me. I've had much worse with Irma in 2017, personally, but that means I can help others. Why do I still live in Florida? Because I don't have to shovel snow and slide on ice. Done my duty.
Yes as a Catagory 4 Ian was bad & caused a lot of damage. But 4 years ago (October 10, 2018) Hurricane Michael was a Catagory 5 when it made landfall & it's path of destruction was way worse
Recky, this will put things in perspective. Look at a map and the locations of these 4 places in Florida: 1) Coral Springs 2) Orlando 3) Tampa 4) Ft. Myers A) We live in #1. B) We had advanced plans to go to Disney and Universal in #2. C) Ian was predicted, a day before, to hit hardest in #3. D) It hit hardest in #4, more or less directly west and fairly close to where I live in #1. So… Do we stay home and risk the chance of getting the worst hit? We were arriving in Orlando 4 days before the “event.” Or go to Orlando…directly east and VERY close to where the hardest hit was predicted (Tampa)? Or cancel my trip and try to avoid the storm by staying with a relative in FT. MYERS!? Which wound up getting decimated! We went to our Universal hotel and DID get hit by the edges of the storm…wind and rain were pretty brutal, but nothing compared to Ft. Myers…and had to hunker down in the hotel for two days. In fact, both Universal and Disney CLOSED for a few days because of the storm due to the danger, flooding, damage, etc., and these places NEVER close. And don’t forget: This was nowhere near Ft. Myers even, where the storm really hit! So my long-winded point is… You can never predict where to go, what to do, even at the very last minute these hurricanes are approaching.
@@Reckyj The crazy thing is, if we stayed home, we wouldn’t have felt a thing. It was very bad in Orlando…heavy winds and rain…but it’s those winds that freak you out, even if they’re not “structurally” dangerous. The NOISE is incredible, and impossible to get a minute of sleep. But this Universal Hotel, Cabana Bay, is so well built, especially the double pane hurricane windows, that you don’t hear a thing. And no… Those windows don’t open! Another common thing in U.S. hotels, windows you can’t open.
I was in Jacksonville for it (NE Florida) and we didn't get hit that bad. We (US Navy) sortied all of our ships out to sea as a precaution but it only knocked down a few plants outside and tore most of their leaves off, especially the banana plants got shredded. My wife and I prepared pretty well for it though, froze ice, filled bath tubs, brought everything inside, parked cars next right next to each other, animals all locked inside, candles, first aid, charged everything etc. All in all just some yard damage and minor flooding in the bathroom.
A good thing to remember when converting imperial to metric is 60 mph is approximately 100 kph. That will give you a general idea of the conversion rate. So 60+60+30=150 mph or 100+100+50=250 kph.
What's really scary about these videos is that most of them came AFTER the storm hit. People were rightfully too busy keeping themselves safe and/or had no connection. All people had were the weathermen, the weather cameras (if they weren't knocked out), and rumors. We had no way of knowing what it looked like, who was injured, etc. I'm sure more than just a few people went a couple days not knowing what happened to their loved ones. It was all silence for a while.
Oh palm trees actually evolved to be the way they are because of hurricanes and tropical storms cuz they can bend like all the way to the ground pretty much, from wind of such substantial velocity, without snapping. Although I’m not sure about the leaves and the losing all of those and all that 🤔
Yeah, until you've gone through it, it's difficult to comprehend. The water, the wind, just can't understand until you live it. I've worked relief a couple of times for the phone company after a storm. Regional utility companies usually have crews staged near the affected areas to lend a hand to restore power and communication networks. I worked for BellSouth in Atlanta, GA, went to Florida once and Alabama once for hurricanes, and to eastern Tennessee after wildfires twice. And yes, their are critters in the water you normally don't have to deal with. Alligators, snakes(some venomous), the occasional shark, jellyfish, even floating colonies of fire ants. Gotta be extremely aware of your surroundings when working after a storm like that. It's long days, little food, and catching naps in your truck for up to 6 weeks at a time. If you're awake, you're working, driving to work, or choking down whatever food you can find. Often at mobile Red Cross relief kitchens. But, in most cases, everyone pulls together to get some sense of "normal" back as soon as possible. But the first 2-3 days, everyone is kinda like a zombie. You don't know what to do, or where to even start. So everyone just walks around in a daze, trying to absorb what just happened, and muster the courage and strength for what still has to happen to move on.
To see how great people come together after a Hurricane, watch "Home Free - God Blessed Texas (A Song for Hurricane Relief)" It was made after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017.
A friend has a house about 20 or 30 minutes inland from Ft. Meyer. They finally (2 years later) are able to live in their house again. The work isn’t finished but at least the roof is finally repaired. Flood waters came up the river and destroyed everything.
I was born in Michigan. I now live in North and South Florida. I've been through so many hurricanes I can't even remember them all. Except for Floyd. Because it was headed right for my front door. BUT. I remember every blizzard I ever was in. Because. Hurricanes is an annoyance that can kill you. A. Blizzard kidnaps you then kills you. William s
Thanks Recky. I emigrated to the US in the early 1990's, been living in Naples Florida ever since, 30 plus yrs. Lived through a few good named storms and hurricanes, It's not a simple task to just evacuate, you may drive into the path of the weather or be stuck in traffic on some highway, as soon as the alert comes a few days in advance all accomadation gets booked solid within a few hours. Hurricane Ian devastated our city, we (my family) were lucky enough to suffer only superficial damage. Some friends lost everything except the clothes they were wearing. Clean up and recovery are still ongoing at this time.
No, I evac'ed the day before the storm hit. (95 South 75 East) Alligator alley was near deserted and made it to Ft. Lauderdale in less than 3 hours. And I 'm further from it than you are.
@@protonneutron9046 Good, glad you are made it out to a safe place. We always make plans to have a secure and safe place to hunker down, so far it's worked out. Thanks for the reply.
It was very close to category 5. Ian was 156 mph winds ( 251 km/h) A category 5 hurricane is 157 mph (252 km/h) and category 5 is the highest the scale goes. I don't know the body count, it was over 100. Some people in some areas were told to evacuate, and some chose not to (free country). Some were not told to evacuate their area and the hurricane unexpectedly swung around and hit them the hardest.
You know I still say we might as well.of called it a cat. 5....1 mph off...it walked like a duck ...talked like a duck.....yep I'm calling it a 5...I mean it drained bays and the Gulf...don't remember one pulling all that displacement...and it grew when it.hit land before Florida...it was a force of its own---Mama Nature reminded us to respect it.
Hurricanes are nothing to sneeze at but people still want to live in those areas. There is no way I would live anywhere where they have hurricanes or tornadoes. I went through several of them when living in NY and it was nasty. Try living by the Gulf of Mexico - Houston gets the worst of it when they happen. If you are told to evacuate, you better listen to them because it's no joke. They know what is coming.
Recky, being an old sailor that has weathered several Hurricanes, the hardest part for people from non-tropical climates to grasp - is that in the middle of these storms, with all the wind and rain - the temperature can be close to 30C, with the humidity at 100%. It is like crossing a wind tunnel and a steam room. This storm was a killer - where it came ashore, the tidal surge swept away many buildings, the surge in places exceeded 4 meters in depth. It carried house and fishing vessels inland.
We live near Tampa where Ian was originally projected to hit. We couldn't afford to evacuate (gas, hotels, food for days). We got lucky because it stayed south but I grieve for everyone affected. The damage was so bad that everyone in Florida is paying higher utility bills to help with rebuilding the infrastructure. Thank you for covering this. I always enjoy your videos. You're empathetic and respectful.
The power of water had almost ended me in Cancun, Mexico. I wasnt paying attention and current pulled me out. When turned around i was really far out. Thankfully they had lifeguards on the resort beach and they saved me by Jetski
A few things to remember about FL and hurricanes. Usually, the Govenor will declare a state wide emergency, when any of FL. will be hit. Look at the huge size of a hurricane, then look at the width of FL. I went through, Michael in Dothan, AL. It hit Mexico Beach and wiped it off the map. We are North of Panama City Beach, and it did a lot of damage here. We couldn't even get any info on our weather radio, because it had hit and taken out the station. Michael even took out all the sensors they put on the beach front, to measure the wind. It was very humbling to think at the time, the only thing between me and Michael was a thin piece of glass.
My 11 year old son was on a cruise with his grandparents off the Florida coast during Ian. The ship had to go “farther south” to not be in the thick of the storm. We had no idea where “farther south” was. They were finally able to dock 3 days after their expected arrival. My son said it was terrifying and they weren’t even directly impacted by the “bad part” of the storm.
2 islands were cut off from the mainland due to the causeway bridges being washed away. The got one back up and cross-able in 3 days... the other in about a week.
I had 4 friends in the path of this storm. Luckily it turned before landfall and missed Tampa Florida. I love storms, but something like this scares the poo out of me!
Until you go through one in person you can't appreciate all the sounds a hurricane makes and just how LOUD it is. It's a wall of sound that goes through your whole body.
It went in at Naples/Punta Gorda area and crossed the state leaving destruction every where. My hometown area had bridges washed out and entire towns flooded. My hometown area is in the CENTER of the state, miles from the coast. Most of the state is flat so flooding does not drain away quickly. The coast suffered from the storm surge, which is salt water. It caused damage to many electrical systems including electric cars. There were several car fires caused by salt water corrosion of the batteries.
Funny you mention crocs. The worst hurricane footage I've ever seen was actually after Katrina (cat 5). A news crew was on location at an underwater neighborhood and not only were there crocs swimming down the street but there were multiple bloated human corpses floating. It was awful.
Another crazy event was the El Reno tornado. So far it's the biggest ever recorded. It caught a bunch of people off guard it grew so fast, including profesional storm chasers. The whether channel has impressive footage.
I just found your channel. I've been hooked on your weather videos. I was born, raised, and still live in Central Florida. I hadn't experienced a real hurricane until until high school in 2004. Then we had four hit in a matter of weeks. Charley came through August 13th and did so much damage. Several people died in our small city. Semi trucks were toppled over, trees snapped like twigs, roads messed up, flooding, and property damage everywhere. One of my friends lost their house to a tornado that spawned during the storm. We were without power for weeks. My family got really good at camping. Then Frances came on September 5th, and while the winds were minimal, the rain just dumped on us for hours. So all the damage Charley did to the roof of our house, Frances weakened it further with the rain. Thankfully, we don't live in a flood zone. On September 16th, Ivan hit, but we only got light wind and rain as it didn't make a direct hit with us. Then came Jeanne on the 26th. Jeanne destroyed everything the other two left behind. It hit during the night. We had these huge Loblolly pine trees and two massive magnolia trees in our backyard. Most of the pine trees toppled. You could hear the loud snapping, then the heavy thud when they fell. We were so lucky that none of them fell on the house. One almost did, but a magnolia tree stopped it. Our screened-in porch was ripped completely off and thrown across our yard. There were massive holes in our roof, again devastation all around us. Each of the direct hits we had the eye come over us. It's so eerie during that time. You know it isn't over and on the other side is the strongest, most dangerous wind. All together or home had $150,000 in damage and took forever to get back to a livable condition. One room had to be completely gutted down to the masonry. But thankfully, none of us were ever injured. We were very lucky all things considered. Since then, I've been through two more major hurricanes. One just last year. Learning from the past, we made sure everything was ready and only had some plants destroyed. Our privacy fence was the only one in my neighborhood to survive because we took precautions to reinforce it before the storm hit. In truth, I have lived through enough of these and am so used to what to expect they don't really worry me, besides the possibility of a tornado. You stay inside when it's bad, clean up after, and just take as many precautions as you can when you hear one is on the way. Florida has some pretty crazy thunderstorms on a regular basis. And while they might not last all day, they still can be just as dangerous in their short bursts. Stay safe or there, invest in a generator, stay to the center of your home, don't travel, and make sure to keep a good amount of non-perishable food on hand for these events. Good extra things to have on hand are solar chargers for your phones, a grill, air mattresses, rope, and large buckets. You don't know when you will get electricity back and your job will expect you to come to work the next day. Cleaning clothes and drying becomes really hard.
I live inland a little NE of Tampa. I was originally thought to make landfall in Tampa, if it did we old have been hit hard here in Ocala. It made landfall around Fort Meyers. Prayers out for everyone in the devastated areas 🙏
I'm in Florida just north of Tampa. This one missed us here, I'm happy to say. Really messed up Ft Meyers and around there. You won't get such a hurricane in Sweden, too cold to feed such a storm.
This hurricane hit the area where I grew up and went to school. A lot of my classmates had major damage to their homes. One of which ended up having to escort at least half a dozen actual crabs out of his house. My elderly chorus teacher had to be evacuated from her home since it was one floor and it majorly flooded.
After destroying SW Florida the storm continued across Florida, hitting Orlando, Jacksonville, St. Augustine. Then emerged into the East Atlantic and went north and hit Nova Scotia in Canada. The storm was only 2mph below a category 5. Bridges were wiped out cutting off the islands off SW Florida. Hospitals were flooded with critical patients having to be moved. This was a devastating storm. I think approximately 120 people died.
I'm originally from Southwest Louisiana. We get a bunch of hurricanes 🌀 I'm now in Northeast Florida we only got a little wind from this storm. I pray for those poor people in Southwest Florida
Hello Recky!! This is Brooke from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US). I just want to thank you for all of your great videos! I’ve been following you since late 2022 & I just always appreciate your honest reactions. You are sensitive when the topic (severe weather) is difficult, but will make some really funny/appropriate comments that are just perfect! Keep it up!!!
Hi Recky. I live near the Gulf Coast in West Florida. We were not affected by Ian. However, I have been through a few hurricanes on this side. Very scary indeed. Prayers to all the people affected by Ian! It was devastating damage, and loss of life. ☹
I live in Orlando, and I had one of my rooms completely flooded and some water damage in 2 other rooms. This is the first time during a hurricane we had this much flooding. My home is even somewhat elevated. Too bad I do not have flood insurance. Also, my daughter's car was flooded and she does not have full coverage insurance on the car. It doesn't help I am bedridden and not able to take care of things myself.
Typhoons, Cyclones, and Hurricanes are the same, just called different things in different parts of the world. They are alled hurricanes when they develop over the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific, cyclones when they form over the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, and typhoons when they develop in the Northwest Pacific. Ian at one point was covering almost all of mainland Florida. 155 mph = 249 kmp. 109 lost their lives in Ian. Unfortunately they had time to evacuate and chose not to for whatever reason. Categories are Tropical storm, cat 1-5. So it was a big one. Blessings Recky.
As someone who lives in an evacuation area, I will say that sometimes you just don't have the resources to leave. Sometimes they offer buses to evacuate you, however you can only bring a small amount of stuff and most of the time you can't bring pets.
I just came across this video and I have family who lives in Cape Coal and I had a time share in Siesta Key. I live in CT and had to watch the devastation play out with news updates. My parents had a place on Sanibel Island and it was totally gone. You couldn't even get to the island because the only road that goes to the island was destroyed.
As someone who lives in Florida, it was not good. I was lucky that it turned and all I got was wind but my family was almost directly in the path. It was definitely stressful. Thankfully everyone in my family was safe and had minor damage
Hi, Recky!!! I love your channel! Thank you for brightening up my day! I would love to see your reaction to Mount St. Helen's erupted in 1980!! The destruction was immense! Mother Nature can be so deadly and angry, but in that same moment, she is beautiful!
The roof floating was the Hooters Roof. There a house that completely floated away and the owners out just when it came off the stilts with their dog . I live in Cape Coral that got hit. It was my first florida hurricane 😢😢😢😢
The winds lasted 2 days. It was the strongest one I've been in. Winds over 100 mph for hours. It was only a couple miles an hour from being a category 5. The eye of the storm was almost bigger than hurricane Charley in 2004 which hit the same area. Luckily it wasn't glass over and around the pool. It was screen
Not sure how i missed this video. But i did watch hurricane Ian make landfall, through storm chaser live stream of the event. I may have watched through a screen, but man just watching it all unfold in real time was truly amazing. Too be honest I would rather chase tornadoes than chase a hurricane. But mother nature doesn't disappoint, she is always trying to show her beauty anyway she can.
Three of my nieces live in Florida. One of their homes was destroyed. Luckily all survived. My youngest was without electricity for over 10 days. She would text me with questions about conditions and I would get the information and text her back. It was so sad. It was all I could do from here.
I've watched some video of hurricanes before and you mentioned the wind. They say it howls for hours and then it gets quiet when the eye gets there. I'm not sure how long the calm lasts, but then the back side of the huicane comes in and then there's hours of screaming wind until it's over
my husband and i live in worcester, massachusetts and we were planning on moving to bradenton florida during this time because we retired and we had a trailer home in bradenton. we were going to leave on the monday when they said ian was going to hit bradenton straight on. it takes us two days to drive from worcester to bradenton and ian was to hit on wednesday so we decided to not start ourr drive until that wednesday. ian took a move southern path and bradenton ended up just getting hit by the rim of the storm. when we arived on friday, half our roof was torn off. it was just the 'over roof' so there wasnt damage inside the trailor. the trailer park wasnt too bad but there were about 20 homes damaged. the roofers in the area must have all decided to ask for 10,000. for every roof repair. we got estimates for half roof replacements, full roof replacements, some with the carport included, some without, some with gutters replaced, some with an eextra 500.00 for gutters... its as if they were price gauging us. my husband ended up driving around to other trailer parks and finding some men (brothers) who was fixing their own roofs, and offering them to fix ours. we got ours done for about 60% less than all the estimates, plus we got it done within the month. here in the park, a little over one year later, the last of the trailers with damage got repaired.
I'd like to recommend a UK RU-vid channel called Fascinating Horror that has 10-12 minute documentaries about true historical disasters. No sensationalism or disturbing images, just well-researched, well-illustrated narratives about things like fires, explosions, boat and plane accidents, etc. If you want a suggestion, two I like are "The Hartford Circus Fire", and "The Texas City Disaster" (the latter because it happened near where I live and I know people who remember it.)
What surprises me that all these crazy people decided to stay and ride it out when they were warned ahead of time that it was coming and they had plenty of time to get the hell out of the area
that’s how most people react when they’re used to it, we reacted the same when i lived in North Carolina, if there was a hurricane warning everybody would literally go outside to look like idiots lmao, kinda like how people in kansas have tornadoe warnings and will go on the porch to see where it’s at
The storm changed course. That is why many could not get out. There wasn’t enough time to get out. It was projected to hit Tampa not Lee Co. Let’s be careful about judging without knowing all the facts.
You know the worst part of this? People were charging 3x times the rent after. This is my hometown (well, one of the towns hit), though I no longer live there. I talked to friends and family there after the storm. And what would normally be say a $1,000 a month apartment would be renting for $3000 to $4000. Of course, this wasn't every place still available. But many.
I live in mid- Georgia and my rowing class got cancelled because of this hurricane which just goes to show how far reaching and devastating this thing managed to be. I was tracking this thing nonstop from before it hit to every moment in between. Where we live was supposed to get hit (luckily only a cat 1 I believe) but it ended up changing paths and going a bit further north than expected. When I woke up the first thing I checked was the hurricane tracker, when I got to class I checked again, as I was walking in between classes I checked and it was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes. Luckily we only experienced some winds, cooler temps (than normal) and heavy rain. I remember looking at the rain and thinking someone is probably dying at this very moment because they got caught in this but just a little bit to the north of me. I honestly can't explain it all that well but something about realizing that what you are currently living through could be killing someone else if you were in a slightly different place really hit me with this one. I truly don't know why it hit me as hard as it did maybe cause I could see in real time the effects it was happening in other places.
You have to remember that in Florida they have alligator and giant pythons in their water AND sharks in the ocean so it’s extremely dangerous for those who CHOOSE to stay not to mention broken glass twisted steel, wood, and everything else in the water. They are told in advance no medical, police, or rescue can help them until it’s over and safe for them to get to them. Then the gas, oil, sewage, waste, mad power lines in the water
My best friend is still 2 weeks away from moving home. House flooded 5 to 6 feet deep. Salt water corroded all his appliances. New sheetrock, ripping up the floor because of mold.
People think tornados are the worst storms to hit the US. They come, the create complete devastation in localized areas and are usually gone in under an hour. Hurricanes can be far worse. People in Florida , the Caribbean, the entire Gulf Coast from the Florida panhandle to Texas just sit and wait to see how storms play out. We track them for days, sometimes weeks as they approach, never knowing precisely where they will land or how big and strong they will be. The anticipation is exhausting. And when they DO land, they impact hundreds of square miles and last for hours before they move out. The storm surge adds to the devastation brought by the wind. I live in Central Florida, close to Tampa. For days Ian was predicted to travel into Tampa Bay and a lot of resources were sent our way to prepare for the storm surge. About 24 hours before landfall Mother Nature changed the course of Ian. It hit the Fort Myers area, about 140 miles south of Tampa. The resources had to be relocated and fast. We still got a lot of damage around Tampa, but the poor people in Fort Myers lost everything. A dear friend of mine evacuated her beachfront home and when she returned after the storm there was literally nothing left of her house or her possessions. We're heading into hurricane season now, June 1st to November 31st. The hurricane center is predicting a very active season this year with many powerful storms. I'm saying my prayers that it won't be so.
This Hurricane was suppose to hit in the Tampa Bay area, but had its own path. That is the thing with them, No one knows where it will hit exactly until it does. That makes it extremely hard to evacuate a whole populace. They twist and turn in their path and it is only a guess to which of our cities in Florida will be the ones hit! During Ian we only got some wind and rain, took out our screens, neighbor got a tree to the roof, all while knowing others were being slammed. My roommates sister lives down were it hit, but more inland. In the very beginning a video of a shark swimming in the streets was the omen of bad to come!!
