RickZieger 0 Report post Posted October 8 All you folks in Florida take care. This one appears to be a beast. Rick Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted October 8 Anyone along that coast where Milton is headed had better "run mama, run". If it comes in strong - you might need to be 30 miles inland to keep your feet dry... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Swamp Fly 0 Report post Posted October 8 Funny, I was just thinking that the storm is supposed to hit just a little north of me and that it is "just" supposed to be a class 3 when it does. It used to be that a class 3 was everyone's nightmare. Capt. Bob is correct though, the biggest threat will be the water coming out of the gulf. There are evacuations all the way to the locks on the Caloosahatchee, about 30 miles from the gulf. It used to be that storm surge wasn't really as much of an issue, now it seems to be the worst factor with these storms. Houses have been built stronger since hurricane Andrew and seem to do much better in the wind. You can't stop the sea though, that's just a whole other level of energy. Most of us as fly fishermen are fully aware that wading one or two inches deeper in a stream is impossible, not a question of if you will be going for a swim at that point. Plenty of videos of houses being picked up still completely intact and just shoved away by water in one piece. Thank goodness this one is not supposed to be a major rain event, the swamp is already full up. Time to go tie down the boats. Swamp Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flatsflytying 0 Report post Posted October 8 I’m in pasco-hernando county about 10 miles from coast. We are hunkering down and ready as we can be. Evacuation routes are a disaster so not taking that option. Be safe everyone. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chasing_Tails 0 Report post Posted October 8 Good luck left coasters. I just got back last night and spent the day cleaning up and getting the shutters ready to go. Thankfully my family and I were up in PA so I was able to leave the wife and daughter up there. This one looks a bit sporty. Stay safe above all. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted October 9 Hope all survive in good order... whether your property will survive is another matter... I was involved in disaster prep work years ago and here's the deal about windstorm... Back then (I left that world nearly 30 years ago...) south Florida had the strongest wind standards for roofs. They were supposed to withstand a 140 mph windstorm. By comparison, the southern building code (the standard for structures in most Gulf states at that time was only 90 mph..). I have no idea what the standards are today but imagine little has changed since then since higher standards are directly seen as additional cost for the builder (and building codes are set up by local authorities, architects, building contractors, and of course the insurance industry... all working together, hopefully.... ). Wherever you are, as a homeowner, it's not a bad idea to know exactly what standards your house was built to comply with.. at least that's my opinion... None of this has anything to do with storm surge, though... In places where the ocean shores are shallow some distance out from land - the storm surge can be a killler - and will certainly be for anyone foolish enough not to evacuate when told to do so... In a day or two we'll all know more about this than we ever wanted to know... Glad we're located in south Florida for this one... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Swamp Fly 0 Report post Posted October 9 Well I was going to head out to my folks place but there is a really nasty feeder band on us right now, tornadoes all over. I'm going to wait for the space between bands. I'm out of here once it lets up a little. Y'all hold on to your hats and keep your powder dry... Later Swamp Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caloosa bug 0 Report post Posted October 9 Crazy tornadoes all around Hendry and Glades counties a couple hours ago. Several very close calls to us. All of the pics attached were within a few miles me. Thankfully most have stayed over open sugar cane fields. Lots of damage in Lakeport right now though. All boarded up here in Moore Haven. It’ll probably be a long night. Best wishes to all who are going to be impacted by this storm. We may miss the brunt of the hurricane on the west coast of Lake o, but these tornadoes ain’t no joke. Swamp, please stay safe. Looks like your area may get pretty spicy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted October 11 Over the years I've seen a few tornadoes down here in paradise (a very few on land, quite a few on the water as water spouts...). Generally they've been small, brief, and not very powerful, compared to tornadoes in the midwest... This recent spate of them is most unusual (at least in the fifty plus years I've been here...). Hope that's not something we'll ever see again... As far as the aftermath, while there was widespread destruction in the areas we've all seen on TV - south Florida and the Keys were relatively un-touched (except for anyone with tornado damage....). We got very lucky indeed - but if you're in the tropics every year they're a possibility. The two items you'll never know is when you're going to get hit - and the size of the dog coming to bite you... At least that's my take on it. One thing I have noticed over many years, though, any time Florida gets hit with a hurricane - the following months my bookings will be down. I'm guessing that with all the news coverage anyone considering a fishing trip down this way - will start looking elsewhere... Wish it weren't so... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flytire 0 Report post Posted October 11 venice to fort meyers beach https://youtu.be/WGQ07vi79Uo?si=9CuVn9bn6jS3CeCn Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted October 11 Oh yeah... Mother Nature does not fool around... From my first day in Florida, just back from Vietnam in 1971, folks in the know pointed out that this state should never have allowed construction next to beaches - and particularly not on the barrier islands along the Gulf coast... As a newcomer I didn't appreciate that advice but it was on the money - and the info about it had been around long before I ever came here. Sure is tempting, that dream of living on or as close as possible to those incredible beaches - but when a hurricane comes - look out. This particular one was actually pretty tame as such things gp. if you don't count the terrible tornadoes it spawned... if you read up on my state's history, periodically over the years (since before 1900), great times of prosperity and development were absolutely ended by a series of hurricanes - and that's been the pattern time and time again.. And so it goes... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Swamp Fly 0 Report post Posted October 16 Yeah, about those tornadoes... Mom had mentioned she was going to make a big pot of spaghetti sauce. I say don't bother I just made a big pot and will bring it. I was getting the last few things ready so that when the nastiness from the first real feeder band was over I could bug out. I grabbed the already mentioned pot of sauce to put into the cooler already in the back of the truck. I step outside and notice the leaves and rain are blowing parallel to the ground. The rain is hitting the truck and just turning to mist. I thought Blank the bloody sauce and head back in. I could just feel malevolence close by. I look out the windows and can see this white wall of mist just moving in and out. I knew the feeling and that white wall well. When I was a kid I was in a house that took a hit and had most of the upper story taken off. I was right back there again, everything went white when that twister hit. Shook me up pretty good. I turned on the local news and the weather guy had the thing on radar promptly mentioning my road and the back road by name, there are only two short roads back here at the end of a mile of dirt road. He promptly said luckily there aren't many people out there. The cats learned some new words, I had a few choice things to say about how lucky it was there was "nobody" out here. Neighbor less than a quarter mile away lost the tin off his roof. The hurricane itself was pretty uneventful in comparison. Never lost power at Mom's or here at the house as far as I can tell. I didn't loose power until two days later that is . lol! It was only out a few hours and I suspect it was turned off by the Power company's line trucks. A pair of them went down the road into the neighborhood and then to the back road within 5 minutes of the outage. No real damage to the house. Out back was another story. I had two willow tree tussocks rip loose and just plow over my fence between two pastures. One tussock is about 20' x 50' the other is about half that. Hurricane Ian caused less issues back there. I've been up to and over my waist in water or in my jon boat for two and a half days. At 54 I'm not even close to old but I damn well feel like it right now. I have one more day to go before the bovine mob can run amuck again. It's going to have to wait a day, I need to take mom back the the orthopedic surgeon, she fell and broke her wrist a while back. Probably a blessing that I can't really go at it tomorrow, I could barely climb up into the boat today. I haven't even started cutting up the trees I dropped before the storm. Oh well. If the worst I got from the storm is some hard work I'll count myself very fortunate. A wet and tired Swamp Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
