Bizarre Time Lapse Vid Of Ft. Myers Beach Storm Surge

[DougGuy]

Word is that the family that decided to stay in the house in this video made it out alive despite the house floating away. I bet they will never defy an evacuation order again!

I am thinking the last bit of the video was the calm during the passing of the eye.

[DougGuy]

This is Ocean Springs Mississippi, this is Front Beach, Camille came ashore with a 28ft storm surge, and 190mph sustained winds. Friends that I knew were surfing the storm surge, cops ordered them off the beach and they laughed, the cops couldn't get to them to arrest them, the streetlights seen in this 1991 photo were even with their waist. Can you imagine dodging streetlights on a surfboard in 100mph+ wind? Nuts..

Everything you see in this photo, was underwater all the way up to the streetlights themselves by the time the storm really hit.

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[Finster101]

One of NOAA's buoy's offshore in the gulf measured a wave at 51 or 52 feet. I wasn't on the beach, but it was not a lot of fun at my house.

[DougGuy]

I think NOAA will uprate Ian to a CAT5 once they get finished with all the data.

[Wayne Smith]

No, the end was the end of the storm. The eye would not remove the storm surge. Not enough time. The eye is a very small area - no more than a couple miles across, in a storm that covers hundreds of miles. It is moving with the storm.

That video clearly shows the fact that it is the flooding that kills people in a hurricane. Wind doesn't unless it drops a tree directly on you.

[ebb]

I went through my first big storm when i was 10 or 11, hurricane Donna. Even at that age I knew anyone who wanted to live on the ocean shore was nuts.

[Handloader109]

The water is amazing. Katrina on the MS coast (where the REAL damage occurred from the hurricane) it floated 350 ft barges up and across a parking lot and into the highway, along with washing away homes that were pre civil war

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[DougGuy]

The Ocean Springs - Biloxi bridge was severely damaged in Camille, the 150,000 lb pre-cast concrete sections were skewed like you set a line of dominos on a cookie sheet, set that on a paint shaker then turned it on.

It was saved by a derrick barge lifting each section and re aligning it on the concrete pilings. There was no real attachment per se, as gravity held the sections in place. This bridge survived a 28 FOOT storm surge and 190mph sustained winds, with gusts recorded to 290mph.

Katrina on the other hand, DESTROYED the bridge completely, slamming the sections down like a karate kid chopping wood at a martial arts exhibition.

[DougGuy]

The eye is a very small area - no more than a couple miles across, in a storm that covers hundreds of miles.

Not necessarily true with the bigger storms. Camille came ashore the eye centered at or near Pass Christian MS, give or take only a mile or so east or west, and I lived in Ocean Springs, over 25mi as the crow flies, I have a vivid recollection of sitting outside on the steps, smoking a cigarette and watching the smoke go up in an unwavering plume nearly 4 FEET before it faded away, the only sound was that of birds caught in the eye, the sky was super clear, stars shone brightly, it *IS* the most eerie calm mankind will ever know.

Camille was HUGE. It filled the entire Gulf of Mexico. I don't know exactly or even close how wide the eye was, but if this map gives you any indication, it may have been as much as 50mi wide.

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[Wayne Smith]

Thank you Doug, you are right, and proved my point - Camille was the exception, not the usual. Not that we won't see another as big in the future.

[Freightman]

WOW!! I think I will stick with our sand storms and rare tornadoes, at least I can get underground and not drown.

[Wild Bill 7]

My first hurricane was Donna also. I was 13 and didn’t realize how bad it was. We lost our roof, trees, and other items. We live in Cape Coral and it was very bad storm. It was moving very slow and that was the problem. We were very blessed not to be in the flood zone. The devastation is unbelievable. Ft. Myers beach is not ever going to be the same. It looked like a bomb went off down there. Thanks to Governor Desantis the bridge to Pine Island is useable as of today. The police escorted four or five Publix semi’s over the new bridge to get them to our newest store out there. This storm was so bad because it moved so slow and huge. We lost power on Tuesday about 1:20 in the afternoon and just got it back today around 3 pm. It has been relatively cool during the day in the mid eighty’s. Humidity was relatively low and nights in the high sixty’s. We all appreciate all the linemen from all over the country who left their homes and came down here to get our power on. They posted tha Cape Coral had the highest wind gusts ans they were really bad, but maybe it was higher else where but they can’t tell because the wind blew the meters were blown down. The first video DougGuy posted we had the wind like that but not the flooding. The area I live in was so blessed.
Bill

[DougGuy]

Wow Wild Bill sheesh GLAD y'all made it through!! I think it was a CAT5 storm, they were reading 155mph sustained for a number of hours before it came ashore. I have been waiting for the NWS or NOAA to uprate it to CAT5.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Fema has flood maps that show areas prone to storm surge. In my mind, once one of these areas is inundated, it should not be rebuilt, but instead, turned into National Seashore natural area. Camp sites for RV's and swimming/fishing beaches. Tax payers fund the flood insurance program and that is not just or equitable.

[Good Cheer]

A trip down Memory Lane... my first was Carla.
Can still remember watching the evening news with Grandad, the horses up to their chins in water.

[farmbif]

this was a huge and powerful storm. the eye was about 30 miles wide from what ive seen, and I know the area very well, it pulled the water out of gasparilla, Charlotte county, Venice and north while pushing water over from about Sanibel, ft Myers beach/estero island all the way to Naples. those people that have homes right on the beach are very wealthy and influential and many are only seasonally occupied, for a good percentage its just one home of many that they own, and of course there is another good percentage that it is their only home. as far as all that super valuable property being turned into a park I cant see happening in my lifetime anyway. my daughter was right in the middle of it in sw Cape Coral and said she was outside looking up through the eye of the storm for about 3 hours. and the storm was moving at about 10 miles an hour.